It's been ~8 years since I "retired" my Sony 676 VHS VCR from daily recording (~300 non-pre-recorded tapes!) - I bought a TiVo. Then, a few years later, I bought *ONE* ReplayTV 5040 w/Lifetime for myself and a second for my Dad. Well, poor Dad never saw it and I now have FOUR ReplayTVs (3 Lifetimes in service [Upgraded: 200GB, 160GB, 80GB] 1 spare Monthly for parts), networked, with DVArchive IVSmagic and WiRNS. I have all of my 'known' shows scheduled (i.e. primetime on CBS, NBC, ABC...), Theme Channels for Cooking, Home & Garden, History, Technology, Actors, etc... and every once-a-week or so I view the ReplayTV TV Guide for upcoming shows / movies to select any of interest. Conflict resolution is semi-automatic - if the ReplayTV I select is 'booked', it provides a list of alternates.

I can view ANY recorded show from ANY ReplayTV or PC running DVArchive. Overflow is automatically moved from the ReplayTVs to a PC (1.3TB currently allocated) running DVArchive and duplicates are automatically deleted. Any ReplayTV can also view anything on that PC. It's been YEARS since I had to write anything down.

Recently I picked up a Panasonic DMR-EZ17 on cleareance (to experiment with an ATSC tuner and OTA) and I've immediately been transported back in time. I now have an inventory of 30 DVD-RAM (2 used) and 50 DVD-RW (6 used) discs and have NO IDEA WHAT'S WHERE!?! :eek: In addition, since the EZ-17 doesn't have a TVGOS, I use a ReplayTV to select a show, then an Excel spreadsheet to 'translate' the NTSC/Analog Cable channel into a QAM/Digital Cable channel before I can MANUALLY schedule it into a slot. I'll be looking for my old Sony VCR Recordings looseleaf book real soon now. :o

Since some of you here having been doing this (DVDR wo/HDD recording) for years, I decided to ask "How Do You Do It?" How do you keep track of what's on which disc?
- Looseleaf?
- Computer spreadsheet / database?
How do you find shows to record?
- Zap2It
- TV Guide online?
Do you dedicate a disc to a network / day of the week?
- i.e. Monday, CBS
Do you have DAILY / WEEKLY shows scheduled?
- How do you control changing the discs?
What tips / procedures can you share?Thanks!

LOL. Wish I had your setup...Well, I number each RAM disc with a Sharpie, and then use an index card to insert in it's case, and write down the date, then list what's recorded to it.

For my home-recorded DVD index I use a custom designed MS Works database that I modified for DVD use from the one I began using in 1986 for my VHS collection. During my nineteen years of videotaped time-shifting I accumulated almost 1,900 VHS tapes. My DVD index currently has 17,269 home-recorded titles consisting of about 5,200 titles dubbed to DVD from my VHS tapes with the rest of the titles recorded directly to DVD.

The MS Works program is already installed on many computers. Use a blank database template, assign field titles and indicate the type of data for the field, adjust field widths, name and save the template, and start entering your data. It's as simple as that.

Each title occupies a single line about two thirds the width of my computer screen.

With the Works database any recording may be found within a few seconds. The data may be sorted by any field and certain criteria by clicking RECORD, then SORT; or searched by any data, i.e., if I want to find any Frankenstein version I click EDIT, then FIND, and I may type something as cryptic as "nstei" and click "All Records" then 57 "Frankenstein" titles appear (plus one title containing "Elmer Bernstein").

The fields I use are DVD, GENRE, TITLE, NBR, YEAR, SVC, REC DATE. Here are some explanations:

DVD is the DVD number. I use the finalization date and order, i.e., the second disc finalized today would be 80530B. When I label the DVD with a Sharpie I add a leading zero so the disc is actually numbered 080530B in order to accommodate numbering for decades to come. Then the disc is inserted into a book-type album that holds 320 discs.

GENRE is the type of recording. I do not usually assign a genre to movies. Some genre examples: DOC is a documentary, FDOC is a documentary related to film and includes film biographies or non-trailer film promos, TLR is a film trailer, MGS indicates MGM shorts, WBS or VTS indicates Warner Brothers or Vitaphone shorts, PAS indicates a Paramount short, HRS indicates a Hal Roach short, PAN indicates a Paramount newsreel, WPN indicates a Warner Brothers/Pathe newsreel, etc. Due to special interest (especially those issued Pre-Code) Betty Boop cartoons have the BOOP genre. Some of Paramount's earliest Screen Songs presented a classification challenge as they had vocal artists of the day sometimes intermingled with an animated Betty Boop. ANS indicates an animated short or cartoon. A Tom & Jerry cartoon is indicated as ANS in the genre field with the title field beginning MGM TJ CTN: followed by the title. Some TV shows are given an individualized genre assignment, i.e., PMH designates Perry Mason hour long episodes;TZS designates Twilight Zone series episodes whether of the half hour duration of seasons 1-3 and 5, or the one hour duration of season 4. TV shows of lesser consequence may have a generic TVS genre.

TITLES are titles. Of the several fields, this is the widest. A TV show title will be listed so: TWILIGHT ZONE: A KIND OF STOPWATCH. Dubbed titles will have parenthetical additions following the title and indicating original network or channel information and date of original recording followed by original VHS tape number, i.e., (NOST, 5/15/88, 63) for a dubbed recording originally shown on The Nostalgia Channel on 5/15/88 dubbed from VHS tape 63, etc. The recording speed (in parenthesis) may or may not follow the title.

NBR is the number within a series, i.e., Betty Boop cartoon #39 is listed as BB-039; Twilight Zone episode 4 from season 5 is listed as TZS-504, etc. A Charley Chase sound short is given a CC prefix; a Charley Chase silent short is given a CS prefix.

YEAR is the year of release or original broadcast, i.e., Twilight Zone episode 504 was originally broadcast in 1963, Bride of Frankenstein was released in 1935, etc.

SVC is the network or channel showing the movie or program, i.e., TCM, SCI, NOST, AE, HIST, AMC, etc. Dubbed recordings are indicated as DUB as the original network or channel is indicated parenthetically in the title field.

REC DATE is the date the recording or dubbing was placed upon the disc.

Here is how the single line for the example Twilight Zone episode appears:

80525B TZS TWILIGHT ZONE: A KIND OF STOPWATCH TZS-504 1963 SCI 5/23/2008

Here is how a dubbed Charley Chase Hal Roach short (HRS) appears:

70514A HRS CHASE: WHISPERING WHOOPEE (NOST, 5/15/88, 63) CC-08 1930 DUB 5/14/2007

Here is how a movie recorded directly from TCM appears:

51222C THE LAST GANGSTER 1937 TCM 12/19/2005

I use Zap2it and my local papers TV Times that comes in the Sunday paper. As far as keeping track of whats on what I use small post-it notes stuck to a paper sleeve(bought a box of 500 at Sams). I usually only fit 1 or 2 programs per -RW (sometimes RAM). I write the program name, speed recorded at, duration and date recorded. At any given time I have a stack of 5-30 discs to be watched. The newest being on the top of the stack. I rarely archive anymore, mostly just time shift.

Copied DVD's on -Rs go in CD books that hold from 20-96/book. I use a Brother labeler to label each DVD. Books are grouped by type. Eg. Kids DVDs, Series, Music DVDs, etc.
In my VHS days I had a spreadsheet(Lotus if anyone can remember that DOS program) running on a Intel 8086 PC. I haven't fired it up since before y2k. I have a paper printout that I occasionally refer to. 1/4? of my VHSs have been converted to DVD. Never did convert the Betamaxs but still have a few Sony SL5800 players on shelves:D

Those of us who have no problem setting manual timers and keeping track of physical media might well turn the question back on you and ask how the hell you managed to set your system up in the first place so that the whole thing actually works reliably, and how you moved your mindset completely into the future to operate it:D.

Seriously, fans of physical media have no problem keeping track of whats where, and anyone who can read a TV listing and set a clock can handle the timer chores. When I record things to archive, they are in fact *archived*: I have no particular need or interest in calling them up instantly from a live databank. I can find any DVD in five minutes that I might want to watch. I do use a DVD recorder with HDD, it holds enough recent material to get me through a week or two but searching for more than 20 programs using on screen navigation gives me a headache: I'd hate to have my entire library set up that way. DigaDo summed it up pretty well in his reply, his system is a little more refined than most but we all use some version of those ideas.

A lot depends on your age. Many who can date themselves back to the neanderthal VCR era are long since used to managing physical libraries, when DVD recording became affordable it was miracle enough to reduce library storage requirements by 90% and get reliably excellent recording quality. Younger people who were born with an iPod in one hand and a PlayStation in the other are more attracted to your "live" computerized library system, as are the more adventurous geezers. If anything you have a leg up, since eventually the self-contained "media center" with all content locked in a black box is what the studios will force on us all. Poor Sony has no idea how little time it has left to amortize its ridiculous trillion-dollar BluRay investment: the audio CD is already dead from consumer apathy, video discs will soon join them due to studio greed. Some of us will be sad to see them go...

If anything you have a leg up, since eventually the self-contained "media center" with all content locked in a black box is what the studios will force on us all. Poor Sony has no idea how little time it has left to amortize its ridiculous trillion-dollar BluRay investment: the audio CD is already dead from consumer apathy, video discs will soon join them due to studio greed. Some of us will be sad to see them go...


You are right on about the future of optical media. Once again, in the industry's greed to sell content on physical media, they are not aligning their business models for alternate means of content distribution, just as their music colleagues in crime missed the boat, and as a result somone is going to be stuck with a boatload of discs. Just as VHS tapes disappeared off of blockbuster's shelves seemingly overnight, the next revolution in content distribution should result in the disappearance of the shelves themselves with your local blockbuster eventually becoming itself non-existent. Netflix gets it and is way ahead of the curve with their Roku box so the end user doesn't have to be an HTPC computer geek or media center wizard to get online content.

BTW- sorry for the thread hijack and back to the original topic, I use yellow sticky's on the disc cases and a plain text file to keep track of my recordings and am in the process of importing the text file into an excel spreadsheet.

edit - oops I just reread the title of the thread - "without HDD". Sorry about that. My response is very hard drive centric. I'll leave it anyways. The excel spreadsheet info may be helpful.


excel spreadsheet.

Title ----Year----Location------IMDB Rating-----IMDB Hot Link-----Yahoo Movie Hot Link

The hot links are great because they provide instant access to everything concerning the title.

Excel spreadsheet resides on a notebook computer with internet access supported via wifi.

Every optical disc I own is backed up to a small portable media server (Mediagate 350HD) in "non shrunk" VOB format so all menus and extras are preserved - supported with external USB hard drives.

Not to hijack the thread but as far as the future of optical media I too believe it has started its downward trend. For example I just started (within the last six months) archiving high definition content from my satellite service. The satellite service (Dish) allows archiving to external hard drives via USB. All content is then playable via the external drive. I have probably 350 movies archived in HD with at least 90% with 5.1 audio. It's not blu-ray but the PQ/AQ is still very good. Much better than if I subsequently recorded them with a DVD recorder. All of these over 350 titles were delivered to me sans optical disc. I don't "own" these movies because I did not pay for them. I just subscribed to the service. If I cancel my service the movies go away. Still it does scratch the collecting itch.

Here's the current list. I also have around 100 1950's-60's campy one and two star monster movies archived off of Monster HD (RIP). Campy but very much fun. And all in HD. Again not to hijack the thread but what follows is what 6 months on Dish can do as far as movie archiving. All in HD with 9 out of 10 with 5.1 audio. No optical disc required:


High Definition Titles
300 2007
16 Blocks 2006
2001: A Space Odyssey 1968
2010: The Year We Make Contact 1984
28 Weeks Later 2007
A Bridge Too Far 1977
A Good Year 2006
A History of Violence 2005
A Passage to India 1984
Alien 1979
Alien 3 1992
Alien Resurrection 1997
Aliens 1986
Amadeus 1984
Amarcord 1973
American Dreamz 2006
An American Werewolf in London 1981
Apocalypto 2006
Apollo 13 1995
Arlington Road 1999
Back to the Future 1985
Back to the Future: Part II 1989
Back to the Future: Part III 1990
Bat 21 1988
Battle of Britain 1969
Best in Show 2000
Black Robe 1991
Blazing Saddles 1974
Blood Diamond 2006
Blood Simple 1985
Blow 2001
Body Heat 1981
Bonnie and Clyde 1967
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America 2006
Bound for Glory 1976
Bowfinger 1999
Braveheart 1995
Bravo Two Zero 1998
Bridge to Terabithia 2007
Broken Arrow 1996
Buffalo Soldiers 2001
Bugsy 1991
Bullitt 1968
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee 2007
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 1969
Call Northside 777 1948
Cape Fear 1991
Cars 2006
Children of Men 2006
Children of the Revolution 1996
Chinatown 1974
Chisum 1970
Chocolat 2000
Clear and Present Danger 1994
Click 2006
Close Encounters of the Third Kind 1977
Contact 1997
Cows 1991
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon 2000
Dallas 362 2003
Darkman 1990
Das Boot 1981
Dead Heat 2002
Defending Your Life 1991
déjà vu 2006
Deliverance 1972
Die Hard 1988
Die Hard 2 1990
Dirty Harry 1971
Dr. Strangelove 1964
Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story 1993
Dreamgirls 2006
Duel 1972
Easy Rider 1969
Eragon 2006
Excalibur 1981
Exodus 1960
Fargo 1996
Festival Express 2003
Fight Club 1999
Firewall 2006
Flags of Our Fathers 2006
Flicka 2006
Flushed Away 2006
For a Few Dollars More 1965
For Your Consideration 2006
Fracture 2007
Full Metal Jacket 1987
Galipoli 1981
Gandhi 1982
Get Shorty 1995
Gladiator 2000
Glory 1989
Gone in Sixty Seconds 2000
Grindhouse Presents: Death Proof 2007
Grindhouse Presents: Planet Terror 2007
Groundhog Day 1993
Harold and Maude 1971
Harper 1996
Harrison's Flowers 2000
Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix 2007
Henry V 1989
Hidalgo 2004
Hollywoodland 2006
Hook 1991
Hot Fuzz 2007
Hotel Rwanda 2004
Ice Age: The Meltdown 2006
Imagine: John Lennon 1988
Independence Day 1996
Infamous 2006
Invincible 2006
Is Paris Burning? 1996
Jarhead 2005
Jet Li's Fearless 2006
Jumanji 1995
Kestrel's Eye 2000
Khartoum 1966
King Kong 2005
Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang 2005
Lawrence of Arabia 1962
Little Miss Sunshine 2006
Little Odessa 1994
Lone Star 1996
Magnum Force 1973
Match Point 2005
Matewan 1987
Max 2002
Memento 2000
Miami Vice 2006
Michael Clayton 2007
Midnight Cowboy 1969
Munich 2005
Music and Lyrics 2007
My Beautiful Laundrette 1985
Next 2007
Night at the Museum 2006
Nixon 1995
O Brother, Where Art Thou 2000
Oliver! 1968
Once Upon a Time in America 1984
Over the Hedge 2006
Paint Your Wagon 1969
Pan's Labyrinth 2006
Patton 1970
Pirates: At World's End 2007
Pirates: At World's End 2007
Pirates: Dead Man's Chest 2006
Pirates: The Curse of the Black Perl 2003
Planes, Trains and Automobiles 1987
Planet of the Apes 1968
Planet of the Apes: Battle for the Planet 1973
Planet of the Apes: Beneath the Planet 1970
Planet of the Apes: Conquest of the Planet 1972
Planet of the Apes: Escape From the Planet 1971
Prince of the City 1981
Psycho 1960
Raging Bull 1980
Raising Arizona 1987
Ran 1985
Ratatouille 2007
Rear Window 1954
Reds 1981
Return to Me 2000
Rob Roy 1995
Rounders 1998
Sahara 1943
Salvador 1986
Santa Clause 3 2006
Scarface 1983
Scrooge 1970
Serenity 2005
Serpico 1973
Serpico 1973
Ship of Fools 1965
Silverado 1985
Snakes on a Plane 2006
Spartacus 1960
Star Wars Episode I: Phantom 1999
Star Wars Episode II: Attack 2002
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge 2005
Star Wars IV: A New Hope 1977
Star Wars V: The Empire Strikes Back 1980
Star Wars VI: Return of the Jedi 1983
Stargate 1994
Stranger Than Fiction 2006
Stripes 1981
Superman Returns 2006
Surf's Up 2007
Sweet and Lowdown 1999
Syrania 2005
Thank You for Smoking 2005
The Astronaut Farmer 2007
The Big Country 1958
The Birds 1963
The Bridge on the River Kwai 1957
The Charge of the Light Brigade 1968
The Crucible 1996
The Cruise 1998
The Desert Rats 1953
The Devil's Brigade 1968
The Dish 2000
The Emperor's Club 2002
The Enforcer 1976
The Fountain 2006
The Ghost and the Darkness 1996
The Good Shepherd 2006
The Graduate 1967
The Great Train Robbery 1979
The Greatest 1977
The Grifters 1990
The Guardian 2006
The Gunfighter 1950
The Guns of Navarone 1961
The Hoax 2006
The Illusionist 2006
The Insider 1999
The Intrepreter 2005
The Last King of Scotland 2006
The Last Picture Show 1971
The Lion in Winter 1968
The Lookout 2007
The Madness of King George 1994
The Man From Laramie 1955
The Man Who Knew Too Much 1956
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance 1962
The Manchurian Candidate 1962
The Martix Reloaded 2003
The Matrix Revolutions 2003
The McKenzie Break 1970
The Mummy 1999
The Negotiator 1998
The New World 2005
The Painted Veil 2006
The Parallax View 1974
The Pianist 2002
The Prestige 2006
The Princess Bride 1987
The Quick and the Dead 1995
The Right Stuff 1983
The Rock 1996
The Russians are Coming 1966
The Searchers 1956
The Sons of Katie Elder 1965
The Spirit of St. Louis 1957
The Taking of Pelham 123 1974
The Terminator 1984
The Thomas Crown Affair 1999
The Trials of Henry Kissinger 2002
The Untouchables 1987
The Usual Suspects 1995
The Vikings 1958
The Visitors 1993
The Widow of Saint-Pierre 2000
The Wild 2006
The Wild Bunch 1969
The Yakuza 1975
The Young Lions 1958
Three Kings 1999
Three Sisters 1970
Tombstone 1993
Topaz 1969
Topkapi 1964
Torn Curtain 1966
Transformers 2007
Tremors 1990
United 93 2006
Used Cars 1980
V for Vendetta 2006
Venus 2006
Vera Cruz 1954
Vertical Limit 2000
Vertigo 1958
Waking Ned Devine 1998
Walk the Line 2005
Westworld 1973
White Hunter, Black Heart 1990
Without Limits 1998
Witness 1985
Yojimbo 1961
Young Guns 1988
So yes an excel spreadsheet with hot links keeps things in order quite well.

I have a Panny E-500 and a DVR. On mostly the E-500 I record 18 different Korean Dramas with subtitles each week. Out of the 18 dramas there are 5 daily dramas. These are shown Mon-Fri and are each are 28-35 minutes in length. The other 13 dramas are each usually 55-65 minutes in length. Sometimes they can be as long as 70-72 minutes in length. The 13 dramas have 2 episodes shown each week. So that is a total of 26 episodes. The daily dramas add up to 25 episodes per week. So I am recording over 50 episodes each week and that is not counting half of them that are re-aired that day or the next day. My E-500 is running non stop. I record 6 episodes per dvd-r when it comes to daily dramas and 3 episodes per dvd-r for the longer dramas. When I am not recording korean drama episodes to my E-500 hd. I am burning them to a dvd-r. I average about 1-2 dvd-rs each day. If my E-500 if gives out on me I am in a world of crap. I love that 400 gig hd in that sucker. I've been doing this for years. First on VHS and then on dvd-r.

One word....Fireball, and a few sony cx777es jukeboxes...