Looking to switch from WMC/WMP (1 Viewer)

RAP58

New Member
November 9, 2021
2
0
Home Country
Canada Canada
Hi there - just registered and I have some basic questions on how to MediaPortal provides similar experience for Movies, Music and Photos.

Movies: Like many WMC users, I use My Movies collection management and the WMC plug-in. Any chance you support this approach for MP? If no - then I have a bunch of other questions - but if yes, then that would be awesome news.

Music: In a similar vein, WMP is really the back-end for WMC. I know that you can use WMP as the player - but can you use its metadata dB too? Once again, if no - then I have a bunch of other questions - but if yes, then that would be awesome news!

Photos: I have a large collection of photos and family home videos. I'm amazed at how well WMP worked for this - while other media centers were pretty poor. (Kodi comes to mind). I liked the approach of folders working as albums and the ability to next folders. How does MP organize or structures photos?

Thanks for your help...
 

joecrow

Test Group
  • Team MediaPortal
  • August 9, 2012
    2,528
    1,880
    Home Country
    Germany Germany
    Hi and Welcome
    Not sure that I can answer all your questions as it has been a long time since I converted to Media Portal. I also used MyMovies with WMC but I did not use it with MP, to be fair I did not try very hard my collection of movies was not very large and the major advantage of MyMovies in WMC for me was its ability to use an alternative media player which MP1 has by default. You should read this section of the MP Wiki which gives details of how to integrate MyMovies with MP1 but I never tried it. I now use the Moving Pictures plugin with MP1 which I like very much.
    For Music again the Wiki is probably your best source see here for a start.
    I do not use MP for viewing images so no idea at all there.
    Were you planning on using MP1 or MP2 there are pros and cons for both depending on what you want to achieve?
     

    ge2301

    Lead Design MP2
  • Team MediaPortal
  • January 11, 2014
    8,705
    3,491
    Stuttgart
    Home Country
    Germany Germany
    I can not say anything about MP1. MP2 offers a WMC-like skin (also all settings like in WMC are GUI based and no external configuration tools). An interesting feature in your case might be user managment for families with age-restrictions for media items and TV, Settings, etc. . Series and Movie management is implemented into core without any need to add axtra plugins as for MP1. A seperate chapter for videos apart from movies and series is also existing.
    Photos can be organized within a library, so they can be filtered/sorted by place, date, resolution, ... but also folder based, means your existing structure can be taken over. I would generally recommend using library views though.
     

    joecrow

    Test Group
  • Team MediaPortal
  • August 9, 2012
    2,528
    1,880
    Home Country
    Germany Germany
    MP2 would cover all your needs out of the box (y)
    I can think of at least 3 reasons why MP2 might be a problem for the OP, the first and not least is the integration of MyMovies. Also if an external player is required or desired then MP2 will not handle that automatically it would need to be manually started from the Launcher plugin wheras MP1 can be setup to use an external player based on various file attributes of the selected media. Playback of 3D frame packed (BD3D) videos is possible directly in MP1 when MadVR is installed.
    On the other hand MP2 setup is much more straight forward and the WMC skin can be very attractive for those switching from WMC to MP.
     

    ge2301

    Lead Design MP2
  • Team MediaPortal
  • January 11, 2014
    8,705
    3,491
    Stuttgart
    Home Country
    Germany Germany
    the first and not least is the integration of MyMovies
    This is correct, this can not be directly taken into MP2. I was also prior MP2 WMC user with MyMovies plugin. I once loaded everything to TinyMediaManager and within 30 minutes it was tagged, in addition to the mymovies.xml for every file, ready to be imported into MP2. I think effort is quite low and it’s worth to organize the media differently.
     

    RAP58

    New Member
    November 9, 2021
    2
    0
    Home Country
    Canada Canada
    Hmmm - not what I was expecting on My Movies. No one is running My Films 6 plug-in?

    See here: My Films 6 released! - MEDIAPORTAL

    @joecrow - 1st post & ge2301 - 2nd post: Just reviewed the wiki-link and that is for a very old version of My Movies. (3.18) MM3 came out for Vista. The current Version 5 has been out for maybe 6 years? It was released for Windows 10 and had significant structural changes. I guess I'll need some validation with someone who has done this more recently - ideally with 5.40 which was released almost a year ago.

    @ge2301: Thanks for the bit on photos. My folder organization indeed mimics albums, so if MP can take on that structure, that would be excellent. Do you know if it handles nested folders? Example \\SERVER\Photos\Familiy\2010, 2011, 2012 - ie: each year is a folder containing family photos. If it did this, then everything else is a bonus! I note that MP has slideshows - which is perfect, as WMC had this as well.

    @joecrow - 2nd post: indeed 3D playback is something I'm looking for. Playback is via MKV (half or full) SBS or OU files. I have a Blu-ray player but rip everything to my server. I don't need external playback; everything is off a HTPC.

    If players are not available from MP I guess my main concern is how good the experience is from an interactivity standpoint - and 10ft control. I have 3 rooms that operate in this fashion: my home theatre, my living room and my recording studio. Studio is just me; but the other areas my wife and kids are operating ...and it needs to be dead simple.

    I also note no comments on music - if MP will not use the WMP database, that's fine. Then does MP use folder structure or metadata? - or something else? I have a lot of - what most folks consider as esoteric music; mainly jazz, but other genres as well.

    Finally, I have a large library of surround music in the form of DTS-HDMA files - typically rips of now defunct SACD and DVD-A. How does it handle these audio-only formats?

    Thanks all for your feedback - I appreciate it.

    Cheers!
     

    ge2301

    Lead Design MP2
  • Team MediaPortal
  • January 11, 2014
    8,705
    3,491
    Stuttgart
    Home Country
    Germany Germany
    Do you know if it handles nested folders? Example \\SERVER\Photos\Familiy\2010, 2011, 2012 - ie: each year is a folder containing family photos.
    That is not supported. In folder view you can just navigate through the pre-defined folder structure, you loose also the filter options, thouse are only existing in library view.

    2nd post: indeed 3D playback is something I'm looking for. Playback is via MKV (half or full) SBS or OU files. I have a Blu-ray player but rip everything to my server.
    In MP2 I watched SBS 3D movies. Important ist just the TV supports it, because MP2 send them of course in splitted screen and the TV needs to merge them.
    Finally, I have a large library of surround music in the form of DTS-HDMA files - typically rips of now defunct SACD and DVD-A. How does it handle these audio-only formats?
    I have several DTS-CD's ripped. MP2 playes them correctly as long the audio stream is forwarded untouched (LAV settings: bit-streaming) to the receiver.
     

    Users who are viewing this thread

    Top Bottom