Multimedia Folders/Structure (how to organize?)

[Vibe]

Hi Everyone,

 

I am absolutely "lovin" my unRAID box - Best thing I could have done for a storage solution!  I am currently working on backing-up my DVD's, photos and music (e.g. all multimedia) and am experiencing a "conundrum" - what directory/folder structure would be the most "logical" for my needs.

 

To back up a bit - last week I followed the PS3MediaServer post and now have my PS3 handling everything on my unRAID server (very nice indeed).  However, after reading Rajahal's many helpful posts about XBMC (thanks Rajahal!) - I decided to try it out.  Needless to say after running the portable version I am absolutely hooked.  I REALLY like PS3MediaServer - but I must admit that XBMC is some great "eye candy."

 

To get to the point...I have searched the forum here for suggestions regarding optimal directory/folder structure & organization and am coming up short.  I have found numerous posts on user shares, split levels etc - but not a lot covering how the Pros on the forum organize their media.  My sincere apologies if this has been covered before!

 

Right now I have the following media "types" - DVD Movies, Home Movies, TV Shows, Misc Videos, Cartoons, Music & Photos.  Music and Photos are easy to organize - I have an unRAID share for each.  However, with the rest is where I am stumbling (I want to keep compatible with the PS3MediaServer with the intent on moving to XBMC).

 

This is what I currently have:

 

Movies (unRAID share)

..Genre/Movie.Name.(Year)

 

Television (unRAID share)

 

Cartoons (unRAID share)

 

Videos (unRAID share)

..Music.Videos

..Home.Movies

..Misc

..Etc

 

Photos (unRAID share)

 

Music (unRAID share)

..Genre/Artist/Artist.Year.Album/Artist.Track.Title

 

 

I have not moved to XBMC but am wondering if I will experience any issues with this structure (?)

 

Does anyone with Kids organize their Cartoons/Home Movies in a similar/different fashion?  Any better to put the Cartoons in with Television?

 

I know this varies according to everyone's own needs - however, any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated.  (I spent a while researching my "own" Music naming scheme - and feel like I've conquered Mt. Everest since I'm satisfied - can you say "Anal?") 

 

Thanks so much!

[Paak]

I haven't put any of my music on my unRAID yet, so I wouldn't be able to answer that part of your question.  However, as far as your vids go it really shouldn't matter.  With XBMC you can add multiple "sources" (directories) and set where you want each source scraped from such as thetvdb.com or imdb.com (to name a few).  Just make sure you name each file properly and you shouldn't have any problems. I have all my cartoons included with my TV shows, but either way shouldn't be a problem.  In XBMC you would just have another "source" in your video section for strictly cartoons (great idea for kids).

 

example of how mine is set up and I haven't had any problems with XBMC or Plex (mac):

 

Disk 1/Movies

  Transformers (1987) folder

    Transformers (1987).avi

  Transformers (2007) folder

    Transformers (2007).avi

 

Disk 2/TV Shows

  Bones folder

    Season 1

      Bones S01E01.avi

      Bones S01E02.avi

    Season 2

      Bones S02E01.avi

 

and so on and so on.

 

Hope that helps.  If all else fails the XBMC forum is an amazing source of answers!  I don't even have an account there but I check it out every once in awhile just to see what's going on.

 

[kizer]

My folder structure is exactly like Paak and I have tons of tv epidodes and XBMC has no problems scraping and running just fine.

[Paak]

I do have a Misc. Video folder on disk 1 for random vids that would never scrape, home movies and other stuff I find interesting.  For those though, I'll find a pic of something that relates to it and set that as a source for thumbnail so everything still looks pretty.

[Vibe]

Thank you Paak and kizer for the suggestions and detailed description - this is a great help!  I took an extended weekend and am just getting back to the forum.  During my weekend I spent some time organizing my movies as you have mentioned (Great idea adding the dates - it didn't even dawn on me to do this !).  I only have a few seasons of various TV shows, and the light bulb just turned on after seeing your naming convention - this is awesome.  I was wondering what the best format was use when naming TV shows, and now I understand (I am just learning about scraping, one of the benefits of XBMC over PS3MediaServer).  I am also working on my laptop installation of XBMC, setting up the various sources etc. - man am I loving this.  Thank you both again - your assistance is GREATLY appreciated!

[Paak]

Not a problem, generally when I first get a movie I'll go to imdb.com or thetvdb.com (the two sources I set XBMC/Plex to scrape from) and find exactly how it's named there, hence the year.  Makes identifying a movie a lot easier if there is a remake.  Also, idk what type of movies you have but anime movies always give the scrapers problems.  I look through IMDB first to find what the title of the movie is listed as orginially, label the avi as that and once it scans in I'll try to edit the title to what I know it as. 

[barrygordon]

A bit off topic, but perhaps someone can point me to where I need to go.

 

I am missing Fan Art (Backdrops) for three movies, Turbulence (Susan Sarandon), Red Corner (Richard Geer) and Twilight 1998.  I have checked various data bases (all the major ones I know of) with no luck.  The titles are listed but no backdrops or Fan Art.

[Paak]

red corner:  http://www.myfreewallpapers.net/movies/wallpapers/red-corner.jpg

 

The other two are a little more difficult since I've never seen either of them.  Normally I go to TMDB.com if I can't find something or google images and filter (for backgrounds) the largest sizes.  Twilight is a tough one though since you have that vamp tween flick of the same title.  It just brings up too much stuff to sift through.

[barrygordon]

Thank you.  Thats one down and two to go.  Twilight is from 1998. Paul Newman, Gene Hackman and Susan Sarrandon.  An interesting film

[Vibe]

After using Paak's suggestion I decided to use the format for my movie directories - "Title.of.Movie.(199x)" - using periods as the delimiter.  As a "web guy" I have hard time using spaces in file/folder names.   

 

Using Paak's suggestion #2 - I simply visit imdb.com, search for the movie, and copy their initial <h1> title line, and name the folder.  I am using DVDFab to back-up my DVDs directly to my unRAID server.  While working in my home office I have a default directory to save the VOBs in my "Movies" directory, and feed DVDs to DVDFab.  After figuring out how all this works, it is quite surprising how fast one can backup DVDs.  In the past two days I am almost at 100 movies.  Now to sit back and enjoy them!