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Media Browser v2.2.2.0

By on February 23, 2010 in Windows Media Center

As I’ve previously mentioned, a couple of months ago we decided to cut the cord on our satellite service, and moved over to Windows Media Center as our full-time TV solution – and to date it’s worked really well on the ASRock ION 330 nettop sitting in the TV cabinet.

One of the “must have” plugins for Windows Media Center is Media Browser:

Formerly known as Video Browser, Media Browser is a personal media aggregator that takes your recorded, digital, or ripped media and presents it in a simple, easy to use interface. Media Browser prides itself on delivering a fast, intuitive, media rich experience for the whole family.

Media Browser offers a range of rich browsing experiences for the video stored on your Media Center, with banners, backdrops and more. It’s also open source, so you’ll find a number of community developed plugins available to further enhance your media collection.

g2 thumb Media Browser v2.2.2.0 g5 thumb Media Browser v2.2.2.0 g6 thumb Media Browser v2.2.2.0

The good news is that a new version of Media Browser has just been released with a number of fixes and enhancements, including the fix for a memory caching issue which I’m hoping will resolve a sporadic video skipping problem I get from time to time.

Highly recommended for Media Center owners.

Download: Media Browser


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About Terry Walsh

Terry Walsh is the founding editor and owner of We Got Served. Since February 2007, the site has provided detailed coverage and analysis of the emerging home server category, and has subsequently grown into a trusted outlet for digital home news and reviews.
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  • http://twitter.com/rbonini @rbonini

    Definately planning to move over to WMC this year. Awesome plugins like this only sweeten the deal.

  • Jeremy

    It looks like a modified XBMC… just go with XBMC and you will be happier.

    • http://numbersusa.com Ted

      I second that.

  • Jason

    Actually you'll like mediabrowser quite a bit better. XBMC has no hardware acceleration in windows(at least not in the official release, it's in a beta release). XBMC won't list shows it doesn't recognize. So I have some shows that for whatever reason the scrappers cannot identify so as a result it won't showup in the list of tv shows. So you have to navigate to another folder to find those. XBMC also can't play TV. Can't bitstream TrueHD or DTS-MA HD. With media browser to seamlessly launch MPC-HC I can.
    And Media Browser is easier to setup.
    No, i'll take media browser over XBMC any day.

    • Jeremy

      http://xbmcwmc.teknowebworks.com/ easy way to switch back and forth to windows Media center to watch live tv, the TV shows issue you describe could be a simple folder name issue related to the show on the scrapers site, doctor who for example the new doctor who needs 2005 in the folder name or you will get data for the OLD doctor who, or no data at all, i have over 4000 tv show episodes and 300 movies (riped all my dvds to avi) not 1 issue that was not fixed by just a simple rename, also that big of a library takes FOREVER to load in media center

      • Daniel

        The great thing about media center is that it has all the functionality included so you don't need to switch windows etc. Especially in a HTPC setup in the livingroom, you dont want this.

        I am using Media Browser 2.2.2 in combination with local media storage, and over the network on Home Server (gigabit), and have absolutely no problems with loading times. Total library is around 5.5Tb and browsing is smooth with backdrops, covers, etc.

      • Jason

        I am aware of the naming conventions. There are still shows I cannot get to show up. I managed to stump the XBMC dev team as well. Specifically the BSG miniseries. I also have other video that is not tv shows but I want it accessable via the same folder. And I have shows i've downloaded that I throw into a download folder so I know I need to watch them. Shows I keep get their own folders. This is a problem for XBMC, not so for mediabrowser.
        I also have over 300 movies and have no performance issues with media browser. Mediabrowser is easier to setup and more user friendly than XBMC.

  • http://twitter.com/NH3MAN @NH3MAN

    I agree its fantastic. I have been using it since it first got started and was still rough around the edges and sometimes would mess my day up with glitches. Media Browser now is the bomb. It works great with my extenders, my TV shows, my Movie Library on my Server and the eye candy is nice. It took a lot of work to set up my system and Library and Media Browser really helps us appreciate it more. It's later releases are very easily configurable and it can just about set itself up. 5 out of 5 for my favorite.

    • http://numbersusa.com Ted

      Do you know if the Media Browser backdrops and meta data show up on the xbox360? If so I may have to give it a try.

  • Syn

    Why not just use Windows Media Centre?

    • Jason

      you still are. Mediabrowser is a plugin for media center. It organizes your movies better, automatically downloads cover art and movie/tv info, etc. But it's part of media center.

  • Norman

    Regarding the nettop box… does anyone make a decent one that has a future path, while giving me some backward compatibility for S-video, composite or color stream?

  • http://twitter.com/clexman @clexman

    I've been using Media Browser since it was called Video Browser and this thing rocks! I use it to navigate my DVD library (500+ movies and counting) and I have found nothing better. Its fast and automatically downloads all the metadata plus extras. If you like WMC and need something with a high WAF (wife acceptance factor) this plugin rocks!!!

    • Joe

      Does Media Browser have the same functionality as MyMovies? What's different. I love MyMovies, but the screen shots for Media Browser look very similar. Do they do the same thing? Which is the better solution for navigating stored movies?

      • Daniel

        It's better if anything and it is free. Not sure if MyMovies still requires SQL2005 to be installed on your media center box, but that is something that really put me off. Also the buggy and time consuming management tool of MyMovies is something I didn't like.

        Now, I use MetaBrowser to get all the meta data for movies/tv shows/documentaries, which works great. Then, just point Media Browser at those folders and disable the Internet Based meta data updates so it only reads it from disk. Super quick and full control.

        You should really give it a try.

        • Kenny

          Back that 100%. Media Browser + Meta Browser is just straight down the line much better than MyMovies. I find that MyMovies takes a lot of management and the good stuff requires contribution points and/or donations to unlock.

          Media Browser also handles TV series much much better than MyMovies.

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  • http://blog.nicholasczuma.com Nicholas Czuma

    Just installed this last night and spent the better part of two hours adding the meta data for some of my more "obscure" shows. Also needed to change the folder structure.

  • Terry Walsh

    Have you tried Meta Browser in conjunction with Media Browser? Sorts out a lot of your metadata workload!

  • vasu

    @Terry: I have been considering to buy ASRock ION 330HT to compliment my living room. But I am little worried because of the atom processor 1.6GHz processor and nvidia ION GPU.

    Since you have already been using it with MediaBrowser, could you please give me some feedback on the media library browsing and playing performance (especially for a large audio/video library and when playing 1080p videos with DTS audio)? Also, are you able to control MediaBrowser navigation with the provided remote?

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/tezzer Terry Walsh

      Media Browser works fine on the ION 330 – your media collection may be a lot larger than mine, though – the latest update appears to have resolved the emory caching issue that was the main problem. I use a Loigtech Harmony One remote, and it works well.

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