movies on multiple hard drives

[fredw]

hey newbie here so be gentle . i've been using myhtpc for a few years now but am a little fed up with the lack of customization and over all surrport.i REALLY like xlobby and hope to convert over to it. however i can't seem to get it to let me catagorize my movies as easlly as my htpc. io have 11 hard drives now and aqdd more as needed. so my file tree looks like this .... drive k/movies/action/007 the world is not enough.
i have 12 catagories on each hard drive. movies are ripped via dvd shrink to about 5 gigs each. cover art is included in each file as a jpg. on my htpc i have 12 seperate movie modules and point each of them to the corasponding catagory on each drive. i'ver tried to do this using xlobby but i seem to be missing somethibg when i try to add the movie folders and let xlobby sort the catagories it does a great job till i had the next hard drive then it adds a second set of catagories to the movies page . is there any way to merge them or do i have to set up a seperate movie module for each catagory ????

thanks for any help
fred.

[hvs69]

I don't understand your problem. Can you please elaborate ?

In the setup screen (F2) if you have all your paths to differnt hard-drives identified, Xlobby should create and merge all your movies into one single database (movies.xml).

However, I think that is not the answer you are looking for.

[fredw]

on each hard drive i have 12 folders each of these folders are a catagory action, anima, etc. in each folder are the seperate movie folders i.e. oo7 the world is not enouh and so on. when i add the drives to the movie data base it displays the 12 folders for each drive in the movie screen in stead of puttiung all the action in one folder i now have 11 action folders with the movies on each drive in its own action folder any way to create my orignal 12 catagorys only ???

thanks fred

[rembetis]

Are you using a "custom" (directory structure) import instead of the more common movie type import?

The easiest way to create a good, sortable movie database is to put one movie per folder (name the folders after the movie), and import using the default "movies" template (easiest way is with F2>Basic>Movie Paths), being sure you have whatever format your movies are in (e.g. video_ts.ifo if you have standard Video_TS structure) in the Extensions field under F2>Databases>Import>Movies template). You can then either use the IMDB spider to propagate a genre field in the database, or add and fill it manually. Won't matter at all whether they live on the same hard drive or twelve different ones. From there, it's a matter of choosing a skin with a movie search/filter button but I think almost all of them have one at this point.

[fredw]

well see the catch here is i own over 500 dvds most of which i've al;ready ripped to hard drives so having 1 drive with all the action in it just won't work. the main reson i use the catagrys the way i do is my 8 year old and 7 year old daughters on their system they only get the catagorys i give them plus if i'm in the mood for a sci fi pic then i open the sci fi catagory in myhtpc and scroll thru to see what i want. with over 500 dvds and buying more all the time i've found it the ewasiest way to do this i was hoping i could do it with xlobby but it looiks like i might have to use the filters instead

thanks fred

[rembetis]

it looiks like i might have to use the filters instead

Well, you don't have to use the filters. It's just the easiest way to sort. You could always do what I did for a for a while, which was to use two different movie databases -- one for my twins and one for adult movies. You could do the same and basically combine the two approaches. You would just need to have a kids movie folder on each of your hard drives and configure one database import to those folders, and direct your main movie database to import from all the others. Clone your movies screen, give it a Kids name, and create a button/event for navigation. Then you password protect the main movie screen.