windows media center
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Control Windows Media Centre With Keyboard Shortcuts
1:00AM Lifehacker US Edition | If you have a keyboard hooked up to your Windows Media Centre computer, you’ll beat out any remote user with this collection of 42 keyboard shortcuts courtesy of the Simple Help blog. Hopping between live TV, recorded TV, and then jumping to the Guide is as simple as using the following shortcuts: Ctrl+T = Go to Live TV Ctrl+O = Go to Recorded TV Ctrl+G = Go to the Guide Ctrl+R = Record a TV show Ctrl+P = Pause a TV show While they note the list is for Vista Home Premium or Vista Ultimate media centre users, the list of shortcuts appears to have few if any variations from the list of XP Media Centre shortcuts. Would you use the keyboard to control your media centre? Share your media centre tips in the comments! 42 Keyboard Shortcuts for controlling Windows Media Center [SimpleHelp] More »
MceFM Integrates Last.fm with Windows Media Center
8:00AM Adam Pash | Windows Vista only: Freeware Windows Media Center plug-in MceFM integrates music recommendation and streaming service Last.fm with your Vista Media Center. The tool actually works in conjunction with the music already in Media Center’s music library, so you can get recommendations based on your music and then listen to it all within Media Center. MceFM is currently in beta and could use some polish, but it’s a great start. If you haven’t already turned your Windows PC into a Media Center powerhouse on the cheap, I’d highly recommend it—Vista Media Center is Vista’s one feature I consider worth the upgrade. MceFM [via One Tip a Day] More »
Add YouTube and Flickr to Windows Media Centre with Yougle
5:00AM Adam Pash | Windows Vista only: Freeware Windows Media Centre plug-in Yougle integrates community video from the likes of YouTube and community images from sites like Flickr and ICanHasCheezburger with Windows Media Centre. Once installed, Yougle provides access to all of those wonderful videos, pictures, and even audio from the comfort of your couch. If this looks familiar, the plug-in is a Vista version of a previously mentioned and no-longer-developed Windows MCE plug-in. Yet another great plug-in for making your Media Centre life better. Yougle is freeware, Windows Vista only, requires a registration at the download site. More »Play Back Ripped DVDs in Vista Media Center
9:00AM Adam Pash | In pre-Vista versions of Windows Media Center, DVDs you ripped to your hard drive with programs like DVD Rip would show up for playback in the My Videos folder. For whatever reason, Microsoft decided to disable this feature in Vista as a default, requiring a registry edit to get it working, as detailed in the linked Microsoft support page below. To be perfectly honest, though, despite making this registry edit, I’m still having trouble accessing my ripped DVDs with Vista Media Center even after making this registry modification, so if you have any luck, share your experience in the comments. I’m also very curious to know if this will allow you to stream ripped DVDs to your extenders, particularly Xbox 360 extenders, so let’s hear how it’s working for you. Thanks jtimberman! How to enable the DVD Library in Windows Media Center on a Windows Vista-based computer [Microsoft] More »
Stream Netflix “Watch Now” Movies, Manage Queue in Media Center with MyNetflix
10:00AM Adam Pash | Windows only: Manage your Netflix Queue and stream Watch Now videos directly through Windows Media Center with freeware Media Center plug-in MyNetflix. Just install, provide it with your credentials, and voilà—you can tackle all your Netflix management from the comfort of your couch. Probably the most exciting feature of this plug-in is the integration of Watch Now movies with Media Center, meaning you can stream any Watch Now movie on demand directly through Media Center without going through your browser. Unfortunately the Watch Now feature doesn’t yet work with Media Center extenders (like your Xbox 360), but the rest of the features should. MyNetflix is freeware, Vista Media Center only. SageTV users can get similar functionality from this plug-in. New Vista Media Center Plugin – MyNetflix (beta) [Anthony Park via Gizmodo] More »
Watch and Schedule Media Center Recordings from Any Computer
4:00AM Adam Pash | You’ve turned your Windows PC into a media center powerhouse on the cheap, and everything’s great while you’re at home. You can watch live and recorded TV, schedule new recordings, or peruse your entire media library from the comfort of your couch. What if I told you that you could do the same thing from any computer, at home or away, and you didn’t have to shell out for new equipment to do it? Forgot to schedule a game you don’t want to miss? Want to catch up on last week’s episode on your laptop or even your cell phone? With the free Media Center add-on WebGuide, you can extend your Windows Media Center to any browser (including mobile browsers), so no matter where you are, you can take the convenience of Media Center with you. More »
Skip Commercials in Windows Media Center with DVRMSToolbox
10:00AM Adam Pash | Windows only: Freeware application DVRMSToolbox analyses Media Center-recorded files and marks the start and end point of commercials so you can quickly skip over commercials and go straight to the content. Similar to previously mentioned Lifextender in its commercial skipping capabilities, DVRMSToolbox keeps your files in tact and marks the commercials instead of deleting them entirely (like Lifextender does) so there’s less chance of an inadvertant cut. In addition, DVRMSToolbox can convert DVR-MS files (the default recording type of Media Center) to MPEG or WMV files for portability to other devices and other useful features. For a simple guide to getting started with DVRMSToolbox’s commercial detection, check out CyberNet’s introduction. This Media Center favourite is freeware, Windows only. DVRMSToolbox [via CyberNet] More »
Automatically Remove Ads from Recorded TV with Lifextender
3:40PM Adam Pash | Windows Vista only: Free, open source Vista application and Media Center plugin Lifextender removes commercials from Windows Media Center-recorded TV shows, cutting the average 30 minute show down to around 22 minutes. Lifextender scans the directory your Media Center records to, analyzes, and re-cuts the videos one at a time, then replaces the original file with the new, commercial-free one. Not only will it save you time, it’ll also save you hard drive space. If you’re using Vista’s Media Center to record TV, this is a must-have (it even works with extenders like your Xbox 360). If you aren’t using your Vista PC as a media center, maybe it’s time you turn it into the media center powerhouse it’s meant to be. Lifextender [via Inspect My Gadget] More »
Xbox 360 Update Supports DixV and XviD Video Playback
7:00AM Adam Pash | Microsoft released an update to the Xbox 360 today that introduces several feature updates to the Xbox, most notably support for DivX and XviD video playback without the need to transcode the video to WMV format. The good: You can now easily stream and playback those BitTorrent videos on your Xbox without running third party software like Transcode 360 or TVersity, and apparently the results are stellar—making this update extraordinarily exciting for video lovers. Unfortunately it’s not yet as fully implemented as it should be. If you’re running your Xbox as a Media Center extender, DivX and XviD aren’t natively supported. That means that if you like watching your downloaded videos with your Xbox Media Center extender instead of from the Xbox dashboard, you’ll still have to use one of the third party transcoders mentioned above. Fingers crossed that the extender will support more video formats in the future, but in the meantime the dashboard video update is still pretty killer. A Fistful of Features in the December 2007 System Update [Xbox.com] More »
