Media Storage Software

Jtalk4456 · April 13, 2020

I'm not sure where to put this question so I'm dropping it in Servers and Audio just in case. Mods feel free to move this wherever it needs to be.

So the situation is I've finally built myself a nice PC, got some VR, plenty of storage space, that's great. So now I have to tackle the clutter of old CD's and movies that I want backed up. Now eventually I plan to have a home server in some fashion. Feel free to DM me with any advice on that, I'm clueless how to go about it so far. But for the moment, I need to make a bunch of physical media into digital media. I have enough HDD space to store it all, no problem. What I need advice on is storage formatting, organization, and software. I've been preferential to VLC in the past because it's so barebones, but I've never really used it for storage/organization. It's been playback of files just tossed in a folder. I need advice on a good media library/playback software to use. Preferably freeware but if something has enough benefit i'd be willing to pay up to $20 USD for a license (lifetime only, no monthly payments). I realize this might be irrelevant when i have a server and the server software might take care of this problem for me, but it's probably going to be a while before I can tackle the cost of backing up everything. So I need a decent solution in the meantime while I'm ripping all of my current CD's. I'm using Windows, btw.

Thanks in advance for any help and consideration.

Radium_Angel · April 13, 2020

1 minute ago, Jtalk4456 said:

Thanks in advance for any help and consideration.

Handbrake to convert.

I just store mine in a folder called "videos" and by name of film.

Then play as I see fit with VLC

paddy-stone · April 13, 2020

Not quite sure what you're after here. Do you mean you want:-

Ripping software
Converting software
playback software
All three of the above

For ripping and burning, I usually use DVDfab. Converting, either DVDfab/handbrake/DIVX. Playback either Plex/KODI/MPC-HC/VLC and some others.

Jtalk4456 · April 13, 2020

16 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

Handbrake to convert.

I just store mine in a folder called "videos" and by name of film.

Then play as I see fit with VLC

Do I need to convert to a certain file type for better usage or are you using converting as an all encompassing term including the actual ripping process.

So you don't use a software to organize, you just self organize like I've done in the past?

Now my music collection is bigger than my video collection, so my main concern with organization has been that some of my music doesn't show up with track names or jast has Track 1,2, etc. So I want to manually go in and make sure the metadata like names, artists, and album are correct and filled in for everything.

13 minutes ago, paddy-stone said:

Not quite sure what you're after here. Do you mean you want:-

Ripping software

Converting software

playback software

All three of the above

For ripping and burning, I usually use DVDfab. Converting, either DVDfab/handbrake/DIVX. Playback either Plex/KODI/MPC-HC/VLC and some others.

Depending on the answer to what I just asked @Radium_Angel, I'd say ripping, maybe converting, and ofc the ability to playback. Though i'm getting the feeling the answer is gonna be rip/convert with x and playback with VLC. Does DVDfab work with CD too, or is that one just for DVD's?

Jtalk4456 · April 13, 2020

Side question about converting. I'm used to mp3/mp4 files, but i know there's a bunch of different types. Is there one best format for either audio or video that i should be universally converting all files to?

Radium_Angel · April 13, 2020

7 minutes ago, Jtalk4456 said:

certain file type for better usage

I convert to .MKV, VLC plays that fine and it seems to offer a good size/quality tradeoff.

8 minutes ago, Jtalk4456 said:

self organize

That's what I do. If I wanna watch a film, I'm certain I know what I want to see, so I just find it from my alphabetized list.

You could make sub folders, Western, Sci-Fi, Action, etc but then you get a lot of cross-genre films, like Cowboys vs Aliens, where would it go?

So for me it's just one large folder.

Jtalk4456 · April 13, 2020

30 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

I convert to .MKV, VLC plays that fine and it seems to offer a good size/quality tradeoff.

That's what I do. If I wanna watch a film, I'm certain I know what I want to see, so I just find it from my alphabetized list.

You could make sub folders, Western, Sci-Fi, Action, etc but then you get a lot of cross-genre films, like Cowboys vs Aliens, where would it go?

So for me it's just one large folder.

I've heard about MKV, isn't that just video though? What should I use for audio? And how would you suggest handling organization for music being a lot more broad than movies?

Radium_Angel · April 13, 2020

2 hours ago, Jtalk4456 said:

What should I use for audio?

I use .mp3. It's universal

2 hours ago, Jtalk4456 said:

And how would you suggest handling organization

Folder by Artist, then album. That's how I do it.

paddy-stone · April 14, 2020

23 hours ago, Jtalk4456 said:

Depending on the answer to what I just asked @Radium_Angel, I'd say ripping, maybe converting, and ofc the ability to playback. Though i'm getting the feeling the answer is gonna be rip/convert with x and playback with VLC. Does DVDfab work with CD too, or is that one just for DVD's?

Yes, dvdFAB is just video, in my use case it's mostly blu-rays. For format I usually use .mkv files and either softcode or hardcode the subs dependant on movie, ie for movies that have non-english parts, I hardcode the non-english parts into the movie. For all others I use softcode, which basically means the video file also has subs in... the alternate is having a separate file with the subs, which I'm not keen on.

For organisation I do similarly to @Radium_Angel.. but with the addition of a number, eg 1.Comic books, 2. Sci-Fi... the reason being I can then prioritize if there's an overlap in the genre, so if it's say scfi-fi/thriller, then it goes in sci-fi as it's the higher number genre.

For music I also just go by Artist, then sub-folder for album.

To save you a bit of hassle, you can use https://www.mp3tag.de/en/download.html

You can change any of the data to how you want it, add fields etc etc... I mostly use it though for just re-organisation, when a field has either been written incorrectly or none at all, usually in the album artist field, as that's how I use it on my phone.

Also for ripping music, I use foobar2000, it's a very good piece of software, and I also use it for re-coding the sound on some movies, to convert to stereo for example, from 7.1/5.1 etc, or the format to mp3 instead of aac etc.

http://www.foobar2000.org/