Why use MB3 vs MyMovies/WMC or XBMC ??

[cw-kid 192]

Hi

 

Long time WMC/MyMovies user and I've been using XBMC only for the last 12 months. I don't think I would ever want to go back to Windows HTPCs and WMC now! Currently using OpenElec which is a Linux based system built specifically for XBMC and I am using the AEON MQ5 XBMC skin. You can see all of my XBMC blog posts here.

 

I have live TV (UK Freeview) setup in XBMC using DVBLink TV Source on the back-end, which is still my WHS 2011 file server. I have also setup a centralised XBMC media library database using MYSQL and have 4 XBMC HTPC clients around the house.

 

I have various XBMC add-ons installed for IPTV, BBC iPlayer / ITV Player / Youtube / Movie Trailers etc, I also have some XBMC integration with my Home Automation system (Micasaverde Vera) for controlling lights upon playing / pausing movies. 

 

I use either the official XBMC remote control app on Android / iOS or the Yatse remote app on Android for controlling the XBMC PCs and I also still use my Logitech Harmony remote controls. 

 

Last time I used Media Browser was when MyMovies 2 was out and MB was just a movie add-on for WMC. So now I am hearing a bit about Media Browser 3 and I am wondering why I would want to use this over XBMC or MyMovies/WMC for that matter ? 

 

It seems the big advantage of MB3 is a centralized server that provides metadata (From where?) and transcoding to various clients LAN and WAN?. I understand that MB3 still has a WMC add-on and I saw a video the other day of a MB3 XBMC add-on, which I was unsure why you would want to use a MB add-on within XBMC? There is also a stand alone MB Theatre client but that is only for Windows right? 

 

Just trying to get my head around what's new and why I might want to use it?

 

Thanks

 

CW..

[Luke 37029]

we're really trying to create a very personal experience so that would be a reason to try and use apps within our ecosystem, including XBMB3C. On top of that there's a number of features we have that I'm not sure they do, e.g. user profiles, graphical scene selections, recommendations, etc.

[Beardyname 194]

Basically what mb3 would do to your current setup is:

1 Replace the mysql server. the server handles playback is it played etc etc.

2 Enable streams to pads and phones (even web-streaming to any browser) LAN and WAN.

3 Easier(?) meta data editing, probably easier xbmc is not that easy to edit after it has done it's thing.

4 Everything Luke mentioned

[Koleckai Silvestri 1150]

For me, using MediaBrowser's server makes for an easier setup across multiple machines. I was going to do this with XBMC. However XBMC isn't a whole solution. It is a great solution for a single HTPC but not one for multiple PCs, phones, tablets and the Roku. The good thing is you can actually use both together if you wish.

 

You can use MediaBrowser's server component to manage your library and feed it to multiple XBMC boxes if you want. XBMC can connect to the library directly or use the XBMC Plugin for MediaBrowser. MediaBrowser will write your XBMC NFO files for you. It will download all the artwork, without the need for a plugin. Etc... It pulls its metadata from the same servers that XBMC's scrapers do but in my experience it does a better job. It is also easier to correct mismatches. Just update the ID and refresh. You don't have to remove items from your library, deal with files and rescan your library to fix things.

 

Best thing though is I can get media on my iOS devices without jailbreaking them. I don't want my teens running jailbroken devices on unsecure school WiFi and then bringing that home. 

 

With MediaBrowser, I currently have clients running on 5 iPhones, 3 Tablets, a Roku 3 and 4 Windows Computers. We're looking to add 2 more Roku devices to the mix. All from one server. Add a new device and I can be up and running in a few minutes without worrying about NAS settings or changes on the device itself. Just need to ping and connect to the server for everything to work. If I had Linux clients, I'd use XBMC to pull in my library via the plugin.

[cw-kid 192]

Hi

 

thanks for the replies! I now have a better understanding, but I feel the added benefits are not enough to switch to MB3 on the back-end. The streaming from LAN or WAN to mobile devices might be nice and is the main feature that I haven't really got currently. Although I can stream Live TV with the DVBLink apps and I have used apps like Air Video in the past. The main issue is all my HTPC clients are now linux and not windows, I also have a 27" iMAC machine in my kitchen. 

 

I think if I was still using Windows7 and MCE, I could really see the benefit of adding MB3, but not so much now with my current system. 

 

I will certainly keep an eye on your developments.

 

Many Thanks. 

[cw-kid 192]

Looking at the MB3 Android app screen shots, it looks very good. One thing I did miss when switching from MCE/MyMovies to XBMC was having an app like the MyMovies app, I mainly used that to show my friends and family my media collection, when they ask "so what new movies have you watched?" I would use the MyMovies app to view the titles on my phone. I can see the MB3 mobile apps would also do this with the added benefit or being able to stream the content. Can the app WOL a sleeping file server? 

 

With MyMovies you have an "Online Collection" so your server at home doesn't need to be switched on to view the titles in your collection, is this how MB3 works? It uploads an online copy of your titles? or does the server at home need to be turned on, obviously it needs to be on to be able to stream, but how about just viewing the titles / metadata to show to people?

 

I did find this http://www.sharethe.tv/ which is an app for XBMC to share / show off your media library but I don't think it does streaming as well. I've not tried it yet however. 

 

Thanks

[Trevor68 48]

My brain kinda imploded a little reading the first post, thats why I use MB3. Simplicity.

[Vidman 589]

Looking at the MB3 Android app screen shots, it looks very good. One thing I did miss when switching from MCE/MyMovies to XBMC was having an app like the MyMovies app, I mainly used that to show my friends and family my media collection, when they ask "so what new movies have you watched?" I would use the MyMovies app to view the titles on my phone. I can see the MB3 mobile apps would also do this with the added benefit or being able to stream the content. Can the app WOL a sleeping file server?

 

With MyMovies you have an "Online Collection" so your server at home doesn't need to be switched on to view the titles in your collection, is this how MB3 works? It uploads an online copy of your titles? or does the server at home need to be turned on, obviously it needs to be on to be able to stream, but how about just viewing the titles / metadata to show to people?

 

I did find this http://www.sharethe.tv/ which is an app for XBMC to share / show off your media library but I don't think it does streaming as well. I've not tried it yet however.

 

Thanks

The yatse xbmc remote for android does these things doesn't it?

 

Edited January 20, 2014 by Vidman

[cw-kid 192]

The yatse xbmc remote for android does these things doesn't it?

 

I'm not totally sure to be honest, I guess it would if your Server and or a HTPC is up and running? I don't think I could take my Android tablet down to my mum's house and view the movie titles / metadata with Yatse if my system at home is off? Whereas with the MyMovies app as I have an "Online" copy of my titles I can take it any where and view the movie titles metadata. 

 

I will try it and see what happens, but I am under the impression it needs an active connection to one of the XBMC PCs.

[cw-kid 192]

Hi @@kreeturez

 

I am almost sold on what you just said, describing your MB usage! 

 

"The two platforms scrape content independently (though this can be centralized as above) and watched statuses are synced with the Trakt plugins for both XBMC and MB3. "

 

Just trying to get my head around the meta-data creation / scrapping in XBMC and MB3. 

 

So are you still using the normal methods / XBMC scrapers in XBMC ? And in MB3 it does its own thing to scrape the content ? 

 

Or MB3 does it all and creates .nfo files which XBMC then reads? 

 

Thanks

Edited January 21, 2014 by cw-kid

[kreeturez 27]

 

So are you still using the normal methods / XBMC scrapers in XBMC ? And in MB3 it does its own thing to scrape the content ?

 

 

Yup, no changes made on the XBMC side at all - scraping is independent. Though the option exists to let MB3 handle it, but that's certainly not compulsory.

 

Hence my recommendation to try it out: it's risk-free :-)

Edited January 21, 2014 by kreeturez

[cw-kid 192]

I used Mediabrowser back in the day on my MCE box and then went to XBMC [even had XBMC running many years ago on a modded XBox]

XBMC has been so slow in updates and I find their forum not the friendliest place in the world.

One can inquire about features/bugs and get responses like: "You'll have to find a dev who is interested or you can code it yourself". Umm, really?

Anyway, installed the server last night along with serverWMC and was blown away that I was watching TV so quickly and the guide was perfect out of the box. Looks like there's still quite a bit of work to do but it's impressive where you guys are at now and thus far everyone seems friendly

 

I agree with you here, as a Linux newbie myself going over to the XBMC forums and asking stupid newbie questions the crowd over there seemed not to be so friendly compared to how we were on the old Green Button forum site. But once you got to know a few guys and find your feet a bit it got better. I've written several user guides and how-to's now for XBMC and I think that helped with getting your feet in the door. 

 

I think when there is support for DVBLink TV Source in MB3 I would be more keen to try it out. As I am not using WMC in anyway for live TV, I just have a BlackGold DVB-T2 dual tuner card in the WHS 2011 box and the DVBLink stuff on there. I also agree that WMC is still by far the best software PVR and the live TV in XBMC is still lacking in areas but its OK for my needs. 

[macrho 1]

I used Mediabrowser back in the day on my MCE box and then went to XBMC [even had XBMC running many years ago on a modded XBox]

XBMC has been so slow in updates and I find their forum not the friendliest place in the world.

One can inquire about features/bugs and get responses like: "You'll have to find a dev who is interested or you can code it yourself". Umm, really?
Anyway, installed the server last night along with serverWMC and was blown away that I was watching TV so quickly and the guide was perfect out of the box. Looks like there's still quite a bit of work to do but it's impressive where you guys are at now and thus far everyone seems friendly

[cw-kid 192]

yup, we're probably only a few weeks away from having linux and os x downloads on teh website

 

That's good news! Now I only have one Windows PC (My Laptop) in the entire house, after being a MS fanboy I have pretty much ditched Microsoft products in the house as I hated Windows 8 and the whole mess they made with Windows Media Center. Although I still have my WHS 2011 HP Microserver. 

 

I still find Linux difficult to use though, my first XBMC PC was based on Ubuntu Minimal no desktop etc just the terminal command line. That's why I like OpenElec so much, its a purpose built Linux with XBMC and I don't have to deal too much with all the underlying Linux stuff.

 

Ideally I think most users not wanting to use windows on their HTPC's, would like to see a purpose Linux build with MB3 for that light weight appliance like experience. 

[cw-kid 192]

Yup, no changes made on the XBMC side at all - scraping is independent. Though the option exists to let MB3 handle it, but that's certainly not compulsory. Hence my recommendation to try it out: it's risk-free :-)

 

For me at the moment MB3 on the back-end to open up streaming to mobile devices is the most compelling reason to try it out, in conjunction with my existing XBMC HTPC's.

 

I can't see myself using the MB3 front-end especially not on Windows HTPC's, If they came out with an OpenElec type deal with a Linux distribution built in with MB3 front-end UI then I'd certainly be more interested in using something like that as a possible replacement to XBMC etc. 

 

As for now I think I will install the MB3 Server and look at the mobile apps. 

 

Thanks. 

[Luke 37029]

I used Mediabrowser back in the day on my MCE box and then went to XBMC [even had XBMC running many years ago on a modded XBox]

XBMC has been so slow in updates and I find their forum not the friendliest place in the world.

One can inquire about features/bugs and get responses like: "You'll have to find a dev who is interested or you can code it yourself". Umm, really?

Anyway, installed the server last night along with serverWMC and was blown away that I was watching TV so quickly and the guide was perfect out of the box. Looks like there's still quite a bit of work to do but it's impressive where you guys are at now and thus far everyone seems friendly

 

Welcome. Glad to have you here. To be honest, sometimes i give that kind of response too. Not because I don't want to do what you're requesting, but it's nice when everybody can find a way to help out. We've had people take that response from me and then go and recruit new developers to grow our team. And it's just snowballed from there with more new contributors coming everyday.

[Koleckai Silvestri 1150]

They are working on a Linux Server now. Should be available soon. After that, developers can probably work on a Linux client. Though there is nothing preventing someone from writing a Linux client that talks to the Windows server. 

[cw-kid 192]

They are working on a Linux Server now. Should be available soon. After that, developers can probably work on a Linux client. Though there is nothing preventing someone from writing a Linux client that talks to the Windows server. 

 

I am happy keeping the Windows file server on the back-end, was a Linux front-end client with MB3 inbuilt that would really make me consider that over XBMC. 

[cw-kid 192]

I was using XBMC and WMC for TV for a while. I had the mysql setup to keep playstates in sync but having to switch between apps wasn't working out. I have tried all other TV solutions and none of them work better than WMC plus it is the only software for DRM channels. MB3 allows me to use one software for everything and it works really well. I also think the themes for MB3 look a lot better than what XBMC has to offer. XBMC is in need of a face lift. Xbmc is really good for a local network HTPC but times has changed . You can use xbmc with the MB3 server to be able to stream to any location.

 

I get what you are saying and the ability to stream any media content to your mobile app is a nice feature to have, but how much would you really use it? The only time I have had anything like that setup was when I was using Air Video and their iOS app. That worked reasonably well but it wouldn't stream / transcode everything. 

 

My Movies take on this is stability, they have a process where you can convert your DVD Movie rips in to MP4 with their Video Converter (and they are working on MKV) to "mobile" copies, you then have the ability to play / stream those mobile copies to the mobile apps. Their thinking is if they can control the conversion process they can then guarantee stability. Which is probably not something Media Browser can say with all the variations on file formats / containers and codec types etc, but if the on the fly transcoding process works most of the time? for most sorts of different media formats, then its the ease and readiness of use that is appealing to users, i.e not having to initiate pre-conversion of content to view on mobile devices. 

 

Me personally I am still using my whole home HTPC client / server model. Tablets are used for remote controls rather than really streaming any content to them, although my daughters would probably use a streaming feature more than I would, both in and out of the house. 

 

So those of you using MB3 on the back-end and XBMC on the front-end, do you no longer use any of the XBMC meta-data scrapers? And allow MB3 Server to handle all of the importing and meta-data creation? Which is then assuming that MB3 is creating the .nfo files and XBMC just reads these for its own library creation.

 

.nfo files in my experience are not the best, there are many bugs in XBMC to do with nfo files, for example My Movies also can create .nfo files but when XBMC reads these it resulted in weird stuff happening in XBMC for example media codec icon flags were incorrect in many cases, in the end My Movies took out the codec info from their nfo files and just allowed XBMC's own internal processes to work out the codec info and what flags should be displayed. 

 

I can't comment too much on the MB3 themes having not yet tried the software but XBMC has many skins which look fantastic. Certainly the new developments in the Media Browser world are very interesting and I am just trying to get people's opinions on why they have moved over to it, before I invest more time in yet another new system. 

 

Thanks

Edited January 20, 2014 by cw-kid

[newfiend 22]

Hey cw-kid... hope you're doing well. Nice to see you here, I used to post a lot over at the original Green Button site as well as the GB.tv site. Hope you remember me,. =)

I have been using MB3 for a bit now. I totally love it. The direction they are taking this is great and the community here is very helpful and receptive as I am sure you have noticed from this thread. I am still using WMC as my front end so I can't offer much info for your situation other than I think you should also give MB3 a go. I have been using it on my Main HTPC with MB Classic, as well as 2 android clients, a Windows phone client, the Media Browser 3 app for Windows 8 and Media Browser Theater. I am really impressed at the quality of the product here. Being able to stream my .mkv files to my phone, tablet or android client was what really won me over. It didn't take me long to get hooked on MB3. Things are moving in a very positive direction and the developers keep jumping on to help out, I think they have a real winner going here. Give it a chance. I think you'll like it. As far as WOL and Wake on Wan goes I asked for this to be added to the Windows Phone client and it got approved.. I think other developers will look into adding this functionality sooner than later.

Nice to see you here.. hope ya stay around and give MB3 a try..

Take Care,

newfiend~

[Koleckai Silvestri 1150]

Me personally I am still using my whole home HTPC client / server model. Tablets are used for remote controls rather than really streaming any content to them, although my daughters would probably use a streaming feature more than I would, both in and out of the house.

Depends on your household really. In my household, we currently have one television. However there are 5 tablets, 5 smartphones, and 6 Computers (3 desktops and 6 laptops). We use portable screens for streaming all the time. My daughter 90 miles away at University so being able to stream to her laptop and Kindle Fire are important. I certainly don't want to pay an extra $50+ a month for her to get cable in her dorm room.

[steve1977 67]

I would not say that it is XBMC and MBS, but XBMC and MBS. The first three benefits below are huge to me (perfect and easy sync across all clients, streaming to ipad/iphone/android even without jailbreak and with full artwork, easy metadata editing). Agree there are still benefits of using XBMC as a client (frontend), but why not use MBS as backend and XBMC on frontend? Also, no need to go for Windows. MBS also runs on Linus (in beta).

 

Basically what mb3 would do to your current setup is:
1 Replace the mysql server. the server handles playback is it played etc etc.
2 Enable streams to pads and phones (even web-streaming to any browser) LAN and WAN.
3 Easier(?) meta data editing, probably easier xbmc is not that easy to edit after it has done it's thing.
4 Everything Luke mentioned

[cw-kid 192]

Depends on your household really. In my household, we currently have one television. However there are 5 tablets, 5 smartphones, and 6 Computers (3 desktops and 6 laptops). We use portable screens for streaming all the time. My daughter 90 miles away at University so being able to stream to her laptop and Kindle Fire are important. I certainly don't want to pay an extra $50+ a month for her to get cable in her dorm room.

 

I guess so, I have wall mounted TV's in every room and a HTPC in each room running XBMC. I've got an iMAC in the kitchen and my laptop, plus two Android tablets and 3 Android phones. That's it I think, I can certainly see the benefit of your daughter being able to stream content from home to her University location!

[Luke 37029]

yup, we're probably only a few weeks away from having linux and os x downloads on teh website

[Luke 37029]

Perhaps the best reason of all is to be a part of our rapidly growing community. We have a lot of really bright people working on some really great things, and it seem almost everyday we have a new announcement coming from someone on the team. I know Xbmc has a nice community too but you're not going to get that from a commercial product.