MyMovies - why didn't anyone tell me?

DDH · **14th August 2008, 10:55 AM**

Well over the weekend when Mike forced me to find something else to do

I finally had a good look at MyMovies.

Now I've got it installed on my VMC server with two clients on the VMCs in the lounge rooms all with Virtual Clone Drive to mount the ISOs behind the scenes. I have been loading the home collection of DVDs and making database contributions already. Once I'm working again a donation will certainly be in order.

My wife and kids love it, no more having to ask me to mount an ISO image so they can watch via VMC, they simply browse away and do it all themselves. I recall looking at it a long time ago and the issue of mounting ISOs was still a bit clunky, but now, wow, so easy.

MyMovies has definitely made it onto my list of "must haves" for VMC. If you like movies and haven't looked at it, do yourself a favour and JFDI.

simbot82 · **14th August 2008, 10:58 AM**

Yeah i love it, just waiting for MCML version (if ever)

DDH · **14th August 2008, 11:02 AM**

Quote:

Originally Posted by simbot82

Yeah i love it, just waiting for MCML version (if ever)

Will that just tidy up the VMC interface or really add something new / special?

dgaust · **14th August 2008, 11:06 AM**

I woulda thought all the references to My Movies in posts about plugins would've given you a heads up

I'm kinda meh about it.... the collection management is ok, but the auto-matching even when using the strict settings is woefully bad. Add in the old hosted HTML interface and you've got something that's just not quite suitable for a Vista HTPC (it gets very slow when you have a large collection).

Unfortunately, it is the only server/client based movie browser available at the moment.

When the MCML version comes out (frankly it's taken too long) it might be different.

GlenR · **14th August 2008, 11:07 AM**

Been playing with this on and off on a test MCE2005 installation. I won't be mounting my hundreds (literally) of discs on to hard drives - I can open a cupboard and put a DVD in the drive

) but I thought it would be a good way to track and select a movie.

The thing that's stopped me - the effort in loading all the movies into the database. Can't find a way to import the tiles, so it would have to be manual I guess. Big job.

dgaust · **14th August 2008, 11:14 AM**

The collection management is also a pain in the butt. If you search by title, you will get a thousands matches, because each version is considered as a different version.

This means one version might have 100% of the information, while another only 50%, even though the missing information is the same for both.

The DB should have only one record for Title which contains the information that is going to be the same across all versions - actors, year, synopsis and then have an additional selection that allows you to choose the version.

DDH · **14th August 2008, 11:20 AM**

Yes, the DB is based on EAN / UPC and country, which means the information can be in there but just not under the same barcode. I've certainly found this out. Ideally they would link multiple barcodes to the base record, not make the barcode the unique key (basic EAN / UPC stock control logic, which having worked in supermarkets you get to know)

GlenR, read your issue the other week. After having a look at the product and DB I can see that what you are trying to do would be a pain in the butt. I suspect the only practical way would be via an SQL update query, but thats not easy, or for the uninitiated.

Having kids, young visitors, and VMCs in multiple rooms on multiple floors, being able to load ISOs is really just disk preservation

BladeRoNNeR · **14th August 2008, 04:34 PM**

I havent looked at it for a while either. Wondering if it still doesnt support compressed media (avi, mpg etc)?

Is how I have most of my collection.

dgaust · **14th August 2008, 04:36 PM**

AFAIK, it's always supported compressed media (at least it has for the last 2-3 years).

saxnix · **14th August 2008, 05:08 PM**

You should all seriously check out OML (Open Media Library). The team developing it are putting out updated versions very quickly. This thing is fast, free (open sauce), customizable and looks great. And to top it all off, they are open to suggestions for what people want visually and functionally.

dgaust · **14th August 2008, 05:14 PM**

I have OML installed, it's not bad... visually needs a little more work (it's still alpha at best), but the one thing the OP needs it doesn't do. And that is a client/server setup.

At the moment, the only movies plugin available that can do that is My Movies.... I know of another one that is being developed, but it's not available as yet.