Bringing to mind Windows Media Center with the add-on - Media Browser
Good day, dear Habrovchane!
I have long been a reader of Habr, so I decided to become a writer, especially since there was a reason. Not so long ago, I solved the problem of watching movies on an LCD TV from a computer, for, so to speak, “untrained users” - parents. They do not understand anything on a computer at all, but I want to watch movies. I am tired of writing them to discs. I searched the site, I did not find a similar topic and decided to fill the gap. It will be about setting up Windows Media Center, or rather about the wonderful addition to it in the form of Media Browser.
To begin, I will describe the connection scheme. My LCD TV is connected to my computer as a second monitor (DVI -> HDMI), the desktop is extended to it. Windows 7 Maximum is installed on the computer and it never shuts down - torrents are downloaded and distributed. In order not to even touch the mouse and keyboard, the Microsoft Remote Control for Media Center was purchased for ridiculous money.
')
It does not require any special configuration and works as they say - out of the box. I will not talk about setting up WMC itself - everything is quite simple there. Separately talk about MediaBrowser.
Media Browser is a plug-in for Windows Media Center and is designed to organize convenient viewing of the collection of films and videos available on your computer.
Download the latest version (at the time of writing this is version 2.2.2.) And install it. When installing, the program will ask for the date, the “older” of which the films will be considered as viewed (a check mark will be set) :-)
After installation, a new item will appear in the WMC menu:
Settings can be made either in the media center itself, or using a special wizard. For minimum configuration, you need to specify the paths to the folders with movies. Video files can be divided into groups (for example, "Serials","porn" "Cartoons", etc.), and in future these groups can be assigned age restrictions.
In principle, after that you can already watch movies, but that was not enough for me. Having rummaged on the Internet, I found a plugin to automatically update information about movies from the Internet, or more precisely from Kinopoisk.
Media Browser plugin - Kinopoisk ( KinopoiskMetadataProvider.dll ) - and having an internet connection allows you to automatically receive all kinds of information about a film of interest in Russian: posters, movie content, cast of actors, images from the film, etc.
We take the latest version (Version 1.0.0.5 (01.12.2009)) and put it in the folder “C: \ ProgramData \ MediaBrowser \ Plugins”.
For the plugin to work, it is required to name files or folders containing 1 video file with the full Russian name, which coincides with the name on the Kinopoisk, and the year of issue indicated in brackets. Special characters can be skipped.
For example - the movie "Adrenaline: High Voltage."
Correct name:
c: \ films \ Crank high voltage (2009) .mkv
Invalid name:
c: \ films \ Crank 2.avi
I will list some more features of the Media Browser (hidden behind the advanced button):
The next step was to make the “Media Browser” menu item more understandable to parents - i.e. the inscription must be in Russian. For this we need one more program - Media Center Studio. With its help, you can change the WMC menu as you please :-). Download -> install -> launch -> Start Menu tab -> rename as we need (for example, "Movies") -> save. Everything, the menu is ready.
Then it remains only to search for the names of films at the Kinopoisk and, when downloading, immediately indicate the “correct” file name - the rest is loaded automatically.
Lastly, a couple of screenshots of what comes out:
Now, in my absence, parents can easily choose and watch any film from the collection.
Download links:
Media browser
Film Search (by Alarik)
Media Center Studio
UPD: to get the latest version of the movie search plugin and to automatically update it in the media browser configurator, you need to specify the plugin source: “ alarik.dynalias.net/kp/plugin_info.xml ”
- in the latest version there is the possibility of authorization on kinopoisk.ru to avoid (or delay) the ban.
A more detailed discussion of WMC is read on ixbt.com.
I have long been a reader of Habr, so I decided to become a writer, especially since there was a reason. Not so long ago, I solved the problem of watching movies on an LCD TV from a computer, for, so to speak, “untrained users” - parents. They do not understand anything on a computer at all, but I want to watch movies. I am tired of writing them to discs. I searched the site, I did not find a similar topic and decided to fill the gap. It will be about setting up Windows Media Center, or rather about the wonderful addition to it in the form of Media Browser.
To begin, I will describe the connection scheme. My LCD TV is connected to my computer as a second monitor (DVI -> HDMI), the desktop is extended to it. Windows 7 Maximum is installed on the computer and it never shuts down - torrents are downloaded and distributed. In order not to even touch the mouse and keyboard, the Microsoft Remote Control for Media Center was purchased for ridiculous money.
')
It does not require any special configuration and works as they say - out of the box. I will not talk about setting up WMC itself - everything is quite simple there. Separately talk about MediaBrowser.
Media Browser is a plug-in for Windows Media Center and is designed to organize convenient viewing of the collection of films and videos available on your computer.
Download the latest version (at the time of writing this is version 2.2.2.) And install it. When installing, the program will ask for the date, the “older” of which the films will be considered as viewed (a check mark will be set) :-)
After installation, a new item will appear in the WMC menu:
Settings can be made either in the media center itself, or using a special wizard. For minimum configuration, you need to specify the paths to the folders with movies. Video files can be divided into groups (for example, "Serials",
In principle, after that you can already watch movies, but that was not enough for me. Having rummaged on the Internet, I found a plugin to automatically update information about movies from the Internet, or more precisely from Kinopoisk.
Media Browser plugin - Kinopoisk ( KinopoiskMetadataProvider.dll ) - and having an internet connection allows you to automatically receive all kinds of information about a film of interest in Russian: posters, movie content, cast of actors, images from the film, etc.
We take the latest version (Version 1.0.0.5 (01.12.2009)) and put it in the folder “C: \ ProgramData \ MediaBrowser \ Plugins”.
For the plugin to work, it is required to name files or folders containing 1 video file with the full Russian name, which coincides with the name on the Kinopoisk, and the year of issue indicated in brackets. Special characters can be skipped.
For example - the movie "Adrenaline: High Voltage."
Correct name:
c: \ films \ Crank high voltage (2009) .mkv
Invalid name:
c: \ films \ Crank 2.avi
I will list some more features of the Media Browser (hidden behind the advanced button):
- “Parental control” - you can specify the age limits for various directories with movies and hide the whole strawberry from the password from children's eyes;
- it is possible to specify an external player for certain file types;
- display of weather information in the menu;
- menu interface is fully customizable and supports themes;
- There is a mark about the movie.
The next step was to make the “Media Browser” menu item more understandable to parents - i.e. the inscription must be in Russian. For this we need one more program - Media Center Studio. With its help, you can change the WMC menu as you please :-). Download -> install -> launch -> Start Menu tab -> rename as we need (for example, "Movies") -> save. Everything, the menu is ready.
Then it remains only to search for the names of films at the Kinopoisk and, when downloading, immediately indicate the “correct” file name - the rest is loaded automatically.
Lastly, a couple of screenshots of what comes out:
Now, in my absence, parents can easily choose and watch any film from the collection.
Download links:
Media browser
Film Search (by Alarik)
Media Center Studio
UPD: to get the latest version of the movie search plugin and to automatically update it in the media browser configurator, you need to specify the plugin source: “ alarik.dynalias.net/kp/plugin_info.xml ”
- in the latest version there is the possibility of authorization on kinopoisk.ru to avoid (or delay) the ban.
A more detailed discussion of WMC is read on ixbt.com.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/86979/
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