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Page Revision: 2009/10/02 22:02


Introduction

It is with great pleasure that we can now welcome you to the My Movies 3 Pre Release. This page will try to give you informations on what we expect to be the most important questions regarding My Movies 3.

Users who would like to see details of the user interface can see a set of screenshots in the bottom of this page. You are free to use all the details and screenshots on websites, blogs, forum posts ect. Each of the screenshots can be clicked to open the full version.

We hope that My Movies 3 will deliver the ease of usage, and the reliability that makes it the perfect product for not just enthusiasts, but for the whole family, including both your wife and kids, with the keywords for "Reliability, Stability and Speed".

Ian Dixon on "The Media Center Show" at TheDigitalLifeStyle.com have an interview posted with Brian Binnerup, owner and developer of My Movies, which goes through most of the details of My Movies 3. This is a good listen if you are interested in the release: The Digital Lifestyle

Please provide as much feedback as possible on our forums.

Important Notices

Before installing the My Movies 3 Pre Release, please specifically notice the following:

  • Usage of the pre release will require 2,500 points on your account. This limitations have been made for two reasons, the main reason is that My Movies today have 60,000 registered users, where more than 30,000 have been using the system within the last month - one of the main ideas behind the pre release is to receive and listen to input from our users, which we are unable to do for 30,000 users at a time. By restricting the initial usage of the pre release to users with 2,500 points, we hope to be able to address and carefully review all incoming feedbacks. The initial restriction to users with 2,500 points also assures that we receive initial feedback from our most dedicated users, who's usage scenarios is initially the most important ones to ensure. The second reason for the limitation is that we would like to give something back to the users who have stood behind us, and helped our service to grow, either by contributing data, or by contributing economically.

  • Users who at the start of the pre release period does not yet have the 2,500 points, can at any time either contribute data to our service, or purchase the required points if they would like to participate in the pre release usage. Depending on the amount of feedback, the initial 2,500 point limit may be set lower, or fully lifted during the pre release period, but the only guarantee is that the product is available for anyone by October 22'nd for the final release.

  • The pre release is not considered to be feature wise ready. With few exceptions, all features from My Movies 2 is available within My Movies 3, while the amount of new features is few. My Movies 3 is mainly a fully re-designed user interface, that gives us the option to extend the functionality both during the pre release period, and afterwards. This means that the feature set for the final version on October 22'nd will depend a lot of the inputs received from our users.

  • Since the product is a pre release, and currently the first pre release, this is to be considered a beta product, which means that there will be bugs and features that does not function perfectly. Please take this into consideration when evaluating the product. There will during the pre release period be several releases that will address both bugs and features that could have worked better, which is the purpose of the pre release. By October 22'nd, you will have the fully final, stable and reliable product.

  • Within Media Center, My Movies 3 is using the full screen for covers and details, to avoid the interface to be too "busy" with the navigation options. This means that the navigation menu is hidden, until you press the "Up" key from the first row of items in the list overview, while clicking the "Up" key, the navigation menu appears. We are looking at options to make this more obvious for new users, and the option to access the menu from a mouse, but for now, please notice that you access the navigation menu with the "Up" key on a remote or a keyboard.

Installers

While My Movies 2 contained seperate installers for Server/Client and Client, as well as seperate X86 and X64 versions, which meant four installers that the user had to choose the right one between, often given users of Standalone installations problems as they incorrectly choosed the Client only installer, in My Movies 3, there will be one installer available for Windows Media Center, and one installer available with the Collection Management program only, which can be used as server back end on non-Media Center PC's, or used as a Collection Management only installation on any Windows from Windows XP and up.

The new installer in My Movies 3 lets the user choose between a Standalone, Server and Client or Client only installation, and SQL Server 2005 is no longer distributed as an integrated part of the installer. If a user chooses Standalone or Server and Client installations, and the installation is not an upgrade, SQL Server 2005 will be downloaded on-demand instead by the installer.

For X86 vs. X64 installations, the My Movies 3 installer will also operate on both systems, installing as X86 (Windows on Windows) mode on X64 systems. There are parts of My Movies that block the option to install as a native X64 installation, but the software operates well in X86 mode.

The updated installer should make things easier for everyone, and it will make the installation process easier and more smooth.

Download

Below, you can download the Pre Release of My Movies 3. Notice that there is one single installer for both Windows Vista Media Center, Windows 7 Media Center in both X86 and X64 versions, and a single installer no matter if you want to install as a Client, Server/Client or a Standalone version.

My Movies for Windows Media Center
Including Collection Management
(Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate, Windows 7 Home Premium, Business and Ultimate)


3.00 Pre Release 10

3.00 Pre Release 10


My Movies Collection Management
(Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, Windows 7)
3.00 Pre Release 10

3.00 Pre Release 10


Backup your My Movies 2 database before installing My Movies 3.


Users of My Movies 2 must uninstall My Movies 2 before installing My Movies 3 - all your data will remain after the upgrade.


Start Menu and Extras/Program library

In My Movies 2, users were prompted if they would like to access My Movies from it's own start menu strip, in the program library or as an icon in the TV+movies strip under Windows Vista. Since we have tried to cut down on the amount of required configurations to make everything work, and to avoid asking questions to not advanced users that they may not be able to reply to, this integration question have been removed.

My Movies 3 will instead always integrate both into the Extras/Program library, as well as create it's own strip in the start menu, and, on Windows Vista also integrate into the TV+movies strip - the TV+movies strip is not available under Windows 7. Each of the two (Windows 7) or three (Windows Vista) have been created as seperate entries in the library, giving users who do not want the strip or the tv+movies link the option to remove it using the extras/program library editing. This means that you compared to My Movies 2 now gets the link in all three places, and can remove the ones you do not need within Media Centers configuration.

My Movies does not replace the "Movie Library" strip in Windows 7 by default, but an option to remove it will be added during the pre release period.

The start menu strip will have a different look, with different icons under Windows Vista and Windows 7. Windows Vista's SDK does not allow the usage of the wide icons used by Media Center's own menu icons, which Windows 7 does. This means that the start menu icons under Windows 7 will look better, and more integration than we have the option to under Windows Vista.

Blu-ray and HD DVD Integrations

Users of My Movies 2 will remember that My Movies had it's own integration of HD players, which My Movies 3 only have to some extend. Previously, the ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 2 and PowerDVD 8 only had integrations that did not work well, or did not have integrations with Media Center at all - because of this, My Movies 2 had a HD Integration setting with it's own application as a middle layer.

The latest versions of these players, ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 3 and PowerDVD 9 have well functioning integrations for both inserted original discs, and image files (ISO, IMG, ect.). Because of this, My Movies 3 no longer creates it's own integration, but instead, ArcSoft and PowerDVD's own integration will be used directly by Media Center's autoplay, while My Movies detects and uses them automatically when you press the "Play Disc" button in the My Movies strip.

For playback of BDMV and HV_DVD folders (Blu-ray and HD DVD folders), My Movies 3 now automatically detects ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre 2 or 3, and launches this player directly without the middle layer that My Movies 2 had.

The unfortunate outcome of this new approch is that My Movies is no longer involved in the playback process of original Blu-ray or HD DVD discs, and is only involved in mounting image files, not in the playback process of these. This also means that the option to unmount an ISO file after playback no longer exists, and the option disable AnyDVD before playback of a HD title is removed also. For image files, it will not be problematic in the user interface, as the image mounting drives will be ignored, and not be displayed as an inserted disc.

Image File (ISO, IMG, ect.) Integrations

Users who have previously been using image files in My Movies 2 will see some changes in My Movies 3. We recommend using Virtual CloneDrive for mounting image files, but the usage of Daemon Tools Lite is also possible. The major change from My Movies 2 to My Movies 3 is that the programs will now be identified on a per-usage basis, meaning that you no longer need to configure anything regarding these.

Should you try to play an image file, without having a supported image mounter installed, the system will simply let you know about this. Secondly, images mounted in Virtual CloneDrive or Daemon Tools will no longer show up as part of the "Disc In Drives" in the start of your movie title list, as they are considered as titles you can start from the title in your collection.

External Player Integrations

From Pre Release 4, external player integrations have been re-added into My Movies 3. Previously, My Movies 2 have had the option to integrate TheaterTek, but unfortunately not any other player for external playback, except for the Blu-ray and HD DVD disc integrations.

The new functionality in My Movies 3 is more generic, and allows for integration of most available players. The installation package is pre-configured to include support for TheaterTek, Media Player Classic HomeCinema, VLC Video Player and ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre, which is automatically detected, and can be selected in configuration. My Movies does not supply functionality to handle remote inputs for these players, which means that with players that does not support the Windows Media Center remote native, users will need to seek to other software for remote support.

Users who would like to extend the functionality for other players, or edit parameters for the already supported players can do so by editing the "ExternalPlayers.xml" file in the My Movies 3 installation folder. Detailed documentation will be available by the time of the release of My Movies 3, but advanced users can take a stab at it already.

Extenders and Transcoding

Just as with My Movies 2, My Movies 3 is supported to use on Media Center extenders.

In it's default configuration My Movies 3 can play movies that the extenders natively supports only, while you can enable the transcoding option to transcode movies on the host machine to a format playable on the extenders.

It is generally recommended to have multiple light weight PC's for movie playback in multiple zones, or, optionally store movies in a format the extenderes natively supports.

We understand that this is not possible in all situations, and for these situations the transcoding option is available as an alternative.

Screenshots

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