Stuart's Blog

How to launch 3rd Party MCE add-in with a Logitech Harmony remote

cw-kid — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:55:00 GMT

Following up on my recent post entitled How to launch Media Center directly in to a 3rd party app, I’ve been looking at how to launch My Movies and RadioTime MCE using a Logitech Harmony 550 universal remote control.

Searching on the internet it seems some people on Vista Media Center were using macros to move the cursor up / down, left /right on the MCE menu to click on the My Movies icon, which is not ideal and wouldn’t work on 7mc anyways.

Others were using software such as Intelliremote or ControlRemote however I did not want any additional software installed and running in order to achieve this.

So I have used a keyboard shortcut method, however there is one issue with this, you need a Microsoft MCE 2005 IR keyboard to teach the Harmony the IR codes of the keyboard shortcuts. Luckily for me I had one of these MCE keyboards kicking about the place.

First thing I did was to create two new shortcuts for Windows Media Center one to launch My Movies and the other to launch RadioTimeMCE. I used the method I described in my last post here to create these shortcuts. I didn’t want them on the desktop so I created a folder in my Start Menu called MCE Custom Shortcuts.

In this folder are my two Media Center shortcuts:

Windows Media Center – My Movies

Target: %windir%\ehome\ehshell.exe /entrypoint:{8984aed5-7c9d-42f0-b2ad-c39bbcf04a25}\{810d7b87-1300-4aed-a700-1c6179f8f14b}

Windows Media Center – RadioTime MCE

Target: %windir%\ehome\ehshell.exe /entrypoint:{4c36cf23-bf48-4f93-86c5-78009734d21a}\{4c36cf23-bf48-4f93-86c5-78009734d21b}

Windows Media Center - HeatWave

Target: %windir%\ehome\ehshell.exe /entrypoint:{07bb2735-4d20-4404-bc1a-aa13761f3e9e}\{574a685e-fc95-4f8d-9c37-500d772e526a}

Now we need to assign some keyboard shortcuts to these Windows Media Center shortcut icons.

Note: Important, only create your keyboard shortcut key after you have moved the custom shortcuts to the start menu. As the first time I created the icons on the desktop, then set the keyboard shortcut keys and then moved them from the desktop to the start menu, however I found the keyboard shortcuts then did not work so I had to remove them and add them again.

Creating the keyboard shortcut keys:

Right click on the first Windows Media Center shortcut from the start menu as shown above in this case the My Movies one. Select properties from the menu.

Click in to the Shortcut key field with your mouse and then enter a key combination on the keyboard. You can probably use any thing you like here I used Ctrl + Alt + M

Click Apply and then OK.

Now repeat this process for any other icons you are setting up, in this case the RadioTime MCE one.

For this one I used Ctrl + Alt + R

Test that they work by entering the newly created Keyboard shortcut keys and ensure Media Center is launched into the correct 3rd party add-in.

Ok now our Media Center PC is configured we need to use the MCE 2005 IR keyboard and the Harmony software.

I am presuming your have already added your Media Center PC so just click the Learn IR button under the Media Center PC device.

Click for larger image

Scroll down to the bottom of the list and in the Learn a New Command type “My Movies” and then click the Learn New Command button.

Click for larger image

Now this is where the MCE 2005 IR keyboard comes in to play, line it up with the Harmony remote control and then enter the keyboard shortcut key you setup earlier on the Media Center PC. In this case it was Ctrl + Alt + M

It should then say Key Detected, the Harmony software will ask you to confirm this key again and hopefully after that it has learnt the new IR code.

Click for larger image

Once you have successfully learnt the IR code repeat the process for any other shortcuts you are setting up, in my case I got the Harmony to learn another command called RadioTime using the Ctrl + Alt + R keyboard shortcut key.

Finish the wizard and click Done

Now you need to assign your new commands, in the Harmony software go back to the Device tab and click the Settings button on the Media Center PC device. Then select Adjust Inputs from the list and click Next.

On this screen I chose to delete the My DVDs and Radio inputs as these are for the inbuilt DVD / Movie Library and Radio area’s of Media Center which I won’t be using.

I then added two new inputs one called “My Movies” and one called RadioTime”

Click for larger image

On this next screen you assign the new inputs to your newly created commands that will now appear in the drop down list.

Assigning My Movies input to the My Movies command

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Assigning RadioTime input to the RadioTime command

Click for larger image

Finish the wizard and click Done.

Now save the changes to the remote control.

On my model the Harmony 550, I click the Devices button on the remote control, select Media Center and I can then scroll through the pages on the screen and see the new options My Movies and Radio time, when I press either one Media Center is launched in to the correct 3rd party application. Job done!

In addition you could assign your new commands to a custom button such as A or B for example.

Summary

I think this wasn’t such a bad way to set this up as you don’t need to install any additional software, the only downside is you need an MCE 2005 IR keyboard which you might not currently have.

Next I need to figure out how to change the page layout and item order that shows up on the remote controls LCD screen and bring my new entries to the first page.

HeatWave makes a come back for Seven MC

cw-kid — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:03:00 GMT

One of my favorite little Media Center add-ins HeatWave has made a come back for Windows 7 Media Center in the form or version 1.2

The author James aka MCExtended posted details on the TGB thread here.

You can download HeatWave from the links below:

32 bit

64 bit

Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse , story , media center , heatwave

How to launch Media Center directly in to 3rd party app

cw-kid — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:07:00 GMT

These command line switches have been covered before but I’ve seen a few posts recently with users asking how can I launch Media Center directly in to this or that third party Media Center add-in or into a particular area of media center itself.

I’ve just tested this out and I was able to launch 7MC directly in to Media Browser, My Movies 3 and TunerFree MCE, but this method should work for any third party entry point.

You can see a list of some of these command line switches here.

A new one for 7MC for example is: ehshell.exe /nostartupanimation which will launch 7MC without the fan fair start up animation.

Ok back to launching directly into our third party apps the command is:

ehshell.exe /entrypoint:{application_guid}\{entrypoint_guid}

So in this example I will show you how to look in the registry to find the application and entrypoint GUID’s for My Movies 3.0. but you can apply this method to any media center applications you have installed.

Open up the registry editor by running regedit

Navigate to the following area in the registry:

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Extensibility\Entry Points

In here you will now see a list of entry point GUID’s down the left hand side, as shown in the screen shot, click on each entry on the left hand side in turn and look in the right hand pane until you see the Media Center application you want to launch into. In this case My Movies.

Click the image for a larger view:

Make a note of the entry point GUID value in this case it was:

{810d7b87-1300-4aed-a700-1c6179f8f14b}

Now on the right hand side make a note of the application GUID value in this case it was:

{8984aed5-7c9d-42f0-b2ad-c39bbcf04a25}

Now I have all the information I need to launch my Media Center directly in to My Movies 3.0 and my finished command line is:

ehshell.exe /entrypoint:{8984aed5-7c9d-42f0-b2ad-c39bbcf04a25}\{810d7b87-1300-4aed-a700-1c6179f8f14b}

So now I can either just create a new desktop shortcut for Windows Media Center and include my /entrypoint switch or perhaps create my own .cmd file to launch media center.

Creating a new shortcut to ehshell.exe in the C:\Windows\ehome directory

Copy and paste your entire /entrypoint switch after ehshell.exe as shown below.

Now when I double click this new shortcut for Windows Media Center I am always taken straight into My Movies 3.0 or any other third party Media Center application of my choosing.

And as a bonus tip, run this command to launch 7MC straight in to Netflix:

windowsmediacenterapp:{e6f46126-f8a9-4a97-9159-b70b07890112}\{982ea9d3-915c-4713-a3c8-99a4688b7c59}?EntryPointParameters=

I’m assuming these are global GUID’s and will work for all users? Let me know.

How to move the Netflix & Internet TV 7MC start menu icons

cw-kid — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 04:22:00 GMT

Using Media Center Studio you can edit the Media Center Start Menu strips and icons. If you want to move the new Netflix and Internet TV icons to a custom menu strip you can!

Create a new custom menu or use an existing custom menu such as the one My Movies creates.

In this case I just created a new custom menu called custom menu.

Then move Promo (Movies1) for Netflix and Promo (Browse TV) for Internet TV to your custom menu strip. Save the changes in Media Center Studio.

Open Media Center and the Netflix and Internet TV icons should now appear on your custom menu strip.

Thanks to Advent for the tip about using the promo tiles.

Clubhouse Tags: Clubhouse , Media Center , How-to , Media Center Studio , Netflix , Internet TV

Media Center Studio

cw-kid — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 02:50:00 GMT

One of my favorite Media Center related applications has to be Media Center Studio which is the replacement of MC Menu Mender. Media Center Studio allows you to customize your Media Center setup by adding new themes and editing the Media Center start menu. The application is free and is developed by Advent from the Australian Media Center Community forums. You can download Media Center Studio from the website here.

Overview:

Media Center Studio is a free application for Windows Vista and Windows 7 that enables you to customize Windows Media Center. It is the successor of MC Menu Mender, bringing it up to date for Windows 7 and adding support for theme application and editing.

Features:

Edit your start menu - rearrange or disable native menu items
Create your own menu strips, and your own items to go in them
Monitors your application and returns to Media Center when it exits
Set up a button on your remote to exit your application
Create menu items that take you to native Media Center pages, or start media
Apply themes to Media Center
Create new themes or edit existing ones

Themes:

Start Menu:

Clubhouse Tags: Clubhouse , story , Media Center , Media Center Studio

7MC Netflix – Screen shots

cw-kid — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:18:00 GMT

The new Netflix application has changed from the Vista version and looks more integrated in to the Windows 7 Media Center overall style with the overlays.

Also there are 13 genre pivots along the top, I seem to think this is more than was visible in Vista? Search looks the same to me.

Click the images for larger views:

Netflix released for Windows 7 Media Center

cw-kid — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:55:00 GMT

Looks like Netflix has been pushed out for 7MC, my machine has just picked up the icon and I was able to install the Netflix add-in software.

7MC new Internet TV with wait for it…. Flash!

cw-kid — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:52:00 GMT

I’ve just installed the new update for Internet TV which has replaced Internet TV beta 2 in Windows 7 Media Center and it’s a brand new UI and looks pretty slick, one massive surprise is that I was prompted to install an additional update for flash support inside Media Center, I’m still in shock lol and very excited I never expected to ever see native support for Flash in Media Center.

That’s the good news the bad news is that Internet TV is now locked down again and cannot be accessed by any old region as was the case with Internet TV beta 2 on the RTM.

Click the images for larger views of them:

OMG Flash inside of Media Center, Christmas has come earlier this year!

Native Flash playback inside Internet TV - 7MC.

This is the bad news.

Brought to you by CW Kid

MCE Plugin’s index

cw-kid — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 09:51:22 GMT

I just stumbled across this on the Green Button forums and thought it was well worth a mention. A TGB user called JonL has created a newly updated index / list of MCE plugin’s and related utilities.

I can imagine it must have took some time to do but it’s great to see a new list being managed and maintained.

You can check out the index on theHTPC.net here

My Movies 3.0 – It’s finished!

cw-kid — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 04:18:41 GMT

My Movies 3.0 is done and dusted it’s shipped already to the custom installers yesterday and is due for public release on October 22nd.

I was involved with the beta testing and if you haven’t seen me on the Green Button forums for a while, I’ve been hanging out over at the My Movies forums for the last few weeks instead.

Congratulations to Brian the developer of My Movies, I think we are all very pleased with how My Movies 3.0 has shaped up and he’s not finished yet, the development cycle will continue with My Movies 3.1 or 3.5 on the horizon. So lets hope our wish list items make it!

ASRock NetTop packs a punch!

cw-kid — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 02:14:00 GMT

On the bench today we have an ASRock NetTop, I have the ION 330 BD model.

Product Home page

Intel^® Atom™ 330 (Dual-Core CPU)

NVIDIA^® ION™ graphics processor

BD combo

After disappointing results with a Zotac ION motherboard I had high hopes for this little machine and I have to say it seems to be spot on. I gave it a fairly quick grilling running Windows 7 RTM with My Movies 3.0 PR11, PowerDVD9 Build 2201 with the Shark007 Seven Codec pack.

Supports 1080P video playback and it played my Blu-ray rips and MKV’s in Windows 7 Media Center / PowerDVD 9 without even breaking a sweat, the CPU usage always remained low around 10% peaking at maybe 17%

ASRock NetTop next to an Acer One NetBook.

This unit is not fan less but is pretty quiet and would be ideal for bedroom usage. Sporting Digital Optical (SPDIF), Analog audio jacks x3, Gigabit NIC, USB 2.0 X6, HDMI, VGA.

You can see just how small the NetTop is when compared to the diNovo Mini keyboard from Logitech.

I need to do some more testing but at first look this little NetTop is the small form factor Media Center PC we have been waiting for, overall I’m very impressed with it so far.

Intel finally release Windows 7 graphics drivers

cw-kid — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 11:18:00 GMT

I’ve just noticed on the Intel downloads website that they now have drivers listed for Windows 7. This is the first time I have seen this and I was previously using the Vista drivers for Windows 7.

I’ve just updated my graphics drivers for the Intel G45 express chipset on my motherboard. Not sure what took Intel so long to get these drivers out? But if you are running with an Intel graphics based system you might want to head over to their download site and update your drivers if you haven’t already.

The new drivers I downloaded today for my system have a date stamp of the 19/08/2009 version 15.15.4.1872. Or if your American 08/19/2009.

Part 2: My Movies for Windows Home Server

cw-kid — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 04:12:00 GMT

In part one we looked at the My Movies for WHS installation and configuration, now we need to install the My Movies client software on your VMC PC so you can manage your movie collection.

You can download the My Movies Client from the download page here.

Make sure you get the My Movies Client Edition for either x86 or x64 and not the My Movies Server and Client Edition.

My Movies Client installation

Once you have installed the software launch the My Movies Collection Management program. You should be prompted to enter the server name you want to connect to. Enter the name of your WHS box.

Note: I already had the My Movies Server and Client Edition installed on my Vista PC, so first I had to remove it from add/remove programs, I also removed all the MS SQL components as these were no longer required as they are now hosted on the WHS. And then just installed the My Movies Client Edition.

Once in the Collection Management program, my movie titles were then all listed on the left hand side. If you are doing a refresh installation with no previous database having been restored then you will see no titles listed here until some new ones have been added.

Setup Folder Monitoring

Select the Configure menu and then Options. Select Folder Monitoring. In here you add the paths to the folders you would like My Movies to Monitor.

Also select an Operating Type and Operating Location. I personally normally choose Confirmative in Collection Manager. But you may want the notifications to appear in Media Center when new titles are added, so you would change the Operating Location to Media Center.

My Movies will then auto detect the movies in the monitored folders and try it’s best to add a matching title in to the database.

I find that it is not always 100% accurate which is why I set it to Confirmative, so it asks me first before just adding an incorrect title.

I will now briefly run through adding a new movie title manually, you may do this if you are not using folder monitoring or you want to add titles for some of your movies that have not been detected.

Click the Title pull down menu and select Add Title or just click the Add Titles button the menu bar.

Go to the By Title tab enter the name of the movie or if you have the original disk you could use the By Barcode tab, select the country, I normally leave it on United States and select the type, DVD or Blu-ray etc. Then click on the search button.

Choose a title from the search results and click Add Online

Then browse to the folder where this movie is stored.

Once it has been added click Add to Owned for keeps button.

Note: I always use UNC paths rather than local ones like D:\Movies

For example: \\WHS\\Movies\HD\Gladiator

The Progress is then shown as My Movies downloads the information and adds the title to your database.

The title is then added.

Tip: Click the Disc(s) button you may find it has added more than one disk if the movie was listed as a two disk edition, when you only wanted one as you don’t have the second disk on your system. You can simply remove the second disk and save the title.

My Movies in Media Center

This is the My Movies version 2 user interface in Media Center, it is looking dated now as it’s HTML based and not a native MCML Media Center application, especially when compared to the likes of Media Browser.

However I am hoping that the new My Movies version 3 due for beta release in September, will be a suitable replacement to Media Browser as it goes commercial, I know I would prefer to use My Movies if I can.

Disk ripping process on the WHS

Audio CD’s:

After installing AnyDVD HD on the WHS, I inserted an Audio CD. I could see that the light on the DVD Drive was flashing away and I could hear it had spun up. After a few minutes the CD was ejected.

On my PC, I then browsed to the folder I had told My Movies for WHS to rip my audio CD’s to and in there I could see that it had created a folder for this artist with a sub folder with the albums name. In here I had WMA files and even a 500x500 resolution folder.jpg for the front cover sweet! This particular CD was 171 MB in file size that’s using WMA Lossless.

I then went in to my music library in Media Center but I could not see the new album. So I opened WMP11 and refreshed the library to add the album. My newly ripped album then appeared in WMP11/VMC. Man that was pretty simple. I guess if I was more patient the album would have eventually just appeared in Media Center of it’s own accord.

My Music Disc Copier in the WHS Console - Completed rip status Done.

DVD / Blu-ray / HDDVD:

I then dug out a DVD movie (The Big Lebowski) and inserted the disk in to the DVD drive on the WHS machine.

In the WHS Console you can go to the My Movies Disc Copier to see what’s happening.

I have to say I am pretty impressed with the ripping features in My Movies for WHS, I won’t be able to test a Blu-ray disk however as I don’t have a Blu-ray drive on the WHS box. But it makes it very easy for any family member to insert a disk in to the WHS and add it to the collection and for it to appear in Media Center.

Two things I would like to see however, support for ripping DVD’s to DVR-MS and the option to specify individual shared folders for DVD and Blu-ray. Rather than only being able to choose one folder for both.

Summary

I really like My Movies for Windows Home Server. I think if you already have a WHS in the house and you are also a Media Center user, it seems a no brainer to also have the My Movies database installed on the WHS for central access by all HTPC clients and to also take advantage of those easy to use ripping features. So simple anyone in the house can add content to the system.

Clubhouse Tags: Clubhouse”, Media Center”, Story”, My Movies for Windows Home Server”

Part1: My Movies for Windows Home Server

cw-kid — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 03:26:00 GMT

I recently decided to check out My Movies for Windows Home Server, in part one we will look at the installation and configuration.

If you have a WHS on your home network, it is the logical place to install your My Movies database and then your Windows Media Center PC clients can access this centrally stored information.

My Movies can be used to get rich metadata for your movie collection, there is a large online database and most titles can be found in there. Using My Movies is an easy way to get front covers, synopsis and actor information and more for each of your movie titles.

You can use My Movies own Media Center user interface to browse and play your movies, or you can use other third party plug-ins such as Media Browser and Open Media Library.

You can download My Movies for Windows Home Server here

Installation is easy just follow the wiki guide here

Once you have My Movies for Windows Home Server installed you need to configure it. This is also covered in the wiki guide.

If you don’t have a My Movies user account you will need to create one by registering on the My Movies forums here.

Below you can see some of the configuration options I setup.

The default country is United States, I also selected the option get data from the USA or UK if data isn’t found for your country.

I also selected Automatically create database backups, this will backup your My Movies database to a file in case you have any database issues later and you need to restore.

The default path is in the Software shared folder on the WHS.

My Movies Disc Copier

The disc copy service is not available in the free version of My Movies for Windows Home Server. This enables users to copy DVD’s, HD-DVD, Blu-ray and Audio CD’s simply by inserting a disk in to the Optical drive on the Windows Home Server.

You can however earn this feature if you have 1250 points. Contributor points are awarded by the My Movies service, for titles and information you add to the online database using the My Movies Collection Management program.

Alternatively you can purchase My Movies from an authorised dealer.

Note: if you wish to copy protected disks to your WHS then you will also need AnyDVD / AnyDVD HD installed on the server.

After installing a My Movies for Windows Home Server licence file, this option is then enabled.

Now you can select the format you want to rip the disc’s to?

DVD Target Format:

ISO File
VIDEO_TS Folder
MPEG-2 File
VIDEO_TS Folder and MPEG2 File

Blu-ray and HD DVD Target Format:

ISO File
BDMV or HDDVD Folder

I would rather see a DVR-MS option on the DVD Target Format over MPEG-2, as the FFWD/Skip works better on DVR-MS files on Media Center Extenders. But I have been told the developers are thinking about adding support for DVR-MS in the future, lets hope they do!

However as that option is not here, I am going to select MPEG-2 File. For Blu-ray I will use ISO File.

I’m not so sure about the next option. Store on Share. There is only the option to select one folder share. With my current setup my DVD rips and Blu-ray rips are in two different folders. This forces me to lump all my discs rips together in just one folder.

My Movies Meta Data

I’m going to go with the default options here and not change anything.

The main item to note here for Media Center users is that the top option is selected.

Store meta-data for Media Center DVD/Movie library (dvdid.xml files)

My Movies Monitor

Here you can tell My Movies which folders you want it to monitor for movies and which file extensions.

I’ve added in two folders one is my DVD folder the other is the Blu-ray folder. The list of file extensions is comprehensive and I did not need to add anything else in to the list. Don’t forget to hit the Start button!

My Music Disc Copier

This is new to me and something I have not seen before looking at the My Movies WHS add-in. You can rip Audio CD’s in Windows Media Center natively with what Microsoft have provided so it will be interesting to see what this My Movies feature adds to this area.

The service is not started by default.

Target Format options:

Free Lossless Audio Codec (.Flac)
MPEG-1 Audio Layer (.MP3)
Wave (.WAV)
Windows Media Audio (.WMA)

I’d usually select MP3 but WMA might be a better option because if you click the Configure button you can choose WMA Lossless.

From the Wiki:

“On the tab "My Music Disc Copier", you can choose to start the My Music Disc Copier service. You should also configure which target format you would like the Music Disc Copier to copy to - recommended is Windows Media Audio Lossless, since it does not decrease the audio quality of your music.”

Store on Share: here you select the shared folder where you store your music files.

There is also an option for Additional Mobile Format. With options for MP3 and WMA. I guess if your main music collection was all in Lossless .Flac for example you might use this option to have MP3’s on your mobile device.

Target Directory Name, I was happy with the default variable, other possible variables you can use are shown in yellow.

Target File Name, again I left this with the default variable.

Backup / Restore

I previously had an other Server/Client installation of My Movies on a Vista Media Center PC and I have a good clean database already from that installation, so I exported the data to a backup.mmb file using the My Movies Collection Management program on that PC and then imported it in to the WHS My Movies database using the WHS Console UI.

I don’t need to worry about the file paths being wrong for the movie titles, as they where looking at the WHS Video shared folder anyways using UNC paths \\WHS\Videos\Movies\DVD\Ronin etc, so everything should be good to go.

Obviously if you are starting from a refresh and do not have a previous My Movies database you want to restore then you won’t need to do this and you will just start from a blank database which is created during this setup, which you will then populate with your Movie titles as you rip them to your system.

Summary

In part two we will look at connecting the My Movies Collection Management program to our new My Movies database on the WHS. We will also have a look at some of the features in the Collection Management program and some of the My Movies features in the Media Center user interface.

Clubhouse Tags: Clubhouse”, Media Center”, Story”, My Movies for Windows Home Server”

An in depth look at Casa Tunes

cw-kid — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 05:18:00 GMT

Casa Tunes Review Document

Mirror Link

Ever since I first got in to Media Center, one of the first things I started searching for was a whole home audio solution that played nicely with Media Center. I liked the idea of being able to play the same music in two different rooms at the same time and for it to be in sync. I liked the idea of being able to play different music in different rooms at the same time and also to have a party mode where all rooms would play the same music at the same time. Zoned Audio!

Unfortunately Windows Vista / Seven Media Center does not provide these features out of the box so your only option is a 3rd party solution.

Searching Google nearly 3 years ago and Casa Tunes was the only real thing I could find and over this time things remain pretty much the same. Recently I’ve had the opportunity to take an in depth look at Casa Tunes which is a whole home audio solution with Windows Media Center integration. I’ve written a detailed review of this product and anyone who is seriously interested in purchasing Casa Tunes should take a look at the review here which is in PDF format.

Overall I like the Casa Tunes concept and functionality and the way it works, read the full review for my thoughts about the product.

Clubhouse Tags: Clubhouse”, Media Center”, Story”, Casa Tunes”, Zoned Audio”

Windows 7 released to manufacturing

cw-kid — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 07:14:00 GMT

We just noticed that Windows 7 RTM has been released. More details can be found on the Windows Team Blog.

I’ve just check my MSDN subscription however and its not yet listed on there for download, looks like we will have to wait a little while longer!

(Update: 6th of August for MSDN and Technet subcribers)

“I am pleased to announce that Windows 7 has RTM’d!

As I mentioned previously, RTM officially happens only after sign-off occurs. What happens is a build gets designated as a RTM contender after going through significant testing and meeting our quality bar for RTM. Then, it goes though all the validation checks required for RTM including having all languages of that build completed. If all the validation checks have passed – sign-off for RTM can occur. Today after all the validation checks were met, we signed off and declared build 7600 as RTM. “

Full article

When will you get Windows 7 RTM?

A look at the Luxa2 LM Series – HTPC Cases

cw-kid — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 02:30:00 GMT

Here we have two HTPC cases from Luxa2. On the bench today I have the LM 200 and LM 300 Pro models and the first thing you notice about these cases when viewing them in person is their size, they are massive and I mean big!

LM 300 Pro - Dimensions

Height:
203.5mm (8.01 inches) / food stand included: 218mm (8.58 inches)

Width:
460mm (18.11 inches)

Depth:
410mm (16.14 inches)

However they look like really expensive bits of kit. The finish is excellent in Aluminium and the build quality has an attention to detail.

They both have a IR/VFD display from Soundgraph with the usual Imon Pad remote control. There are some control buttons on the front of the case, however not all of which are really doing anything for me in Media Center at the moment, despite installing the latest Imon software, this is something I need to fix.

Volume Knob – Not currently working with Media Center

Start – Not currently working should take me to the Media Center start menu

Imedian – When pressing this button Media Center jumps between windowed and full screen mode

Menu – Does seem to do anything when pressed

App Exit - Does seem to do anything when pressed

The Up, Down, Left, Right arrows do work and I can navigate the Media Center menu’s also the Esc (Back) and Enter buttons are working.

There is a flip down panel on the front under the LCD display which hides the usual USB and card reader ports.

I love the way the optical drive cover slowly closes back up, after you have inserted a disk in to the optical drive.

One thing I don’t like about these chassis in that despite their large size you can only fit two 3.5” Hard disk drives. There is a simple metal shelf that runs inside the case and your two HDD’s and the Optical drive simply sit on top of this shelf. There are no drive bays and there is lots of wasted space inside the chassis that is not used, there is plenty of room to have 4 HDD’s but no provision has been made for doing so. This is the biggest problem with the Luxa2 IMHO.

Below are some photographs I took of these two models, click to enlarge.

Overall a nice HTPC chassis, large in size but a little short on internal HDD bays.

Clubhouse Tags: Clubhouse”, Media Center”, Story”, HTPC CaseC Case”, Luxa2”

The Green Button – Site Maintenance

cw-kid — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 02:03:20 GMT

This has been a long time coming, but The Green Button website is finally being migrated to the Microsoft data center and we are also getting an upgrade on the Community Server software hooray!

Site Under Maintenance

http://www.thegreenbutton.com is currently undergoing a site migration to the Microsoft hosting data center, as well as an upgrade to its Community Server platform. Expected timeframe for these changes is end of day 7/21/09.

Please check back here for updates

A look at the Moneual 312 HTPC case

cw-kid — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 04:21:00 GMT

This is my favourite HTPC case at the moment, the micro ATX Moneual 312.

It looks like a DVD player which is why I like it so much, it blends in very nicely with your exiting A/V equipment. It’s available in Black and Silver, I prefer the black myself. The case is made from aluminium and they are of good build quality.

I haven’t needed to install the IMON software from SoundGraph on these cases which is always a good thing, The volume knob and IR receiver just work out of the box with Windows Vista. The drop down front panel hides an array of ports including:

Mic, Headphone, Firewire x 1, USB x 2, Card Reader – MS/Pro/Duo, SD/MMC, CF/Microdrive, SM.

Inside there is room for the micro ATX motherboard, DVD or Blu-ray optical drive and two 3.5” hard disk drives.

There can be an issue with the eject button for the optical drive not working correctly, if the drive bay is not lined up exactly. This is the only thing I think could be improved. Overall a nice product for the lower end HTPC build.

Spec of the machine in my photographs:

Motherboard:- Gigabye GA-MA78G-US2H Rev 1.0
Chipset:- AMD 780G
CPU:- AMD Athlon Dual Core 2.7 GHZ
GPU:- Onboard ATI Radeon HD 3200
Audio:- Realtek ALC889A 7.1-CH High Def
Ram:- 4GB
Hard Disk Drives:- Western Digital 500GB (OS) Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB (Data)
DVD Writer
PSU:- Cooler Master P/N RS-460-PCAR-A3 (312W)

Clubhouse Tags: Clubhouse”, Media center”, story”, HTPC Case”, Moneual 312”

Windows Media Center – Service Alert

cw-kid — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 03:35:00 GMT

This doesn’t affect me due to my locale, but my Vista Media Center machine just came up with a Service Alert icon, which gives you information about the digital TV switch over in the US.

There is a Microsoft KB Article here with more information. Below are the screen shots from the Service Alert being displayed inside Media Center. The Green Button gets a mention on the last page as well!

Click the images to enlarge.

Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse”, media center”, story”, service alert”

New wiki guide for Transcode 360

cw-kid — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:06:00 GMT

It seems there is still allot of confusion over Transcode 360 and how to get it setup properly, I've decided to write a new updated Wiki guide as some things have changed now since the last one here.

This new guide covers updating the mencoder.exe and ffmpeg.exe files, tweaking the MEncoderTranscoder.cs file to enable multi-thread decoding.

I also look at using Transcode 360 with Media Browser this time and talk more about local vs network setups with WHS.

Hopefully users can follow this guide and get transcode 360 working. The guide is based on a 32bit Vista Media Center setup, I've not tried this on Windows 7 lately but things should work pretty much the same way.

Use at your own risk and make sure you have a full backup of your system before you start.

You can see the new wiki guide here it's in PDF so you need Adobe Reader.

Download mirror here

Turn your MCE remote in to a mouse & keyboard

cw-kid — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 10:35:00 GMT

UPDATE:

RemoteKC has been updated to now work properly on Windows 7, by a user called fbird17 on The Green Button forums.

I've not tested it yet but I assume it's working.

You can download the new .exe and .ahk files from these links.

I just had to highlight this little application it's fantastic!

It's been around for awhile I think but I've only just discovered it, it's called RemoteKC

RemoteKC allows you to use your Windows Media Center Edition remote control as a mouse and keyboard.

I am mainly interested in this for the mouse functionality. Having TunerFree MCE in mind when those auto mouse clicks don't work and those parental guidance pop-ups appear, you have no option but to get up and get out the mouse in order to click.

Now with RemoteKC, I don't have to leave the sofa. The mouse is basic, up down left right but enough to click on a prompt you can't otherwise click on with the remote control in normal operation.

I've only tested this on Vista Media Center, looks like it was written for MCE 2005. I've not tried it yet on 7MC.

You can download RemoteKC here

Live TV with EPG in Media Center comes to Thailand

cw-kid — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 04:28:00 GMT

I’ve been wanting to get this working for a long time now and we finally have a solution for integrating live TV from True Visions in to Windows 7 Media Center.

True Visions offer both Satellite and Cable TV, we have only tested this so far using a satellite dish and a FloppyDTV S2 and also a FireDTV S/CI.

This is still work in progress, but as you can see from the below screen shots we have EPG data in Media Center for the TV channels, I believe this is a first in Thailand using Windows 7 Media Center!

We used the Big Screen EPG beta application written by Niall Ginsbourg to import the XMLTV data in to Media Center.

I’d like to give Niall a massive thank you for his help with this project.

If anyone is interested in Live TV / PVR functionality within Windows Media Center here in Thailand, then please feel free to contact me and I can put you in touch with a CEDIA registered custom installation company in this region.

True Visions EPG data in Windows 7 Media Center

Click the screen shots for larger images.

There’s a mixture of English and Thai language in the EPG, depending on what data is being imported in to Media Center from the XMLTV grabber.

We can potentially have up to a full month of program guide data.

Record Live TV

Mini Guide

Program Info

Big Screen EPG is currently in beta state and will be a commercial application when it is released.

We added logos to the majority of the TV Channels.

Custom XMLTV Provider.

Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse”, media center”, story”, Live TV”, EPG”, Thailand”, True Visions”

mceNetCAM - New add-in review on the wiki

cw-kid — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 08:30:00 GMT

If you have IP cameras and would like to view and control them from within Media Center, take a look at the mceNetCAM add-in.

See the mceNetCAM wiki page here for more details and screen shots.

Twitter comes to TunerFree MCE

cw-kid — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 14:03:00 GMT

I can’t say I’m a big fan of Twitter, I could never really see the point of it, but I am a big fan of TunerFree MCE and I know allot of you are also addicted to Twitter, put the two together and you can now tweet to all your followers what you have been watching in TunerFree MCE !

Setup is easy you just go in to the Preferences in TunerFree MCE, enter your Twitter username click on a button on a webpage that opens up and then click on another button inside TunerFree MCE and your done!

You will then get a new Twitter icon on the TunerFree MCE start page.

Twitter webpage

Clubhouse Tags: Clubhouse, Media Center, Story, Twitter, TunerFree MCE

MKV’s playing on my XB0X 360 MCX

cw-kid — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 09:21:35 GMT

Seems in Windows 7 build 7077 I am able to play some MKV’s in the Windows Media Center Extender on my XBOX 360.

The picture quality was not great, blocky and the colours were pretty green looking but just the fact that they played at all was a massive surprise. However not all of the test MKV’s I tried played and some just resulted in the usual Video Error.

I’m guessing as I really don’t know for sure that it’s using this new native transcoding functionality in Windows 7 ?

There is a thread on the Green Button discussing this here.

Clubhouse – Windows Community website

cw-kid — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 09:10:48 GMT

Check out the new Microsoft Clubhouse Windows community website, you can take a look at our Media Center related posts that are on there from this page.

The text below is from the Clubhouse website.

Clubhouse Purpose:-

“Let’s keep it simple. We’re here to help others learn how to creatively use Windows. The Clubhouse is all about sharing content and ideas. Showing what you do best. Voicing your opinions. Being an active member in a community that will select the best content for display on the Windows Vista and Windows Live sites.”

Clubhouse Content:-

“Sharing how Windows works in your life — that's what the Clubhouse is all about. Know any “secrets” that help you organize your day-to-day and stay connected? Have you discovered some cool ways to share memories with family and friends? How about making it easy to work — or play — from anywhere? We want to hear all about them!

You could:
- Tell us a story of what you did and why — a story that may inspire others to give it a try!
- Share your tips on using a certain feature or a shortcut you've figured out.
- Show off your skills by answering the challenge with great new content. “

200x200 Low-res album artwork still not fixed? - Build 7077

cw-kid — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 17:13:00 GMT

I've been looking at the album artwork issue again in Windows 7 build 7077 and as far as I can work out things are still the same.

Although there appears to be a bit of good news with what seems to be a bug fix in 7MC, in regards to all tracks on a single album now showing the album cover.

For the full details see this thread, I go in to quite a bit of detail so you might want to look here for the summary.

Are you seeing the same results?

Take Caution when upgrading WIN7 BUILD 7077

cw-kid — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 15:23:00 GMT

I recommend you take caution before upgrading to Windows 7 build 7077. Ensure you have a full back up of your data files.

I upgraded build 7022 t0 7068 with no problems and then I upgraded to build 7077 and I found that all the file security permissions on my D: data drive had been stripped off and corrupted rendering my system unusable.

See here.

vmcPlayIt Media Center add-in for PlayOn

cw-kid — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 09:52:00 GMT

I saw PlayOn a good while ago now, it’s a UPnP media streamer for the XBOX 360, PS3 and HP Media Smart TV’s.

You can get content such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon VOD, CBS, You Tube, CNN, ESPN and with PlayOn add-ins more content is available such as from Revision 3.

I thought this was going to be a great solution and I emailed the PlayOn developers at the time asking if they had any plans for a Media Center add-in as using the XBOX 360 dashboard didn’t really appeal to me that much. The answer I got back was no they were not going to be writing a Media Center add-in for PlayOn. So I was a little disappointed and then forgot about PlayOn.

However I saw yesterday on TGB on a thread that a chap called Eric is developing a PlayOn add-in for the Media Center UI so my interest in this was immediately sparked back up again. The add-in is called vmcPlayIt which is a free bit of software. PlayOn is not free however but you can tryout their trial for 2 weeks and have a play around with it.

Let me know how you get on with the PlayOn and vmcPlayIt add-in?

Clubhouse Tags: Clubhouse, media center, story, vmcPlayIt, PlayOn

I'm amazed it happened considering, but say hello to your new Media Center MVP !

cw-kid — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 14:38:00 GMT

I mentioned last month I think, that I had been nominated for a Media Center MVP, Most Valuable Professional award from Microsoft. Not sure who nominated me other than it was an existing MVP, which I know a few.

I was informed yesterday that I have been granted MVP status as a result of my contributions to the Media Center community, which is normally just me moaning things aren't working as I want them too, to be honest hehe! But obviously it's not gone un-noticed.

But it's a great honour with less than 5000 MVP's across the world in the various Microsoft fields of expertise, it's quite an exclusive club!

So what does this mean? I'm not too sure right now, I get a shiny new MVP badge, free subscriptions to TechNet or MSDN an account manger at MS and other perks which I've yet to explore. But I really hope I can voice my and more importantly your concerns directly to MS in some fashion and that as a so called "community leader" I can influence MS more than I might have been able to in the past. Which will be good for all of us Media Center enthusiasts as we all want pretty much the same things at the end of the day!

On a more personal note, I'm moving in to the Custom Installer game at the moment, having just started a new consultancy job on Koh Samui , Thailand with a Smart Home company called Techworx, who I've got a feeling are going to become the leading Media Center solutions company in South East Asia! Hence the lack of my blog posts recently, but it's a dream job for me on a paradise island, so I'm having a turn of good luck! And I am really enjoying the challenge. I am also hoping I can bring you more information on the inside track from the other side of the fence that as enthusiasts we don't really get to see properly, but only read about in snapshots, I hoping to open some of that up if I can.

Some of the software I've been wanting to get my hands on like Casa Tunes and Autonomic Controls Mirage and Poly Tunes for integrated whole home audio with Media Center.

I'm hoping to work on Media Center integration with Home Automation solutions as well. So my blog posts might not be as often as I want, but I am hoping they will contain more content and insight in to Media Center from a custom installers point of view, bridging over that gap from enthusiast to installer..

OK I'm rambling again..................

Stuart

Media Center

Transcoding VS Remuxing? MS where's the native support? Have your say!

cw-kid — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 16:26:00 GMT

Ever since I got in to Media Center DVD playback and now Blu-ray and MKV playback on extenders has really really frustrated me! In the fact that they don't support it!

I still can't believe in this day and age, that we are unable to natively play ripped DVD's on extenders. I was amazed MS even gave us native DIVX/XVID support in 7MC MCX on the XBOX 360. After 18 months of moaning about it I was happy to see they eventually did it and I'm sure other people were waiting a hell of a lot longer than I was.

It's not a technical limitation but must be political one with the big Hollywood content providers, but as a comsumer I don't care frankly. I've purchased my DVD and Blu-ray's discs, I should have the right to consume them in my home with my family anyway I choose and on any device.

What are the current options for DVD playback on extenders ? Transcoding where the VOB's are remuxed on the fly to MPG. Transcode 360 is a life saver no doubt but it's just not reliable enough for my liking. Transcode 360 can be used with MC, My Movies and Media Browser and gives it more scope over the newer Vaders's transcoder which only works with the Vista Media Center native DVD Library, I could never get it working on the native 7MC Movie Library and am not aware of anyone having done so ?

So transcoding in my mind is flakey at best and not 100% reliable. Then there is talk of this new native transcoding in 7MC. The ideal idea is that anything I can play in 7MC on the PC can be transcoded to the extenders natively. I have yet to have seen this in action. I'm not sure anyone really knows how and when or if this native Win7 transcoding occurs? What's the process that runs?

It certainly doesn't transcode my MKV's or DVD Vob's to my extenders so is it even there? And the newly added DIVX/XVID support on the XBOX 360 MCX seems native to the XBOX side to me via a dashboard update which re-appeared in the 7MC MCX the first time when trying to play DIVX/XVID on the 7MC MCX.

What are the other options then? The best I have found for DVD is remuxing the container to DVR-MS using Video Redo Plus for seamless DVD playback (Main Movie Only) on extenders with full FFWD capabilities. And TSMuxer to remux MKV's in to M2TS files which 7MC natively supports.

It's still all a mess it's still way too much hard work for the average guy in the street when will it ever end ???

I love Media Browser but this is a show stopper!

cw-kid — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 15:44:00 GMT

My new favourite MCE add-in has to be the very slick looking Media Browser add-in.

It beats the pants off Microsoft's new Movie Library offering in 7MC and really does put them to shame, but

having lived with Media Browser for a while and having recently tested out my extenders again properly I have a big wish list item

for the Media Browser developers!

It seems Media Browser does not support both DVD rips VOB's in VIDEO_TS folders and DVR-MS / MPG files, as does the old My Movies UI for example.

Let me explain:

If you have a movie folder E.G.

D:\DVD\Scarface

And in that folder you have a DVR-MS file which is a copy of the main movie only for native extender playback.

D:\DVD\Scarface\Scarface.dvr-ms

And then you have a subfolder, which contains the entire ripped DVD disc in VOB's.

D:\DVD\Scarface\VIDEO_TS

In the original My Movies UI it knows if you are on an extender or on the Media Center PC. If your on the PC it will play the ripped VOB's in the VIDEO_TS folder and you get the full DVD movie experience, menu titles and extra's etc. If your on an extender if knows to play just the DVR-MS file instead.

Media Browser does not do this and it really needs to!

If you have Transcode 360 installed with Media Browser and you play a film from Media Browser on the extender, it starts transcoding the VOB's regardless and does not play the extender friendly DVR-MS file you already have present in that folder.

This is a massive show stopper for me now with Media Browser. If you would also like to see this functionality added please head over to the Media Browser forums and voice your request. No doubt the dev's over there are doing a fantastic job and I hope they are open to new suggestions.

Transcode 360 works but is too flakey, the better transcoder created by Vader only works with the native VMC DVD Library so has it's limits currently, so a solid solution is needed which is DVR-MS files for extenders and WTV files moving forward in to 7MC.

DVR-MS files are quickly and easily created from DVD rips with Video Redo Plus. The My Movies UI is so dated now, so I really hope the Media Browser developers can add this functionality?

Apparently this issue has been raised before on the forums in the past but has not be deemed a priority ?

Looking forward to your comments on this one!

A look at the Shuttle D10 with 7” touch screen

cw-kid — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 07:19:00 GMT

I’ve been testing out a little Shuttle D10 which also has a 7” touch screen, for the last week or so and I do really quite like this PC.

I installed Windows Vista 32bit and configured Windows Media Center and also connected up 5 Linksys DMA extenders, 4x 2100’s and 1x 2200.

As you can see from the picture the Shuttle is very small and compact and would make a great living room PC.

The touch screen works fairly well with Media Center, if you know where to press your finger to hit the hidden navigation arrows that are on the VMC start menu, but my main disappointment was that my new favourite VMC add-in Media Browser does not support touch, so when using Media Center on the touch screen, I had to revert back to the older looking My Movies UI.

It had an Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 2.8Ghz CPU, 2GB RAM and I installed an additional 1.5 TB hard disk drive for media storage.

The machine had no issues playing 4 movies at the same time. Two DVD rips I had converted to DVR-MS using VideoRedo and two XVID movies. Under this load the CPU utilization was between 10 - 19% and the RAM usage was around 1.42GB.

I was also able to play the same movie at the same time on multiple extenders (I tried this with an XVID and a DVR-MS Movie) which I’ve never tried before and didn’t know you could do so that was pretty cool!

The only thing I’m not sure about is how to get the virtual on-screen keyboard back on and working again, after I re-formatted the drive to do a clean Vista install and after installing all the drivers and utilities from the Shuttle support website I still have no on-screen keyboard popping up. Anyone with a D10 know how to sort this out?

Overall a solid little machine that handled everything I threw at it, HD Movie playback on the PC itself was smooth, I played a few MKV movies I had on the disk drive and all looked well, I was also able to transcode the MKV’s to the extenders using Transcode 36o. It worked but it’s not ideal and I will be looking in to ways to convert MKV’s to DVR-MS or WTV or something.

I took a few photos which you can see below:

Shuttle D10:

Linksys DMA 2100’s

Linksys DMA 2200 connected to the Shuttle D10, running a 42” Panasonic Plasma.

Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse”, media center”, story”, shuttle D10”

A quick look at the new Media Center Sports Channel

cw-kid — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 08:00:00 GMT

I've just had a quick look at the new Sports Channel in Media Center and below are some screen shots, for those not in the US so you can see what you are missing.

The application looks really nice and there appears to be quite allot of content on there.

I'm not a fan of American sports but I might just check out a few boxing matches later on!

Full screen

Full Screen

Windows 7 update KB963660 - will replace certain audio and video codecs

cw-kid — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:19:00 GMT

My Windows 7 PC just picked up this update via Windows Updates. KB963660

"In prerelease versions of Windows 7, certain audio and video codecs expire after 90 days. When you try to perform certain operations in this situation, such as DVD playback, TV playback, and some device sync operations, the operation fails with an error message such as "Decoder not found." The affected codecs include MPGG-2, H.264, and AAC. Additionally, Dolby Digital-related media may not play successfully. In this situation, you also receive the "Decoder not found" error message.

This problem occurs because the trial period of the components expires on March 15, 2009. After you apply this update, certain audio and video codecs will not expire on this date."

UPDATE:

Is anyone else having problems installing this update? On my machine it says failure configuring updates, then, reverting changes.

I have FFDShow Tryouts Beta 6 and Haali Media Splitter installed.

My blog - RSS feed now fixed

cw-kid — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 09:32:00 GMT

It seems the RSS feed for by blog here was broken and I hadn't realised.

Ian has kindly sorted it out for me now, please subscribe to my blog using this link:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/thedigitallifestyle/stuart

Thanks to Martin for the heads up.

Exclusive - Hulu in TunerFree MCE !

cw-kid — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 09:50:00 GMT

I've been running a beta version of TunerFree MCE all day today and I can access Hulu content from within this MCE add-in !

Martin Millmore the talented developer behind TunerFree MCE is currently working on Hulu integration and possibly other US based IPTV content as well !

It seems Hulu in MCE are like buses they all arrive at the same time. My preference is not to have one add-in that only allows you access to one type of online content. So I will be backing TunerFree MCE in this race, as ideally we all want to have one MCE UI that we can use to access as much IPTV content as possible.

There is nothing worse than having to use this 3rd party add-in for X content and another add-in for Y content. And untill MS wake up and do something decent natively then its 3rd party developers like Martin and Yaggs that are really moving things forward for the entire MCE community in this area and I solute you both!

You can download the TunerFree MCE - Hulu beta here. The remote control doesn't work yet with Hulu so use your mouse.

Oh and obviously if you are not located in the US you need to use a USA VPN connection, proxy support should be added in later builds.

You will see this if you are not located in the US and are not using a VPN or Proxy connection.

Another look at Boxee - BBC iPlayer & Hulu

cw-kid — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 09:20:00 GMT

Well things are certainly hotting up and getting more exciting recently with all this talk of these different applications for IPTV content on your HTPC. I can't wait to try out the new Hulu MCE add-in and I've really been getting in to TunerFree MCE as well lately.

I decided to have another quick look at Boxee today, whilst this is not an application that run's within the MCE UI, it is still a very promising option. The guys at Boxee seem to be taking a different approach to the integration for the online content sources. I'm a layman when it comes to application development, but it seems to me like they are not just displaying the BBC iPlayer and Hulu websites for example within their application.

The integration seems to go further and certainly looks more seamless to me, than some of our already favourite MCE add-ins. Some welcome news is there are also some inbuilt options and settings for HTTP proxies which will come in handy no doubt!

I've said it before and will say it again Microsoft we need something like Boxee native to our beloved Media Center, please please please!

BBC iPlayer in Boxee

Hulu in Boxee

Proxy Options

You wanted it, you've been waiting for it, it's finally coming? Hulu for MCE

cw-kid — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 10:04:00 GMT

I've been looking at the Hulu related threads lately on The Green Button as I've recently started watching some of the great content on the Hulu website.

It seems there were a few attempts at add-ins for Hulu, but they never got off the ground and delivered the goods. Then I saw this thread a few days ago and my hopes for Hulu within Media Center were instantly raised.

A new Media Center developer called Yaggs has posted screen shots and a video of a very promising looking add-in for playing Hulu, it's not clear if extenders will be supported at this stage as Hulu uses flash like the BBC iPlayer and I believe the BBC channels in TunerFree MCE don't work on extenders as a result, so maybe this new add-in might have similar limitations as both add-ins use a method of displaying the HTTP WebPages in MCE rather than actually tapping in to the video streams proper.

None the less it's welcome news when Microsoft really seem to be dragging their heals in this area of Media Center development and as a result are likely to be left behind in the IPTV content race by the likes of Boxee and co.

View the video here

add-in home page: www.secondrun.tv