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VidaBox vCase3 Review

mabrown — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 06:52:00 GMT

Earlier in the week I did an unboxing of this chassis, my initial impressions were high and after having built out a HTPC using the vCase3 my initial impressions were pretty much dead on. Anyone who has ever built a HTPC using other chassis such as ones from Silverstone or OrigenAE knows the pain of small tight spaces, having to remove sections of the case in a certain order in order to get all of your components in and if a hard drive should fail you’re in for about an hours worth of work replacing it. I’m extremely happy VidaBox realized how frustrating these scenarios were to those who want to build and maintain their own machines and has released a product sure to please almost everyone.

For this build I picked up an Intel DP55WB microATX motherboard, an Intel Core i5-750 CPU, 4GB of OCZ PC3 12800 RAM, an ATI Radeon HD 4550 fanless low profile display adapter from Sapphire, an Asus Xonar XDAV Slim 1.3 sound card, and a Cooler Master ATX power supply. I used a 500GB hard drive and an LG HD-DVD Blu-ray combo drive I had laying around to finish it off.

The build couldn’t of been simpler. For ease of installation and to keep vibration noise down VidaBox uses rubber vibration-isolating screws, you simply screw these into yours drives by hand and they slide and lock into place in the chassis.

The rest of the build is pretty much the same as any other HTPC build would be. One of my favorite features of the chassis are these vibration-isolating screws and the way the drives are easily installed and removed from the chassis.

One of the other big benefits to this chassis is ventilation. The way in which the chassis was designed guarantees any motherboard & CPU combination will have a clear shot out of the case for displacing heat, which in turn makes the fan run at a lower RPM which keeps the fan noise down to almost nothing. With the stock Intel fan that came with my i5-750 I have to put my ear on top of the chassis to hear it running.

There are two things though I wish were incorporated into the design. The first being an integrated Microsoft IR Receiver. Most other HTPC chassis have some sort of integrated receiver, most however aren’t that great (like my built in imon ir receiver in my main system that I disable). I think a good standard internal Microsoft IR receiver was a missed opportunity to make this chassis even better then it already is. My other wish is while I do like the size of the chassis I wish it was a few inches taller to accommodate for full height cards. My next tuner purchase will be the Ceton CableCard tuner which is a full height card so it won’t work in this chassis. Despite these two things this is hands down the best HTPC chassis I’ve seen. If all the cards you want to use are available in half height configurations this is THE chassis for you!

The vCase3 is available now from VidaBox for $299, but keep an eye out for a black Friday deal that will knock a nice chunk off.

Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse, review, story, media center-Windows 7, media center, htpc

Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 to ship November 24th

Ian Dixon — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 13:47:29 GMT

Microsoft have officially announced that Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 is going to released next Tuesday (24th) via Windows Update. PP3 includes improved Windows 7 support and a great Windows Media Center addin

Details from the Windows Home Server blog

Windows 7 Libraries integration

When you install the Windows Home Server Connector and log on a computer running Windows 7, you can access the Windows Home Server shared folders from the Windows 7 libraries.

Windows 7 Action Center backup warning suppression

After you install the Windows Home Server Connector to enable the home server backup for your computer running Windows 7, you can suppress the Action Center warning reminding you that Windows Backup has not been set up.

Windows 7 power settings

You can configure your computer running Windows 7 to wake up at a scheduled backup time and then go back to sleep after the backup finishes.

 Console support for Windows 7

Windows 7 is properly displayed as the operating system shown in the Computers & Backup tab.

Windows Search

Windows Search 4 is included to improve query search times, indexing times, and reliability. Extended Remote Discovery increases the efficiency of searching across all your libraries running Windows Search 4. Files encrypted with EFS are now supported.

TV archive

Windows Home Server can automatically archive recorded TV by moving your recordings from a Windows Media Center computer to your home server in the format of your choice. This enables playback in the correct format for your home computers and/or portable devices.

Console view

You can view information about your home server’s storage space, hard drives, backup status, and more from Windows Media Center.

Complete details are available in the Power Pack 3 Release Documentation.

Sky Player for Media Center launches today (officially)

Ian Dixon — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:14:37 GMT

I noticed that the Sky Player addin for Windows Media Center launched on Tuesday but apparently the official launch is today. On the Windows Media Center team blog they have the official announcement:

Watch TV from Sky Live and On-Demand with Windows 7

A new world of high quality television programming is now open to Windows Media Centre users in the United Kingdom as Sky Player on Windows 7 launches today. That’s more than 500 movies available anytime from SkyMovies and thousands of programmes from 24 channels – all delivered to your PC, on your schedule. There’s plenty of great live sporting action, including Barclay’s Premier League, UEFA Champion’s League football and loads more.

Windows 7 and Sky makes TV on your PC easy

Sky Player brings Windows 7 users a huge range of entertainment, literally thousands of hours of TV and movies on demand, including live sports, drama, documentaries, kids shows, culture and news. Search for shows using keywords, browse programme galleries or scroll through the familiar on screen guide. SkyPlayer in Windows 7 is compatible with any Media Center remote.

See it in action

Click here for a video demonstration.

Already have Windows 7? You’re ready to go...

If you already have Windows 7, click here to launch Sky Player now.

Upgrading to Windows 7? Check out this Special Offer!

To celebrate the launch of Sky Player on Windows 7, Sky and Microsoft are offering three months of Sky Player for the price of two with any Windows 7 purchase. Those who already have Windows 7 can subscribe to the offer via the Sky Player sign in page in Windows Media Centre.

Notes

Sky Media Player is supported on the final release version of Windows 7. Users running pre-release versions of Windows 7 such as Beta version and Release Candidate 1 version should upgrade to the final release of Windows 7 to access Sky Media Player on Windows 7.
To watch Sky Player with Windows 7 you need an effective broadband connection of 2Mbit/s or more.

For more details or to sign up, visit www.microsoft.com/uk/skyplayer or http://skyplayer.sky.com/watch/windows-media-center/.

Podcast: The Media Center Show #231 – Tagging your photos

Ian Dixon — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:04:00 GMT

This week on the show long term listener Brian Frost talks photo tagging and how to get the most of your photos in Windows Media Center. Brian has some great tips on the methods and the tools needed to make the most of your photo collection. I posted Brian’s tips on the TDL Wiki

I have the weeks news and details of the the new app store for Windows Media Center: MadeforMediaCenter.com

[mp3]http://media.libsyn.com/media/iandixon/TDL_MediaCenter_20091119_231.mp3[/mp3]

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Vote for the show on podcast Alley - Join The Media Center Show Group on Facebook - Join the Windows Live Group - Follow me on Twitter

Listen to TDL Mobile, the show all about the mobile lifestyle!
Links from this weeks show

Music by Ian Dixon

Clubhouse tags: clubhouse, media center, windows media center, how-to

The Media Center Show #231 – Tagging your photos

Ian Dixon — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 11:24:00 GMT

I have the weeks news and details of the the new app store for Windows Media Center: MadeforMediaCenter.com

[mp3]http://media.libsyn.com/media/iandixon/TDL_MediaCenter_20091119_231.mp3[/mp3]

Listen Here (download mp3) - Subscribe via iTunes - Subscribe via RSS - Subscribe with Zune

Vote for the show on podcast Alley - Join The Media Center Show Group on Facebook - Join the Windows Live Group - Follow me on Twitter

Listen to TDL Mobile, the show all about the mobile lifestyle!

Links from this weeks show

Music by Ian Dixon

Clubhouse tags: clubhouse, media center, windows media center, how-to

TDL Mobile Show #16

J. Ortiz — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 06:04:00 GMT

Although this show was recorded back on Monday, my mind seemed to drift away as I forgot to mix and publish the show! Nonetheless, show 16 is here and it's a short one this week. Sheldon and I rehash a few of the week's news stories with a couple of apps of the week. Enjoy the short show as we expect Jon to join us again on show 17!

[mp3]http://media.libsyn.com/media/iandixon/TDLMobileShow016.mp3[/mp3]

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Show Notes

Xperia X10 "brings the snappy"! - Sheldon
...And gets an official Launch Date (Feb 2010) - Sheldon

Second Samsung Android Phone (i5700) confirmed

Another passionate Mac developer (Rogue Ameoba) quits iPhone development

First Bada Handset Leaks

Windows Marketplace Release to WM 6.0 & 6.1

Open Table App Leads To Noticeable Revenue

Chrome OS Coming?

HTC Looking at Netbook Possibilities

  Hikari launch iFrame Android Powered tablet, beats Apple to the punch

App of the Week
  Facebook comes to the pre
  Bedside 3.0

MadeforMediaCenter.com Q&A

Ian Dixon — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:45:40 GMT

Mike Garcen has a Q&A with Andrew Cherry my partner in MadeforMediaCenter.com, Andrew answers Mike questions on subject like where the idea came from and how we test the applications. If your interesting in the new app store its well worth reading and don’t forget their are forums on TDL for discussing MadeforMediaCenter.com

So what better way to get answers to this new product than to ask the creator itself! Andrew took the time out of his busy schedule to answer some Q&A I had for him, and he even promised to check in at our forums if there are more questions!

Good Morning Mr. Cherry (or good evening). Can you tell us a little bit about yourself for starters?

Andrew Cherry: Well, I've been a fan of Media Center since MCE2005 came out, and a developer of Media Center addins almost since then. I run a company called Digital Living Solutions which develops Media Center add-ins and related apps for OEMs and third parties. I'm also a Microsoft MVP for Media Center, based on my contributions to the Media Center development community.

Who thought of the idea and why?
AC: It's an idea I've been kicking around for quite a while - since the end of 2007 in fact (that's when I registered the domain name), but it's something that I'd not done much about other than talk about it to various people until Ian Dixon contacted me about setting up an "app store" for Media Center.

continuing the Q&A at Missing Remote

Sky Player live in Windows Media Center

Ian Dixon — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:29:26 GMT

It looks like Sky and Microsoft have put the Media Center Sky Player service live. I noticed that the coming soon line on the Sky Player had gone and that I could install the application. As well as the TV addin there is also a Sky Movies icon in the Movies strip. You need to register to watch the content, if your a sky subscriber you get automatic access to lots of the content and if your not you can pay a monthly fee or purchase individual shows.

As I don’t pay for Sky and am not about to this is as far as I could test it, so here are a select of screen shots and if you are a subscriber give it a test and let me know how you get on with it

Introducing MadeforMediaCenter – The app store for Windows Media Center

Ian Dixon — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 13:17:00 GMT

I want to introduce a project that has been consuming a lot of my time over the last few weeks: MadeforMediaCenter.com. Made for Media Center is an app store for Windows Media Center. Developed with fellow MVP Andrew Cherry of Digital Living Solutions the app store aims to brings together the fantastic selection 3rd party Windows Media Center applications and make them available directly in the 10 foot UI.

As well as being available in the Media Center UI there is also a web based version where you can browse, search and download the applications. The site is in private beta at the moment and we are looking for developers to help test the system and start submitting apps, then we will open a public beta.

The first phase of the rollout will focus on free apps and we will look at paid applications at a later date

Here are some of the features:

10 foot native Windows Media Center UI for searching and installing applications
Web based app store with category and full text searching
Notifications of application updates
Community rating and reviews
Featured apps
Application publisher accounts with stats
Social networking features

The site is open for browsing and you can request a user account, we will be approving accounts over a period of time during the beta stage. You can also follow 4MediaCenter on twitter for updates and news

Here are some screenshots

Windows Home Server Power Pack 3 coming next week

Ian Dixon — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:32:26 GMT

According to Phil Churchill Windows Home Server PP3 will be released next week. Power Pack 3 includes much improved Media Center integration including a WHS console view in Media Center and TV archiving. When the beta was launched I posted a video over which you can watch here

Sean Daniel who is the Program Manager for SBS (Small Business Server) at Microsoft has posted that Power Pack 3 will be available next week.

Using his Twitter account, Sean posted:

Ahh… my #WHS is running Power Pack 3 RTM. Look for yours next week!

BBC announces timetable for Freeview HD signal availability

Ian Dixon — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:09:16 GMT

Yesterday the BBC announced the timetable for Freeview HD. Next month my local region Manchester will go live and by the end of March 2010 London, Glasgow, Newcastle, Leeds, Bradford and Birmingham receive HD signals

I have yet to see a Media Center compatible tuner on sale yet but I am keeping my eyes open

New DVB-T2 technology will deliver an increase in capacity of 67% to the BBC's Multiplex B, efficiently creating the space needed for UK public service broadcasters' HD transmissions. The UK will be the first country in the world to launch this new standard, and its successful implementation is the result of pioneering work by the BBC in collaboration with partners including Ofcom, Arqiva, Siemens and receiver manufacturers. To view Freeview HD, audiences will need equipment containing this new technology. Freeview HD receivers (set-top boxes, digital television recorders and integrated televisions) will be available from early 2010.

More details from the BBC

My Shark 007 Win7 Codec Configuration

cw-kid — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 07:00:00 GMT

I’ve been in Codec hell again lately, ever since first connecting a Windows 7 Media Center PC to an AVR and wanting to get 5.1 surround sound working. Previously I was in bliss with a 2.0 speaker setup on my Media Center at home and had no codec / playback issues what so ever.

I also wanted to make my MKV’s look better on the XBOX 360 MCX, as with the Shark 007 codec pack and the native Windows 7 transcoding of MKV’s to the extender the video quality looked pretty bad.

First thing I tried was the DIVX Tech Preview, however I was unable to get anything other than 2 channel PCM on the HTPC when it was installed and my MKV’s didn’t really look any better on the extender, not sure why? I also found the DIVX Tech Preview pretty unstable for me. Allot of people have been raving about this Tech Preview, I guess I must be missing something.

I then tried just the Haali Media Splitter Alpha for Windows 7 and I was able to play my MKV’s and get 5.1 audio pass through to the AVR but on some of the MKV’s I would get bad pixelated blocky pictures, I also get the same thing happening when using Shark 007 but I have a fix for this which is covered later on.

In the end I’ve gone back to using Shark 007, however initially with Shark when using the AC3Filter I was unable to get 5.1 audio on AVI files (XVID) that had AC3 in them, in fact Media Center would not even play these movies and would error. I was able to get 5.1 audio however on MKV’s with AC3/DTS.

If I un-checked the Use SPDIF options in AC3Filter settings, my AVI’s with AC3 then played OK, but I lost the 5.1 audio on the MKV's so at this point I was going around in circles.

I finally cracked my configuration and below is now how I have Shark 007 configured under Windows 7 (32 bit). My system is based on a Gigabyte GA-MA785GPM-UD2H motherboard which has an onboard ATI Radeon HD 4200 graphics processor. The PC is connected for video and sound via an HDMI cable to a Harmon Kardon AVR 255 which in turn is hooked up to the HDTV via HDMI.

The PC has the latest drivers installed from ATI and also from Realtek for the audio devices both the Digital Optical (Not in use) and the HDMI audio device.

The first setting I changed was a newish setting on the Realtek / ATI High Definition Audio Device properties on the custom tab. Ticking this option allows audio pass through.

I then installed the Shark 007 pack with the full installation option. The following screen shots show the options I have changed, if you cannot see a particular tab from the Shark 007 program that means I did not change any settings on that tab and used the defaults.

TV/Projector
No Subtitles
Disable AC3Filter

5.1
FFDShow – Use passthrough
Enable Audio normalization

When the Use Microsoft codec (default) option is selected some of my MKV’s don’t play properly and I get the blocky pixelations as shown in the screen shot above. Enabling Use FFDshow’s codec option sorts this right out and cures the problem. Worth noting however I don’t have any live TV on this Media Center due to my locale so something to keep in mind?

I found that MKV’s with AC3 audio were crashing Media Center so I had to go in to the FFDShow audio configuration and change the decoder for AC3 to liba52.

Finally click on Output at the bottom and ensure AC3 and DTS are checked for pass-through.

With this configuration I am finally able to play all my files in Windows 7 Media Center connected to the AVR:

AVI's (XVID) with AC3 (Dolby Digital)

AVI''s (XVID) with MPEG (MP3) (2CH PCM)

MKV's with AC3 / DTS

MKV’s with AAC (2CH PCM) *

DVD rips VIDEO_TS (VOB's) with AC3 / DTS

Blu-ray ISO's with AC3 / DTS (PowerDVD9)

* The only thing I’d like to be able to do is encode on the fly MKV’s with AAC to AC3 but I haven’t figured this out yet. What are you doing with MKV’s that have AAC audio tracks?

I’ve set this up on two different PC’s and so far it seems to be working well, I’m not saying this is the only or best way to do things as I’m not a codec guru but it’s the way I was able to get my files all playing with audio pass-through in 7MC.

However my MKV’s still look bad quality on my XBOX 360 MCX, so I’ve started converting all my MKV’s to WTV using DVR-MS Toolbox, so maybe then I won’t need any codec / packs installed Amen to that!

Some related forum threads.

Shark 007 - Cannot play AVI's with AC3 audio - Using AC3Filter

How to configure AC3Filter with DIVX Tech Preview?

Entertainment 2.0-Episode 53: Digital Cable and 3rd Party Apps

Athursby — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 12:42:00 GMT

We didn’t have as much listener response this week and while we miss it, it did give us time to catch up with some of the latest Media Center news out there. We took time to discuss the Digital Cable Advisor Tool as well as several 3rd party apps that recently became available for Media Center.

The first thing we go over this week is the Digital Cable Advisor Tool. This is the new download from Microsoft which allows you to know whether or not your PC is DCT ready. This along with the relaxed ATI CableCard Tuner firmware were released last last week and if you’ve been waiting to get that HD content into your Media Center from your cable company, your wait is over. As well, Josh and Adam take time to discuss to newer 3rd party plugins. One isn’t exactly new but it has been updated for Windows 7 and you can find links to both in the show notes:

Digital Cable Advisor Tool
New ATI Firmware
Heatwave for Windows 7
WTV Watcher

Click here to download Episode 53!

Be sure and follow us on Twitter!

You can always use our contact page to reach us, leave a comment below or call and leave us a voicemail at 1-877-856-4933.

Don’t forget, Show Analyzer is the only commercial skipping solution available for Windows 7. You can support our show by supporting our sponsor!

	Entertainment 2.0 Subscriptions

VidaBox vCase3 Premium Chassis unboxing

mabrown — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 05:15:00 GMT

In the coming weeks VidaBox will be releasing their new vCase Premium chassis for the DIY crowd. This half height chassis was designed from the ground up with HTPC users in mind. VidaBox took a little different approach to their case design then most other half height case’s I’ve seen in that while it is designed for Micro ATX or Mini ITX motherboards it also uses a full sized power supply and optical drive, can hold 3 hard drives and has a built in card reader, which pretty much means you can build a powerhouse of a machine in small chassis.

Over the next few days I’m going to be building a pretty sweet DIY HTPC around this case and I’ll have a full review of how everything went, for now here are some unboxing pictures.

Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse, media center, story, review, htpc, Media Center-Windows 7

A bit more news from DVBLogic and 1Geek1Tool

Garry [WMA] — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 03:18:00 GMT

Really pleased to see this post from Oberon over at DVBLogic's forum:

We are working hard on DVBLink v2. Alpha may be expected next week (5-10 days).
DVBLink TVSource will be released next week. Users of DVBLink TVSource will get free upgrade to DVBLink TVSource v2.

DVBLink2 looks like it might be very exciting and I will do a more indepth post when it is released. TVSource is already working very well and is a great way of getting unsupported sources into Media Center (Or even supported ones - I know someone who has added another 4 DVB tuners using it - 8 Freeview Tuner's anyone, I know that sounds crazy but when you have lots of extenders it makes much more sense)

Also over at www.1Geek1Tool.com you may have missed there has been an update to DVBLink for HDPVR (see my Virgin Cable article) which adds some really good new features:

Added a “Stream Saver” feature to get rid of the infamous “No TV Signal” message. That is, if the HD PVR Streaming is lost, we feed a dummy stream that Media Center continues recording “unknowingly”. This way, if you have an “on-device-error-power-cycle” hook present, Media Center won’t abort your recording.

Added support for sub-channel numbers (ex: 700.1 or 700-1)

Much improved MCE Compatible IR support (fixed the frequency bug AND the port selection)

Improvements and bug fixes to line-up editor.

Added the ability to change the “set-top-box” number for your channels in your line-up.

This last one is really useful for UK cable box viewers.

One thing I don't like with this new release is it forces you to turn of UAC (the security prompting in Vista and 7) I personally think this is a really bad thing = those prompts are there to protect the unsuspecting form malicious code turning them off should be the very last resort. I have always managed to install the app without turning off UAC by running Media Center and some of the components as administrator and I would like the option to continue doing so. I don't really want to knock the guys over at 1Geek1Tool because they have made some fantastic media center software including the awesome GuideTool which has also been updated.

Now up to V1.2.1 this version of Guide Tool includes a lineup configuration backup/restore operation. 1Geek1Tool are requiring a paypal donation (minimum 5$) for this feature to become enabled - I think that is a real bargain

More information over at

www.1geek1tool.com

and

www.dvblogic.com

Port your recording schedule from Vista MC (pre-TV Pack) to Windows 7 upgrade

Ian Dixon — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:05:11 GMT

If your ready to move up to Windows 7 but are worried about loosing your recording schedules then worry no more. On the Windows Media Center Team Blog they have a solution for porting your recordings from Vista (pre-TV pack) to Windows 7:

Important note: This method is to port ONLY the schedule entries, and NOT other settings such as the recorded TV location, recording history, NOR the existing recordings themselves.

Back up the recordings.xml found under %programdata%\microsoft\ehome\recording to a flash or backup drive (one whose data will not be destroyed as you install the new Windows 7 OS).

Note: programdata is a hidden folder in the root of the OS drive. One way to get to it is by typing %programdata% into the Start | Search box and then hit Enter.

Do a clean install of Windows 7.
Create a new folder %programdata%\microsoft\ehome\recording and copy to it the recordings.xml backed up in step #1 above
Launch Media Center and go through TV signal setup.

At the end of the setup, all recording scheduled entries found in the recordings.xml will be imported into Media Center.

The indexing of the Guide can take a while, so please give it some time for the scheduled entries to show up under Recorded TV | view scheduled. You can also verify whether the series are imported successfully by checking under Recorded TV | view scheduled | series.

Thanks Danny!

via the Windows Media Center Team Blog

Boxee working on a set top box

Ian Dixon — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:37:56 GMT

I like Boxee as a way of watching internet content and it looks like the platform is going from strength to strength. Today they have announced they are working with a hardware partner on a Boxee set top box. For a long time the Media Center community have wondered if a dedicated Media Center box would be a good idea and Boxee’s idea looks like a good one but for me I love the flexibility of a PC running Boxee and Media Center

I am very happy to announce we have signed our first partnership with a CE company. At this point we can not say more about the partner or the specs of the device, but we can tell you we are working closely with them to make sure we deliver a great Boxee experience on it.

We will show mockups of the box and share more details at our upcoming Boxee Beta Unveiling event in Brooklyn, NY on Dec 7th. RSVP here.

Over the next few years there will be a great change in the way we consume entertainment on our TV. The Internet is (finally) coming to the TV and with it will come a whole new world of content, applications and innovations.

Via engadget and the Boxee blog

Next Week the TV Transforms when Social Networking, Music and Movies Come Alive on Xbox 360

Ian Dixon — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:24:11 GMT

It looks like the update for the Xbox 360 is coming next week. Microsoft seem to be getting more and more features into the Xbox 360, its just a shame both of mine are at Microsoft for repair! Here is Microsoft’s press release:

Next Week the TV Transforms when Social Networking, Music and Movies Come Alive on Xbox 360

Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm and Zune video Launch Nov. 17 on Xbox LIVE

The topic du jour was all about TV, but this morning at NewTeeVee Live – an industry conference that explores the future of television – Xbox LIVE general manager Marc Whitten confirmed the next wave of social entertainment is coming to Xbox LIVE on November 17. Starting next week, Facebook, Twitter, Last.fm and instant on HD video from Zune will be available on Xbox 360 consoles, transforming Xbox LIVE into the largest social network connected to the TV with exclusive features custom-designed for the living room.

“We’re delivering some truly exciting social entertainment experiences to our members,” said Whitten. “Xbox LIVE’s differentiator has always been our community, and we’ve already seen a tremendous response to these features in our public preview. It’s the community that drives us forward and allows us to pioneer new ways of connecting people through the entertainment they love.”

· Facebook*– Update your status to share what movie, game or entertainment you’re enjoying, connect with friends and view their Facebook stream, status updates and photos on the big screen – all seamlessly integrated and custom-built for Xbox 360. You can even compare your Xbox LIVE and Facebook friends lists to see which of your friends are on LIVE.

· Zune – Zune video on Xbox LIVE offers a full fidelity experience with instant on HD in 1080p and 5.1 channel surround sound. No waiting for downloads or buffering, it’s there at the press of a button. You can also share the experience with up to seven friends through voice chat and Avatar integration on the TV screen – it puts a whole new spin on “movie night.”

· Twitter*– Stay in the know by discovering, posting and replying to Tweets right on your Xbox 360. You can even view friend profiles, trends and conversations, or search to see who’s tweeting about your favorite game.

· Last.fm* – Discover more music and explore endless personalized radio stations with Last.fm on Xbox 360. Skip, “ban” or “love” tracks to create your perfect mix—we’ve even built in “Gamer Stations” with game-related types of music selected specifically for the gaming community (Available in the U.S. and UK)

In addition to these social features, Xbox LIVE will also be debuting “News and More,” a new section of the “Inside Xbox” channel, transforming Xbox LIVE into a full-fledged media portal. With a regularly-updated stream of content from MSNBC, The New Yorker and Dilbert, “News and More” brings the latest in current events, arts and entertainment right to your fingertips.

All of these features build on the wild success of Netflix on Xbox LIVE, which quickly established Xbox 360 as the most-used living room device for streaming Netflix content to the home¹. Only on Xbox 360 can you find the best in movies, music, games and social networking all in one place, tailor-made for the TV and connected to more than 20 million people around the globe.

“From the launch of Xbox LIVE nearly seven years ago, to milestones like Video Marketplace, Netflix and the New Xbox Experience, we’ve continued working toward our vision of connected entertainment for everyone,” continued Whitten. “I’m proud to say that next week marks another great stride in fulfilling that promise, and we’re already imagining what the future has in store.”

So what are you waiting for? On November 17, turn on your Xbox 360, log onto Xbox LIVE and enjoy the world of social entertainment at your fingertips. Not an Xbox LIVE Gold member? Starting November 20 (12 pm ET / 9 am PT) until November 23 (12 pm ET / 9 am PT) Xbox LIVE Silver members can enjoy the latest Gold features for FREE – including Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm! There’s tons more to experience with Gold as well. Play the latest game titles like “Halo 3: ODST” online multiplayer, participate in “1 vs. 100,” host an Xbox LIVE Party or even video chat with friends. All of these Gold-only features will be available all weekend long for anyone to try.

* Xbox LIVE Gold adult account required to access these features. Xbox LIVE Gold memberships are just over $4 (U.S.) per month

** Xbox LIVE members under the age of 18 will not be able to access Facebook and Twitter as part of the Free Gold Weekend

¹ Source: One Touch Intelligence (www.onetouchintelligence.com), from October 2009 survey conducted in association with The Praxi Group, Inc.

TDL Mobile Show #15

J. Ortiz — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:10:00 GMT

A late show is better than no show. Life seemed to keep us from delivering the show on time this week but we managed to put something together nonetheless. Jon is still absent but makes a little cameo this week. With little time to waste, we have a little freestyle delivery of stories starting with a major case of "Rick Rolling" and throwing in some new handset announcement and releases for good balance. We also have a nice giveaway this week courtesy of Sheldon: Google Wave invites! Want to know how to get one? You'll have to listen to the show, but there is a cutoff to enter the drawing. You must post, e-mail, or catch us on Twitter by 11:59 PM EST on Saturday, November 14, 2009. That would be 8:59 PM PST and 7:59 AM (of Sunday, Nov. 15) GMT. Twitter and e-mail info can be found below. Enjoy the show!

[mp3]http://media.libsyn.com/media/iandixon/TDLMobileShow015.mp3[/mp3]

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Show Notes

iPhone worm cripples handsets with Rick Astley

SE XPERIA X10 Announced

NVIDIA Tegra 2 Doubles Power

Samsung launches BADA - Rival to Android?

N900 Ships Out

HTC HD2 Ships

Driod Sells 100,000 Units First Week

Motorola MILESTONE Official

AT&T Sues Verizon for Ad

T-Mobile and Orange sign final Agreement for Merger

O2 offers free home broadband to iPhone customers with tethering

Garmin New Area Series

App of the Week

Slacker Radio: Android

NASA iPhone App: iPhone
Sky Sports & News Mobile TV: iPhone

@JoseROrtiz; @SheldonW; @jondickinson

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Podcast:The Media Center Show #230 - Vision Audio

Ian Dixon — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 12:16:00 GMT

This week on the show I have Dustin Anderson from Vision Audio winners of the 2009 Windows Media Center Ultimate Installer competition. Vision Audio installed a fantastic solution at a home in Texas with over 30 audio zone and 13 displays. Dustin will be explaining why they selected Windows Media Center and how talks about the components used in the installation.I catch up on email and look at the news items making the blogs.

[mp3]http://media.libsyn.com/media/iandixon/TDL_MediaCenter_20091112_230.mp3[/mp3]

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Vote for the show on podcast Alley - Join The Media Center Show Group on Facebook - Join the Windows Live Group - Follow me on Twitter

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Links from this weeks show

Music by Ian Dixon

Clubhouse tags: clubhouse, media center, windows media center, how-to

The Media Center Show #230 - Vision Audio

Ian Dixon — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:29:00 GMT

[mp3]http://media.libsyn.com/media/iandixon/TDL_MediaCenter_20091112_230.mp3[/mp3]

Listen Here (download mp3) - Subscribe via iTunes - Subscribe via RSS - Subscribe with Zune

Vote for the show on podcast Alley - Join The Media Center Show Group on Facebook - Join the Windows Live Group - Follow me on Twitter

Listen to TDL Mobile, the show all about the mobile lifestyle!
Links from this weeks show

Music by Ian Dixon

Clubhouse tags: clubhouse, media center, windows media center, how-to

New games for Zune HD

Ian Dixon — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:55:59 GMT

I saw Mary-Jo Foley’s blog about new games for the Zune HD so I checked the Zune store and there were the new apps. There are games like Project Gotham Racing, Audiosurft Tilt, pool and a Piano app. In total there are six free games and some make good use of the Zune hardware with multi-touch and the accelerometer. See Mary-Jo’s post for the details

There is also a Facebook and Twitter app in the works too, I am off to play PGR!

BBC’s DRM Plan blocked

Ian Dixon — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:12:00 GMT

It looks like the BBC’s Freeview DRM plan has been blocked by Ofcom (the UK regulator). With the launch of Freeview HD service due next month the BBC wanted to introduce DRM to the HD channels that would prevent redistribution of its HD content. The plan was to let users freely record HD content in SD and restrict recording of HD, but Ofcom has blocked the move calling saying its trying to "enact a form of encryption through the backdoor."

Its good that when/if Freeview HD comes to Media Center that that we will be able to record and move around files freely but the lack of anti-piracy could see content providers not wanting to put their premium content on the service

via Techradar

Podcast: The Custom Integrator Show Installment 020

Ian Dixon — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 09:00:22 GMT

The latest edition of The Custom Integrator Show is out:

This time we dive right into how the High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) handshaking works with HDMI. Before we get started, however, we provide an update/correction to some of the statements we made in our previous discussions on HDMI regarding the bandwidth it takes to support different resolutions and frame rates.

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Checkout the rest of the post for Derek’s diagrams

WTV watcher update

simonster — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:38:00 GMT

Last week I blogged about a new project I found on codeplex called WTVWatcher that delivers a fantastically simple process for decommercialising TV shows recorded in Windows Media Center with Windows 7. Well a weeks rolled on and thanks in tiny part to encouragement from readers of this blog Paul has updated the tool, actually twice. The new version includes a GUI rather than a console, runs in the notification area (which is sweet) and the GUI pops things up like toast.

It’s nice, I think you’ll like it too.

With this update it’s really clear to see what’s happening and Paul’s lost none of the simplicity. The tools easier to work with now too. There’s a wrench icon that lets you set the location of your recorded TV, that WTV Watcher will watch, and that’s about all there is to it.

The extra new feature is also handy, there’s now an installer with auto update.

So here are the new steps to getting it working, all 5 steps

Install the tool from here
Set your Recorded TV folder by clicking the wrench
Move the desktop shortcut to your Start > All Programs > Startup folder
Install Lifextender
Configure Lifextender as per the next image.

TIP: It’s possible to do the conversion your network and if you’ve got a fast network it can be quicker if your main Media Center isn’t a massive multi core system