Today we just released another beta of Media Browser 2.0.8.0 (Beta 8). You can download the new release here. Beta 8 works with both Vista and Win7 and includes a bunch of new features and refinements built on previous versions. You can read detailed Beta 8 release notes that cover changes/additions here. In this blog post I'm going to cover one of the biggest areas of focus with this release: the user interface.
Let's look at the changes - the view menu.
Users now have the option to select from 2 additional views: Cover Flow and Thumb Strip. In addition to these new views there are a number of tweaks/adjustments to the already established ones.
Cover Flow View
I am a big fan of minimalism and this has to be one of my favourite views currently in Media Browser. It is outstanding for presentation of your movies especially when combined with automatic poster-art retrieval.
Thumb Strip View
We didn't ignore the TV side of Media Browser; in fact I think the TV side got a lot more love from the dev team this time around. Thumb strip view is the return of the original thumb strip on steroids, it provides details and background art perfect for TV series.
With all these views available, we have added a shortcut by pressing the '*' [star] key on your remote you can switch between the different views.
Actor Images
Beta 8 now allows you to display images of your favourite actors. By dropping a folder & folder.jpg with the name of the actor in the ImagesByName directory Media Browser will pick that up and display it onscreen.
So an example using Steve Carell would be.
C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\ImagesByName\Steve Carell\folder.jpg
And the end result:
Backdrops
In previous version we experimented with adding the backdrop to every view. This was problematic as not all views are equal. The backdrop has been removed from the detail view due to overwhelming user response. The detail mode now really shines combining a large thumbnail and description area to maximum effect. The Detail view joins the Poster and Cover Flow views which do not display backdrop images.
I hope this post provides a good overview of Beta 8, there is so much that I haven’t even talked about. If you are thinking about making the switching to Media Browser (and I highly encourage you do) we have a quick start guide available here. You can also find more information on our forums.
Jas