Organizing your Blu-ray collection?

[obriensg1]

I know some people just throw the movie on the shelf and are done with it, so this thread won't apply to you.

I'm curious about the people who sort their films into certain categories. I've added a few more over the years. I used to group all my newer purchases into one area of the shelf but that got too tricky. Now though, from top to bottom my movies go 3D, 007, Blu Movies, TV on Blu-ray, DVD Movies, TV on DVD. All alphabetical except 007, which I have chronologically.

I'm thinking about carving out a spot for Marvel films. Either the MCU, or even Marvel in general. If you were to do this, would you do Marvel alphabetical, series, or group the MCU separate from X-Men and Spider-Man?

[roar]

Originally Posted by obriensg1

I know some people just throw the movie on the shelf and are done with it, so this thread won't apply to you.

I'm curious about the people who sort their films into certain categories. I've added a few more over the years. I used to group all my newer purchases into one area of the shelf but that got too tricky. Now though, from top to bottom my movies go 3D, 007, Blu Movies, TV on Blu-ray, DVD Movies, TV on DVD. All alphabetical except 007, which I have chronologically.

I'm thinking about carving out a spot for Marvel films. Either the MCU, or even Marvel in general. If you were to do this, would you do Marvel alphabetical, series, or group the MCU separate from X-Men and Spider-Man?

I do alphabetical for everything so i suppose I'd do alphabetical if I segmented...

there are an additional 1900+ posts on the subject of organization here:

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread.php?t=156148

Some rather passionate opinions in there too.

[Anthony P]

I think the first rule should be to make things ultra easy to find (if you spent more than a couple of minutes deciding what to watch you are wasting time and you have them badly organized)

They are by category * and then mostly alphabetical ** with multi sets together ***.

* I use the term categories since most are genres (like Comedy) or sub genres ( like slasher) but others such as unseen (movies I bought and have yet to watch) or TV seasons or "international" (movies made for a market that is not English speaking) or fancy packaging (digibooks and stuff that a kid might ruine so I place them on the top shelves) are also categories. Also (part of the simple and fast selection) when a category gets too big I split it up (that is why romantic comedy is separate from comedy or slasher is separate than horror) this way thee is less then 60-70 movies when I say I want to watch a ......


** most are alphabetical (symbol, 1-9,a-z and no the or a or an) *** but unseen are by run length (so that if I only have 1.5h I won't start a 3h movie) and fancy packaging are in no particular order.

*** movies that belong together are together and chronologically, so Night of the living dead dawn , day.... are all together as if they were called "dead 1, 2,3....", same with evil dead 1, 2 and army of darkness are "evil dead 1,2,3 or Bond 1,2,3 from an order point of view).

[detective392]

I organize by genre and than sub genre AKA horror (slasher, creature feature etc). For superhero movies it's either DC or Marvel. Only movies I organize by studio is Disney.

[bootsy]

I organize my regular cased Blus and then the bulkier special edition types and then 3D and then pixar/animated each in alphabetical order. Then have my steelbooks and TV shows also in alphabetical order.

[bobodude]

The previous ideas are fine if you are dealing with a few movies, but when you get to the 1700 count, it becomes more important to retreave any film easily. I file them away in sequence as I get them and then enter them in my DVDPro software. The software can organize them by gender, format type, production year or just about any other format. You can then generate and print out a report of your collection. I store them in black sleeves with a numbered label, also generated by DVDPro, on the upper edge that is easy to see when thumbing thru. I store them on standard cd shelving. DVDPro has all the information on the film from their vast online database so the artwork and case is no longer needed. I also have multiple printouts listing my collection in different ways.

[iank]

TV and films are separate, and both are organized by year of release (or, with TV shows, year they started).

[tom pain]

As weird as it might be, I have mine in age rating, with films series next to each other (e.g. Dark Knight Trilogy), with boxsets on their own shelf.

I found this is the easiest way to arrange films so that I can have series adjacent to each other, especially for films where they won't go next to each other alpahbetically.

Plus when all the age rating logos next to each other, it looks that bit more uniform.

[AmishParadise]

Originally Posted by bobodude

The previous ideas are fine if you are dealing with a few movies, but when you get to the 1700 count, it becomes more important to retreave any film easily. I file them away in sequence as I get them and then enter them in my DVDPro software. The software can organize them by gender, format type, production year or just about any other format. You can then generate and print out a report of your collection. I store them in black sleeves with a numbered label, also generated by DVDPro, on the upper edge that is easy to see when thumbing thru. I store them on standard cd shelving. DVDPro has all the information on the film from their vast online database so the artwork and case is no longer needed. I also have multiple printouts listing my collection in different ways.

My DVD/Blu-ray collection is indexed as well, but separately. I use DVD Profiler for my DVD collection and My Movies for my Blu-ray collection. Within DVD Profiler for example each disc is assigned its own Collection ID which in turn corresponds with the physical location of the disc. In my case instead of numbered sleeves the discs reside in changer slots, i.e. Sony 400-disc DVD and Blu-ray changers.

As seen in DVD Profiler per my DVD collection...
Collection ID's 1-400 (DVD 01)
Collection ID's 401-800 (DVD 02)
Collection ID's 801-1200 (DVD 03)
Collection ID's 1201-1600 (DVD 04)
Collection ID's 1601-2000 (DVD 05)
Collection ID's 2001-2400 (DVD 06)

Same deal for my Blu-ray collection, but using the Collection Management application for My Movies. So as you, I'm then able to browse my DVD or Blu-ray collection by any number of criteria on the fly in the digital realm, high resolution front and back cover art included. Both DVD Profiler and My Movies offer mobile apps as well which are very nice, not just the PC based applications. Before the advent of mobile devices I also used to print out reports from DVD Profiler that guests could page through instead.

That being said, even if I didn't have the Sony changers I'd still be indexing my collection as you are and using numbered sleeves to store the discs. Like you said, when ones collection grows to a certain point (...presently own 2,212 DVD's and 844 Blu-ray's) it really makes a lot of sense to ditch the cases and original packaging and do things differently, especially if you don't want your home looking like a Blockbuster not to mention the benefits you have being able to browse your collection in the digital realm at that point. You end up getting so much more out of your collection as a result I think. Would recommend to everyone that they catalog their collection in something like DVD Profiler or My Movies despite how large or small their collection may be and how they may have it physically organized. Will be well worth the time taken. Trust me.

[bobos]

I'd advise using alphabetical, always easier to find it by name.

[mattymaxima]

Originally Posted by bobos

I'd advise using alphabetical, always easier to find it by name.

Agreed.

[Anthony P]

Originally Posted by bobodude

The previous ideas are fine if you are dealing with a few movies, but when you get to the 1700 count, it becomes more important to retreave any film easily. I file them away in sequence as I get them and then enter them in my DVDPro software. The software can organize them by gender, format type, production year or just about any other format. You can then generate and print out a report of your collection. I store them in black sleeves with a numbered label, also generated by DVDPro, on the upper edge that is easy to see when thumbing thru. I store them on standard cd shelving. DVDPro has all the information on the film from their vast online database so the artwork and case is no longer needed. I also have multiple printouts listing my collection in different ways.

I agree with "when you get to the 1700 count, it becomes more important to retrieve any film easily"

But not the rest of your post.
How is (if I understand you correctly)
1) find the reports
2) look for genre ABC
3) find title XYZ
4) get the code 123
5) go to the library and find 123 to find the movie

easier than
1) look for genre ABC
2) find title XYZ

sure looks like the second option has less steps (and so easier/faster)

[PenguinDeluxe]

I have box sets and TV shows on top, followed by digibooks, Shout/Scream Factory titles, and Criterion Collection. After that, everything is in alphabetical order.

[blumacmon]

I guess it will depend on your movie watching habit or preferred presentation in your HT.
I personally go alphabetical since if someone wants to watch it, I just go to that letter.
I separated the DVD sets and the BD sets. Since I have 2 shelves that can fit it. Posted the organization of the shelves in my gallery if you like to see it.

However I noticed MANY movies start with the word "The" so in order to de-clutter the section with all the "The" I just use the next word in the title.

[Murderpony]

I organize it by genre, tried doing it alphabetically but I gave up lol

[iank]

Chronologically. I love having all the 80s movies and so on together. It just makes more sense to me than using alphabetical and having a 1970 movie sat next to something from 2014.

[Packerfan75]

Alphabetically, Chronologically, B for Bond's, animated separate at the end.

[Jim Purcell]

Currently I've got it set up

TV, Animated Disney*, Pixar* , Animated Films, Live Action Films, Anime (Films and TV sets together), and Studio Ghibli*

Then each is alphabetical. *Except with Animated Disney, Pixar, and Studio Ghibli. Which are Chronological.

That's probably a few more divisions then is really necessary. But I kind of like having the animated studio sets together.

I'm now actively thinking of reorganizing my Live Action section in Chronological order (and maybe integrating the, non-anime, non-Disney/Pixar, animated films with them). Just to try something new. As it is, I've got under 200 Blu-rays. So its not hard to find anything when I want it.

[bigshot]

Drama / Film Noir / Western / Silent Drama / Monster Movies / Supernatural Horror / Silent Comedy / Comedy / Musicals / Documentary / TV Shows / Weird Movies / Music / Opera and Classical

[CReaper210]

I used to try to categorize my films, but that got too complicated with all of the hybrid genre movies I have. Now I have everything alphabetically, with just a few exceptions. Like my James Bond movies. Just to keep them together, I have them all in order as if they were just called 007: whatever. Then I have Riddick right after Chronicles of Riddick. But overall, it is alphabetical and easy to find any film as long as you know what series it is in, in case you're looking for a sequel/prequel or something.

Oh, and TV series' first, movies after. And another example of one of my exceptions, is Serenity right after Firefly.