MediaBrowser

[droalex]

I guess im a newb but I can't see Media Browser in the extras menu -_- Whats wrong? I installed it and everything

 

[mxosder16]

The program wont launch under Windows 7 RTM

You need to install v2.0.1 first then overwright with 2.1.1 for it to work.

You can find the Icon under 'Extras Library' in Media Center

That's exactly what i had to do

 

[droalex]

Got it working this is so awesome.

 

[mxosder16]

Ok, the way i get my metadata now is via a program called meta<browser/>
if you guys need metadata that is the program to have IMO

 

[Orbital Shark]

Ok, the way i get my metadata now is via a program called meta<browser/>
if you guys need metadata that is the program to have IMO

+1 man, this is an excellent (backup) application for metadata

 

[DemonSeed]

I Found A very good way to speed things up.

I found MediaBrowser took a lot of time to sift through the large amount of image cache files so I took the time to figure out how to run MediaBrowser from RAM. Once the cache was cleared and rebuilt in RAM, the program loads thumbnails instantly. I no longer have to wait for all the thumbnails to appear and especially when using the Vanilla theme and the high res backdrops.

Note that this was done using Windows 7 build 7260 32bit Version. It should work with Vista/Windows7 systems.

What your going to need is RAM drive software and Windows Vista or Windows 7. RAM Drive software I've tested with are:

QSoft RAMDISK $20 -- ramdisk.tk -- 32Bit and 64Bit Versions Available
RamDisk 10 for Desktop Systems $60 ** Note you need version 10 for Windows7/Vista -- RamDisk - Microsoft Certified Software -- 32Bit and 64Bit Versions Available
Free Ramdisk $0--Free Ramdisk for Windows Vista, XP, 2000 and 2003 Server » My Digital Life - Thanks for the tip FeLix 32Bit ONLY Version Only

Both Programs save your RAMDRIVE to hard disk prior to shutdown and restore on bootup.
If your system has 4GB of RAM and using a 32bit OS like I am, those 2 programs can use that 1GB of System RAM that is unused.

Step 1
Download and install the RAM Disk software of your choice. Ramdisk 10 has a nice GUI and is easier to install and setup but is more expensive. You can download it as trialware and is fully functional for 15 days. QSoft RAMDISK is cheaper but I suggest you read the instruction carefully. The instructions say to go to control panel and select Add New Hardware to kick things off, but in Windows 7 the Add New Hardware button is gone. Instead click the Start Orb and search for hdwwiz.exe. I set my RAMDRIVE to 992MB. My current MediaBrowser folder with the cache and ImagesByName folder are already taking up 600+ MB.

Step 2
Once your RAM drive is setup, format it with a quick NTFS filesystem and create a "ProgramData" folder inside it. After that navigate to C:\ProgramData\ (It may be hidden, if so go to folder options in the control panel and check show hidden files) and right click the MediaBrowser folder and select copy, then paste it into your newly created ProgramData folder on your RAMDRIVE.

Step 3
Delete the MediaBrowser folder in C:\ProgramData\. (Or move it to your desktop to create a backup if something going wrong)

Step 4
If you haven't heard Vista/Windows 7 make use of soft/hard links much like *nix. The command is MKLINK in dos. If you want more information on it, Google it.
Click the Start Orb and Search cmd.exe and type the following :

MKLINK /J C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser DriveLetterofyourRAMDRIVE:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser

Optional Step 5
Make sure you add correct user permissions if your using exenders ie. xbox360 to the new MediaBrowser folder on your RAMDRIVE for all your xbox360 users.

Edit: If you think your lacking RAM, you can just put one or 2 folders on your RAM Drive. For instance, if you just wanted to put the ImageCache folder on your RAMDRIVE you would just copy the ImageCache onto your RAMDRIVE keeping the same directory structure. After pasting, delete the original folder from the C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\ directory. Next you edit the MKLINK command:

MKLINK /J C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\ImageCache DriveLetterofyourRAMDRIVE:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\ImageCache

Thats it.


Cheers,

Washy

I have been playing with the ram drive, and have now moved almost everything MB related to the ram drive.
I have moved the Cache folder, ImagesByName folder,Plugins folder, RSS folder, StartupFolder, and even the folder I keep my Startup Icons in. + to top it off I uninstalled MediaBrowser and then reinstalled it to the Ram Drive.

I can now TRULY SEE A SPEED BOOST!!! The only thing that is still on a HDD is the image cache (because its just to big) and the CustomStyles.mcml, Fonts_DoNotEdit.mcml, MediaBrowserXml.config, Styles_DoNotEdit.mcml.

I gave MB 1GB on the Ram Drive and with all of tha in Ram its only using 768mb. And like I said I can really see improvement!

   Note

Yea I did it in my norm, moving pix so I'm sure you know the drill by now. If not...
*** I am using animated pix in this post that you can not see move with Internet Explorer. If you are using Firefox, Safari, or Opera your good, just skip over this next part.
If your using any other web browser please just for this, download this Portitable Web Browser and run the opera.exe and it will open, then browse back to this page, and you wont miss a thing.

This is on the Hdd side of things...

This is on the Ram Side of things...

So you know its all true!

P.S.> You probably saw that link for my image cache, it was just to move it to another drive. As you can see my C:/ partition was a little full so I moved it to another hdd. The reason I had to leave the Image Cache on a hdd is my Image Cache is 7.25gb and I only have 6gb of RAm.


This is the commands I used.

MKLINK /J C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\Cache J:\Cache

MKLINK /J C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\ImageCache J:\ImageCache

MKLINK /J C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\StartupFolder J:\StartupFolder

MKLINK /J C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\Plugins J:\Plugins

MKLINK /J C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\RSS J:\RSS

MKLINK /J C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\ImagesByName J:\ImagesByName

Anyone that wants to try this, Be sure to backup anything that you put on the Ram Drive. I did not and I had a power outage and lost everything that was on the Ram Drive, so be sure to make a backup image and keep it in a safe place!

 

[zay]

How much physical memory do you have? I only have 2 GB, would a ram drive work ok for me with that amount of memory?

 

[DemonSeed]

I have 6gb in mine. If you are using a x86 OS and wanted to add more ram you could add up to 4gb, Knowing that a x86 OS will only be able to use 3gb of that the Ram Drive can still use that Free unused gb that the OS can't use.

But to give you a direct answer, yes you can set a side 512mb of your ram and move everything MB Cache related except the Image Cache and you should see some improvement.

 

[APorter]

Demonseed, I added my dropbox link over on the Starkcovers forum for you with my imagebyname folder of about 5,000 images. Hope that helps you get back up and running easier.

 

[DemonSeed]

Cool thanks Man!

 

[AfroMoNk]

I have MB and it works very well in Vista32bit (thx to the community). I'm trying to setup my colleague the same way in Vista 32bit and I get an error message at some point.
We are able to access MB, once we click on the Movie folder we have the cover flow of all the movies. the error message appear when we click on a specific movie. it says that Media Center has stop working, so I get a choice to search a solution online, debug or close the app. Anybody had that issue before? again it's not when playing the movie it's when trying to access the movie info page where you have the synopsis, media info, etc.
The folder structure is F:/movie/Moviename/movie.exe.

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: ehshell.exe
Application Version: 6.0.6000.16386
Application Timestamp: 4549b55e
Fault Module Name: EhUI.dll
Fault Module Version: 6.0.6000.16856
Fault Module Timestamp: 49f99caf
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 0004648e
OS Version: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.256.1
Locale ID: 3084


thanks, I'll try the MB forum as well.

 

[zay]

Ehshell.exe is not MB, it is media center. What else do you have installed besides MB? Go to control panel, then click on the troubleshooting icon, then on the left colum, click on view history, and see if it shows anything in there. What codecs do you have installed? I know one that used to crash my media center was nero home, that is why whenever I install nero, I choose custom, and leave out hero home, and all the unecessary options. If you want to be certain, do a roll back, or simply remove MB and see what happens. Does this happen to every movie file type?

@DS, let me know if you need anything to get back up and running. I think you should also invest in a UPS, mine has saved me countless times.

 

[AfroMoNk]

thanks for the reply. it's fixed now. it had to do with the MB configuration. My buddy had put the whole drive as a movie location and MB didn't like that. I should have looked there first. By putting a more specific location C:/Movies/Moviename it worked.
Thanks

 

[DemonSeed]

My buddy had put the whole drive as a movie location and MB didn't like that.

That should have worked fine. I have 5 drives not folders in my config and it works fine.

 

[T0r0]

Clearing cache, MB not seeing mkv

Hello all,
I was hoping to get some insight on 2 issues I'm having. A few weeks ago the clear cache option in MB stopped working. It says i have to manually delete the cache file at program data. Np, I know where it is but I'm curious as to why the sudden error.
Reason being brings me to issue #2. I have a mkv that MB doesnt see or play yet plays fime if I open directly with WMP. Thing is, it used to see it, I deleted the folder png and xml from that paticular movie hoping that it would rewrite it but it hasnt. I'm at a loss here.
I did delete the whole cache file and all subfolders manually. Everything else was found again except this movie.

Windows 7 64
MB 2.1.1.0

 

[DemonSeed]

When it says delete the cache, its because its corrupted. To do that you should just go to the
C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\Cache
and
C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\Image Cache and delete everything inside both folders.
Not the movie folders, if you have used a meta data fetcher, the info that is in the movie folders was placed there by them. That info is stored locally so that i the event of needing to delete the cache, its already there and does not need to be re downloaded.

If you have used a fetcher then I would recomend that you use it again and it will more than likely find that missing info you were asking about, and that is the only way to get info that does not show on its own. On the fetchers I recommend <meta/browser>

The file you say wont play. The first thing to know is that Media Browser is not the movie player, Media Center is. So what that means is that if MC will play it MB can launch it.
If Windows Media Player will play it and Media Center wont then it is often to do with Codec's or Media Splitters. What codec pack are you using? I would recommend Sharks Codec Pack. Also if your using a x64 OS besure that you install the x32 & x64 Packs. The Media Splitter that works with Shark is Haali Media Splitter.

There is also a good guide for mkv's on Hack 7MC that might help you out on that as well.

And by the way Welcome to the forum!

 

[zay]

yeah welcome as well, hope you get the issue worked out.

 

[abuttino]

I use it although it's the slowest app I use. Wish they would get better extender support.

 

[T0r0]

Thx for the reply, a few clarifications tho:

I understand that Media Browser is not the player. And I'm not asking about setting up to play mkv. Already Done that. The problem is that Media Browser wont see that paticular file(movie). In MB, I see a transparent folder with movie name is all (Hellboy 2)btw. All my other mkv movies work fine and this one did before also.
Now MB doesnt tell me to delete the cache, I am using the option under setting , hoping to renew Hellboy 2 data. Not working. I then get the error that says to maunally delete the cache
I'm only using media browser, nothing else. To play the mkv's ,I used Shark's pack for 64.

"If Windows Media Player will play it and Media Center wont then it is often to do with Codec's or Media Splitters."

Tell me more about this as this is my problem exactly. I havent made any changes or tweaks to the codec pack as of yet.

Thanks

 

[DemonSeed]

Sorry to say that I'm not much help past that. I don't use mkv so I truly don't know how to trouble shoot problems with those files.