The commercialization of Media Browser.
I have mixed feelings about the announcement that Media Browser is going commercial. Everyone loves something that is free. It’s even better when that free product is actually good. That is the case with Media Browser.
Sam announced on his blog yesterday, and then subsequently posted on it at the Media Browser forum, that they are forming a company with the intention of charging for Media Browser. More than likely, we are going to see a yearly subscription model with the first year primarily focusing on bug fixes and performance enhancements.
I truly wish the Media Browser team the best of luck in this endeavor. I will probably purchase one copy (times are tough in my neck of the woods right now) just so that I can stay involved, but I’ll have to wait before adding any other clients. That will be my opportunity to go with MediaPortal (if it works out). Otherwise, I’ll stick with current release, which works well enough (despite a few bugs).
I realize there will be a fallout and many will flock to the other free options available. Who knows? Maybe this is the ‘room to breathe’ that Brian over at MyMovies needs to get his MCML version out the door (not holding my breath though).
Personally, I think the worst part of seeing Media Browser leave the free community is the ‘community’ aspect. Free/open source projects always have the best message boards and the users are always more inspired to find ways to ‘make things work’. Sadly, I’m sure most of that will dwindle away. Support forums for commercial products are usually less friendly and do not have the personality as it’s filled with those who only want results for their payment. Hopefully the mold will be broken this time around (I hope I get to stay on as a volunteer support moderator for them…I’ve always loved to moderate forums and have done so for 10 years).
I’ve seen Video Browser come a long way in a short amount of time. It seems like it has only been a few short weeks that I noticed Video Browser development had picked up again…that was some excitement. I never knew it would get to this point (and I’m sure the devs didn’t either).
I’ll be sure to continue following Media Browser the best I can and I’ll probably even freely advertise for them whenever they get the details ironed out. I really want to see them succeed. They’re a great bunch of guys that have given us a great run of free software for the past couple of years. It’s time we pay them back.
Browser: Internet Explorer 8.0 (Compatibility Mode) OS: Windows XP
Jon – I agree with your setiments regarding the new subsrciption model. The interesting things will be 1) will the people who claim they are willing to pay for Media Browser actually going to follow through (I have a feeling not all will) and 2) how will this discourage potential new users (let’s face it, free is what gets us to try out software in the first place).
Right now I have 2 HTPCs and a 2 test PCs so a “per pc” license is out of the question. Maybe do like Avast, where I pay a yearly fee for a license that is valid up to 10 pcs. If you are a current user, I assume Media Broswer stays in tact, only if you want future versions are you expected to pay?
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Jon Reply:
June 30th, 2009 at 8:06 am
Well, the numbers I’ve seen thrown around for yearly subscription are kind of high, in my opinion. I mean, metadata retrieval is a big part of the software and they are parsing it from open-source sites that are sparse, at best. The TVDB.com and tMDB.org are not the best places to be grabbing metadata and artwork from if you’re going to charge $30-50 a seat per year. They have largely incomplete and incorrect information and are plagued with sloppy text. Much of the artwork is poor also. This is not really the fault of any of these services…it’s just the result of an open model that has volunteers to review it.
The only functionality the Media Browser can put an end to right now, is the auto-update feature. Technically, they can also put an end to auto-retrieval of plugins, but that would be easy enough to update manually. Current versions will continue to work, uninhibited, until one of the Internet-dependent modules break. Future, pay-for versions, will always work to the version of paid subscription…if you stop paying, you will just be stuck with what you have.
I don’t really know how all of this is going to end up and how long it will take. I’m sure there are going to be a number of hoops to go through before they can actually start charging, but then again, I don’t really know what’s involved. It’s going to be interesting to track the next few months though.
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Browser: Firefox 3.0.11 OS: Windows Vista
Agreed, metadata gathering for me was the key feature that got me hooked. But, it wasn’t very good at that task for some of the reasons you mentioned. Mostly, you have no control of what to select from the query results and sometimes end up with no metadata, or worse the wrong metadata. And, you have NO manual entry whatsoever. For these reasons, I no longer use MB’s internet providers and have since turned to themetabrowser, which although uses the same provider as MB, is much better at handling the data. I no longer have to worry about how I’ve named my folders for instance. A simple manual fetch and viola I’m presented with a list from tmdb.
I want to see Sam succeed, but he and his team have a very long way to go in polishing the current iteration of MB(as good as it is). Great documentation will be key.It took me weeks to finally get my interface to look like the screenshots! Ugh, all that forum mining and research.
-Sinjen
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Browser: Google Chrome 2.0.172.33 OS: Windows Vista
Jon,
One thing is certain, when/if all of this comes into place, you will pay no money for MediaBrowser as will all the people who contributed something significant to MediaBrowser, be it code or your time moderating the forums.
At the moment we are leaning towards a yearly “household” fee, but nothing is set in stone. And it is going to take a while to get this all sorted out.
Cheers
Sam
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Jon Reply:
July 1st, 2009 at 6:38 am
Thanks Sam! The ‘household fee’ sounds great too…especially with some of the shared cache properties.
This comes at a good time, because MediaPortal is just not working out for me :) It’s fun to tinker with, but there’s just too much that I can’t get going.
If there’s anything I can help with, be sure to ask. I do know that documentation has been echoing in the forums quite a bit ever since the announcement, so if you need any help there, I’ll do what I can. I do wish you all the best and am looking forward to see Media Browser take its next big steps.
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Browser: Internet Explorer 7.0 OS: Windows XP
How about XBMC?
Sounds good, i think…
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Jon Reply:
July 1st, 2009 at 6:38 pm
Used it forever on my old XBox, but I don’t care much for it on the PC.
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Browser: Firefox 2.0.0.20 OS: Windows XP
Hi,
Fully agreed with your analysis on this Jon. I expressed my mixed feelings in the MB forum, with no reaction from the devs (not that I think my posts deserve reactions anyway ;-)
Now a per seat license would be the best way to make users run to the competition (if any). I would personally.
I have seen the “let’s go commercial” disaster with Meedio, which was my software of choice for months. I am really worried that the whole community spirit will disappear, which was what made MB so great. It evolved quite fast from Videobrowser, as you said, and this is also partly due to the heavy support and ideas from the community. Lots of people have worked hard on customizing the covers, creating icons, tools for mass cover generation, provided ideas on features which also gave people the will to use MB. Seing the setup of some users with all great custoimized covers was certainly a source of motivation for most users. Now I have the strange feeling that the devs will capitalize on this to go for a commercial version. Not 100% fair I would say although sam and soultaker really do deserve to be rewarded for providing a great piece of software. I was in favour of free donation, and still am. I don’t think there is any sort of mass market for this kinf od product. You can at best count on a growing user community. If you get this community unsatisfified to the point they leave, themn you lose all potential customers.
I am quite pessimistic on the future of MB and the community in this regard.
Cheers
PierreLo
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