Best way to set up in the library?

[Smaky 131]

I have just ripped my Looney Tunes Platinum Edition Blurays to my computer. I am wondering what would be the best way to arrange all the video files (mkv´s) created during the ripping of this three volume muti-bluray disc collection.

 

Right now I have created an structure like this:

 

Looney Tunes Platinum Collection

     + Volume 1

         + Disc 1

         + Disc 2

         + Disc 3

         + Specials

     + Volume 2

         + Disc 1

         + Disc 2

         + Specials

     + Volume 3

         + Disc 1

         + Disc 2

         + Disc 3

         + Specials

 

Where the video files have been stored as Exx - Cartoon name.mkv and stored under the Disc X or Specials folders.

 

Is this the ideal way to arrange such a large collection (over 200 Gigs and over 200 files). Should I store them under the Movies, TV Series?

 

Any Suggestions to facilitate playback and metadata retrieval?

 

Thanks.

[Deathsquirrel 741]

Set them up in a tv show library.  The individual cartoons should be sorted into seasons as per the tvdb entry for this series.  http://www.thetvdb.com/?tab=series&id=72514&lid=7

 

And yes, this is a pain in the behind.  Been there too   The good news is that when sorted and named properly they'll be recognized and appropriate metadata will load automatically.

 

End result should look like this:

 

\TV\Looney Tunes

--\Season 1940

----\Looney Tunes S1940E01 Porky's Last Stand.mkv

--\Season 1941

----\Looney Tunes S1941E09 Tortise Beats Hare.mkv

[fraenhawk 58]

I have to agree with Deathsquirrel. Even though you bought them as blu-rays, to me identification and organization of TV shows works better in MBS treating them as episodes regardless of the source. The only time I would have recommended treating them as movies is if you had left the disc as a whole, but since you already went through the work of splitting each episode (chapter) into a separate file go ahead and ID them that way too. Been there as well

[Smaky 131]

Thanks for the feedback will give it a try!

[Deathsquirrel 741]

BTW, when splitting out these discs I found this site useful http://looneytunes.wikia.com/wiki/Looney_Tunes_and_Merrie_Melodies_filmography.  I would skip ahead to the point in the cartoon where the title was shown, search this site for the title to get the release date, and then name the file appropriately and dump it into the right season folder.

[Koleckai Silvestri 1150]

Is the system pulling Metadata for you? Always hit and miss for me on animated series.

Edited January 25, 2015 by Koleckai Silvestri

[Smaky 131]

I am just about to re-arrange as suggested. Will post any findings.

 

Update: Initially I got the season as mentioned above (per year) and numbered the cartoons sequentially 01,02,03. + Tile (like in S1950E01 - Cartoon X.mkv) However I found this caused the wrong metadata to be pulled out. So I renamed all my toons by paying attention to TheTVDB season´s numbering (of course I have lot´s of gaps) to match them to the TVDB. After that re-adding everything back resulted in the metadata to be pulled correctly.

 

Thanks for the feedback

Edited January 26, 2015 by Smaky

[yaksplat 58]

I found the best way to set up Looney Tunes and Disney shorts was as Movies.  That way you can set up the folder structure any way you want and all of the metadata will be pulled in from TheMovieDB.  This way you don't have to follow the crazy year format that TheTVdb has.

 

This is what I have:

 

Looney Tunes

  +Bugs Bunny

      +Ali Baba Bunny (1957)

          +files

      +Big Top Bunny (1951)

      .

      .

      .

  +Daffy Duck

etc...

 

As long as they're named correctly, all metadata will be pulled and you can easily browse them in emby under folders if you create a "Looney Tunes" folder.

 

 

 

[Deathsquirrel 741]

The missing artwork would drive me nuts but that works too if you don't have my hangups.

[yaksplat 58]

The missing artwork isn't on that many episodes.  It's not that big of a deal compared to not being able to find what you're looking for.  For a while I had used the arrangement where everything was split out by year, but after dozens of questions from my kids of, "What year was Robin Hood Daffy on?" "When was Bugs and Thugs?" and every other one imaginable, I had to fix it.  They never ask me where anything is anymore. They just scroll through all of the episodes for the desired character and recognize the one that they want.

 

Now that I think about it, I'll just write a program to yank all of the missing info from tvdb and populate my file structure.  If anyone would be interested in the zipped up form of all of the metadata in movie based form, Let me know.  I'll post it somewhere.

[Hammerhead 4]

I'm also caught up in this problem.

 

I have three of the six 'Golden Collection' DVDs and would like to have them on my server, but Emby is not displaying properly as movies - it creates one listing for each of the cartoons, making navigation a nightmare.

 

When placed into the TV section, I get the RHOD (Red Hand Of Death) from TMDB, probably because some lawyer from Warner Brothers threatened them with a lawsuit so they're blocking the data.

 

One thought was that if I could get the metadata right as movies, I could lock the series and then move it to the TV section so that the 'episodes' would display correctly in a hierarchical manner, instead of having each cartoon appear as its own listing in the Movie section.

 

Or, would it be easier/better to just buy the BluRay (Platinum) collection, in the hope that newer releases will have more current metadata available?  The benefit there might be be?  Any recommendations are appreciated.

 

[Koleckai Silvestri 1150]

 

Or, would it be easier/better to just buy the BluRay (Platinum) collection, in the hope that newer releases will have more current metadata available?  The benefit there might be be?  Any recommendations are appreciated.

 

The system doesn't really care or know if it is from a DVD or Bluray. It asks for the metadata by name. You may have to manually update the metadata to suit your needs for this collection.

[Deathsquirrel 741]

I'm also caught up in this problem.

 

I have three of the six 'Golden Collection' DVDs and would like to have them on my server, but Emby is not displaying properly as movies - it creates one listing for each of the cartoons, making navigation a nightmare.

 

When placed into the TV section, I get the RHOD (Red Hand Of Death) from TMDB, probably because some lawyer from Warner Brothers threatened them with a lawsuit so they're blocking the data.

 

One thought was that if I could get the metadata right as movies, I could lock the series and then move it to the TV section so that the 'episodes' would display correctly in a hierarchical manner, instead of having each cartoon appear as its own listing in the Movie section.

 

Or, would it be easier/better to just buy the BluRay (Platinum) collection, in the hope that newer releases will have more current metadata available?  The benefit there might be be?  Any recommendations are appreciated.

 

If you're setting them up as movies, one entry per cartoon is correct.  You would need to add them to a collection to make that result tolerable I'm sure.

 

Not sure what issue you were encountering with your TMDB lookups.  The metadata appears to be live for the coulple of shorts I looked up.  It's live on TVDB as well.

[yaksplat 58]

This does work with TMDB.  

 

 

Although at one point I did write a program to generate all of the season folders for looneytunes and create fake episode files so that I could pull all of the metadata from tvdb.  That worked, but the renaming was still a huge pain.

 

 

Here are all of my .nfo files that you can use for your naming.  Everything that you have should be in here.

 

 

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=EC1E72D9F3666786!204450&authkey=!ALQYR4gP9O7BiV8&ithint=file%2czip

[Hammerhead 4]

Thanks for the replies, fellas.

 

 

The system doesn't really care or know if it is from a DVD or Bluray. It asks for the metadata by name. You may have to manually update the metadata to suit your needs for this collection.

What I was trying to clarify are two things:

1) Would the entries for episodes (cartoons) be more reliable using BluRay discs (because they're newer) as opposed to DVDs?

2) Would there be any significant improvement in quality with BluRay media given the original source material was only 480 in the first place?

 

 

If you're setting them up as movies, one entry per cartoon is correct.  You would need to add them to a collection to make that result tolerable I'm sure.

 

Not sure what issue you were encountering with your TMDB lookups.  The metadata appears to be live for the coulple of shorts I looked up.  It's live on TVDB as well.

TVDB - RHOD:  http://thetvdb.com/?tab=series&id=219901&lid=7

TMDB - No data picked up by Emby: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/276783-looney-tunes-golden-collection

 

Is it possible that my organization schema is wrong?  I have the following:

\TV\Looney Tunes Golden Collection

 - Looney Tunes Golden Collection  Volume X, Disc Y

 - - LOONEY_TUNES_GOLDEN_COLLECTION_DISC_1_t00

 

 

 

This does work with TMDB.  

 

 

Although at one point I did write a program to generate all of the season folders for looneytunes and create fake episode files so that I could pull all of the metadata from tvdb.  That worked, but the renaming was still a huge pain.

 

 

Here are all of my .nfo files that you can use for your naming.  Everything that you have should be in here.

 

 

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=EC1E72D9F3666786!204450&authkey=!ALQYR4gP9O7BiV8&ithint=file%2czip

 

Thanks for this.  I'll give it a shot.  I really, really, really don't want to have to rename everything.  That pretty much defeats the purpose of having a scraper.  ;-)

Edited May 29, 2016 by Hammerhead

[Deathsquirrel 741]

What I was trying to clarify are two things:

1) Would the entries for episodes (cartoons) be more reliable using BluRay discs (because they're newer) as opposed to DVDs?

2) Would there be any significant improvement in quality with BluRay media given the original source material was only 480 in the first place?

 

The cartoons are just the cartoons.  Hell, the scraper will treat a file called S1953E18 Duck Dodgers in the 24th and a Half Century.mp4 the same whether it's a video containing the cartoon, a renamed copy of Conan the Barbarian, or a text file.  The Blu-Ray versions are simply higher res versions captured from new master scans that WB is doing as part of their film preservation efforts.  The master files were likely scanned at 4k resolution.

 

I don't have the DVD source discs to compare to but the Blu-Rays are beautiful...generally speaking, remastered HD animation is definitely worth having.  The quality difference in the classic Disney films, for example, is astounding.

 

 

TVDB - RHOD:  http://thetvdb.com/?tab=series&id=219901&lid=7

TMDB - No data picked up by Emby: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/276783-looney-tunes-golden-collection

 

Is it possible that my organization schema is wrong?  I have the following:

\TV\Looney Tunes Golden Collection

 - Looney Tunes Golden Collection  Volume X, Disc Y

 - - LOONEY_TUNES_GOLDEN_COLLECTION_DISC_1_t00

 

 

Thanks for this.  I'll give it a shot.  I really, really, really don't want to have to rename everything.  That pretty much defeats the purpose of having a scraper.  ;-)

 

It sounds like you're either leaving your discs in VOB or ISO format.  That's not going to work with a scraper.  There is no entry in any of the source sites for discs containing multiple cartoons.  If you want the scraper to recognize these items you have two options.

 

• Treat as movies.  Break discs down into individual files, identify each cartoon, organize and label like this:

   

  \Movies\Duck Dodgers in the 24th and a Half Century (1953)\Duck Dodgers in the 24th and a Half Century (1953).mp4

  \Movies\Mad as a Mars Hare (1963)\Mad as a Mars Hare (1963).mp4

   

• Treat as TV.    Break discs down into individual files, identify each cartoon, organize and label like this:

   

  \TV\Looney Tunes\Season 1953\Looney Tunes S1953E18 Duck Dodgers in the 24th and a Half Century.mp4

  \TV\Looney Tunes\Season 1963\Looney Tunes S1963E14 Mad as a Mars Hare.mp4

If you choose the first option each cartoon will show up in Movies as an individual item.  You can create a collection to house them.  That's how my Pixar shorts are grouped.  If you choose the latter all the items show under TV organized into 'seasons' that match the release year of the short.  That's now my Looney Tunes are grouped.  Totally up to you which you prefer.

[Hammerhead 4]

The cartoons are just the cartoons.  Hell, the scraper will treat a file called S1953E18 Duck Dodgers in the 24th and a Half Century.mp4 the same whether it's a video containing the cartoon, a renamed copy of Conan the Barbarian, or a text file.  The Blu-Ray versions are simply higher res versions captured from new master scans that WB is doing as part of their film preservation efforts.  The master files were likely scanned at 4k resolution.

 

I don't have the DVD source discs to compare to but the Blu-Rays are beautiful...generally speaking, remastered HD animation is definitely worth having.  The quality difference in the classic Disney films, for example, is astounding.

 

 

 

It sounds like you're either leaving your discs in VOB or ISO format.  That's not going to work with a scraper.  There is no entry in any of the source sites for discs containing multiple cartoons.  If you want the scraper to recognize these items you have two options.

 

• Treat as movies.  Break discs down into individual files, identify each cartoon, organize and label like this:

   

  \Movies\Duck Dodgers in the 24th and a Half Century (1953)\Duck Dodgers in the 24th and a Half Century (1953).mp4

  \Movies\Mad as a Mars Hare (1963)\Mad as a Mars Hare (1963).mp4

   

• Treat as TV.    Break discs down into individual files, identify each cartoon, organize and label like this:

   

  \TV\Looney Tunes\Season 1953\Looney Tunes S1953E18 Duck Dodgers in the 24th and a Half Century.mp4

  \TV\Looney Tunes\Season 1963\Looney Tunes S1963E14 Mad as a Mars Hare.mp4

If you choose the first option each cartoon will show up in Movies as an individual item.  You can create a collection to house them.  That's how my Pixar shorts are grouped.  If you choose the latter all the items show under TV organized into 'seasons' that match the release year of the short.  That's now my Looney Tunes are grouped.  Totally up to you which you prefer.

Thanks for the info about the BluRay copies.  I might go that route.  The DVD collection was also remastered, but perhaps they had another go at it for further improvements.

 

My files are MKV.  Looking back at my post, I see that I left that out, but that's the deal, though they're labeled as:

 - - LOONEY_TUNES_GOLDEN_COLLECTION_DISC_1_t00.mkv

 

I'm just not keen on renaming every file.  That's just not in the cards.  That's what I was relying on the software to do for me, rather than sticking needles in my eyes trying to figure out which title is which.  Looks like I'll just remove them all and put the discs back in cold storage.  It's just too much work renaming a dozen discs containing 60 or more cartoons.

 

Thanks for the help, fellas!

[yaksplat 58]

Unzip that folder structure that I posted and just drop your files in the right folders. No renaming necessary. Otherwise there's no way that the software will know what's what.

 

I've manually renamed thousands of files so everything works nicely.

[Deathsquirrel 741]

Even doing it manually it's pretty easy.  Cartoons have titles.  Try ripping a show that lacks displayed episode titles.  It's a HUGE pain.

[yaksplat 58]

I've done that before.  I'd watch part of the episode to get a the gist of what's going on and then figure out which of the remaining titles went with it.  Although when it's all done, the reward of everything showing up nicely with all of the metadata makes it worthwhile.

[brownbat 0]

I'm hitting this issue a few years later, thanks for these ideas. @@yaksplat - I like your reasoning to use movies and folders to make individual shorts more discoverable.

 

Was there any workaround for the issue @@Hammerhead mentioned, that this creates one listing for each of the cartoons, making navigation in the main list more difficult? I know that's by design, and browsing folders works for finding the cartoons-- but what about sanely navigating the rest of your collection?

 

Right now I browse my main list of all movies most of the time, and only sometimes use collections or folders. Is there a way to exclude a series of movies from the main list? Maybe a single looney tunes entry with all of these nested in an "extras" folder would prevent that... not sure. Or do you just use collections and folders exclusively at this point?

 

Thanks for the earlier discussion either way, it's still really good, relevant info. Oh and @@Hammerhead - what organization system did you end up using? yaksplat's or something different? And what do you both do with the extras, if anything?

Edited February 3, 2019 by brownbat

[yaksplat 58]

For Looney tunes and Disney cartoons I ended up using collections.  But then i made playlists that contained those collections so there could be shuffling.  If the kids want to scroll through the cartoons they go into folders and select either the Disney or Looney Tunes folders and then go through the folder structure.  This has been working great for years with no issues.  I'd recommend avoiding dividing up cartoons by disc.  You may initially know what disc something is one, but then you have to teach everyone else.  Think of it this way.  I want to watch Robin Hood Daffy.  I know that it has daffy duck.  Without having to search, although searching is much better than it used to be, i just navigate to Looney Tunes > Daffy Duck.> Robin Hood Daffy and it plays like a movie.

 

That help at all?  I think my folder structure for looney tunes is still available earlier on this thread.  Pull it down and take a look.

 

Here's my collection of libraries.  It keep everything separate and easily navigable.

 

Edited February 3, 2019 by yaksplat

[brownbat 0]

Your folder structure was a huge help, I'm totally plagiarizing it, thank you! Your system is unbeatable for the family.

 

I was mainly just wondering about QOL for when you weren't watching cartoons. Say you're looking to watch, say, Die Hard or something. Isn't your library now full of a thousand 5-minute shorts that make it hard to find anything except for Looney Tunes?

 

Just occurred to me that you're probably just staying in folder view to browse your full collection, rather than using the default view... that would make sense. And more collections is probably the answer if you're having friends over for an action or horror night or something.

Edited February 3, 2019 by brownbat

[yaksplat 58]

Not at all.  Everything is still split up in the separate libraries.  Folder view is rarely used, mainly for holiday videos.  Otherwise all of the holidays get mushed together.  Playlists and collections for watching Looney Tunes and Cartoons.  Regular Cartoon series and TV shows are both tv shows but separate libraries.  

 

Plagiarize away

 

 

[Luke 37050]

Nice thumbs.