Whats the best way to manage a large (20tb) video library?

[bobboulder]

Whats the best way to manage a large (20tb) video library?

 

[myrtledog]

Try Plex.

 

[BODYBUILDERPAUL]

Dude, that's an insane amount! Have not tried streaming films in 4K Dolby Vision from iTunes? Really frees up storage

 

[Longkeg]

Prioritize! While I wouldn’t go so far to say it’s an insane amount, it is a lot. Of that 20tb what percentage do you need immediate access to? If you’re like me most of it could be archived on drives for later retrieval by a simple Finder (Mac) search. I find Plex does a great job but you have to decide when enough is enough. Once I’ve watched something in Plex, if I’m sure I won’t be watching it again any time soon, I move it out of the Plex folder and archive it for safe keeping.

 

[jockethebastard]

Infuse would work

 

[Longkeg]

Infuse would work

It would. But Plex is free and behaves pretty much as Infuse (pro) does. Infuse went to a subscription model recently. The Pro version costs about $5 a year... every year, presumably till the end of time. Plex also doesn’t restrict you to your local network and lets you remote out on the inernet. Infuse does have advantages when dealing with non native codecs but you can’t beat Plex for the price.

 

[jetjaguar]

plex

 

[Rigby]

It would. But Plex is free and behaves pretty much as Infuse (pro) does.

Plex requires running server software, Infuse (or MrMC) doesn't. This is a big advantage for NAS users.

Infuse went to a subscription model recently. The Pro version costs about $5 a year... every year, presumably till the end of time.

You can also buy a perpetual license for the current version with a one-time payment:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/infuse-pro-5/id1136220915?mt=8

Plex also doesn’t restrict you to your local network and lets you remote out on the inernet.

You can do that with Infuse too, but it requires some networking knowledge (setting up a VPN server on your home network). Infuse can also stream movies from some cloud providers such as Dropbox.

But as far as "managing a library" is concerned, I think the client is really secondary. If you organize your files in a standard folder structure (as recommended by the Kodi project) and name them according to The Movie DB/The TV DB, either Infuse, Plex, or MrMC can scrape the metadata and build a library for you, and you can even use them interchangeably.

 

[Longkeg]

Plex requires running server software, Infuse (or MrMC) doesn't. This is a big advantage for NAS users.
You can also buy a perpetual license for the current version with a one-time payment:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/infuse-pro-5/id1136220915?mt=8

You can do that with Infuse too, but it requires some networking knowledge (setting up a VPN server on your home network). Infuse can also stream movies from some cloud providers such as Dropbox.

But as far as "managing a library" is concerned, I think the client is really secondary. If you organize your files in a standard folder structure (as recommended by the Kodi project) and name them according to The Movie DB/The TV DB, either Infuse, Plex, or MrMC can scrape the metadata and build a library for you, and you can even use them interc

All true and valid points. My only real question is how the OP has managed to amass 20tb of video and is only now wondering of to organize it all.