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TechDaddy · (This post was last modified: 2012-02-04, 05:14 by TechDaddy.)

Hello Everyone,
I need some help from some of you XBMC experts. I’m new to XBMC so please forgive me if some of my questions sound dumb. I just learned about XBMC a few weeks ago, and from what I’ve read and looked at – This is one of the COOLEST!!! Software I have ever come across. I will be building my own HTPC so I want make sure I get everything correct from the start. The #1 thing I want to use XBMC for is to back-up my very large DVD collection onto four or five 2TB hard drives, and then be able to view/play them thru that cool XBMC interface. I know it can do much more, but I just don’t need all the other cool stuff at this time – maybe the photos section later. I will also install a Blue-Ray/DVD Burner drive with DVD upscaling to 1080p into my HTPC. That way whenever I buy a new DVD I can just rip an ISO image onto the hard drives with the others. This way I can keep my physical DVD collection safe from children and scratches. Now my questions…

1st What is the correct way to arrange my movies on my hard drive? Should I put each movie ISO in a separate folder and name the folders whatever the movie name is, or should I just put my entire movie ISO’s loose on the hard drives and name each ISO file whatever the movie name is?

2nd When I do the scrape thing to get all the movie covers and other information from the internet, where will that data be stored? I want to be able to save it in case something goes wrong I won’t have to do the long download again.

3rd What is the best OS to install XBMC onto? I gave OpenElec xbmc a test drive on an old laptop I have, and I liked it a lot – very small about 100MB, and very fast boot-up. But after I get inside I can’t see how to make it connect to the internet Huh

I love windows 7 64bit but the boot-up takes longer.

Thank you,

TechDaddy

**PatK** · (This post was last modified: 2012-02-04, 06:35 by PatK.)

TechDaddy Wrote:Hello Everyone,
I need some help from some of you XBMC experts. I’m new to XBMC so please forgive me if some of my questions sound dumb. I just learned about XBMC a few weeks ago, and from what I’ve read and looked at – This is one of the COOLEST!!! Software I have ever come across. I will be building my own HTPC so I want make sure I get everything correct from the start. The #1 thing I want to use XBMC for is to back-up my very large DVD collection onto four or five 2TB hard drives, and then be able to view/play them thru that cool XBMC interface. I know it can do much more, but I just don’t need all the other cool stuff at this time – maybe the photos section later. I will also install a Blue-Ray/DVD Burner drive with DVD upscaling to 1080p into my HTPC. That way whenever I buy a new DVD I can just rip an ISO image onto the hard drives with the others. This way I can keep my physical DVD collection safe from children and scratches. Now my questions…

This the coolest software this side of the planet... and the other from what they tell me! Donations are always appreciated and contributors rank up a few notches in the forum. Sadly XBMC is not back-up software, here's a short wiki on it http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=XBMC_FAQ but it is one of the best media playing solutions around if you're thinking HTPC and note there is a specific forum for hardware discussion.

Quote:1st What is the correct way to arrange my movies on my hard drive? Should I put each movie ISO in a separate folder and name the folders whatever the movie name is, or should I just put my entire movie ISO’s loose on the hard drives and name each ISO file whatever the movie name is?

Each movie should have it's own folder named by movie title (date), and larger collections are generally divided into sub folders, usually according to genre, (genre lists as defined by IMbd or TMdb) but can be numbered or alphabetical or a combination... Typically a few dozen.

Quote:2nd When I do the scrape thing to get all the movie covers and other information from the internet, where will that data be stored? I want to be able to save it in case something goes wrong I won’t have to do the long download again.

Keeping everything in it's respective folder, makes life simple if the library should crash out, a quick re-scrape without having to go to the internet, means you can come back from nothing to a fully functional library in minutes and an option to export a back-up as a single file for importation if needed. But I use both methods... backing up to separate individual source, means all your fanart, posters and .nfo get stored in the same folder as the movie. For speed XBMC keeps the graphics and .nfo in an internal library, never scrambling the .nfo in your folders.

Quote:3rd What is the best OS to install XBMC onto? I gave OpenElec xbmc a test drive on an old laptop I have, and I liked it a lot – very small about 100MB, and very fast boot-up. But after I get inside I can’t see how to make it connect to the internet I love windows 7 64bit but the boot-up takes longer.

OpenElec appeals to dedicated HTPC systems, fast and easy. Win7 is a bit of overkill, but I use it for file maintenance, and my main desktop PC which does many other duties. Browse some fo the Wiki's and ask more questions... Almost everyone has a different take on what they like. I'll leave you with a few basic links to peruse when times is available.

http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=XBM...he_Library
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/xbmc
http://lifehacker.com/5536963/the-ultima...dia-center
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=120672

I hope I didn't go overboard here.

TechDaddy · 2012-02-04, 23:33

Hello PatK,

Thank you so much for your very helpful answers to my post. Yes I know XBMC will not back-up my DVDs, I should of said... I have other software to do that. Do you know if ISO is the best file format or should I use some other...MPEG, dvx, or something?

TechDaddy

**PatK** · (This post was last modified: 2012-02-05, 02:23 by PatK.)

Some do have their collections in .iso format, most of the consensus seems to be to rip as .MKV but XBMC handles most formats.

http://lifehacker.com/5559007/the-hassle...collection

**patseguin** · 2012-02-05, 00:07

I wasn't aware of any of what PatK said. I've just been putting all my rips in the My Videos root directory on my HTPC and XBMC fins the names and move info for me. I'm not sure why you'd want or need to make a separate folder for every movie rip.

**gabbott** · 2012-02-05, 00:26

patseguin Wrote:I wasn't aware of any of what PatK said. I've just been putting all my rips in the My Videos root directory on my HTPC and XBMC fins the names and move info for me. I'm not sure why you'd want or need to make a separate folder for every movie rip.

depends on the size of the collection as well if one uses local artwork and/or nfo files, in many cases a single folder can get pretty badly cluttered.

**patseguin** · 2012-02-05, 03:41

Hmm good point. So a good practice might be to make a separate folder for each movie?

TeKo · 2012-02-05, 04:08

I had everything in one folder and when I reached about 600 movies Windows started to struggle when I opened the folder Wink

You should really take a look at Ember Media Manager you can find it in the tools section in the forum.

Once everything is setup you can scan all the movies, rename the files, get meta data and sort everything in folders automatically with only a few clicks.

For rips I would go for .avi/.mkv for DVDs and .mkv for BR not too much quality loss and relatively small files.