Organizing your DVD movie collection.....what's your method?

[niemie]

I am going to eventually have several hundred DVDs to organize. I have been trying to figure out the best way to organize them for quick access.

I love slim jewel cases just because of how many more I could fit on a shelf, but they would be a little hard to label. Maybe there are labels out there that I could print like 5pt font or something that would fit on the spine of a slim case? My girlfriend thinks I should just get notebooks and fill them up but I am not crazy about that idea.


Anyways in thinking about this, I was wondering how everyone else organizes their collection.....

[cheeseheadjed]

I use a notebook and put them in there. I use dvds that can be printed on, so I put cool, colored covers on them. That way, even though they are in a notebook, it looks real good.
-Jed

[housepig]

in the original case, on a shelf. I spent so many years with VHS tapes that dvd still looks slim to me...

I thought you meant like database organizing...

[niemie]

Oops, sorry I should have clarified. How do you guys organize your DVD "backup" collections.....

[GKar]

I use the 200+ DVD binder method, its neat, clean and takes little space. I use Ant Movie Cataloger (Freeware) to create the lists of the DVD's within the binders.

[nufan292]

Use slim cases and put them in alphabetical order.

[niemie]

Interesting - so do you give different numerical values to different genres or anything? Like all comedies start with a 2 or something for example?

[housepig]

Oops, sorry I should have clarified. How do you guys organize your DVD "backup" collections.....

I fish for empty boxes from Blockbuster and put them in full-size cases.

Interesting - so do you give different numerical values to different genres or anything? Like all comedies start with a 2 or something for example?.

if you're asking about my spreadsheet, I don't, but I do have a category code (ACT, COM, DRM, ADT, etc.) for genre, so I can sort by horror or comedy or whatever.

[iooi]

I use DJ Style cases that take 80 discs in sleaves. Then have a ring binder with all the titles in. IMBD is where i get all the info i need just cut and paste the details i need into a word doc set up for A5 paper. Most have a pic, Genre, Tag Line, Plot Outline, User Rating and cast list.
Cases are lockable and keep disc's out of sunlight.

[pyrohydra]

Currently I have all of my burned DVDs in a binder. I use a text file to catalog.

[ZippyP.]

DVD's alphabetical in two binders....one for me and one for the kids. Database in my Palm Pilot.

[chas0039]

I put them in cronological order based on when I first saw the movie, in cases on a set of bookshelves from Target. Very inexpensive at $14 per shelf to store 100-250 movies depending on what width case you use.

[housepig]

I put them in cronological order based on when I first saw the movie,

do you find it easy to locate movies that way? I would have severe problems with that method...

[niemie]

Very inexpensive at $14 per shelf to store 100-250 movies depending on what width case you use.

I would prefer to use slim jewel cases but it would be tough to label their spines. Maybe I'll go alphabetical and I can section off each letter or something on the bookshelf.....

[jwedge]

No one mentioned about DVD Profiler, this is the one if you are talking about movies.

I'm looking for a good software to organize my own home/family movies, any idea?

[niemie]

I guess apps like DVD profiler are cool, but they are basically just a glorified Excel spreadsheet of inventory - I guess what I am looking for is a fast and efficient way of storing and retrieving my DVD backups since they will not be in their original DVD cases...

[Srembecki]

I just use regular DVD cases and shelve them next to the originals. The way I print covers makes it almost impossible to tell the difference, so I put the backup to the right of the original. As for Databasing, I just use Excel and eveything is alphabetized. Both on the shelf and the spreadsheet. It's way too difficult trying to place in genres.

Good Luck

[oldfart13]

My VHS movie and TV series collection numbered above 5,000 tapes. I used to store them in labeled boxes after I used all the shelf space in my old apartment. Now I live in a house. The DVDs, SVCDs and VCDs are taking over. I am using binders to try to give me some space. I was trying to use Primasoft Movie Organizer but it's too time consuming. I have an old DOS program that I used for VHS and Beta tapes that works better. Maybe I'll go back to that. It does a better job printing reports as well...

[ZippyP.]

I have an old DOS program that I used for VHS and Beta tapes that works better.

Your user name is appropriate.

BTW, I remember DOS and Beta too but I don't have any old DOS software.

[dxj40c]

I store everything in drawers, movies, software, music cd, everything. I buy the Tyvek window envelopes (they don't scratch). I then get those little A-B-C tabs at an office supply and sort them alphabetically, not in order, but by what the title is excluding "The", "An", and "A", otherwise the only tabs you would need would be A and T.

Movies, Software, Music in separate drawers. Each drawer now weighs about 50 pounds, so if you use this method you need to get a chest with gliders or start exercising. And, don't pull out more than 1 drawer at a time or the whole thing will tip over. Everything has its drawbacks.

This has really conserved a lot of space. What once took up three shelf units now fits neatly in one chest. The other drawback is that I now have five boxes of empty jewel cases and DVD containers cluttering the garage.

[snarfo]

I use plastic sleeves on 'flipper' racks stored on a large bookshelf. Each rack stores about 50 discs so I have a bunch of them arranged alphabetically... new movies are easy to add since all I have to do is stick them into sleeves and clip them in where they fall in the alphabet.

For database purposes I use Movie Collector from www.collectorz.com. Great little program.

For TV series or miniseries, I use the usual cd/dvd albums. Since you can get them in various capacities, it's handy to put in, say, all 9 seasons of X-Files or all 7 seasons of a Star Trek series into one pouch. They would otherwise take up far too much space on the flipper racks.

[niemie]

What do you mean by flipper rack? Just like a notebook?

[snarfo]

Not exactly. I can't find the url where I saw the things, but they are just really inexpensive litlte plastic holders. They look a bit like this:

http://www.growinglifestyle.com/article/s0/a377644.html

except that instead of putting the discs in jewel boxes they slip into plastic sleeves (like a cd album pouch thingie) with clips to hold them in.

[hhhhbk]

i store mine alphabetically
all my old xvid divx backups in 240 disk ring binders

dvd backups in dvd cases aol give these cases away free with their internet cds which is pretty good

[Madz]

I store my media in CaseLogic 60-CD carriers using slim jewel cases so I can squeeze twice as many in. Each case has a number and all disks in each are in alphabetical order by title (excluding The & A like mentioned previous). Got a huge supply of really skinny spine labels (think they were for minidiscs) which I label each jewel case with. BTW: Someone mentioned Beta. Still have a huge collection of those. And half a dozen working decks to boot. And DOS, well.... dammit, did you just type 'FORMAT C:'?