Best method to import DVD's?

[Kirby]

I'm going to rip all of my DVD's only a computer for Sage to be able to access and play. I have about 250 movies I need to do this to. What I want is to get the rips into directories in such a way that I can achieve:

1. Categories based on movie / show type
2. Cover art to display inside Sage
3. Full movie/show metadata to also be imported

Based on all that, and the fact that I havent started any of this process yet, I thought I would try and find out which way to do this is best. Which method of ripping is best? IFO mode?

What about physical directory structures on the drive? Should I be doing 1 directory per movie, or 1 big directory and naming the rips to the specific title?

I'm not running any of the custom STV's, just standard Sage 4.1.11 setup. Appreciate your suggestions!

[stanger89]

Best way? IMO:

Rip each DVD, completely.

Retain the full DVD structure, that means VIDEO_TS folder containing the DVD files (ifo, vob, etc).

Place that structure in folders named exactly as they are in DVD profiler less the illegal characters ( like ":" ).

Place coverart, folder.jpg, in the VIDEO_TS directory.

That should do it. Much of the rest is a matter of choice, you can have a single directory that contains all your rips (where a rip consists of Moviename\VIDEO_TS\*.*). Or you can organize them into sub folders by your choosing (eg category).

If you do the former, you'll have to rely on metadata for grouping, if you use the later, you can rely on the folder structure.

[Kirby]

Ok, sounds good. I think I would probably have a dir structure that might look like:

\movies\<genre>\<title>
\tvshows\<series>\<season>

Or something along those lines.

Do I then use the writeDVD's script that you posted elsewhere (thus not needing SageMC STV or some other STV) or is there another method?

*edit* Just found your entry over at sage-community. Answered my questions By the way, links to the pics are not working there. Of course actually finding DVDPro2My might be a bit more of a challenge.

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by Kirby

By the way, links to the pics are not working there. Of course actually finding DVDPro2My might be a bit more of a challenge.

Do it the easy way. Go to the Downloads Forum.

ProDVD2Sage

Gerry

[Kirby]

But I was trying to do it the hard way! Actually I skipped right over that when I saw it before. Thanks for helping the blind!

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Kirby

Ok, sounds good. I think I would probably have a dir structure that might look like:

\movies\<genre>\<title>
\tvshows\<series>\<season>

Or something along those lines.

I suppose a graphical example will help

What Sage needs is a valid DVD structure:

somedriveorfolder\VIDEO_TS\*.* (where *.* are the normal DVD files).

"somedriveorfolder" can be anything you want it to be. When Sage imports it the name of the DVD (in Sage) will be everything between your import dir and the VIDEO_TS folder eg:

You've got a DVD:
W:\DVDs\The Matrix\VIDEO_TS\*.*

If you have "W:\DVDs\" as an import dir, Sage will import the DVD as "The Matrix\VIDEO_TS" (I think it remembers the VIDEO_TS part, that might not be displayed though).

If you have something different:
W:\DVD\Action\The Matrix\VIDEO_TS\*.*

Sage will import it as "Action\The Matrix\VIDEO_TS"

The default Sage sorting is by folder, parsing the '\', so you'd see a folder "Action" and inside it "The Matrix\VIDEO_TS"

That basically takes care of the default functionality.

Now for the DVD Profiler stuff (this is looking to be kind of technical, sorry ).

DVDPro2Sage searches your DVD Profiler XML for a string. Most STVs will parse out the stuff before the title (ie the "Action" part) and the "VIDEO_TS" part. So what's important is for the title, "The Matrix" to match the entry in DVD Profiler. The way it's (generally) set up, it doesn't matter if "The Matrix" is in a subfolder or not.

Do I then use the writeDVD's script that you posted elsewhere (thus not needing SageMC STV or some other STV) or is there another method?

writeDVDs is sort of a hack/copy of the old DVDPro2My which would parse the DVD Profiler XML and create a folder structure and .my files, the difference being that writeDVDs makes XML files. It's completely separate from SageTV.

*edit* Just found your entry over at sage-community. Answered my questions By the way, links to the pics are not working there. Of course actually finding DVDPro2My might be a bit more of a challenge.

Yeah, I don't know what happened to the pictures, and I'm not sure how to fix them really. Here's another link (basically the original copy):
http://users.mcleodusa.net/r/ratpac/dvd_setup.htm

As for DVDPro2My, it's just a tool to make the folder structure and copy images. If you're <caugh>ripping</caugh> DVDs, it's just as easy to create the folders manually as you go. Likewise for the coverart. I actually scanned all my coverart (300dpi ) while ripping.

Hopefully I'll put out another update of IVL that will copy coverart when importing so that can be automated as well.

Oh, and Gerry, DVDPro2Sage is kind of worthless by itself

[stanger89]

Oh, tangentially, if anyone has comments, thoughts, suggestions, and/or wants to work on/help with IVL drop a post or something

[gplasky]

Originally Posted by stanger89

Oh, and Gerry, DVDPro2Sage is kind of worthless by itself

True-but he was looking for it and who am I to deny the request. Thought maybe he might whip up his own little STV.

Gerry

[Kirby]

Heh, you just never know what might come from me... Although I doubt I have time to actually make my own STV.