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Overview

What's new in version 6.0 with links to the related/changed Wiki pages.

Introduction

This page describes the major changes for My Films 6.0. You may also view development changes in the My Films Issue Tracker on Google Code.

Links have been provided to the new or updated Wiki pages that describe the new features/major changes.

Be sure to check the sub pages for details on upgrading procedures and considerations:

Version 6.0
- Upgrade 5.1 to 6.0

Warning: see Upgrade 5.1 to 6.0 for important details before installing v 6.0.0

Wiki

As of v 6.0.0 the My Films Wiki has been restructured to match My Films features. The new features for v 6.0.0 listed in the Features section below generally match sections in the My Films wiki.

You will also find many new pages and tutorials for different configurations, setups and use cases such as:

Organizing your files
Supported Catalogs (expanded from previous External Catalogs page to include AMC 4.1 as well)
Supported Media Types - the features to use for different media files
Network Setup
Multiple DBs or Configs
Multiple Users

Throughout the My Films wiki you will find new features/changes marked with 'As of v 6.0.0'

Trial - Sample Movies DB

If you wish to try out the new features before upgrading your database (or adding a new one), be sure to 'check' the Sample Movies option during installation. The Sample Movies DB has been updated to demonstrate many of the new features for you so you can decide how you wish to implement them in your main catalog/database.

As of v 6.0.0 Sample Movies uses the AMC 4.1 catalog type with IMDB-Full grabber script to populate all fields possible so you may test (or skin) the new features.

Note: To see all the new features, you must create a new config for Sample Movies using the Setup Wizard in 6.0, and select the new Sample Movies folder:

\MediaPortal\MyFilms\SampleMovies

data folder (not

MediaPortal\thumbs\MyFilms\SampleMovies

).

Features

My Films v.6.0 supports both MediaPortal 1.2.x and 1.3.0. The installer will auto detect your version and install the compatible Default skin files and logos for you.

Default/wide skins have been improved and updated to match the new style for MP 1.3.0 - thanks to ysmp!!!

Eight different languages are supported. A new customized version of MP Language tool makes it easier to provide more, or add for your own language.

Supported Catalogs

Create a new catalog! - you no longer need to use an existing catalog with My Films. You can create a new catalog using the Setup Wizard.
Support has been added for Ant Movie Catalog (AMC) v 4.1, Ember Media Manager NFO including nfo files.

See the new Wiki page on Supported Catalogs, for details.

AMC 4.1 Extended fields

With AMC 4.1 support, data in "extended fields" is kept, even if you update data and save your catalog in AMC - giving you a lot more flexibility in the use of your catalog.

You no longer need to use existing AMC fields for other data, e.g. borrower field for trailers, as extended fields are supported for trailers, watched status, Writer, Tagline, Certification, Studio, Edition, AudioChannelCount and many more.

Extended fields are supported for:

scanning/importing films using AMC Updater or within My FIlms
Batch Update Movies in AMC Updater
the new Single Update Movie feature in AMCU View Movies tab
View Movies display in AMCU
Updating data in My Films GUI (using Get Internet Info)
Global Updates > Incomplete movies feature in My Films GUI

See Supported Catalogs > Ant Movie Catalog for further details, and Upgrade to AMC 4.1 to learn how to populate the new fields in your existing catalog.

Supported Media Types

Blu-ray disks - supported 'out of the box' for MediaPortal 1.3.0
External Players – supports auto-selection and a manual context dialog to manually use it (e.g. for external 3D player)
New features for 'offline' media including DVDs/Blu-ray

See Supported Media Types for details

Startup Options

New Startup options include many more preset views,as well as unlimited custom views you create using the new Custom Views Manager

Views Menu (see below) can be selected as a start view
Different layout and sort options can be selected for the view selected as start view, as well as for movie lists and group hierarchies (box sets, collections etc.)
Show only available movies
Show empty values in views
Reverse persons names (in persons views)

See Start Settingst for details

Skin version control

My Films now supports version control for skins. If you are using a skin is used that is not compatible with the current version of My Films you will receive a warning message - but only the first time you open My Films after loading MediaPortal. See: Skin Compatibility

Setup Options

Many setup options have been added within My Films to allow you to control and change setup options without needing to use the Setup tool. As a result, nested menus have been introduced to help keep the GUI clean while still allowing you to access all possible options via a "Show All" or "more..." option.

In My Films Setup a new Filter Editor helps you create Regex expressions for Filters, either for a config or a view.

Network Support

Central Config Sync

My Films config can now be synced automatically from a central location, making it easier to use the same config on multiple clients.

The MyFilms.xml local config file will still be a local config file, but can be updated from a central network location on startup. Thus management and settings can be made from one workstation for all your HTPC clients.

See Central Config for details.

Multi-User Support

Enhanced Watch Status has changed to 'Multi User States' in v 6.0.0. Support has been expanded from watched and global counts to include:

date watched/last seen
user ratings
favorite films

for each user. See Multiple Users for details.

Browsing and displaying your films

Sort, search or view or even update your database within My Films by any field! You no longer need to define or customize sort search, view, or update fields/properties in Setup.

Sort methods have changed to "alphanumeric sorting" in many cases to ensure you get e.g. bitrates in the proper order, although they display as "text".

The total count (itemcount) of your movies now correctly includes the films within a group. In addition, the number of movies in a group (collection, box-set) is displayed for the main group entry.

Views Menu and Custom Views

One of the major enhancements in v 6.0.0 is the new Views menu, which can be selected as your default start view. The Views Menu comes with several views preset for you to demonstrate most of the new views features, including new views for viewing movies by Title Index, Recently Added, all Persons and more.

However you may view your films by any field via the ***Show All*** option on the Views menu or Change View dialog.

You may also customize the preset views, or add your own views using the Views tab in Setup, or Views options within My Films:

add, disable or remove as many views as you like (no longer limited to 5 views) with any possible view definition
reorder views
select view images or even add and display your own custom images
preset or customize different sort and layout options for each view, independent of the films list start settings
filter views using even complex filter expressions using the new Filters Editor (see Filters Setup)
set the default view in GUI global options

You may also use the context menu options on either the Views Menu to perform all the above functions, or even change options 'on the fly' and decide to save either a new view, or overwrite the current view settings.

See[ Views tab|Views Tab] for details on using the new Custom View Editor in Setup, or Views for details on customizing views within My Films.

Views Options

My Films v 6.0.0 offers almost endless ways to view your movie database:

index views alphabetically by one or two characters
display "empty fields"
for multiple value fields, you may either *split/separate field value*s or display the full contents of the field
"reverse person names" in persons views
sort views by 'type': Name - (field value) or Count - e.g. the actor you have most in your collection or the video format most often used.

See Views for details on using the new View Options.

Actors/Persons Views

In addition to the above View options, Actors and Persons views have been significantly enhanced in v 6.0.0:

a "Persons" field is generated automatically (internally at runtime) to display all persons such as Actors, Directors, Writers, Producers which allows you to display a view that includes ALL persons
There are several ways to access Person views as of v 6.0.0:
- Select a preset view (e.g. Actors or Producers) or Custom view from the Views Menu, or View by Menu option
- Search all persons by role via the Search Menu option (see Searching for details)
- Select 'Info for related person(s)' from the Main screen context menu to display actors and other persons in the selected film
"Enable Downloads" for Persons Views in Artwork Setup to automatically download persons images when you go to the Details Screen, or download and update persons info (including missing person images) when you select the 'Info for related person(s)' from the Main context menu. My Films checks both TMDB and IMDB for info and prefers TMDB, if possible.
Note: If 'Enable Downloads' is not selected, you can manually download person images from the Details Screen context menu > Updates options.

See Actors - Persons Views for more details.

Film Lists

Custom Display Items

You can now select custom display items separately for main and details screen. Thus when you select the display items for the Main screen you won't get unwanted results for the Details screen.

You can alter the custom display items any time within My Films using the context menu 'Display Options' item for either the Main or Details screen. You no longer need to use Setup to change them.

The number of custom display items for the Details screen has been increased to six, so you can customize all the main items in the Overview virtual view (skin dependent).

Display View or Person images, 'Group' images and Movie covers at the same time

When viewing films via a View, or within a group, My FIlms displays the current view or person image and the group image as well as the movie cover:

Big Icon List Layout

The Big Icon list layout is a new "extended (two-line) list layout" to allow you to choose between a simple list layout and a layout with more details: "Watched Icons" and "Edition" on a second line (depending on skin support).

Details screen

Actor images, names and roles

The Details screen now supports the display of up to six actors names, roles and images (skin dependent) when displaying the Actors virtual view.

If you select the 'Enable Downloads' option in Setup > Artwork for person's images, the automatic downloader will 'grab' the necessary images in the background whenever you open the Details window. Or you may select the new 'Download Persons images' option from the Details screen context menu > Updates.

Ratings and Favorites

From the Details Screen context menu you can now add your own user ratings. My Films keeps track of user ratings separately for each user. When you rate a film with a user rating > 7 it is automatically added to 'Favorites' for the current user. You can view your, or any user's, favorite films by selecting 'Favorites' from the ***Show All*** list of fields on the Views Menu or View by: menu option.

See Ratings and Favorites for details.

Cover Manager

Accessible from the context menu (F9 or Info/More button), you can use this feature to download additional covers and select the cover you prefer, including the quality (resolution) from TMDB or your preferred site.

The main advantage is to have visual control about the movie cover that displays, but info about size and format are also provided.

See Cover Manager for further details.

Box Sets, Groups

Scanning and importing data using AMC Updater now supports automatic creation of groups via configurable keywords (e.g. "Collection" in the root directory), the import can properly assign group names for Box-Sets. Nested groups are also supported.

A preset view for Box-Sets/Groups is added as default view allows you to quickly select your "Collections" without having huge lists with single movies.

You may also add movies to existing or new groups, or remove them from a group, within My FIlms via the Main screen context menu.

See Box Sets, Groups for more details.

Editions

In addition to the existing option to add Edition names to the title, the new extended Edition field (extended field) can be automatically entered from file names during import.

Edition names can be displayed in lists using the Big Icon List layout.

See Editions for further information

Updates

Updating your films using "Get internet Info" within My Films allows AMC 4.1 extended fields to be updated. Plus you can now update by any field, you no longer need to select Update properties in Setup.

In addition to the automatic update options (all, only missing, only non-empty) a new multi-select dialog has been added to select multiple fields to update at once! The new multi-select dialog also provides better display of the existing and new data in GUI.

Single movie updates can now also be done in AMCU View Movies tab (see below under AMC Updater)

Deletion options

Manual deletion option was added and can be switched on or off via setup. Automatic deletion options are still possible.

Grabber Scripts/Engine

My Films v 6.0 now offers 38 different grabbers! Thanks to the many users who created new grabbers using My Films built-in Grabber Interface.

In addition to the support for extended fields, v 6.0 offers even more new features for creating and customizing grabbers:

New properties to display only the grabbers that match your language or for the current function
enhanced RegEx support
multi image downloads - if the website and grabber script support it, the grabber can now download multiple cover images e.g. TMDB)

Online Updates for Grabber Scripts

Online Updates for Grabber Scripts was added in Setup. It is accessible on the Import tab and allows downloading missing or updated grabber scripts via internet. Thus, updates of scripts are possible between My Films public releases.

AMC Updater

Importing

In addition to the expanded support for extended fields, AMC Updater offers several new features:

When importing and matching films via AMC Updater the search results matching window displays:
- mini thumbs (enlarged on mouse-over)
- AKAs (list in mouse-over)
Suffix for cover image name - to avoid duplicates for movies by adding %year% or %number% placeholders
NFO support - import movies with local NFO files and artwork or backup your movie database details to NFO files using the NFO creation on update tab
Fanart limits when importing fanart
offline media (e.g. DVD/BRD)
- grabs runtime if not available from media info
- calculates aspect and file sizes
- option to use internet data or media info for languages
- Support for Blu-ray disk (BRD) folders
- option to automatically add DVD/BRD label to Media Label field
New option to purge orphan records if source is not available (by default AMCU no longer does this) see AMCU > Import Movies Tab

Updating

new 'Update Movie' (single movie) option on View Movies Tab
backup your movie database details to NFO files using the NFO creation on Update Movies Tab

Latest Media Handler Support

My Films v 6.0.0 supports the Latest Media Handler plugin, so you can display films recently added to My Films on Basic Home screens in skins that support it or on the new Views menu (see Views) - See Recently Added for details.

Trakt Support

MyFilms 6.0.0 supports the latest Trakt features:

"Show Lists", "Add to List" and “Related Movies” are added to Trakt options in the Details screen context menu
Trakt pop-up rating dialog (using the advanced 10 heart rating) syncs to the new extended User rating field
Trakt Categories - recommendations, watch list and user lists are synched to the new Trakt Categories extended field. Thus you can display a View by Trakt Categories that shows the movies in your database that belong to those categories
Multi-user watched status and ratings - sync to separate profiles for each family member on the same HTPC (requires Trakt 2.1 or later).

Start My Films (Hyperlink) Parameters

My Films now provides a dialog to create start or hyperlink parameters more easily to add links in skin Basic Home Editors, or modify skin files.

See Hyperlink Parameters for details.

Tutorials

Upgrade 5.1 to 6.0 (Intermediate)

Seitenhierarchie

Version 6.0