To get started you’ll need to have installed the server and client of My Movies 3 on your main Media Center machine. We’re installing the client and server on this machine so that we can use the client to browse movies in Media Center and the server will allow us to edit the data remotely. The server also adds the possibility of remotely accessing the same collection database from each PC on the network. Using a central database in place of flat files saves time and resources by not reloading flat files from the folders and downloading data to each client Media Center machine.

On the remote machine you’ll only need to install the client for browsing the My Movies 3 library. For editing the collection remotely, install My Movies 3 Collection Management from the My Movies download page. Unfortunately, the installation process doesn’t offer to change the firewall settings so that we can access the database remotely and it needs to be done manually. Start by opening up the Control Panel –> Safety and Security –> Allow a Program through the Firewall on the Media Center and press the Change settings button. Press the Add another program button and locate “Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Binn\” (64-bit users look in “Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Binn\”) and add sqlservr.exe. Also, locate Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Shared\sqlbrowser.exe and add it to the exceptions list (64-bit users need not use program files (x86) this time).

Now to edit the collection launch the My Movies Collection Management program and you’ll be prompted to enter the network location of the My Movies server machine (after logging in to the My Movies server, which is the same username and password as a My Movies forums account: register here).

It takes some time to access and load the database. To change the location of the My Movies server later access the File menu and select the Connect to Server option. Management of the My Movies collection should now be possible from the client machine.

My Movies Collection Management offers a fairly comprehensive ability to edit movie metadata manually and retrieve data from remote sources. To change the title or source of a particular movie select it from the left hand pane and press the small red and green arrow icon in the toolbar.

From this next dialog change the title, location and format to help narrow down the results and find the correct selection for the title in question. For instance, The Patriot regularly comes up as a Steven Segal movie when it’s in fact the Mel Gibson revolutionary war tale of the same name.

Simply select the proper title and format (type) for the movie and press the Change button to download the updated information. That’s all there is to it! You should now be able to use the Collection Management tool to edit your entire movie collection’s metadata remotely for My Movies 3. Have trouble or tips? Leave a comment below!

To get started with the latest version of Media Center Master head over to the MCM official forums and select the thread with the latest version. Download and installation is fairly standard procedure. Launch Media Center Master from Start –> Programs –> Media Center Master. First time users should go to the Application menu and select Set Scan Folders.

Add your movie folders and hit done, Media Center Master will begin scanning those folders for movie or TV content as this version supports TV series as well. Press the triple arrow button to expand the TV Series view. Looking in the option there is certainly quite a bit more to the program than there was a year ago. Much of it has become standard options for metadata retrieval tools: renaming, actor images, poster downloads, etc. A few of the options, however, are quite impressive (and slightly confusing).

The new downloader feature is particularly interesting and seems to be a major of Media Center Master though instructions on how to work it seem to be quite unavailable. Inferring the intent is to automatically download television and movies one may also question it’s legality. Losing as great a metadata tool as Media Center Master to some legal quagmire would be a big loss. It would be good to see Downloader become a second program that’s capable of interacting with Media Center Master.

The addition of a Post-Processing is an exciting addition to the program, allowing you to execute batch files and such after Media Center Master has finished processing a movie. This means the ability to monitor a folder for new movies then automatically retrieve metadata and apply Stark Covers (though you’ll need to use this workaround). Also, a set of options for automatically (or manually) downloading theatrical trailers for your collection is great to see included.

Back in the main dialog Media Center Master begins to automatically process the movie folders and at metadata retrieval it really is a master. With options set to check multiple sources for the best possible results and download backdrops, posters and actor images all automatically the program is remarkably accurate. There were very few movies that the program couldn’t identify on the first run.

Media Center Master was able to update our metadata in a matter of minutes over the network updating all the relevant data and giving us a nice clean default Movie Library view (which seems an impossible endeavor some days). For those movies not picked up automatically, simply right-click the listing and select Fetch Metadata. If no listing is found on this manual run the MCM will prompt for you to enter an IMDB number, typically found in the url of a movie on IMDB.com and beginning with tt. This will help the program find the correct title and fill out the metadata for the movie.

The program also supports downloading content for Media Browser, XBMC and Boxee for users of those programs and plugins. That’s all there is to it, using Media Center Master really is both automatic and incredibly accurate following a quick setup of the options. The author of the software is extremely dedicated having posted 33 updates in the last year adding countless features to the program. Best of all the program is completely free and has a great community of users as well as the developer on the Media Center Master forums. Media Center Master is definitely worth a try and will likely have to back to watching movies instead of filling out metadata in no time.

To get started with version 2 of Meta<Browser/> access the official site click on Files and download the installer .msi file. Go through the normal setup process then launch the program from the desktop icon. On the first run you’ll be prompted for a username and password. For the trial version (which is limited) just enter trial and trial for both. Currently the software is only up for preview so trial is the only thing available to users.

The limitation of the trial seems to be that any movie marked (trial) is unable to have the metadata saved. The trial version does give you a good idea of what you would get with a complete product, which is the point of a trial after all. Program developers have previously noted that this version of Meta<Browser/> will be a paid product.

To get down to business start by pressing the Settings button in the upper left hand corner of this extremely well stylized new interface. Under the Locations settings you’ll need to add at least one path to search for movie content. Use your movie collection (with caution, this is not feature complete software) or download the fake movie collection from the Files section of the Meta<Browser/> site.

This new settings dialog is an important part of the new Meta<Browser/> with most of the settings and output now capable of being modified and expanded through plugins. Expanding the Movies section, Locals, Fetchers and Savers all allow for plugins to expand on the base functionality of the program. Under Savers you will need to check whether or not you would like to save folder images as well as the types of metadata to save.

There are also settings available for renaming your media as well as downloading the latest movie trailers. Developers have taken an interest in providing a broader spectrum of data, images and video as metadata as well as supplying the data better to programs other than Media Browser. Returning to the main interface, you’ll notice that the main difference, aside from the new style, is the ribbon across the top of the window.

Load the listing of movies by pressing the Rebuild button to scan the directories you listed earlier. Once the listing has completed loading, narrow the list by pressing the filter button, selecting a criteria and setting a value. For instance, select backdrops equals 0 to find all movies that don’t currently have and backdrops available.

Select the movie to edit in the left hand pane to get started downloading metadata and images for the movie. Select the service to download information from on the ribbon then press the Fetch button on the far right. Confirm that the fetcher has found the right movie and Meta<Browser/> will fill out any missing data.

Navigate through the wealth of metadata provided using the tabs just under the movie information. Each new tab will give you a slew of options for editing and retrieving that data. For instance, select the Cast tab and you’ll have the option to fetch Cast images for each of the people listed. Though we couldn’t figure out how to work downloading trailers for the current selection, the software does feel like it would do a great job of taking care of not only the dirty work but some of the light dusting as well.

Meta<Browser/> 2 looks like it could become one handy tool for not only organizing your media and downloading metadata but also grabbing those extra touches that give a Media Center the edge over a DVR. Being able to have trailers already downloaded and ready to go when browsing a movie collection could be handy. After all, most of us aren’t trimming down our media collection so why not store the trailers locally as well.

Depending on the final price tag Meta<Browser/> 2 could be well worth the money.

Just hover over the value area for any given detail and a text entry box will appear allowing editing of that value. Unfortunately, not all the values are displayed or editable inside this basic metadata editor. There are a number of additional meta values that can be used to customize the categorization of files such as genre and whether or not a particular file is a movie.

Fortunately, there is a third-party program created by Steven Toub that’s perfectly capable of editing these hidden metadata values in both DVRMS and WTV files. His DVRMS metadata editor is quite old at this point but still works quite well with both file types. When opening a WTV file you’ll just need to adjust the file filter dropbox to show all file types and select the WTV file you’d like to edit.

As you can see, Toub’s editor provides a much more comprehensive listing of metadata values available inside DVRMS and WTV files than the built-in editor. Having access to the genre and movie meta tags and well as title, description and HD designations makes this an excellent tool for anyone looking to convert their movie collections to the new WTV format standard in Windows 7.

There are a few reasons some may be considering converting their collections to WTV, not least of which is the ability to play the format on any Windows Media Extender. This means not having to deal with the issues that seem to plague other formats such as .mkv on extenders. We’ll be covering more on this movement as software becomes publicly available to facilitate the switch such as the next version of DVRMSToolbox from Andy VT’s blog.

When you’ve finished editing metadata details inside Toub’s editor just hit the Save Metadata button to commit the changes and that’s all there is to it. We’ve got a mirror of the software for download here at Hack7MC as well as more details on the way on converting your movie collection to WTV in the near future so be sure to stick around and check it out!

Not only has the database been greatly improved but so has the interface for editing the database and metadata results for the movies in the collection. To get started with this new version of Open Media Library take note that there are now two different versions. One version is the server and stand-alone, the other is a client version allowing for access to the same database and metadata contained on the server machine.

Make sure you get the correct version for the setup you are trying to achieve. Single machines need to install the server setup files for the proper machine OS (x64 or x86) and then all other machines on the network need only install the client. We’ve mirrored the downloads here on Hack7MC or you can find the latest versions on openmedialibrary.org as well. Choose the correct file from below, download and install:

Once the installation has completed you’ll be asked to provide details in order to setup the database. If you have installed the server edition the Server Name will likely be localhost (unless you’re running a separate database server box, unlikely under most circumstances). Follow through the short wizard which will take a few minutes to get the database created and setup to get started.

Once that’s completed it’s time to move on to the real meat of the project and begin adding movies to the new database.

The database editor has seen a few improvements in usability with this release as well, making titles easier to read and navigate. The basic principals are much the same as previous versions though much easier to use. Select Import and add to the collection by importing from a previous movie library plugin or scan your disk for titles.

Then select one or more titles from the second pane and right-click to bring up the metadata retrieval options. You can also enter details by hand, one by one but let’s face it that seems tedious. The database editor will go out and fetch the data from a number of reliable sources and give you a choice of titles to select from should there be any doubt about the correct one. Just choose from the list and the editor will fetch the information, cover art and backdrop images.

There’s even a new function for mapping genres returned from the source to existing or new genres in the collection. This makes it a snap to sort through all the various genres added by over zealous submissions and map them to the best possible match for your setup. It makes little sense to have hundreds of genres and this helps keep the deluge down and organized. Once you’ve mapped a genre it need only be done once and the program will perform the mapping automatically from then on.

Once you’ve finished perfecting your metadata arrangement it’s time to open up Media Center and give the plugin itself a try. The first thing you’ll be presented with after opening Media Center is a new option to add OML to a start menu strip or into the Extra Programs library. The start strip isn’t quite finished at this point, lacking icons and the TV tile that seems to not function yet but still beats going into the Extra Programs.

Should you choose to have the start strip added to Media Center a restart will be required before it will appear in the start menu. Afterwards enter into Open Media Library and you’ll see much the same interface as before except the settings menu has been quite improved from previous versions, now matching the look and feel of Windows 7 Media Center.

There are also a few options we’re looking forward to that aren’t quite functional yet such as themes and Alpha jump. Hopefully the TV tile will become of more use in the near future as well allowing us to store our TV series sets separately. For now though the team working on Open Media Library is doing a fantastic job and this plugin definitely deserves a try from anyone looking for alternative third-party movie library plugins.

Be sure to visit the Open Media Library project and get the latest news and downloads as well as dropping some suggestions or bugs in the forums. Don’t forget to stay tuned to Hack7MC for the latest on this and many other plugins in the near future as well!

First you’ll need to enable the viewing of hidden files and folders. To do this open up Control Panel and select Appearance and Personalization. Under Folder Options select the Show Hidden Files and Folders link to open up the Folder Options dialog.

Select the option to Show Hidden Files and Folders in the settings and Press OK to save your new settings.

Now open up Windows Explorer and navigate to your user directory, C:\Users\USERNAME, you should now see a folder inside named AppData. Continue through this directory until you reach C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\eHome and inside you should see at least three folders. DVDCoverCache stores the cover art for your movie collection, DVDInfoCache stores the metadata and mcl_images stores icons for plugins and apps that can be launched from Windows Media Center.

Simply delete any of these folders and the contents will be regenerated the next time you run the default Movie Library in Windows 7 Media Center (with the exception of mcl_images of course, generated when entering Extra Programs).

That’s it, just relaunch Windows Media Center for your changes to take effect. Using this guide before trying out a new metadata program or changing your cover art can save you a few headaches down the road.

To get started, you’ll need to follow the basic guide to using Starkcovers and create custom covers for your movie collection. You’ll also need to download a copy of the free software BIMP Lite. This is the software we’re going to use to batch convert those .png images into .jpg files.

After running StarkCovers on your movie collection you’ll notice that the built-in movie library no longer displays your movie covers. This is because the program has converted your former folder.jpg files into folder.png, which is fine for Media Browser. To get those covers back in the default library though let’s open up BIMP Lite.

First open up the Images menu at the top and check the Recurse Subdirectories option, otherwise it’s going to be a long day of selecting movie folders one by one. Next select the root folder containing your movies and covers and you’ll see BIMP load up your image on the right. Press the button below the listing to deselect all the images.

We only want to alter those folder.png images so right-click the image list and choose Select > PNG. In most cases the only images that will be selected are the folder.png images but do a quick double check to be sure. Most fan art and background images are saved as .jpg.

Next check that your output settings are set to not resize the images, output a jpg format in the same folder as it currently resides and set the quality to 100 so we get the highest quality image possible. Also, double check that the Prefix input box is empty (which is isn’t in the screenshot above). Then hit the Start button.

That’s it! Just relaunch your Windows 7 Media Center and your built-in movie library should now be sporting those classy StarkCovers.

Getting started with MetaBrowser is as simple as downloading the installation program from the website and installing. Afterwards run the program from the program menu, you’ll be presented with a minimal interface with the website on the right and a blank pane on the left. Press the Options button at the bottom of the left pane to add some movie folders.

Select the input box at the very top of the General tab to begin adding folders. Once you’ve selected a folder and pressed the OK button in the folder dialog box you’ll need to press enter in the main input box as well before the folder will be added. Also, be sure that the movie extensions and folders you’ll be using in your collection are added to the Search Options. Finally, if you’re using Media Browser be sure to include your ImagesByName folder so you can download actor images for each of your movies.

Saving the options and returning to the main window press the Refresh List button next to the options button to generate a listing of your available movies. To start fetching metadata select a movie from the list.

Once you’ve selected a movie you’ll see the current metadata for that movie appear on the right hand side of the screen. If you’d like to Fetch Metadata for just this movie start by selecting the Fetch Movie Metadata button on the far right. Alternatively, if you’d prefer to fetch metadata for your entire collection at once select the Process All Movies link directly above it.

Afterward you’ll be given a selection of movies to choose from that match your search. If the correct movie doesn’t appear you can revise your search with the search box at the top. Otherwise, select the movie from the listing and press the Select Movie button. Processing all movies will automatically select the top result for each movie and skip the selection process.

After the metadata has been downloaded you can change the details, poster art and backdrop images through the interface on the right. To select alternative artwork press the Fetch link below each image and you’ll be presented with a selection of artwork available for download from themoviedb.org database.

If you’re a Media Browser user and you selected your ImagesByName folder earlier in the options process you can download actor images as well. Simply press the Download Actor Images button located directly below the Save Metadata button.

Don’t forget to Save Metadata before leaving the movie’s display or your changes will be lost. That should be all there is to the basics of downloading movie metadata with MetaBrowser. There are, of course, a number of other options and possibilities available in the program so be sure to keep checking back to Hack7MC in the future for even more on using MetaBrowser and other metadata tools.

To get started first you’ll need to head over to the MetaBrowser website and download then install the latest version. Once installed run the program for the first time and you’ll see that the interface is very minimalistic at first glance. This can be slightly intimidating for first time users who aren’t quite sure where to start.

Start off by selecting the Options button in the lower left hand corner of the program. This will bring up a small dialog window with a few tabs. Under the general tab let’s add the folders where our TV series are stored.

Press the browse button (…) in the upper right hand corner to bring up a folder selection dialog. Next choose your folder from the box and click OK. Now once the folder has been entered into the input box, you need to select the input box and press enter. Though it’s unclear why this extra step is needed, you’ll see the folder listed below along with a small red button to remove the folder.

Below this area you’ll find the general options for MetaBrowser. Included are the ability to define what types of files are used in your collection, the location of your ImagesByName folder if using Media Browser and the ability to monitor folders for new content.

Once you’ve entered all the general options move on to the TV tab. Meta Browser follows fairly strict naming conventions with little room for error when it comes to TV series. Likely this is the reason why other programs haven’t ventured into this territory.

Here you can define valid names for season folders, for example Season 01, Season 02. All your TV series folder must be arranged as Series Name\Season 00\Videos.ext. If you have videos directly in the series folder or improperly named or arranged folders Meta Brower will not detect them as TV series but Movies instead.

Once you’ve finished, save your settings and return to the main window. It may take a few moments but the list should begin to be populated with your TV series.  Each series should appear under the TV heading with a tree structure containing the season and episodes underneath.

Selecting the series name should bring up a large array of data and options on the right hand side. Here you will be able to assign series artwork, series information and even download actor images. If it hasn’t already been filled in press the Fetch Metadata button to retrieve metadata on this series or the [ Process All TV ] link to do all your TV series at once.

From here you can also download actor images if you have properly set your ImagesByName folder in the general option tab. Simply press the Download Actor Images button on the far right hand side.

Once you’ve finished editing your series details be sure to press the Save Metadata button, otherwise all your edits will be lost when you leave this view!

After saving your series metadata you can go on to edit individual episode information and images by selecting the episode name in the left hand pane. Once again be sure to Save Metadata after making any changes and before moving on to the next section.

That’s all there is to fine tuning your TV series metadata for use in Media Browser with MetaBrowser. Unfortunately for users of the native Windows 7 Media Center formats such as DVR-MS and WTV this tool won’t provide much help in those areas as the formats aren’t supported.

Stay tuned to Hack7MC in the future to get even more guides on using MetaBrowser and other great Windows 7 Media Center tools and plugins! Subscribe to our RSS Feed or Email Updates!

To get started download the StarkCovers zip package (version 6.23.2009) and extract it anywhere on your hard drive. Inside you’ll find a collection of available cover types by folder, the mediainfo.dll, a starkcovers.bat file and a starkcovers.exe file. We’ll begin by editing the .bat file.

Once you’ve had a chance to browse through the various covers available in the package, open the starkcovers.bat file in notepad or a similar text editor. Inside you’ll find a few basic instructions and some examples. Each line proceeded by REM will be ignored by the program so don’t worry about them.

Instead insert a new line before pause with the following: StarkCovers.exe “MovieFolder” coverstyle. Change MovieFolder to the location of your movie folder and coverstyle to the name of the style covers you’d like to use. If you’d like to add a specific cover to all the movies in this folder add :file.png immediately after coverstyle, for example sidelogo:dvd.png.

On my own collection I applied the case:BD.png to my Blu-Ray folder and sidecover:DVD.png to my standard DVD folder as you can see in the screenshots above.

Now save the .bat file and then run the file. You’ll see a command window and can watch the process as each image is converted. There was a problem during these tests with the system running out of memory during the process. In spite of having the maximum amount of ram available for a 32-bit system the program ate up all available memory several times during the process and returned an error. (fixed in version 6.23.2009)

Luckily, running the .bat a second time processed the remaining folder.jpg files. If you’d like to revert your folder images back to the original folder.jpg edit the .bat and use StarkCovers.exe “MovieFolder” –revertjpg . This will revert your folder images back to their original state.

That’s all there is to it! Just re-launch Media Browser and you should see your new covers. Thanks to tyborg for this wonderful little tool, it’s sure to be improving a large number of enthusiasts’ movie collections.

Looking for more Media Browser hacks? Subscribe to Hack7MC using one of our free subscription methods to get the latest every day!