Entries Tagged 'Uncategorized' ↓

My gadget-loving buddy Jake Ludington saw the MacWorld keynote today and called Steve Jobs’ announcements "lackluster."

And then Omar Shahine, whose gadget radar is as finely tuned as anyone (and who works for Microsoft, for cryin’ out loud), admits to "drooling" over the new Apple hardware and calls them "a nice set of announcements."

I was, frankly, underwhelmed. I wouldn’t trade my Tablet PC with its 200GB 7200RPM drive for a Macbook Air with an 80GB 4200RPM drive. And Apple TV looks like a local franchise for the Steve Jobs Video Store, where you can stuff dollar bills in it and they get pneumatically transferred straight to Cupertino. No thanks…

So what did you all think?

I’m a big fan of rating the tracks in your music collection. It doesn’t take much time, and the payoff is really wonderful when you hit the "5 star shuffle" list.

In Windows Media Player, it takes exactly one click in the Now Playing list or Library to add or update a star rating. In Windows Media Center, by contrast, here’s what you have to do when using a remote control:

1. On the Now Playing screen, choose View Queue and press OK on the remote.
2. On the Queue screen, press the right arrow to move the focus to the list of queued songs, and then use the up or down arrows to scroll through the list and select the track you want to rate.
3. Press the Info button on the remote.
4. Press OK to select the default Edit choice from the menu.
5. On the Edit Song screen, press the down arrow twice to move the focus to the minus and plus controls at the right of the current rating.
6. Press OK on the default minus control to lower a rating, or press right arrow to move the focus to the plus control and press OK to increase a rating.
7. Press the left arrow once or twice to move the focus to the Save option, and click OK to record your changes.

Isn’t that overly complicated? You should be able to get to the rating screen for any song with no more than one or two button presses.

This post by Media Center enthusiast Jerold Billings from the TGB @ CES blog is generating a lot of buzz for its hint that an update to Media Center might be coming later this year. It also includes confirmation that Microsoft is working on a feature to allow DVD streaming over extenders.

Before anyone gets too excited, scroll down to the comments, where the source of much of this information, Microsoft’s Jessica Zahn, tries to dial back some of the speculation:

Did you really write that? REALLY?
I might have further response to this post later; I think a couple of things were inadvertently misconstrued, but I need to make sure I say the right things.

I’ll see if I can track anyone down for more comments.

Update: Jessica did indeed add that "further response," which included this explanation of the DVD streaming confusion:

On DVD streaming: I think what I said here was that there is a compelling "soccer mom" scenario. As a mother, I know first-hand how many DVDs get scratched, lost, or damaged by my children. I’d love to throw all my DVDs into a changer and remote them to wherever in my house.

However, we haven’t announced this as a feature included in any future release. We play with all kinds of ideas - we’re software developers, after all, we have to prototype things! - but whether and how they make it into our products is another story.

There’s more, so go read her whole comment if this stuff interests you. Oh, and when I ran into Jessica at Ian Dixon’s Media Center meet-up at CES, I learned that she is moving off the Media Center team and as of tomorrow is going to be working on the Zune team. Best of luck, Jessica!

Engadget thinks DirecTV’s PC tuner is real (the original source is this thread at DBSTalk). All I can say for sure is that the brochure appears to be real and the specs are plausible.

From personal experience, I’ll just say, don’t get your hopes up. Maybe, just maybe, we’ll see the real thing at CES 2009.

Meanwhile, if anyone from DirecTV reads this and wants to add me to the beta program, I’ll be glad to talk to you. Not holding my breath, needless to say.

I’ve got two older Media Center Extenders here, one from Linksys, the other from HP. Anyone want them?

Before you say yes, understand that these work only with Windows XP Media Center Edition and will not work with Vista under any circumstances. They also do standard definition only. Other than that, they’re fully operational and support both wireless and wired networks.

If you’re interested, send an e-mail to ed-blog AT bott DOT com and tell how much an old extender is worth to you.

Over the years I’ve built up a pretty good collection of remote controls for Media Center systems, most of which are sitting in mothballs. Currently I’m using a generic remote in my office, where the main Media Center PC now lives. In the living room, where I am currently using an Xbox 360 as a Media Center Extender, I have a Logitech Harmony that handles the entire home theater. For the bedroom, which also uses an Xbox 360 as an extender, I have a learning remote that includes a separate TV Power button. Once it’s programmed, it’s perfect for controlling the two pieces of equipment from a single place.

If you have one of these learning remotes, you need to program the extra power button before it will operate your TV. Also, you’ll probably want to remap the volume up/down buttons so that they control the TV volume rather than the Media Center volume. Here’s how:

1. Place the Media Center remote and the TV remote head to head, a few inches apart.

2. On the Media Center remote, press and hold the DVD Menu and OK buttons simultaneously for about two seconds, until the remote lights go out.

3. Press and release the TV Power button.

4. Press the power button on the TV remote and hold it. The Media Center remote blinks twice to confirm that it’s learned the command.

5. Test the newly programmed button to make sure it works.

6. Repeat steps 1-5 for the Vol+ and Vol- buttons.

If you’re a Facebook member and Media Center enthusiast, be sure to join the new Media Center group that Charlie Owen has created.

(Tap, tap, tap…)

Is this thing on?

Ah, good. I’ll be posting some new Media Center related stuff here shortly, including details about my CableCARD installation.

Jeez, it’s been a while.

The June 2007 Cumulative Update for Media Center for Windows Vista is out. If you have Automatic Updates turned on, it should appear soon as a Recommended update, one of three released today. Nothing broke when I installed it here, but of course your mileage may vary.

I’m happy to see regular updates for the Media Center platform appearing this year.

 Microsoft’s Eric Anderson blabs (and I mean that in a good way):

It’s no secret that there’s a new version of Media Center Extender that will be shipping soon (codenamed Pika). I just started using a prototype device at home, and I have to say that I’m pretty impressed so far.

I’d trade at least one pint of blood, and maybe two or three, for a crack at these.