ukulele_ninja

In another post I mentioned I am building a Media center PC for my brother. The idea is that he can save all of his dvds (300+) to his computer and play them off of there. We use the DVD Decrypter program to rip movies into the VOB format then play them using VLC Media player.

So far so good. The concern i have is cataloging all of these movies so they can be found relatively easily. Is there a way to either associate the folder with the VOB files with VLC? So I could double click the folder and have it automatically open VLC player and start playing? Or is there some sort of cataloging program that will achieve this? Where you could either type in the name of the movie you want to pull up or scroll a list of them?

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CF COD4: CF|UkuleleNinja

apj101

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ukulele_ninja

awesome! I'll check this out. Thanks!

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tlarkin

VLC is all you should ever need, it plays pretty much every format in existence. If you are looking to compress them from VOB format so you can fit more on a HD, I would look into building a Myth TV box. It is free, open source, acts as a DVR if you get a TV Tuner card for it, has a MAME virtual console built into it, as well as a bunch of web applications. So, not only could you rip your DVD collection, you could also record TV, play music, play rom video games, etc.

ukulele_ninja

Well Im using VLC and I love it. My main concern was organizing all of these folders with the VOB files in them. I want to be able to associate a folder with the VLC program.... so, if I wanted to watch 'Saw' all I would have to do is double click the 'saw' folder and it would it auto play the movie in VLC. Does that make sense?

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tlarkin

Why not just create a folder called /Movies on your HD. Then use VLC's open folder option from File > open folder and play the movie. That is what I do. I also use VLC exclusively, no other media player is as good as VLC.

ukulele_ninja

I agree larkin! I am using the open folder option right now, but I wish there was a more visual way to do it. I tried the mediaportal center but It doesnt seem to do what I want it to . Guess Ill just stick with VLC! Thanks!

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tlarkin

I have two folders on my computer. 1 Folder is for music and one is for video. Everything is organized by Artist or Movie/show name, then sub folders of like albums, season 1, season 2, etc. I then use the play folder option to play a whole season or a whole album when listening to music. I prefer it this way which is why I only use VLC or winamp because of the play folder option.

Do note that you can also use that option to play a shared folder over the network.

ukulele_ninja

You dont feel it gets to unorganized or anything?

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tlarkin

Nope, I organize it at the folder level.

For example here goes my format

/Music/artist name/album

So, under my Wu Tang folder I have each album in its own folder, organized like you would your CD or record collection.

/Music/Wu Tang/36 Chambers or /Music/Wu Tang/Forever for example. Each item is in its own folder organized alphabetically by artist name. Same thing with my movies except it is alphabetical by movie name or by TV show name, then each folder will have sub folders for trilogies or for seasons.