Microsoft Coder's Media Life

Windows Home Server Power Pack 1 Release Candidate available to the public

SteveLindsay — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 19:58:00 GMT

Yey at last it's here for you all to try too, I've been running this a while now and it rocks.

I made a full post on my on10.net blog.

You can read it and follow the link there to download PP1 RC!

http://www.on10.net/blogs/EnglishBloke/Windows-Home-Server-PP1-RC-available-to-the-public-on-Connect/

Automatically backup Media Center recordings.xml every time it's changed.

SteveLindsay — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 10:02:00 GMT

I noticed a few people complaining about corrupt recordings.xml files recently, I've been hurt by having this file corrupt on me before so I know the pain (in fact in my case both the recordings.xml and the .bak in the same folder both got crushed).

So backing it up is probably a good idea. There are many ways of doing this, but I wanted a nice simple way which my recordings.xml file would be zero intervention and would keep a backup of every single change to recordings.xml, I didn't care about the amount of files I would end up with and I wanted to delete them manually when I want to.

Anyway so I wrote a quick application to take care of this tonight and I thought I'd share it with you guys.

I also zipped up the source code so you can enhance or change it in anyway you want.

Basically the application monitors the recordings.xml file, if the file is changed it immediately takes a copy of it. The application's window has a display of all backups and you can click and open the backups folder or the recordings.xml folder. The application starts with windows and hides itself in the system tray behind a little backup icon. When ever a backup of recordings.xml is taken you'll see a little recording light on the icon for a second (and optionally a balloon tip can be turned on or off in the options).

Hopefully this will give some of you a nice automatic way to have some added security in knowing your recordings.xml is always backed up.

Here are a couple of screenshots:-

This is the main UI which is hidden automatically on startup

This is the tray icon right at the second the recordings.xml file has been updated by Media Center.

NOTE: This application is given away as is, if it does anything bad it's on your own head, and it is not affiliated with Microsoft in anyway.

You can grab an installer for it here : http://www.codegreat.net/mcerecord/RecordingXMLInstaller.zip

You can grab the source code here : http://www.codegreat.net/mcerecord/RecordingsXMLBackup.zip

Enjoy.

Steve

New ATI Firmware update for OCUR tuners!

SteveLindsay — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:29:00 GMT

ATI have finally released a new firmware for the TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner aka OCUR box, this is the OCUR box which is pretty much shipping with all OCUR media center setup's right now, including the XPS420. Note the firmware update is only for 32bit Vista

The firmware update specifically deals with the following issues:

Multiple OCUR devices able to get the same IP address due to having very similar mac-addresses. (Causes 1 tuner to go unavailable)
Channel lineup changes from service provider causing partially out-of-date channel maps, making channels temporarily unavailable
No TV Signal issue when attempting to record a program on the current channel on some network configurations.
Led shows green on Tuner when no USB is attached. It should show red unless the device has connectivity.

ATI also recommends installing three Microsoft hotfixes to go with this, unless you are on Vista SP1.

KB938929 - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938929
KB941600 - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/941600
KB927084 - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927084

You can grab the ATI Firmware update here : http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/vista32/ocur-vista32.html

TODAY ONLY: Amazing Deal on Dell XPS 420 - $1098 +free shipping with 20" monitor

SteveLindsay — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 19:29:00 GMT

I just found an amazing deal which ends today over at Dell, you can pick up a Dell XPS 420 system with the following spec for $1098....

PROCESSOR                            Core™2 Q6600 Quad-Core (8MB L2 cache,2.4GHz,1066FSB)
OPERATING SYSTEM               Windows Vista® Home Premium with Digital Cable Support
MEMORY                                  4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz - 4 DIMMs
HARD DRIVE                             500GB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache
OPTICAL DRIVE                        16X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write capability
MONITORS                               20 inch E207WFP Widescreen Digital Flat Panel
VIDEO CARD                            ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO 128MB
SOUND CARD                          Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
KEYBOARD                              Dell USB Keyboard
MOUSE                                    Dell Premium Optical USB Mouse
FLOPPY & MEDIA READER      No Floppy Drive or Media Reader Included
WI-FI AND MODEM                   56K PCI Data Fax Modem

Check out the best part, add a Dual ATI OCUR tuner and change the graphics card to a Radeon HD3650 and you've got yourself a kick ass Media Center box with Dual Digital tuners for : $1527!!!

Be quick though, this ends today!

Use this link for the deal

Paul Thurrot's (non) review of Linksys Extenders on his Windows Weekly show.

SteveLindsay — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 04:37:00 GMT

It's not often I write a blog post to publicly disagree with another bloggers (non) review of a product (I say non-review as it was pretty much a flame and total non recommendation for Linksys extenders, with Paul saying on his Windows Weekly show that the Linksys devices are ''So bad that I cannot recommend anyone buy any one of these things'). I believe Paul is set to do a review of a V2 Extender and based on his feedback on the Linksys I don't think he'll be happy with any extender. I do however want to talk more around this....

Paul is perfectly entitled to his opinion on the Linksys Extender, however I think he completely missed the mark with his remarks and 'preview' of the Linksys extenders and I want to explain why.

Compared head to head with a 360 sure the UI is a little less fluent in animations, Although noticeable if you compare directly to an 360 it certainly is not anywhere near as bad as Paul made out, it is perfectly usable and does not feel awkward or slow in general use. To Paul himself I would ask this, you said you got sent a device, was it the release firmware?, did you actually ask if you had the final firmware which shipped? The reason I ask is I was in the beta program for the Linksys and actually the DLink you also mentioned as well as a couple of other V2 Extenders. My release firmware on the Linksys which is obviously release code, is faster in the UI than the earlier versions. I would check into this... However lets just get away from the UI a minute. You said it doesn't have any of the transitions etc, The release version AND quite a large amount of beta builds prior to the release do have the most of the transitions, only a few transitions are missing which are due to obviously the hardware on the Linksys being more video decoding focused than UI focused, but OK fine, thats still the UI and I said I'd move on so lets so that now....

One thing Paul did fail to mention about the extender is form factor and weight, it is TINY compared to an Xbox 360, this is an extender device, intended for extensibility within the home, the 360 and even other extenders like the DLink are not modeled to do what the Linksys does in these areas which is fits perfectly in locations that extenders may not otherwise fit. I give you the example of my kitchen for instance: http://www.on10.net/blogs/EnglishBloke/The-Media-Center-show-interview--Media-Center-in-the-kitchen/

You can also catch some video of the DMA2100 in action and decide for yourself if you think the UI is too slow in tip 5 of my 'Top 5 things you didn't know you could do with your vista media center PC' video over on soapbox here : http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?vid=d620b6fe-548c-4c33-8466-5bd3112da335

The Linksys DMA2100 actually weighs just 0.7kgs and is a tiny 170x113x188mm which is quite possibly the smallest device of this kind I've ever seen.

Not that it's that important as I'd expect it from any next generation extender but it also has HDMI, as well as component and composite which is pretty cool but this is a feature I've come to expect by now so I probably wouldn't have mentioned it either.

Paul did emphasize that it is silent, however he didn't mention how cool it runs which is obviously important if intended to be in a closed environment.

Now here is another area which the Linksys has really great support, Wireless.. Something which the XBox 360 extender for instance does NOT support out of the box. You will need to buy an adapter separately for the 360 if you want to use wireless with the 360 which incurs further expense. In addition it doesn't just support b/g, it supports wireless N which is awesome for HD. Not only that but the antennas work awesome, I got an amazing range during testing from the Linksys showing how HIGH QUALITY the wireless hardware in this unit is.

Now while we're talking about hardware. The V2 extenders differ from the 360 in one very important way, they support manufacturer hardware decoding through Media Center Extender. This feature is not currently available on the Xbox 360. Now the Linksys boasts a hardware video decoder (sigma processor) which is capable of WMV9 MP@HL (20 Mbit/s, 1080p30) hardware decoding, it also plays DivX (including 5), Xvid, (with MP3 or AC3 in both), H.264/AVC with Vorbis/PCM/AC3/AAC/AAC LC, Mpeg 1, Mpeg 2, Mpeg 2 HD, and AVC HD. For those who are interested in the file extensions for these types.... avi, mkv, mp4, mov, mpeg, wmv, dvr-ms, vob and m2ts.

Now this is HUGE and makes this extender very applicable to many people with and without 360's, but Paul completely failed to mention this, I'm not sure why, maybe he was using it just for recorded TV playback, which is fine if thats his only personal use for it, but his comment that he can't recommend ANYONE seems like a huge huge generalization.

Now there is still more... One of the huge things for me was power consumption, the Linksys DMA2100 uses 16W of power, yes that's right 16W... Compared to around 150-175 that the 360 uses doing the same thing.

This is again HUGE, I actually leave mine on permanently in the kitchen, this gives it instant on capability by simply turning the connected TV on and I'm running. For me if anything should have been emphasized it is this. But hey power for me is important seeing I'm running 5 extenders all the in my house.

Finally the last thing worth mentioning is the price. The release price of any product is always higher to start off with, The 360's price when released was around $150 more than the price the currently cheapest SKU, for the same thing. In addition the 360 is obviously supported by software sales. The Linksys DMA2100 for instance started out at $250, you can now find them new on Ebay for $199 after only a couple of months of release. This is for a device capable of Wireless N, H.264. DivX/XVid playback, HDMI out and with insanely low power consumption.... You wouldn't say this is a good deal?

Anyway that's really all I wanted to say, I felt it needed to not only mention this but to show exactly why the comparison of a 360 to a Linksys Extender is not good comparison, they are aimed at different consumers for different uses. The 360 is a power house of a games machine which CAN act as a Media Center extender and its horse power carries over well, but it's form factor, wireless capabilities and hardware video playback capabilities within the Extender session do not at present.

The Linksys for me, reviewing it from an impartial point of view having used one for months now in my home is an essential part of my setup at home and is my first choice for the application I use it for. I think performs in HD playback amazingly and that is after all what it is intended to do, the UI is slick and leaps and bounds better than V1 Extenders, and as a small, compact, power efficient wireless N enabled device it cannot be beat.

Steve.

Win my Zune!

SteveLindsay — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 00:11:00 GMT

I decided to donate my Zune 2, 8 gig for this competition. This is MY actual zune, i've been using since release with a custom engraving. The grand prize is an XBox 360 Elite and other prizes will include Media Center software and my Zune.

So what are you waiting for!?, get your camera out and lets see your Media Center setup guys!

Check it out over here.

An ironic goodbye to HD-DVD - Tuesday Paramount releases the last 2 HD-DVD's before switching completely to Blu-Ray

SteveLindsay — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 01:05:00 GMT

Paramount are due to release their final 2 HD-DVD's on Tuesday. The final titles will be 'Into the Wild' and the ironically named 'Things We Lost in the Fire'.

However if Paramounts final release wasn't Ironic enough. The first movie released on DVD was Twister back in 1996. It also happens to be the last scheduled release ever for HD-DVD, due to be released on both Blue-Ray and HD-DVD on May 3rd by Warner.

/waves a final goodbye to HD-DVD. (And I don't agree that Twisters original tag-line was the case for HD-DVD here [reply in comment if you get this ref], I'm very disappointed this technology didn't get to stick around)

Eeek! Stage6.divx.com going down on Wednesday!

SteveLindsay — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 19:08:00 GMT

So it looks like divx.com have decided to shutdown Stage6. This is sad news, I was about to release my Stage6 plugin for Media Center along with the source code. Unfortunately this is obviously pointless now, so what I'll do instead is choose a new source site, change the app to support that and then release it with source code.

Here is a link to the news story : http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/02/25/divx-to-shut-down-stage6-video-sharing-service/

My Media Center video made the Media Center Homepage!

SteveLindsay — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:53:00 GMT

Wow check this out, I was looking at the updated community links and saw myself on the Media Center home page.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/mediacenter/getstarted/community.mspx

Kitchen Media Center Extender

SteveLindsay — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:50:00 GMT

So I finally got enough time the last few days to build my Kitchen Media Center system using the new Linksys V2 Extender and a Sharp 13" Aquos TV. I used a custom mount and then used a VESA mounting kit to fit it to the bottom of a corner cabinet in my Kitchen and set about installing. It came out nice and the wireless connection is flawless, even playing HDTV :)

You can see pictures over here on my on10 blog :)

http://www.on10.net/blogs/EnglishBloke/The-Media-Center-show-interview--Media-Center-in-the-kitchen/

Let me know what you think, or how I can improve it :)

Hi Guys, A quick introduction

SteveLindsay — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 16:19:00 GMT

Hi everyone, some of you already know me from around the community, I'm the silent one who sits and makes the occasional stealth post now and then over at the Green Button. My nick name is Lindz, so don't be surprised if I sign emails with it sometimes :)

I am a Microsoft employee and technical enthusiast, I am involved in a program called the Microsoft Champion program and I have volunteered to evangelize, promote and support different areas of Microsoft's technologies with the relevant communities. Within Microsoft as a day job I work as a developer in a small tools and infrastructure group for a product called Microsoft Forefront (www.Microsoft.com/Forefront), which deals with server side virus security for a host of Microsoft products. My main passion in life is development, with Media Center and Home Server coming a close second. These two things often mix for me also, more on that later...

Prior to working at Microsoft I've always been a complete Media Center addict, I've been running my only source of TV through Media Center for years since the first version. I've been coming to many of the community sites I now want to be involved with for a long time and know many of you already even though many of you don't know who I am :)

I have a blog over on on10.net as well as this one, you can see it here: http://www.on10.net/blogs/EnglishBloke/Default.aspx, I also did a video interview with on10.net a little while ago about my setup at home (which has since grown and changed a lot, you can see this original video here : http://www.on10.net/blogs/Brianjo/Amazing-Media-Center-Setup/Default.aspx

I would encourage everyone here to take a look at on10, and to help us build up the forums over there also. The forum's there are very visible to Microsoft and you are likely to be heard very well over there on pertinent topics :)

Now, why am I here? Well I've been taking with several community leaders such as Ian lately and I've volunteered to 'Champion' Media Center and Home Server for several communities, TheDigitalLifestyle.com being one of them, on10.net is another and I'll announce a few others on my blog later once the details have been confirmed.

So what does 'Champion' mean?, it means that I will be helping you guys in any way I can as well as trying to help new adopters or potential adopters of Media Center and Home Server have a comfortable ride, and help introduce you to features and things you can do with technologies which perhaps you didn't know.

These actions will primarily be through the forums, I will be responding to every post I can on the forums. This blog will also be a way of delivering information to everyone here at the site and also to new potential users at one time. In addition as I'm primarily a developer, you can be sure I'll have lots of MCML tips and tricks and general development techniques you can use to help with your ride through the world of Media Center.

One of the first things I'll be doing here is releasing my source code for a plug-in I wrote recently for Media Center, the plug-in is called 'Stage6 DivX for Media Center', which delivers content subscription from the DivX Stage6 site to your main MCE pc and to v2 extenders (not 360's, although hey you'll have the source ;)). I'll also be talking a little about the design strategy for the application and pieces of code within it.

So I think that's enough for this intro, basically I'm here for you and I'm listening, if you want some answers, I may be able to help. Bear in mind I don't work directly for the Media Center team; however I do have a lot of good contacts in the Media Center teams and across Microsoft as a whole.... Will I be able to answer them burning issue questions you have which no one is answering? Maybe, maybe not. Can I help you with MCE/WHS development; yep I should be able to. Can I help you with general coding questions to help your development on your Media Center apps, absolutely :)

Thanks Guys, Media Center and Windows Home Server are great technologies and I hope to be able to help introduce more people to the cool features we have in the products and really enthuse people to grow their digital homes. The next 5 years will show a lot of really great activity in these areas, and this site and its members are definitely on the cutting edge of that :)

Lindz.

(Steve Lindsay - Microsoft)