ArcSoft launched a public beta yesterday for TotalMedia Theatre 3.  Download link to the patch and a list of fixes are available on their forum here.

So, as I’ve been using the SVNs for a while, having the ability to share the watched status (playstate folder) between my HTPCs was a paramount addition.  I have nearly 70 different TV series with hundreds of seasons and thousands of episodes, so keeping track of what I have watched is actually pretty important…especially if you like to mix up what you watch on a daily basis.

The Media Browser team answered the call by creating a new feature that has not yet been added by default in the XML configuration file, but can be added and will be obeyed.  It’s called <UserSettingsPath> and will create a new cache location wherever you set it to look with a sharable playstate and display folder.  Yes, display settings are also now capable of being uniform across multiple HTPCs by enabling this.

I just finished setting this up live (I had been testing it prior) and even after clearing my cache, I found that it worked flawlessly.  My bedroom HTPC is the most heavily used and contained the most accurate watched status directory, so that is what I copied to my UserSettingsPath location.  Display settings were already set by the test systems and were also correctly ‘changed’ when accessing Media Browser the first time since enabling this.

After playing around for a while, I started to wonder how long it would take users of Media Browser to start complaining that they want the shared watched status, but not display preferences?  I know it’s going to happen, so I thought up a pretty simple solution.   It involves one quick and easy step that does not even include the new UserSettingsPath setting.

That’s it.  What this does is make use of the shared playstate folder capabilities without using the UserSettingsPath option.  Your HTPC will be able to store its display settings locally, as usual, but will be using a universally shared playstate folder for updating watch status via directory junction.

I’ve done this in the past when sharing the playstate folder was not really supported, so now that it is, I can’t foresee any issues.  I have not tried it though and probably won’t.  I don’t mind shared display settings.

Anyway, give it a shot if it interests you and let me know how you made out!

Instead of just repeating what has already been said, I’ll just lead you to this post over at AVS Forums regarding the new Slysoft player.  It is expected to be available sometime this year.

It will be free (but will require AnyDVD).

I’m sure manu of you have tripped an error when activating one of your Media Center plugins and then received the prompt that allows you to place a check in the box, actively disabling that application.  Am I right?  Well, I’ve seen it asked quite a few times, so I thought I would add to the Google search pile by adding the solution for those of you who want to re-add that application because you accidentally checked that little box and hit “OK”.

This is for Vista, but I assume 7MC is probably pretty much the same:

You can also disable any applications you want using this method simply by removing the check in the box.

Considering the number of screensaver/window minimization issues that the cumulative updates for VMC have given me for the past year (including SP2), I refuse to install this on any of my systems. However, I am interested in hearing how it has impacted any of you.

This update (KB967632) came out yesterday for both 32 and 64-bit systems. The issues resolved by this update, according to Microsoft, are:

Whatever. I never noticed these things, so I don’t want to break my Media Center to fix something that doesn’t exist for me.

If you’ve installed this update, I’d appreciate your feedback, so comment back! Positive and negative appreciated!

So, we have started testing an alpha 2.0.12 release of Media Browser today and minus a few very minor quirks (at least in my experience), it looks to be the beginning of a very exciting release for those of you that use it. The issues in the SVN builds I was using have been resolved and all that I’ve noticed so far are primarily bugs in logic that only affect presentation and do not hamper usability at all.

I don’t have screen shots or anything yet, but the previous post I made including the Diamond theme are pretty much what I’m looking at right now anyway. I’ll honor the ‘private’ designation and hold off giving anymore information until we’re on the eve of a release.

Be patient…it will be soon!

YouTube XL is a new web-based 10 foot interface for all you tubeheads.  Who will be the first to integrate this within Media Center (I have some ideas, but no desire)?

Check it out.

In a couple of weeks, you should all get to try out the latest beta release 12 of Media Browser.  Until then, for those of you who aren’t running SVN builds, I have decided to post a few pre-release screenshots of the current state of one of the new themes that will be included – Diamond.

The new root page:

Activated trailers plugin:

Coverflow:

Detail:

Poster:

Thumb:

Thumbstrip:

TV strip:

Movie info screen:

Top menu (this is hidden until you hit the ‘up’ arrow on your remote, then it drops down…very cool:

Most of these screens won’t do it justice since this is just my test box and I never really run any of the customizations that many users on the Media Browser forums do (custom poster art and backdrops).  I think you get a good idea though.

There’s plenty more to come, but my spoon is small :)

I hadn’t noticed that the studios were removed from the SVN on the ImagesByName project site and I just received a request for where to get them at.  So, I have uploaded the studio images that I have and made them available via the downloads section (the June 3rd base file).

The file is 7.6MB and contains 138 studio images.  I created maybe a half-dozen of those, so I can’t take credit or criticism for most of what’s contained in there.

For real.

mikinho over at TGB has entered another metadata fetcher to the mix.  This one is a little different, however.  It will also provide metadata files that are compatible with Media Browser, the Windows 7 DVD library and even nfo files that XBMC uses.  For the most part, everything else you’d expect in a metadata manager/fetcher is present, with the addition of playlist creation.  I think this is a real plus also.  It can even hide the individual files so that only the playlist file is available…a very unique feature.

You can read more about YAMMM in the long thread at TGB.  A direct download is available here (apparently always the latest version).

Here are a few screen caps: