I'm working on getting everything setup with my new XBMC system. This forum has been awesome with finding answers and with all the people helping me out.
I have a handful of movies taken care of now. All of them are in mkv format and they seem to work just fine but before I dove in too deep I thought I would ask what the general consensus is for movies and TV shows. Is mkv the preferred format of choice for movie only or should I do them as vob files? Is there another format that's better? I'm looking at both quality and ease so I can get the sweet spot (or at least close to it) where I get as close to DVD quality as I can and still have something that isn't going to take up a huge amount of space or be a mess when it comes to getting my library in order.
Should TV Shows be done in a different format from movies or all the same? Also, how do you group your TV shows? Movies are pretty easy. I do a folder for each film and the MKV file is named for that movie. TV shows though aren't that easy. What are most of you doing to keep your TV shows in order with naming and formats?
Thanks for the info on this. I figured better to ask the question before I get started too deep vs getting most of my library done and finding out later one, "oh, if you would have done this or that it would be a whole lot better."
XBMC can comfortably handle quite a few different file formats.. and basically uses the correct decoders on the fly. MKV files are fine... standard .TS from broadcast are really mpeg2 encodes and pretty huge... Mpeg 4 (mp4) seems to be a better format for smaller stuff. I mix & match formats regularly within folders and seasons... just a matter of convenience.
Instead of having a 'movie' or 'video' drive and letting XBMC add files... I've elected to created multiple sub folders, based on genre, type etc... ~34 in all and point at each folder individually within XBMC (i gave each one a nice graphic icon). It doesn't matter to the XBMC library, it puts them all together anyway... but it's easier for me to physically locate offending files, add extra drives, quickly update .nfo, copy images, DVD offline file folder. I've heard some users make subs from the alphabet, or numbers. You might want to look at this... or the numerous video examples on youtube.
http://lifehacker.com/5536963/the-ultima...dia-center
As far as TV shows are concerned... make a folder labelled 'TV shows' then make sub folders the name of the TV show... and within that a 'Season 1' Season 2' etc folders... and stick your files into as NAMED.S01E01.avi NAMED.S0E02.avi etc... Make sure the TV show matches up with the scraper e.g. IMDB
http://thetvdb.com/?tab=advancedsearch then read some of the forum for tips on multi-episodes or specials. Movies and TV shows in the same folder causes issues.
I've been doing some reading on various sites and it sounds like MKV is the format to stick with. Ease of use, single file, good quality. I was watching some of my stuff last night and granted it's only on a 40" and maybe my eyes aren't the best but everything sure looked awesome to me. I guess in the end that's all that matters right?
MKV is just a container it has nothing to do with the quality if you want to make your DVD's take up less room then they will need to be encoded to make them smaller what you use for this and what settings you use will determine the quality
How much do you want to reduce your DVDs in size because the best quality would be not to encode them at all just put the main movie and one audio track in a mkv container so no change in quality at all this would also be the fastest process "MakeMKV" makes this a very easy job to do
If that doesn't make them small enough for you then the obvious choice is to encode them to H264
Yeah, as >>X<< mentioned, there seems to be confusion between containers and codecs. One needs to understand that in order to ask the correct questions.
Here a somewhat basic explanation:
http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/30228...ost1850524
Quote:Think of a wrapper (or container as it's also called) as an envelope in which you place your audio and video. The codec of that video might be Xvid, h264, DivX, or many other types. The audio might be MP3, AAC, WAV, AC3, etc.
So, you could put h264 and aac into an MP4, AVI, MKV, MTS, or MOV container. Or, you could put DivX and Mp3 into an MP4 or AVI container. Certain containers are required by certain hardware players or by certain applications - A DVD player which also plays DivX typically requires an AVI container with DivX or Xvid video and MP3 or AC3 audio. iPods are particular to h264 and AAC inside an MP4 container.
All containers have pluses and minuses to them. One isn't necessarily better than another , just more compatible with an editor or hardware player.
So in a nutshell, you want to pick the container that offers the features and flexibility you are looking for, and pick a codec that offers the quality and size requirements you want.
Just saying that you have an mkv file tells nothing of what the quality of the file is.
For myself, I like using the mkv container for it's flexibility and allows for multiple streams.
to maintain the original pq/aq, it is best to do 1:1 rip (which mean without any funny encode). mkv seems to be the most popular container for most users.
for me, i like to keep all the original contents. i'm not planning to reduce file size either. i just want to be able to playback bd file on xbmc and 7mce, and i can preserve the original bd for a long time. my best choice is iso!
bwhicks Wrote:...or be a mess when it comes to getting my library in order.
Should TV Shows be done in a different format from movies or all the same? Also, how do you group your TV shows? Movies are pretty easy. I do a folder for each film and the MKV file is named for that movie. TV shows though aren't that easy. What are most of you doing to keep your TV shows in order with naming and formats?
Thanks for the info on this. I figured better to ask the question before I get started too deep vs getting most of my library done and finding out later one, "oh, if you would have done this or that it would be a whole lot better."
I understand perfectly... I read when getting started that library organization had to come first. My road to comprehending this has been a bumpy one.
As you stated, movies are fairly easy and mostly take care of themselves. It seems to me the biggest things are: Naming Conventions and getting the .nfo files correct. For TVshows you must use a seasonXepisodeX format. Without that nothing will be listed under your TVshows. If XBMC can not scrape it, then no .nfo file will be created. Thus the video file will not show up in library mode.
In these cases I find the best workaround is to create my own .nfo files which are simply .txt files with the .extension changed. All these files need are the barest minimum of information to function. More can be added of course.
view this thread for more on this. I included example .nfo files there.
http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=109101
XBMC doesn't create nfo's when it scrapes it creates a database
Here's a thought if you spend time sourcing info and images why don't you spend the time adding them to TVDB so they do scrape for you and others who might also want it ?
Not re-encoding is indeed one way to get the "very best" quality, but the quality of a DVD just doesn't justify the huge space it takes up. I've got HDD space out the wazoo and I can't bring myself to just saving raw DVDs. MPEG-2 is just horrible by today's standards.
I would at least go with Handbrake's High Profile preset ("all the bells and whistles"). Leave out any language tracks you don't want for even more space savings.
>>X<<' Wrote:XBMC doesn't create nfo's when it scrapes it creates a database
Well yes that is true, until you export your library. Then if gives you the .nfo files.
>>X<<' Wrote:Here's a thought if you spend time sourcing info and images why don't you spend the time adding them to TVDB so they do scrape for you and others who might also want it ?
It's a good thought, one I have considered...
Maybe someday. Having a time as it is learning how to get XBMC library setup right. Not ready to learn the rules etc for tvdb plus much of what I have done manually is single episode, documentary type stuff. Problem w tvdb is if you don't know where it has been arbitrarily stuck... you cant find it nor know were to put it if you wanted to contribute. It would really help if their search would work down to the episode name level but it doesn't.
Secondly, I do it custom so I can sort it any way I want so I don't have a complete mess under my TVshows menu. I sort them into categories like "outer space" "politics & government" etc. Thus my sorting doesn't do much for tvdb.