Overview

How to upgrade from My Films 5.1 to 6.0

Introduction

Although My Films will upgrade your current My Films 5.1 install to 6.0 for you, back up your catalog or database first, especially if your database is stored in the MediaPortal user data folder (e.g.

C:\ProgramData\Team MediaPortal\MediaPortal\thumbs\MyFilms\Catalog

)

It is also highly recommended to move your existing data to the new folder structure and modify your existing configs, or better still, create new ones using the Setup Wizard.

Cover Images 

When using the Setup Wizard, as of v 6.0.0 the prefix for cover images has changed from '[configname]_' to 'pictures\'. Thus cover images for new configs will be saved to a 'pictures' sub folder of the folder where you catalog is stored.

The advantage of this change is that if you have multiple configs based on the same catalog, you no longer get duplicate covers, and your catalog folder is 'cleaner' as covers are stored in a sub folder.

Warning - if you create a new config using Setup Wizard, your cover images may not display if you previously used the config name prefix. To solve this you can either:

1. Change the prefix in Artwork Setup back to the same as you used in 5.1
2. Move your covers to a \pictures sub folder of your catalog folder and remove the prefix from the file name
3. Update Movies using AMCU selecting only the Picture field on the Database fields tab - if you are rescanning/updating your database to upgrade to AMC4, this can be done at the same time - see Upgrade to AMC4 - then you can remove the previous cover images using Windows Explorer.

Folder Structure

The folder structure for My Films has changed  as of v 6.0.0!

Note: During Installation you will notice a new option to 'Clean up" My Films. This option will create the new folders.

However, it WILL NOT move, remove or alter your existing data or folders.

All 'non-image' data has been moved from the MediaPortal thumbs folder to a new folder: MediaPortal\Programdata\MyFilms  since only thumbs should be stored in the thumbs folder. Thus:

• \Thumbs\MyFilms\AMCUbackup > \MyFilms\AMCUbackup
• \Thumbs\MyFilms\AMCUinstaller > \MyFilms\AMCUinstaller
• \Thumbs\MyFilms\Catalog > \MyFilms\Catalog
• \Thumbs\MyFilms\SampleMovies > \MyFilms\SampleMovies
• \Thumbs\MyFilms\WebLinks > \MyFilms\WebLinks 

In addition, due to the new support for 'Groups' (Box Sets, etc.) several folders have been renamed to avoid confusion between Views and Groups:

• GroupViewImages > ViewImages
• Fanart
  _Group > Fanart
  _View (although Fanart
  _Group remains for Group Hierarchy fanart images)
• Thumbs\MyFilms_Groups > Thumbs\MyFilms_Views (although Thumbs\MyFilms_Groups remains for custom Group Hierarchy images)
• Thumbs\MyFilms\Thumbs > thumbs\MyFilms\Cache

Configs

Although your 5.1 configs should still work in 6.0 and new features (like the new Views) will automatically be updated, creating a new config using the Setup Wizard is recommended to ensure all the new features are enabled for you.

Multi User States

As of v 6.0.0 'Enhanced Watch Status' has changed to 'Multi-User States' and is enabled automatically for AMC4 catalog types.

My Films will automatically keep track of user ratings, watched status, date watched (last seen), watched count  for each user.

When you first open an AMC4  catalog type in My Films, and watch a film, or update watch status or any data, My Films will automatically create Multi User States data for a 'Default' user, or convert data from Enhanced Watch Status if you used it previously.

Multi-User States are not supported for AMC3 catalog types, however data will be 'migrated' from AMC3 catalogs previously using Enhanced Watch Status when switching to AMC4 catalog type..

Warning - if you previously used a Watched field other than the 'Checked' field and wish to updgrade to AMC4:

1. Change your existing catalog type in Setup
2. Open your catalog within MyFilms GUI in MediaPortal to migrate/convert the data to the new Multi-User States format
3. Then you may create a new AMC4 config if you wish to automatically enable all the new features.

See Multiple Users for information on Multi-user states in v 6.0.0 or later.

What's Next

If you use Ant Movie Catalog, be sure to check out Upgrade to AMC4

Related

• Version 6.0