How do you organize your DVD collection?
 

Just thought it would be interesting to see how people organize them. Maybe it would give me some ideas. Currently, mine are organized into these catagories...

Each is in alphabetical order.

-Single movies
-Movie box sets
-Documentaries
-Documentary box sets
-Anime single titles
-Anime box sets
-TV shows
-Standup comedy
-Music/Concerts
-Sports
-Peanuts (Charlie Brown, Snoopy, etc)

Movies (alphabetical)
TV shows (by genre)
Box sets
Music/Concert

Does anyone else put Army of Darkness after Evil Dead I & II?
(when organizing alphabetical)

There are numerous existing threads on this subject.

Alpha'ed by diff. genres most are on diff. shelves racks too.
Wrestling, Comedy/Drama, Horror, Action, Music

Alphabetical order divided into 3 categories...discs I've finished, discs I've got bonus features to sift through and discs I've yet to watch.

My alphabetically-organized categories are:
- Pre-1980 Classics
- "Mainstream"
- Foreign Language Films
- Animation
- Television
- Music/Concerts (excluding movie musicals, which take their place in whatever other category applies)
- Sports and Games (e.g. Shout About the Movies)
- Wife's Movies (there are only a few :) )

Not organized, but grouped by director as well as relation (ie, Alien and Predator movies are together, and surrounded by movies directed by Cameron, Scott, Fincher, McTiernan, and the guy who did Amelie). TV shows with matching movies are together (Firefly is next to Serenity, which is next to Buffy and Angel). One problem with this method of course is that those single movies that arent directed by any one special are a pain in the ass to find :). I really need to change my method, but I really dont want to separate certain collections and have groups split between shelves, etc.

Recently reorganized, into one shelving unit for the most part. Alphabetical, with series under the 'common name' ["Star Wars", etc]. A few oddly shaped or oversized sets are on a couple of knickknack shelves elsewhere [Last Exile, Matrix with bust, Buffy complete, Alias complete, etc.]. If I had ED 1, 2, and AoD, I would probably put AoD with ED 1/2.
This is made much easier by the fact that my collection is only 244 titles.
I use DVDProfiler for the 'not watched/watched' thing.

Funnily enough... by packaging. Actually, this is only because I'm in the process of buying binders for most of my DVDs, and it helps to keep them separated according to which type of binder they go into. My 2-disc DVDs that have inserts will be among the last to go, since I need to find a satisfactory binder that will hold all the contents, and the ones in slimcases will probably be very last because they don't take up a lot of space. Snappers are in a different rack altogether, and DVD-Rs may never end up in binders, even though many of them are stored in keepcases with full cover artwork.

Other than packaging concerns, my actual list of categories would be too long to post here in its entirety, but the categories and subcategories I've set up are based on a system that was once used on either Yahoo or Google, I can't remember.

Comedy
Comedy : Monty Python
Comedy : Monty Python : John Cleese
Comedy : Monty Python : Michael Palin
.
.
.
Comedy : Stand-Up

etc., etc. ad nauseum ;)

I don't have my movies alphabetical, but i do have AOD after the Evil Dead movies. (well, ED1...as ED2 is in the tin)

I've tried to group my movies by actor/director/series....but that kinda falls apart because I have Arnold movies grouped but then i have "Predator" and "Predator 2" together.

I do have a shelf devoted to Jackie Chan movies arranged in order by year the movie was released. I also have a shelf devoted to all classic Disney/Warner Bros./Misc. cartoons.

Movies-alphabetical and categories based on personal interest
Scifi/Horror- got tired of trying to decide where movies like Alien
or Frankentein would go
Westerns
War
Holiday-Christmas, Halloween etc
All other movies

TV Shows-alphabetically
Documentaries/Nature-alphabetically

Everything is sorted alphabetically and separated by :

Films (Region 1)
Animated Films
Television Series
Foreign Language (and non region 1)
Criterions

Box sets like my Alien Legacy and Batman are off to the side.

Box sets/TV sets/special packaging

Music/concerts

i used to sort my movies by genre but now its
Chronological

Movies alphabetical, with large boxsets and TV shows seperate

Movies: Alpha (box sets mixed in)
TV: Alpha
Music (Concert/Videos): Alpha
Animated (Traditional/Anime/CG/Stop Motion): Alpha
Walt Disney Treasures: Alpha
Walt Disney True Life Adventures: Chronological
Criterion: Spine # (with the exception of the new re-releases with the "Wacky C", as I put those at the beginning of their new redesign.

I just started reorganizing, so this answer is still in flux. But I think it will end up being...

Movies alphabetically in binders, with exceptions like AOD after Evil Dead.

TV shows in original cases by genre/series.

Non-movies/non-tv shows (shorts, magazine discs, demos, sports, music videos) in binders by category.

I have three spinning racks.

The first two racks are movies, strictly alphabetical.

The third rack's first few shelves are music, arranged alpha by artist, and the rest of the third rack is TV shows, alphabetically.

I then have odd-shaped box-sets on top of the racks.

Here's a pic:
http://forum.dvdtalk.com/showpost.ph...&postcount=106

Alphabetical separated by movies and TV

absolutely no order whatsoever.

No longer that major to me. Now, its mainly:

Horror (supernatural stuff in with slasher)
Sci Fi & Fantasy go together
Comedy
Drama & mystery go together
Action
Concerts

Movies alphabetical by movie name, TV shows alphabetical by show name and music dvds alphabetical by artist then chronological.
I used to always go alphabetical, meaning Army of Darkness was under A away from ED 1 and 2, but I eventually decided to put series together, so AoD is now after ED2, Seed of Chucky is after Bride of Chucky which is after Child's Play 3, etc.
The other thing is, I keep collections of unrelated movies, like <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Vault-Horror-Various/dp/B00005AWQL/sr=8-1/qid=1166634537/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/002-7618911-5328026?ie=UTF8&s=dvd">Vault of Horror</a> at the end in alphabetical order by the collection name, the same way I do Various Artist in my music collection.

On shelves, alphabetically

By UPC code #


Seriously, though, pretty much in alphabetical order. #'s first, then A-Z. The only exceptions are that Jason X is with the rest of the Friday the 13th films, Rambo: First Blood Part 2 and Rambo 3 are filed with First Blood, and all WWE wrestling DVDs are filed under WWE.

I find it too chaotic to try and separate by genre. Monty Python, for example - Flying Circus would have to to in TV shows, but the movies would go in comedy. I'd rather have all my Python in one area. I'd rather just be able to say "I want to watch Planes Trains and Automobiles" and go straight to the "P" section of my shelves instead of trying to find the comedy section among the mess.

The point of organizing is to make a particular DVD easy to find, especially by guests who may not be familiar with my collection. Thus alphabetical is, to me, the only thing that makes any sense.

By studio is ridiculous. ("Hmm, I'm in the mood for a Paramount movie today! Let's go to the Paramount section!")

By genre leaves too much room for subjectivity. Is Evil Dead 2 a horror or a comedy? Is Heat action or drama? I just avoid the headache entirely.

Separating by "mainstream," "classics" etc is equally subjective and therefore a hassle.

Separating Criterions? Give me a break. "So uh, why are these movies separate from the others?" "Oh, those are, uh, special movies..."

Dividing between films and TV shows is okay I guess, but I've never seen the point. If I want to watch, say, season 4 of The Simpsons, it's not hard to locate. It's right there in the middle of the big colorful block of "Simpsons" DVDs in the "S" section.