How to organize vídeos Like launchbox does for games.

[StuDentBR]

Hey guys, so i was wondering If There is a way to organize my tv shows And movies that i have got on PC, (from original sources, Like DVD And bluray) in my computer  Like launchbox does for games ? with covers And metadata, i thought about kodi but i do not know How to do this, And I also would Like to know If It is possible to do this in launchbox/bigbox ? And If no that could be an interesting feature don't you think? 

Edited April 2, 2017 by StuDentBR

[DOS76]

Yeah additional scrapers for multiple media types have been asked for by quite a few users in the past and the response is that LB will only stay focused on gaming for the foreseeable future so its not likely to happen that being said there are multiple options for stuff like that Kodi and Plex are probably the most popular but there are others also.

[SentaiBrad]

It's possible to do this in LaunchBox, but not practical If you want metadata and media. If you're gonna rip your media, then that's a big step. But regardless of how you get it, it needs to be named very very specifically. Kodi and Plex (my choice is Kodi despite their crap PR stunt recently), require your media to be named after one of their scrapers. Generally, the TVDB, IMDB, OMDB, and AniDB. First is obviously TV, the second and third is for Movies primarily, and the last is for both but for anime. Even then, the first 2 also handle anime.

I use a program called FileBot to rename my media for me. It takes what ever the media is called, and tries to best guess what it is. You load the media, tell it what scraper to choose, and it will do it's best. It's not perfect, but it's far far better than renaming everything you get off the internet, and it's generally named very very poorly. There are two accepted formats generally speaking. For TV it's set up like S00E00, or 00 x 00 (that last one assumes season first episode number second). For movies, it's generally the name of the movie followed by the year in parenthesis. So like, Matrix (2000). If that's even the year, it might be 1999, I don't remember off the top of my head.  

There are other tutorials out there for what both pieces of software are looking for, and it depends on your needs. I prefer Kodi's UI by a long shot, but Plex works on Xbox One as a downloadable app from the Store, and it's built in to some Smart TV's (it's built in to ours). If you're streaming to another PC, or have a PC set up as a dedicated machine, Plex can work, but if you want to work with a controller Kodi is best.

I also use the Universal Media Server from time to time when I need. That can allow you to stream to consoles not supported by either software by tapping in to the inherent streaming capabilities of that consoles media player. It's not perfect, you don't get metadata, media, or progress check boxes on watched content, but it works.

Once you've got your files set, you just tell Kodi and Plex what type of media it is, (TV shows or Movies), and then where it is. Depending on how far down the rabbit hole you want to get, like with Anime and stuff, there is certainly more to know, and Kodi has deep customization more so than Plex, but that should get you started I hope.

[DOS76]

hmm I've never renamed any of my files and Kodi used to find most of them without issue Plex on the other hand as long as your folder structure is correct NameOfShow\Season#\episode then everything should be fine as long as the names are close its not 100% either (of course no scrapper is) but better than Kodi was at matching. Plexs main draw for me is the off LAN access to my media and the way I can turn off a video from my PC downstairs and continue it in any room on any device without any additional setup both of these functions can be added to Kodi but it takes work to do what Plex does automatically.

[StuDentBR]

I will try with kodi, that is  something that i already used, i will let you guys know if that worked for me 

[SentaiBrad]

When I first used Kodi, I got no where until my stuff was renamed. I first tried an import and it got a few episodes of a show, out of several dozen, so It's been instilled in me very early that I needed the structure and right names. Now I prefer for it being cleaner and nicer to look at. I don't care who ripped it. I'm happy, thankful, sure, but ... eh. So yea, I have Movies, TV Shows, Anime, then broken down a bit farther. Anime has 4 folders, 2 for shows and 2 for movies, with each being separated for different scrapers (some have different rules, and some anime can only be found in one or the other). I have a favorites movie folder, Old TV Shows, Japanese TV shows and then a Jackie Chan folder. Other than that, yea TV Show/Season/Episodes for me too. Movies are generally in folders named exactly like the movie too, but not always.

[DOS76]

Yeah I keep my TV shows in Alpahbetical folders inside of my Recorded TV folders so I have to actually add 27 folder paths to either Kodi or Plex every time I set it up to properly find my media.

Edited April 2, 2017 by DOS76

[StuDentBR]

so kodi will find the scraps and metadata automatically if my media is named right ? Or do i need some add on ?

[DOS76]

No either Kodi or Plex (really any media frontend worth a damn) will do it all on its own.

[SentaiBrad]

I had to name things properly for it to work. I have plenty of TV shows, movies and anime that don't get found right away, and I need to fix their names. Fixing their names then lets them import. It may have been relaxed a bit, but it's a real thing. Like I said, this documentation exists: http://kodi.wiki/view/Naming_video_files/TV_shows

Edit: Kodi and Plex do have built in scrapers (except when you start going down that rabbit hole like I said (I needed a modded scraper for Anime)), and FileBot helps immensely, but it likely needs to be done in most cases.

[neil9000]

17 minutes ago, SentaiBrad said:

I had to name things properly for it to work. I have plenty of TV shows, movies and anime that don't get found right away, and I need to fix their names. Fixing their names then lets them import. It may have been relaxed a bit, but it's a real thing. Like I said, this documentation exists: http://kodi.wiki/view/Naming_video_files/TV_shows

Edit: Kodi and Plex do have built in scrapers (except when you start going down that rabbit hole like I said (I needed a modded scraper for Anime)), and FileBot helps immensely, but it likely needs to be done in most cases.

Yeah I can second filebot, its what I use and works really well for renaming. I cant speak to renaming anime though as that's not my thing.

[Sithel]

I've created a local Plex sever on my PC and mapped the drive to my network hard drive for all my music, tv shows and movies. Added a Plex platform in launchbox and it's working perfectly. Plex does all the scrapping and I've had no issues. Remapped all the plex keyboard shortcut keys and makes it all arcade friendly.

[StuDentBR]

1 hour ago, Sithel said:

I've created a local Plex sever on my PC and mapped the drive to my network hard drive for all my music, tv shows and movies. Added a Plex platform in launchbox and it's working perfectly. Plex does all the scrapping and I've had no issues. Remapped all the plex keyboard shortcut keys and makes it all arcade friendly.

I have never used plex before, in your opinion is it better than kodi for this function ? is it portable ? Can i install it on a external hard drive and use it in more than one pc ?

[Sithel]

The portable part of plex is the Plex Media Player, so in that sense it's portable. There is also plex apps for your mobile phones. All your media is stored locally on your PC or network drive and map the drive to your PC (which I do). Once the server is created, then all your media is accessed through the app on your PC or mobile device through an app. You can then access all your media locally for free similar to kodi. Or you can pay for PLEX monthly, yearly or lifetime to access your media server over the internet and I believe share it. I just do the free version.

 

I personally like PLEX better for local media. Like I said, it's arcade friendly and I just install the app on the devices I have to stream it. For example my samsung TV, and firestick all have the plex app installed and I can stream to those. I could create a small video of mine in action if you would like to see how I have it setup on my arcade.

[neil9000]

11 minutes ago, Sithel said:

The portable part of plex is the Plex Media Player, so in that sense it's portable. There is also plex apps for your mobile phones. All your media is stored locally on your PC or network drive and map the drive to your PC (which I do). Once the server is created, then all your media is accessed through the app on your PC or mobile device through an app. You can then access all your media locally for free similar to kodi. Or you can pay for PLEX monthly, yearly or lifetime to access your media server over the internet and I believe share it. I just do the free version.

 

I personally like PLEX better for local media. Like I said, it's arcade friendly and I just install the app on the devices I have to stream it. For example my samsung TV, and firestick all have the plex app installed and I can stream to those. I could create a small video of mine in action if you would like to see how I have it setup on my arcade.

Actually you do not need a plex pass to stream over the internet, that is still free. The IOS and Android apps cost about £3 though, or free if you have a plex pass.

[Sithel]

Interesting, I did not know this. I thought I've tried to stream over the internet before on the free pass and couldn't get it to work.

[neil9000]

10 hours ago, Sithel said:

Interesting, I did not know this. I thought I've tried to stream over the internet before on the free pass and couldn't get it to work.

Well I have never had a plex pass, but have streamed over the internet many times, mostly with the android app even using 4g on my phone. You need to make sure you are signed into the plex website on both devices and it should just work. Assuming that is you have enough up bandwidth at your server address.

[DOS76]

I have a lifetime Plexpass but long before I bought in I was streaming and sharing my PMS (get your mind out of the gutter) with my brothers and friends.

[SentaiBrad]

They changed up the Plex stuff a while ago. The Xbox One app used to require Plex Pass or to give them money, and now it's completely free. Kodi can do streaming over a network (including your phone or tablet), but it's harder to deal with for mobile and a bit hacky feeling over the network. That's what my wife does though. Has Kodi on her PC and has it looking at my PC over the Homegroup (SMB) connection. Plex is easier I think in this regard, but Kodi is capable and not too bad once you understand what you're doing, and I think the UI is much much better.

[DOS76]

you can actually setup Kodi to use your PMS as the source of the videos if you want to use Kodi as a client for it instead of one of the Plex clients then for off LAN stuff you would still need a Plex app but the two can work together in conjunction.