Media Browser 2.5 Setup and recomended addons?

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CutCutCut

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#95938 17-Jan-2012 09:45

I'm trying to get Media Browser set up correctly and efficiently. I've got 3 PCs I want to run it on. Basicaly a main desktop PC where all the content is stored, a HTPC at the TV and a laptop. I've shared the relevant folders and all the PCs are able to see them.
I've used media center master to organise my folders and grab meta data for eveything.
I've configured Media Browser on the main desktop PC and it seems to be working ok, except for the actor images but I think I need to edit an XML file to point it to the correct network drive where they are located.
I'm a little confused by some of the settings for Mediabrowser though. I opted not to have it run in the background at startup 'cos I don't really like a lot of stuff starting up automatically. Do I need to have this on though, on all or some of the PCs? I also allowed it to access internet based providers to access metadate on initial setup. Is this wrong? Because I've used media center master to fill in metadata should I disallow Mediaborwser? I've read conflicting advice around this but it seems like if the metadata is already there then mediabrowser won't touch it?
So which options need to be switched on and if so, do they need to be running on all 3 PCs or just one?

Also, do people have any recomended add-ons, settings or tweaks to get Mediabrowser running nicely?

Cheers.

reven

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#569793 17-Jan-2012 10:07

you only need to run the service on one machine, preferable the machine hosting the video files. assuming it downloads the data and saves it or its a shared database (sorry cant remember how it stores the data)

media center master and meta downloaders are great as they download all the meta data and store them alongside the video files, so if the program supports it, you dont have to redownload this information if you uninstall/install new software (eg ive switched from MCE, to mediaportal to xbmc and having all the nfo files saved me from downloading everything several times).
that being said, i would let mediabrowser grab the data if its not present when it detects a new movie/tv show, but also let media center master download it so its saved if you have to do a reimport at some stage (downloading all you metadata can take a long time).

as for plugins, i never found one i found actually useful, and honestly i did get over mediabrowser pretty quickly. a lot better than my movies, but still pretty poor to use when you're use to mediaportal, xbmc or boxee.

wasnt a fan of how different it looked to the rest of MCE, and how most plugins cost money when they werent that great.

Asmodeus

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#570390 18-Jan-2012 14:28

As far as decent plugins go, I think Diamond theme is still free which is one I like. Cover Art is good if you want to customise things more and don't just use list views for everything. It costs a few dollars though

Otherwise the best thing you can do is to just get you fanart set up the best way possible. Custom genre icons, etc, etc. Also download all the actor/studio/director images and make use of the imagesbyname folder

The favourites plugin is good if you have a big collection. While you are scrolling through your movies or whatever, you can hit # on your remote and whatever you are looking at will be added to your favourites which can be accessed through the EHS. Good for shortlisting and it's free.

Gamebrowser if you use emulators or game on your htpc. I think this costs $ now though, not sure

Also, if you are suing MCM to scrape metadata, you can turn the respective mediabrowser option off. I have MCM monitoring my folders and automtically renaming and gathering metadata for everything it finds. It's good as you just need to dump the file in the right folder and forget about it.

CutCutCut

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#570684 19-Jan-2012 08:42

Well I've installed Media browser onto all 3 PCs but I'm having a few issues. The HTPC and laptop are very laggy and extremely slow trying to navigate around in media centre, cover art etc takes a while to refresh etc too. The video doesn't play very well either.
However if I just open the network share and play it via VLC it plays fine. Obviously I have something not quite right in the setup, I'll have to do some playing around to see if I can get it working a bit smoother.