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Customizing the movie library

Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2019 1:56 am
by Mirak
I built an HTPC several years ago. Installed Windows 7. Was using WMC to organize and play my blu rays using Arcsoft TMT. The whole setup was perfect. Then Microsoft screwed everything up with an update, as I’m sure you know.

So I had to format my hard drive and reinstall Win 7. Got Arcsoft TMT reinstalled and it works great.

I just can’t remember how to customize WMC to the way it was! Here’s what I’m trying to get back to.

When I would select the media library, i could select genre sub folders. All my movies were saved in those genre folders on my hard drives. When I copied a movie, I’d place it in the correct sub folder and then all I had to do was update the media in WMC. Can’t figure out how to do that now.

Within each genre sub folder in WMC, the movies would display in a beautiful ribbon. When a movie was selected, various still shots would appear in the background.

Anybody know how to set this up again?

Re: Customizing the movie library

Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2019 3:40 am
by Space
That sounds like an add-on, but not sure which one. Maybe "Recorded TV HD"?

Re: Customizing the movie library

Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2019 3:38 pm
by Mirak
Found it! It's a free plugin called Media Browser. I won't be able to try it until tonight, but hopefully I can still find a working copy available for download.

Re: Customizing the movie library

Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2019 4:45 pm
by jachin99
You should hold off on installing that for a while. Make sure you understand that Media Browser is old and has turned into Emby. I don't think the media browser plugin required a server setup for any version under 3. After Media Browser turned into Emby, it requires a server setup, and a client app for WMC. What is the file name your trying to install, and did you download this from the internet or do you have the file saved somewhere on your PC?

Re: Customizing the movie library

Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2019 6:43 pm
by Mirak
I appreciate the heads up. I don’t have the old file.

Just googling for Media Browser indicates I may still be able to download the old non-Emby version, but I won’t be able to try the downloads until this evening.

If anybody knows of a good link, please share it. This is the last piece to getting my system up and running again! Well, that and turning off automatic Windows updates. Darn you Microsoft, quit messing with my stuff!

Re: Customizing the movie library

Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2019 7:19 pm
by jachin99
The old media browser plugins still might work, and you can probably find a good version here: https://emby.media/community/index.php? ... y-support/ If you don't want to setup a media server, or client then that may be your best bet but I'm not sure how long things will continue to work for it because its unsupported. Emby is now a paid program but you don't need to pay for every feature, and Emby for Windows Media Center might do everything you need for free. I would decide if you want to install their server on your PC, and ask what features you have to pay for in Emby for Windows Media Center and go from there. I pay but I have quite a few extras.

Re: Customizing the movie library

Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2019 1:35 am
by Mirak
Downloaded an old version of Media Browser and it works fantastic. I’m 99% back to where I was. Media Browser is such a beautiful library! The only thing I haven’t fixed yet is that in Media Browser, when I placed my cursor on a movie cover, the fan art would display in the background. That’s not displaying now. Anybody remember how to do that?

Re: Customizing the movie library

Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2019 1:57 pm
by jachin99
Do you have fanart images in your media folders? Do you have anything labeled Backdrop.jpg or Fanart.jpg? If so I would run through the configuration tool one more time to make sure there isn't a setting you need to enable. I don't think you need a plugin to display backdrops.

Re: Customizing the movie library

Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2019 5:39 pm
by Mirak
Yeah, I already have all the fan art backdrops downloaded to each movie's folder. I've used Media Center Master to grab that over the years, and it still works. The movies and all their backdrops and meta data were saved to separate HDs and survived the crash. I thought Media Browser loaded all that stuff automatically, but maybe there is a setting I'm missing. I didn't see one on my first run through the configuration. Or maybe Media Browser needs more time to load them. I left it running overnight and I'll check this evening. All the movies (about 500), cover art, and meta data were updated very quickly.

Re: Customizing the movie library

Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2019 8:19 pm
by holidayboy
I may be completely wrong.... I seem to remember running MediaBrowser years ago and I had issues if there was more than one backdrop image in a movie folder....?

Quite possibly just my feeble memory playing tricks on me though..

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