Tips & Tricks

Following are just some tips and trick I use when organizing my videos. they work quite OK for me, but of course, you might have different ideas and preferences.

Don't sort too much

If you have a system where everything is 100% clean, it'll be much more work to maintain it. Don't make folders for genres, or stuff like that. Use a movie database, like Personal Video Database, where you can do much more filtering and sorting with very little effort.

Move stuff you have seen to old hard disks

The lifespan of hard disks is limited. If you have a "bad" or getting worse hard disk, move your old lower quality stuff, which you have already seen, on it. When it then breaks finally, there is no need to be too sad. The overall quality of your collection improved...

Use Sick Beard to find holes in the series collection

Use Sick Beard to find holes in the series collection. Sick beard scans your folders and compares your existing episodes with internet databases to find out what is missing.

Import new stuff to an import folder

Import new stuff to an import folder, so that you can first fix all the names and later integrate it into your collection. To have good names is quite essential to find out duplicates. It also makes it easier to update, for example, a database that searches for movie information on the internet according to the files name.

Make the same folder structure on every hard disk

Make the same folder structure on every hard disk. If you distribute the collection types over many hard disks you will not lose everything of one type if a hard disk dies. I use a prefix to keep all the collection types together.

For example, that could be the top-level folders on your each of your hard disks...

• My Clips

• My Documentaries

• My Garbage

• My Movies

• My Series

Group videos according to the watching experience

I prefer to sort videos according to the combined quality of the actual movie and the picture or sound, which probably the same as the watching experience. Once, my hard disks are full, I don't have to think too long about what to delete and I just can delete the stuff I like least.

Don't make too many folders

The more folders you make the more work it is to maintain the folder structure. I prefer to sort videos according to the combined quality of the actual movie and the picture or sound, which probably the same as the watching experience. Once, my hard disks are full, I don't have to think too long about what to delete and I just can delete the stuff I like least. At the beginning, I had a folder for each season, which turned out to be also more work without any real value. Now, I just have the main series folder, which contains all the episodes.

Use MakeMKV to Convert DVDs to Single Files

Use MakeMKV to convert your DVDs to single MKV files. If movies are stored in the DVD structure as the single VOB files, MFM will not work.

You can find more information on the MakeMKV website http://www.makemkv.com/.

Use AVI Mux GUI to Combine Videos Split Over More Files

Use AVI Mux GUI to combine movies that are split into two CDs or more. Drop the files in the top list and select all files in the list. AVI Mux GUI can only combine files with the same format and resolution.

You can find more information on the AVI Mux GUI website http://www.alexander-noe.com/video/amg.

Use File Renamer Basic to Fix Serious Naming Problems

Use File Renamer Basic to fix serious problems with your file name, like for example if the Series name is missing in front of the episodes.

You can find more information on the File Renamer Basic website http://www.sherrodcomputers.com/products_filerenamer.cfm.

Use FileBot to Rename Movies and Series

Use FileBot to rename movies or series to their standard names. It is important that series have good names and episode identifiers. Similarly, it is important that movies have a good name so that the list can be matched as good as possible.

You can find more information about FileBot on the FileBot website http://www.filebot.net/.

Group stuff by Collection Type

Group stuff on your hard disks by Collection Type in the same top level folder. Meaning: Put all movies in a Movies folder, put all series in a Series folder, ... but do not mix them together. That way it is much easier to find duplicates and keep your collection in order even if it is distributed over 7 hard disks. Make on all hard disks the same top level folders. There can be as many sub-folders as you want, just keep in mind that the more you have the more work it will be to find stuff...