Movie Catalogs

[Phuzzy4242]

I have roughly 2500+ movies on about 500 discs, so a catalog program is a must. It's tough leafing through 4 huge binders full of discs to find that one movie I was looking for, especially since I'm easily distracted when I see other good movies I haven't watched in awhile.

I've been using Ant Movie Catalog - at http://www.antp.be/software/moviecatalog/ - for a long time because it's

1) free
2) has updateable scripts for finding movie information
3) lets you include cover pictures
4) can export to html, .CSV, and SQL
5) has a bunch of other nice features.

I've used several other catalog programs but Ant works very well, especially since it let me import from the last one I used - converting was a pain but not as bad as it could have been.

So, which catalog program do you use/prefer and what features make it the right one for you?

[ptguardian]

i don't use one. but i think it is a great idea that i have been wanting to pursue for some time now. i really have no idea how many movies i have. i know i have some movies that would be of great interest here if only i had things sorted i could find them. another problem is that i fill up hard drives and just start a new one forgetting what i have on them. i have about 12 terabytes of unsorted media. someday i will add some usb ports and do some mass organizing. just to busy right now. currently i have several rips i need to do

i will look into this cataloging this week.

[emuler]

Thanks for the link Phuzzy4242. I used to do this in M$Access, and what a pain that was. As a result, my database hasn't been updated in years.

[BizarreLoveTriangle]

i know i have some movies that would be of great interest here if only i had things sorted i could find them

I've got an idea -- bring all your stuff online and let others do the searching [Image]

I gave up burning movies when I started to use eMule; now I am using RAID, so I have everything online.

[Phuzzy4242]

i know i have some movies that would be of great interest here if only i had things sorted i could find them

I've got an idea -- bring all your stuff online and let others do the searching [Image]

I gave up burning movies when I started to use eMule; now I am using RAID, so I have everything online.

Even with nearly two terabytes of HDD online I don't have enough room for all the movies in my collection, and if I RAIDed it, I'd need even more space. Besides, a lot of those movies are real stinkers downloaded and burned before I even watched them. Blank DVD's are cheap and hard drive space wasn't (at the time) so I had to make room, and some of those stinkers are so bad they're "good" as in "good for a laugh". Ever watched "The Stuff" with Michael Moriarty? I convinced my family it was a great movie and they watched it - while I watched them. The movie is awful but the looks on their faces were priceless.

I expect as technology advances in the next few years I'll move everything onto higher-density storage and weed out the garbage, and who knows... some of those stinkers may be worth something to collectors in years to come because they'll be really rare since everybody with sense has already deleted them.

[ptguardian]

"the stuff" thats pretty cruel and yet funny at the same time. as for putting everything online. NO why not just up my credit card numbers and bank accounts while i am at it. (i know you are joking) LOL... i am not a lazy person just extremely busy and i will organize in due time.

[FLL]

I still back everything up to data DVD, and delete the less interesting stuff from the 3.5TB of hard drives I have. Backing up is good because it forces me to organize things, usually splitting things up by English/Subbed/Unsubbed and then by language or genre or by who authored the file. I am behind in backing up (who isn't?) but just this week burned 200GB so I am catching up.

My catalog/filing system doesn't use a specific program, it's homegrown using simple scripts and designed for very low maintenance. I have some command scripts which do simple directory listings on each of my drives, saving the output to a file in my catalog subdirectory. When I archive to DVD I do a directory listing of the DVD and put it in the same catalog subdirectory. Then for searching I have some simple command files which run grep (a file search utility) against all the saved directory files.

While the output isn't particularly pretty, the system is a snap to keep updated and searching is powerful, since I can use "regular expressions" in my search. The most common by far reasons I search is to see if I already have something, or to find it for resharing, and it works well. I also save the titles on each archived DVD to a single text file, which I can use when I want to browse my collection.

[BizarreLoveTriangle]

"the stuff" thats pretty cruel and yet funny at the same time. as for putting everything online. NO why not just up my credit card numbers and bank accounts while i am at it.

I didn't mean sharing your whole PC, just the movies

i am not a lazy person just extremely busy and i will organize in due time.

I *am* lazy, so I just share everything I download via eMule. I hope all stuff posted here is safe to share

I still back everything up to data DVD, and delete the less interesting stuff from the 3.5TB of hard drives I have. Backing up is good because it forces me to organize things, usually splitting things up by English/Subbed/Unsubbed and then by language or genre or by who authored the file.

I put tags in file names when I add links to the queue. I have a script that moves completed files to right destination directories based on those tags. Eg., for FLM stuff I have a directory /shared/FLM/, which in turn contains a subdirectory for each FLM subforum.

I am behind in backing up (who isn't?) but just this week burned 200GB so I am catching up.

I've still got a single-layer DVD burner only. Can't imagine burning 50 DVDs in a week

The other problem is that I am not sure about the lifetime of discs. Even some of my older commercial DVDs have read errors. It would be a nightmare to check hundreds of DVDs regularly.

Of course RAID is not 100% safe either, and if it breaks (multiple disk failure, maintenance error, etc.), then everything is lost. But then I can download everything from here again

I am using RAID 6, so I have 2 redundant disks. RAID 5 (+ spare) is IMO not safe enough, because there is a relatively high likelyhood that another disk fails during resync.

My catalog/filing system doesn't use a specific program, it's homegrown using simple scripts and designed for very low maintenance. I have some command scripts which do simple directory listings on each of my drives, saving the output to a file in my catalog subdirectory. When I archive to DVD I do a directory listing of the DVD and put it in the same catalog subdirectory. Then for searching I have some simple command files which run grep (a file search utility) against all the saved directory files.

While the output isn't particularly pretty, the system is a snap to keep updated and searching is powerful, since I can use "regular expressions" in my search. The most common by far reasons I search is to see if I already have something, or to find it for resharing, and it works well. I also save the titles on each archived DVD to a single text file, which I can use when I want to browse my collection.

You almost sound like a UNIX guy

I am using similar methods, but some people who want to add cover pics and other info into the DB may need something more sophisticated.

[Guest]

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[BizarreLoveTriangle]

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Not bad, but take into account that all RAID boxes are loud (cooling + the noise of disks), so you probably won't like to have it installed next to your PC. Best is to have a RAID server in the cellar or something like that.