Recommended folders structure and other things... (1 Viewer)

[Nosferax]

Hi!

I'm building myself a new HTPC and I'm considering using Media Portal on it. I used MP years ago and I guess quite a lot have change .

Until now, my old HTPC was mainly used to play DVD and BR rip and for that I used Media Browser in WMC. It was Ok but now I want a bit more from my HTPC especially on the music and internet side. So here is my questions:

1. What is the recommended folder structure for movies. For example, in MB/WMC I have every movies in a folder by the name of the movie. Can I keep it that way or do I have to have the movie files all in the same folder?
2. Again, the same question but with TV series. Presently I have them in the following structure: E:\<series name>\<Season xx>\series-SxxExx-episode title.mkv. Is it the same with MP or should I use the following instead: E:\<series name\series-SxxExx-episode title.mkv? Or all the series and episode in a single folder?
3. For the music this time. I have my music collection in iTune compatible folder structure, which is: M:\Music\<artist>\<album>\song.<ext>. Is this a viable folder structure or should I let MP manage the song via their tag and have all of them in a single folder? And how is MP tag reading capability when it comes to Flac and AAC files?
4. Does MP, and more precisely Moving Picture or My Films extension support offline media, like DVD or BluRay that I own and don't want to rip?

Thanks for those who will take the time to answer my noobish question.

Alain

 

[Holzi]

To 1.
I have it the same way like you (every movie in its own folder). No problems with MovingPictures here.

To 2.
MP-TVSeries plugin should have no problems with E:\<series name>\<Season xx>\series-SxxExx-episode title.mkv

I cant say much about Music and offline media but I think others will help here. Offline media should be support tho.

 

[mbuzina]

Hi there Alain, welcome to MP

1. Whatever you like ;-) Moving Pics (which I use) can scan by folder & by file name and it does not care about intermittend folder structures. Ideally have the movie / folder named by the IMDB ID, but title & optionally year works as well. Otherwise you will have to manually confirm selections, but that is also not a huge pain in the ....
2. Perfect. As long as you have a file name series SxxExx in the name, TV series will find it.
3. Music: Same as I have, works fine, although again any other will do - as long as you have your album artist tag set. MP (correctly) breaks an album that has no Album Artist tag and still has different artists (song artists) as different albums. You can set MP to recognize a single folder as one album, but I am not sure if that works 100%. Easier (and better) to set Album Artists to either the main Artist or to "Various Artists" for mixes. FLAX & AAC I do not use, but I know there is support - just don't know how good it is.
4. Yes, although again I do not use. Esp. My Films (don't use myself) is equipped to work with large DVD/BluRay collecgtions & ANT catalogs.

Greetings
Marc

 

[Nosferax]

Thanks!

That was fast

I'll fire up the new machine tonight and start installing and configuring MP.

Thanks again!

PS: I'm also a programmer by trade (VB.Net, C# and C/C++). I may be interested in the near future in working on an extension (plugin). I'll read up on the subject and keep the community informed on whatever I decide to do. I can also help in the french translation if needed.

 

[HomeY]

1. For the music this time. I have my music collection in iTune compatible folder structure, which is: M:\Music\<artist>\<album>\song.<ext>. Is this a viable folder structure or should I let MP manage the song via their tag and have all of them in a single folder? And how is MP tag reading capability when it comes to Flac and AAC files?

My entire music collection is FLAC, and i can tell you this works just great. I'm using MPTagThat to tag my collection.

1. Does MP, and more precisely Moving Picture or My Films extension support offline media, like DVD or BluRay that I own and don't want to rip?

i know MovingPictures has an option somewhere to set an import path as an external device, if that's what you mean. This way you can import a movie, disconnect the drive and still keep the movie details in your database. Your database can only be filled with physical files or discs, since that's the way it gets imported, but you can sync your database with only facilities such as trakt.tv and follw.it and even after you remove the files or entry from your MediaPortal database, they'll still be stored online.