Media libraries can grow and it is not uncommon to have thousands of files in your collections. If you do not organize movies, TV shows, music, and photos well, things can quickly get out of control and your server can become messy. Fortunately, Kodi media center provides tools to manage your box art and synopsis information etc. But it is somewhat lacking when it comes to looking after the actual files or manual editing features. For example, you may want to follow a standard naming convention for your media collections and a directory structure that makes things easy to find. Without a good external media manager, this can be a cumbersome task.
5 Media Managers that can greatly help you organize your media
Certain Kodi media libraries like TV shows must follow a strict naming standard for Kodi to be able to identify what each file contains. This can often be difficult to setup. Thankfully there are a number of media manager applications out there that can do this task for you and help you to organize your media. In this media managers post we will take a look at the best 5.
1. cdART Manager - Simplify Your Music Library Maintenance
cdART Manager is a Kodi addon rather than a Windows application but is designed to help you to organize your music libraries. Music libraries are sometimes the most difficult to manage. You will often see albums with no detail and missing box art. cdART Manager allows you to customize each individual album selecting box art and download folders manually. You can select an artwork file type for an single album and use a separate folder from those titles whose artwork has been picked up by the automatic download. cdART Manager is easy to use and will improve the look and management of your music libraries. This addon is for music only and does not organize TV shows or movies. [Read:How to build a Raspberry Pi Music Player?]
Cdart Manager Addon
cdART Manager and other Kodi can be downloaded from the official Kodi repository.
2. Ember Media Manager
Ember Media Manager is Windows based application that allows you to organize your media libraries. On initial launch Ember Media Manager will ask you to provide the locations for each media type and where to store artwork. It will then cycle through each library and build up a database of all of your content. Once complete you can navigate through each item and alter the file names, file information and artwork.
Ember Media Manager
To help you to organize movies Ember Media Manager can connect to popular art work repositories. It allows you to scroll through all of the available covers and backgrounds to select the one you want. Rather than having to put up with the automatically downloaded content you can choose the best looking box art or the one that best suites your Kodi skin. It is also the perfect tool to organize TV shows. Kodi TV shows follow a set naming convention to determine the content of each file. With Ember Media Manager you can quickly and easily convert all of your TV show files into this format. Ember Media Manager can be downloaded from the Ember Media Manager homepage. [Read:10 Media Server Software Options for Multi-device Streaming Needs]
3. Media Center Master
As the name suggests Media Center Master is a tool that was originally designed for Windows Media Center. It now comes with full Kodi integration to organize movies. The tool works dynamically in that when it is open it continually scans and updates your media libraries as new content comes in. You specify a folder for each media type and the naming convention the folders should follow. You can use it to manage your movies or organize TV shows. When you drop files into your set folders Media Center Master will automatically rename them to suite your convention and pull down artwork and media information. [Read: Guide: How to install Kodi XMovies8 addon]
Media Center Master
When you organize movies Media Center Master can also download trailers for each film. It will re-encode them to a size that will not fill up your disks. This is a great addition to your media center and provides stunning visuals as you browse your collections. Another great feature of Media Center Master is its ability to connect with torrent sites. You can fetch content straight into your media libraries and pull in artwork etc at the same time! The only downside to this application is that you have to buy the full version. There are free tolls available that more or less do the same thing. This demo is available from the Media Center Manager homepage.
4. Media Companion
Media Companion is another easy to use library manager allowing you to organize your media. Organize movies by setting naming conventions and folder structures. You can download box art, backgrounds, synopsis information and additional imagery for cast and crew. You can organize TV shows into a format supported by Kodi and then add additional information to each episode. Media Companion has simple to use text boxes for each element of your content making each title easy to customize. With Media Companion you can export movie details and artwork to HTML using a set of standard templates. [Read:Guide: How to install Kodi Movies HD addon]
Media Companion may overwhelm you with its available options and features. It may not be for the newbie but once you get to grips with the product it is definitely a powerful tool. It is the best media manager for watching your movie sets on (independently) and links nicely to IMDB to further explore your films. You can download this application from the Media Companion homepage.
Media Companion
5. TV Rename
TV Rename is a simple user interface to organize TV shows. A good way to organize your media is to have it run on startup alongside Kodi. TV Rename can be used to rename your TV shows to the Kodi naming convention with additional episode titles at the end of the file name. It will notify you of any episodes that are missing from your collections. It will also let you know when they are next aired on TV. You can connect TV Rename to your download folder and as you pull new shows in it will automatically move them to your media libraries and rename them to the Kodi TV show naming standard. TV Rename does not organize movies. You can download this application from the TV Rename homepage.
Tv Rename
Do I need all Media Manager software listed above?
No, you do not have to install all the media manager applications to organize your media effectively. In fact, you may not need any of them if your home server applications such couchpotato, radarr, sonarr, headphones, etc. are configured properly. You can setup such a system easily using our AToMiC ToolKit. Some of our visitors have successfully automated media management only use a media manager to organize movies or TV shows occasionally to correct any mistakes (if any). We have received great feedback on Ember and Media Companion. What your experiences? Please share with others in the comments section.
An IT professional working in the UK specialising in Windows server environments and data centre solutions. Now writing for home entertainment providers.
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