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Please recommend software for movie and optionally audio library cataloging

post #1 of 21
1/21/13 at 1:18pm
Thread Starter 
A while age I decided that I don’t need to spin 30 drives if I need to use an only one. So now I have a shelf with hard drives with movie backups and most of my computers have trayless HDD docks. I like the solution, but it is becoming quite painful to search for something specific. So I’m looking for a tool that will keep track of what stored where. I want it being able to [re-]scan connected storage and add/update it contend in a database. The ultimate goal is being able to type partial movie name and get something like “HDD#32, HDD#12” for a movie location.


Thanks
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post #2 of 21
1/21/13 at 1:34pm
I think My Movies should do this. For each movie in the collection database, it should tell you where it's stored.

The real question, though, is why in the world don't you just use a server? Is it just the spinning of the hard drives that bothers you? Unless you're using RAID with striping, only the appropriate hard drive will spin up.
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post #3 of 21
1/21/13 at 4:05pm
Yea
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post #4 of 21
1/22/13 at 7:46am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by lockdown571 View Post

I think My Movies should do this. For each movie in the collection database, it should tell you where it's stored.

The real question, though, is why in the world don't you just use a server? Is it just the spinning of the hard drives that bothers you? Unless you're using RAID with striping, only the appropriate hard drive will spin up.
Thanks, I'll look at My Movies.

I don't run dedicated file server mostly because of a general laziness: I don't mind just plugging a hard drive into my Dune. Also I don't need a server running 24/7. I don't want to stress all the hard drives every weekend I will start it up. I believe they are much better on the self spinning just few times a year. There is also no possibility that faulty PSU will kill all my hard drives at once smile.gif
Edited by Victor - 1/22/13 at 7:55am
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post #5 of 21
1/22/13 at 7:52am
If I were you, I'd put all thes HDD's in a case with a raid card and use something like MediaBrowser, XBMC or MyMovies, but I am not you.
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post #6 of 21
1/22/13 at 8:33am
i would be more worried about handling them so often. Could drop one accidentally.
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post #7 of 21
1/22/13 at 9:11am
Quote:
Originally Posted by aliaskary77 View Post

i would be more worried about handling them so often. Could drop one accidentally.

This. I'm sure the hard drives are far more likely to be damaged from moving them around then from spinning them up occasionally.
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post #8 of 21
1/22/13 at 9:37am
What wouldn't I give for AoE to have become a wider standard....and hard drives had ethernet jacks built in....smile.gif
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post #9 of 21
1/22/13 at 9:41am
For some reason I picture a bunch of low capacity HDDs with a single movie on each.

Maybe you could burn each movie to a disc and then print out a cover and put them into a DVD case. Then you could see which movie you want by reading the cover. Pop it into the DVD tray and watch that movie. When finished you simply eject it and put it back into its case and place it back on the shelf.
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post #10 of 21
1/22/13 at 10:16am
Quote:
Originally Posted by bryansj View Post

For some reason I picture a bunch of low capacity HDDs with a single movie on each.

Maybe you could burn each movie to a disc and then print out a cover and put them into a DVD case. Then you could see which movie you want by reading the cover. Pop it into the DVD tray and watch that movie. When finished you simply eject it and put it back into its case and place it back on the shelf.


hey, that sounds like a gre......heyyyy! wait a minute. Watchoo talking about Willis?!?
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post #11 of 21
1/22/13 at 10:17am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by bryansj View Post

For some reason I picture a bunch of low capacity HDDs with a single movie on each.

Maybe you could burn each movie to a disc and then print out a cover and put them into a DVD case. Then you could see which movie you want by reading the cover. Pop it into the DVD tray and watch that movie. When finished you simply eject it and put it back into its case and place it back on the shelf.
No they all at least 1TB hard drives. About 40 movies on each.
I've tried "burn it" way before and it is definitly where I want to be again. And I doubt it is easier to search among 1000 DVD cases on the shelves smile.gif
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post #12 of 21
1/22/13 at 10:22am
In all seriousness, before the days of digitizing everything, this is what i did for my cd catalog.

1. use an excel sheet.that got outdated and not fun to use, so then i went to....
2. when xbmc got popular, i created a dummy file for xbmc to catalog, e.g. a text file called and renamed to "Star Wars (1977).mkv". then edit the nfo file to show which cd holder it was in. that still was too much work so then i went on to...
3. digitize everything and use xbmc with a server/htpc system and flexraid.
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post #13 of 21
1/22/13 at 10:42am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by lockdown571 View Post

This. I'm sure the hard drives are far more likely to be damaged from moving them around then from spinning them up occasionally.
It is not just about "damaging" it is about other little things:
1) convenience: I don't like to navigate 1000 titles from the Dune remote.
2) where to put 20-30 drives?- I can't find a case with more then 12 HDD bays, so I need external enclosures or a second PC to do this. I would also need the extra SATA ports for it....

I don't want to go there just to index the movies and all the other things (reliability, etc) seems to be relatively same for me.
Edited by Victor - 1/22/13 at 11:28am
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post #14 of 21
1/22/13 at 10:43am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by aliaskary77 View Post

In all seriousness, before the days of digitizing everything, this is what i did for my cd catalog.

1. use an excel sheet.that got outdated and not fun to use, so then i went to....
I was thinking about writing Excel macros smile.gif
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post #15 of 21
1/22/13 at 1:56pm
yeah i got crazy with the excel. i was hyperlinking the imdb page to the names in the excel file too. not the prettiest solution but worked.
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post #16 of 21
1/22/13 at 8:19pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by lockdown571 View Post

I think My Movies should do this. For each movie in the collection database, it should tell you where it's stored.
Well, My Movies is quite nice, but it does a lot of good stuff, except one most important and one nice-to-have thing: it doesn't support support "offline folders" and it doesn't index individual files. Any other tool can do it?
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post #17 of 21
1/23/13 at 4:47am
Would this not work for you?

"My Movies for Cataloging and Watching Discs on your Shelf (Offline Discs)"

Not sure what you mean about MyMovies not indexing individual files. I have it indexing individual .mkv and .iso files with no issues.
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post #18 of 21
1/23/13 at 7:31am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by bryansj View Post

Would this not work for you?

"My Movies for Cataloging and Watching Discs on your Shelf (Offline Discs)"

Not sure what you mean about MyMovies not indexing individual files. I have it indexing individual .mkv and .iso files with no issues.
Unfortunately it will not, as I don't want to individually enter thousand movies by typing barcode. I really want to plug hard drive, index it, unplug it , plug next... [do 23 times]. I was thinking about changing mu little indexer to write directly to the My Movie database. What I don't like is that disc location is hidden in the pop up window, instead of being on the main one. It far more important then movie barcode, rating reason. It looks like My Movie was not designed handling large collection on the offline media. Reading My Movie forum and seeing few request for this I cant comprehend why it is so hard to add am "Import form offline storage" tab with a folder, device name and an button "Import". Seems like all code should be already there just new category needed.

By "not indexing individual files" I mean that I've seen a warning on the import screen when I've tried to select individual files option that "each movie suppose to be stored in a separate folder"

So is there anything else?
Edited by Victor - 1/23/13 at 7:47am
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post #19 of 21
1/23/13 at 7:38am
file2folder utility? i just got it to help me put individual movies in folders of the same name.
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post #20 of 21
1/23/13 at 7:54am
You don't have to enter barcodes for My Movies. You can search by name or by IMDB. The barcodes are just supposed to automate things. My Movies will look at the files and try to automatically match based on names. I've never used barcodes with My Movies.

You need your movies into folders. That file2folder utility mentioned will do that for you. Most indexers will require the files to be in individual folders.

There is not going to be an easy automated solution that will fit your end goal.
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post #21 of 21
1/23/13 at 9:17am
Thread Starter 
Is it possible to refetch the movie info from My Movies web service for bunch of movies? I'm thinking about adding movies directly to the database and then running "fetch data" on all of them
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