If you haven't watched any of True Blood (aka vampire porn) where the hell have you been for the last few years. I won't lie that to some extent they are riding pretty damn high in my book because of Season 1
[?]
This started out as post that I thought would be useful for someone (me), but the way that Microsoft and market forces have basically killed the Media Center Extenders off, it may not matter. This registry key is one part of this step. Most of the rest of the information that I found on ripping the DVD to a folder for chapters to remain intact was on The Green button community. This tidbit took me quite a long time to find (so long ago I don't even have a link to attribute it to), but here it is. Hope this helps someone.
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Settings\DvdSettings]
“ShowGallery”=”Gallery”
“SkipButtons”=”Chapter”
“ChannelButtons”=”Angle”
“ShowDiscsInDrivesAtTop”=dword:00000001
“SearchNetworkFolders”=dword:00000001
“FolderSearchDepth”=dword:00000003
“ShowCacheLocation”=dword:00000000
“SuppressExtensibilityEjectPrompt”=dword:00000000
“ShowChapterLengthInOverlay”=dword:00000000
“DefaultLibraryPivot”=”Name”
“DefaultOnTVPivot”=”OnNow”
“DefaultGenrePivot”=”Title”
“TopRatedSort”=”SortByStarRating”
“GalleryView”=”Small”
“Version”=”65537″
A quick Google search on the subject gave me an Engadget Article with a link to this Forum.
I haven't played with any media center related gear in a while now, and my vista machine is starting to need the old windows 7 upgrade I have been sitting on for about 4 months now. I thought I would look around for a better solution than the ugly Microsoft IR remotes
Electronista had an article a while back about inserts for front side bays to give a more finished media center look, so I thought I would look in on how well received they where.
The highend Antec 30126 VERIS Premier Multimedia Station
Next up the middle tierAntec 30125 VERIS Elite Multimedia Station
Finally the low end Antec 30124 VERIS Basic Multimedia Station
Yikes, I was actually excited by these products when they where announced. Glad I didn't buy them I guess.
Not to be out done by Comcast Fios users can schedule recordings from a dedicated Android application. For some reason I think this is cooler than the web portal version, but that would be my Android bias kicking in.
via Engadget via Zatz not funny
Comcast's Motorola Crap DVRS catch up with functionality that Orb users have had on Window Media Center since 2004. Way to listen to the people Cast. Now all we need to do is get MS or Comcast or Verizon or even Tivo to copy the Replay TV "federated recording" feature and DVR's will finally catch up with where they should have been in 2005. I think DirectTV owns the ReplayTV intellectual property and have squandered their chance to make that blockbuster feature a reality. Imagine multiple DVR's on your network, and they decide if one of the DVR's is in use when it needs to be recording to have one of the other DVR's record it for you. Another bonus is you don't have to worry which DVR has your content because it streams around your network for you!
Gizmodo via ZatzNotFunny via Comcast
I write about the Media Center experience quite a bit on this blog, and I do for the most part appreciate the elegance of the overall experience. The box that MS paints around what you can and cannot do does make me pine for alternatives from time to time but, for the most part I am satisfied with what I get. Being the owner of several first Generation Media Center accessories, the discontinuation of the new generation pains me not for their overall quality or covetablility[sic], but for the disconnect between the Microsoft death by a thousand OEM's and Apple's "own everything" approach to digital media devices. The Media Center Extender is one area where Microsoft wants others to pickup the ball and run with, but simultaneously competes (original xbox for Generation 1 and xbox360 for the current). Given that the device that they makes is multipurpose (games and media) it is the logical winner in the race for dollars and space in the home, but Microsoft seems unable to take the mantle as sole producers of extenders. I am all for the OEM opportunity, but it feels like the partners get drug along so that the products in question are really repackaged Microsoft reference designs.
The partners do not get any positive out of these products that I can tell, and given the closed loop nature of these things it seems unlikely that Microsoft will change their stance anytime soon and release the Software Sled and let us figure out the integration bits. As long as the extenders are based on Windows CE, the experience will be lacking and the rise of the Intel Atom should be enough to convince them that an device like the Apple TV with a stripped down OS customized to the task, offers some very interesting price performance opportunities. I think that the computer as appliance is starting to take root in Microsoft, just look at the Windows Home Server. This is the type of product that HP can get their arms around, design software that extends it, and offers them and the customer competitive advantage. I hope that this round of failure opens Microsoft's eyes. Release the Soft Sled, we know it either has been conceptualized or is in use internally and recognize the opportunity for the Microsoft Media Center Integrated Consumer Experience.
Product Features
* Watch up to 85 hours of movies, recorded TV or home videos
* Store and listen to over 9,000 songs
* Carry and enjoy tens of thousands of photos; Up to 7 hours of video and up to 22 hours of music
* Large, high resolution 3.8" TFT LCD Screen
* Removable rechargeable battery for up to 7 hours of video or 22 hours of music
Post is for posterity reasons, all information was pulled from this Amazon.com page.
The level of choice in the digital home market space is starting to reach a level, that I have having trouble choosing what path to walk. I have been pretty firmly grounded in the Media Center product family, and happy with that choice. I now run entirely off on one Media Center Pc and Xbox 360 extenders in the home, and have found that experience pretty stable, and acceptable for the wife. There are a great deal of plug-ins for the Media Center that can extend the functionality (The Green Button is great for information about this and everything Media Center related) but watching a video about plug-ins that are coming out for the Popcorn Hour, and seeing some of the Sage-TV extenders go on sale recently makes me wonder if I picked the wrong horse. There are some great things coming out of Non-Microsoft companies, even the Apple TV is starting to look useful with a little hackery ala Boxee. I know that I am moving more towards the Microsoft vision of the connected home with a powerful PC that drives the home media experience on less powerful presentation devices, and a laptops for misc entertainment experience.
Hulu, and online content are changing the options to a large degree, and smaller (surprisingly) powerful devices are looking like they might displace the experience I have bought into all together. If we see Boxee on Xbox360 with out plug-ins like SecondrunTV and better STB style DVR's I may have to rethink the whole living room altogether. That said, I am more than a little excited to try out the NetFlix Streaming, as we may soon give up on Cable all together.
I am a confessed Media Center lover, and have bought into the whole universe that Microsoft wants to put in my living room. I have the Media Center PC, I have the Xbox360, I have the Zune, I have a HP generation 1 extender, and 2 Media Center Portables, where the hell are the cool sideshow devices I was promised?
I seriously hope that Ricavision has some other way of making money, because at more than a year and the only product close to market, (that was supposed to have shipped this summer) is still not shipping... you do have to start wondering if the pretty pictures are anything more than the Phantom Console was.
In closing the current model of
1.Announce product
2.???
3.never ship product
4.fail
needs to be transformed to
1.Announce product
2.???
3.Ship product
4.win
In closing Ricavision sucks right now because the won't give me shiny things to buy.
So my household is a Media Center centric one, and I have long been annoyed by the lack of DVD playback for the Media Center Extenders. I think Microsoft may have crippled the extenders for no real reason, that I can tell. They seen to think that streaming of DVD's constitutes a breach of the rights that studios grant you. I fail to see how I am not allowed to share in my own home the contents of a rightfully purchased or rented video with myself. The logic is fuzzy to say the least, but that is the line Microsoft decided to walk. They sidestepped the issue in the current generation of extenders somewhat (some of the extenders have built-in DVD playback capabilities). For me this is somewhat academic as the old generation of Media Center Extenders are not supported by vista, but since I bought it I feel that it should be of some use to me.
I'm sure this is an old hat for the true followers of The GreenButton, but I thought I would share for the rest of class. The link outlines the process for creating a Hardlink between a fake mpg file and a ripped .vob file.
Linking VOBs for extender playback presented on of all places an MSDN blog, is helpful with fairly easy to understand instructions.
As a side note having been burned by the lack of support for the last generation of MCE accessories by the new version of Media Center I do not plan on buying any additional accessories. I have a rarely used HP extender and 2 Media Center Portables (one Creative and one Samsung that technically still work w/ Vista). I suppose I would just like a nod from the device manufactures "hey you bought our stuff, thanks".
--------------------Update on this Post---------------------------
There is a way to make this work, that isn't so manual.
If you read my blog, you likely know that I am a little bit of a media center fan. I might even be called fanatical, in my support of the product line that really inspired in me a feeling of hope for the greater Microsoft universe. In 2004 is was bad enough that no one should have used it, but in 2005 and after the update roll up 2 later I thought that Microsoft might have gotten their groove back. Though divergent specialized sku's for products likely caused a few headaches internally I was a fan of having a support team that was focusing on making the Media Center a fantastic must have product, so naturally I was leery when I heard that MCE functions had been rolled into Vista proper. I have been running MCE2005 on several different hardware platforms for the last couple of years and feel that I have a firm grasp on the potential, and short comings of MCE but my most recent (re)install because of a failed hard drive has been far from worry free. I have managed to damage my install discs and was using a XP SP2 disk to give the installer any of the files that it was having trouble reading from my Media Center Disks. The moral of the story is that this was not a good idea, and the machine is very unstable. It records flawlessly, but frequently hangs during playback of recorded and live TV. Restarts were required basically every 8 hours of watched TV.
My setup is on a Gateway 901 Home Theater PC, with a All-In-Wonder 2006 special edition 256mb agp TV tuner/video card and a Hauppauge 500 dual tuner. This special setup required some registry hacking to get working (2 analogue tuners are the official limit) but is well with in the capacity of this 3.2ghz Pentium 4 machine especially with the 1.5gb of ram I have installed. Finally the whole bit is run off of a 500gb Maxtor with 16mb cache. Certainly there are better boxes out there, but this should be a more than adequate Media center setup. It is very sad that my setup is unstable, so maybe I will either follow this Instructable or pull a torrent of iso's, maybe even look into Vista. Whichever way I go something needs to be done to fix this situation before the other members of the household take it upon themselves to kill me for breaking the TV.
I don't know, but the demonstrations of ZFS I've seen so far make this very exciting to me. I have been looking for a way to create a (relatively) low cost iSCSI target. iSCSI in my experience is low cost, and flexible for single computers that need more storage than you can cram in the confines of their box. In case you haven't guessed this does relate to the Media Center that consumes my life.
Tags: Media Center, iSCSI, Open Solaris
For the last 9 months I have been running a Gateway 901. I didn't buy it new (thank you craigslist.org), and have upgraded it to MCE 2005 and had a Maxtor 500gb drive in it. To up the number of tuners I added an ATI All-In-Wonder 2006 edition as well as a Hauppauge 500MCE dual tuner. Since MCE only supports 2 tuners out of the box, I followed this guide courtesy of The Green Button, a must if you are a Media Center Enthusiast. Finally I loaded it up with 1.5gb of PC2700 ram and let the recordings begin.
Unfortunately the Maxtor drive was not up to the task, and gave up the ghost after 8 months of service. I have since replaced it with a Hitachi Deskstar 500gb model. At first I was concerned that this drive would never be able to keep up as it had a lower cache, and noticeably stuttered several times the first several days during live TV playback. If it is recording 2 shows and you want to watch a third I have found that it is better to record that show and watch the recording rather than trying to watch it live. Other than that, the Hitachi has performed well and I am waiting on my RMA for the Maxtor. I think that the amount of TV my wife records is the reason for the Maxtor crapping out. At times we had upwards of 30 unwatched shows on the Media Center.
To combat disk failure, I am thinking of setting up a multi-spindle OpenSolaris iSCSI target. This is a little overboard for most homes, but gives me a chance to work more with iSCSI and help prevent unscheduled TV outages. If you haven't heard of ZFS, you owe it to yourself to watch this.
Tags: Media Center Gateway Thegreenbutton.org
Never do I find that I have to ply my trade more than when my parents need something. They sold their house and now for the new one wanted some of the really neat things I have been boasting I could do. Should be interesting, I am looking for a multi-zone smart receiver, 46"+ LCD TV and trying to be patient and wait for Vista to put in a media center server. On top of that I am trying to setup the wireless so that it covers seamlessly 4500 sq ft and a shop across the way, with exactly one wireless access point so that once connected you could roam the whole house and maybe part of the 5 acres.
They are hoping against hope that their won't have only dish as an option for tv and Internet, but the number of dual-LNB dishes in the area make me suspect that is not the case. I traced the leads off the dish and confirmed that two run to the office one in and one out to feed back to a splitter. And to the cable tech that did the hack job on the side of a very nice house I give a big FU, I will have to put up a box just so I don't have to look at the damn thing for the next few years... Blah.
On an even more depressing note, a quick call to Verizon(local service provider) and no DSL to that location. If they don't offer it, I would be very surprised to find and any resellers are out there. The house has two telephone lines lines terminated in the service box, and I am pretty sure that it wasn't just for a fax (second line in the office is labeled "I"). And a call to Time Warner Cable (formerly Adelphia) and my parents house wasn't on their map(other houses on the road where). I requested a locate service, and have my fingers crossed that someone somewhere has them covered for broadband ("the majority" of citizens covered with 3 options my ass Mr. FCC chairman).
They may not yet be resigned to a life of slow data at really high prices, I believe that have edge coverage in the area, (my tmobile smartphone did with full bars even in the basement of their house) so that my be the next best thing (stompbox here we come).
In the end, I am have a lot of research and most likely work to be done to get my parents up and running. Here's hoping for Vista, and Time Warner to come through.
Tags: Wireless Internet FCC Vista Meida Center Convictus Home Life
I am completely amazed at how mundane tasks can chew away at the day. Just managing to get dinner cooked seems to take up every evening lately, by the time we get food on the table I am starting to think about bed!
So after the parents left our house in pristine condition, (though we had no idea where anything was) my brother and I decided to make a mess. The liquor bottles came back down off the shelf and onto the counter where they belong, and we went about manly tasks of making things with power tools and electronics.
We took the drawers out of the desk Chris is sitting at, and nailed in a shelf for the xbox to sit on, his computer is in the base of where the drawers used to be, and cables come through a hole we notched in the base. We setup a hub so the one 100' cable could serve his needs for gaming and tv,(and I can cable in to play WOW so I get less lag). Once he had an xbox and the 8" lcd tv setup we made his xbox into an media center extender and he was up running. A nice little media corner if I do say so myself.
Tags: Convictus Media Center Home Entertainment Home Life
So the HAVA that I was so stoked about previously has missed the original ship date, and announced a new one. July 31st. I just hope that it actually ships on that date, and come relatively bug free.
I have been looking at the Slingbox for awhile, and just was not impressed by the feature set. I loved the idea, do get me wrong. I just was underwhelming by the actual product. Place displacement is a sweet idea, and really has the potential to change how we use the TV and how we go about watching it. Coupled with fast internet connections, DVR's, and powerful mobile devices like the Motorola Q TV is no longer the oppressor and keeper of my time. It is something I do when I want to. Shows competing for the same time slot now may no longer be competing for the eyes at whatever hour they are on, just the viewers choice to record series. End users become only limited by the number of tuners and the amount of hard drive space available to them.
Add IPTV, and other options where the TV doesn't have to only be local programming content and suddenly the boring Television set took on a different life. As more Vlogs emerge, and tools to syndicate arrive we may see the leap to syndication based sitcoms. RSS and ATOM seem to support just about anything, why not have my television brought to me via the web.
Tags: Media Center HAVA TV Television Slingbox IPTV
Posts
All Comments
