Hi,

I would like to know, which way of organizing video collections you prefer. Right now I save the videofiles with the name of the director and the context in the name of the file. Often the names get pretty long and i I would like to give the file more keywords / tags e.g. for the genre, year, and so on...

I´m working on a Mac, so I did a web-research on tagging files on osx. I found these tools, but I´m not sure, if they are "future-safe". Tagbot SpotMeta (only 10.4)

I would like to know, if there´s a way to tag files in such a way, that even on a pc or linux the tags (meta-data?) could be read? And I would rather like to write the tags inside the text-part of the file (header? or something else), so they are always sticked to the file than to use a tagging- system, that is connected to the operating system or a program (itunes or tagbot...)

I checked also videoville, but couldn´t find something related to it.

Any ideas? Thanks a lot!

         

Interesting. I really don't know about metadata taggers, I'm just gonna tell you how I manage my collection.

I download videos and every once in a while, particularly when my hard-drive can't take it anymore, I burn cd's with them, and build a catalog file in MS Excel. I include filename, artist, song, format, size, lenght, width, height, resolution, sound quality, website, other errors and version.

Your idea is nice, but it would require to house all the videos in one place. I have so many freaking videos, that would be almost impossible. I didn't know there were other collectors out there. Nice.

How many videos you have? You keep them in the original format or do you convert?

         

Usually I just rename files to an Artist-PieceName.xxx format, and as I archive them to CDs and DVDs, maybe create folders when several are of the same director/group. Then catalogue them with an archaic app (it runs on MacOS9, on a machine I use just for backups/storage) that allows for simple searching. I keep a copy of 'favorites' on an external HD for fast enjoyment. Been meaning to update to an OSX app but let's just say I don't have the time now for that, tags and stuff.

         

Nice topic. I'm a "collector" & my interest comes from the band or music for the most part. Therefore, it's generally a home folder for videos in general / folder for band or artist's name / Song Title + version if applicable ( 1, 2, alt., No tag, Hi., Md., Lo., etc. . Actually only started downloading in the past year or so & am totally ignorant about tagging programs, although I mean to learn. Managed to accumulate 700 gig.s or so of music related video material in that time at "decent" quality. Mostly clips in the 25mg. to 75mg. range as an average.

Whole performances like concerts get there own folder in the artists home folder or perhaps the ocassional crossover (say a duet or mash-up) is either decided on preference for location or copied/linked to multiple folders. I try to refrain from this for space & linear issues on my part. I try to put things where I can't help but stumble over them later.

As for directors, prod.s, post, etc. , for which I also have a decided interest in general, I tend to have a reference mentally, but look up when the need or interest arises. I consider this "liner" notes & can usually access it pretty thoroughly in minutes with a web search.

Enevitabily there are misc. files by artists who do not merit a folder which are then grouped by genre IE: oldies, disco, mash ups, 70's pop, techno., international, or thematic like Halloween, X-mas, etc. these are loose groupings & at a certain point,again, rely on memory to recall things for my application. Basically 4 or more videos to justify an artists own folder. Admittedly, this system has it's limitations & can be frustrating at times but really only put so much time into "cataloging" the "library". It's still just a hobby, albeit a "serious" one. I figure I can always sort it out "later", already ocd enough with the gathering where i focus on locating, quality, & in general try to gather as much interesting material as possible.

Aside from films, TV, & music, I collect "short" material like VJ loops, "shorts", & trailers in general folders & sub genres such as humor in the case of short film or artist/sources in the case vj loops.

I perform or "DJ" with my clips in live music video sets so ,again , it's mostly artist based.

I work off of compiled discs that i generate constantly for my dvd players. I haven't gone totally computer based for this at present due to lack of knowledge & money to experiment with, which actually brings up several other very geeky topics of there own... posts for another time perhaps.

Don't know if any of that helps at all, but thanks for the food for thought.

I'm gonna go re-label stuff now.:)

         

Hi, I use Tellico for managing my music video collection. It's an (K)Ubuntu application, but you can run it with VirtualBox on Mac.

You can configure and tag EVERYthing. Above all it's free.

Looks like this: img232.imageshack.us

You can also create reports and stuff: img126.imageshack.us

         

you could use itunes, no? not that i do (i'm still in filename mode), but... thx for the interesting topic.

         

@ mvstills: Hi! That´s a text-database-setup you are using, which is "future-safe". Nice. Other than on CDs you could store your videos on internal hds (e.g. a 500gb-3,5" samsung 501LJ costs around 60 euros) which you could use easily with external hd-slots like this one (costs between 43-50 euros): SATA Quickport Duo

Works like a charm on my system and with eSATA you can have a rad 3GB/s transfer-rate !!! Since I´m on a MacBookPro I´m using right now USB2, but I want to buy an ExpressCard with two eSATA-connections. The only thing is, those ExpressCards are not so stable, which is pretty bad for using hds... Nevertheless the USB2-connection is ultrastable. And: hd´s are the safest backup-medias right now (in relation to the price).

I keep my videos in original format. I started around 2001/2002 and I have approxiamately 25 gb of clips. But it´s not a "complete" collection, because that´s not what i´m trying to do (complete=you could try and collect everything of an artist or a label...). I just collect stuff I like or think is interesting in some way.

One of my aims is, that I would like to do "clip"-evenings with friends, which are organized around a specific topic. tags would be great for rearranging your collection. what comes also to my mind are color-analyzing tools, so you could organize your clips on color-values (e.g. only blue videos).

         

@ Optical and natsume: Thanks for the hints! hey, your two organising-systems reminds me of this app here on osx, which began back then in os9: CD Finder It is in contrast to Tellico not Freeware.

A friend is using that since ages for all his data and he is very happy with it, because it works perfect. But, I wonder if all those apps are writing information inside the movie-clip or not. I assume they are not doing it, so you always have to use this program, no?

Tellico uses a seperate XML-text-document, where all informations are stored? And CD-Finder uses... I don´t know... couldn´t find something about it. But the NASA is using it, so it should be ok ;) And they are saying on the CD-Finder website: "it´s the only tool which integrates spotlight (the powerful osx-search function)". hm. ok.

         

@hipgnosist: Hi, I think the way you organize your files makes sense. I have a similar approach (alphabetically) and I think it makes sense to keep it organized in this way to find stuff fast in the finder. The tagging system would be just "invisible on top of it" without changing the old organizing-structure. We´ll see, if we find a satisfying solution for tagging in this topic...

         

@progosk: Yes, maybe itunes is a way to go. What i know of two friends, who are really hardcore into collecting experimental-music (both: lps and mp3s) they run into problems with itunes in terms of the amount of dataload. itunes has its limitations... Just a little sidenote: cdfinder says it can "Handle really large amounts of data (some others are limited to only 2000 or 4000 files!)" But it is not saying, where the "really large amounts" end. Hm.

I´m still in search of a way to tag the files directly.

Another thing what comes to my mind, if we want to go a step further would be an online system to gather data for certain clips. Like in itunes the connection to gracenote, no? So, you would not have to fill so much data by yourself. Hmhm, what do you think of something like that?

Uh, I have to work a little. So, see ya later.

         

@oliver:

No, Tellico uses the own TC-Format, it's quite compact. But you can export your collections to XML, HTML, ZIP, CSV, PilotDB.

The programm doesn't write tags "into" videos. But who needs that if you have all the information in one file?

Personally, I use Tellico as a "frontend" for my collection. So I don't have to browse endlessly through folders searching for a video.

If I want to see a video, I click on the link and Tellico opens the file. It's perfect. :-)

         

both tagbot & itunes write to the metadata in a way that should presumably be cross-platform; with the latter, dataload limits are indeed a concern, as you point out. looks like tagbot's your ticket.