movie browser?

N

novadude

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jul 8, 2004
Messages
1,108
I'm looking for a program that would essentially just be a front end to display movie posters (stored locally, no need for pulling from IMDB) that when clicked play the movie (regardless of format) in MPC, but would also allow nested folders for tv shows to be grouped by seasons. Other than that I don't need it to do anything else. Can anyone point me towards something?
 
Thanks, I'll check out Media Portal. I've been using VMC, but it doesn't really do what I'd like organizationally and it doesn't handle codecs very well so I'd like to try something different.
 
customj said:
It looks like Movie Collector isn't standalone either?

I'll second the MediaPortal suggestion, and the TV Series plugin
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No, not a stand alone. works with vista. If you can get your codecs sorted out, it makes for a nice combination imho. What exactly arethe codec problems you are having>?
 
Media Portal is very easy to setup and allows a decent amount of easy customization (i.e. change the size of the posters, what program loads to watch the movies, etc)
 
What exactly arethe codec problems you are having>?
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I'm running 64-bit Vista ultimate, so getting it to work with most things is just a real pain in the ass. It can't seem to use the right codecs to play .mov/.avi's correctly, it either crashes or plays only the audio and .mkv's have troubles too(although that probably stems from other codec problems). MPC with the 32-bit codecs plays the file fine, but the 64-bit VMC can't handle the files with or without the 64-bit codecs registered
 
novadude said:
I'm running 64-bit Vista ultimate, so getting it to work with most things is just a real pain in the ass. It can't seem to use the right codecs to play .mov/.avi's correctly, it either crashes or plays only the audio and .mkv's have troubles too(although that probably stems from other codec problems). MPC with the 32-bit codecs plays the file fine, but the 64-bit VMC can't handle the files with or without the 64-bit codecs registered
Click to expand...

I tried running a Vista x64 HTPC and it's not worth the hassle, trust me. VMC will always use the 64-bit version of Media Player, so you need to have 64-bit codecs. Even with that, it's a pain. Speaking from experience, just go 32-bit.
 
yeah, that's why I've been looking at alternatives. MPC plays the files fine with the 32-bit codecs, but the 64-bit versions of the same codecs just can't deal with it :( I'd like to get away from VMC altogether though so once I get the rig back together I'll slap media portal on there and give that a go.

I'm stuck with a 64bit OS though because I won't give up my 8GB of ram, and I don't really feal like rebooting just for movies.
 
I use Xlobby. It is stand alone and does exactly what you are asking. You tell it what player to use for each type of media file you want to play. It's super customizable.
You can get the free version from here.
 
Vista Media Center and check out the Open Media Library plugin.

l3ender said:
I tried running a Vista x64 HTPC and it's not worth the hassle, trust me. VMC will always use the 64-bit version of Media Player, so you need to have 64-bit codecs. Even with that, it's a pain. Speaking from experience, just go 32-bit.
Click to expand...

I have been running Vista Home Premium x64 on my HTPC for years, there are x64 codecs available.
 
yeah, they are available, but some don't integrate with media center properly, or they have stuttering issues, or they are buggy, etc. I've found the right combo for my PC with Vista x64, but it isn't always that way for other people, or for that matter, the other machines I own. 64-bit is very picky and system dependent based on your codec versions, hardware, and driver versions. 32-bit is much more headache free and is pretty standard for the whole crowd to get working easily.
 
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