Windows

Any Good DVD/CD Organization Software Out There?

Posted by on Jul 9, 2007 | 17 Comments

Dawei from Quebec writes:

Hi Chris,

I’ve been watching your shows on YouTube; great show and frankly very useful. I have one question that is bugging me: I have tons of DVDs — burned DVDs for my video collection and music. Speaking in terms of quantity, I would say 200 – 250 DVDs of video, and 153 DVDs of music (some MP3s and APE files). I keep everything high quality and keep my hands clean when I do video editing (which is my profession).

I have those videos stored as source files and now I have a huge problem with searching and actually finding what I’m looking for. I tried a program called “Whereisit” and I also tried to make a list of all videos in Excel — and that, in itself, is a lot of work. I would like to ask if you can recommend any software that allows me to put a DVD or CD into the drive and runs a scan of the disk, adding all content into one database file, which can then be stored on the computer. The rest of the work would just be to label the disk properly.

Any feedback will be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance.

[tags]dvd software, cd software[/tags]

  • Al

    Try OpdiTracker. I originally got it with an Imation DiscStakka. Its basic, but it works

    http://www.opdicom.com/products/opdiTracker.asp

  • Kay

    I have been using Visual CD
    http://www.softpedia.com/get/Others/File-CD-DVD-Catalog/Visual-CD.shtml .
    I haven’t tried it with DVDs yet, but it works really well for cataloging stacks of back-up data CDs. After you have burned and cataloged the CD, you can open Visual CD, click on the name you gave the CD, and see all the folders on the CD. Clicking on a folder gives you the name of all the files in it, like in Windows Explorer.
    Good Luck!

  • J. Wagner

    A mainstay here for years. Does exactly what it’s supposed to do with speed and efficiency. 216K download, no installation, FREE.

    It appears that the latest version is from several years ago, but it has no problem with my XP2 Pro systems, both FAT and NTFS. In truth, no improvements are needed for this very effective software.

    http://www.equi4.com/catfish/catfish.exe

    CatFish allows you to…

    * Save snapshots of all your disks & removable media (ZIP disks, CDROMs).
    * Quickly find files in all catalogs by name (with wildcards), size, and/or date.
    * See all total file and subdirectory counts as well as total space usage.
    * Easily view with any sort order. Export saved catalogs as text files.
    * Save any number of snapshots, for entire (network) drives or specific areas.

    Other unique features of CatFish…

    * Stored catalogs are very compact – less than 10% of other similar utilities.
    * Very high speed, searching and sorting are instant, even for 1000′s of files.
    * Works with huge disks, containing 1,000′s of directories, 10,000′s of files.
    * Refresh catalogs with one key, launch apps and docs, locate newest file.
    * Tiny distribution file and executable size, does not require any installation.

  • http://darkally.googlepages.com/ DarkAlly

    I actually found this program in a lockergnome newsletter from sometime last year. The program is EMDB (Eric’s Movie DataBase) and so far i find it very useful for keeping track of dvds, much better than my old Excel spreadsheet.

  • Ron May

    I really like Cathy, by Robert Vasicek at http://www.mtg.sk/rva/
    (about 3/4 down the page)

    “An extremly small, very fast and easy to use media cataloging tool. You can use it to index files stored on removable media (CD’s, DVD’s or even diskettes), hard disks or net drives, and create searchable catalogs that can be used without having access to original media. Searching capabilities are based on file name, date and size. Additional features include filtering options, search duplicates or singles, customizable date format, etc. Found files can be opened (executed) or deleted directly, if they are present. Drag&drop support. Directory trees, MP3 album/song lists can be printed, disk space usage can be investigated. Single file executable, no install needed.”

    freeware, 45kb (tiny)

  • FirstR8

    At work, we use AFO Catalog (Advanced File Organizer) by SoftPrime.com. Easy to use, decent interface. However, unlike some of the other freeware posts, this costs $29.95.

  • http://www.dws.org/fins Art Hoffman

    I too have been using Visual CD (freeware) for the past 6-7 years. I have about 400 different types of media cataloged. It’s search functions are great when trying to find stuff.

    http://boozet.xepher.net/

    It works great for CD’s, DVD’s and hard drives! Plus has some other built-in tools (file splitter, thumbnail maker and more).

  • http://www.dws.org/fins Art Hoffman

    Forgot to mention you can also export your catalogs as HTML and use them in Excel too!

  • Bob Snyder

    I have been using InsideCAT 4 for awhile now and like what it has to offer. It has a wealth of Multimedia features I haven’t even tried yet, as I use it mainly for indexing dowloaded installer archives. You can find it at http://www.insidecat.biz. It indexes CDs and DVDs and it even runs well under Vista!

  • http://rarecomics.home.att.net David Arnold

    A free DVD database program that utilizes Microsoft Access is available at Mark’s Rare Comics (http://rarecomics.home.att.net).

  • Ken

    I like Media Monkey for my music collection. Has incredibly flexible sorting and catagorization tools, as well as built-in ripping and format conversion tools. It uses a MS Access database for storage, which allows me to create custom views and reports in managing my 7,000+ songs. Plus…it’s free! (The paid gold version, which I have, includes a couple of extra features, but the free version has 90%+ of what you need.)

  • Alan Monroe

    I second the nomination for Cathy.

  • Mortifer

    I like Advanced Disk Catalog , is so quick and easy to find files on the thousands of DVD/CD’s I own

  • Mortifer

    Advanced Disk Catalog (ADC) is an award-winning easy-to-use 32-bit cataloguing program for Windows 9x/ME/NT/2K/XP and 2003. Due to the fact that ADC does not make use of a database engine, the core of ADC’s versatility, results in it being extremely fast and compact. Its Explorer-like interface allows for convenient cataloguing of data on various media types, e.g., hard disk drives (even via networks), floppy diskettes, optical disc, ZIP and JAZ disks, and so forth

    http://www.elcomsoft.com/adc.html

  • Umbrella

    Personally I like Movienizer. I use it to organize my movie collection and it does the job great! I like that it separates persons and movies, and using the cross links I can navigate very easily. It supports many movie related databases and I get the most complete info about a movie or an actor very quickly. Besides, I can play the movie in the built-in player and take snapshots of different scenes.

  • jana

    I’m stupid and bought InsideCAT 4… grrrrr… big shit. Hang my computer when find compressed files, remaining trash in PC memory, and for pay you need go into suspicious website. I hate it.

  • DVD Burning

    There are loads of excellent DVD burning software that can easily organized your important files but to be safe read reviews first to get acquainted on the software’s key feature.