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View Full Version : Best-practice for DVDs in library

pryankster
2008-03-07, 12:01
I'm in the process of ripping all of my DVDs (I'm using DVDfab decryptor). I'm doing full .ifo rips of the DVD, which leaves me with a structure like this:

/media/vol0/SOUTHPRK/
/media/vol0/SOUTHPRK/VIDEO_TS/
/media/vol0/SOUTHPRK/VIDEO_TS/VIDEO_TS.BUP
/media/vol0/SOUTHPRK/VIDEO_TS/VIDEO_TS.IFO
/media/vol0/SOUTHPRK/VIDEO_TS/VIDEO_TS.VOB
... etc... for VTS_01_0.BUP, IFO, VOB, etc. etc.

From the files view, I can press 'play' and dvdplayer does the right thing, just as if I had a real DVD in the DVD drive. But for increased WAF (Wife Acceptance Factor), I'd like to use the library (and b'cuz it's cool :-)

If I navigate to the "SOUTHPRK" directory, and select 'Set Content', select 'imdb', etc., the South Park IMDB info will be filled in, and the video will be added to the library.

HOWEVER, if I just tell XBMC to recursively scan the /media/vol0 source, it tries to search every .VOB that it finds.

My first attempt was to put a "SOUTHPRK.nfo" file in the /media/vol0/SOUTHPRK' directory, containing the appropriate IMDB URL, but apparently, .nfo files are not supported for directories.

So, my next attempt was to put a VIDEO_TS.nfo file in the VIDEO_TS directory, but then I have to select each DVD that I add manually to get the information into the database. (amusingly, it seems like "sex and the city" is what IMDB pulls up as a match for "VTS_*.VOB" when I select a recursive scan ... I ended up with a library containing several hundred entries for "Sex and the City" :-)

I don't mind adding the URLs manually (the /media source actually lives on a UNIX box, so I can script that part pretty easily), but I don't want to have to select every movie to add it to the database; is there a way to use the automated library scanner to do the "right" thing with my setup?

(again, I'm willing to put whatever kind of .xml, .nfo, etc, control files that I need, write shell scripts, python scripts, etc. etc.)

Thanks!
-- pryankster
Gamester17
2008-03-07, 14:44
For now simply remove the VIDEO_TS folder (as the handeling of that is not currently so good in XBMC), leaving your folder structire like this:
/media/vol0/SOUTHPRK/
/media/vol0/SOUTHPRK/
/media/vol0/SOUTHPRK/VIDEO_TS.BUP
/media/vol0/SOUTHPRK/VIDEO_TS.IFO
/media/vol0/SOUTHPRK/VIDEO_TS.VOB
... etc... for VTS_01_0.BUP, IFO, VOB, etc. etc.


...even simpler alternative is to have them all as ISO (or IMG) files, which is the best-practice.

EDIT: Previous discussion threads:
http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=26876
http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=30403
http://xbmc.org/forum/showthread.php?t=29821
pryankster
2008-03-07, 21:43
Okay, that's sounds reasonable. If I 'move everything up a level' (i.e.: remove the video_ts/audio_ts folders), so that i'm left with:

/media/vol0/SOUTHPRK/VIDEO_TS.IFO
..etc..
/media/vol0/V FOR VENDETTA/VIDEO_TS.IFO

If I then put the .NFO file in the movie's directory with an IMBD URL, will XBMC find a single movie in each of the subdirectories if I do a 'set-content' on the /media/vol0 path and set the 'recurse' option? (should I set the 'path contains one movie' option?)

As far as .ISO vs. .IFO, I tried ripping .ISO's instead of .IFO's, but it seemed like the single .ISO was larger than the combined size of the .IFO's and .VOBs; I've got a couple hundred movies to rip and I'd like to get 'em all into the 1.5T that I've got right now (I'm not against adding more disks, but WAF goes down the more stuff I buy :-)

-- pryankster
KidKiwi
2008-03-07, 23:30
Seems that ISO files do take a little more space than IFO/VOB rips, but there are some factors that make ISO's slightly better (IMO).

On my system (Xbox - remote storage server), ISO files start playing a lot faster than IFO/VOBS - almost instantly.

Management of a single file named after the movie is much easier than many files all named the same way.

Another factor often overlooked is that single ISO files named after the movie are much easier to locate in the db than 100's of IFO files with the same name.
SleepyP
2008-03-08, 03:50
If you scan DVD files into the dbase using the foldername for movie lookup and with stacking enabled, I believe you end up with only "Movie Name" in the database. KK, can you verify this is correct/incorrect? (just curious)
KidKiwi
2008-03-09, 09:56
If you scan DVD files into the dbase using the foldername for movie lookup and with stacking enabled, I believe you end up with only "Movie Name" in the database. KK, can you verify this is correct/incorrect? (just curious)

Yes...this is correct. Using a folder named after the movie does insert the movie name in the "movie" portion of the db. My statement above was referring to the "files" portion of the db. With IFO/VOB's all you get in there is the same named IFO file. When ISO format is used, this "file" portion also has the movie named file so it's easy to spot.

I started backing up using the IFO/VOB format, but switched to ISO later to keep everything on my server the same (like single file TV Shows). Easy to find the movie for small tweaks when it's named instead of just *******.IFO for every entry.
SleepyP
2008-03-09, 22:30
well in files mode you can turn on stacking, or alternately just play the folder containing the movie instead of going into that folder and trying to play files.