New user looking for plugin advice

[lucasbuck]

I'm started setting up WMC (switching from Sage) and was wondering if anyone could recommend any addons or plugins? I did grab mediabrowser so far. Just any common ones that I should read up on. Also, if anyone could point me towards how to what to use for comskip and how to set it up I would really appreciate it.

Also, I'm used to using Playon with Sage. I'm not understanding the difference between using Playit and Secondrun if someone could explain. I'm going to be using one TV directly hooked to the WMC TV and one with an Xbox extender.

Thanks for any advice!

[bmblank]

My channel logos is awesome. Nothing critical to how it MC ruins, but it'd the icing on the cake. I also use MC studio, but there's some problems to work around in making it work.
My movies is critical. Works awesome. I don't have media browser though, so I don't have anything to compare.

That's most everything I can think of.there are more, but nothing noteworthy.

[mark1234]

If you want to schedule recordings or stream content remotely then you need Remote Potato.

[bobbob]

dvrms toolbox to run comskip
i definitely prefer mediabrowser. its free!
plus i'm really getting into game browser and my emulators at the moment. got psx, ps2 and WII all running from MC
MC Studio stilll works well for me at rearranging the menu and icons as well as applying new themes
autoripncompress - MC based DVD and BR ripping tool
bigscreenepg - delivers 3rd party epg data
dvblink tv source - gets my HD satellite signal into MC, which is why i need the above
Kylo - MC web browser you can control with the remote
MediaCenter Calendar Add in
MediaCenterMaster for all my metadata needs
media control - switching between audio tracks and subtitles
my channel logos
remote potato
second run tv
sharks codecs - mainly to get alac to play in MC
recipe library
yawcam webcam service
Skype MCE
macrotube
iplayer
tunerfreemce
songler to deliver spotify
lovefilm mce
audio renderer update
coretempmce

and thats pretty much it

[mark1234]

snip

and thats pretty much it

Wow - Are there any plugins you don't have installed??!!

[lucasbuck]

Thanks for the suggestions! So if I already have playon (from when I was using sage), what are the pros and cons with Playit, Secondrun, and Tubecore? I use netflix too if that makes a difference. (Or should that be a thread in and of itself?)

[DigiTechMedia]

Great list from the previous post. For music needs, I would also add to the list mcShoutCast. Streams hundreds of Internet radio stations along with cover art screen saver based on artist and lyrics too.

Billy

[bobbob]

snip

and thats pretty much it

Wow - Are there any plugins you don't have installed??!!

my movies and i never will!but seriously, why would you not install them? they're all great and have a use in one way or another

i looked at mcshoutcast and if i didn't receive radio through the satallite feed i might have gone for it. but the cost wasn't worth it.

[mark1234]

why would you not install them?

My 7MC machine has to be as close to 100% reliable as possible to keep the WAF high. So I have a real aversion to installing anything onto that machine. Absolutely follow the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" line of thinking.

So I only install the iPlayer plugin and Remote Potato.

[bobbob]

why would you not install them?

My 7MC machine has to be as close to 100% reliable as possible to keep the WAF high. So I have a real aversion to installing anything onto that machine. Absolutely follow the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" line of thinking.

So I only install the iPlayer plugin and Remote Potato.

mine too. genuinely, i understand the aversion. i have previously had frosty phonecalls asking why things arent working while i'm in the pub but since i went onboard graphics over a year ago only once have i had to fix a problem. and that was with dvblink, which is integral to the whole thing. the thing is since i have to install some of these to get basic functionality it seems silly to me not to do the same with the things that make you go oooooh!

[WarrenH]

I agree, keep it simple, of you don't really need it, don't install it.
Lucasbuck, maybe you should say what you use your MC for and what you'd like it to do.

[barnabas1969]

Thanks for the suggestions! So if I already have playon (from when I was using sage), what are the pros and cons with Playit, Secondrun, and Tubecore? I use netflix too if that makes a difference. (Or should that be a thread in and of itself?)

I use PlayOn and vmcPlayIt. TubeCore does the same thing as vmcPlayIt, but TubeCore is not free.

vmcPlayIt has a couple of bugs, and the developer isn't doing anything with the software these days. The main two bugs in vmcPlayIt are:

1) default buffer size is set too small. You'll need to increase it... I think it needs to be at least 5MB, but I'm not 100% positive. And it will need to be set on each extender... the settings are per-user.
2) When you display a list of shows, and you have it set to display tiles in a grid (the default setting), you can't move from the upper-left tile to the one just below it. You have to move right-down-left to get to it. This isn't a problem when there are enough shows to create at least two columns of tiles... but when there are only a few shows in the category, you can't get to anything but the 1st tile. The workaround is to set it to display them as a list. I can't remember the exact wording in the setting, but you can figure it out.

I tried Secondrun.tv and found that it wouldn't do what I wanted, so I uninstalled it. I was trying to get a flash video stream setup as a "channel" in Secondrun so my wife could watch live TV streams from Romanian television stations. Unfortunately, the two web sites that I was interested in both had their flash streams encrypted and there was no way to find a link directly to the video source. The only way I've managed to stream those sites is in a browser.

[lucasbuck]

Basically, on Sage I had my Playon tab where I could access netflix, hulu, and internet video. Just something streamlined with those options would be great. Would also be great if they worked on my extender, but I can live without it. (I have an Xbox just for the purpose of an extender, and I'm not paying for a gold membership to get netflix)

[barnabas1969]

Basically, on Sage I had my Playon tab where I could access netflix, hulu, and internet video. Just something streamlined with those options would be great. Would also be great if they worked on my extender, but I can live without it. (I have an Xbox just for the purpose of an extender, and I'm not paying for a gold membership to get netflix)

If you have PlayOn, you can get vmcPlayIt for free... and access all that content from an extender. vmcPlayIt also gives you a very cool feature that allows you to "add to queue", which essentially streams one movie at a time, saving it to an un-encrypted WTV file for later viewing. It does exactly what the "Play Later" feature of PlayOn does. Play Later costs extra... vmcPlayIt does not.

So... you can queue up all the stuff you want in NetFlix, Hulu, or whatever... and your PC will work all night long to save it all to WTV files. Pretty cool.

[lucasbuck]

It kind of makes me a bit worried that playit isn't being supported anymore, I'm kind of a stability nut after working with Sage for so long (I was always putting out fires or tweaking something). BUT, I really want the option to save and play later. Will tubecore use playons playlater feature if you've purchased it? I don't mind buying tubecore if it's a better, more reliable option. If anyone can offer any suggestions or pros and cons I'd appreciate it. Thanks for all the great advice.

[sccrgoalie1]

No, tube core had a similar play later feature that the developer was forced to remove.

[barnabas1969]

Honestly, once you get vmcPlayIt configured correctly, you won't need any support. It just works.

All the settings that you need to change can be accessed from vmcPlayIt's settings menu. Just start vmcPlayIt and change the following settings:

• Change settings -> Gallery settings -> View content as: "List"

• Change settings -> Streaming settings -> Additional buffering: "5 MBytes"

• Change settings -> Playback settings -> Enable playback queue (checked)
• Change settings -> Playback settings -> Create WTV output (checked)
• Change settings -> Playback settings -> Playback video directory (enter the path to the place where vmcPlayIt should save your movies for later playback)

EDIT: You'll have to change the settings on each extender, and also on each user who will login directly to the HTPC to use vmcPlayIt.

[lucasbuck]

Thanks for the setup info! I seem to have it working, but had some questions:
- Do you have to access it through extras, or can you put it on the main menu?
- I noticed on Netflix it doesn't show anything in my instant queue, does that not work?
- How does the play later work? Does it just start immediately and run until all are played through and saved, or can you schedule it to run at night or something?

By the way, I THINK I got the latest version of Playit. The one from the playon site. I'm assuming that's the newest version, but not sure how to tell.

[barnabas1969]

The instant queue works for me. When it stops, I usually need to load a new version of PlayOn. Do you have the latest version/patch for PlayOn?

"Add to queue" (play later) starts queuing them up as soon as you add a movie to the queue. There's no way to schedule them. So... add them to queue before you go to bed.

You can move it to the menu by going to the Extras Library, move to highlight PlayIt, press "Info" on the remote (CTRL+D on the keyboard), and choose "add to strart menu".

The version I'm running is 2.0.2.0. I installed it a year ago. Not sure if there's a newer one, but I doubt it.

[lucasbuck]

I think Avast may have been blocked it. Seems to work now.