This is a follow up post to my Part 2 in the XBMC Frodo / Aeon MQ4 Skin series.
As I stated in part 2 I am currently using My Movies.dk metadata for movies for use with XBMC. There is an option in either the Collection Management program or in the settings in the WHS version of My Movies to enable metadata file creation for XBMC, if enabled My Movies will then create a .nfo and .tbn files in each movies folder. XBMC can read these files and import the metadata provided by My Movies. I’ve been using this feature in conjunction with the My Movies scraper add-on for XBMC.
Now I always knew this day would come when I would have to make a decision if to keep My Movies database on the back-end server or if to ditch it. Today is that day I feel!
With the help of my new friend Samu-rai on the XBMC forums I have compared the data displayed for movies by My Movies metadata and the XBMC scraper called “Universal Movie Scraper” and the results are clear as to who the winner is and its not My Movies.
I’ve been a long time user and supporter of the My Movies.dk system and the team there. I don’t think I could have used Windows Media Center to the extent I did if it were not for My Movies.
Some reasons why I still like My Movies:
The My Movies system works well for disc titles, i.e. movies that have been released already on DVD or Blu-ray disc, its not so good for metadata for films that are still in the cinema e.g. pirate movies but that’s a good thing right.
The TV Series support for DVD disc rips is excellent and MCE can directly play episodes, XBMC cannot do this yet! I wrote a whole thing about the limitations of TV Series on DVD rips in XBMC here
My Movies does other good things like the personal Online Collection website and the iOS / Android app. They are planning on updating the remote control on the mobile apps to be able to control XBMC as well as MCE.
I still like using the Collection Management software for managing my titles but if I move to a XBMC scraper that kinda becomes somewhat redundant.
My Movies is also IMHO still the best automatic disc ripping / downloader of metadata, you need AnyDVD HD in the back ground and My Movies ripper does the rest. I haven’t seen any solutions for a fully automated disc ripping service in XBMC.
The My Movies development team I believe do have plans to revamp their entire XBMC integration but this is not the highest priority for them which we understand as they don’t make money on XBMC client users so much if any.
They are already working on updating the XBMC metadata integration that is including in the MAC OSX version of Collection Management so that is a good thing, it just needs updating for WHS and Windows Server but I am not sure I can wait.
My Movies metadata for Bolt
Universal Movie Scraper for Bolt
My Movies metadata for Madagascar 2
Universal Movie Scraper for Madagascar 2
My Movies metadata for Nemo Universal Movie Scraper for Nemo
I am going to have to sleep on this one, but I am thinking I will delete all the My Movies .nfo and .tbn files and rebuild my XBMC Movie Library using the XBMC Universal Movie Scraper instead.
Which unfortunately makes the My Movies.dk system for me pretty much not required any more as I have no MCE HTPCs now in the house! I may keep it on the server for Disc ripping though.
6 thoughts on “My Movies.dk keep it or ditch it ???”
Stuart, I continue to follow your exploits into XBMC with great interest. Like you, I have begun trialling MCE replacements, as my MCE\DVB Link solution has become progressively unreliable (read ‘Play ready’ and diminishing WAF), with version 4.5.3 seemingly coming a little too late for me. However, unlike you, I have been attacking the problem from a live TV point of view first and playing around with Media Portal. Early testing seems to be in-line with Daniel’s (https://thedigitallifestyle.com/w/index.php/2012/08/27/mediaportal-why-i-switched-from-windows-media-center/) and I especially like the multistream aspect (i.e. being able to watch\record all the channels on a particular multiplex from a single tuner), but it is early days yet.
I have to say the Films and TV aspect (in both Media Portal and XBMC) is less intuitive. Like you, I have relied upon MyMovies to manage my films and TV series, not worrying about exact naming convention of files as ‘point’ to them with MyMovies. I have also used MyMovies to create ‘Kids’ view for the start-up view for the HTPC the kids use. As well as generating simple box set views continuing groups of whatever DVDs I want e.g. a generic “Documentaries”. Not seemingly easily repeatable under MP\XBMC.
Ensuring completeness and accuracy of the library in either MP or XBMC appears to be a lot harder (especially if you are trying to bring across an existing and quite large film collection). I also find the lack of a customisable database a little disconcerting. Having said that I have been trialling MyFilms in MP (which has a more traditional database approach) and I understand there are plugins for XBMC that highlight discrepancies between your files and the XBMC library.
Then I have the problem of not be able to easily share the completed films database with the rest of the house. In theory, MyFilms in MP should do this (but it has been temperamental with me) and there appears to be a way of sharing the XBMC database across the network – however it is not as easy as installing the MyMovies client on the client PC.
Which is a very long way of saying I understand your dilemma!
Please keep up the good work on the XBMC posts, especially your Live TV journey.
I must admit all the years I have used MCE I have not always even had live tv working in it, I lived in Asia for 3 years and never really bothered with live tv and MCE and even when in England I didnt always use live tv in MCE so for me its not as important but still I would like it working in XBMC if I can. My only real plan at the moment is to do what Ian did and use DVBLogic and their XBMC add-on see his link below.
Parental Controls in XBMC are non existent but you can setup different XBMC profiles or just dump your kids content in to separate folders on the server which is what I did and use the master lock feature to lock sources. You can also do something with smart playlists in XBMC in relation to displaying child friendly content but I dont know more about that yet.
The folder structures and naming of TV Show files for example in MCE / My Movies is not too different from what is required in XBMC so minimal restructuring / renaming should be required. I did however have to restructure my entire music collection as I had genre folders on the server and XBMC does not support this you just have to have all the artists folders listed under the main music folder share.
The hardest thing about XBMC is working out how all the different artwork add-ons and metadata scrapers work and which ones do what, and also some of their features over lap with other add-ons so can get complex.
I forgot to mention I followed a guide to setup a centralised MySQL database on the WHS server for use with Xbmc. This enables features like watched / unwatched status to be carried across all Xbmc client pcs. Resume video from different rooms and it also makes the media libraries centralised, so if I add new content to the library via one client that new content instantly appears on the others. I can dig up the link to the setup guide I followed if you need it.
Stuart, apologies work got away from me.
The dilemma continues. MP is not proofing to be that robust for me when coming out of standby and I am time limited at the moment – put it this way, when the Wife asked how hard is it to get Media Centre back, I knew I was in trouble!
I tried the XBMC add-ins for MP and ArgusTV, but the PVR functionality is very ‘limited’.
I may have to go back to MCE in some form and hope the PVR functionality in XBMC comes on in the next year (or MP 2 is more suitable for me).
On the up side I do not have to re-adjust all my films directories (My naming convention is not XBMC friendly at all).
I was previously using Shark’s 007 codec pack, but I could not figure how to reliable switch subtitles on an off whilst in the film. So I have started trying using the MPC-HC trick mentioned on http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2010/01/29/guide-using-mpc-hc-as-your-video-player-in-wmc-media-browser/. Seems to be working well (which means I will break it soon), but I have yet to bitstream to my receiver.
Starting to think about using Recorded TV HD to spruce up the recorded tv and then trying to use the Shared Guide Potato to implement a mini soft sled, having a ‘single’ guide for series links, using the HD tuners and having central storage.
Toying with the idea of either DVBlink\ some older local tuners, for live TV and then transferring them to a central pc\my WHS 2011.
Basically thinking of doing a lot of work to try and get another 12\18 months out of MCE.
Hi have you seen this? Someone told me about it on the green button the other day. Someone is attempting to write an XBMC TV addon for using windows media center on the back end, could be good if you plan to keep WMC around for use with TV tuners but want XBMC front end.
I myself am just preying DVBLogic works with XBMC.
I had another evening trying to configure MCE around DVBLink last night. Continually hitting PlayReady issues, three reinstallas and two MCE database restes later, I have decided that my ego can’t keep taking the bashing! Now I may just go back to having dedicated tuners in each box and then moving the recordings with a bat file. I will lose the ability to automatically manage the recordings, but if it gets me out of trouble.
I will follow up on that link, perhaps that may be the answer.
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![[Image: Bolt.png?psid=1]](https://qvtiua.dm1.livefilestore.com/y1pLCK2LDQYyKHOHh7V6m43OS712LGgOQCu40kP6U_EUgyUZtzJxqJP3yTglngbpXKGszllvEl-e7o/Bolt.png?psid=1)
![[Image: Uni-Bolt.png?psid=1]](https://qvtiua.dm1.livefilestore.com/y1pojP3ABNVKSo_Sgauv7Wa8feQlu9d3_3-jl29k1nbEm1BZ9qs55aMYQ-UqRLlTsoL_UQUL0-hKyM/Uni-Bolt.png?psid=1)
![[Image: Madagascar2.png?psid=1]](https://qvtiua.dm1.livefilestore.com/y1poJH5oEn57kyX32yrOnQfEYANGK5cep1oQk4F85Lv2Aqi2Ke1alMIxRAcuLrkg_40ZB46gVcZgIE/Madagascar2.png?psid=1)
![[Image: Uni-Madagascar2.png?psid=1]](https://qvtiua.dm1.livefilestore.com/y1pWWAJLIMTTavCEQ2SuwOSjla7b8-ec0mRy1efha_g1LJNtC2kyy-BEQvKT39hxzUCDivT3qEicpA/Uni-Madagascar2.png?psid=1)
![[Image: Nemo.png?psid=1]](https://qvtiua.dm1.livefilestore.com/y1pXhWXI4rMmpfjONp7zFXd3SFjMhTPzpAKr5kul2d4-RAxihKnOI3ekHyhbOAxbsz_zZzWPSzVL_0/Nemo.png?psid=1)
Universal Movie Scraper for Nemo![[Image: Uni2-Nemo.png?psid=1]](https://qvtiua.dm1.livefilestore.com/y1pefEacmtSygjVWiKfWAjx-agKrG0dl2ILQlpSixfGIPK9ZE_MRANd7xJIf-V9vZw_AbReJbIiFMY/Uni2-Nemo.png?psid=1)
Stuart, I continue to follow your exploits into XBMC with great interest. Like you, I have begun trialling MCE replacements, as my MCE\DVB Link solution has become progressively unreliable (read ‘Play ready’ and diminishing WAF), with version 4.5.3 seemingly coming a little too late for me. However, unlike you, I have been attacking the problem from a live TV point of view first and playing around with Media Portal. Early testing seems to be in-line with Daniel’s (https://thedigitallifestyle.com/w/index.php/2012/08/27/mediaportal-why-i-switched-from-windows-media-center/) and I especially like the multistream aspect (i.e. being able to watch\record all the channels on a particular multiplex from a single tuner), but it is early days yet.
I have to say the Films and TV aspect (in both Media Portal and XBMC) is less intuitive. Like you, I have relied upon MyMovies to manage my films and TV series, not worrying about exact naming convention of files as ‘point’ to them with MyMovies. I have also used MyMovies to create ‘Kids’ view for the start-up view for the HTPC the kids use. As well as generating simple box set views continuing groups of whatever DVDs I want e.g. a generic “Documentaries”. Not seemingly easily repeatable under MP\XBMC.
Ensuring completeness and accuracy of the library in either MP or XBMC appears to be a lot harder (especially if you are trying to bring across an existing and quite large film collection). I also find the lack of a customisable database a little disconcerting. Having said that I have been trialling MyFilms in MP (which has a more traditional database approach) and I understand there are plugins for XBMC that highlight discrepancies between your files and the XBMC library.
Then I have the problem of not be able to easily share the completed films database with the rest of the house. In theory, MyFilms in MP should do this (but it has been temperamental with me) and there appears to be a way of sharing the XBMC database across the network – however it is not as easy as installing the MyMovies client on the client PC.
Which is a very long way of saying I understand your dilemma!
Please keep up the good work on the XBMC posts, especially your Live TV journey.
Hi Russell
I must admit all the years I have used MCE I have not always even had live tv working in it, I lived in Asia for 3 years and never really bothered with live tv and MCE and even when in England I didnt always use live tv in MCE so for me its not as important but still I would like it working in XBMC if I can. My only real plan at the moment is to do what Ian did and use DVBLogic and their XBMC add-on see his link below.
Parental Controls in XBMC are non existent but you can setup different XBMC profiles or just dump your kids content in to separate folders on the server which is what I did and use the master lock feature to lock sources. You can also do something with smart playlists in XBMC in relation to displaying child friendly content but I dont know more about that yet.
The folder structures and naming of TV Show files for example in MCE / My Movies is not too different from what is required in XBMC so minimal restructuring / renaming should be required. I did however have to restructure my entire music collection as I had genre folders on the server and XBMC does not support this you just have to have all the artists folders listed under the main music folder share.
The hardest thing about XBMC is working out how all the different artwork add-ons and metadata scrapers work and which ones do what, and also some of their features over lap with other add-ons so can get complex.
https://thedigitallifestyle.com/w/index.php/2012/09/16/using-dvblink-to-turn-the-raspberry-pi-into-a-media-center-extender/
I forgot to mention I followed a guide to setup a centralised MySQL database on the WHS server for use with Xbmc. This enables features like watched / unwatched status to be carried across all Xbmc client pcs. Resume video from different rooms and it also makes the media libraries centralised, so if I add new content to the library via one client that new content instantly appears on the others. I can dig up the link to the setup guide I followed if you need it.
Stuart, apologies work got away from me.
The dilemma continues. MP is not proofing to be that robust for me when coming out of standby and I am time limited at the moment – put it this way, when the Wife asked how hard is it to get Media Centre back, I knew I was in trouble!
I tried the XBMC add-ins for MP and ArgusTV, but the PVR functionality is very ‘limited’.
I may have to go back to MCE in some form and hope the PVR functionality in XBMC comes on in the next year (or MP 2 is more suitable for me).
On the up side I do not have to re-adjust all my films directories (My naming convention is not XBMC friendly at all).
I was previously using Shark’s 007 codec pack, but I could not figure how to reliable switch subtitles on an off whilst in the film. So I have started trying using the MPC-HC trick mentioned on http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2010/01/29/guide-using-mpc-hc-as-your-video-player-in-wmc-media-browser/. Seems to be working well (which means I will break it soon), but I have yet to bitstream to my receiver.
Starting to think about using Recorded TV HD to spruce up the recorded tv and then trying to use the Shared Guide Potato to implement a mini soft sled, having a ‘single’ guide for series links, using the HD tuners and having central storage.
Toying with the idea of either DVBlink\ some older local tuners, for live TV and then transferring them to a central pc\my WHS 2011.
Basically thinking of doing a lot of work to try and get another 12\18 months out of MCE.
Hi have you seen this? Someone told me about it on the green button the other day. Someone is attempting to write an XBMC TV addon for using windows media center on the back end, could be good if you plan to keep WMC around for use with TV tuners but want XBMC front end.
I myself am just preying DVBLogic works with XBMC.
http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=4470&hilit=xbmc
Thank you, I will look into that.
I had another evening trying to configure MCE around DVBLink last night. Continually hitting PlayReady issues, three reinstallas and two MCE database restes later, I have decided that my ego can’t keep taking the bashing! Now I may just go back to having dedicated tuners in each box and then moving the recordings with a bat file. I will lose the ability to automatically manage the recordings, but if it gets me out of trouble.
I will follow up on that link, perhaps that may be the answer.