[maw230]

So, my library is a disaster and it's time to clean it up. Add the fact that I just transferred 500 new movies to it, and I need a usable solution.

I've downloaded Media Companion and a few others, but before I waste my time with programs that I'm not sure about I figured asking the XBMC community is by far the way to go.

I browsed forums and used search, but found nothing definitive.

So, what IS the best program to re-tag, re-name, scrape, and organize my dysfunctional media collection?

[Chris!]

Rename = window explorer/finder/file browser and google to find the correct film title (film title + year made).
Tagging - not needed if named correctly
Scrape - once renamed everything should be scraped fine automagically by XBMC

In short, I reckon you should spend the time to find the name of each media - In my experience it's worth it.

[rocketpants]

I'd put all the movies in their own folder as well - not necessary but it looks so much more organised that way.

If you have the correct name and year then XBMC should find the movie details fine as pseudo7 says.

Tagging is for music files. XBMC uses a separeate .nfo if it reads local meta-data for video media. EMM-R (or Ember) is a popular editor for .nfo files.

I'd just ensure everything is named correctly, set XBMC to do its scraping, export the library details to separate files (to create the .nfo files) then use EMM to modify any details that are incorrect if necessary then manually updte those that you changed to get the correct details in yor library.

[NativeCanadian]

This is very powerful, steep learning curve, but fantastic once you get going. I too had 500+ bmovies and 1000+ tv shows, but once organized I keep up to date and don't transfer until properly named.. well worth it.

http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA014830/.../FlexRena/

And, once you get your library set, an export to separate files makes for an easy reinstall as it puts info into the media folder with the media.

Have fun with your 2 weeks of work... its worth it

[NativeCanadian]

I have not used this yet to rename and scrape tv shows, but it looks like it can.

http://mediacompanion.codeplex.com/releases/view/57958

http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=53640&page=77

[vbat99]

Well, I'm using Media Companion.

Reason? I scrape my nfo's , posters and Fanart once, and it stays with the movies. Also, I have three XBMC machines and don't like the idea of scraping three different times.

A rebuild of XBMC, or any testing and I don't have to export the database and re-import, just update the library and it pulls in from my file server.

Media Companion allows to change the name of the movie if incorrectly scraped, select nicer posters or fanart, and set collections, ie: Star Wars Set.

I believe Ember Media Manager does similar.

[>>X<<]

I'd just ensure everything is named correctly, set XBMC to do its scraping, export the library details to separate files (to create the .nfo files) then use EMM to modify any details that are incorrect if necessary then manually updte those that you changed to get the correct details in yor library.

I wouldn't scrape with xbmc then export and use Ember as the exported artwork is at a much lower resolution the size its cached at by xbmc which means if you ever want to increase the quality of images in xbmc by increasing cache size you cant

I use Ember and just let it do everything including scraping it will also put all your movies into separate folders if you wish

[rocketpants]

Didn't know that abot the art export. Thanks X. Seems an odd thing to do though - wouldn't it be easier to just copy the same resolution file during the export rather than resize it?

[>>X<<]

wouldn't it be easier to just copy the same resolution file during the export rather than resize it?

It doesn't actually resize images for export it does actually just copy the poster from the cache, XBMC doesn't cache posters at full size the default is around about 620 px in height, there is an advanced setting to increase this the largest I found I could get was around 1245 px in height but the larger you go the harder your system has to work