DVD data management

[S. Wong]

I've backed up a couple of my DVDs to my NAS as ISOs, and I'm looking for software to manage my DVD collection, before trying to backup and manage my whole environment.

Right now, its just a simple file structure tree which I know well, but I'd like something database driven to pull up whatever DVD has the features I'm looking for in my collection.

Prefer free solutions for Win 2k3. I could roll out a Linux VM to run a LAMP environment and write my own database, but I'd really rather not.

Thanks,
-Steven

 

[Xonim]

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "features I'm looking for"...could you expand on that a bit? Are you talking certain actors, directors, genres, etc?

I use Media Center Master to tag all of my files, download the art, backdrops, descriptions, etc. This is all written to the file, and it's set to automatically rename the files/folders to E:\Movies\<Movie Name>\<files here>. It has an export feature that would allow you to export an HTML list of your library, though I don't recall what all it exports (title/genre/length/IMDB rating maybe).

Using Media Browser in MC7, I have libraries set up by name/genre. You can click on an actor/actress/director, and it will pull up a list of all the movies in my collection with that person.

 

[McTurkey]

Media Center Master + Media Browser = win. No need for a separate database, unless there's some other criteria you're wanting to sort/search by here.

 

[S. Wong]

MCM sounds really nice.

I was checking out XBMC + ember media manager, MedaBrowser, and a few others.
I'll go check out MCM too.

My need is a bit more interesting, as these are DVDs of kids shorts, and you get tired of watching the same type of short (same main character) all the time, so I wanted to be able to look up by episode/short. That would require its own database, to pull up items by each short film, title, topic, characters, actors, etc. I just pulled the ISOs of the discs, so I haven't broken it down per episode (not separate files).

I don't think that's possible, but quickly switching between titles is good enough for now.

Thanks,
-Steven

 

[S. Wong]

Well, MCM asks for the IMDB, TVRage, or TheTVDB reference ID for these, and there's no data for my DVDs.

Looks like I have to enter it by hand...
I'll try XBMC, but unless they pull from a different source, I think I'm stuck...

 

[Jonowxeno]

XBMC will probably search from the same online databases, since that's where most info is. I think you can specify other places, but if it's not in the big three, I doubt it.

I'm not sure what shorts you have on each DVD, but see if you can search for the individual shorts. If you can find those, then likely you have to split the .iso into individual episode avi/mkv files.

I use MCM & Media Center Master, and I had to re-write some of the XML files it generates because the online DB don't have information formatted the way I want. For example, Futurama is listed by Airdate but I have it ripped from DVD by production order which is different. The XML is easy enough to edit.

However, for what you want. It really sounds like you need a custom database or at least something that searches all those XML files. Do you have programming experience? You can use the TVDB API and write a custom script to pull the info online(if available) and insert it into a DB. You could also inject your own parameters that you want available for searching. Then make a frontend search form/page.

 

[S. Wong]

Thanks, Jonowxeno.

Each short does show up as its own thing, which may require ripping each ISO into individual files, which I don't really want to do... but if that's what it takes....

It was really sad to look up the DVD on amazon, which owns IMDB, follow the link to the IMDB... and its a bad link.

I didn't know about the API. I script mostly in PHP/PERL/C-Cshell, but am not completely new to the MS .NET scripting environment. Never done any powershell...

I'll examine the TVDB API. It may be something where I just need to generate the info and put it up on IMDB for everyone else to use.
I'll consider that as a possibility, but in the mean time, I'll put this to rest until I have more time

Thanks, all y'all
-Steven

 

[wjogert]

I've been using MyMovies to manage my DVD collection. It works really well and integrates well with MC. The program is free, but most of the advanced options require a "donation" to unlock.

My GF's 2 year old started whacking keys on her laptop the other day, which was left paused in MC (win7). We came back to find the MC in a library mode which is very similar to MyMovies. I am still trying to figure out how the little bugger got MC into that mode!! LOL. I want to try it on my HTPC and compare it feature-to-feature against MyMovies.