Introducing Theater@Home...

[iolaus]

Hey all,

After some great feedback here I decided to release and open source my video database application.

The installer and source code are now available here.

Thanks to everyone for the encouragement!

As of right now, I'm sure there are some bugs, kinks, and incomplete features left in the application but I've been using it myself (with movies) for a few weeks now without any major issues.

If you have questions, bug reports, suggestions, etc please let me know.

Thanks and enjoy,
Ryan

 

[iolaus]

Hey all,

Just wanted to let you know I uploaded a new version of the .msi with a small change that now dumps an error if the database connection fails. This may help some people having a difficult time getting the application to run.

Please let me know if you get the application working or if you have any questions. I'd love to hear from you.

-Ryan

 

[Squintz]

What is this program for? Can you give us details?

 

[iolaus]

Squintz,

The program is basically a video database and front-end. I'm hoping to eventually incorporate some home automation but I have yet to start on that. I'm hoping some people might be interested in helping with the development.

If you check out the screenshots available on the SourceForge page you should get a good idea of how the application is used.

Basically, it provides a easy way to add all your video files to a database along with relevant movie data (retrieved from IMDB), format data, audio data, etc. It then lets you browse your movies, edit them, and play them. The database is stored in one place and can be used by multiple installations of the front-end. The unique feature for playback is that the application installs a windows service that runs in the background. When you tell the front-end to play a video, it sends a message to the windows service which then mounts (if necessary) and plays the file using a third-party player of your choosing. This allows you to have the front-end on one computer control the windows service on another. In other words, you can browse movies on one computer (or maybe a laptop, UMPC, etc) and make it play the file on another computer (like your HTPC).

 

[iolaus]

Just wanted to let everyone know version 0.0.2 of Theater@Home has been released.

Changes include:

* Branded application with Theater@Home name to eliminate confusion.

* Additions and deletions from video collection are now immediately visualized.

* Rolled readme and table setup files into .msi.

* Added database creation query to table setup file.


The new version can be found here.

Enjoy!

 

[iolaus]

0.0.3 is now available. Changes include:

* Television Shows, Trailers, and Video Clips should now work.

* Refresh button to reload view.

* "Watch Trailer" menu option on movies with trailer.

New version can be downloaded here.

Enjoy!

 

[iolaus]

Hey everyone,

I'm still alive and I spent the last couple weeks pounding out a lot of changes to my Theater@Home application! Changes include:

• New installer handles table creation and populating config files
• Improved Performance
• Improved GUI
• Keyboard navigation of videos (Arrow Keys and PgUp/PgDown)
• Keyboard navigation between elements with Tab
• Double-Click on IMDb search result to select
• IMDb Link button on video detail panel
• Progress bar for loading and filtering
• Ability to combine Advanced Search and Quick Search criteria
• "Have Seen" Advanced Search criteria

Screenshots can be found here.

You can download the new version (as always) from the SourceForge project page.

If you are upgrading from a previous version, please pay special attention to the instructions as you will need to execute a small SQL upgrade script to prepare your database for the new software.

Questions and comments are always welcome and if you do use the software, please drop me a line and let me know

Enjoy,
Ryan