Hi,
I have been thinking for a while about virtual VDR directories holding symbolic links to recordings that are stored elsewhere using different sort criteria.
I have been a VDR user since 2000 http://www.tvdr.de/cgi-bin/vdr-counter.pl?action=show&number=3 and I have recorded a lot since then (9245 recordings), so some kind of structure is required to find things quickly.
For example, I have top level folders for various genres in my /video directory. So far, I decide after recording and cutting into which folder I move the recording.
It might be better to have them all on one big RAID and create symbolic links in /video, so I can find an action comedy both in /video/Action and in /video/Comedy.
Regarding the genre, I have managed without that feature. However, many German TV stations are now broadcasting in HD, sometimes with 5.1 surround sound. It is really hard to find these high quality recordings directly among my 9245 recordings.
So I have written a little Python tool that creates "virtual" recordings in a different folder structure from my "real" recordings using symbolic links. This is done by creating top level folders /video/Surround, /video/HD, /video/Surround+HD and linking matching recordings into these keeping the original folder structure intact.
Maybe somebody else finds this useful, so I am attaching the code. It only considers recordings that are cut (having a % in the name). Please note that the tool removes any existing folders /video/Surround, /video/HD, /video/Surround+HD before re-creating them. Use at your own risk.
Carsten.