This is a step by step guide to attaching and playing your movie file. It is assumed that Movies by CraigWorks is up and you have successfully imported a movie.

First thing to do is to enter the "Modify Movie Page" for this movie. First click on the movie image to navigate to the "Movie Detail Page" then click on the "Edit" link at the top right of the page.

You should now be in the "Movie Modify Page". Scroll the contents of the "Detail" tab until you get to either "DVD File" or "Blu-Ray File" fields. In this example, I will enter a "DVD File."

Enter the path to your movie file here. If your movie file is on a Network Attache Storage (NAS) then enter the path with the NAS server name. If your movie file is on a local drive then enter the path starting with the drive letter (e.g. C:\movies\Terminator2.m2ts"). If you have multiple computers connecting to the application make sure to specify a location that is accessible by all computers. The easiest way is to put all your files on a NAS. See Common Hardware Setup for more details.

Tip (version 0.1.8+): You can enable path autocompletion in the "DVD File" and "Blu-Ray File" fields by telling Movies by CraigWorks where your media files are located. Enter Settings Page. Click on "[Default]" under "Application Settings'" then click the "media" tab. Enter directories where your media files are stored and file extensions (e.g. mpg, iso, m2ts, avi, mkv, ...).

Enter the path and file name of your file in the "DVD File" field. Click "Save" and this navigates back to the "Movie Detail Page."

In version 0.1.8 and above, you can define the directories where your media files are located in the application settings. Once setup the "DVD File" and "Blu-Ray File" fields supports autocompletion to ease entry of file paths.

In the "Movie Detail Page", scroll the middle section until you located the "DVD File" field.

To verify your movie file can be accessed, hover over the blue info icon next to the "DVD File:" label. This invokes MediaInfo to extract information from your media file. If your file path is entered correctly you will see movie details.

Click the "Play" button. This brings you into the "Media Player Page" with embedded VLC and plays your movie.

The following errors could occur:

1) If your screen looks like the following then VLC was not installed. Install VLC 1.0.4 using this link. Use all default settings but make sure to check "Mozilla plugin" if you are using Chrome or Firefox.

2) If you are using Chrome or Firefox, your screen looks like the following, and you are sure you installed VLC 1.0.4 then you did not install the Mozilla Plug-in during VLC install.

Reinstall VLC using this link and make sure to check the "Mozilla Plug-in" option. The VLC install will uninstall VLC prior to installing VLC. Make sure to shut down all web browsers before installing. Otherwise you may have to re-boot your PC.

3) VLC gets an error playing the movie.

Make sure VLC native app can play your movie. If it does play then you may have to change some vlc player settings to get the movie to play correctly in Movies by CraigWorks. Enter the Settings page and under "player.vlc" tab update the "DVD Options" (or "Blu-Ray Options"). More to come...