Films and series · Basalt Docs

Let the host file your films and series under Movies and TV Series, with posters, picture quality and Continue watching.

Basalt can sort the films and series on your drive into a library: Movies and TV Series, with seasons and episodes in order, posters, picture quality and a Continue watching row that follows you from device to device. Your files stay exactly where they are; the library is an index the host keeps beside them.

Turn it on

Recognising films and series is off until you turn it on, because it reads the whole drive.

On Windows or a Linux desktop: in Basalt Host’s settings, turn on Recognise films and series.
On a host with no screen, or from any device that manages the host: in Manage host, under Library.

The host scans the drive, and films and series appear on every device as it finds them. New ones show up the moment they are copied in. Scan again looks through the whole drive once more.

Name your files

Recognition reads folder and file names, and works best with the way most collections are already named.

Films

A film’s title and year, in its file name or its folder:

Films/The Film Title (2016).mkv
Films/The Film Title (2016)/The Film Title (2016).mkv
Films/The.Film.Title.2016.1080p.BluRay.mkv

The year matters: it tells two films of the same name apart, and confirms it is a film at all. Every film is also checked against a catalogue of released titles that comes with Basalt Host, offline, so screen recordings and home videos stay out of Movies. Nothing is sent anywhere to do it.

Series

A folder for the series, a folder for each season, and the episode number in the file name:

Series/The Show/Season 01/S01E01.mkv
Series/The Show/Season 01/The.Show.S01E02.1080p.mkv
Series/The Show (2008)/Season 2/Episode 3.mkv

A Season folder is the strongest clue there is, so even badly named episodes inside one are found. Episode numbers can be written S01E02, 1x02 or Season 1 Episode 2. Specials go in Season 00 or a Specials folder.

Left out on purpose

Trailers, samples, featurettes and behind-the-scenes clips beside a film are left out of the library, and so are system folders. They are all still in Files.

When a guess is uncertain, the host says so in its settings, with how many titles are guesses. Renaming the file or its folder as above, then Scan again, settles it.

Posters

Without posters, each title gets a cover made from its name. To use real posters, turn on Download posters, under Recognise films and series.

When it is on, the titles of recognised films and series are looked up online to find their posters: this is the only part of the library that uses the internet, and it sends titles, never your files. Posters are downloaded once, kept on the host, and shared with every device.

Posters work without any account. For titles the default source doesn’t know, you can add a free key from TMDb (The Movie Database): Add a TMDb key to find more posters…. It only widens coverage; it is never required.

Picture quality

Films, series and episodes are tagged HD, Full HD, 2K or 4K, measured from the video itself rather than guessed from the file name.

Continue watching

Where you stopped is kept on the host, so a film started on the laptop carries on from the same moment on the phone. Episodes play on to the next one by themselves, and the next episode of a series you are watching waits at the top.

With profiles, each person has their own Continue watching. Without them, each device has its own.

Choose which sections devices show

Sections on your devices, in the host’s settings or in Manage host, chooses which of Movies, TV Series, Videos, Music and Photos appear on your devices. Hiding a section only tidies the list. Every file is still in Files.