It’s taken some time for those of us used to the regular updates, but the Media Browser team has reached a major milestone with version 2.3.0 today.
Since its inception, Media Browser has always updated your library each time you opened the program. While this provides you with an up to date library each time you go to watch something, it can be taxing on HTPCs that are either a bit slower or when Media Browser contains a huge collection. That has all changed with the latest version.
As of 2.3.0, Media Browser’s refresh now runs as a service. This means that it starts when you start your PC and that you can configure how often your library updates. After playing with the new version for a few minutes I can say that configuring and performing manual refreshes is easy and painless. There are a good number of options that allow you to control how they work. It appears as though the maximum automatic refresh rate is 24 hours but If you add a lot of content on a regular basis you can always perform that manual refresh as you can see I’m doing in the screenshot to the right.
Media Browser users have been clamoring for this type of service for a long time and once again the team has delivered. Other features include:
- Fixes for broken podcast handling (you can watch TED again)
- Many fixes to the default theme, by Sinjen (you can reach the Now Playing window – at last)
- Prep work for Custom Intros prior to movies playing
- Better Media Info Icons and fixes by (chip)
- Startup is significantly faster, no more artificial lag when playing hd content
- Enhanced multi-version plugins support (ebr)
If you’re a supporter of Media Browser, you’ll be notified in Media Center when you next start the application. So far things are good. The upgrade went through without issue and everything is running perfectly. Of course only time will tell if the changes will result in a performance upgrade. You can bet our family will be beating on this latest version of Media Browser. Stay tuned here for all the details!
