2009 February » theHTPC.net

New releases.

Feb 272009

A new version of Media Browser was just released (2.0.90). The biggest addition to this version is a new configuration utility which aids in getting your media locations and other general settings set before first run. This is an external utility, so you have better control over adding locations outside the default settings (no more XML editing). Support for all settings is reserved for future releases. The ability to delete movie items has also been added. More on that if you follow the link to the release notes below. There has also been some additional bug fixes and minor enhancements to the overall functionality. Read about all the new additions here as well as download.

In addition to Media Browser, a new release of Meta Browser was released a while back that I just recently had the joy in updating to. This latest version adds the capability of assigning the ImagesByName folder which is used for custom images within Media Browser. You can then fetch actor images for your titles (for those actors that have images anyway) and it will create the necessary entries for you. Until this functionality is built into Media Browser, this is a terrific addition. You can get the latest version of Meta<Browser /> here.

Finally, SecondRun.tv has really been ramping up and we have been promised a new release very soon with tons of new movie content added. There has already been huge improvements to this plugin since I first blogged about it, so if you haven’t grabbed it already, check in often for the new release.

Quickie.

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Feb 232009

A new release of Salami’s Movie Organizer has been released (well, on the 18th) that fixes moviemeter.nl metadata fetching. You can get it here.

I finished my movie of offices this weekend. There is still some straightening up and organizing to do, but everything works now. I also completely reorganized my server room and it looks much nicer now. I’ll take some pics and put them up in a day or two along with the new office/playroom space.

I also reinstalled my C2Q primary system this weekend. I tried to clone my 74GB Raptor to a Drive XPert RAID0 array, but the Paragon copy script that is supposed to execute on boot just hung, leaving me unable to get into my system. I’m sure I could’ve fixed it with a little searching, but I didn’t care. It had been a while since I did a fresh install and I wasn’t really going to be losing any data (I keep everything on unRAID and the other array on my C2Q box).

I also imaged over my NETSVR to a new 146GB Seagate 15K SAS drive on a Dell SAS 5/iR controller. That sped things up a little. I imaged over my VPNSVR to a new partition on the 250GB that was in it and removed the 320GB PATA drive. That drive went into my unRAID server to take the place of the 500GB drive that used to be home to my file NAS drive. I was only using 140GB of it and my kid’s movie drive was almost empty. I still have one 500GB left, but I’m going to need that for my TV recordings soon. Finally, I retired the old BKPSVR since I got a free PCI slot on VPNSVR to move the Adaptec SCSI card and Dell tape drive to. A lot of drive musical chairs this weekend! It all worked out well though.

I got the old 48″ Sony projection TV moved into the office/playroom and got HTPC3 hooked up to it. It looks like the 11g network adapter will be enough. I have an access point only about 10ft from it, but I was worried about latencies and how Media Browser would work with it. I imagine it will be a little slow at first, but once it caches everything it will work just fine. It will be good enough for the kids, for sure.

Well, I’m tired and my sinuses are killing me, so I don’t think I’m up for bringing anymore news for the day. Tomorrow is a new day!

New beta release for MyMoviesBrowser and SecondRun.tv.

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Feb 202009

MyMoviesBrowser is an open-source MCML frontend for MyMovies. It looks pretty good, but it was a bit buggy for me and I was no longer using MyMovies, so I didn’t give it a very good look.

Darick C., the developer, just released a new beta that adds the following features/bug fixes:

Better resume playback and the playing of trailers before a movie.
Updated how the settings are saved and the configuration utility.
Added background images to movies and TV series.
Now storing the TV series in the database, should load faster and allow for filtering.
Added an application to help manage TV series and retrieve fanart for the background images.

I’d put up screenshots, but MyMovies no longer exists on any of my systems. You can get MyMoviesBrowser here. There is a thread at the MyMovies forum for support/info.

Update:

Almost forgot about the release of SecondRun.tv late last night. I have not tried it yet, but it appears that it does fix full-screen issues for some (there are still problems abound though). It also moves to a new 3-column layout so that more of the screen is used on displaying content. Much MUCH better.

It’s still getting better by the day and definitely worth a close look. Get it here.

Rare hardware post.

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Feb 202009

I don’t post much about hardware and I probably should. Afterall, we wouldn’t have HTPCs without it, right? So, I thought I would start posting more about interesting hardware that I come across that is HTPC-related.

Today, I came across some new cases from Luxa² – a division of Thermaltake. Their cases appear to be somewhat cube-based with various types of VFDs built-in and some have LCD touchscreens. They definitely have the Thermaltake ‘feel’ to them as they instantly reminded me of my old Mozart case. Don’t worry, the Luxa² look much better.