Newbie (beginner) Questions regarding File Structure and Ripping

Hi there,

I bought my SMP last Friday.  I am ok with computers however my husband is “challenged”.  :smiley:  My goal is to have a simple device that even he can use without a ton of instructions.

We have a lot of DVDs and Blu-ray discs, movies and TV series.  I have purchased a 3TB external hard drive which I will connect to the SMP via USB.

My first project is to convert my DVD library to digital and save to the new hard drive. I’ve begun the process using DVDFab and I’m saving the movies as .ISO files.

I’ve done a lot of reading here – trying to find the right direction to move in.  I’ve seen a lot of posts on Themes, Thumbgen, Moviesheets, Linksheets, Tricklesheets etc.  They all make my head spin.

After I ripped 3 movies I plugged the HDD into the SMP to make sure that it was recognized and if I could “see” the movies.  It worked!

I guess what I want to know is:

1)      My hard drive has the following folders on it:  .wd_tv and FullDisc.  Where do I save the .iso files?  Is it in one of those folders or should I be making a new one called “movies”?

2)      Is .iso the best way to save TV shows? 

  1.     What folder should I save TV shows in?  

4)      Do I need a theme or is that more to “make it pretty”?

Any help is greatly appreciated!!

I have not tried ISO’s yet.

The way I set up my folders is as follows:

From my root on the hard drive I create:

i.e.

A “Movies” folder.

Within the “Movies” folder and create sub folders like:

“The Dark Knight Rises (2012)” and put the movie in this directory.

I name the file with the same name as the directory.

Repeat for each movie.

I then share the “Movies” folder on my network.

Do the same for “TV Shows” folder.

“FullDisc” is a folder DVDFab creates when not ripping to ISO so I’m wondering where that comes from unless you are using the free ripping part that rips to a temporary dir before creating the ISO. In any case, the question is whether you need menus or not. The SMP supports menus but some discs have crappy authoring so I always rip the main movie only. ISOs are fine need more space than MKVs. You could use MakeMKV to rip all eps of a TV show in one go and name them properly afterwards: That…70s.show.s01e03.mkv or something.

The problem I found with drhoad’s approach is that there is a small irritance when you filter your movie library by “folders”, in that some movies are represented as movies and some are represented as folders (this is done randomly as far as I can tell).  If you have the backdrops view set, then those movies shown as folders won’t have the backdrop unless you click into the folder.

So my preference would be to put all your ISOs (within a genre) within one genre folder, and this problem goes away.  See my guide for an explanation.

Yeah, I’ve always wondered why people would add a separate folder for each movie with only one file in it.

Thank you Huggy, I love your post.  I’ve read it a bunch of times already!

One thing I notice though: I believe that you have your movies located on your PC and are sharing them to the SMP.  Is that correct?  

If so, that is one of the differences from what I am doing at the moment - although I may change it up if I decide to get another SMP for my bedroom upstairs. Then I’ll need to share through the PC I think??

Another question:  Genres.  Are they required? Or does it just make things easier when searching for your movie?  

Encoding:  I *think* the need to do that is to make the files smaller (compress them).  Is that right?   If my hard drive is connected to the SMP and I have plenty of space on the HDD, do i need to encode?

@ gardengirlbc.

Yes, my hard drive is not directly connected to the SMP.  With your set up, you shouldn’t get the streaming issues when playing unencoded files. While there is no need to encode (especially as space is not an issue), I would still recommend doing so in order to avoid the folder bug when viewing your library, as having a single discrete file for each film will allow you to put all your films into one folder.  Batch encoding in Handbrake is easy, just kick it off overnight.  If the folder bug does not bother you, then no - there is no compelling reason to encode in your case.

Genres are not required. But I really recommend splitting your folders into them just to speed up searching for them.  Depends on how many movies you have got.  My library is 200 odd films, and it would be cumbersome scrolling through that lot.

Hope that helps.

Techflaws wrote:

Yeah, I’ve always wondered why people would add a separate folder for each movie with only one file in it.

It’s called organizing.

Your approach is a mess when you’re in Windows viewing a folder with 100’s of movies (and everything associated with them) dumped in it.

Unless of course I’m organized enough to not use the crappy windows explorer but Total Commander which lists by extension so I only see my MKVs.

Techflaws wrote:

Unless of course I’m organized enough to not use the crappy windows explorer but Total Commander which lists by extension so I only see my MKVs.

Whatever works for you! :confounded: