5

I am looking for a web-based movie collection manager that should run on a Linux server. I don't need much, except for a web-based way to index and query a collection of movie files on disk (and possibly play, but giving a location so that I find it right away in a file browser would suffice).

I have seen that there are a couple of movie managers for Linux (e.g. Griffith), but they all seem to be local GUIs. As there are multiple clients in my house that should be able to use the collection, something web-based is preferred.

Just for the record, I am also evaluating emby. I will post back once I have explored the three options CouchPotato, Plex and emby more in depth.

After using emby for a while, I finally decided to go with it. Other options suggested below were CouchPotato and Flex. CouchPotato is more geared towards downnloading movies via torrents - it can also display the local collection, but did not do a very good job for this. It did not recognize most movies at all (I am not talking about correct meta data - just recognizing there is a movie file). Plex looks great and also worked well, but in order to allow streaming, it requires a licence (surely the cost is justified by the amount of work put into the product). Emby works well, displays meta data and allows streaming without a licence - so that's my choice. On the downside emby requires quit a bit of memory (~ 500M), even when idle. Its not a stopper for me though as I can spare 500M.

Improve this question
2
  • 1
    What about metadata (title, year, director etc.)? Or is a simple list of files (without any metadata fields) sufficient?
    – unor
    Oct 24, 2015 at 20:07
  • 1
    Metadata would be nice to have, but a simple file list would do it for a start. The latter though is probably something that could be hacked with a simple ls -Rl >myfilelist.html and then using the browser search function to search that list. If there is no software around I might end up just doing thi.s
    – Isaac
    Oct 26, 2015 at 8:27

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
3

CouchPotato might be your best option. It provides a web interface which you could access from the network. There are browser extensions to easily add movies, and you can see when movies are out. It can also work with your local copies and will automatically grab basic metadata for your movies like poster, year, and short summary.

Improve this answer
1

Plex media server fits this description pretty well. It will require plex pass subscription beyond the free trial for streaming but the thing works great. It also allows streaming outside your home and sharing libraries with friends.

mobile screenshot browser browser #2

Improve this answer
2

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.