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Major interface setup problems


NJ RadioGuy

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NJ RadioGuy

Hi all,

I'm experiencing some very significant (i.e. show-stopper-level) problems in using MB3 server, after having had MB Classic work for years with no problem whatsoever. I hardly even know where to begin. I tried going through the tutorial (located at http://mediabrowser.tv/community/index.php?/topic/730-mb3-server-using-the-web-client/), but what I'm seeing on my screen isn't even close to what is shown in the tutorial. I'm using Chrome to access the server and MB Theater software as the client.

 

Let me state quite clearly that the software is set up and functional (both the server and the MB Theater), but now it's a matter of making things look good. I AM able to view and play content on the local HTPC and across the LAN with MB Theater on a different PC. Also note that every PC in my LAN is some flavour of Windows 7; I only have one Windows 8.1 machine and it's set up to behave like Win7, with the tiles start screen disabled, and doesn't yet have a client for MB installed on it yet. So with all that said, here are some very frustrating issues that I'm facing at this point:

 

1) I am using MB in conjunction with Media Center Master software, and with Classic, I had all the metadata, pictures, backgrounds, descriptions, thumbnails, etc, of every movie and TV show in my collection. About 60% of them are present in the new version but 40% just show up as "offline." When I go into the folders themselves I see everything there, but MB isn't finding an awful lot of them. Any idea on what could be wrong here?

 

2) When I bring up the MB Theater client I'm seeing Windows-8 style tiles of my titles. I abhor this view. Please, please tell me this can be changed! And if so, how?

 

3) I would like the appearance as shown in the tutorial to work on my version. Namely nice images of my collections. I have collections of movies, TV shows, Home videos, Music and Other Videos. I would like to have thumbnails or nice graphics representing each of these, as I had in Classic.

 

4) I would like to continue using Media Center Master as my primary means of downloading and arranging artwork and descriptions of my content. Do I need to change anything either in MB Server or MCM to enable this to continue?

 

5) "Scan Library" is grayed out and the last result is "(Aborted by server shutdown)." How can I force a refresh? With about 4-5TB of content, I'd rather use existing files wherever possible, obviously!

 

6) In MB Theater, setup, I was playing n the LAV Audio setup, and selected Audio Device (WASAPI): Realtek Digital Output(Optic....) It's cut off on the right side and the dropdown list is no longer visible. I'm not even sure I should be touching this, but I was trying to ensure content played in 5.1 Surround.

 

7) Also in MB Theater, when I go to the home or initial settings, in the upper left side, I see MOVIES, TV, APPS and FOLDERS, then live tiles below that. (See #2, above). Can I change this to my collections, (MOVIES, TV, HOME VIDEO, OTHER VIDEO, MUSIC) instead (and get rid of the tiles)?

 

 

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Eventually it will have themes and you'll be able to do all of those things, but not at the moment.

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NJ RadioGuy

Are you saying that none of the features shown in the tutorial are yet available in MB3? Is there a reason to stay with MB3 in this condition or should I just restore everything with my backup software to Classic? From where I'm sitting at the moment, it's a huge downgrade in functionality. I don't like using beta software and this is a production box intended for family viewing with a wife who needs something that works simply and reliably. I did have that before, and assumed MB3 was ready for primetime. Was I a little to over-optimistic?

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legallink

I think you might be confusing MB3 and MB Theater.  MB Theater, I think, has always be quasi advertised as "in development".  MBC and MB Server are, in my experience pretty production ready, although they are going through significant changes in the development cycle.  I run MBC with the Chocoloate theme...but MB Theater, I don't believe is really there yet.  My wife rejected it the first time I threw it up there...so I just keep it on my personal machine.

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NJ RadioGuy

OK, so can I revert back to MBC as the player and use MB3 Server as the back end, or do I have to throw everything out and revert fully? I always assumed that MB Classic was just one piece of software (the server in the background and the user interface).

 

I was very happy with the default theme in classic, but I figured that after 2-1/2 years of doing nothing to it, by now it had evolved into a more feature-rich and mature application.

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You're referring to MB2, which is what you were using before. MB Classic can be used with the server as the back end, and it has evolved and added a long list of new features.

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BATTLE DONKEY

There are no themes for MBTheater yet as its a work in progress and is in the middle of a major overhaul as it is. In time it will also get themes and depending on the theme developer maybe leave the metro tiles look and more MBClassic look. I too hope once MBTheatre is ready that @@ebr ports over the chocolate theme to MBTheatre.

 

The screenshots in the link u posted (the tutorial) are of the web interface, if u want and the "clean" look u describe, ie categories for movies, TV shows, etc. Then for now I suggest sticking with MBClassic and ur preference of theme, chocolate comes built into it now and there are a few free themes which are all fantastic, and also a few paid themes.

 

As a long time user of MCM I was also hesitant to let go of it, but I have now let MBServer take care of all metadata and it has been 99.9% accurate. The titles u say are showing off line I suggest going into the the web interface and clicking the edit button and refresh to see if it resolves the offline issue because it sounds like it was cause by aborting the initial media scan. If not it maybe an issue of the server not having access to the media on those harddrives. @@Luke can probably help u out further as to why its greyed out if u provide log files of ur server start up and all other related logs he may need

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legallink

And just to clarify, yes you can use MB Server with MB Classic as your WMC plugin.  That is how I set it up, and love it.  I think it is a much more elegant setup than MB2 was.

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NJ RadioGuy

OK, that puts things into a bit of perspective. I have removed MB Theater and installed MB Classic and it's mostly back to normal, but with one huge exception: Any video that I play directly in Windows Media Center plays normally. Anything I play via The MB Classic overlay does not fill the screen; there is a blue border around all four sides of the image, as if watching a CinemaScope movie on a 4:3 screen, but without the anamorphic squeeze.

 

Is there a setting within MB somewhere that expands it to fill the whole screen? That's about all I'm missing now.

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BATTLE DONKEY

Ya, first I would check the settings on ur TV for overscan/underscan settings. Different models use different terminology for it, so best to check ur user manual or a quick google search. If that doesn't work u can go into the MBClassic settings in the upper right corner (gear cog) and u can adjust the overscan/underscan settings there. There's also other methods that have been discussed in the forums here that u can find with a quick search

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NJ RadioGuy

Definitely not a TV under/overscan problem; everything plays properly except videos via MB. Any and all other sources are fine, and MB2 played everything perfectly without issue until I started messing with things 24 hours ago. And like I said, if I exit the MB3 interface and play a video from the library directly from the Windows Media Center interface it plays properly there, too.

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NJ RadioGuy

OK, guys, this is becoming a massive failure on every level for me, and I'm going to move this thread over to the Classic forum. I am no longer able to play ISO files (it says it's not configured for it, and then MB fails. I am far, far to livid to even think clearly at this point - I've got 24 hours into this and things are infinitely worse than I've experienced in years.

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A8HTPC

Are you trying to play DVD movies or bluray? DVD movies in MB Theater (not sure MB Classic) play at a much smaller resolution and is interlaced to hell. Enabling or disabling MadVR seems to help. Enabling MadVR helped me for it to play correctly.

 

I have always wondered why MBT is not as advanced as MBC but hopefully this "top secret" stuff the Devs are working on moves MBT to a BETA level with more features and better, more stable functionality.

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techywarrior

OK, that puts things into a bit of perspective. I have removed MB Theater and installed MB Classic and it's mostly back to normal, but with one huge exception: Any video that I play directly in Windows Media Center plays normally. Anything I play via The MB Classic overlay does not fill the screen; there is a blue border around all four sides of the image, as if watching a CinemaScope movie on a 4:3 screen, but without the anamorphic squeeze.

 

Is there a setting within MB somewhere that expands it to fill the whole screen? That's about all I'm missing now.

 

First play with the underscan/overscan settings as BattleDonkey said. At worst, or if you just want to "make it work" for now, you can go into the MBC settings and disable the new player. You will most likely need to do that if your ISO files have DVD menus in them anyways.

Edited by techywarrior
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CBers

OK, that puts things into a bit of perspective. I have removed MB Theater and installed MB Classic and it's mostly back to normal, but with one huge exception: Any video that I play directly in Windows Media Center plays normally. Anything I play via The MB Classic overlay does not fill the screen; there is a blue border around all four sides of the image, as if watching a CinemaScope movie on a 4:3 screen, but without the anamorphic squeeze.

 

Is there a setting within MB somewhere that expands it to fill the whole screen? That's about all I'm missing now.

@NJ RadioGuy - have a read of this: http://mediabrowser.tv/community/index.php?/topic/2123-media-browser-classic-is-not-displayed-on-100-of-the-screen-how-to-troubleshoot-overscan-issues/

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First play with the underscan/overscan settings as BattleDonkey said. At worst, or if you just want to "make it work" for now, you can go into the MBC settings and disable the new player. You will most likely need to do that if your ISO files have DVD menus in them anyways.

 

No you don't.  There is a specific option for only disabling the new interface for ripped DVDs.

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As for your underscan issue - the first thing I would do is confirm the TV setup in WMC settings itself.  Run through guided setup and, when it asks you what kind of TV it is, say it is a flat panel.  If it already is set to that, try projector.  If that doesn't solve it, then try the over/under scan settings in the Advanced config panel.

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NJ RadioGuy

I did this step years ago when I set up WMC for the first time, even before I'd heard of Media Browser. So unless something in MB has, in fact, changed the WMC settings, I can't see how this would be different.

 

I have defined video libraries within WMC. If I exit Media Browser but stay within WMC, go into my library and play a video it runs just fine and looks normal on the screen. But the minute I fire up MBC it severely underscans. For this reason (as I've explained in another thread), I've abandoned MBC and gone back to MB2.4.0R for the moment.

 

I would very much like to solve this and get back to using MB3 Server and MB Classic but at this point it seems like I'll need many days and repeated trips to this forum to do so. Given the above info, what steps should I take, in what order, to try this process once again?

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techywarrior

No you don't.  There is a specific option for only disabling the new interface for ripped DVDs.

Ebr, I meant since he is having the underscan issue with the new player and if he is going to need to have it disabled for the ISO files anyway it might just be better to disable it so he doesn't have two different players for the different files and also so "it works" for now because he doesn't seem to actually follow the suggestions people have made here.

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techywarrior

I did this step years ago when I set up WMC for the first time, even before I'd heard of Media Browser. So unless something in MB has, in fact, changed the WMC settings, I can't see how this would be different.

 

MBC has a new video player now. As a few people have told you, in MBC (not WMC) click on the settings and change the under/overscan values. This is for the MBC player so you don't have the blue borders when you play videos. Or, in those same settings, disable the new player completely.

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Did you ever go into the advanced config panel and try to adjust the over/under scan settings there?  Although - those should affect everything - not just the new player.  What theme were you using?

 

If you are having these issues, though, it means that WMC is having trouble determining the true resolution of your screen and/or its characteristics.  I have seen changing that setting in WMC setup solve several people's problems.

 

You aren't on an extender, right?

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NJ RadioGuy

MBC has a new video player now. As a few people have told you, in MBC (not WMC) click on the settings and change the under/overscan values. This is for the MBC player so you don't have the blue borders when you play videos. Or, in those same settings, disable the new player completely.

 

And as I believe I've explained upthread, if I go into the MBC "advanced" screen and adjust the under/overscan settings so the actual video files play normally, then the MBC Chocolate or Default/classic interface items overscan and fall off the screen edges, making it impossible to adjust settings.

 

I found that values in the -50 range left/right and -30 range top/bottom came pretty close to filling the screen with actual content correctly, but that put the extremeties of the MBC interface well out of view. Obviously the priority is content, but with the interface messed up, that hardly seemed like a viable option to me.

Edited by NJ RadioGuy
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techywarrior

And as I believe I've explained upthread, if I adjust it so the actual video files play normally then the MBC Chocolate or Default/classic interface items overscan and fall off the screen edges, making it impossible to adjust settings, etc. I found that values in the -50 range left/right and -30 range top/bottom came pretty close to filling the screen correctly, but that put the extremeties of the MBC screen well out of view. Obviously the priority is to fill the screen, but with the interface messed up, that hardly seemed like a viable option to me.

Have you tried just disabling the new player? Also, as ebr just asked, are you on an extender? That's where most people have the exact issue that you are describing. Also, a lot of people fixed the issue by going thru the TV setup in WMC and changing the TV type. If you can select a TV type that doesn't create underscan (or minimal) it will be easier to adjust. Another thing, many TV's themselves have different settings that can be adjusted for their "type".

 

For instance, my TV has 4:3, widescreen, and PC. "Widescreen" actually causes overscan but changing it to PC gives a true 1920x1080 display. That can also be something to check so that you don't have to apply underscan correction in WMC.

 

But ultimately, if none of the underscan correction things work, or you don't want to bother, try disabling the new player in the MBC settings (I think it's in the playback tab) as that should fix the problem (but not give you the new player obviously. But you may not miss it since you didn't have it in MB2)

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NJ RadioGuy

Have you tried just disabling the new player? Also, as ebr just asked, are you on an extender? That's where most people have the exact issue that you are describing. Also, a lot of people fixed the issue by going thru the TV setup in WMC and changing the TV type. If you can select a TV type that doesn't create underscan (or minimal) it will be easier to adjust. Another thing, many TV's themselves have different settings that can be adjusted for their "type".

 

For instance, my TV has 4:3, widescreen, and PC. "Widescreen" actually causes overscan but changing it to PC gives a true 1920x1080 display. That can also be something to check so that you don't have to apply underscan correction in WMC.

 

But ultimately, if none of the underscan correction things work, or you don't want to bother, try disabling the new player in the MBC settings (I think it's in the playback tab) as that should fix the problem (but not give you the new player obviously. But you may not miss it since you didn't have it in MB2)

I'm not sure what an Extender is. I've never heard the term used before. I was using MB3 Server and (at first) MB Theater--subsequently removed and replaced with MB Classic. Those were the only software changes. I don't know from extenders. Is that a hardware thing?

 

At this point, as I've explained, due to family pressures to have a working media player during the summer holidays, I've removed all traces of the new software and have fully reverted to the earlier versions. But in saying that, I must stress that every other source of video is playing fine, and has been playing fine, for at least 2-1/2 years. The underscan issue began the moment I went to MBC/MB3 and went away when I took MBC/MB3 out of the equation. I'm not deliberately trying to be dense here, but I'm just not seeing what I've done wrong or could have done differently.

 

WMC screen type/etc was set up correctly about 2-1/2 years ago and its interface has never been so much as looked at, let alone touched, in that time. Would changing to MB-C from MB 2.4.0 affect WMC's settings somehow?

 

And even if it did, this seems to get back to the problem of if I changed the underscan settings on MBC-Advanced to fill the screen with content, the interface graphical elements fall off the edge of the screen.

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techywarrior

MBC recently implemented a new video player interface. Because of the way that it has to work, and the way that WMC works, there can be the issue you are describing with under/overscan. Most people are able to solve the problem by adjusting the TV type in WMC but if you don't want to do that, or it doesn't fix the problem for you, simply disable the new player in the MBC settings (as I have suggested multiple times)

 

Did you do anything wrong? No, not necessarily. It's possible that no matter what you do with the TV settings and under/overscan settings you won't get it perfect in the new player and in WMC at the same time. Simply disable the new player.

 

What is an extender? If you don't know what it is then you aren't using one :) Extenders are devices that allow you to connect into WMC over the network. The most common extender is an xbox 360.

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