Overview

How to download and install My Films

Download

Download My Films via  either :

• MediaPortal Extensions Installer (MPEI)
• My Films listing in the online repository of MediaPortal Extensions 

Installation

The My Films plugin provides a standard MediaPortal Extensions installer (MPEI) using the .mpe1 file extension.  Just double click the file name to install. You may also use the MPEInstaller to browse and watch for new versions of the plugin, or use the Extensions plugin within MediaPortal.

Dependencies

My Films integrates with several other MediaPortal plugins. They are not essential for basic features, and must be installed separately, however the MyFilms installer will notify you if they are not installed or you require a new version:

• Browse The Web - to view IMDb and other web pages for even more movie and cast/crew info, or to view this Wiki from within My Films 
• OnlineVideos -  to search, play or download online trailers which you can add to your My Films catalog
• SubCentral -  to search and download subtitles for your films
• Trakt - to track the films you watch and recommend similar films. My Films can automatically sync your 'plays' and ratings to multiple user Trakt accounts

Components

Note: You must check all the components you wish even when upgrading, or the installer will remove them!

Desktop Shortcuts

The installer will create desktop shortcuts for quick access to MyFilms Setup and the Grabber Engine as well as in the

Windows Start Menu > Team MediaPortal > Plugins > MyFilms

(along with important Web Links)

Sample Movies DB

My Films provides a Sample Movies database (DB) you can use to try it out and get familiar with the features before creating a new AMC catalog. It is also recommended for testing and confirming issues. See the tutorial for details how to use it, especially to create a new Sample Movies DB for v 6.0.0.

Cleanup

You may use this option to automatically:

• delete obsolete folders (e.g for older installations of MyFilms)

• delete all cached thumbs/images in your

  ...\MediaPortal\Thumbs\MyFilms\ThumbsCache

  folder e.g. logos, movie covers, person images,  view images

• remove backups from 

  \MediaPortal\MyFilms\AMCUbackup

  folder

• remove web links from

  \MediaPortal\MyFilms\Weblinks

  folder (and thus install only the current links)

Add Ons

You may choose to install:

• MPLanguageTool.exe - a special version to facilitate easier translation for MyFilms - only needed if you are creating translations/strings files.
• Test versions of other plugin DLLs - for testing features which are not yet available in the public release of the plugins that integrate with My Films, such as Trakt, SubCentral, Online Videos, BrowseTheWeb.

Upgrades

When you upgrade to a new version of My Films, your customization and settings will normally be retained.

However, when support for new fields is added you need to create a new configuration in order to gain access to all the features of the new fields.  Creating a new configuration (and customizing your settings again) will automatically update AMCU settings for the new configuration.

Similarly, changes to Grabber Scripts may require that you update to the new Grabber script and customize it again to meet your needs. As of v 6.0.x you may upgrade grabbers in My Films Setup on the Import Setup tab.

Warning: See Upgrade 5.1 to 6.0 for important details on upgrading to 6.0.

Note:  As of v 5.0+ the plugin dll changed from MesFilms.dll to MyFilms.dll. Thus it will appear in a different location in the list of Plugins in MediaPortal Configuration > Plugins.  The installer will remove the previous dll to avoid conflicts.

If you wish a 'clean' install, then uninstall previous versions of My Films using MPEInstaller. 

Existing Catalogs

If you used previous versions of My Films, your previous configuration(s) should work with version 6.0, however you must create a new config to take advantage of all the new features. See Upgrade 5.1 to 6.0 for important details.

What's Next?

*Quick Setup!*  At the end of installation, MyFilms will open the Setup configuration tool. You may use the Setup Wizard to create a configuration for your existing catalog and start enjoying all the ways you can use My Films to view, search and update your films database catalog! 

Or, you can try out the Sample Movies DB to familiarize yourself with My Films features.

If you do not have a catalog, you can create a new catalog using the Setup Wizard and then import all your movies.

Once you are familiar with the basics, you may use the Setup Guides to customize My Films to meet your needs and implement more advanced features.. 

Related

Tutorials

• Organizing your files (Beginner)
• Sample Movies DB (Beginner)