OT: Any software to organize video & photos?

smhontz wrote on 5/8/2012, 12:11 PM

Is anyone aware of software that would help me organize all my photos and video files (original .MXF files, and .MOV and .WMV renders)? I would like to be able to tag photos/video, and see thumbnails of the video and photos.

I'm going to be archiving a bunch of stuff to external hard drives, and I was hoping to maybe find something that would help me do that, and allow me to print out thumbnails and tags so I can put that in a notebook for future reference.

Comments

WillemT wrote on 5/8/2012, 12:17 PM

Have you tried the Sony Media Manager?

Willem.

pat s wrote on 5/8/2012, 5:05 PM

@smhontz - I use Adobe Lightroom for photos. I have a library of about 15k photos and it works great for tagging and keeping things organized. It's also very quick, considering what I'm using it for. The latest version (4.x) is supposed to have better support for video, but I have not tried it yet. I'm still on 3.6. They have a 30 day free trial on Adobe's website. Lightroom and Apple's Aperture are probably the two leading programs for this.

Duncan H wrote on 5/8/2012, 5:36 PM

@smhontz.

For video management, I use TMPG Karma Plus - fantastic for my needs & costs US$40.
http://tmpgenc.pegasys-inc.com/en/product/tmkp.html

For image file management, I use Faststone image viewer - brilliant piece of freeware, which I've had for years - best piece of free graphics software ever put on the net (IMHO).
http://www.faststone.org/

Trust these are of interest. They make a great combination for asset management - at the right price & they allow you to tag images, reorder etc.

Duncan

GenJerDan wrote on 5/8/2012, 6:42 PM

If you're willing to be a beta tester....I've written one.

If Windows can show a thumbnail, so will it. Supports playing from within it via Windows Media Player (assuming you have the needed codecs installed).
Can launch the default program of the file.

Basically a database version of Explorer...except the media files don't have to be in any particular place. On initial setup, you let it scan your drives for the file types you've chosen and it will keep track of them.

Can add tags & descriptions to the database and (optionally) tag the files themselves so they info would show up in Explorer, too.

*Windows 7* only. (No idea if it will work in Windows 8)

SuperG wrote on 5/8/2012, 7:46 PM

I'll second Lightroom, it really helps to organize things.

Gary James wrote on 5/8/2012, 9:17 PM

Picasa from Google is a free program that will search your PC for video and image media. You can define folders that it will monitor for content changes.

Picasa supports media tagging and file searching. It can also create photo montages and upload your media to the Picasa web site where the files can be viewed by anyone.

Art5 wrote on 5/9/2012, 8:57 AM

http://www.sony-mea.com/support/download/316131

Art5 wrote on 5/9/2012, 8:59 AM

Sony Picture Motion Brower: comes with Sony Camcorders. Not sure if it's available otherwise? http://www.sony-mea.com/support/download/316131