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Revision as of 17:05, 16 July 2011
Contents
- 1 Media Center Master reference guide
- 2 Installation Notes - read, before installing
- 3 Preliminary Installation Guides
- 4 Installing Media Center Master
- 5 Set-up and Configuring Media Center Master for First Run
- 6 First Run of Media Center Master
- 7 Using Media Center Master
- 8 Technical Guides to Features
- 9 Complete Uninstall of Media Center Master
- 10 Interfacing with Media Center Programs
- 11 Other Stuff
Media Center Master reference guide
This is a work in progress, please be patient.
Installation Notes - read, before installing
Preliminary Installation Guides
- How to set up a Folder Structure for Media Center Master
- How to set up a Folder Structure for uTorrent
- How to Install uTorrent
- How to Customize uTorrent for Media Center Master
- How to Enable and set-up the Web User Interface of uTorrent
- How to check your system to see if the Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5 with SP1 update is required
Installing Media Center Master
Set-up and Configuring Media Center Master for First Run
- Configuring the General Tab Settings, first time
- Configuring the Downloader Tab Settings
- Configuring the Download Parser Tab Settings
- Configuring the uTorrent Tab Settings
- How to Get Media Center Master to Open After a Boot-up
- How to Set Scan Folder
- How to Add a New TV Series
- Configuring the General Tab Settings, second time
- Fetch Meta-Data
Installation Notes - read, before installing
The key to Installing Media Center Master with no problems, the first time, is preparation and learning some basic knowledge of what it does and how it works.
The first concern is an installation of Media Center Master comes with a 10 day free trial of a Premium License.
- For new users this is a bonus.
- There are, however, some users who wish to download an installation just to install/reinstall, or update to a newer version only for use of the free features.
- Whether Media Center Master is being used with a premium, or free license, there are specific user settings that apply to each one separately.
All of the guides for preparing, installing, configuration, and set-up are written for the Premium License Version.
Media Center Master is a front-end interface that automates the organizing of a media collection with the use of a BitTorrent Client, “uTorrent” for downloading TV Series Episodes and/or Movies in the background. For Media Center Master and uTorrent to work properly together there are a few important issues to prepare for and understand before installing Media Center Master.
For users who have a current instance of uTorrent installed with custom user settings for manual downloads and intends to use these guides with an existing uTorrent Program, they will not find any trouble shooting information for problems in these guides, should they occur. The instance of uTorrent for Media Center Master is for automation, it is therefore suggested that the user uninstall uTorrent remembering to check the tick box to also remove the user settings during the uninstall process, and then reinstall uTorrent using these Guides.
This is not to say uTorrent can not also be used for manual downloads of TV Series/Movies and other items. It is only a suggestion that automation processing should come as a priority over manual downloading. If a user still intends to use this instance of uTorrent for manual downloads of TV Series/Movies, other items, and wishes to make changes to the settings of uTorrent, the user should do so after Media Center Master is installed, set-up, configured, and running smoothly with the use of these guides.
For users who have installed Media Center Master previously, and are having problems. It is suggested to do a Complete Uninstall of Media Center Master, also deleting the registry entries and the hidden user files, then reinstall with these guides.
The second concern is Media Center Master and uTorrent, both, require separate dedicated Folder Structure for file storage to operate correctly.
- Setting up and understanding the basic principles of the two (2) Folder Structures ahead of time will make the installations, and set-ups of Media Center Master and uTorrent go a lot smoother.
- This information will also assist a user in preparing an existing media collection to be added in later.
The third concern is Media Center Master uses uTorrent’s Web User Interface (WebUI) to integrate these two programs together.
- The WebUI is what allows Media Center Master to hand off a .torrent file it has fetched from an online source to uTorrent for proper downloading of the desired TV Series Episodes/Movies.
- It is also used by Media Center Master for monitoring the progress of downloads to inform Media Center Master a download has completed and is ready for parsing.
The fourth concern is Media Center Master requires the Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5 with SP1 update.
- If this is already installed on your system, there is no additional set-up for this program. It works internally with the Media Center Master program.
- If it is not installed, download links and some guidance with the installation will be provided.
For most users the downloading and installing of Media Center Master is a straightforward task. Although, Media Center Master installs with a set of default options, there are several options left for the user to change, and add depending on the set-up used.
The fifth, and final, concern is Media Center Master is designed to work with:
- A variety of Media Center Applications/Application Add-ins
- Media Browser
- My Movies
- Windows Media Center
- XBMC
- A variety of computer and/or network Set-ups
- Single computer with/without external hard drive/s
- Multiple networked computers with/without external hard drive/s
- Single or multiple networked computers with Network Attached Storage (NAT) Drives
- Networks with server
- A variety of Home Theater Products
- Netgear
- Popcorn Hour
- Networked Media Tank
- OR, any combination of the above
Because of Media Center Master's flexibility to work with so many, configurations, outside applications and products,
- the key element to a successful first time run is
- a specific configuration set-up on one computer
Only after a successful first run is it suggested to start making small changes to include additional features, applications, network configurations, or outside products, one by one, followed by test runs.
In order to further reduce the problems associated with an installation and set-up of Media Center Master, the information found here will not include instructions on how to set-up Media Center Master for downloading Movies. Nor will there be any information about preparing and/or adding an existing media collection to Media Center Master. There will be no information given for interfacing a media collection with any Media Center Programs, such as: Windows Media Center, MediaPortal, MediaBrowser, Popcorn Hour, or XBMC. These items/issues can be added in and set-up later through other parts of this Wiki.
These guides were written with the intent; the user has an interest in creating a media collection from scratch (has no TV Series/Movies), and has some knowledge and experience with BitTorrents. The Main focus of these guides will be to prepare for a fresh, new, installation of, both, Media Center Master, and uTorrent, for a new media collection to be used for keeping TV Series up to date with current episodes on a single computer.
The Guides that follow these notes are:
- 1. Preliminary Installation Guides.
- How to set up a Folder Structure for Media Center Master,
- How to set up a Folder Structure for uTorrent,
- How to Install uTorrent,
- How to Customize uTorrent for Media Center Master,
- How to Enable and set-up the Web User Interface of uTorrent, also
- How to check your system to see if the Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5 with SP1 update is required.
- 2. Installing Media Center Master.
- 3. Set-up and Configuring Media Center Master for First Run.
- 4. First Run of Media Center Master.
After preparing, a user can install, set-up, configure, and have Media Center Master running to automatically:
- fetch episodes of a TV Series from one of several on-line sources at user defined intervals,
- hand the episode torrents off to uTorrent for downloading,
- monitor the download process at user defined intervals,
- parse/rename completed downloads at user defined intervals,
- move renamed download from uTorrent to archive in
- correct season folder, also
- fetch, download, and archive
- associated meta-data, posters, and fanart for
- the episodes,
- the season, and
- the TV Series.
Preliminary Installation Guides
How to set up a Folder Structure for Media Center Master
How to set up a Folder Structure for uTorrent
How to Customize uTorrent for Media Center Master
How to Enable and set-up the Web User Interface of uTorrent
How to check your system to see if the Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5 with SP1 update is required
Installing Media Center Master
Installation Notes - read before installing.
The installer for Media Center Master can be obtained through the Downloads Section of this site. The most current version will be listed as the third listing under the Topics Heading.
Click the Version listed to be redirected to the Downloading page.
Click on the installer you wish to download, and save it to a location on your computer.
After it has completed downloading, navigate to the downloaded file, and click on the setup.exe file to begin installing Media Center Master.
If this is a first time install or if you are reinstalling because of problems with a previous install, do not change any of the default options during this install. Please remember The Preliminary Installation Guides have been written to simplify and reduce problems with the complete install and setup of Media Center Master as one process.
After it has completed, make sure the check box for "Start Media Center Master" is checked, and then click the "Finish" Button to start Media Center Master.
During the first run of Media Center Master, the program will "Auto-Update" several files.
After the "Auto-Update" finishes, Media Center Master will open along the first run "Broadcast Announcement."
When your done reading the announcement, close it out then continue with next guide, "Set-up and Configuring for First Run."
Set-up and Configuring Media Center Master for First Run
Installation Notes - read before installing.
The changes shown in this guide will optimize Media Center Master for a quick first time run, and complete the integrating of Media Center Master with utorrent.
The first changes to the time frames for automation will prevent Media Center Master from running automated processes during the configuration set-up. Later in the guide, a second change to the time frames will start the first run with a minimum processing of data. Not enabling "Allow torrents with archived files," removes any possible issues related to archived files. Not selecting a video standard, and enabling the remaining "Allow torrents with ..."; allows Media Center Master to fetch any .torrent file for a TV episode that otherwise would be missed. Only adding one (1) TV Series to the collection, and back dating the calender for one (1) month; incorporates the consideration of holidays, and/or other minor breaks in a TV Series Season for downloading just a few recent TV Series Episodes, verses several.
The settings used for integration are for a single computer set-up (Media Center Master and uTorrent installed on same computer)
Customized "User Settings" should be made after a successful first run. Take time and double check the steps which have multiple changes before continuing to the next step.
Configuring the General Tab Settings, first time
Configuring the Downloader Tab Settings
Configuring the Download Parser Tab Settings
Configuring the uTorrent Tab Settings
How to Get Media Center Master to Open After a Boot-up
Configuring the General Tab Settings, second time
First Run of Media Center Master
Using Media Center Master
This is a work in progress, please be patient.
Technical Guides to Features
The following are a work in progress, please be patient.
Complete Uninstall of Media Center Master
This is a work in progress, please be patient.
Media Center Master Uninstall Program
Interfacing with Media Center Programs
This is a work in progress, please be patient.
Other Stuff
This is a work in progress, please be patient.
Consult the User's Guide for information on using the wiki software.