I have a Sony DVD camcorder that records to mpeg format. I am able to store these files on my windows xp machine and via samba have my xbox play them via the video icon in myth. It uses mplayer to play the video. There is no problem playing the videos but I do have a problem with the process I have to go through to get the mpg file to play. First you have to go to the video setup window and load the file and then go back to the video icon and select the file you want to play.

Is there any way to have myth automatically find and list the files once the file is saved to the windows machine? Kinda like the images functionality works... There is no need to load the images via some myth image manager before you can view them.

I know the process is setup to allow various information to be stored for movies that folks may want to store and play but I simply have 1 to 2 minute home video clips that do not need all the additional information collected for.

Ideally, I could store all my family pictures and video in one folder on my windows machine and have myth be able to differentiate between the two formats and display accordingly.

Any ideas or suggestions? Thanks.

What I do is only use the video manager (icon on the top right).
You can then organize your files in folders to provide some sort of organization, and you will be able to browse by hitting the right arrow.

For example, you might have:
movies/
kids/
home/

which will provide you with three top level entries in the list. Select one and hit "right", and you'll drill down and see all the entries in there.

Finally, to automatically show the files, mount the remote directory (implies that the windows box is available):
1) install smbfs (apt-get install smbfs)
2) add the following line to /etc/fstab:
//machine/mountpoint$ /mnt/machine smbfs password=YourPassword
3) Create a link:
% ln -s /mnt/machine/videos /myth/video/remote

This should get you started. Ask if you have questions.