All about Windows Media Center

How-To: Integrate BoxeeTV for Windows into Vista Media Center

2009-03-13T13:28:00.000-07:00

Missing Remote: "SO, I enlisted the help of one of my fellow MVPs, Andrew Cherry (famed developer of the Media Center TV App & more) to help fix this problem. With his help, we now have a small application which handles the minimizing and launching of Media Center before and after launching BoxeeTV for Windows. Thank you Mr. Cherry!"

Registering an Application Under the Start Menu Category

2008-11-16T20:14:00.000-08:00

This is a useful skill to have, even though it is a bit technical. I just used it to add MyMovies back to the main menu after it fell off somehow.

Read below, once you surf through the registry and see where the settings are it is much easier to see what to do. To get the GUID of an existing program, look under the Application section within the Media Center tree, it is the name of the key under there (the names of the apps are inside the key, as "Title"). Just take that GUID and make a key with the same name under start menu, then add Title, AppID, TimeStamp, and Url and you are good to go.

Registering an Application Under the Start Menu Category: "Registering an Application Under the Start Menu CategoryRegistering an Application Under the Start Menu Category"

TVitty - bittorrent TV shows from within MCE

2008-11-16T20:10:00.000-08:00

TVitty sounds like a winner... if you haven't used an RSS feed with a bittorrent client to get TV shows, you are really missing out on something extremely useful in the media world that will be bigger and bigger. This allows you to manage all of that from within MCE. Does not work with XP MCE though :(

Frequently Asked Questions: "tvitty is an add-in for Microsoft Windows Vista Media Center (TM) designed for your tv & remote. it lets you find download and watch videos distributed over the internet, right from your couch. tvitty currently supports bittorrent networks, and we're planning to add progressive download and streaming support. we use tvitty to distribute our own ad-supported content in certain regions, and promote free legal content worldwide.
tvitty runs on Microsoft Windows Vista editions that ship with Media Center ('Home Premium' and 'Ultimate')"

LinuxMCE 0704 Demo Video

2008-07-03T10:13:00.000-07:00

LinuxMCE 0704 Demo Video

Watch this video.. it is cool! Especially the way tilting the remote can change menus, volumes, etc. The goal is to do everything with 3 buttons that you use 30 buttons for on a normal remote. It does this with a "gyro" in the remote.

Not going to replace my Windows MCE, but I think you'll find this cool nonetheless. Probably the future for the ADD crowd :)

Media Center Finally Gets Live Messenger Plug-in - Chris Lanier's Blog

2008-01-11T09:04:00.000-08:00

Media Center Finally Gets Live Messenger Plug-in - Chris Lanier's Blog: "This is the first attempt for a Messenger plug-in in Vista Media Center. Media Center 2005 had a built-in Windows Messenger plug-in, but with the release of Windows Vista this was kicked to the side as was Windows Messenger all together. Last year Microsoft announced a beta of Windows Live for TV which promised Live Spaces and Live Messenger integration, the product appears to be dead without a release."

Media Center Markup Language - What is it?

2007-04-12T12:19:00.000-07:00

The Digital Lifestyle Developer Blog : A Worked Example: "The best way to learn a new technology is DOING something with it. So we are going to make a very simple trivia game in the Media Center Markup Language together, across several stages. "

Ian Dixon: Getting High-Performance Audio from Media Center

2007-04-12T12:18:00.000-07:00

Ian Dixon: Getting High-Performance Audio from Media Center: "CE Pro have a great article on getting HD audio out of a Media Center PC, this is from a presentation that Scott Varner of Niveus Media presented at EHX "

Talking Media Center with TV Tonic | PodTech.net: Technology, Business, Media, and News Podcasts

2007-04-12T12:00:00.000-07:00

Talking Media Center with TV Tonic PodTech.net: Technology, Business, Media, and News Podcasts: "TV Tonic is a service that lets you get Internet video shows onto your Windows Media Center (most versions of Windows Vista has it built in). Here we talk with Michael Sprague, president of TV Tonic, about that and about the growing Internet video business. "

Chris Lanier's Blog : Why Media Center Records to DVR-MS

2007-04-08T12:18:00.000-07:00

Chris knows what he is talking about... usually, but this is all propoganda, a corporate opinion pretending they know what's best for the consumer. Chris says it comes down to Metadata storage, DRM reasons, and encoding resource as the reasons Media Center records to DVR-MS. My opinion - DRM maybe is a good reason (from Microsoft's perspective) but none of those other reasons. It's a lock in decision, and it's used, among other reasons, to break Media Center Extenders, as covered in the last post.

It does nothing for the consumer except piss them off. I wish they would make the format optional.

Chris Lanier's Blog : Why Media Center Records to DVR-MS: "Every time I see a post about what Microsoft should do to make Media Center better it never fails that one of the first replies to “record to something other than DVR-MS.” No matter how many times people request this, it will not happen. DVR-MS is a necessary format for Media Center for various reasons; the main ones from a user perspective are metadata, content protection, and hardware resources."

Geeks.com Does $99 v1 Extenders

2007-04-06T15:00:00.000-07:00

Nice deal, but it is only good for recorded TV as far as video is concerned... I had one and Ebayed it after I found out it will not stream Divx, Xvid, or anything other than the wmv-dvr format.

Good news is... these are actually going for more on Ebay right now. Do with that what you will.

Chris Lanier's Blog : Geeks.com Does $99 v1 Extenders: "Linksys v1 Media Center Extender $99 (Geeks.com) Geeks.com has Linksys v1 Media Center Extenders for $99 again. It’s a nice pick up it you don’t plan on upgrading to Vista right off the bat as v1 Extenders will no longer connect to Vista. I believe they are referbs, but it doesn’t seem to note. If you search their website you will find that they do sell referbs, at a price of $124.99, which is noted on the ad as the regular price.

Happy buying, remember it doesn’t work with Vista."

New extenders this year - honest!

2007-03-17T15:55:00.000-07:00

Good news? Who knows. The old (current) extenders suck. Specifically, because they will not play any videos or audio that require a codec. Now seriously, if you are technically savvy enough to want a Media Center in the first place, chances are you are technically savvy to have some videos around encoded in Divx or Xvid that you'd like to have access to on it. Easy enough on the main system (just install a codec pack), but the ability is completely left out of the current batch of extenders.

True wait and see on this one.

Ed Bott’s Media Central » New extenders this year - honest!: "Jason Tsang goes to the MVP Summit and teases us with this tidbit:
V2 Extenders should be out sometime this year (2007). … Unfortunately, the exact dates/timeframes are under NDA …"

Ian Dixon: Ask Charlie Owen your Media Center Questions

2007-03-15T08:23:00.000-07:00

Ian Dixon: Ask Charlie Owen your Media Center Questions: "If you want to ask Charlie a question about Windows Media Center now is your chance. So head to his blog and leave a question on THIS blog post."

Turning on Closed Captioning in Media Center

2007-03-08T17:04:00.000-08:00

Not deaf? Sometimes it is still nice to have silence and some closed captioning on your tv, but how do you turn it on in MCE? It isn't exactly obvious so I thought I'd share how to do it.

With the TV full screen, hit the "More Info" button on your MCE remote (you can also right click on the TV screen with the mouse). Choose "Settings." Next, select "TV" and there it is, "Captions."

From here you can choose between two different styles (all along the bottom, or in the bottom left corner) and gives a few options that are pretty cool - such as to turn them on when you mute the program (and off when you unmute).

Play MAME Arcade games on your media center

2007-03-06T07:13:00.000-08:00

The Digital Lifestyle Developer Blog : Just to prove I'm not COMPLETELY full of it...: "Just to prove that I'm not completely making all of this up, I've got an alpha version of a program you may want to try. For those people who love classic arcade action (and have managed to troll eBay to find yourself an arcade machine board or two), I've created MAMECenter, an interface to let you play Multi Arcade Machine Emulator games from your Media Center."

Ian Dixon: Orb's Web based Windows Media Center Extender

2007-03-05T18:27:00.000-08:00

This looks cool...

Ian Dixon: Orb's Web based Windows Media Center Extender: "Somehow I totally missed a great feature of Orb. We all want a PC based Windows Media Center Extender (Microsoft had a rumored project called Softled that has never seen the light of day). The aim of this program would be to extend the Windows Media Center UI to other Media Center PC's around the home. So that you could watch live or recorded TV on any of your Media Center PCs no mater on which one the content was based on. "

Chris Lanier's Blog : Andrew Grant Runs Down Reasons to Stay with Media Center 2005

2007-02-25T19:24:00.000-08:00

Chris Lanier's Blog : Andrew Grant Runs Down Reasons to Stay with Media Center 2005: "Andrew Grant runs down his Five Reasons to Stay with MCE 2005 today. Cost, Extenders (or lack of), Remote Desktop, Functionality (or lack of again), and Stability (or instability) are among the reasons why he is currently staying with MCE 2005."

Windows Marketplace: Media Center Plug-ins

2007-02-23T06:44:00.000-08:00

Have you visited the MCE page to see the listed plugins? Nice collection, sorted by price.

Windows Marketplace: Media Center Plug-ins: "Discover a wide assortment of software plug-ins for your Media Center PC right here. Once you install a program on to your Media Center PC, you can access it through the 'More Programs' section of Media Center. Find a few you like, then press the green button and navigate to 'More Programs' to try these useful and creative programs."

mceWeather Overview - show weather in Microsoft Windows XP Media Center

2007-02-10T19:53:00.000-08:00

I just installed this on my system... and it works great. Easy to install, looks good, and easy enough to set up. Try it!

mceWeather Overview - show weather in Microsoft Windows XP Media Center: "mceWeather shows weather for your region on your TV or PC. The plugin provides data from all over the world (many locations can be shown, please just try if your next larger city can be found by the program). It shows the forecast for the next days and also shows you a satellite image of your country. "

How to Skip Commercials in Media Center with DVRMS Toolbox

2007-02-09T15:08:00.000-08:00

Wow cool... I need to try this out.

Missing Remote: "For those of you unaware, ever since XP Media Center 2005, there has been this fantastic application called 'DVRMS Toolbox,' which had a bunch of tools to analyze DVRMS files recorded by Media Center and cut/edit/compress/etc. The only feature I use but found difficult to live without is the Commercial Skip Feature. "

Chris Lanier's Blog : My Movies 2.20 Released | Contribution Competition Launched

2007-02-01T18:10:00.000-08:00

MyMovies is the greatest Media Center Add-on... I have well over 400 movies indexed in it, all that I can start at the press of a button.

Chris Lanier's Blog : My Movies 2.20 Released Contribution Competition Launched: "Added the ability to add titles from UPC/EAN barcodes.
Added scanning of barcodes via. WebCam.
Added queue functionality in 'Manage Collection'.
Created database backup and restore features.
Added the option to have both a front and back cover for the movie titles.
Changed the appearance of the page loader on windows Vista."

Chris Lanier's Blog : What Content Will Be Crippled When Output in Vista?

2007-01-30T08:31:00.000-08:00

Short answer... just about nothing :)

Chris Lanier's Blog : What Content Will Be Crippled When Output in Vista?: "There are tons of people out there not understanding all of this “Vista DRM”, mainly because of less than accurate media reporting. That’s completely understandable, but lets run down a quick list here of some of the popular content out there."

Watching TV using the Antenna on MCE

2007-01-28T20:47:00.000-08:00

I have not had cable or sattellite for about 5 years now... never wanted it. On my media center I would watch movies, and few select TV shows I downloaded.

Today though, I hooked up an Antenna to get the free stations around Birmingham, and it is nice :) The TV interaction makes the media center experience much more complete.

If yu;d like to do the same, I use the AVC-3610 tuner from HP.

Tweak MCE Update ~ Media Center

2007-01-28T10:34:00.000-08:00

Tweak MCE Update ~ Media Center: "Microsoft’s Update Rollup 2 for Windows Media Center Edition 2005 aka Emerald (for those with better things to do than recite long product names) broke one of the great add-ons for Windows Media Center Edition, Tweak MCE. Thankfully, Microsoft issued an updated version of Tweak MCE on November 4, solving the problem and restoring balance to the universe."

andy vt's blog : Building My MCE

2006-12-01T16:08:00.000-08:00

andy vt's blog : Building My MCE: "I evangelize MCE to pretty much anyone who will listen. Once they're sold on the concept most ask how much it costs, I tell them that the cost of an entry level system is pretty minimal $300-$500 but the sky is the limit depending on what you want to put in it. Here's my system and the reasoning behind it. In most cases the link goes to the manufacture's page, but in some cases (OEM or I couldn't find it on their site) I link to where you can buy it."

andy vt's blog : Building My MCE

2006-12-01T16:07:00.000-08:00