New fanatic of HTPC, what plugins/software do I need for this? (1 Viewer)

[komita]

Hello,

I am in the process of building my first HTPC (the HTPC Hardware forum has been a lot of help) and in the meantime while waiting for parts I have been playing with MP on my laptop to get the feel of it.
I am so new to this thing that I have some really basic questions to ask regarding what I might need for the setup I am envisioning.

Here is where I get stuck:
1 - What plugin/program can I use to organize the movies and download the cover art/rename to be easiest and best for MP ? The existing movies I have are mostly ISO files of the DVD's with a name such as "The Godfather I.iso"

2 - What is MovingPictures? I see it referenced everywhere and it seems likely that I may need it, so what is it and what do i need to use it?

3 - What program can I use to organize/rename my mp3 library with cover art/naming? I have a bunch of songs all over the place, and it would not make for an easy access by MP.

Any guidance appreciated!

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

1 - What plugin/program can I use to organize the movies and download the cover art/rename to be easiest and best for MP ? The existing movies I have are mostly ISO files of the DVD's with a name such as "The Godfather I.iso"

My vote would go to MovingPictures for film's purely because it is more automated from within MP, downloads anything film related, saying that the MyVideo developer Deda is quickly catching up with some nice improvements, so I do use both, second one with home vid's added.

3 - What program can I use to organize/rename my mp3 library with cover art/naming? I have a bunch of songs all over the place, and it would not make for an easy access by MP

MPTagThat found in PRODUCTS link at top of forum or MediaMonkey, both are good at organising files and getting tags correct.

 

[hafblade]

My favorite for movie collections is the plugin MyFilms.
It's similar to MovingPictures but also has the possibility to create the movie data in one place and use it on every client in the network.
My Films - MediaPortal Forum

For managment of series use the My TVSeries plugin.
My TVSeries - MediaPortal Forum

For downloading background pictures of movies, series and music use the Fanart handler.
Fanart Handler - MediaPortal Forum

For video internet pages use OnlineVideos.
OnlineVideos - MediaPortal Forum

These are my favorites

 

[Spragleknas]

Moving Pictures + MP TV-Series + FanArt Handler + Online Videos + more => Just get the StreamedMP skin

I use MusicBrainz for tagging (been a long time since I needed) - mostly due to force of habit, I think

 

[komita]

Ohh I see now, Moving Pictures is the actual plug-in that I need to get the movie's info/cover art and stuff.
Now I am unable to test the Moving Pictures right now but I tried the Media Monkey and MPTagThat and it seems I still have to do a lot manually,
Question is is there any set-and-forget method that I can let it go through my library and automatically rename the songs and maybe even organize them?

 

[drealit]

Just get the StreamedMP skin, it integrates all the essentials. Next recommendation is to grab one of the SAF filter packages to handle all your codec needs.

As for mp3 fixings... my workflow is to grab mp3tag and Album Art Downloader then head on over to this guide so you can somewhat combine the 2 - Album Art Downloader XUI - Hydrogenaudio Forums.

 

[rekenaar]

hi

Question is is there any set-and-forget method that I can let it go through my library and automatically rename the songs and maybe even organize them?

Unfortunately no set-and-forget method. Most people have different ideas on how the ideal library looks like.
look here for some nice tips:
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/listen-music-99/guide-music-section-mediaportal-77404/

 

[komita]

I see .. I was afraid that there would be no easy way. I have a bunch of songs that are very poorly marked and I was hoping something can go through them and label them without my interaction, but even the identify feature of MPTagThat doesnt work on half of them.

So I will try the SteamedMP since it has most things integrated and I guess I will go from there. I haven't had a chance to play with different formats and stuff but when the time comes I'm sure I will be asking codecs questions.

 

[rekenaar]

Is it just the music tags that's missing or is the filenames also wrong?
If filenames are correct, it can be used to populate the tags.

 

[komita]

That where the difficulty comes in, most filenames are <Artist> - <song>, but there is a lot of them that are messed up,
meaning I can read it and know what song it is, but its very inconsistent, such as "03_Back_in_Black_ACDC.mp3" or "03 AC/DC - Back In Black.mp3" or any combination as such.

Maybe if I put all songs inside one directory and then try to sort them by name and manually separate the poorly named ones .. but again manually ... seems like I might be out of luck. (I was hoping that Identify could just find all of them by matching the song but it doesnt seem to work for the most part)