Hi all sorry if this sounds stupid but i was just curious on the different ways you all setup your htpc. Currently i am trying to consolidate all my music from 3 different computers to get all organized onto my htpc, After this i would like to consolidate all my videos and such and was just curious to know how you all did it. Like for example i have a main HDD of 320gb but i would like to add 1tb drives in the future for storage on the htpc. How did u all go about organizing all your files and such. Currently i have my music organized into genres and its taking ridiculously long time to do so lol. In the future i would only like to keep HD quality moves on the htpc HDD for easier access is this even possible to do?
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Question about setting up media
- Thread starter stealth21
- Start date
I started out with some hard drives in the HTPC. I outgrew them, so added some storage on the network. Started with a linux PC running software RAID-5 and recently switched to Windows Home Server. Now all my media is on the WHS and I can add a new drive to the pool whenever I get low on space.
As far as organization, I let iTunes handle organizing the music, and share the folder over the network to my HTPC running MediaPortal. I have a folder for TV where my shows go (Videos\TV\Show Name\Season #\Show Name S##E##.mkv) and a folder for movies (Videos\Movies\Movie Name).
You can easily keep only high definition content on the HTPC. Most frontends (ie: MyMovies/MyTv for Windows Media Center or MovingPictures/TvSeries for Mediaportal) can aggregate content from different storage devices into a single list. So if you have HD movies on the HTPC, and maybe DVD rips or downloads on an external drive or network share, the interface would let you select from a list of ALL the movies at once. Some frontends can even show icons to identify the stream details of a rip (ie: container, video format, audio format, etc).
For an awesome frontend, check out MediaPortal with the StreamedMP skin.
As far as organization, I let iTunes handle organizing the music, and share the folder over the network to my HTPC running MediaPortal. I have a folder for TV where my shows go (Videos\TV\Show Name\Season #\Show Name S##E##.mkv) and a folder for movies (Videos\Movies\Movie Name).
You can easily keep only high definition content on the HTPC. Most frontends (ie: MyMovies/MyTv for Windows Media Center or MovingPictures/TvSeries for Mediaportal) can aggregate content from different storage devices into a single list. So if you have HD movies on the HTPC, and maybe DVD rips or downloads on an external drive or network share, the interface would let you select from a list of ALL the movies at once. Some frontends can even show icons to identify the stream details of a rip (ie: container, video format, audio format, etc).
For an awesome frontend, check out MediaPortal with the StreamedMP skin.
Adidas4275
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- Mar 11, 2006
- Messages
- 5,986
i have simiilar setup....
a HTPC with a single 640gb WD black drive with OS and TV recordings...
then i have a media server running Vista Ultimate x86, headless. This takes care of 1/2 the SD recordings and when i buy another HD tuner some of the HD recordings. (use the reg hack to network location for recorded tv)
on the media server i run WHS as a guest OS with Vmware Server 2, still learning it but it work very nice, i gave it 1 of the 9600 BE X4 cores and 512mb of RAM, which is what the Mediasmart WHS run.
I have 3TB+ of storage on the server for movies,music, photos and backups
i throw all my movies in folders on the HDDs labled videos and then add them to mymovies, it then sorts them...
Recorded TV is also handeld by VMC, i dont really do any file management
a HTPC with a single 640gb WD black drive with OS and TV recordings...
then i have a media server running Vista Ultimate x86, headless. This takes care of 1/2 the SD recordings and when i buy another HD tuner some of the HD recordings. (use the reg hack to network location for recorded tv)
on the media server i run WHS as a guest OS with Vmware Server 2, still learning it but it work very nice, i gave it 1 of the 9600 BE X4 cores and 512mb of RAM, which is what the Mediasmart WHS run.
I have 3TB+ of storage on the server for movies,music, photos and backups
i throw all my movies in folders on the HDDs labled videos and then add them to mymovies, it then sorts them...
Recorded TV is also handeld by VMC, i dont really do any file management
Nenu
[H]ardened
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2007
- Messages
- 20,314
I use a similar method of naming folders for TV/films with a few additions.
To separate movies/episodes I havent watched yet, there are 2 other folders within the TV/films folders called 'watched' and 'watching'.
Once a movie/TV series has been watched, it is moved from the watching to watched folder space.
This only really works if everyone in your house who hasnt seen it, sees it at the same time as you, but its a better technique than not doing anything to separate watched episodes (if you watch a lot of films/TV).
Another extension to this is if I want to keep all episodes of a TV series together in the watching folder (without moving them to the watched folder) until all have been watched by everyone.
This helps other people in the house locate episodes they have missed much easier.
In this case, I make a new folder within the named TV series folder and copy watched episodes into that, leaving the unwatched ones in the root of the named TV series folder.
Once the whole series has been seen by everyone, it is moved to the 'watched' folder and all episodes put back in the named root folder again for that series.
Use handy shortcuts to the 'watching' folder spaces for both TV and movies.
(and the 'watched' spaces if that is handy too)
To separate movies/episodes I havent watched yet, there are 2 other folders within the TV/films folders called 'watched' and 'watching'.
Once a movie/TV series has been watched, it is moved from the watching to watched folder space.
This only really works if everyone in your house who hasnt seen it, sees it at the same time as you, but its a better technique than not doing anything to separate watched episodes (if you watch a lot of films/TV).
Another extension to this is if I want to keep all episodes of a TV series together in the watching folder (without moving them to the watched folder) until all have been watched by everyone.
This helps other people in the house locate episodes they have missed much easier.
In this case, I make a new folder within the named TV series folder and copy watched episodes into that, leaving the unwatched ones in the root of the named TV series folder.
Once the whole series has been seen by everyone, it is moved to the 'watched' folder and all episodes put back in the named root folder again for that series.
Use handy shortcuts to the 'watching' folder spaces for both TV and movies.
(and the 'watched' spaces if that is handy too)
I have all my media stored on my file server in the basement, all my movies are stored by genre in Movies\Movie Genre\Movie Name format, and I store my music by genre, artist and album( e.g. MP3's\Music Genre\Artist\Album\Songs.) TV shows are stored in Series\Season\Episode format.
I have to second MediaPortal with StreamedMP. Very classy way to organize and display your media. I've had tons of compliments and questions about it since I set it up.
I have to second MediaPortal with StreamedMP. Very classy way to organize and display your media. I've had tons of compliments and questions about it since I set it up.
one thing i've noticed about mediaportal, other than it rocks [for the most part], is that it will only show things in a single list if stuff is stored within it's movie database. let me try and explain what i mean...by default you are in 'share' view which shows you everything, as you have added by folder - whether it be local or networked. in this view you can literally just see a list of folders and it's contents - none of the flashy stuff like coverart, storyline etc. if you shift away from 'share' view into something like 'title' view then it will only show you stuff for which you have queried the imdb [so is therefore in the database]. so, if all your content can pull information from the imdb then you are all set... i've found that this is ok for movies, but not for tv shows. it's a little clunky in terms of working with different file formats too - for example, .avi files seem fine, but .iso files must be mounted before you can query the imdb...why cant it go off the filename like it does with the .avi?! overall i can shift around between views using the remote but this makes it seem very clunky. dont get me wrong, mediaportal is great [and i've been using it for about 2-3 years now] but i think i must be doing something wrong in terms of making it properly slick.