One big honkin' single DVD Movie Folder in Sage..

[Shield]

Well, my DVD ripped collection long ago exceeded the 320GB drive it's on. So later I added a "DVD Movies 2" directory for sage to look at. I'd love to just see all my DVD movies under one single folder - is there any way to do that? Right now under Imported Videos I have the following folders:

DVD Movies 1 - Points to \\mce\e$\DVD Movies 1
DVD Movies 2 - Points to \\mce\f$\DVD Movies 2
DVD Movies 3 - Points to \\networkpc\f$\DVD Movies 3
Home Movies - Points elsewhere
TV Shows - Points elsewhere
World War II - Points elsewhere

I don't want to do a spanned volume as I'd lose all my data if any member of the volume failed. Short of setting up some DFS root thing in Active Directory, anyone have any ideas? Sure be nice to scroll though all my movies in one folder.

Thanks!
Shawn

[Opus4]

In the Imported Videos browser, you can use the DVD view to see all the DVDs in one list w/o a folder structure.

In the Folder view, you can use the Options command (or that icon) to choose to see all import folders combined as one. If there are subdirectories in the import paths, you will still see those subdirectories, though.

- Andy

[hemicuda]

If different drives have the same path name to his DVDs won't Sage display them as one folder or am I smokin somethin wacky? I haven't messed with it that much.

[Shield]

Originally Posted by Opus4

In the Imported Videos browser, you can use the DVD view to see all the DVDs in one list w/o a folder structure.

In the Folder view, you can use the Options command (or that icon) to choose to see all import folders combined as one. If there are subdirectories in the import paths, you will still see those subdirectories, though.

- Andy

Well, some of my "DVD's" are not the traditional DVD's per se. Most are in the traditional DVD format; i.e. Folder name "Braveheart" with an AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS folder. Some I have in their own folder though are things like "Red White & Boom 2007" with a "RWB07.ts" filename. So it wouldn't present itself to Sage like a regular DVD movie set.

My general view is Browse by Folder, so I can see my Home Movies and DVD's at the same level.

Any other ideas? I appreciate the help! I'm setting up a DFS root and share on my 2003 server right now to see if that gives me what I want as well.

Shawn

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by hemicuda

If different drives have the same path name to his DVDs won't Sage display them as one folder or am I smokin somethin wacky?

Different import folders will only be combined if the option to combine them is chosen; otherwise, the base import dirs are listed separately.

The way to have everything listed w/o subfolders is to simply have all videos in the base import dirs, so the import dir has no subfolders other than actual DVD folder structure, and combine the import dirs as mentioned above.

- Andy

[Shield]

Originally Posted by hemicuda

If different drives have the same path name to his DVDs won't Sage display them as one folder or am I smokin somethin wacky? I haven't messed with it that much.

This hasn't been what I've experienced. If I have drive1\DVD and drive2\DVD as the import folders, then I'll see (when sorting by folder) "DVD" listed twice.

[Shield]

Originally Posted by Opus4

Different import folders will only be combined if the option to combine them is chosen; otherwise, the base import dirs are listed separately.

The way to have everything listed w/o subfolders is to simply have all videos in the base import dirs, so the import dir has no subfolders other than actual DVD folder structure, and combine the import dirs as mentioned above.

- Andy

I understand that, but what if I want to see different types of imported folders as well? I.E. a "Home Movies" folder at the same level as my DVD's? I don't want to have to scroll through my DVD movies to find Home Movie content to play (I have lots of home movies with all sorts of different filenames..

[ke6guj]

the way I do my folders is to point to a "root" folder that only contains subfolders, no files in it directly.

So I have a couple folders in my storage server , E:\sharedE and F:\sharedF. they are shared as \\storage\sharedE and \\storage\SharedF. In those folders, I have subfolders for DVD, Cartoons, Documentary, Music Video, etc.

With Sage pointing to sharedE and sharedF, by keeping the same folder names in each "root" folder, such as DVD allows Sage to are combine the multiple DVD folders into one big DVD folder, and the same for Cartoons, etc.

So the end result is that when I go to My Videos, I have a list of 5-6 different folders, DVD, Cartoons, etc.

[Shield]

Originally Posted by ke6guj

the way I do my folders is to point to a "root" folder that only contains subfolders, no files in it directly.

So I have a couple folders in my storage server , E:\sharedE and F:\sharedF. they are shared as \\storage\sharedE and \\storage\SharedF. In those folders, I have subfolders for DVD, Cartoons, Documentary, Music Video, etc.

With Sage pointing to sharedE and sharedF, by keeping the same folder names in each "root" folder, such as DVD allows Sage to are combine the multiple DVD folders into one big DVD folder, and the same for Cartoons, etc.

So the end result is that when I go to My Videos, I have a list of 5-6 different folders, DVD, Cartoons, etc.

So, when you navigate to your DVD folder you see everything combined from both separate shares then? How do you have your view setup? Are you using the default STV? I honestly tried what you did above but witnessed multiple DVD folders show up in Sage.
It shouldn't matter if it's at the root level or a similarly named parent folder should it?

Example how it is now:
\\sage\e$\DVD Movies\(DVD Movies in subfolders under here)
\\sage\f$\DVD Movies\(More DVD Movies in subfolders under here)
\\otherpc\g$\Main Share\DVD Movies\(More Movies in subfolders under here)

I swear I tried this and saw 3 different "DVD MOVIES" folders in Sage. I'll be the first to admit I'm sure I messed something up somewhere! Any thoughts?

[ke6guj]

It works in the default STV, or in SageMC, which I normally use. In the defaultUI, you need to bring up the options menu and set "folder display style" to combined.

YOu have your folders listed, but what is the "main folder" for each share? Are you pointing Sage to \\sage\e$ or \\sage\e$\DVD movies ?

[Shield]

Originally Posted by ke6guj

It works in the default STV, or in SageMC, which I normally use. In the defaultUI, you need to bring up the options menu and set "folder display style" to combined.

YOu have your folders listed, but what is the "main folder" for each share? Are you pointing Sage to \\sage\e$ or \\sage\e$\DVD movies ?

I just looked, and I have it setup like this:

f:\DVD Movies\DVD Movies

because I also have
f:\DVD Movies\Home Movies

You know, I think I've screwed something up here.

[Shield]

What a moron (ME).

As long as the Sage shared directory has a child folder with the same name, it works just fine.

Right now I have all my movies combined into ONE BIG HONKING FOLDER!

My shares are as follows:
e:\DVD1\Dvd Movies
f:\DVD2\Dvd Movies
\\someuncbox\all\shared\blahblah\DVD3\Dvd Movies

Sage is pointing to e:\dvd1, f:\dvd2, and \\someuncbox\all\shared\blahblah\DVD3

I hit "select current" at that folder and life is good once again here in Sage Land.

By the way, what would Sage be without these incredible forums?

Life is GOOD!

[ke6guj]

Congrats, glad to see you got it figured out. Isn't it funny that you can pull your hair out trying to figure it out, but once you do, its as plain as day.

[Opus4]

It sure would help if you would mention the STV you are using.

Since you are using SageMC (based on the screenshot), the answers I gave you are fairly meaningless because my explanation of the default STV often has nothing to do with how a custom STV like SageMC operates. Questions in this forum are expected to be about the default STV; there is a separate forum for help with custom STVs created by other users.

- Andy

[Shield]

ke6guj, you're exactly right. You know, instead of fooling around I should ask more questions of you experts who have already gone down these paths others have. I'm proud to say I'm almost an intermediate Sage user now - once I get the smooth HD working perfectly every time I'll be even happier!

If I spent 1/2 as much time thinking about work as I did Sage, I'd be employee of the month! I was a guy who bought a tivo in 2000 and had a video card with S-Video out going to a Sony 27" CRT screen, running Winamp with visualizations (controlled by a wireless mouse and keyboard) way back in the day. My friends thought it was pretty darn cool back then. So to be able to control all my music, home movies, pictures, and create a virtual DVD library is amazing to me - Sage is awesome! To me the fact it does PVR functions is just icing on the cake! I actually used the "Movie Times" plugin with my wife last weekend - our son turned 13 months today so we rarely get a night out to ourselves. We sat down and watched all the new trailers in HD and based our movie going experience on it.

People that start these threads about "Why should I use Sage, or Why should I stick with Sage" forget about all the possibilities.
For example, a month ago at my son's one year birthday party:

I recorded footage with my HD camcorder, imported it into Sage as well as a slew of pictures. As people were surrounding him opening his gifts, I first played back footage of his birthday on the big screen (in the living room where everyone was), then queued up some Beatles while showing the pictures I had taken just a few minutes ago.

All with a single remote. All without a computer within 100 feet (I do AV over Cat5). This will be commonplace in a few years, but this convergence with AV, music, and computers is being pioneered by companies that produce software like Sage.

Ok, I'm done for now.

[Shield]

Originally Posted by Opus4

It sure would help if you would mention the STV you are using.

Since you are using SageMC (based on the screenshot), the answers I gave you are fairly meaningless because my explanation of the default STV often has nothing to do with how a custom STV like SageMC operates. Questions in this forum are expected to be about the default STV; there is a separate forum for help with custom STVs created by other users.

- Andy

Oh Andy. Why, I switched back to the default stv before testing (and creating posts asking), of course! I'm a network engineer so basic "back to square one" troubleshooting is my mindset.

I just posted that pic after switching back to SageMC. My theory is if it doesn't work with the default stv then I ask questions. Sorry for the confusion.

Shawn

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by Shield

Oh Andy. Why, I switched back to the default stv before testing (and creating posts asking), of course! I'm a network engineer so basic "back to square one" troubleshooting is my mindset.

I just posted that pic after switching back to SageMC. My theory is if it doesn't work with the default stv then I ask questions. Sorry for the confusion.

OK. Every so often, I find myself mentioning an option, only to find out later that there was no such option in the STV being used, so I thought that what I was explaining about having to choose the option to combine the import dirs turned out to be pointless. Oh well, maybe someone else has missed that option...

- Andy