The original post: /r/datahoarder by /u/Antihero89 on 2025-01-15 14:04:49.
Hi there,
Next year, I’m planning to buy a NAS to centralize all my data. At the moment, I’m organizing and structuring my files. For most categories, I already have a good system in place. For example:
- Music, eBooks, and TV Shows/Movies: I’ve set up well-structured folder hierarchies, clear filenames, and properly tagged metadata. These work seamlessly with software like Calibre, Kodi, Plex, and various audio players.
However, I still have a few types of media where I haven’t established a solid system yet:
- YouTube Channels ===================
I know how to download entire YouTube channels using yt-dlp. But what’s the best way to view these offline? My idea is to categorize them as a "TV show" in Kodi, but that would mean manually creating metadata for each video. Alternatively, I could add them as a separate category in Kodi. Are there more elegant solutions for managing downloaded YouTube content?
- Individual Videos ====================
I also have standalone videos, like recordings of TV shows, reports, or single YouTube videos (not full channels). Is there a standard approach for organizing and tagging such videos with metadata to keep them well-structured and easy to browse? If I go along with setting up YouTube Channels as TV shows, making a single video as a TV show in Kodi in my opinion is no elegant solution
- Copied Texts ===============
For text content I’ve copied from the internet, I currently save them as Word documents, including the link, author, and title. What’s the best way to organize these uniformly with metadata? Are there tools that can present this type of content in a structured, visually appealing way?
- Podcasts ===========
- Active Podcasts: For podcasts still available online, my podcatcher automatically retrieves metadata like descriptions, chapters, episode images, etc. What’s the best way to download and store these locally for backup? What I mean by this is when the Podcast is no longer offline, I want to import my backup with all the metadata. But I don't know which tool to use for backupping whole podcasts.
- Archived Podcasts: I have MP3 files of podcasts no longer available online. What’s the best way to organize these? Should I embed metadata directly into the MP3 files, use an XML file, or something else?
General Question: Media Inventory Management
I’d also like to catalog all my media systematically. My current idea is to use an Excel spreadsheet with a separate sheet for each type of media. For example:
- Movies: One row per film, with columns indicating whether I own it physically, digitally, or both (e.g., Blu-ray).
- Books: Columns with checkboxes to indicate whether I have a physical copy, an eBook, an audiobook, or multiple formats.
- Video Games: A sheet for games with rows detailing the platform, genre, and whether I own a physical or digital copy.
- Magazines: A sheet for gaming magazines, where each row represents a magazine, and columns list which issues I own.
This setup is easy to create, but it can quickly become unwieldy as the number of entries grows. Presentation isn’t great either. A better approach would be a database with: thumbnails for better visual presentation as well as advanced filtering (the ability to sort by genre, platform, or other criteria).
While Excel can handle this to some extent, it’s not very user-friendly for large datasets. Are there tools or software solutions you’d recommend for managing and displaying media collections more efficiently?
Thank you in advance for your suggestions! 😊