Mediabrowser running on customised VMC....

I've managed to get my movies all up and running with MediaBrowser now and it looks fantastic :smashin:

Now Im looking at sorting my TV shows (with MediaScout) - my TV episodes are all in D:\Video\TV\tv series name (ie. Heroes, 24, Family Guy) etc...

Do I just need to create x1 .vf file?

Can you also advise where I need to save it to - does it go into D:\Video\TV or somewhere else?
 
Ok lets go through this.....

Within the options of MediaBrowser ( Shift and 3 or Shift and 8 depending which build you are using ) go to the General tab ( the first one )

In there there is a setting for Initial Location.......this is by default set to MyVideos. This is where MediaBrowser will look for media by default and any vf ( virtual folder) files you have.

IMO the best way to organise Media Browser is not to have your media actually in that folder but in other folders/directories/disks/pc's and just put your vf files in there. You could always do it this the opposite way I suppose and change this Initial Location in the options to another foder on your PC that you create, then drop your vf files in there.

Create the vf files for the categories you want dispalyed on the first MediaBrowser screen , and within them point them to where your media is.

I have posted previously in here details of my vf files , You could have a vf file called movies.vf and within it point it to all your movie directories, and another called tv.vf and point it to all your tv directories.

Then on the first mediabrowser screen you will see two icons , one for tv and one for movies. Clicking either will take you to the appropriate media.
If you want to have fancy icons on these as I have done , drop the image you want to use somewhere ( it doesnt matter ) rename it folder.jpg ( obviously as they are all the same name you cant put them in the same directory, so a good idea to put them somewhere in the respective tv/movies folders ) then use image: command in vf file to point to it.

vf files are really powerful but are dependant on how you have your data organised. In my case I have a top level movie directory , with subdirectories of Adult films and kids films. I then use seperate vf files to point to each subdirectory so I get seperate folders for this on the main MB screen. But you could split your media up into any folders you like and have them as sepearate selections on the front screen.....for example by genre , by type ( ie HD, DVD, AVi etc )...its totally up to you how you organise your data , but by using vf files you can split them out for selection easily.

I hope that all makes some sense !

If it doesnt...the official WIKI for MEdiabrowser has some more info HERE
 
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Here is an example of the way I have set Media Browser up. Its the same method as Groove has detailed above.

I have two drives on my PC. The C: drive which is my OS drive and the D: drive which is the Data drive.

I have set the Media Browser Initial folder to C:\Media Browser.

The C:\Media Browser folder only contains the following .vf files:
Movies.vf
TV Series.vf
Childrens.vf
Music.vf

The contents of these .vf files are as follows:
Movies.vf
image: D:\MyDVDs\Movies\moviesicon.png
folder: D:\MyDVDs\Movies
TV Series.vf
image: D:\MyDVDs\TV Series\seriesicon.png
folder: D:\MyDVDs\TV Series
Childrens.vf
image: D:\MyDVDs\Childrens\familyicon.png
folder: D:\MyDVDs\Childrens
Music.vf
image: D:\MyDVDs\Music\musicicon.png
folder: D:\MyDVDs\Music

All the image files, moviesicon.png, seriesicon.png, familyicon.png, musicicon.png are courtesy of FoooManChu who posted them a few posts back in this thread.

Using these .vf files, when I go into media browser I am faced with Four options: Childrens, Movies, Music and TV Series. (Note: I had to use the View settings to increase the thumb picture size so that they fill the screen better)

And thats it!

The D:\MyDVDs\Childrens\, D:\MyDVDs\Movies\ and D:\MyDVDs\Music\ folders contain individual folders for each Film.
In each of these Film Folders I have added a folder.jpg which is the DVD cover that is shown on the thumbnail views and a backdrop.jpg which is the background image used when you select the film.

I have manually added the folder.jpg and background.jpg files as I found that a lot of the ones automatically selected by Media Browser where either missing, incorrect or I just liked a different one.
 
Hi All,

Not had a chance to do much with my Mediabrowser setup until last night as my better half went out for the evening :)

The biggest challenge for me to get it all working was around file formats and the actual process of ripping tv series like Lost, 24 etc. to HD in episode fles in a format that would work with my Xbox360.

Previously, I've simply used AnyDVD or similar software to rip the entire DVD folder structure to seperate folders (so D:\Movies\The Dark Knight\Video_TS etc..) and then played them via MyMovies with Transcode360 running. That was a nice solution for movies but not so good for TV series or boxsets. It also didn't look anywhere near as good as MediaBrowser!

I've followed this thread from the start so was made up when someone mentioned the MakeMKV software. I tried it last night with a couple of films and also with season 4 of Lost. I now have an MKV file per episode of Lost and a big one for a few films I'm testing with. I've got my .VF config all set up for MediaBrowser so that it works both on the main VMC PC as well as the 360 extender and have to say it looks ace!

I installed the community codec pack thing mentioned previously on this thread to ensure the MKV files play on the PC. Unfortunately, they don't seem to want to play on the 360. This is where I'm a bit stumped - normally if its a file format that isn't supported I get a message saying so but using MediaBrowser to try and play MKV files nothing happens - the 360 just sits as if it has frozen. After a few minutes I get a message saying the program is not responding - do I want to cancel?

Can anyone confirm if the 360 extender will play MKV files? I thought it should but may have misinterpreted something reading this thread late last night! I'm not sure if its some buffering problem and that if I leave it long enough the film or episode will start playing - I currently have the 360 connected via 85Mbps standard homeplugs and am awaiting 200Mbps versions to replace which may help matters.

Anyway, another big thanks to groove for starting this thread and everyone else who has contributed - even my girlfriend is blown away by the results :smashin:
 
Anyone know how to update mediabrowser with the metabrowser data, mine does'nt.....:mad:

Thanks.
 
When you say its not working how do you mean?

It should produce the xml files and jpgs that go in each of the folders.
 
Thanks for the reply, by not working i mean probably not configured right??, where do i put the exported list file???

I am unsure of this fella.....

thanks.
 
I am not at home today so can't remember exactly the interface but when you select your folders to search it should then fine your list of movies. Then you need to process them to bring back the data. In metabrowser you should see the information and backdrops as it recognises the movies. Then save the metadata file if you have made any changes and for each movie it will create an xml file and associated graphics in the folder you movie resides in. You shouldn't have to do anything else.

Make sure though you have processed the movies and got the details as you have to do a bit more than you think as the interface isn't that intutitive.
 
Aaagh, so i have to export each movie xml to relevant movie folder??, is that right???.

Okay fella, have a good one, thanks again.:thumbsup:
 
Thanks guys I now have my x2 folders sorted in MediaBrowser - x1 for Movies and x1 for TV Shows...

I'm slowly getting the look for my TV Shows the same as what Groove has setup but don't seem to get the banners for the individual TV shows coming up on the left hand side.. Mine just has text descriptions - any ideas?

Also being a noob to MediaScout im not exactly sure what im doing initially - i've managed to point it to my TV Shows folder and added a poster and backdrop for each show without problems, but im not sure how you get it to import the individual episode data... im sure its very easy but if someone could give me a pointer it'd be appreciated :smashin:
 
I'm slowly getting the look for my TV Shows the same as what Groove has setup but don't seem to get the banners for the individual TV shows coming up on the left hand side.. Mine just has text descriptions - any ideas?

This is in your view settings pal. Just make sue a tick is in the banner box and I think you need to to also select vertical scroll but I may be wrong on this...? :)
 
This is in your view settings pal. Just make sue a tick is in the banner box and I think you need to to also select vertical scroll but I may be wrong on this...? :)

I think that's right FMC, it's what I'ev done anyway.

Also, read the very first post if you want you VMC setup the same as Groove's. He kindly details in his first post exactly what view's he's used to achieve the look in the screenshots.
 
This is in your view settings pal. Just make sue a tick is in the banner box and I think you need to to also select vertical scroll but I may be wrong on this...? :)

Ok i've enabled Banners and Vertical scroll now but all its displaying is the blank folder with the number of episodes in a star... Do I need to manually find and copy across a banner as folder.jpg to each series or should MediaScout be doing this as part of its process?

Also any pointers how I get mediascout to display the episode info? :thumbsup:
 
Aaagh, so i have to export each movie xml to relevant movie folder??, is that right???.
No explicit export is necessary, if MetaBrowser finds data for a film it will create the xml file automatically.

You should see all the films listed in the left-hand frame, just select each film and the data that was found (if any) will be displayed on the right-hand side.

My experience has been that no data was available for around half of my films. That's because of my somewhat esoteric collection (plenty of older and foreign films).
 
If you're doing it manually I think banner.jpg is the way to go.

Try and make them all the same pixel dimensions - it tends to look a bit better :)

But should I need to do them manually or is that something that MediaScout should be doing as part of its process? Im obviously doing something wrong with MediaScout as its not bringing in the episode information at the moment...
 
Ok i've enabled Banners and Vertical scroll now but all its displaying is the blank folder with the number of episodes in a star... Do I need to manually find and copy across a banner as folder.jpg to each series or should MediaScout be doing this as part of its process?

No it needs a banner.jpg.....again mediascout should automatically be downloading these for you. Or as everything you can download them yourself and pop them in the folder next to your backdrop and folder jpgs.

Mediascout uses The TV Database site for all its info, you can manually search for your shows on there and check the info is all correct....and even update it or add missing artwork for others to benefit from. You can also download the backdrops, banners and such directly off there if you want to do it manually.

Ive had to do a couple myself, Moses Jones and Whitechappel didnt have all the info I needed so I created a couple of folders and banners myself in photoshop and used them.....I will upload them to the tvdb site later so others can benefit.
 
No it needs a banner.jpg.....again mediascout should automatically be downloading these for you. Or as everything you can download them yourself and pop them in the folder next to your backdrop and folder jpgs.

Mediascout uses The TV Database site for all its info, you can manually search for your shows on there and check the info is all correct....and even update it or add missing artwork for others to benefit from. You can also download the backdrops, banners and such directly off there if you want to do it manually.

Ive had to do a couple myself, Moses Jones and Whitechappel didnt have all the info I needed so I created a couple of folders and banners myself in photoshop and used them.....I will upload them to the tvdb site later so others can benefit.

Ok well it must be something im doing wrong - if I go into Manage TV it shows me all of my TV series... for instance Dexter...

I can then click Dexter and it expands the foldr and shows me a Season 1 and a Season 2 folder... I can expand Season 1 and it shows me my individual season 1 episodes in red writing...

The only buttons on the screen then are Grab Poster from File and Fetch..

So how do I import the individual episode information and the banners for each TV series - it must be something Im not doing right in MediaScout..lol
 
Have you processed the shows in the TV tab ?

What I do is chaeck your options first , for stuff like downloading posters etc, then i go to the TV tab, browse the the top level of the show and then click Fetch Data.

This should grab all the xml data, pictures, episode info etc.

You can point this to the root of your entire TV directory and click enable root processing , but i find this can get overwhleming if you have got some errors in your media ( look mis named files it cant identify etc )
 
I've got that sorted now - turns out my episode names weren't in the right format for it to search out the epsidoe information... so i've now got the painful process of going through renaming all my series in the right format... lol

My first folder processed was Dexter and thats bought through the episode information for Season 1 and 2 without problems... now although it said it downloaded the banner it doesn't seem to be showing on my main list of TV series - my view settings switched on for the main TV episodes screen are:

Detail
Show Labels
Vertical Scroll
Use Banner

Any ideas?:smashin:
 
Throgmortons latest build is out ( R710) and I have compiled it and uploaded the msi to my skydrive HERE

As usual if you are going to use it I would stongly suggest you change your view theme and theme back to DEFAULT in Mediabrowser before uninstalling it , and installing this latest build.

Im not using it on my live systems as yet as I only complied it this morning , but ive got it on my dev machine and havnt seen any problems as of yet.

Here's the release notes -

- Finalized Thumb strip Layout left/right scrolls up/down shows/hides extra details
- Moved the backdrop toggling to View Menu instead of switches in the control panel
- Added Alpha Blending Options in Config Panel to allow setting of transparency option
- Removed Coverflow Rotation Toggle, coverflow will always have rotated thumbs
- Moved fonts to MB defaults now can adjust all colors and fonts through CustomStyles and Fonts (although there are a few options that don't work)
- Fixed View Menu sometimes not displaying certain icons
- Added fading transitions between screens and menu options
- Fixed Now Playing ViewPort to hide Properly
- Fixed Trailer Panel Window from showing currently playing video in trailer window
- Minor Adjustments to all Vanilla Views

Loving the new Strip view.....if you want to really show off your Movie Backdrops. By default shows a tiny strip at the bottom of the screen only , moving left and right moves through the films. Pressing up on the remote brings up the full movie details. Pressing down minimises it again. Sweet.

Also the alpha transparancy option is nice...you can now adjust how dark/light the black background is at the bottom.......

Strip View with 70% alpha and strip 'down'

strip_70.jpg


Strip view with 70% alpha and strip 'up'

strip_up.jpg


Strip showing 90% alpha transparency selected

strip_90.jpg


Options

alpha.jpg


Looking at rolling this out to all my htpc's tonight after a bit more testing
 
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I don't suppose anyone can point me to some buttons for MV? I've got 4 catergories I'd like to have icons for to tie into virtual folders.

Anime, Family Movies, Movies and TV Shows

FMC's icon's are superb, and I've been googling like a madman to find something similar to cover all those catergories in a uniformed view. I can bung Anime in with TV shows but I'd like to keep it seperate if possible, same with Movies.
 
Have you looked at mine on my Skydrive ?

I could knock an anime one up if thats all your are missing..and you like the syle of course.

Alternatively......there are some here which may take you fancy
 
although it said it downloaded the banner it doesn't seem to be showing on my main list of TV series/QUOTE]

First check in your folders and make sure the banner.jpg is there.

If it is two things to try that caught me out.....

Try changing the banner size in the options.......I had mine set too big initially and they didnt show...turning the size down fixed it.

If not , try clearing your cache....its at the bottom in the options menu. Again I had a problem once where some of the banners were not being shown correctly....this fixed it. ( but will slow down MB the first time you start it up as it re-caches all the icons etc )
 

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