Entries tagged with media center - Channel 10

Windows Media Center Sideshow Gadgets Have Arrived

sarahintampa — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 15:21:00 GMT

Today the Windows SideShow Team Blog announced the long-anticipated Windows Media Center SideShow gadgets. In case you’re not familiar, Windows SideShow is the technology that delivers information from a PC to a secondary display.

That display can be a small LCD screen on your desktop or laptop computer:

LG R200 laptop

…a digital picture frame:

…a remote control:

Ricavision VAVE100 SideShow-enabled remote

…or even on a Windows Mobile phone, thanks to the Windows SideShow for Windows Mobile Developer Preview which lets you install Sideshow apps onto a Windows Mobile 5 or 6 device. That technology lets you use your phone’s Bluetooth abilities to control your Media Center PC. (For more info on this, check out our earlier post here).

Today, there are now 4 new Media Center SideShow gadgets which do the following:

TV Gadget: Browse the program guide, schedule recordings, and browse and play back recorded TV shows
Music Gadget: Browse and play music
Pictures + Videos Gadget: Browse pictures on your device and play slideshows and video
Now Playing Gadget: Provides information on what is playing in Media Center and provides playback controls like those on your Media Center remote

Both 32-bit versions and 64-bit versions are available for download, just click the link for the version you need. Now I just need one of these killer remotes and I’ll be all set.

Coming Soon: Premium Channels on Media Center PCs

sarahintampa — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 18:17:00 GMT

Recently, Microsoft announced a new platform that will permit the manufacturers of media center PCs the ability to support “premium” channels on their devices. These channels have been difficult to get access to in the past due the the TV industry’s requirements that they are covered by copy protection technology. The Microsoft platform called Protected Broadcast Driver Architecture (PBDA) extends the previous Architecture known as Broadcast Driver Architecture (BDA), which has been in use since Windows 98. PBDA, in development since 2005, was recently delivered as a part of the new Windows Media Center TV Pack, which made the software available to Media Center PCs. Now, all that’s needed is for manufacturers to build and ship PBDA-compatible cards. Two manufacturers overseas have already stepped up to the plate (Happague and AverMedia) and Microsoft believes that pay TV reception over-the-air will be possible by 2009. (Image credit: Windows Vista Blog)

Life|ware Launches New Media Servers

sarahintampa — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 12:34:00 GMT

At this year's CEDIA EXPO, the show put on by the trade association of home theater companies, Lifeware launched a brand-new, all-in-one, Lifemedia Server (LMS). This new server combines Windows Media Center with a 5.1 surround-sound amplifier and ZigBee control technology all within a single box. The LMS-170 line of media servers with ZigBee built in will allow the servers to communicate directly with Centralite's JetStream products, including dimmers, modules and switches. Whereas before they had to install a bridge in order to get the systems talking, the new servers will have direct communication.

There will be two models of the new server expected in the 1st quarter of 2009: the LMS-175 which will support dual Cable Cards (less than $4000) and the LMS-172 which has dual NTSC/ATSC tuners but no Cable Card support. No word on its price yet, only that it will be the less expensive of the two.

If you want to learn more about Life|ware, check out some of our earlier posts - we’ve mentioned them many times here on Channel 10. I reviewed their Home Automation software back in December, Nic visited them at CES 2008 and recorded footage of their e-home setup, and, more recently, Laura looked at their inclusion in Disney’s new Innovations Dream Home.

(Image courtesy of cepro.com)

TV Manager for Windows Home Server Now Out of Beta

sarahintampa — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:56:00 GMT

In July, we told you about a new plugin for Windows Home Server called TV Manager. This plugin lets you copy your recordings from a Vista Media Center PC or XP Media Center 2005 over to your Home Server for storage and management. At the time we originally wrote about it, the plugin was still in beta. But now, the first version of the plugin has been officially released: TV Manager 1.0. With TV Manager, you can view your recordings stored on your WHS in Media Center as if they physically resided on your PC. Recordings can also be deleted from either the WHS Console or Media Center.

Since the beta, several fixes and additions have been added to the software, including the following, listed below.

Fixes:

TV Manager Service setting permissions.
Compatibility with limited user accounts.
Launch recordings straight from the Windows Home Server Console.
Changed how recordings were moved (to fix ghost file issue) but lost the ability to monitor progress percentage.

New Additions:

Added Media Center Extender compatibility.
TV Manager Add-In interface redone.
Experimental ComSkip feature (disabled by default)
Regenerate the Xml in case of cache corruption without tester.exe.

If you’ve been waiting for the final version before trying out this software on your WHS, you don’t have to wait any more: you can download TV Manager 1.0 from here and the documentation from here.

Photographer Thomas Hawk Visits Media Center Team

sarahintampa — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 19:53:00 GMT

Ian Dixon reports that the Media Center Team recently received a visit from the well-known photographer Thomas Hawk. He took a tour of the offices and snapped some pictures which are now available on Flickr. He also had some nice things to say about the working environment:

First, I was surprised what a relaxed environment they all work in. For some reason I'd always pictured people working for Microsoft wearing business casual polo shirts and Levi's Dockers behind desks that all looked pretty much the same. Each person on the team had their own workspace and each had it pretty much set up however they wanted. Couches, futons, very cool music space set ups that looked more like a DJ stand than corporate offices. And while I didn't see any dogs or Foosball tables, the set up reminded me a lot more of a Silicon Valley start up than the corporate behemoth that is Microsoft.

Thomas also said that he’s been a big fan of Media Center – in fact, it was his very first photo he ever posted to Flickr. He really heaps on the praise saying that Media Center “represents the very best home entertainment system available on the market today and sits head and shoulders above AppleTV, TiVo and other home media platforms.”

Wow, thanks Thomas!

You can see all the photos from his visit here. (Including the one that accompanies this post!)

MoreMce: A New Site For Media Center Enthusiasts

sarahintampa — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:47:00 GMT

The web site at MoreMce.com is looking to become the most complete list of plugins, utilities and websites available for Windows Media Center. Unlike some other websites, MoreMce.com will allow users to add the details about new applications themselves, for a truly rich site filled with user-generated content. Currently the site has a list of 201 plugins for Media Center, with more being added all the time. You will also be able to subscribe to alerts, so you can be notified of any updates to the site. It's definitely a great resource for fans of Media Center.

BBC Radio Plugin for Media Center

sarahintampa — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 13:05:00 GMT

For Brits, or anyone else who enjoys BBC radio, there’s now a new plugin for Vista Media Center that lets you listen to BBC Radio from within Media Center: BeebMC. This plugin is pretty cool, but there are a couple of downsides that you should be aware of: 1) it uses Real Player to do the streaming (so you need to have that installed in order to use it) and 2) it doesn’t work with extenders. Both of these problems have to do with the fact that the BBC streams their radio via Real Audio, an unfortunate choice on their part considering how many different options there are today. Still, if you’re interested in listening to the British perspective on things, this could be a fun way to do so using your Media Center PC. You can download the plugin from here.

(via We Got Served)

Live Mesh Updated

sarahintampa — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 15:34:00 GMT

The next big update for Live Mesh has arrived and with it several new features have been added thanks to popular demand. One of the biggest new features is the ability to sync Live Mesh folders peer-to-peer only, excluding your Live Desktop. This means you can sync files across your devices but bypass the Live Mesh cloud storage service where you’re currently limited to only 5 GB of storage space.

This is great news for me because I maxed out my Live Desktop long ago - now at least I’m no longer prevented from Mesh’ing up everything I want – I just won’t be able to access those additional files online from other computers that aren’t my own.

Additionally, the new version of Live Mesh lets you manage file conflicts on the Live Desktop and it adds new “News Events” for when you add or delete folders from Live Mesh. A few more bug fixes and performance improvements round out this release.

Now, I’m off to Mesh up (hmm, that sounds wrong…) every folder I have.

Media Center University Episode 5

brianjo — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 15:50:00 GMT

The CE Installer blog posted Episode 5 of the Media Center University series this week.

This episode is the second half of Todd Rutherford's presentation on integrating Windows Media Center into a whole home solution and focuses on content acquisition. Topics covered include online content and streaming along with personal media content.

There's a lot of great information in these videos, so be sure to check them out if you're interested in building home entertainment systems.

Media Center University Part 4

brianjo — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 11:07:00 GMT

The CE Installer blog has posted Part 4 of the Media Center University series. In Part 4, Whole House Integration of Media Center Systems, Microsoft's Todd Rutherford provides guidance on integrating WMC with automation systems and designing WMC solutions.

Topics covered include:

Automation System Integration
Controlling Media Center from Control Systems
Controlling Automation Hardware from Media Center
Hybrid Solution Options
Whole House Entertainment
Understand the Customer's Entertainment Needs
Choosing an Architecture and Solution

and more...

Coming Soon: Get Facebook on Media Center

sarahintampa — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:50:00 GMT

It seems that lately I’ve just been finding more and more Windows Media Center plugins. The latest one I stumbled across (Thanks Ian!) is a way to get Facebook on Media Center. This is thanks to a soon-to-be-released application called Photato, which will be available in beta later this month. It looks like the Photato app will focus on bringing Facebook photos to your Vista Media Center – both those belonging to you as well as the photos that your friends are sharing. At the moment, the website for the application hasn’t launched yet, but for those interested in beta testing the application, you can email photato.beta@armchairware.com. (image thanks to Ian Dixon’s Blog)

3 Ways To Stream Netflix Movies From Your PC to TV

sarahintampa — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 09:47:00 GMT

Last year, Neflix started offering the ability to stream movies over the internet to your PC. Of course, for Windows Media Player enthusiasts, the next logical step was to port Netflix into Media Center by way of a plugin. Luckily, there's a pretty active developer community for WMC, so we ended up with not one, but three, Windows Media Player plugins from which to choose: vmcNetflix, MyNetflix, and NetflixMC.

But which one is right for you? Let's compare:

MyNeflix

System Requirements: Vista MCE, .NET 2.0, Netflix WatchNow player
View Netflix queue
Manage Netflix queue
View history
View recommendations
Browse movies by title, genre, or top 100
Browse "Watch Now" movies
Play movies in full screen
Nice interface, very responsive
Does Not Work With Extenders
Download MyNetflix

vmcNetFlix

System Requirements: Vista MCE and Netflix WatchNow player
View Netflix queue
Manage Netflix queue
View history
View recommendations
Browse movies by genres; sort by title or year
Browse "Watch Now" movies
Keyword Search
Play movies in full screen
Support for x64 and x86
Support for Netflix Instant Queue
Support for Episode Listings
Prevents standby/sleep mode while downloading
Clean interface, easy to browse, runs smoothly
Works With Extenders
Download vmcNetflix

NetflixMC

System Requirements: Vista or MCE 2005 and .NET 2.0 or 3.5
Browse movies by genre
Browse "Watch Now" movies
Fast, Real-time "Watch Now" search
Bookmark "Watch Now" movies
TV Series episode selection
Image caching stream speed settings
Menu Personalization
A bit slow, still a “beta” app
Runs on extenders but WILL NOT play WatchNow videos
Download NetflixMC

So which one should you choose? The quick answer here is that if you have Windows XP, you only have one choice: NetflixMC. For Vista users, both MyNetflix and vmcNetflix are nice, but the extender support that vmcNetflix has makes it the clear winner. You can download vmcNetflix here.

Olympics Are Coming To Media Center

sarahintampa — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 18:16:00 GMT

The 2008 Beijing Olympics are nearly here and along with the Silverlight-powered NBCOlympics website, the Microsoft/NBC partnership will also bring us video from the Olympic Games right to our Media Center PCs. These videos will be made available as clips on Vista Media Center and organized into channels based on event (e.g. swimming, gymnastics, track & field, etc.) The service, called "Olympics On the Go," won't be offering live coverage, but will be providing "up-to-HD quality" automatic downloads with help from digital content provider, Wavexpress's TVTonic. Because the content is downloaded instead of streamed, the footage can be watched whether you're online or not. And since Media Center extenders like the Xbox 360 let you view content on other devices besides a PC, you can watch the Olympics events you want to see from any room in your home. Best of all, this service will be completely free!

Media Center University – Part 2

brianjo — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:44:00 GMT

Check out the CE Installer Blog, where Mike Seamons continues his presentation of Optimizing Media Center for Entertainment. In this installment, Mike discusses the steps he takes to optimize Windows Media Center. He discusses removing all unnecessary software, installing Windows Updates and other configuration. Additionally, he discusses how to integrate Zune with WMC.

Topics covered include:

Removing all Unnecessary Files

Network and Sharing Tips

Cleaning the Desktop

Setting the Resolution, sounds, and screen saver

Setting Up Windows Media Player

Syncing everything with Zune

Default Content Removal

Media Center University at the CE Installer Blog

brianjo — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 14:24:00 GMT

We shot some talks given by professional consumer electronics installers for a series called Media Center University at the Electronic House Expo (EHX) this spring in Orlando. These talks are now being made available online at the CE Installer Blog. The speakers in this series are some of the top home entertainment system installers in the US. This is great information if you're interested in using Windows Media Center as the basis (or even just a part) of your home entertainment system.

Consumer Electronics Installer Blog : Media Center University: Optimizing for Entertainment & Networking – Part 1
In the first installment of Optimizing for Entertainment and Networking at EHX Spring's Media Center University, Mike Seamons provides guidance on choosing one technology over another. In his presentation, he covers the difference between analog and digital formats, component cables and HDMI, Cat 5 and Cat 6 Ethernet wiring, several TV tuner options, and how to deal with protected content.

Future episodes in the series will include topics such as Whole House Integration, Media Management, Tips and Tweaks, and Plug-ins.

Automatically backup Media Center recordings.xml each time it changes

EnglishBloke — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 07:49:00 GMT

I created an application which backs up your recordings.xml schedule file in Media Center each time it is changed.

With this tool activated, if your computer ever crashes and the file is damaged you will have a very recent backup which you can simply copy over the old one.

I posted more about it over on my blog here

Read RSS Feeds on Your Media Center TV

sarahintampa — Wed, 21 May 2008 14:40:00 GMT

The Media Center RSS Reader application lets you read RSS news items on your Media Center TV as well as watch and/or listen to podcasts and watch video blogs. Originally developed for XP Media Center, there is now also a version for Vista Ultimate. The application adds a new option to Media Center's Start page called "Accessories." From there, you'll have access to a section called "RSS News & Casts" where you'll be able to view your feeds. If you run into any formatting issues or unsupported codecs, the site suggests you try downloading the content to your PC instead via IE's built-in RSS reader, instead. Since I use my Xbox 360 to watch Media Center content on my living room TV, I'm excited to have a way to access not just feeds, but podcasts too, without the addition of another set-top box to do so. (thanks to scribkin for the tip!)

eHome Expo - Superna

Larry — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:45:00 GMT

Superna is a company that makes solutions to connect all your different systems together. They have a software layer that will connect your XP Media Center, Vista Media Center, home automation, and touch panels from various third parties.

Oded Vardi from Superna spent a few minutes telling me about their whole home system and walks us through Superna's ControlWare.

eHome Expo - Cutting Edge PCs

Larry — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:32:00 GMT

While in Orlando at the Electronic Home Expo, I got a chance to visit with John Oliver from Cutting Edge PC's. Cutting Edge makes some really nice high end Media Center machines with features like Whole House Control and integration with VideoGiant.

Really amazing deal on Dell XPS420 Today Only $1098!

EnglishBloke — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 16:54:00 GMT

Do you want a killer Media Center PC?, I found this fantastic deal at dell today.

PROCESSOR - Core™2 Q6600 Quad-Core (8MB L2 cache,2.4GHz,1066FSB)
OPERATING SYSTEM - Windows Vista® Home Premium with Digital Cable Support
MEMORY - 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz - 4 DIMMs
HARD DRIVE - 500GB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache
OPTICAL DRIVE - 16X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write capability
MONITORS - 20 inch E207WFP Widescreen Digital Flat Panel
VIDEO CARD - ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO 128MB
SOUND CARD - Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio
WI-FI AND MODEM - 56K PCI Data Fax Modem

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

Be quick though, this ends today!

Click here to get the deal! - MARCH 29TH ONLY

Win A Digital Home Makeover

Larry — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 18:09:00 GMT

Now I know all of you Channel 10 viewers are absolute power users who know how to keep their bits and bytes under your every control. But just in case there's someone out there who needs help getting it all sorted out, the Media Center team is running a contest for the chance to win a complete Digital Home Makeover.

So put together a two-minute video showing how sad, pathetic, and disjointed your connected lifestyle is and you might just be looking at up to $10,000 in flat screen, extenders, and invisible tubes to move your 1's and 0's from A to B.

eHome Expo - Autonomic Controls

Larry — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 10:37:00 GMT

While in Orlando for the Electronic Home Expo, I talked to Michael De Nigris from Autonomic Controls. They have a very cool system for Media Center that includes some very innovative solutions. For starters, they can take a 7.1 sound card (which is technically 8 channels) and split it into 4 individual stereo zones that they can send throughout your house.

They also have a solution for using a UMPC (or TabletPC, or laptop) as an uber remote control for your Media Center. Very cool.

eHome Expo - Cannon PC

Larry — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 16:39:00 GMT

I was in Orlando for the Electronic Home Expo and met up with Gregg Cannon from CannonPC.com. Cannon PCs are high end Media Center PCs including HTPC boxes, rack mount PCs, and a very nice EX series with a built-in LCD.

I talked to Gregg about why they choose to focus on Media Center devices and the differences between a Cannon PC and something you'd get in a consumer "big box" store. Gregg also has another announcement coming next month so stay tuned.

Last.fm Comes to Vista Media Center

sarahintampa — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 13:52:00 GMT

Earlier I mentioned LastFMCE, an outdated plugin for Windows Media Center 2005 that allowed for Last.fm streaming via your WMC box. I pleaded for someone to please port this to Vista Media Center, and now, like an answer to my prayers, Damian Meher has done just that!

He created a new plugin for Vista Media Center, MceFM, which lets you stream music from the Last.fm online radio service through your Windows Media Center PC. To use MceFM, you type in the name of a song or artist, and like on Last.fm itself, similar songs to your entry will begin to play.

The plugin can also play similar tracks to songs already on your PC in your music library - just locate a track in your library, click on "More" and you'll be able to search Last.fm for similar music.

While listening to the Last.fm stream, artist and track information will display, but you can also let the service run in the background so you can do other things in Media Center while still listening to your tunes.

You will need a Last.fm user account to use this plugin, so sign up for one first from the Last.fm site.

Win my Zune! (not to mention an XBox 360 Elite!)

EnglishBloke — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 01:50:00 GMT

theDigitalLifestyle.com is running a cool competition to win an XBox 360 Elite for the 'The Ultimate Media Center Enthusiast Setup'.

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

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

Check it out over here.