Videos

Layout

Clicking this button displays a dialog/list to select the layout you prefer for videos:

• List., Icons, Big Icons, Filmstrip & Cover flow

Sort by:

Click the up/down arrow to toggle between ascending or descending sort order.  Select the Sort by; button to choose the type of sort you require.

The options available to you are different depending on whether you are currently using Shares View or one of the Database Views.

Options when in Share View are as follows;

• Name, Name-Full, Date, Size, Watched, DVD#, Date Modified or Date Created (see Fig 3. below).

Options when in any of the Database Views are as follows;

• Name, Name-Full, Date, Size, Watched, Year and Rating.

See also: Sort Options

Switch Views

Select the button for a list of supported Views:

If you scroll down you will find additional views

Shares view is like a Windows explorer view of network shares, folders and files.  Genres, Actors, Title, Directors or Years  are Database Views  which require that the movie titles have been added to the database. The "Index" views are also Database Views. These provide a simple alphabetical search feature for you chosen view. For example if you select "Title index" the following screen appears

If you highlight a letter and press the "Enter" key ("OK" on your remote) you will be presented with a list of all the movies in your database beginning with that letter.

The final Database Views are Recently Added, Recently Watched, Watched and Unwatched.

Note: If you use IMDB lookup, via the context menu,  and the video (movie or TV series) is found, the file will be automatically added to the database. The movie or TV series will then appear in these views as well. This is true even if you lookup a movie while using Shares view.

See also: Views

Play DVD

Plays the DVD disk inserted in the DVD drive (based on Autoplay settings)

Current Playlist

Displays the current playlist and videos you have added - See Video Playlists

Playlists

Display a list of playlists you have saved in the playlist folder you select in Configuration > Videos.

Scan

Scans for new movies in your movie folders. MediaPortal will scan all folders marked to be scanned in your configuration (http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_MEDIAPORTAL_1/0_What's_New/1.3.x/1_UI_Related_Changes/Config_Related_Changes/Videos_Configuration for more information)

Video Settings

Takes you to the GUI-based Videos Settings .

Database View Context Menu

The "Title" View context menu contains the following items:

Scroll down and you will also find the following options.

Most of the items in the list should be fairly self explanatory however, let's briefly run through each option.

1. Play

Plays the selected movie.

2. IMDB

Displays the Movie Info page of the selected movie.

3. Create nfo file.

Creates an nfo file for the selected movie.

4. Create nfo files for all movies

Creates an nfo file for all of the movies in your Database.

5. Add to playlist.

Adds the selected movie to your current video playlist.

6.Set watched status.

This option toggles the watched status of the selected movie.

7. Rename.

Licking this option brings up the onscreen keyboard so that you can remain the movie.

8. Rename SortTitle.

Licking this option brings up the onscreen keyboard so that you can remain the movie's SortTitle. For information relating to the SortTitle feature please see the MediaPortal Configuration>Videos>Video Database page.

9. Delete this film.

Deletes the selected movie from your Database.

10. Search movie.

Gives you the ability to search for a specific movie in your Database. Clicking this option brings up the following menu.

Selecting any of the above options opens the on-screen keyboard so that you can type your search string.

11. Update Grabber Scripts.

From time to time there will be changes to the websites that are used to obtain movie information. When this happens the team will update the Grabber Script to ensure it is fully compatible with the new website structure. Clicking this option causes MediaPortal to check online for a newer version of your preferred script and if one exists it will be downloaded.

12. Update internal Grabber scripts.

The does the same as option 11 but checks specifically for a new version of the Grabber Script used internally for finding and downloading actor information from the Internet Movie Database (IMDB).

13. Set default Grabber script.

This option allows you to change default Grabber Script that you previously selected in the MediaPortal Configuration Tool or the MP GUI settings.

Note: If you have locked some of your folders using the pin code feature (please see http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_MEDIAPORTAL_1/141_Configuration/MediaPortal_Configuration/2_Videos/1_Video_Folders for instructions relating to this feature) the option to unlock these folders will also appear in the context menu. It will appear as option 11. All options after this will have there option number incremented by 1 e.g. Update Grabber Scripts will become option 12 etc.

The "Actor" and Director View(s) context menu contains the following items:

The only difference between the two  is the wording in option 3 (search). Clicking the search option opens the on-screen keyboard where you can enter your search string (actor/ director name).Clicking on the actors/ directors name will display a list of the movies in your database which they appear in/ directed. If the actor/ director only features in movies stored in your pin protected folders, you must "unlock content" before the information will appear.  

Note: The actor and director searches will return only the name with no information until they have been added to the actors/ directors database. Once there is an entry in the database the search will display the actors name along with a picture (if available) and a fanart image chosen from a random movie in your database with which the artist is associated. 

The context menu for the remaining database Views contains the following options:

Shares View Context Menu

The Share View context menu changes depending on whether you have selected a single movie folder/ file or your movies root folder.

The following shows the options available when you have selected your root folder.

Let's step through the options.

1. Play all videos in selected folder

Plays all videos in the selected folder. Depending on your settings in Configuration > Videos, your videos will either start to play immediately or you will be asked how you wish to sort video files before they play.

2. Add to playlist

Adds the selected item to the current playlist.

3. Scan.

Scans the selected folder for new videos based on your Scan settings in Configuration > Videos.

4. Scan using nfo files.

MediaPortal will search for nfo files in your folder and add new movies based on their content. Please see nfo file support for further information.

5. File menu.

This option opens the standard MediaPortal file menu options. If you have protected access to the File Menu you will be prompted to enter your PIN code before you can access the options.

Note. File Menu must be enabled in MediaPortal Configuration for this option to be available. Please see http://wiki.team-mediaportal.com/1_MEDIAPORTAL_1/141_Configuration/MediaPortal_Configuration/13_GUI/5_File_Menu_* for further information.

6. Unstack.

Toggles Unstack/ Stack feature.

7.Refresh Current Directory.

Refreshes the content displayed for the selected folder/ directory. 

Options 8, 9, and 10 are covered in section 4.1 above.

The following shows the context menu which is displayed if you highlight an individual movie file or DVD folder.

Locked content (PIN)

In database views now PIN locked content will not be visible anymore. To unlock content, use context menu command "Unlock content" and enter valid PIN. If more shares are protected with different PINs, only content with entered PIN from belonging share will be unlocked

Example:  If you have two shares SHARE1 and SHARE2 with PINs 1234 and 4321, if you enter PIN 1234 only content from SHARE1 will be unlocked). So, if you want to unlock all protected content with one PIN, use the same PIN for your shares.

Unlock will be valid as long you're in My Videos screens (or in fullscreen video).

To lock content again, use context menu command "Lock content" or exit My Videos.

Codecs

You must have the correct codec installed in Windows to play your videos.  In Windows 7 most codecs are automatically installed, however some files may require additional codecs and Windows XP or Vista require you to install codecs for most video playback formats.

You may select which codecs you prefer to use using Configuration > Codecs and Renderer > Video Codecs

See also Preparing Your System > Codecs, for detailed instructions on installing codecs in Windows to play all your video files.