Plugins and Video Files on External HD (1 Viewer)

[Lucia]

I am newbie to MediaPortal. I recently installed MediaPortal on my Vista Home Premium system and the installation was flawless. I would appreciate any help I can get with the following :

1. Plug in installation

I copied the plugin (*.mpi) file to the MediaPortal plugin folder. I installed plugins (.mpi) using MediaPortal configuration tool. I got "access denied error" alert message which I accepted and complete the configuration without being able to configure the plugin. I then started the MediaPortal Extension Installer and selected the installed plugin and clicked on reinstall. After the plugin was reinstalled, I could configure the plugin without any problems and the plugins showed up in My Plugins menu.

Question : Is this a normal way to install a plugin or am I doing someething wrong ?

2. External Hard Drive

In the MediaPortal Coniguration tool, under thee tabs for Audio, Video I added the name and drive letter of my external hard disk. When I start MediaPortal, My Music shows all the directories in the external hard drive and I can browse to the audio file I want to play. Works without a hitch. In My videos, there is no display of the directories or any video files on ther external hard disk. In MediaPortal Configuration tool, when I scan the external hard disk I see and play some not all of the video files on my external hard disk.

I have large number of video files (mainly home video and concerts) on external hard disks in differeent resoltuion and formats. Is there any way that I can plug in an external drive and get a listing of the video files on the drive and play them directly. (Similar to WD TV which scan files in the external drive and plays if the codec for thee format is available)

 

[Lucia]

I have just figured out that File Explorer plugin allows me to browse and play video files from my external hard disk. Pity this functionality is not available in My Video menu.

 

[jsimo01]

Have you tried MP-TVSeries and Moving Pictures plugins, you can use with removable media; when adding drive check removable tick-box.

 

[Lucia]

I have tried both plugins. |I had to scan the external hard disk using the configuration tool. Not exactly handy when I want to plug in a borrowed hard disk and play the file without ruinning the configuration tool. Unfortunately, I cannot see all my video files on the external hard disk in the plugins and in addition often the names of the files in the plugins have no reference the folder name. Is there any way of displaying all video files on the hard disk or am I missing a trick ?