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Meta Data. Thinking of switching from Meta Browser, to Media Center Master

6K views 13 replies 6 participants last post by  j0dest3r 
#1 ·
I've been using meta browser for a couple of years now to locally store meta data for my win7/media browser set up, and it's been mostly very successful


I'm finding more and more often now that little errors are missed, I have to manually force it to update, etc etc and i'm annoyed enough to consider moving over to media center master (henceforce mcm)


MCM also has the ability (in paid version i believe) to incorporate uTorrents (Which I already use to grab my tv shows) so that's kind of a big bonus



has anyone made the switch?

anyone currently a big fan of MCM?

anyone can give me solid reasons to stick with meta browser? (no, I am not on the most recent release, still the old free one)






I'm also semi tempted to move full time to Plex, which has it's on meta data scrapers that seem to work realy pretty well, so this might all be moot, but I've really enjoyed media browser
 
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#2 ·
I can't comment on MCM as I still have meta browser also. But for my JB'd Apple TV2's, I have installed PLEX on the server and using the Plex Apple TV2 Client. PLEX works very well for my movie collection (800+), and took no effort. Plex didn't work well for my TV shows because all I pointed to was my 7MC recorded TV folder. I don't have a well structured TV Series folder naming convention. However, I got around that and I can now watch SD and HD recorded TV (.wtv) on the Apple TV.
 
#4 ·
PLEX is just a compelling app. With the iPhone Plex app I can connect to all my media with metadata and AirPlay it to any Apple TV, jailbroken or not. Plus I can share my media to my friends. PLEX is fantastic value and for me the meta data function works fine. I'm using less and less of Win 7 media browser and my XBOX 360's are gathering dust as extenders.
 
#8 ·
Would either one of these solutions be a good replacement for mymovies.dk?

That thing is getting out of hand, im running an old version but would like to upgrade to something else. Trying to step away from media center centered solution to one more DLNA based. (still want to use MC though, so not get away from it completely)
 
#9 ·
I would like to second j0dest3r's comment. I too am using mymovies.dk and am wondering about alternatives. I like mymovies, but can see that there is a lot of competition for it.

j0dest3r - what did you mean by "this thing is getting out of hand"? And what are YOUR reasons for wanting to upgrade to something else?
 
#10 ·
You need points to get access to the more advanced features, (really points, this isn't xbox live) Website is very busy, they seem to be branching out a whole lot so I'm looking for something simpler and smaller, kind of like what mymovies used to be! ;) I also don't know how this whole DLNA and metadata is going to work out so looking for solutions to that. K your turn, same question. ;)
 
#11 ·
j0dest3r, fair enough! My own answer to the same question is a little grey as I seem to be more on the fence about this switch than you are. I've been doing a lot of research/reading over the last couple days on this topic. The bigger picture for me is that I'm looking to move to an OTA setup and get rid of cable tv, and in doing so I've been investigating the TV options. WMC seems to be the TV solution I'll be using, and as a result I've been looking closer at WMC plugins and software solutions.

Media Center Master (MCM) came up in my research, but from what I've seen so far it doesn't seem to be needed for MyMovies.dk users, but MCM could still reside on the MyMovies.dk machine (or anywhere on the network) to provide further metadata for other apps also running. I believe that MediaBrowser would make more use of MCM than MyMovies.dk would simply because MediaBrowser is no longer making use of the MyMovies.dk backend database that does all the metadata retrieval in the background (now encrypted).

I too would like to hear more commentary on DLNA, what it is and what the significance of it is.

To directly answer the question posed of me, my recent surge of research actually has me re-interested in MyMovies.dk again. Yes, it is getting to be a full blown app that is branching out, but I'm realizing now that the same things that got me interested in it are keeping me interested in it. The fact that it has a server component on Windows Home Server seems to be the real difference. That fact alone allows a central repository of all the metadata for all your MyMovies.dk clients. The SQL database backend makes it quick, and the Configuration Management utility is more of a plus than I originally gave it credit for.

I've looked at MediaBrowser, and consequently Media Center Master (which brought me to this thread) because I thought MCM would become the new backend to use MediaBrowser as a frontend (and that's still a possibility). I like that MediaBrowser has some more flash for FREE (fanart, etc) built into the interface. MyMovies.dk you have to pay to get some of this glitter. I've used a free, zero-points MyMovies.dk installation for some time, but given that I would like more of a WOW-factor with my WMC, if I stick with MyMovies.dk I might shell out the $100 it would cost to have the full-featured, free-updates-for-life version of the product that supports everything. Yes, the points system is a little strange, but it has some merit as well. I'm not going to rack up enough points to get software features unlocked so for me it's just a matter of buying the points. I would prefer FREE, but this might be software worth shelling up for. I tried the free iPhone demo version of the software yesterday on an iPod Touch and it was cool. This is, as you said, an example of how the product/developer is branching out, and overall that branching out is giving us as consumers more options. I realize that if you want "simpler" then this might not be good for you, but the fact that one's MyMovies.dk library is also available online and through mobile clients is something that is attracting me.

Tough choice as both these routes have their benefits, but for the visual effects I'm looking at I'm either going to have to fork out some cash to MyMovies.dk or switch to MediaBrowser or XBMC for free.
 
#12 ·
I also have an aging free version of mymovies setup and also run a Windows Home Server. I think mymovies is the best solution for a WHS back-end and WMC front end for sure, without a doubt. It is a pain keeping up to date however and you have to have complicated rich front ends to take advantage of it. (although with the ios clients perhaps this isn't as much of an argument) Also now its a bit costly.

As far as the DLNA part goes, It just seems like a slim down lite version of said above that works on different types of devices like your tablet, blu-ray player in the bedroom, xbox (using the video player instead of MC extender) and ps3.

WHS 2011 has a really nice built-in DLNA server with a web front end that can be used from a Silverlight based browser. It is pretty interesting to browse your home picture library or ripped CDs sitting on your home server from work in this beautiful rich Silverlight based webapp. If you use a browser not Silverlight compatible, this is not available, but you still can download the file and listen /view it off-line or in the local file system.

In the DLNA scenario there is no client end to keep up-to-date other than your normal firmware updates etc. It also supports quite a number of devices compared to the 'fat' solution with no software to install. Heck even my $50.00 Toshiba can play files off a DLNA server. :D

Currently I am testing WHS 2011 with the DLNA server up and running with pictures and music, PlayON DLNA server for Netflix and Hulu and WinTV with Extend to stream live TV.

The real disadvantage with the DLNA thing is displaying metadata is not consistent across players. some work some don't. Some its ok to have the metadata in the folder with the movie file, others it has to be imbedded into the file. Imbedding metadata seems to be a real pain.

So that's the summary as to where I'm at. Still very slow work in progress LOL!

Would like to solve the meta data issue with my setup so that I can start testing the movie side of things.
 
#13 ·
I'm running WHS v1 because I still haven't gotten past the fact that the Drive Extender technology is absent from WHS 2011. With that said, regardless of the WHS version, I'm in total agreement that MyMovies seems to be the best product for a WHS backend.

I do appreciate your comments on DLNA. I'm definitely going to have to look into this further, although it would seem, from what you've said, that DLNA is not a pressing issue for people using MyMovies and WHS v1 to collect metadata, so as long as I stay on my current setup DLNA will not come into the picture, unless I missed something.

More on topic with this thread, I was wondering if people were running MCM on a home server and storing their metadata centrally. Is that the intention of using that software, or is it run on a client and just pointed at a central repository of music and movies on a NAS or home server?
j0dest3r - Is that what you hope to do in terms of solving your metadata issue? I don't see why having MCM pull metadata for your media collection wouldn't be a solution. I myself am wondering if having MCM pointed to my music collection (seeing as my movies are currently being handled by MyMovies.dk) would be of any benefit.
 
#14 ·
It only comes into the picture if you want to use DLNA clients like the video browser on the PS3 or Xbox 360 to access your content (like I do) . If you are ok using a solution that requires a client like mymovies then as long as your device has a client available 7MC, iPAD, iPhone etc. and you are willing to pony up the dough then its a non-issue. It's a very rich, beautiful, highly functional environment.

I just want the metadata solution I choose to use to have the widest possible support for the DLNA clients I have in the home. I have been playing with some manual processes just to see the results and they haven't been the greatest. I've been busy with other things but hope to get back to this soon. I should come up with a spreadsheet of my findings.
 
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