In the few hours I've had MiRow, I've the following thoughts and problems with the software.
Note that my setup is:
- Mid 2010 Mac mini, 2.4GHz, 4GB RAM, media stored on RAID attached via FW800
- HDMI attached to 42" LG LCD 1080p HDTV
Here's my thoughts:
- The interface additions work well, and blend in in a well thought out manner
- There should be the ability to either link "Movies" and "TV shows" to specified file sources rather than iTunes, or to remove them
- Parsing of TV sources is not good.
My setup for media folder structures is
- /mediaraid/movies/movie name/movie.mkv
- /mediaraid/tv/show name/season [number]/episode [number].mkv
MiRow was unable to parse the directories as they were, as such they were batch renamed to enable easier traversing of the previous folder structures, to:
- /mediaraid/tv/show name/seasonnumber/show name - episode number - episode title.mkv
It's not great for other software that parses the folder structure on this RAID.
...after a few hours of faffing around with file/folder names and structures, I finally got through the cataloguing of shows and movies, and to the interface.
Problems:
- Couch Surfer Pro's pointer, in conjunction with the Apple Remote, has all the urgency of a dead possum. It's barely usable, and incredibly infuriating.
- The aforementioned pointer doesn't disappear when a full screen flash video is playing - instead refusing to move across the screen quicker than a retired snail on a Sunday.
- My brand new 2010 Mac mini, with more than adequate specs, won't play 1080p MKV without dropping frames all over the place.
- It also won't play standard, ripped from my DVD collection, h264 files without some hesitation.
There's nothing wrong with this mini. VLC plays everything fine.