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General
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For an overview of how Amulet allows you to work with music, watch the video “Music Help” by choosing the Help Videos icon on the Amulet menu strip within Windows Media Center.
Start by saying GO TO MUSIC. This displays the Amulet music screen where a scrolling carousel on the left shows a selection of music by artists in your collection. A center panel shows songs in the current playlist, while albums in the playlist appear in a vertical strip to the right.
Use the commands listed under Music Commands to select music by artist. When you choose an artist, music by that artist automatically starts to play. You can then select individual albums or songs by that artist by referring to the song window and album list. When selecting song or album titles, you can say part or all of the full title and Amulet will try to find the best match available. |
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General
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In general all commands can be spoken at all times. For example, you don’t need to be viewing the Amulet Music screen to select a music artist. Similarly, you don’t need to be viewing the Recorded TV screen to select a TV program. You can speak most commands at any time, and they will take effect immediately.
However, while you are learning how to use Amulet, we recommend that you go to the appropriate Amulet screen (music, photos, video, movies, or recorded TV) before you try out commands. The Amulet screens show you when the microphone is active, and also display commands as they are recognized, making it quicker and easier for you to get used to using the speech recognition. |
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How should I organize my downloaded videos? |
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General
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Simply copy downloaded video files to the folders you have told Windows Media Center to monitor, and Amulet will detect them automatically. Movie filenames should simply be the name of the film. TV series episodes should follow the form "Series Name SxxExx Episode name", where Sxx and Exx are the Season and Episode numbers. For example, "Mad Men S01E12.avi" is Season 1, Episode 12 of the TV series Mad Men.
For other videos, such as home movies and unrecognised files, Amulet groups them according to the name of their containing disk folder. |
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How Amulet identifies media files |
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General
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Amulet identifies these forms of media files:
- Recorded TV programs, stored in .DVR_MS or .WTV files. The TV program name and information is derived from metadata stored within the file itself.
- DVDs ripped to your hard disk, stored as VIDEO_TS sub‐folders. The DVD title is derived from a dvdid.xml file inside the folder or from the parent folder name if dvdid.xml is not present.
- Videos, stored in .AVI, .MKV, .WMV and other files. The video title is the same as the video filename. The series title is taken from the parent folder where the video file is stored.
- Home Movies, stored as motion‐JPEG .AVI files (most digital cameras record video clips in this format). The title name is taken from the filename, while the collection name is the same as the parent folder containing the video file.
- Photos and other pictures imported to your hard disk, stored as .JPG, .BMP or .PNG files. The photo collection (slideshow) name is the same as the folder containing the images.
For video and DVD media, Amulet automatically looks up the title in online databases, to identify whether it is a film, TV series, or something else. This determines whether Amulet classifies the item as a Movie, TV Series, or Video in the Amulet user interface.
Below is a more detailed description of how Amulet identifies each video media type:
Movies
- Anything recorded from TV, where the TV guide metadata identifies it as a movie
- Any video files or DVD folders where the title gives a successful match at TheMovieDB.org
- Movies are grouped according to genre, as reported by TheMovieDB.org
Recorded TV
- Anything recorded directly from TV
- All files with .DVR‐MS or .WTV extensions
- Programs are grouped by program title, and according to episode
- Additional program information is fetched from TheTVDB.com, where available
TV Shows
- Anything recorded from TV which is identified as episodic in the TV guide
- Any video filenames containing the phrase S##E##. For example, “House S03E12.avi” is Season 3, Episode 12 of the series House.
- Any video filenames containing the phrase #x##. For example, “Weeds 2x06.avi” is Season 2, Episode 6 of the series Weeds.
- The series name is taken as the parent folder name, and not from the filename itself
- If the series name is present on TheTVDB.com, then additional episode and series information is downloaded, including full episode names where available
Home Movies
- Any video filename of the form “abcd####”, for example “DSCF1234.AVI”
- Any video filename of the form ”MOV#####”, for example “MOV00123.AVI”
- Any video stored using motion JPEG compression internally
- Videos are grouped according to parent folder name
Videos
- Any video file or DVD folder not already classified as one of the preceding types is classified as a simple video
- Videos are grouped according to parent folder name
For convenience, some TV programs may appear twice – once under Movies or TV Shows, and a second time under Recorded TV. |
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