Start using Media Browser in minutes with this Quickstart Guide!

Note:
If you are setting up Media Browser for the first time just to try it out on a small collection, please make sure you have at least 3 movie folders or a tv series with at least 3 episodes in a season folder.

Or be sure you uncheck “Treat Multiple Files as a Single Movie” or “Auto Enter Single Folder Items” in the configuration menu.

If you do not do this no media will be shown in Media Browser.

1. Verify the System Requirements
2. Download the Media Brower Setup
3. Launch the setup programs and install Media Browser by following the onscreen instructions
4. Start the Media Browser Configuration Wizard (Configurator for short) from the start menu (start > All Programs > Media Browser > Media Browser Configuration Wizard)
5. Select “yes” on the Permissions Check window to automatically set correct permissions for Media Center Extenders. This can take a minute.
6. In the Configurator, add a Media Collection. On the Media Collection tab, Click the “Add” button and browse to your folder containing your movies. (For Example: D:\Movies)
7. Exit the Configurator and Launch Windows Media Center (Start > All Programs > Windows Media Center)
8. Navigate to the “Media Browser” start menu strip in Windows Media Center and launch Media Browser
9. Configure the “assume watched if older than” setting in the first-run dialog window according to your needs and leave the other settings as they are (Allow Internet Based Providers enabled, Automatic updates enabled). Press “Continue” and follow the onscreen instruction.
10. After restarting Media Browser, on the initial screen (called “Enhanced Home Screen”) you will see your Media Collection “Movies”. You can enter this collection with your mouse, keyboard or remote. Metadata like movie descriptions and artwork for this collection will now be automatically downloaded. This can take a minute depending on the number of movies in it.
11. Enjoy Media Browser!

Important Notes:

• Media Browser does not actually playback your media. Playback is done by Windows Media Center. You will need proper codecs for the media to play.
• If Windows Media Center cannot playback the media, then it will not playback in Media Browser either.
• A good starting point for codecs are the third party Shark007 Codec Packages

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Known issues

There are some known issues in the current release:

• The permissions check fails on localized Windows versions (e.g. German, Dutch). This is fixed in the next release. Just Select “no” to continue to the Configurator Program.

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Troubleshooting

If you have problems with metadata retrieval by Media Browser, have a look at these knowledgebase topics:

• What is the recommended folder structure for media collection...

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Further Usage and Customization

Media Browser offers a lot of customization. This includes:

• Personalized views, sort orders and grouping
• Different Plugins and Themes to add functionality or change look & feel
• Custom Media Collection, Genre, People, Studio and Year images

Also have a look at these useful topics:

• How do I access the configuration menu?
• What is the ImagesByName folder and how does it work?

A good starting point is our Knowledgebase. There you can find topics about various aspects of Media Browser. It will help you on your way and answer most of you questions.

Media Browser Knowledgebase

There’s also a Media Browser Forum on which you can find lots of additional information and ask questions.

We hope you will enjoy Media Browser!