MediaBrowser

[lionking]

Thank You Zay... You have been very helpful

The only thing is i am trying to launch an external program once i am already in MediaBrowser. I know that i can launch an app from within Media Center by using Media Center Studio. But thats not what i am looking for...I am trying to launch an external app once i am inside mediabrowser?

One Other question, would you know how i can change the font in the start up strip of media center ?

Thank u again...hope i'm not being too much of a pain

 

[zay]

No pain at all, that is we are all here for, to learn, and to help those that need it. Sorry, I don't think it is possible to do what you are asking MB to do. Demonseed might be able to shed a better light on the matter. As for changing the font, media center studio can do that as well. Check out this link.

 

[DemonSeed]

Hello lionking,

You can have MB launch an external app to take over playing your videos. But I don't get the impression that's what your talking about. Seems like your asking if you can have MB launch another app on command, and if so, the answer is no, you can not.

If it is, that your looking to have another app launched to play the videos instead of letting Media Center play them. Then the answer is, yes you can set it up to do that. To set it up you need to open the config tool for MB. Then go tho the external players tab, and set what file type opens in what app.

If you need more help just yell

 

[Brash]

How "polished" is this plugin? Is it anywhere near something that could pass for a self-contained retail package? Buggy?

I know it looks nice from the screens I see but other than that all I see are tons of people posting fixes, hacks, registery codes and icons and other plugins... so much so that it seems like a product not worth the headache if that's what I got to do... making me believe that the only reason the those youtube vids and pix of it in action look as good as they do is because of much community effort...

I want to try it but I also am not looking forward to all the work it seems like it takes to get it off the ground and that polished.

I'm glad such a thing exists though...

 

[DemonSeed]

Lets put it this way.

If you are starting your Media Center HTPC from the ground up, freshy new.
Then building your library to MediaBrowser standers, will just seems like good common since.

If you already have your media library established, and you have use another programs standers for file conventions. Then converting to the Media Browsers way of doing things could be a headache.
Not impossible, but depending on the size of your library, potentially time consuming.

I'm not saying it isn't worth doing by any means, because I truly believe it is.
Just saying be prepared.

But really when you look at any of the other programs out there, you have just as big a learning curve as you have with MB.
But thankfully MB has such a loyal following that people almost never run into a issue that we, the community, cant resolve in no time flat.

So If your wanting to take the plunge, and have been hesitating for fear you wont have the support you need to get it done quickly. Fear no more. If I, or the others here cant help you through something, I can guarantee I can point you to the people that can.

As for the art and things you see all over. That's just us guys with more time then we have since, pushing the modding ability's of MediaBrowser to it's extreme.

It is not in any way required that you spend as much time as we do tweaking every part of your experience in MB.
But if your anything like the other 200,000 people out there, once you start, you wont be able to stop.

 

[Brash]

.

If you already have your media library established, and you have use another programs standers for file conventions. Then converting to the Media Browsers way of doing things could be a headache.
Not impossible, but depending on the size of your library, potentially time consuming.

What do you mean? How could it be different?

I have probably 3.5k episodes of tv stuff and about 300-400 movies. I use various programs such as... Media Player Classic Home Cinema, Windows Media Center, MediaPortal and arcsoft TotalMedia. =P I organize my movies by folders so that each movie has a "folder.jpg" file so that they look nice in MPC or MediaPortal. I also label the folders with exact name and dates... I keep them sorted according to genra.. and most are streamed from my other computer by wireless network in the other room.
ie.
D:/videos/Movies/+Horror/Friday The 13th (2009)/fridaythe13th(2009)-Divx_Team_Noir.avi
D:/videos/Movies/+Horror/Friday The 13th (2009)/folder.jpg

I just made that up, but that's how I organize them for WMC/MP/MPC-hc. What would MB not like about that?


I've been wanting WMC to act more like MediaPortal and have been hoping a plugin like this would come around to fix that.. but i also don't want to screw up my system with something that will mess up my files or hacks the system in order to function.

 

[DemonSeed]

MB would want your files like this
D:/videos/Movies/+Horror/Friday The 13th (2009)/fridaythe13th(2009)[Divx_Team_Noir].avi

Anything inside of [ ] will not be looked at by MB
Anything inside of ( ) will be looked at for the Movie Year

The folder.jpg you have will be picked up and viewed in MB as your Movie Poster
MB will also read a mymovies.xml
So if your picky about your metadata you can use a fetcher like meta<browser/> or Yammm to gather and download your metadata to your folders and that will be displayed in MB.

MB will also allow you to download and save multiple backdrops and trailers for each movie and store that in the movie folders as well.

It really has become a grate app for bringing all your media and fanart into one place.

It will also handle Music and allow you to browse with the same eye candy that you receive from every other part of the app.


MB is still being heavily developed and it gits more and more stable with each release.
Right now it is faster then it has ever been. It has lots of guys developing new plugins that are adding more and more features to it all the time.

There are now 7 themes to choose from. 6 of those being plugins

So from the looks from what you have, all you would need to do is go through and put all the non-movie related info into [ ] and you would be ready to go.

 

[Brash]

i don't really understand the xml config for meta data.
I never toyed with an xml file-type... is that like an ini file that has the settings for MB? Or is that just where the movie descriptions and actor info?

Do i have to create it or does it already come with mb... why would we need to edit it? is MB not very good at figuring out the actors and movie descriptions by itself? I'm just assuming that's what the xml must be used for.

 

[DemonSeed]

MB is very good a figuring out stuff, but if a fetcher is used and you have the metadata stored locally. You have total control over what gets displayed.

Plus if it is stored on the PC if MB's cache ever needs to be cleared, all the metadata will be refreshed 99.9% faster then if it all had to be re-downloaded.

 

[zay]

I got an error that I hope Demon or someone else can solve. I am trying to install some new plugins but keep the getting the attached error in the screen shot. I have run MB configuration wizard with "run as Administrator", I have rebooted the machine, still no joy. Anyone else experience this error, and how did you solve it? This only happens if I try to install a plugin theme, it does not happen for the other type of plugins.

 

[DemonSeed]

Do you have MC running?

What version of MB you running? If it's to old the plugins will see that and not install.

 

[zay]

Thanks for the response Demon, yeah I got it figured out. I did not realize that a new version of MB was out. I installed pegasus, and the plugins installed fine. I still don't see the options for subtitles and movies like this. I tried the various themes, but no options for the "subtitle Povider"s or the "movies like this". I read a post that said all I had to do was press * to see the options for the movies like this, but no luck as yet. Any tips on how to get these two to work?

 

[DemonSeed]

That should be working. The * or Shift-8 will open the context menu.

Try Shift-8 and see if it opens. Could be your remote isn't registering the * when the * button is pressed.

As for the subtitle provider, that is a background plugin that does nothing more then search the net and find the srt file for your movies and downloads it to your folders.

 

[zay]

Yeah I tried the shift 8, still no joy. I removed the whole thing, hopefully reinstalling will work. Hey Demon, I noticed a lot of my IBN actors folder are empty, can I get a copy of your ibn folder? Thanks. What theme are you using now, and why?

 

[DemonSeed]

Their is a bunch of people currently working on gathering, sorting, cropping, and resizing actor images

The packs they release can be found here. theHTPC.net People
They are also looking for more help if anyone is interested ImagesByName People Project. - Media Browser Community Tracker


I use the Simplicity theme. It's still in the bata stage but I really like the fell of it so I deal with it's shortcomings until it's fully complete.

 

[zay]

Man for some reason you always get back to me after I get stuff figured out, lol. But as always, I appreciate you for always jumping to help me out. I see you have a big project going on with the boxset stuff, great job. Looking I think know why my actors were not working, my dangum folders were empty, lol. It's the simplest things sometimes I forget to check.
Ok I give up, I still don't see the "movies like this" and I know the subtitle provider is not working either. I know for a fact that I have subtitle files (srt or sub) in my folders, yet MB shows them as not having subtitles.

 

[DibbesNL]

@Zay:
For srt's to be recognized by the plugin, these need to have exactly the same name as the movie file and be in the same folder, for example:

Good:
u:\series3\bones\season5\Bones - S05E18 - The Predator in the Pool.avi
u:\series3\bones\season5\Bones - S05E18 - The Predator in the Pool.srt

Bad:

u:\series3\bones\season5\Bones - S05E18 - The Predator in the Pool.avi
u:\series3\bones\season5\subs\Bones - S05E18 - The Predator in the Pool.avi

or

v:\series4\Castle\season2\Castle (2009) - S02E21 - Den of Thieves.avi
v:\series4\Castle\season2\Castle.2009.S02E21.HDTV.XviD-2HD.srt

Though some players, like vlc, will use a subtitle file even if it doesn't have exactly the same name, the plugin doesn't.

 

[zay]

Thanks for the tip, but it is not that subtitles are not showing, it is the fact that MB says that there is no subs in the movie properties. In the two screenshots, one is with the harmony theme and one is with the diamond theme.

 

[Brash]

When MB asks to change network sharing settings can we do that manually instead? I don't know if I trust that. Is there anything else it messes with that is questionable?

Does it do a clean uninstall?

Does it try to anything malicious like tool-bars?

 

[zay]

MB does not try to install any toolbars or any kind of third party software like some other apps do. As for it doing a clean uninstall, the answer is not really. When it uninstalls, it leaves the folder in program data so that if you decide to reinstall, the settings and cache is still there with your metadata. If you want to truly uninstall it, after going thru the traditional program removal, reboot your pc, then once restarted, delete the media browser folder located in c:\programdata (this is a hidden folder by default), then go to c:\program files, and delete the media browser folder there as well. I use revo uninstaller in advanced mode to remove my apps that way it gets any left over folders and registry files as well. Hope this helps you.