I haven't tried this app yet, but I look forward to doing so soon.  I took a quick look at the screenshots and would like to add my one suggestion:

I really like the AppleTV-like scroll mode.  I don't like having to move left/right to scroll through the movies in the MyMovies UI, and it also makes for smaller cover art images.  Interestingly, the new version of the AppleTV UI looks like a clone of MyMovies in this respect.  Ugh.  But I'd like to see you take this a step further and let me have even *bigger* images.  You could do this by removing the movie summary/details on the main page.  This would allow for more movies being listed *and* larger cover art.  I want *HUGE* cover art. 

 

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Tapland - Tapwave Zodiac news, reviews, and discussion
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Scott R:

I haven't tried this app yet, but I look forward to doing so soon.  I took a quick look at the screenshots and would like to add my one suggestion:

I really like the AppleTV-like scroll mode.  I don't like having to move left/right to scroll through the movies in the MyMovies UI, and it also makes for smaller cover art images.  Interestingly, the new version of the AppleTV UI looks like a clone of MyMovies in this respect.  Ugh.  But I'd like to see you take this a step further and let me have even *bigger* images.  You could do this by removing the movie summary/details on the main page.  This would allow for more movies being listed *and* larger cover art.  I want *HUGE* cover art. 

Because a picture says more then a thousand words, here's a screen. Also note the upper movie in the list is displayed a bit grayish to show that the list goes on above.
I also like this one, cover on the left with description below it and the list on the right.

Right.  The one difference from the current/old AppleTV UI would be that I'd still want the sideways-scrolling category selection (e.g., by title, by genre, by actor, etc.) on the top/right of the screen.

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Tapland - Tapwave Zodiac news, reviews, and discussion
http://tapland.com

hi Sam, your doing a sterling job with video browser, really like it so far, any chance you can loose the black background and make it transparent, i think it would just make things look a bit more integrated into vmc.

paul.

Personally I like the black background and the fact that it stands out from the rest of the Media Center. After all it is a stand out application that should bask in its own colour scheme

OxfordRob:

Personally I like the black background and the fact that it stands out from the rest of the Media Center. After all it is a stand out application that should bask in its own colour scheme

i can sort of see what your saying, but isnt the whole idea with vmc that you have a unified interface thats easy to navigate and consistent throughout?. its not a big problem for me, if most people think a black background is the way forward then im happy to go with the majority :-).

paul.

I definitely like the black. Personal preference I suppose. Would it be possible to add a config file in which users can toggle either black or transparent. That'd keep everyone happy. (or maybe we can make the media centre interface black instead of blue!!

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http://www.spore.com/view/profile/Vengence_IRL

I'm having some difficult getting this to work and I'm thinking it has to do with the way I have things setup.

I have a media server with a Videos folder that is shared.  The root of that folder contains several hundred standalone movies as well as other folders containing movie series (i.e. Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, etc.), TV shows, and videos for my son.  It looks like this on the server:

Videos\
             Movie1.mp4
             Movie2.mp4
             \Movie Series 1
             \Movie Series 2
             \TV Series
                               \S1
                               \S2
             \Children's Videos
                                         Movie1.mp4
                                         \Movie Series 1

Hopefully that's not confusing.

I have MyMovies running on the server and clients installed on each of my HTPCs.  I do not map the drive of the server on these HTPCs.  I have a shortcut to the Videos folder of the server placed in my Videos folder on the HTPC.  So, when I click on My Videos within VMC, I get the Videos icon.  I click on this and I'm presented with everything within the Videos folder on the server.

I have tried exporting the MyMovies.xml and placing it in the root of the Videos folder on the server.  When I do this, there is absolutely nothing shown in the Video browser.  Runtime, Description, and the Image area are all blank.  If I hit the Play button, I get taken to the Videos root folder where everything is displayed...but only as if there were no XML file present.  I get a list of all the movies, plus a thumbnail image (I have a filename.jpg for every movie), but nothing else.  If I remove the XML file from that root folder and go to the Video Browser, it takes me to the Videos root folder.  If I click on that, I get the contents.

I apologize that this is getting long and probably confusing by now, but I'd really like to get the MyMovies information integrated. What am I doing wrong?  Is MyMovies required to be installed on the system using Video browser?  Are the videos (or individual shortcuts) required to exist on the HTPC instead of a single folder link?

I do prefer it over the Video Library as it is now, but it would just be perfect if I could import the information and movie posters I have.

Thanks.
                                          
            

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theHTPC.net

I think you need to have a single my movie xml file in each folder, not one in the root.  If you have a My Movies jpg also, it will show up instead of the folder.jpg.

 

 

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Asus P5E-VM HDMI (onboard audio/video), Core 2 Duo E8200, 4 GB RAM, Hauppauge HVR-1800 (x2), LG-GGC H20L, DMA-2100 (x4), Yamaha RX-N600, InFocus IN76, D-LINK DIR 655, Vista Ultimate

hi jon, i will see if i can help, for starters i would def recommend keeping each movie in its own folder, my structure looks something like this:-

movies/genre/movietitle/moviefile.avi

so for example:-

Movies/Action/Rambo/Rambo.avi

ok so once you have each movie in its own folder you can then create "folder.jpg" images for each movie (same location as the avi file) and then create "mymovies.xml" for each movie. so assuming the movie is on a single avi file and not spanned over two files you should end up with the following in the "Rambo" folder

Rambo.avi
folder.jpg
mymovies.xml

you dont need to install my movies in order to create the xml file, you can use the excellent little standalone app called metababel http://ornskov.dk/wordpress/metababel/, basically all video browser requires is the xml file, which in essence is a text file with fields defined.

i hope this answers your questions.

 

 

 

Thanks for the suggestions, but there's no way I can put each movie in its own folder...I have converted my entire DVD collection to mp4 and have over 800 movies.  It took me nearly 2 weeks to get them all in MyMovies and creating a new folder for each would mean I'd have to correct the location for them in the database also.

I'll just use the Video Browser as it is.  It would have been nice, but it's definitely not worth that much trouble.

Thanks again.

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theHTPC.net

JonL.:

Thanks for the suggestions, but there's no way I can put each movie in its own folder...I have converted my entire DVD collection to mp4 and have over 800 movies.  It took me nearly 2 weeks to get them all in MyMovies and creating a new folder for each would mean I'd have to correct the location for them in the database also.

I'll just use the Video Browser as it is.  It would have been nice, but it's definitely not worth that much trouble.

Thanks again.

its up to you, but im sure you could easily generate the folders automatically using a script, just take your mp4 filename and create a folder with the same name, it would then just be a case of copy and paste the xml file into the correct folder, i have over 300 movies myself, and it really shouldnt take you more than 3 - 4 hours to do the lot.

ive just done a quick google and come up with an automated solution, this will create a folder based on a filename and move the corresponding file to the newly created folder:-

open notepad, copy and paste the code below and save as file2folder.bat, make sure to mark the batch file as "hidden", this stops the batch file moving itself :-).  then drop to commandline and run, make sure you test this prior to running it on your movie files, ive just tested it and it works a treat!

@echo off
for %%a in (*.*) do (
md "%%~na" 2>nul
move "%%a" "%%~na"
)

regards,

paul.

 

apparently we can change the media center interface to look a bit more like your application:
http://www.xpmediacentre.com.au/community/ettamogah-pub/22991-new-theme-vista-media-center-back-black.html

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http://www.spore.com/view/profile/Vengence_IRL

Vengence_Irl:

apparently we can change the media center interface to look a bit more like your application:
http://www.xpmediacentre.com.au/community/ettamogah-pub/22991-new-theme-vista-media-center-back-black.html

hi Vengence, im already ahead of you on this score :-), im currently running a moded theme for vmc, check out my screenshot at http://link.imgshare.us/2ej9VJ, i also have about another 6 themes if your interested :-), keep in mind this screenshot is taken from a rdp session so its a bit jaggy, but looks excellent on my tv at home, and looks good with video browser, but i would still love a transparent video browser app :-).

paul.

 

I love the idea behind this tool and it does exactly what I have wanted for some time. However before taking the plunge can someone confirm the following;

1. Do you have to have your movies / recordings all in individual folders for this to work?

Currently I have one single folder with around 175 movies I've converted to AVI. I don't really want to split these up as it will be way too time consuming :-)

2. If it will work like this, through meta data (I will use metabable) will it be able to setup the genre data etc?

3. Looks good but a transparent theme / more VMC like UI would be a good option too.

Thanks

Mark