Amulet Devices are currently running a private beta for their Amulet Voice Remote Control and Media Center add-in software, that now supports the popular My Movies add-in.
I was invited on to the beta program by Eddy Carroll of Amulet Devices and I have to say I have been eagerly awaiting this update. I previously wrote about Amulet’s excellent Voice Remote several times on my blog – check back and have a look.
At that time Amulet’s media file scanner out of the box would only find media files that were in the WMP12 / 7MC media libraries. It did not find my movie files stored on the WHS as these were not in the 7MC / WMP12 media library.
It was possible to edit the Amulet.ini config file and manually add in paths to folders on the WHS but this was not ideal. This new Amulet beta is now more tightly integrated with My Movies and actually queries the My Movies SQL database directly rather than just looking at a shared folder path on the network some where.
After I installed the Amulet beta update and forced Amulet to rescan my media files I then found in the new Amulet status page in Media Center, that under Videos the correct number of movie files was now listed.
Once in My Movies in Media Center you can use voice commands such as Show Movie {movie name} and it will jump to the cover of that movie! There is a limitation with My Movies that you can only enter the first 4 characters of a movie name, so if you have movie titles that have a similar name and start with the same first 4 characters, in those cases Amulet doesn’t always jump to the correct movie cover after you have spoken your command. Amulet are hoping to be able to work with the My Movies developers to overcome some of these types of issues and if you are interested in this tighter integration happening with My Movies you can voice your request for it on this forum post on the My Movies site.
But I have to say as it is, on the whole it works really well and generally shows the movie you have asked for. You can also say commands like Play Movie {movie name} and that movie will just start to play! There are also more plans by Amulet to enable voice control over other aspects of the My Movies user interface.
Significant new features we've added include:-
EPG search - you can now say "Search for <name>" to find all programs matching <name> in the program guide
YouTube search - integrated YouTube Leanback player, say "Search YouTube for <name>" to find videos about <name> (freeform dictation) or "Search YouTube for This Music / Song / Movie / Program / Channel" to find YouTube videos relating to what you are currently watching or listening to.
MyMovies support - now recognizes all movies in the MyMovies database and lets you play them directly using MyMovies, including ISOs, Blu-Ray, etc. that require MyMovies' external player support. You can also use the SHOW MOVIE command to move directly to a particular title within the MyMovies gallery view.
New status screen in the Settings page showing what media is available, current speech recognition state, etc.
New customisable options
The new Youtube Search feature is pretty cool, it launches the Youtube leanback UI within Media Center, you can then search for videos by just speaking! I could definitely see myself using this new Youtube integration in Media Center.
Join the beta program
Amulet Devices are looking for My Movies users located in the US only, to join their beta program. Amulet have also dropped the public price of the Amulet Voice Remote to $149, and are offering a further $40 rebate for beta testers who contribute useful feedback during the beta test period. If you would like to join the beta program you can register here.
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