multiMAN - multifunctional tool for your PS3 (Game manager/File manager/FTP/AVCHD/BDMV)

[heapy83]

Hi Dean - Thanks for the help on my AVCHD question the other day.

I've been getting all OCD over adding DVD box art to all my films (non AVCHD), now I have a visual reference as well as the title. They look great in the xMMb mode, but I was wondering if there was any way of making the images bigger so they can be easily visible, cuz at 300x260 they are a little small (my images are 600x520). Even better would be if the 'Coverflow' display could also be switched so it could display films, that would be awesome!

Keep up the good work Dean, you're the best!

[Asure]

Dean, great work, i've used your MM for some time now. Now on a new ps3/fresh install+bdemu2, MM sometimes disconnects the FTP server when i transfer files.. anybody know what's up with that?
(i know the answer may be buried in the 1500+ pages from this thread, but search didn't show it for me..)

[deank]

I'd suggest that you use dedicated FTP server like blackbox or openftp. There are a number of issues with multiMAN's FTP.

[kgb]

I can help to translate to portuguese and portuguese_br if needed (i guess i could help in spanish as well, my spanish level is about 85% - Intermediate/Advanced), just pm me

regards

[dlanor]

@Dean:
I have just tested the latest multiMAN update (released earlier today), and have noticed an odd bug still remaining, which I first noticed a few updates ago.

This bug caused my Music column in XMMB to become completely empty, even though I knew that I had an album of 13 MP3 files visible in Sony XMB, and which previously also had been visible in XMMB of most older multiMAN versions.

Note that I am not talking about the silly mistake of switching to a 'grouped' display mode with an empty group.

The emptiness I'm talking about is caused by a very real and rather complex bug, but fortunately not so hard to describe as it may be to fix.
In fact it is this same bug that also caused the problem of the disappearing picture in the Photo column, which I reported earlier.

The problem is caused by the fact that when a USB drive is scanned by multiMAN and has content that matches the content in XMB folders of the internal HDD, the media scan of multiMAN takes note of all the 'duplicate' names in order to disable future access to the internal HDD version of those files (which are assumed identical). Personally I feel that it would be more correct to keep all duplicates in the list too, as two things with the same name are not necessarily identical. But with the current total lack of 'album' structure, this would lead to rather chaotic listing, so I understand why you may want to suppress duplicates, especially as you seem to use just the file name (or song name ?) as a unique object identifier... But if anything the priority should be the other way around, as HDD access is faster than USB access.

However, the real bug lies in the fact that when a USB drive is removed this does not cause all the files it 'disabled' on HDD to be 'reactivated' again. They remain disabled regardless of almost anything that the user can do. None of the refresh commands have any influence on this, and neither does it help at all to exit/restart multiMAN or even to power-cycle the console itself. None of this has any effect at all to revoke the disabling of multiMANs use of those files.

The only thing that does help is to insert another USB drive which does NOT have those files in its corresponding "PICTURE" or "MUSIC" folder (it probably applies to "VIDEO" too). When multiMAN scans those it finally notices that the files in the XMB folders on internal HDD do not have any duplicates, and revokes their disabling. But that should have been done much earlier, immediately after the scan made when I removed the USB drive that contained the duplicates. But apparently the current multiMAN code assumes that removal of a USB drive is never a reason to re-evaluate the status of files on internal HDD, which is of course quite wrong. It must do so whenever a USB drive containing duplicates is removed.

This bug will effectively be 'hidden' from those who always install files on the PS3 via network, since the most common cause of this 'disabling' is that you've copied media files to the PS3 HDD from a USB drive, which you then leave inserted while you run multiMAN. During that run everything will seem fine, except that all those media files will be listed for the USB drive then, with the HDD versions of those files having been disabled. And in coming sessions with that USB drive removed those media files will appear to be missing in XMMB, though they are perfectly visible in Sony's XMB.

An immediate fix for this problem could be done simply by treating removal of any USB drive as if it had instead been an insertion of that drive with empty folders for all supported content ("PICTURE", "MUSIC", "VIDEO" plus any game/ROM folders defined for multiMAN). I also think that the manual 'Refresh' command should force a total re-evaluation of all content, revoking all disabling of files that no longer have duplicates.

But for the long term we really need a proper 'album' implementation, similar to what Sony's XMB has. Currently it is impossible to access a decently large music collection properly from multiMAN, as the only 'grouping' available is to have all MP3 files sorted merely by their song titles, regardless of what album (or artists) they belong to. Here we need at the very least two proper 'album' or folder levels, so that we can sort music both by artists and by albums (below the artists level).

NB: To those who want to use my trick of forcing a full refresh:
Don't just put in an empty USB stick, as that will have no effect at all. Current multiMAN only re-evaluates media files corresponding to found folders.
You need to create an empty folder on the USB stick corresponding to each XMMB column for which you want internal HDD files to be re-evaluated.
So for full refresh of all three media columns you need the three folders "PICTURE", "MUSIC" and "VIDEO".

Best regards: dlanor

[deank]

Thank you for the post and suggestions, dlanor!

*) MP3 album/singer/track name display will require opening and checking of each file. I'm aware of the limitations of MM's XMMB mode and when I find time I lift one or another.
*) Refreshing the content and duplicates: I'll look into it again, although I thought that pressing SELECT+L3 fully refreshes XMMB mode.

Albums and grouping like in PS3 XMB are quite a task and I'm not planing on implementing it soon. PS3 XMB is not such user-friendly to external USB devices and you can see how much time it takes to load contents of a drive. I can simply remove all caching and make MM act like the real XMB and make people wait 5 mins to populate Game, Video, Music and Photo columns.

D

[neiljames]

Thank you for the post and suggestions, dlanor!

*) MP3 album/singer/track name display will require opening and checking of each file. I'm aware of the limitations of MM's XMMB mode and when I find time I lift one or another.
*) Refreshing the content and duplicates: I'll look into it again, although I thought that pressing SELECT+L3 fully refreshes XMMB mode.

Albums and grouping like in PS3 XMB are quite a task and I'm not planing on implementing it soon. PS3 XMB is not such user-friendly to external USB devices and you can see how much time it takes to load contents of a drive. I can simply remove all caching and make MM act like the real XMB and make people wait 5 mins to populate Game, Video, Music and Photo columns.

D

I don't think we need it exactly like XMB. Simply adding the ability to browse sub-folders would solve this issue. XMMB already reads and lists all files found in any sub-folder and caches them well. We just need the sub-folder ID to be read and displayed. Much like Showtime does. I believe that would be the easiest fix. I, personally, could care less about grouping of "PICTURE," "MUSIC," and "VIDEO."

I do care that I have Videos of full seasons in sub-folders that are named in various different ways, that I have to sift through just to find what I'm looking for. Same goes for Music, all my music is set in sub-folders (i.e. Album Name.) As for the Alphabetical Grouping, that is a nice idea and is well implemented but I would much rather have my sub-folders displayed to browse through.

Regards,

NeilJames

[addidas_85]

Dean I can make Turkish translation
"LANG_TR.TXT"

Also thanks a lot, it is the most importan thing in our wish list

[capitan_morgan]

I can help to translate to portuguese and portuguese_br if needed (i guess i could help in spanish as well, my spanish level is about 85% - Intermediate/Advanced), just pm me

regards

Please do not open this offtopic. Deank closed this offtopic. Deank have to change many things. Deank has the last word.

[grasshoppa420]

I don't think we need it exactly like XMB. Simply adding the ability to browse sub-folders would solve this issue. XMMB already reads and lists all files found in any sub-folder and caches them well. We just need the sub-folder ID to be read and displayed. Much like Showtime does. I believe that would be the easiest fix. I, personally, could care less about grouping of "PICTURE," "MUSIC," and "VIDEO."

I do care that I have Videos of full seasons in sub-folders that are named in various different ways, that I have to sift through just to find what I'm looking for. Same goes for Music, all my music is set in sub-folders (i.e. Album Name.) As for the Alphabetical Grouping, that is a nice idea and is well implemented but I would much rather have my sub-folders displayed to browse through.

Regards,

NeilJames

Yes, without scanning each song for album/artist/title, would it be possible to show folders/sub-folders? This way we could select (for example) A Perfect Circle then within it Mer de Noms and THEN have the tracks listed alphabetically? If that wouldn't be to difficult to implement, I think it would quell a lot of users issues with grouping, sorting, etc.

Thanks!

GH