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[Dare978Devil]

I find the default DLNA options somewhat goofy.  For Videos, the default choices are All Files by Date Imported, All files by Name, Years, Ratings, and Types.  Who thought that up?  Does anyone organize their vids this way?  This is not an MC criticism, because all DLNA servers are the same with the same goofy default options.

I have been using XBMC on an original XBOX for 8 years, mainly for the kids.  They can all operate it without help from me.  I take all of their DVDs and make Divx out of them, and then stick them in an easy-to-understand folder.  So when they launch XBMC, they just go into the Teen Titans dir if that is what they want, and they see the eps in order.  Or Dora, or Scooby Doo, or whatever.  It is very easy, and SMB shares are super-easy to set up.  Essentially, you just pick the parent folder you want to share, and that's it.  Any new vids get added to new sub-dirs and they instantly show up.

With DLNA, I get one mass of videos in the selection list.  So if the kids Scooby-doo eps are listed as "1-Monster Mayhem", "2- Horror High", they get them in order but they also get any other vid which falls in between (such as 1- Sopranos - ep3).  So renamed every Sopranos ep I had to avoid this.  Then I realized DLNA takes the tag name, so I renamed again based on file name.  Then I found the road runner eps were interspersed with everything else.  In short, none of the default sort orders help in any way.  They seem to be geared towards people who have exactly 4 videos, not 400.  I have added the Folder option as explained in another post, but I was wondering how other people did it.  It seems my attempt to stream via DLNA to my PS3 is actually a bit of a step backwards....

Thanks,
DD.

[csimon]

You need to work out exactly how you want to sort your videos, what menu levels and categories you want to see, tag each video with the appropriate metadata, and then set up a view scheme that suits your purpose.

For example, I have my videos categorised by Music Videos, Roller Coaster Videos, TV Episodes at the top level, and there are different hierarchies below them depending on what type they are. Music Videos for example gives me a second level of By Artist, By Song Title, By Genre.  Roller Coaster Videos gives me a second level of Park or Name.

If all you really want is a folder structure and are happy to structure your files physically on disk, then you just need to change your DLNA view scheme to remove the Date, Name, Years, Ratings, Types entries and replace them with one simple item of Folder.

[MrHaugen]

MC becomes MUCH more powerful once you tag your files properly. Working only with folders is NOT recommended.
With the new Tag on Import function and the Carnac auto tag system, you don't even have to do this manually anymore. If you have separated Series, Movies etc. in different folders, then you can add the tag as Media Sub Type function to be sure each auto import folder are tagged the same. Then you have to do some work on the DLNA View Scheme, as csimon mentions.

Many of us have different preferences as how we like to browse our media. That is why you have to do some work here. Once you understand how it works it should not be much effort involved though.