Archive for the ‘Plugins’ Category

Plugins – Music Browser

Monday, November 24th, 2008

If you have a large collection of music (mine is over 40Gb) then you might find the standard Media Centre Music Library interface is not meeting your requirements. Issues arise especially if your MP3 tags are not correctly filled out, as this is what Media Centre uses to sort and categorise your music collection.

A common way to over come this is to store your music collection in folders by artist name or by genre. So you would end up with a file structure like:

A –> Anthrax
Ant Farm
Aphrodite

B –> Beastie Boys
Boogie Pimps

But Media Centre can not display your music collection by folders. Luckily there is a plug in that does: Music Browser. This little application enables you to browse through your music collection by folder. And the great thing is that it uses the album images the Media Centre download, so you can still see your favourite album cover.

The plugin is easy to install and it’s free! You can get it here.

If you have a large music collection this plugin is essential!!

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Plugins – Big Screen weather 2

Monday, November 17th, 2008

Once you have started using your ASENT media centre you start to do one of two things:

1) Wish there was some other useful information/tools available

2) Wonder what there is that will help you do point 1

The most common thing that people want with their ASENT media centre is a weather plugin – a way of checking the weather without leaving your couch. There are several on the market, but the best I have found is “Big Screen Weather 2”.

You can down load it here. Subscription cost $US 20 per year. What you get for that is access to the BOM (Bureau of Meteorology) information which is used in the plugin. This includes weather info, 7 days forecasts, weather maps, satellite imagery, tide forecasts plus other really useful stuff.

The user interface is super slick and integrates beautifully with your ASENT media centre. The remote controls the plugin seamlessly – everything is accessible and nothing needs to be manually configured (as with some other plugins). You can choose any location in Australia or the US and there is forecast data for many locations around the world – very handy if you travel a lot.

All in all an excellent (essential?) plugin. And it’s Australian made!

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