OK, I have lots of media, I have my Unraid box (in basic mode at the moment) built, and I have loaded some movies, music, and photos up on the box.

 

So, how should I:

 

* Organize it?  For music, I was thinking of a consolidated iTunes database where all four of us in the family could go.  Does that work?  If so, any pitfalls?  How about for movies?  All the SW packages I have seen so far either require manual naming of folders or they use some stupid default name.  I want something to autoname my folders like EAC does for music.  If that can't be done, is there a SW package that will go through, organize it, add DVD covers, etc.?

 

* Process it?  I will be loading IFOs and also want to batch convert them to DivX/AVI for more reliable wireless access.  So the kids would grab the DivX but I would use the IFOs when looking at them either in my (wired) home office or in the (wired) TV room.  I used AnyDVDs package last night but there seems to be no batching capabilities.

 

* View it?  I found GOM which does a nice job of viewing VOB and DivX/AVI.  Any other recommendations?

 

I am willing to pay beaucoup bucks for a single package that will do it all for video (one for the backend, one for the frontend) but I have yet to find it.  I had hopes for AnyDVD but that just confused me more.  I tripped across MeGUI last night - any experience with that?  I don't mind a bit of technical juggling to get it set up the first time (such as EAC), but I want the usage after that to be easy.

 

Is Twonky the answer?

 

The backend is the priority right now, next will be the front-end.  I may give Girder a try.

 

 

Bill

OK...

 

Here's my setup, so you can take some stuff from it:

 

Backend(s):

Multiple Raid storage servers (unRaid on one, softawre raid 5 on others) -- all Linux

- These store all my media.  I've got DVD rips (straight ISO rip), downloaded TV shows (divx avi), ripped cds in MP3 and FLAC format (Itunes sucks, so I avoid it at all costs).

- I've got a script on my gentoo server that rips most DVDs to ISO (most does not include Sony protected DVDs that I have to rip on my windows box)

MythTV backend

- weak box with 2 HD tuners that records to my unRaid server over gigabit ethernet

- basically in experiment phase right now

 

Frontend(s):

Xbox with XBMC

- I've got xboxes around the house with XBMC that I use to front end all the media (music and videos).  They upscale to 1080i/720p and are dirt cheap (~$75 each including HD cabling and remote).  They don't play HD, so that's why I'm looking at MythTV.

MythTV front ends

- I've got one experimental client up that works ok.  MythTV can play the videos and upscales DVDs (and I think it does a slightly better job than XBMC, but it should since each box costs about $200 to build [diskless]).

 

Now for your questions:

Transcoding

- You can use ffmpeg to transcode for you.  Just write a script (ffmpeg works in windows and linux -- VERY powerful).  Heck, you can cron the thing to run every hour looking for new stuff to transcode (although transcoding takes forever unless you've got a very fast computer)

 

Viewing

- I can't begin to tell you how user friendly and stable XBMC is.  It has been VERY useful in my house, even my inlaws and technical neophytes can use the interface (I've got Harmony remotes in the media room and the family room that are programmed the same, so everything works similarly).

- MythTV is not quite there yet IMNSHO, but I think it's getting there.

 

Audio Organization

- This is a personal preference, and you'll get lots of opinions on this...  I HATE itunes.  Worthless software, worthless DRM, worthless format, etc.  In any case, XBMC will play it, so if you like it, run with it.  I organize all my music in an Audio folder, and then each CD has a folder under there.  I use abcde (a linux program) to rip my CDs.  very configurable and it works like a champ.  You are going to have to do a LOT of manual work, as no tool will do everything for you on your existing media.

 

Video Organization

- I've got a pretty simple layout:

DVD - where all "adult" DVDs live, in their own folders

Other Videos

  - Kids (for kids stuff, Baby Einstein, etc.)

  - TV (with subfolders for specific show)

  - Workouts

 

This works well for me, but I like things "disorganized" and simple.

For the users of XBMC and Myth front end, do those applications do auto indexing/movie database lookup (e.g., via IMDB)?

 

I'm looking to move to Linux on the client side soon and this is one of my concerns. With the My Movies plugin in MCE, it all more or less self populates (we're talking 10 Terabytes of movies here on two servers, one of which is Unraid), is there a Linux front end that does this comparably?