Gadgetblurb

For anyone that is interested in creating library management system for their home movies, My Movies is a wonderful application that should be at the top or the end of one’s demo list. My Movies is an application developed by Brian Binnerup from Denmark that is an amazing tool for cataloging and managing all of one’s DVD’s or Blu-Ray Discs as a plug-in for Windows Media Center. The tool works in Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7. It can be installed in 3 different configurations: It can be a stand-alone system, working as a single computer, as a client/server application where you have a server or NAS hosting up all of the media files, and finally as a part of a Windows Home Server system plus client computers. My personal setup is the latter as part of the Windows Home Server system. I have a Windows Home Server with about 9TB of storage space and I have HTPC‘s in my Living Room and Bedroom (A bit excessive I know). Of course, all of this requires one to have a computer connected to their television set/Plasma/Projector as well as a remote control/Wireless Keyboard able to speak to their computer to control the system. All of which should be hidden from the eyes of the user, but we will get into more of this later.

There are a number of ways to acquire My Movies. The first is FREE!!!! Did I mention this incredible tool is free? Yea, you heard me….FREE!!! Ok, there are some caveats and limitations to using the free tool. Most of the main features of the tool are available in the free version, like 90%. I began my journey with the tool using the free version and did not feel in any way hampered by the lack of all the goodies. You can obtain all of the functionality in two ways; One is by donating cash; $100 will unlock all features. You can donate as little as $10 to unlock certain features, but $100 will unlock everything. The second way to earn unlocks is to contribute meta-tags or information about new movies to the My Movies server system. When a brand new movie comes out or if any rare movies are in your library and are missing information in the meta data on the My Movies server, you can contribute information like actors, directors, scans of cover art, etc. you can upload that missing info to My Movies and obtain points. According to their site, if you were to upload about 60 movies worth of info, you would have about 2,500 worth of points. These points will help you to unlock features in the tool. Pretty Sweet! You can also request a 21 day trial of 2,500 points, which will unlock all features so you can try everything out.

One feature within My Movies that requires the full 2,500 points that’s worth pointing out is the copy disc feature (which only works in the Windows Home Server version). If you own a license for Slysoft’s AnyDVD, you can use the Copy Disc feature to automatically rip and copy a DVD or Blu-Ray from a client computer to the Home Server. It will automatically Rip the DVD or Blu-Ray, Download the meta information from My Movies Database, Download cover art, update the Collection Manager and if you are using Windows Home Server, it will then make certain any client HTPC’s will have access to the new movie, all with the single click of a button!!! Very cool stuff! (Of course I do not condone nor recommend the circumvention of copyrighted works, please check the laws in your area)

There are two main components to My Movies: Collection Management and Media Center. Collection Management is basically where you enter information about the movies as well as where the database manages all of the movies. Collection management allows you to specify all of the information like cover art, bar codes, titles, Actors/Directors, ratings, descriptions, aspect ratios, etc. It also allows you to specify where in your network the movie file(s) are located. Depending on if you rip your DVD or Blu-Ray to a single file (ISO) or network folder, My Movies gives you options for either. You can add movies by just entering the bar code or if you have the DVD jewel case, you can scan it using your computer’s web-cam. If you have the DVD/Blu-Ray in the player when you open up Collection Management, it will ask you if you want to add it to the database as well and will begin downloading all of the movie’s information if it exists online. There are a ridiculous amount of features that I will not cover off on here, but one really interesting one is the ability to upload, manage and share your library through My Movie’s Web Service. This is an online database of all of your titles that can be posted on their website. They even have an iPhone app to manage and add titles! You do need to have points to do many of these things and all of the features and the required points can be found here.

The Media Center component is the other piece to the My Movies puzzle. It is an add-in that is a required piece to make My Movies shine. Media Center is a piece of software that comes with Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows 7. One thing that I do recommend is that if you are serious about putting together a sweet system, is getting either a Media Center remote or a Wireless Keyboard/Mouse. The Logitech Di Novo Mini is a SICK keyboard/Mouse Combo. It is not much bigger than an iPhone and has a built-in keyboard, Mouse and a switch that gives it Media Center controls. This little bad boy is amazing!

As far as the interface goes, it was designed as a Media Center plug-in so the integration is seamless. Depending on your point totals, you will have different view capabilities. You can add more rows, center the view, show the covers and details, all depending on your point totals. You can always sort based on alphabet, but generally speaking, the free version should suffice for most.

When it comes to playing Blu-Ray discs, it gets a bit more complicated than playing a regular DVD. Out of the box, DVD’s just work. Playing a Blu-Ray takes a bit more effort. You will need to purchase a 3rd party application called ArcSoft TotalMedia Extreme. This is an application that will allow you to play back Blu-Ray movies in either ISO or folder structure format (You have the choice, and they recommend ISO format as it is a single file and works a bit better). Once you choose a Blu-Ray movie to playback in My Movies, it will automatically launch the ArcSoft player and will play the movie. Once the movie is complete, you will go back to the My Movies catalog and the player will automatically close. It is a pretty tight integration and works very nicely.

I have only touched on a portion of the functionality of what My Movies contains within this amazing mostly free program. I would suggest some level of contribution to everyone for the incredible efforts of Mr. Binnerup as this program is nearly every bit as useful and powerful as programs costing 100 times as expensive. Having been a user of My Movies since early version 2 and now version 3, I can say that it just keeps getting better and better. I hope that we continue to see the progress for many years to come!

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