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I've been using XBMC on a Mac Mini for over a year now, using the MediaStream skin.

I love the product, but I get very frustrated when using it to browse movies.

I usually find myself browsing by recently added or by year.

I'd love to be able to browse my entire library, and whilst browsing, quickly tag every movie with something like "Kids", "Will watch someday when I'm bored", "Movies for the wife to watch when I'm out", "Movies for me to watch when the wife is out", "Chickflicks", "Must watch soon", "Put this on the shelf for a few years because I've recently watched it".

Once I've gone through the pain of doing this, the movies would appear in the above sub-menus automatically off the main MOVIES menu. There would also be an additional sub-menu called "Movies I haven't tagged yet", so as and when I'm adding new movies, I simply go into this menu and I can tag them appropriately.

I realise the above may be a dream, but at the moment my wife especially finds browsing movies a total let down. Having to scan thousands of movies is tedious, and she finds it quicker to get a DVD off the shelf. If I'm going to win the battle of media centre being King, then there must be an easier way!

I've also experimented with the favourites - when browsing the movies, I sometimes use the 'add to favourites' option. This is quite good for the "must watch soon" category, but then it becomes a total let down, because when browsing the list of favourites, it's just a simple list, rather than the full blown media view.

It has occurred to me that maybe the latest version of XBMC has some skins which may do this. I've tried reading articles, but they always refer to physically moving files around into different directories. I don't really want to re-organise my movies on a physical level - I'm looking for a way to do it via the UI.

This brings me onto the next question.... what's the best way of upgrading?

Is it possible to create a new user account on the Mac and install the new version of XBMC? I suspect not, as it'll probably overwrite the old version in the applications directory. I'm looking for a safe way to upgrade so that I can roll back to my existing setup if things go wrong.

The trouble is that it's taken me months to perfect my setup. I've had lots of issues with video stuttering, Mac checking for updates, etc. And I've tweaked my thumbnails for movies quite considerably, so dont want to have to re-scrape my entire collection again.

Is there a foolproof guide anywhere for upgrading from 9 to 10?

I'm also frustrated with the sharing features. I have XBMC installed in different rooms, each with their own local storage and libraries. On my main Mac Mini, I have the main library with thousands of movies. I've tried sharing my main library as UPNP (the only option I can find for sharing within XBMC), and with this feature turned on, it makes my movies on my main Mac stutter.

Most of the forums talk about SMB sharing, but my main Mac Mini is obviously formatted for Mac not Windows. I suppose I could turn on SMB sharing on my Mac Mini, but I'm conscious that I don't want to impose any more performance issues. But if I do go down that road..... does that mean I can start with an empty XBMC library in another room and then set it to pick up the SMB directory and stream from that?

I'm also aware that XBMC can probably do more, but I'm just using the basic features. I'd like to be able to have a TV Guide (I've seen the latest version of XBMC has add-ons within it, but they are for US TV guides, not UK). Is there an easy way to add other add-ons like BBC player etc (I wonder if there's a website dedicated to this sort of thing?)

Lastly, if anyone knows of any files I can download specific to the Mac with the relevant skins and settings for all of the above, that would obviously be a big help!!

Thanks
Brad
Quote:Is there a foolproof guide anywhere for upgrading from 9 to 10?
Download the new XBMC file, copy it to application folder, run it. Done!



Quote:Is it possible to create a new user account on the Mac and install the new version of XBMC? I suspect not, as it'll probably overwrite the old version in the applications directory. I'm looking for a safe way to upgrade so that I can roll back to my existing setup if things go wrong.

Have you got time machine? If so then you could just upgrade then roll back that way if you don't like it.

Another way:
- Rename your current XBMC - "XBMC old"
- Go to User/Library/Application support find the folder called XBMC then duplicate it and call one "XBMC old".
- Download the new XBMC install run and experiment with new skins etc.

Or

- Rename your current XBMC - "XBMC old"
- Create a new user account
- Install new xbmc and run it from that user account (have to scrape everything again)


Quote:I'd love to be able to browse my entire library, and whilst browsing, quickly tag every movie with something like "Kids", "Will watch someday when I'm bored", "Movies for the wife to watch when I'm out", "Movies for me to watch when the wife is out", "Chickflicks", "Must watch soon", "Put this on the shelf for a few years because I've recently watched it".
I'm not sure this exists, though you could filter out kids ones by their MPAA rating or navigate by genre.

Quote:I'm also frustrated with the sharing features. I have XBMC installed in different rooms, each with their own local storage and libraries. On my main Mac Mini, I have the main library with thousands of movies. I've tried sharing my main library as UPNP (the only option I can find for sharing within XBMC), and with this feature turned on, it makes my movies on my main Mac stutter.
Are you using wi-fi? Probably part of the reason it is slow.
You can't scrape files to library using UPnP, use samba (smb) to share - it's interoperable and pretty good.


Quote:But if I do go down that road..... does that mean I can start with an empty XBMC library in another room and then set it to pick up the SMB directory and stream from that?
Yes


Quote:I'm also aware that XBMC can probably do more, but I'm just using the basic features. I'd like to be able to have a TV Guide (I've seen the latest version of XBMC has add-ons within it, but they are for US TV guides, not UK). Is there an easy way to add other add-ons like BBC player etc (I wonder if there's a website dedicated to this sort of thing?)
Iplayer is an addon - google it, easy to install using addons.



Final word, mediastream is fairly old now, a lot of skins look a lot pretty and have more features.