Your opinion on my Media Center program

[Helly]

Hi everyone, been thinking about doing this for a while now. Let's just say i never really had the balls to ask for an opinion on this from all of you. It is after all my pet project which i really do think is awesome and literally use every day.

 

Before i show you some screenshots of it, i think it's best if i explain what the idea behind it was. Because most of you use something a lot more flashy and bling bling looking like media portal or kodi or whatever they're all called. I've tried most of them and always had something to complain about. Things like playback and sound issues. My program looks like this partly because i don't know how to create something so flashy . But mostly because i don't really care about that sort of thing. I wanted something that worked fast and easy, because all the program is really good for is getting to my media files and playing them.

 

It can be controlled mostly with the mouse, but i don't have any mouse or keyboard connected to my HTPC (only as a back up which i never need). It is controlled entirely with the keyboard for the reason that i use a microsoft MCE remote on which i have rebinded all the keys as i need them.

 

So here's a few screenshots of how it looks.

 

 

First thing you'll notice is that there are no borders or anything. This could be running on any OS, but it is running on windows. It won't work on anything else. The program has no capability of playing any media what so ever. I use only external programs. Why? Simply because that way i (or anyone else for that matter) can use whatever program i like. Except for steam obviously , which is simply launched in big picture mode when you press that icon. Emulators can be launched after they have been setup in an options menu (need to set program and rom locations).

 

 

This is the way the series map USED to look (more on that later). Just an example of how it looks when you open any folder. Before you start anything, i own most of these on bluray/dvd so please don't start a pirating debate. Oh and all these folders are on my file server not on the HTPC.

 

 

This is a series folder as it used to look. Any folder with media files in them looks like this. Yeah i know, GoT downloads... who hasn't got them? The thing here i really needed was the date part. All other programs i used just showed an icon indicating that the file was played. Well i'm the sort of person that re watches stuff so that icon is useless to me. So this will show the last date the file was played.

 

After a while (over a year actually) of using the program like this and also checking XBMC again (was still called that back then). I really like the part of the pictures of the tv-shows and movies it has. So that was something i wanted to. After a few days of coding later i added that bit to the program. But only for tv-shows. Then the series part looked like this.

 

 

 

 

All of this is downloaded from a website which provides this through their API (http://www.thetvdb.com). New episodes and tv-shows can be added and the stuff downloaded with the press of 1 button and a little bit of time. There is a progress bar and everything that shows what its doing. This by the way is working A LOT better that what i have seen from XBMC. which really messed up a lot of things when going through my series folder. Getting the wrong shows and the wrong episode names, and worse of all not a chance of fixing it so it gets the correct information. I have made it so i can fix that stuff from the options menu. It's a little more trouble to go through (need to get the right tv-show id from the website) but it removes some constraints on the names of the folders.

 

Currently i am changing a lot of stuff in the program. It used to use ini files to keep all the data. Which was reaching ridiculous levels with the played dates reaching over 4500 entries. So i have been rebuilding the data part to use mysql (which i have also running on my server). It's easier to manage.

 

I am also adding the movies part with pictures and information. That data will come from IMDB because the code for getting that information i've already build and can re-use here. I can show that when it's finished if there's anyone that wants to see that.

 

 

Now what i wanted to know is, what do you think about this? Would you ever use this or is it not awesome looking enough? Do you agree with me about the looks of XBMC etc being not all that necessary and just slowing things down?

 

And if you would want to use this, anything missing you would want it to have?

 

anything else you want to know about this? Just ask!

 

ps. Be as brutal as you want. If all of this sucks, that's fine. It's awesome for me which is really all that matters to me, just want to know if anyone else likes it.

 

pss. sorry for the long post thx for reading

[Aytex]

wow

[lubblig]

Really cool, would be easier to give feedback if you made a video or put the current version up as a beta or something to try it out. Its hard to really know what it is from the few pictures. But it does seem cool. Just one question though, if you already have a server, why not use something like Plex? I use it and its awesome, is it something you dislike or have you never tried it? Anyways, really cool project but to give more accurate feedback I would like for you to either screencapture the program in action or put it up as a beta test.

[Helly]

I admit i have never tried plex i think. But i'm beyond using anything else then what i've build at this point. It does exactly what i want. Also streaming feels like i lose quality, i know it's probably not but for instance, does plex stream DTSHD-MA and TrueHD? complete deal breaker for me if it doesn't. I haven't bought an expensive receiver that can handle those to not use it.

 

I can try to put it up as a download. But that will take some time. Right now there's a lot of stuff in it that's not for everyone which would make things confusing. So i'll take those out or block them first. I'll also have to type up some kind of readme file to explain how things work. I'll do that soon... ish . There are some naming constraints to keep things working, so it's important to let people know about those.

[othertomperson]

The interface is the main issue to me. A HTPC is usually controlled through a TV -- you either don't have or don't want a mouse and keyboard. I use one of these for when I need a mouse and keyboard and it's down the side of the sofa, but ideally I don't want to have to touch it in normal operation. As flashy as Kodi is, the reason I like it is that it is completely navigable with a PS3/Xbox 360 controller, and there are some pretty awesome phone apps for it, too.

[Helly]

You're right, and i don't have a keyboard/mouse either. I have a tiny 1 like the one you linked to lying in a drawer here somewhere. I never have to use it. I use a remote, which i think actually works better then a controller.

 

I have actually once put in some code to use a controller. Still have it in there, commented. It worked ok but after i changed some stuff it stopped working and didn't want to fix it because i never used it anyway. I might try to fix it again one day. A phone app will be difficult since i've never made any phone app ever . No idea on how to even begin.

 

I've added a download link in the OP if you want to try it out. But like i said, i've had to remove/block quite a few things which might have broken something. I did a quick pass through everything and it seemed to be working... so let me know what you think.