Add-In: My Movies for Windows – Home and Essentials v5.12

My Movies for Windows - Home and Essentials

My Movies for Windows – Home and Essentials has version 5.12 released with the following change log (and its a big one):

  • Added: Title list icons for boxsets.
  • Added: Option to show all languages when viewing posters and banners for TV Series and Movies.
  • Added: Support for Media Player Classic – BE in external players.
  • Added: External players how have a separate configuration for Blu-ray and Blu-ray 3D, in case you want to use perhaps ArcSoft TMT or Cyberlink PowerDVD for Blu-ray 3D, and other players such as MPC-HC for ordinary Blu-ray titles.
  • Added: The external player configurations now supports direct launch of DVD chapters, allowing for support for direct launch of TV Series on DVD episodes in external players that supports it.
  • Added: The external player configurations now supports direct launch of Blu-ray BDMV folder MPLS files, allowing for support for direct launch of TV Series on Blu-ray episodes in external players that supports it, and for using My Movies’ meta-data to determine the main movie before playback in players not supporting menu’s.
  • Added: The software now prompts the user if they would like to register hotkey changes for MPC-HC and MPC-BE, so that they can be used with Windows Media Center remotes and the My Movies mobile application remotes.
  • Added: Extended handling of Media Player Home Classic and Media Player Classic BC, allowing them to be used for stop and resume.
  • Added: Support for KPC packages of MPC HC and MPC BE as external player.
  • Added: Settings option to disable Windows Media Centers autoplay, for better handling of image files and inserted discs.
  • Added: Prompt for Play or Copy settings option in relation to disabling Windows Media Center autoplay.
  • Added: Preview option using MPC HC in Collection Management, allowing for easier tagging of DVD and Blu-ray titles.
  • Added: Filter functions for media type, mastered in 4k, cover type, chapters/episodes read, credits end start specified.
  • Added: Tracking of watched marking and progress on "Play all episodes" and other playlist based watching in MediaPlayer Classic.
  • Added: Option to hide season level on TV Series with only one season.
  • Added: Remote event handler for Samsung TV’s.
  • Added: Auro 3D audio track types
  • Added: Option to tag two main movies in the meta-data for disc titles containing two editions.
  • Added: Check for profile updates before contribution of movies.
  • Added: New profiles for video converter. Instead of device specific profiles, we are moving towards more universal profiles of various qualities. The new profiles are only M4V and not MP4 profiles, as we believe all devices can handle M4V, where Apple TV will only accept M4V and not MP4. If anyone have devices that does not handle the M4V files, but do handle MP4 files, we would like to hear about it.
  • Change: Insert disc prompt in Windows Media Center to contain title and image.
  • Change: Facebook login updated to support new Facebook API’s, to avoid deprecation.
  • Change: Including AnyDVD’s disc.inf file when copying a BDMV folder.
  • Change: disc.inf from AnyDVD used to play correct main movie when playing titles with MPC.
  • Change: Opened up for dashboard specific commands in the API for professionals.
  • Update: MKV tools updated to latest versions.
  • Update: Handbrake updated to latest released version (0.10.0), adding QuickSync support.
  • Update: Various changes and fixes to the MPC player implementation.
  • Fix: The new cover type and mastered in 4K options was not part of the preview.
  • Fix: MPC-HC was not marked to support BDMV and recorded tv files in external player settings.
  • Fix: Folder monitoring could keep checking a directory, if it was renamed between an event coming in from it, and monitoring being ready to check it.
  • Fix: The invalid path check in optimize database could in some situations re-occur with the same message, without being able to correct it.
  • Fix: The sort order was not stored correct when sorting the three list in Collection Management.
  • Fix: The title was used when creating set informations in XBMC – instead the sort title is used now.
  • Fix: European air dates could cause a storage problem when generating TV Series meta-data for XBMC.
  • Fix: In specific circumstances the reading of a date could fail, when the user was using regional settings that couldn’t be parsed as US dates.
  • Fix: Contribution of production countries for movies could send localized country names causing the contribution to fail on the server.
  • Fix: On some Blu-ray discs the reading of the chapter durations wasn’t corrent.
  • Fix: Issue with reset collection numbers, that could lead to incorrect numbering.
  • Fix: Issue with XBMC meta-data storage, where a title having one disc with both side a and b online was not joined into a set.
  • Fix: Incorrect message about upgrade on client machine.
  • Fix: Description source was not shown correctly when changing language on a movie
  • Fix: Contribution comments were not stored correct.
  • Fix: On some Server 2012 R2 versions, the SQL Server installation failed.
  • Fix: Reading of blu-ray chapter structure was in some scenarios incomplete.
  • Fix: Empty directory could cause issues with external credentials connection
  • Fix: Titles not connected to the online service could fail to store for Dune meta-data.
  • Fix: A bug in the path check for disc titles could report a change to a title even though nothing had changed.
  • Fix: Collection number for TV Series wasn’t registered on webservices when contributing a new tv series.
  • Fix: Change source through folder import for TV Series didn’t show the correct dialog, and didn’t fill in the correct fields.
  • Fix: Media information was not displayed for discs inserted into drives.
  • Fix: Time improvement on disc title load in Collection Management. Check of complete percentage is now done in the background.
  • Fix: Reading of chapter structure on blu-ray had some issues in a few specific circumstances.
  • Fix: Informative message is now returned, if user tries to add a monitored item to converter, and the item is not in a supported format.
  • Fix: Disc id not passed correct to edit episodes dialog, meaning that it may say that the disc was not found.
  • Fix: AnyDVD state was not always read correct on X86 devices.
  • Fix: The service could crash due to a notification object being run through and added to at the same time.
  • Fix: Cover type did not display correct in preview.
  • Fix: Settings could break if a previously selected cover style was no longer available.
  • Fix: There could be a problem in the response from the API when requesting play options, if title had multiple discs, with one having play options, and the other not.
  • Fix: columns for episode editing are now set to best fit the content.
  • Fix: Chapter times for blu-rays needed to be read differently in some scenarios.
  • Fix: Issue that could cause BDMV playlist folders to be added as video folder.
  • Fix: Some internal dates on connected movies where not updated on title delete, which could result in an indication that the movie wasn’t in sync with the server.
  • Fix: Empty strings in personal data could cause movie titles to sort incorrectly.
  • Fix: Movie contribution now changes movie to local, if it wasn’t found in the online service
  • Fix: Connected movies weren’t deleted when titles in a box set were deleted.
  • Fix: Update of all movies could easily timeout. Time limit raised to 60 seconds, and better feedback added to avoid freeze in UI.
  • Fix: Enter key did not work on remote control keyboard.
  • Fix: Virtual drives was listed in automatic disc copier settings in Windows Media Center
  • Fix: TMT5 was not detected correct when image files were mounted and autoplay was disabled.
  • Fix: Picture mode setting for the JVC X500 models did not work as expected, and could cause issues in communication in general.
  • Fix: The memory slots above 3 for higher JVC projector models did not work.
  • Fix: Collection Management on a Home & Essentials server installation could give incorrect message when restoring a database.

More information on My Movies for Windows – Home and Essentials is available from here.

Microsoft Pushes Windows Server vNext to 2016

Mary Jo Foley

Mary Jo Foley is reporting that the next release of Windows Server won’t ship until some time in 2016. The next public preview of the product will be this spring.

“For the past several years, Microsoft has delivered its new Windows client and server releases in tandem. But with Windows 10, Microsoft is going to deviate from that practice and postpone its next release of Windows Server until 2016…”

Mary Jo’s full story can be found here.

The Home Server Show Podcast Episode 276

home_server_show_small

Episode 276 of the Home server Show podcast asks should you purchase Windows Server 2012 R2 Essentials or wait? This is alongside chat on MSDN, TechNet, DreamSpark, bad 3TB drives and more.

You can catch episode 276 here.

Add-In: My Movies for Windows – Home and Essentials v5.12 Pre Release 3

My Movies for Windows - Home and Essentials

The pre release version of My Movies for Windows – Home and Essentials has been updated.

Version 5.12 Pre Release 3 has the following change log:

  • Added: Check for profile updates before contribution of movies.
  • Added: New profiles for video converter. Instead of device specific profiles, we are moving towards more universal profiles of various qualities. The new profiles are only M4V and not MP4 profiles, as we believe all devices can handle M4V, where Apple TV will only accept M4V and not MP4. If anyone have devices that does not handle the M4V files, but do handle MP4 files, we would like to hear about it.
  • Update: MKV tools updated to latest versions.
  • Update: Handbrake updated to latest released version (0.10.0), adding QuickSync support.
  • Update: Various changes and fixes to the MPC player implementation.
  • Change: Insert disc prompt in Windows Media Center to contain title and image.
  • Fix: Description source was not shown correctly when changing language on a movie
  • Fix: Contribution comments were not stored correct.
  • Fix: On some Server 2012 R2 versions, the SQL Server installation failed.
  • Fix: Issue causing download or playback to not work in some situations.
  • Fix: Reading of blu-ray chapter structure was in some scenarios incomplete.
  • Fix: Empty directory could cause issues with external credentials connection
  • Fix: Titles not connected to the online service could fail to store for Dune meta-data.

More information on My Movies for Windows – Home and Essentials is available from here.

Work Folders for Windows Server Available on the iPad

Microsoft have release Work Folders for Windows Server on the iPad.

iPad Word Folders Passcode

Work Folders is a location where you can store work files and access them from all of your PCs and devices, even when you’re offline.

iPad Word Folders File Structure

To use Work Folders, your workplace has to enable your account first. After your account is enabled, you can set up the Work Folders app.

iPad Word Folders Settings

Features

  • Access your work files and folders on your iPad and other devices.
  • Pin files so that you can view them while you’re offline.
  • Files are encrypted and protected by an app passcode, keeping others out.

More information on Work Folders can be found here and here.

Cloud Xtender v1.0.0.6 Beta

Cloud Xtender

Version 1.0.0.6 beta of Cloud Xtender from Division-M has been released

From the same company that brings us Drive Bender, Cloud Xtender is storage pooling for the cloud… a revolutionary technology that allows a number of cloud storage providers to be pooled and utilized as a single Windows drive.

Here is the change log for this latest beta release:

  • [b] An issue with the language setting can cause an exception on start up.

more information on Cloud Xtender can be found here.

Cannot Access Shared Files or Folders on a Drive in Windows Server 2012 (R2) Essentials

Microsoft have a KB article with a solution if you cannot access shared files or folders on a drive in Windows Server 2012 (R2) Essentials.

Cannot access shared files or folders on a drive in Windows Server 2012 or Windows Server 2012 R2

The KB article which explains the symptoms, the resolution and the registry workaround can be found here.

Add-In: Drive Bender v2.3.0.0

Drive Bender Logo

Version 2.3.0.0 of Drive Bender has been released with the following change log:

  • [bug fix] S.M.A.R.T now being processed by its own service (the change in the previous release failed for some users).
  • [bug fix] The Windows Server Dashboard could crash if some options were selected.
  • [update] When performing a pool audit, the file size used to calculate pool-usage is now based on the size used on the drive, not the file size itself. This means the non pool value display in the Drive Bender Manager will be more accurate.

More details including a 60 day trial are available from here.

WHS2011 to WD My Cloud

Microsoft MVP Richard Hay’s explains why he has retired WHS2011 in his household and instead gone with the WD My Cloud personal storage NAS network drive.

WD My Cloud

In his blog post Richard tells us why he went this route now he is using Windows 8 on his client machines.

You can read Richard’s post here.

N54L MicroServer Rear Fan Replacement Guide

A user by the name of PhilUK has detailed his experiences with changing the rear fan on the HP N54L MicroServer.

N54L Microserver Rear Fan Replacement

PhilUK gives us all the details including how to swap the pin connectors over on the fan lead to comply with the MicroServer which uses a non-standard pin-out on the motherboard.

All the info can be found here.