Media Browser

[abaez]

So whoever is using Media Center to control their media would probably like Media Browser, a plugin that organizes/detects all of your media in a nice, easy to use interface.

You can get it at http://code.google.com/p/videobrowser/ and there is some good information at the forums and at avs here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1094009

I've ss'd some images of it in action here:
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/abaez/MM.jpg
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/abaez/1234.jpg
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/abaez/tg1.jpg
http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/abaez/tg2.jpg

All of that information was auto-detected by the program. And it transcodes over to the 360 and automounts/plays dvd and blu ray ISO's. Very nice.

It does have its quirks - I'm looking to see if someone can assist with how MB gets its data for the shows. For example all of my office episodes are as they should be The Office/Season 1.. The Office/Season 2.. etc with the show name being MB's suggestion of showname.S##E## (so season 1, episode 3 would be TheOffice.S01E03.avi).

MB detects most of the shows I have fine (Pushing Daises, Tudors, Top Gear), but for whatever reason it's not picking up the office. I've tried different filenames and such and I just can't get it to detect. So I'm wondering if anyone knows what websource it uses to get its information from so I can adjust my filenames correctly and have MB get the info? I also have some other movies and anime that doesn't get detected and I'd like to get those updated as well.

Otherwise I just see folder in MB when I love up Media Center.

 

[QueBert]

looks pretty slick, but I <3 XBMC and can't see myself ever using something else. XBMC + Mediastream = OMGWTFBBQ!?! This looks like a pretty decent alternative though.

*HUGS his XBMC setup*

 

[SAWYER]

What all file types will work?

 

[abaez]

Quebert I download XBMC but it did not detect anything with regards to my directory.

Sawyer - All file types will work as long as you have the codecs. Any DVD/BR/HDDVD iso's, or even if you ripped in a directory structure.

So, no one has any info on what it uses to look up ?

 

[QueBert]

abaez from my personal experience XBMC took me a bit of work to get it up and running like I wanted to. But since I have figured it all out (wasn't too hard) it's perfection. I have every season of south park ripped from my DVD's, same with Arrested Development, Sanford & Son and about 50 dvd movies. Plus all my music cd's. Everything has box covers and a lot even has fan art. Which is pretty cool, that changes the background to match the show. Some of it i very high resolution and looks amazing in 720p or 1080p resolution. XBMC has a slight learning curve, but it's so worth it.

 

[abaez]

Does it handle iso's? As in 1:1 iso dvd/bluray/hddvd rips and automount and play?

 

[QueBert]

can't comment too much on bluerays as I don't have a player but yes it handles ISOs, also VIDEO_TS folders. Only thing I've found it has problems with is WMV sometimes, I got a couple highlight videos people made in WMV format and there's no sound in them. If you need Blueray/HDDVD playback XBMC probably isn't the best solution. I know it doesn't nativity support either, but not sure if there is a plugin that can add support.

 

[SAWYER]

installed it and I tried streaming some avi files and they wouldn't work. These same files can be streamed from my WHS to my 360 and from my Vista Ultimate pc to my 360 with no issue.

 

[rsd]

My favorite VMC plug-in ever. Totally supplanted that POS MyMovies software.

Supports playback/mounting of isos, can automatically look-up metadata, looks pretty, supports external players, etc etc. A must have in my book for anyone using Vista Media Center.

 

[abaez]

Agree rsd! But where does it get its metadata from!?!

 

[rsd]

Originally posted by: abaez
Agree rsd! But where does it get its metadata from!?!

thetvdb.com for TV Series and themoviedb.org for Movies. It will even download backdrops that people posted on those sites. Looks amazing really.

EDIT: If you're looking to fix/add the metadata, use the Metabrowser utility (for Movies) or TVScout (For TV Shows) that have been posted on their forum. Works perfect. I usually do this for my content just to avoid the re-caching that occurs if you have to delete the local cache for content automatically pulled in.

 

[sivart]

My deamon tools virtual drive was linked in the setup correctly, but yet it still wouldn't play my ISO's?

Nor would it play any media file that VMC can't handle natively. It did, however, load from my network faster then VMC "My Videos" does.

I'm still looking for the perfect format that will play HD videos on both my PS3 and VMC....

 

[abaez]

Originally posted by: rsd

Originally posted by: abaez
Agree rsd! But where does it get its metadata from!?!

thetvdb.com for TV Series and themoviedb.org for Movies. It will even download backdrops that people posted on those sites. Looks amazing really.

EDIT: If you're looking to fix/add the metadata, use the Metabrowser utility (for Movies) or TVScout (For TV Shows) that have been posted on their forum. Works perfect. I usually do this for my content just to avoid the re-caching that occurs if you have to delete the local cache for content automatically pulled in.

THANK YOU!

I was using Metabrowser, but not TVScout. I'll try it tonight.

Originally posted by: sivart
My deamon tools virtual drive was linked in the setup correctly, but yet it still wouldn't play my ISO's?

Nor would it play any media file that VMC can't handle natively. It did, however, load from my network faster then VMC "My Videos" does.

I'm still looking for the perfect format that will play HD videos on both my PS3 and VMC....

When you double click on an ISO in windows does it auto-mount and auto-play? For DVD iso's, VMC handles them natively once they are mounted, but for HDDVD's and BR's I had to change the settings in windows to autoplay with WinDVD once an hdvd or BR iso was mounted. See here: http://blog.mediacentersandbox...88b1-0369670fe1ff.aspx

That's the only way I got mine to work with all iso's.

For media files that VMC can't handle natively, check softpedia for Vista Codec Pack. (I know another codec pack - blech). Once I installed that everything played fine.

 

[rsd]

Originally posted by: sivart
My deamon tools virtual drive was linked in the setup correctly, but yet it still wouldn't play my ISO's?

Nor would it play any media file that VMC can't handle natively. It did, however, load from my network faster then VMC "My Videos" does.

I'm still looking for the perfect format that will play HD videos on both my PS3 and VMC....

Daemon tools does work. You can also try Virtual Clone Drive, as later versions of Daemon tools can cause issues.

Mediabrowser is simply a plug-in to view your files, it will not affect what your machine can or can not play. There are many ways to get Vista to play virtually all file types natively. However MB also let's you define an external player if you so choose. You should not have any issues getting to play files via MB if you do enough research.

 

[sivart]

I have a HD avi file that will play through WMP just fine, but not launch in VMC at all. I also already have the Vista Codec Pack installed. I'll have to check and see if double clicking an ISO file will auto-mount and launch.

 

[rsd]

Originally posted by: sivart
I have a HD avi file that will play through WMP just fine, but not launch in VMC at all. I also already have the Vista Codec Pack installed. I'll have to check and see if double clicking an ISO file will auto-mount and launch.

Could be a registry change is needed. It is really hard to debug it when you use codec packs. I literally can play every file I can imagine in VMC msyelf (mkvs, divx,xvid, mp4, avi, dvd (iso), dvd (video_ts), etc) so it is doable.

 

[vi edit]

This thread in combination with the "home media" server thread make me think this forum needs a stickied discussion on the software & tools out there for managing all of your media and how best to deliver it.

I just think there are so many choices out there and so many questions about how to make them work, we need something dedicated to it that can be an ongoing conversation.

 

[QueBert]

I agree vi edit, I've been doing a lot with figuring out the newer features in XBMC since this thread popped up. With external player support for non support formats (like HD-DVD & Blu-Ray) it's about the perfect solution. Not the most user friendly but once you get the basics down you don't even need to mess with it much. I person without the know how to mess with it themselves probably would give up before they figure sh!t out. A sticky would be great. A properly configured HTPC setup is a thing of beauty.

 

[jtvang125]

Ok, I tried it last night and so far I'm pretty impressed. I've been using mymovies ever since I built my htpc a few years ago. It was good and I was ok with the UI but as I added more and more movies it just got way too slow. If I viewed my whole collection (~1400 movies) it would take 15-20 seconds to load it. If you go and view the details of a movie and exit back to the collection it has to reload again. The loading time quickly became painful to use.

I was glad to see that MB is way snappier even when my whole collection is loaded. However it would not play the mkv files that played just fine in mymovies. It kept saying files needed to play the file are not loaded or installed but maybe I just need to restart it.

One thing I like about mymovies though is the backend. It's a good way to catalog your collection so you'll know what you have.

 

[abaez]

Originally posted by: rsd

Originally posted by: abaez
Agree rsd! But where does it get its metadata from!?!

thetvdb.com for TV Series and themoviedb.org for Movies. It will even download backdrops that people posted on those sites. Looks amazing really.

EDIT: If you're looking to fix/add the metadata, use the Metabrowser utility (for Movies) or TVScout (For TV Shows) that have been posted on their forum. Works perfect. I usually do this for my content just to avoid the re-caching that occurs if you have to delete the local cache for content automatically pulled in.

Tried out TVScout (now MediaScout) and it worked awesome. Found everything for all of the TVSets, even all the Code Geass anime stuff and downloaded all of the folders and jpg's needed. What's good is that it places the images right in the folder, so it will work for several different programs if you don't like MB.

 

[BD2003]

Does this work with the Win7 Media Center, or only with VMC?

 

[rsd]

Originally posted by: BD2003
Does this work with the Win7 Media Center, or only with VMC?

It should work in Win7 but YMMV from what I read on the forums. Some people had issues, which they addressed but some still have them.

 

[Booty]

New version just released (2.1). New homepage and theme (diamond) are really nice...