It’s hard for me to be unbiased when it comes to writing about MyMovies.  I have nothing personal against Brian…I don’t know the guy.  However, I put a lot of time and effort into that forum and have quite a few contribution points, just to have their moderators bring out the torches and pitchforks because I mistakenly upload a couple of backdrops that didn’t conform to standards.  So, I quit…and I hold a grudge.  I also grew overly impatient waiting for the MCML version that took years to finally arrive.  It took too long.  End of story.  I jumped ship to Media Browser and never looked back.  I have never regretted that decision and my HTPC experience thanks me for it.

However, having a blog devoted to HTPCs, I owe it to anyone that takes the time to read what I write to cover as much as I can, when I can.  Having said that, I need to cover the pre-release of MyMovies 3.0 since it is a landmark Media Center plugin affair, whether I’m a fan of it or not.  Plus, I realize many of you do not have the necessary 2,500 to see the new interface and I do, so this may be one of the only ways for you to see it in ‘action’ until the official release nearly two months from now.  So, let me get to it.

I downloaded the new installer package, which conveniently encompasses all versions now (no separate x86, x64, client-only, etc.).  The download was about 19MB and does not include SQL now…if you need it, it will download it separately during the installation process.  I unpacked the ZIP and fired it up.  The first step is to pick your installation type, so I chose Server/Client since there was no server-only option.

Clicking ‘Next’ started the download of the SQL package.

After installation of SQL Express, I ran into my first roadblock.  The package I downloaded did not support installation to a server operating system (2008 x64, in my case).  I never had this issue before as I always had a dedicated server for MyMovies, so I took off to their forums and found that Brian met several other users that wanted this.  Another package for the Configuration Manager only was uploaded, so I downloaded that and began a reinstall.  You can get the ’server-only’ package here.  Installation of this package appeared to hang, but it did finally complete (later I found that there were processes running behind the frozen dialog box), so I started up the CM and waited…

I did get an error about not being able to attach a database and was offered an option to create a new one, which I opted for, but I still never got past the initial splash screen.  I guess it was time for me to turn to SQL Management Studio to fix my database issue.  I came up with a fix for this error over a year ago and posted it on the MM forum, so I was pretty sure I could solve this.  I was working with a blank database, so this should be fairly easy.  Wrong.  After countless tries, I could not get past the MyMovies splash screen.  I tried detaching and re-attaching the default database to no avail and creating a new one only resulted in a crash.

However, in order to bring you the news, I decided to move over to my x86 2003 Server to see if I could get some love there.  Everything was the same, right up to the frozen installation screen, where I found the Visual C++ runtime library was being installed (hidden by the box) and also, I assume, the SQL Server files.  Considering this was a bit of  a weaker system (and a VM at that), it took quite a while to finish.

After 15 minutes or so, I was done with initial setup and then the CM itself finished the installation process.  I was met with a few additional dialog boxes and setup was complete.

Done!

On first run I was prompted with the account login box, which I remember used to be an option, so I logged in and began the process of importing my old database.  My old database dates back to v2.47, so I was not sure if it would take or not, but it took off…

…tic, toc…

…and completed the restore.

Now that I had all of my old movie info in there, it was time to set up the client somewhere, so I figure my main system running Win7 Pro would be the best choice.

Easy enough.  Now let’s fire up Media Center and get past the boring installation stuff.

First run prompt..

I then started up the CM, established the connection to my server, created the necessary user account on the server to allow access for my client and then tried again.

Prompt for folder monitoring…I declined.

The menu strip.  There is a trailer library here also…

…but I want to see the movie library layout.

I don’t remember having all of my TV series and movies thrown into one view like this, but whatever, all the links are probably broken anyway.  The full wall poster view was on by default and, well, it’s fairly simple.  I wanted to see other views, so by going to the top row and hitting the ‘up’ arrow one more time, I was presented by the menu bar.  I’ve seen something very similar to this before…

The View options popup menu.

Poster and details view.

List and detail view.

The movie detail view (note: I could not get a movie detail screenshot due to the crash, so the image below is from the set seen on TheDigitalLifestyle.com).

While trying to figure out why I had no backdrops, I got a nice surprise.

Unfortunately, this error continued to crop up every time I ran MM3 when staying on any detail screen more than a few seconds.  This sort of kept me from being able to continue any kind of review.  I’m running on a pretty new Win7 Pro x64 install, so I don’t really see any reason for this and in all honesty, it’s not worth it to me to track down the root (although the error logs point towards the SQL client, which I also had issues with on my old MCE 2005 boxes).

Well, I hate to be unfair since I didn’t really get a chance to see what all it could do, but then again, I thought at the very least it would work.  What I did see of it, I would say it kept things simple, but it just looked a lot like an unpolished Media Browser.  Browsing through titles was very responsive though…I saw on a few occasions where Brian boasted of its speed and it does have that going for it.

For the fanboys of MyMovies that actually are getting this pre-release to work, I’m sure they’re more excited than a room full of pre-scho0olers candy cracked out the day after Halloween.  For me, on the other hand, I will stick with Media Browser as I feel it still has more long-term potential…free or not.  I do hold out some hope that we will see some sort of database backend for Media Browser though.  I’d rather not ever see it grow to the wiki of info that the MM web service has swelled to, but I think Media Browser could eventually benefit from some sort of database…especially for those of us with large collections.

I can’t really apologize for expecting more considering how long we had to wait for this.  I am sure that it will eventually be a terrific plugin though and I wish him the best with it.

I’m probably not going to do much writing on the release of MyMovies 3 since I haven’t maintained the database for it in about a year, but Ian over at The Digital Lifestyle was able to get some exclusive screenshots of it in action.  You can see them here.

I qualify for download of the beta release on Sept. 1st, but considering none of my files are in a supported format for direct folder import, I’ll be forced to pass.  I remember how much work it was for me to keep up with it, so there’s no way I’ll start from scratch…especially considering that I now have 100x more TV shows than I did when using it.  MyMovies definitely doesn’t do well with individual TV episodes.

Aside from all of that, it does look nice, albeit the resemblance is quite uncanny to another popular plugin.  I guess there are only so many ways to display movie titles though, so I’ll leave it at that.

I am glad that Brian is finally able to get this out the door and do wish him the best of luck with it.  I’m sure it will be a huge hit.

In a couple of weeks, you should all get to try out the latest beta release 12 of Media Browser.  Until then, for those of you who aren’t running SVN builds, I have decided to post a few pre-release screenshots of the current state of one of the new themes that will be included – Diamond.

The new root page:

Activated trailers plugin:

Coverflow:

Detail:

Poster:

Thumb:

Thumbstrip:

TV strip:

Movie info screen:

Top menu (this is hidden until you hit the ‘up’ arrow on your remote, then it drops down…very cool:

Most of these screens won’t do it justice since this is just my test box and I never really run any of the customizations that many users on the Media Browser forums do (custom poster art and backdrops).  I think you get a good idea though.

There’s plenty more to come, but my spoon is small :)

So a few days ago I hinted on about the Big Refactor branch of the Media Browser project and then bombed out when a later SVN update seemingly removed everything that I had previously seen.  Well, I didn’t look very closely, but it didn’t go anywhere…they just incorporated into the XML to be turned on or off and had changed it all to “off” by default.

So, after compiling another build this morning and actually building an MSI with it instead of using the devinstall batch, I decided to see what I could do with this build…and it’s pretty freakin’ awesome.

There’s really not a whole lot that has changed once you get into the core of Media Browser…the settings, views and whatnots are pretty much unchanged.  I know that everything that makes it work has been redone to make it quicker and more stable, but I’m not getting into any of that.  What I’m going to show is the new root page.

So, let’s go start to finish with the screens.  I didn’t get a chance to let all of my images cache, so some of the screens will be somewhat incomplete, but I wanted to get these to you all since you’ve been waiting patiently.

First, we have the ProgramData folder which you’ll notice is a bit different.  Not everything in there comes with the new build because I didn’t do a cleanup before running the MSI.

Now you’ll see the entire Cache folder has been slightly changed/added to:

Looking at the XML, you’ll see some new additions.  The root page…

…weather and sync views!

OK, OK…enough with the technical stuff, I know.  Here’s the new root page (remember, not all of my images had loaded yet, so don’t go thinking the posters don’t work because they do!).  I’m loving the display of the latest added shows!  Notice the weather display at the bottom right!

The rest of the screens are just shots of a few different views and whatnot.  I haven’t done any comparisons or looked very closely, so I can’t say for certain if much, or anything, has changed from what you’re using now.  Enjoy!

Default detail view with actors page:

Vanilla Cover Flow view:

Vanilla detail view:

Vanilla Strip view (I think this is new, but I don’t use Vanilla themes, so I’m not sure.  You just scroll left and right).

Vanilla settings/config:

Well, that’s all I have for now.  There is also a new popup menu if you hit play on a folder containing multiple shows, but I could not produce this since I’m remoting in and there is no keyboard shortcut for it.  Basically, you go to a folder containing multiple shows, hit the “Play” button and you will get a popup menu to play random episodes or all (it actually may work for single titles so you can go directly to playing without entering the details screen).  Another very nice addition.

I have to say, I’ve been testing Media Browser ever since they resumed development when it was still Video Browser and I never dreamed it would get to where it is now.  I’m continually amazed at what these guys have done and continue to do.

Thank you Media Browser team and hope all your fans enjoy this sneak peek at what is to come!

I’m a bit late to the game compared to many other HTPC/Media Center blog sites, but better late than never – right?  I’m referring to writeup on the next operating system offering from Microsoft, now known as Windows 7.

From what I’ve seen, Windows 7 doesn’t stray far from its Vista predecessor, but enhances(?) some of the core functionality of the operating system itself.  HomeGroup is one such enhancement that simplifies home network sharing for multiple systems.  Shell enhancements (PowerShell), a new taskbar (with jump lists), multi-touch support and more are in store for those wishing to move on to this “incremental upgrade”, as Microsoft puts it.

Anyway, I’ve just finished installing it as a virtual machine on Virtual PC 2007 as I type this, so after I get to play around for a bit, I’ll make a new post or two.  I won’t get to experience all the functionality due to it being a VM, but I should at least get to show off a little of what to expect.  Stay tuned!