Better Media Organization / Browser

[bobpaul]

Putting all the media from my network into 1 single list just doesn't cut it for me. For one, now I have to rename all of my media, as I already have it stored such as:
\\NAS\tv\Series Name\### - Episode Title.avi
where ### is the season/episode number

If I could tag each avi as a particular series and then sort that way, sort by sub folders, or do pretty much anything other than the current setup, it would be much better.

[RGoolsby]

I agree, I have 100s upon 100s of gigs of everything from music videos, to movies, to television series, and I wish there was a directory system to make it easier to interact.  (without searching) 

Any advice?

[bulek]

Hi,

not sure if this will  be of any help, but this feature exist in quite limited way. You can go into Video, then Options and select Filename at the top and then your directories will appear and you can browse them. It seems that it only remembers that setting for one Orbiter session.

Regards,

Bulek.

[PowrrrPlay]

I would think that if the media was stored within the DB an not in a flat file system you could have these types of features.

[dopey]

I would think that if the media was stored within the DB an not in a flat file system you could have these types of features.

...No this would actually be counter productive as the database is only on one server, whereas you can have media on several servers. Not to mention the fact that it would be much slower.

[tschak909]

come on, guys. You have filters.. ____USE THEM___ !!

-Thom

[ant_tm]

I have to agree with bobpaul - I have my files organized in almost exactly the same way.  I spend the time to organize the heirachy so that it is easy to use when I utilize XBMC to view them.  This whole scan into a database and use filters thing is great when you are only talking about a flat collection of ripped dvd movies but is next to useless when you are talking about downloaded tv episodes

[tschak909]

so, you're talking about adding an additional layer of UI complexity just to satisfy your little edge case? nice. um, no.

-Thom

[dopey]

Actually, I agree that the media organinaztion needs work. For example, I have 5 recordings of the same series in MythTV, just different episodes, LinuxMCE handles this by repeating the Series name 5 times... not cool... Also I have some a lot of permanently saved series recordings organized by Series/Season/Episode Number - Episode Name.Extension, because they are all tv shows they all show up with the rest of the Myth recordings and only display Episode Number - Episode Name... again not cool...

It's not just his certain setup that requires a change in how this is handled. Just about everyone with a lot of media has this problem... There are better ways of doing this, but it would most likely require database changes and Rolodex type of UI, kind of like MythTV has for its recordings. You wouldn't need too many changes, just the ability to have multiple levels of search. For example, lets say the UI looks just like it is now, only that one incantation of the Series name would be displayed, then upon selecting that Series name the menu you are currently working with gets pushed over to the left and a new one is created to the right that lists all the Episodes for that Series. This can be expanded to suit the needs of all.

[ant_tm]

I hardly think the ability to browse a directory structure is a difficult prospect and I don't think this is an edge case.

Maybe I need to start looking into the tags (or whatever) that are used for the filtering and convert my library to that.  But I still prefer the folder hierachy simply because I can add a new series to the folder and instantly access it through folder browsing without having to wait for some process to update the database (which takes a couple hours now).

so, you're talking about adding an additional layer of UI complexity just to satisfy your little edge case? nice. um, no.

-Thom

[Hagen]

Actually I am quite happy with having all movies in a single place.
The trouble comes with TV series, here I would like the option to sort by [series]->[season]->Episodes

[Zaerc]

Try sorting by filename instead of title.

[Hagen]

That is all well and good, but you still get a BUNCH of TV recordings jamming up the "Movies display"

[tschak909]

I actually consolidate TV series onto DVD images (which can be a bit bigger than an actual DVD.), so that they don't jam up the media display.

-Thom

[lucidus.nox]

I agree, the media browser needs some help when it comes to having tons of TV episodes in your collection. Sorting by Filename is really the only way that it becomes usable. Is there any way for me to make sort by filename the default behavior?