# Need suggestions on a good movie cataloging application



## MLGamer (Feb 10, 2013)

Hello,

I am adding a media server to my home theater system. I have looked and tried out several including Plex, XBMC, My Movies and more. None of them seem to be user friendly. In fact, I cannot seem to add a movie to a movie list with any of these applications. Can you help? Am I missing something? Can anyone please provide me with a strong video cataloging software so I can begin recording DVDs, Blu Rays and music to a library? In a nutshell, I want to be able to copy my DVDs/blu rays to my hard drive, then have them come up in a list when the catalog application is open.

Yours in frustration, 

MLGamer


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## Dale Rasco (Apr 11, 2009)

Are you going to be using your PC as the playback device as well?


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## cburbs (Mar 27, 2007)

Alot of people use the following -

http://www.mediacentermaster.com/

Setting it up varies on how you want your output to be displayed.


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## MLGamer (Feb 10, 2013)

Dale Rasco said:


> Are you going to be using your PC as the playback device as well?


Hello Dale,

Thanks for responding to my plea for assistance (sprinkling of drama for effect!). I will be using the PC to house all my videos. Then, what I want to do, is be able to access and select a specific video from the catalog and play it. The media server being used is a very powerful Alienware R4 with the ALX chassis. The system will have available 32 gigabytes of RAM, dual Radeon video cards in a crossfire configuration and 32 terabytes of storage to ensure there is enough memory for my ever growing movie collection.

Thanks,

Matthew Lennartz


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## cburbs (Mar 27, 2007)

So the alienware will be your server but what type of device will be connecting to this and doing playback?


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## CSB (Sep 12, 2013)

I have been using XBMC for a number of years now for my movie collection. Just install it on a computer running windows and point it to the folder(s) on the hard drive with the movies. It will scrape the internet for info on each one of your movies and organize your library for you. You can even scrape the info yourself using software like Ember Media Manager, so that the initial setup of XBMC goes even faster. Check out XBMC.org for more details.


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## NBPk402 (Feb 21, 2012)

I use XBMC too... I use DVDFAB to rip my BRs to the HDD and then use XBMC for a catalog and player.


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## CSB (Sep 12, 2013)

Also keep in mind that you don't have to be running special server software or even build a dedicated server for your movie collection. You can store them on any computer in your Windows network and just share the folder(s). I currently have my media on a couple hard drives in my living-room computer running Windows 7, and share the folders on my network. I have XBMC running on 3 HTPCs (one is actually a Raspberry PI), and all of them access the movies and TV shows through my network. A couple years ago I actually had the media just sitting in a Windows XP box connected to my network. Wasn't using the box for anything else. It was just powerd up and sat in my basement for the longest time.


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## fschris (Oct 31, 2009)

I think your alienware setup is way over kill. you can get good 24p playback with a core i3 and a 2 year old gtx640.


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