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

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

Registering an Application Under the Start Menu Category

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

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

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

TVitty - bittorrent TV shows from within MCE

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

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

LinuxMCE 0704 Demo Video

LinuxMCE 0704 Demo Video

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

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

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

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

Media Center Markup Language - What is it?

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

Ian Dixon: Getting High-Performance Audio from Media Center

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Geeks.com Does $99 v1 Extenders

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

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

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

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

New extenders this year - honest!

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

True wait and see on this one.

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

Ian Dixon: Ask Charlie Owen your Media Center Questions

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

Turning on Closed Captioning in Media Center

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

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

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

Play MAME Arcade games on your media center

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

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

This looks cool...

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

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

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

Windows Marketplace: Media Center Plug-ins

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

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

mceWeather Overview - show weather in Microsoft Windows XP Media Center

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

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

How to Skip Commercials in Media Center with DVRMS Toolbox

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

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

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

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

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

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

Short answer... just about nothing :)

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

Watching TV using the Antenna on MCE

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

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

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

Tweak MCE Update ~ Media Center

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

andy vt's blog : Building My MCE

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

andy vt's blog : Building My MCE

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

GMAN: FlickrDown

I use Flickr but had some trouble with the Flickr MCE lugin mentioned below... but how to get photos in bulk off Flickr? THis tool was easy to use and did the trick quickly.

GMAN: FlickrDown: "Recently a friend started using Flickr which is a great service. I personally like to save pictures locally and selecting them one at a time to download was too much of a hassle so I whipped up this program so I could download them more easily."

8 killer Windows Media Center plug-ins - Lifehacker

8 killer Windows Media Center plug-ins - Lifehacker: "Just as extensions make Firefox better, so do plug-ins add extra goodness to the Windows XP Media Center Edition operating system (MCE).
For the uninitiated, MCE provides DVR and other multimedia features wrapped in an attractive 10-foot interface. Armed with a couch and a remote, you can record TV shows, pause live TV, view photo slideshows, listen to your music collection, tune in FM radio stations, and so on.
I am unabashedly in love with MCE. It's the one Microsoft product I consider just about perfect, which is why it's the heart of my home entertainment system.
With these eight plugs-ins, most of which are free, you can trick out your MCE PC like never before."

Chris Lanier's Blog : /mobileRecord - MSN Messenger Scheduling Bot

Chris Lanier's Blog : /mobileRecord - MSN Messenger Scheduling Bot: "/mobileRecord from Casey Chestnut is a new plug-in that I have been playing with and meant to blog about over a week ago and then got tied up. /mobileRecord uses Messenger to allow you to browse both what you have set to record currently on your Media Center PC and will actually allow you to search, browse, and schedule recordings too from any device that has access to Messenger (examples: MSN Mobile on a SmartPhone, MSN Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, etc)"

Chris Lanier's Blog : Slickest Media Center Plug-In Yet; HeatWave!

Chris Lanier's Blog : Slickest Media Center Plug-In Yet; HeatWave!: "Nearly a year ago I blogged about a James @ MCExtended tapping into a whole new style of Media Center development. No Hosted HTML here, James was using undocumented features in a few of Media Center’s dynamic link libraries that allowed him to integrate the plug-in directly using the true Media Center interface/rendered. The project died out only a few weeks later after James had talks with Charlie Owen about the downsides of using his new development methods."

Chris Lanier's Blog : Yougle: YouTube Meets Google Video

Chris Lanier's Blog : Yougle: YouTube Meets Google Video: "Yougle Google Video and YouTube Via Media Center You should already know that you can search and browse YouTube via Media Center, but the developer is not stopping there. Currently in beta, Yougle from Push-A-Button Software combines YouTube and Google Video into a single Media Center interface. Free software, but please donate if you like it."

The Media Center PC ain't a desktop; it's a server

Marquee de Sells: Chris's insight outlet: "The Media Center PC ain't a desktop; it's a server
I've seen some flack lately about how the Windows Media Center Edition-style computers haven't changed how folks consume content. Man, it sure has changed mine. Sure, you can put a MCE box on your desk and watch TV from your chair, but who the hell wants to do that?


A MCE box belongs in a living room or bedroom somewhere or even in a server closet. In fact, while I have my MCE box attached to my bedroom TV, I use it as a media server for music, video, photos and recorded TV shows. My media is available at every PC in my home and at every TV w/ an MCE extender box (I have an XBox on one TV and an XBox 360 on another). This setup allows my media 'room' to be my entire house and allows my family room media setup to consist of an HDTV and an XBox 360.


What's not to love about that?"

Matt Goyer’s Media Center Blog » Adding your applications to the Start Menu

Matt Goyer’s Media Center Blog » Adding your applications to the Start Menu: "My co-worker Aaron has a post on Adding strips and tiles to the Windows Media Center Start menu in Windows Vista:
With the redesign of the Start menu, Windows Media Center for Windows Vista also includes a new way of registering applications and entry points to appear on the Start menu. It is possible to add up to 2 new strips to the Start menu using existing extensibility mechanisms in Windows Media Center, and each of those 2 strips can contain up to 5 tiles. "

Matt Goyer’s Media Center Blog » MCE competitor

Matt Goyer’s Media Center Blog » MCE competitor: "
CRN talks about A Linux Alternative To Windows Media Center PCs. Looks like it has a lot of features, but:
Video Without Boundaries also is hoping for success with the low price of its products. PCs running Windows Media Center cost between $1,200 and $4,000, while the MediaReady 5000 costs $699.
Hmmmm. You can now get a MCE w/tuner for around $650. "

Variety.com - Netflix thinks inside the box

Variety.com - Netflix thinks inside the box: "Netflix VP of original programming Eric Besner revealed on Friday some of the online rental service's thinking on the movie download bizbiz, saying Netflix is planning to introduce a proprietary set-top box with an Internet connection that can download movies overnight.
Speaking at an Independent Film & Television Alliance production conference in Beverly Hills, Besner said the business model is still being worked out, but the download service likely would be offered in return for the subscription fee members pay for conventional DVD rentalsrentals. Service could launch as early as this year.
Users would add movies they want to watch to their rental queue online as they do now, and those movies would then be downloaded to the boxes overnight rather than shipped through the mail."

Google aims to take over your TV screen >> .:thebusinessonline.com:.

Google aims to take over your TV screen >> .:thebusinessonline.com:.: "Attaching a Microsoft Media Center player or an Xbox console will enable consumers to use a digital television to browse the internet for whatever video content they wish. This will enable viewers to use Google to realise Schmidt’s vision of allowing viewers to use a television-enabled Google search engine to watch any film or programme they want via the internet."

Matt Goyer’s Media Center Blog » Video of MCE in Vista

Matt Goyer’s Media Center Blog » Video of MCE in Vista: "In his post, Windows Vista screencasts, Long Zheng, has a video of MCE in Vista [mov]. "