Media Centre House | Forum

Along with the Spotify MCE plugin, also looks like there'll be an upgrade to the latest version of Media Browser this weekend as well.

I'm a few weeks behind the times, but the new version of Media Browser, Firestorm, came out just before Christmas.

I've yet to install this latest version, but I've really liked using Media Browser since installing it about 2 months ago. My biggest problem has always been convincing the wife she'll like the films I want to watch, but now with the fanart and descriptions they look much more appealing; I've since managed to make her sit through Terminator Salvation and Crank2!

I'm still using the Movies section in MC but this does look cool looking in the galleries on the website.

Might be something else to play with on these long cold snowy nights.

(01-08-2010 11:31 AM)John180 Wrote: [ -> ]I'm still using the Movies section in MC but this does look cool looking in the galleries on the website.

Might be something else to play with on these long cold snowy nights.

If you consider there to be 3 movie library options: the standard DVD Library in Media Center, My Movies and this Media Browser, I would say Media Browser sits happily in the middle in terms of functionality.

Media Center's DVD Library is basic and won't feature Blu-ray of course, My Movies just goes way too far in terms of options and features (unless that's your kindathing of course), and Media Browser offers the best of both.

So far it's the only MCE mod I run.

Well i tried My movies 3 last week and i didnt really like it. Just seemed to be doing too much for what I needed.
But like you say Movies in MC is a bit basic. I'm still not convinced either way tho.

Thats why i thought if i try media browser it will make up my mind which one i prefer then i can get on with getting my dvds and hopefully blu rays when i get a drive... on to my system.

I downloaded and am now using MB 2.2.1 which I think really works well within WMC.

My current set up exists of 2x external 1TB drives and using a partition on the bedroom media pc for music dvds, tv series from DVD and kids DVD's.

So the way that MB views them (i.e. the folders) is:
DVD Movies 1
DVD Movies 2
DVD Movies 3 (tv, kids, music)

I will look at tidying this up so the films are not split into three folders. When the server pc is online I will get 2 or 3 1.5TB HDD's in there for storage, so hopefully there will be a max of 2x DVD folders for ease of finding films, then separate Blu Ray folder. Either that or separate for genre instead of the above. So instead of DVD Movies 1 (as in the folder), rename to Comedy, Family, Sci-Fi, TV and the second for all other genres i.e. Drama, Horror etc etc...

I have now started to back up my Blu Ray discs to ISO's on the main media pc downstairs on a partitioned drive and comes up. However, when trying to view Blu Ray, it spits it's dummy out and moans about Daemon Tools. Now I use Slysofts Virtual Clonedrive. If I mount the Blu ray ISO, it opens fine via Power DVD9 and AnyDVD running in the background, but can't get it to work with Media Browser.

I'm sure Elootos has this working and obviously missing something really easy, but stuck.

Also - managed to sort out AnyDVD. For some reason didn't like Windows 7 64 bit. Works fine again now I installed 32 bit last weekend. This also sorted out my wireless issues. Since going to 64 bit, I struggled streaming Blu Ray as connection showed 54Mbps and never changed. Now I'm back on 32bit, I get speeds of 108-180+Mbps and Blu Ray streaming is great. Initially I thought it was the router as the blue wireless light doesn't work anymore, so obviously a bulb out issue. Wouldn't mind, the chuffin' thing is less than a year old.

EDIT - Re-read the excellent post by Elootos 'Media Browser set up' and need to click on the settings within Media Browser to point to the Daemon.exe file. Will give this a go tonight. Will be happy to use MB's Blu Ray browser via WMC. Keeps things nice and easy for the missus. However, she is warming to the whole WMC experience now as easy to find the films she wants to watch. She's just not a fan of the amount of time I spend faffing about with it, but it's just my nature and glad to see others on here who share a similar passion.

Media Browser looks great when the background pictures load up. As a quick question, where are these stored ? There are some great desktop pic potential in these. My BB connection with Sky is slow in the evenings so can take a good 20 seconds or so to load up the pics. Has anyone managed to get actors faces on them when viewing the cast list ? Mine are just silhouettes at the moment.

Tonyc I had problems with anydvdhd and daemon tools.
Posted this over at AVF
Bit of info with regards to daemon tools
Deamon Tools Lite as good as it is has a nasty side effect with a system using anydvd to rip discs.
It grinds to a halt when ripping.
This is down to the SPTD driver Daemon tools uses.
Users having this problem should run the uninstaller DuplexSecure - Downloads
And switch to virtual clone drive instead.

(03-04-2010 12:08 PM)tonyc Wrote: [ -> ]EDIT - Re-read the excellent post by Elootos 'Media Browser set up' and need to click on the settings within Media Browser to point to the Daemon.exe file.

(03-04-2010 01:09 PM)huxley Wrote: [ -> ]And switch to virtual clone drive instead.

Here, here for Virtual Clonedrive. Never had a single issue with it. I use to use Daemon Tools in the XP era, but it had too many options/problems/issues.

Reading your post, I was going to mention pointing MB to the VCD daemon file, but see you already figured that out The silhouettes are because its not picking up an art as no one has submitted any. And for the background images, if you look in your film folders you should see fanart.jpg files and these are what get downloaded. I think by putting your own in there it will show them.

FYI, MediaBrowser 2.2.2 'Thunderblade' is now out and it seems to have quite a few updates/changes.

Sussed it...

•To play films from within Media Center you will also need to set Media Browsers Daemon location to the Virtual Clonedrive folder. So do just that; in the same Media Browser configuration area, select 'Advanced' and under 'External Players' set the daemon location to the daemon.exe file within the Virtual Clonedrive folder (somewhere like - C:/Program Files/Elaborate Bytes/Virtual Clonedrive/daemon.exe)

As for Daemon Tools, agreed not used that bit of software for years. Clonedrive is far more reliable.

Ok, MB doesn't come up with the error message anymore - their default program they look for is Daemon Tools, but with the above, sorts that out. However, when I click on play, nothing happens. I get the little noise to confirm an action has been made, but the movie doesn't play.

(03-04-2010 11:20 PM)tonyc Wrote: [ -> ]Sussed it...

However, when I click on play, nothing happens. I get the little noise to confirm an action has been made, but the movie doesn't play.

Have you checked your autoplay settings in Windows? What does 'Blu-ray Disc' say?

If running PowerDVD, Media Center should minimise and PowerDVD come to the front. If running PDVD V9, then it should play within the Media Center interface itself.

(03-05-2010 10:54 AM)elootos Wrote: [ -> ]

(03-04-2010 11:20 PM)tonyc Wrote: [ -> ]Sussed it...

However, when I click on play, nothing happens. I get the little noise to confirm an action has been made, but the movie doesn't play.

Have you checked your autoplay settings in Windows? What does 'Blu-ray Disc' say?

If running PowerDVD, Media Center should minimise and PowerDVD come to the front. If running PDVD V9, then it should play within the Media Center interface itself.

Sussed it again. The player in the settings was "CloneDrive" which is why nothing was happening. Typical user error. I've changed this and worked fine again. Weirdly though yesterday everytime I clicked to watch a Blu-Ray, an Any DVD window opened to say it was scanning the disc followed by PowerDVD9 opening and all conflicted with each other. Even more weird things, when I re-booted again and tried again, all work perfectly together.

Dunno what all that was about yesterday but seems to have cured itself, so thanks again Elootos, I've now got my Blu Ray movies to play via Media Browser in WMC. The missus also likes this set up. Slowly clicking on each film to download the cover art which for my BB connection in the evening and weekends is poor. Will get there, but overall am impressed by this.