MediaBrowser has long been a favorite for anyone looking to replace the built-in movie library browser with something that has a few more features. MediaBrowser is a free plugin for Windows 7 Media Center that adds more advanced library management, multiple view options for browsing the library and plenty of sorting options. It doesn’t take long with this plugin [...]
The latest version of Media Browser, code named “Phoenix”, includes the addition of a parental control option. This much requested feature enables the locking of content of a certain rating and requiring a pin number to be able to view the media. Much like the common cable DVR this is enacted to prevent younger audiences from getting access to [...]
Much of the data retrieved by Media Browser is stored on the hard drive and needs to be retrieved frequently as you browse through your movie collection. Information such as movie metadata and covers is constantly being loaded up as you browse through your movie folders. This data retrieval process leads to some extremely slow performance in large collections [...]
Finding the right metadata tool to suit your needs can be a tricky process but we’re here to help. One of the oldest metadata tools available, MetaBrowser predates most of the offerings we’ve covered previously. It’s also one of the most full featured metadata retrieval tools available, including support for actor images, backdrops and poster images. We’ve already covered [...]
If there’s one thing that the majority of metadata tools are missing it’s the ability to go beyond the basic movie collection and grab information on TV series collections as well. While MetaBrowser provides a comprehensive tool for both Movie and TV series metadata, as well as a more complete integration with Media Browser’s backdrops, covers and actor images, [...]
The recently released Media Browser 2.1 was quite an ambitious release but with such a large number of new features you’re bound to introduce a number of bugs as well. Coming less than a week since version 2.1 became available version 2.1.1 is a bug fix update.
Though there are still a number of outstanding bugs here’s a short list [...]
The latest revision of Media Browser has been in the works for a while now. Among the new features are a whole new skin, a plug-in system, Podcast support, weather display and external players. Of course, with such an ambitious release there’s bound to be some confusion and even a few bugs to be found. Let’s take a closer [...]
There hasn’t been enough time since the release of the latest version of MediaBrowser (v.2.1) to give an adequate review of some of the new features for today but it is available at long last. Though not listed on the official download page at this time the downloadable installer is available from the Google Code site.
Among the improvements [...]
Looking for sleeker covers to fill up your Media Browser Coverflow? Well, thanks to tyborg on the Media Browser forums you can do just that and it’s simple as pie too! Starkcovers will automatically go through your movie collection and convert any of your existing folder.jpg files into a stylized .png. Unfortunately, this will only work with Media Browser [...]
You may have noticed that Windows Media Center and Windows Media Player have slightly different levels of black on your PC monitor (and possibly even your flat screen monitor). If you notice that your black aren’t quite what they should be while using Media Center the reason could be differing nominal ranges.
By default, for the majority, a television’s [...]
With the final release of Windows 7 coming ever closer we are stating to see a number of very nice tools being released gear toward the new platform. For Media Center users some of the most useful programs being developed are in the area of codec support. With Windows Media Foundation and the new pipeline used in Media Center [...]
This is a guest post written by Adam Plante, a Hack7MC reader. Do you have a guide you’d like to share with the community? Let us know by dropping us a line through the contact form or email mhealy@hack7mc.com.
This guide assumes you already have media browser installed and configured. Updated 6/3/2009 – This guide has been updated to include [...]
Media Browser is easily one of the most popular video and movie collection managers for Windows 7 Media Center users, with good reason. The interface it provides is stunning and the number of extra “little” features available amount to a heap of Media Center loving. Out of the box, Media Browser is great but that doesn’t mean that we [...]
If you like many of us trying to use Media Browser on an extender such as an Xbox360 you’ve probably been witness to the customization error of death. The result is a locked up extender and no Media Browser plug-in interface for all those movies. Especially painful if you’ve implement our recent hack to enable a start menu strip [...]
So you’ve got your Media Browser install all set up with custom icons and a transparent background, to show off your awesome Media Center theme, but now you’ve got a new problem. Those custom folder icons you downloaded show this ugly blue background whenever you hover over them. Well, we better do something about that!
The solution to this [...]
Included with the latest versions of Media Browser, a new configuration application is included which makes adding folders to your Media Browser setup easy. Also included is the ability to assign images for your folders to be displayed inside Media Browser. Unfortunately, no default images were included with the program so you’re most likely using the boring default folder [...]
If you’ve already installed the custom Media Browser movie strip using our downloadable package from this recent article there’s a good chance you’re interested in adding a few more entries to that strip. Lucky for you, we’ve got a package here with some extra registry files to add a few of the most popular streaming TV plug-ins to the [...]
