How to organise a DVD collection

[Elpenor]

I have several hundred DVDs stored on shelves. Over time I expect to accumulate many more. They are almost all feature films, with a few documentaries, a couple of TV series and a number of sports related documentaries. I have already filtered these out as they are obvious exceptions.

So I need to organise the films somehow and it needs to be a logical system. But I don’t think alphabetical order is best…

Wondering it’s better to sort them first by genre as I have a lot of stuff that fits within recognisable genres (gangster, western, war etc) and I often think “tonight I want to watch a western” but then have to go through the whole collection to find them all.

Any thoughts or experiences? Any other ideas?

 

[DotCommunist]

dewey decimal

 

[The39thStep]

I have several hundred DVDs stored on shelves. Over time I expect to accumulate many more. They are almost all feature films, with a few documentaries, a couple of TV series and a number of sports related documentaries. I have already filtered these out as they are obvious exceptions.

So I need to organise the films somehow and it needs to be a logical system. But I don’t think alphabetical order is best…

Wondering it’s better to sort them first by genre as I have a lot of stuff that fits within recognisable genres (gangster, western, war etc) and I often think “tonight I want to watch a western” but then have to go through the whole collection to find them all.

Any thoughts or experiences? Any other ideas?

Don't have a category labelled noir

 

[A380]

When I got rid of half my books I used an app called book buddy which was excellent for cataloging them. They have a similar one called 'MovieBuddy', I had it for my blurays and DVDS.

This lets you scan the bar codes, create a catalogue, and allocate the discs to locations and lots of other useful stuff.


(I've binned all the cases for my physical media as I don't use it anymore. I have albums holding the disks in boxes, alphabetically, and the covers in bunches held together with elastic bands. Changed a wall of shelves into a shelf. This is in case civilisation crashes, but only a little bit...)

 

[Elpenor]

I have them catalogued digitally already so I know what I have if I see any if I like the look of them in the charity shop.

It’s more about how they’re arranged on shelves, which I don’t have a problem doing

 

[A380]

Alphabetical order of surname of the production accountant?

 

[Jimmy Don't]

You should keep your DVDs of an American sitcom starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer, a bit past the end of your bed, and your weekly music newspapers just before them. That's right, your should keep your Friends close, and your NMEs closer.

 

[spitfire]

I binned off nearly all my DVD's, they look shit on a big screen now.

 

[WouldBe]

But I don’t think alphabetical order is best…

Reverse alphabetical order?

 

[Elpenor]

I binned off nearly all my DVD's, they look shit on a big screen now.

Why is this? Special effects exposed by modern tv screens?

 

[spitfire]

Why is this? Special effects exposed by modern tv screens?

Low resolution mainly. My Sony TV is 4k capable and I use a PS5 so the upscaling should be top notch. I imagine some of them are low quality DVD "masters" as well which doesn't help. I tried quite a few but they were unwatchable. My eyes have been spoiled.

Why Do DVDs Look Bad on a 4K TV?

Although streaming sites are growing in popularity, you may sometimes get the urge to kick back and watch some of your favorite DVDs. However, if you have a 4K TV, the video quality will probably

pointerclicker.com

We have found that DVDs look bad on a 4K TV for five main reasons:

• The DVD may be of poor quality if it’s old.
• The aspect ratio of the DVD player might be different from the TV.
• The upscaling software may be bad.
• The cable could be limiting the video signal.
• And the encoding may be of poor quality.

 

[danski]

• The cable could be limiting the video signal.

Well, if you have a spare £7,000…

 

[MickiQ]

I have several hundred DVDs stored on shelves. Over time I expect to accumulate many more. They are almost all feature films, with a few documentaries, a couple of TV series and a number of sports related documentaries. I have already filtered these out as they are obvious exceptions.

So I need to organise the films somehow and it needs to be a logical system. But I don’t think alphabetical order is best…

Wondering it’s better to sort them first by genre as I have a lot of stuff that fits within recognisable genres (gangster, western, war etc) and I often think “tonight I want to watch a western” but then have to go through the whole collection to find them all.

Any thoughts or experiences? Any other ideas?

Mine are organised into alphabetical order with categories. Use both this system for physical media in the DVD rack and for virtual media on the computer.
My categories are Adventure, Animated, Blockbusters, Christmas Movies, Comedy, Fantasy, Harry Potter, Historical Romance, LOTR, Marvel, Marx Brothers, Planet of The Apes, Musicals, Romcoms, Sci-Fi, Star Trek, Star Wars, Terminator, Walt Disney and X-Men.
Physical Media has one extra unique category called 3D and Virtual has one extra unique category called Unwatched Stolen Movies.
At the risk of starting a massive flame war, Die Hard is classed as an Adventure movie and not a Christmas one.

 

[Elpenor]

I decided to sort the films as follows:

Westerns
Wars
Pre 1960
Everything else, having decided that making a judgement on what was a comedy or a drama or whatever was too much work

 

[The39thStep]

I decided to sort the films as follows:

Westerns
Wars
Pre 1960
Everything else, having decided that making a judgement on what was a comedy or a drama or whatever was too much work

I’d do a sub section : The West and Wars so it takes in Korea, Vietnam , Iraq , Afghanistan etc any CIA type coup ie Chile , Argentina

 

[savoloysam]

That many I would go for alphabetical. I used to have mine like you say but it was only about 50 disks.

My CD collection which is much larger was alphabetical artist then alphabetical compilations but now I have all of those ripped to disk with FLAC to play via USB so I can pick any song or album via remote or an app and all my CDS are boxed away.

 

[souljacker]

Personally, I'd download them all in the best resolution I can find, set up a plex server and throw the physical copies away (or at least to Oxfam)

 

[UnderOpenSky]

Personally, I'd download them all in the best resolution I can find, set up a plex server and throw the physical copies away (or at least to Oxfam)

Indeed. I had to check what decade it was when I saw the thread title.

 

[Pickman's model]

dewey decimal

Au contraire. All the feature films would fall under 791.43. Which would be silly when they're the most of the collection

 

[dogboy_hackney]

I used Datacrow (Data Crow - Cataloger), as I had too many DVDs to fit on shelves so put the majority into CD storage boxes of about 300 each. So this way I can look up the film, and know what box it's in. Also means I can categorise them, know which ones I've lent out (and to whom). Got a cheap cuecat (CueCat - Wikipedia) bar-code reader, so you just scan the code straight into the database. If you have a lot of bDVDs/Blurays it is a no-brainer

 

[dogboy_hackney]

Personally, I'd download them all in the best resolution I can find, set up a plex server and throw the physical copies away (or at least to Oxfam)

Yeah, easier said than done. Drive space is an issue, and codecs can be a nightmare.

 

[Elpenor]

Personally, I'd download them all in the best resolution I can find, set up a plex server and throw the physical copies away (or at least to Oxfam)

If I understood what that was it might be feasible. It sounds expensive

 

[Fez909]

I'd also use Plex instead. It's much less hassle.

If you want to keep the physical media for whatever reason - display purposes? Make a feature out of it and do it by colour:

 

[UnderOpenSky]

If I understood what that was it might be feasible. It sounds expensive

It's just a PC with a big hard disk running Plex. From that you can connect other devices over your network (or even outside the and watch films on that. You get a nice screen to browse from which gets information about your films.

A firestick 4k is probably the easiest and cheapest option, to watch it on your TV, but I was even able to download the Plex app for my new TV so I don't need it anymore.

 

[souljacker]

Yeah, easier said than done. Drive space is an issue, and codecs can be a nightmare.

Get a bigger drive! Also, I've never had a codec issue with plex.

 

[dogboy_hackney]

If I understood what that was it might be feasible. It sounds expensive

I think the operative word there was "find" rather than "buy". Jus' sayin'!

Get a bigger drive! Also, I've never had a codec issue with plex.

True. I'd buy something like an old Drobo, so you can just add drives as you need them. I was more meaning codecs come and go. I tend to use VLC, instead of Plex, but I really should switch so I can use share my library and my mates.

 

[dogboy_hackney]

I'd also use Plex instead. It's much less hassle.

If you want to keep the physical media for whatever reason - display purposes? Make a feature out of it and do it by colour:

View attachment 381151

Nice shelfie

 

[donkyboy]

I'd also use Plex instead. It's much less hassle.

If you want to keep the physical media for whatever reason - display purposes? Make a feature out of it and do it by colour:

View attachment 381151

I was scrolling hoping someone would post a photo. thread like these needs pics of the collection