Is there any possibility for browsing my DVD collection in my media server?

General Discussions
1

I have a large collection of DVDs, i want to browse this on my plex media server (cuz the metadata and so) is there any possibility for this? No thanks, i don’t want to rip this discs! :slight_smile:

Regards!

2

You can create dummy files for each DVD that are only a few bytes big but are named like “MovieName (Year).mp4” and place them all in a unique directory. From that directory make a movie library named something like “My DVD Library.”

Of course nothing would play but you would be able to browse and see the meta data.

3

Plex can be fooled:

  • Take a text editor.
  • type for instance this into it: Manchester by the Sea (2016)
  • save the file and then rename it to Manchester by the Sea (2016).mkv
  • put this file into your ‘Disc library’ folder and let Plex update the library.
  • Done
1 Like
4

You’d be better off with something like this: http://www.invelos.com/

5

Thanks for the tip.

I’ll try and put together a batch file using Excel and a list of the films I have on disc… I don’t fancy manually keying in all 600 titles to create the necessary files.

It does strike me as odd that Plex wouldn’t think of adding an “Import list from file” option though.

6

This is what a buddy and I use:

http://www.mymovies.dk/products/iphone--ipad.aspx

Versions for iOS or Android, uses the camera to scan the bar codes, does all the metadata lookup. Free version is limited to 50 items so you can test drive it. I think it was 7.99 on the app store.

7

@DavidT829 said:
It does strike me as odd that Plex wouldn’t think of adding an “Import list from file” option though.

Plex was not designed to be a list. It was intended to stream files. Having a mix of actual files and a fake list would be confusing as you wouldn’t know if something would play or not. Using fake files as suggested by others is the only way as it’s a workaround for a feature that Plex was not intended for.

8

Is there a way to display an accurate movie length with this dummy file technique by manually entering it somewhere?

9

Unfortunately not, unless you edit the description text and add the length manually.