Month: October 2006

The Media Center Show #79 | 19th October 2006 (57mins 69secs) MP3 – 19.9MB (Download Here) This week Ian Dixon talked with Aaron Stebner from the eHome team at Microsoft about Media Center Markup Language, the new way of developing applications for Media Center. If you thinking of or are developing for Media Center this is going to be a great interview. Also, a new video accompaniment to the show called The Media Center Show Extra #2, showing off mceAuction the ebay application for Media Center as well as Media Center Markup Language samples and the Q application that Aaron … Continue reading The Media Center Show #79

Ace, Inteset and Niveus Media Centers now meet criteria for Exceptional Innovation’s “Life|ware Ready” logo program. Columbus, OH – October 10, 2006 – Exceptional Innovation (EI), producers of Life|ware™ home control software for Media Center, announce three more leading Media Center manufacturers have achieved Life|ware Ready certification. Life|ware software operates on the Media Center platform to create a hardware-neutral control system that allows integrators the flexibility to choose from the lighting, climate, audio, security, and camera systems that best meet customers’ needs. After undergoing a formal qualification process that includes stringent testing to ensure each unit can meet benchmark criteria … Continue reading Media Centers From Three Different Manufacturers Earn Life|Ware Ready Certification

I didn’t want to say it, but it looks as if TGB is down again.  E-mail’s have been sent off about an hour ago, I hope to know something later today (hope).  Not sure what the problem is.  Update: Back up var dc_UnitID = 14; var dc_PublisherID = 11967; var dc_AdLinkColor = ‘6699cc’; var dc_adprod=’ADL’;

Still getting lots of great feedback from everyone, and even better thanks to everyone out there we have got David Fleischman asking Why Aren’t People More Excited About Media Center?  In addition, Matt Goyer (who I remind you no longer works for Microsoft) replied with a great post about Why Media Center does not stream DVDs (citing core functionalities development) and another great post about eHome blogging (of course, now post-Goyer) titled Does eHome get blogging? All great reads, so check them out.  I’d also like to thank David and all other members of the eHome team.  Even though some … Continue reading David Fleischman and Matt Goyer Add Their Thoughts

Over the past week I have got a great amount of feedback (more feedback) from my question about switch to Vista Media Center.  First of all, I would like to thank everyone who has commented.  Reactions are all over the board to this question.  From people who will switch right out of the gate, to those waiting for the dust to settle, to those who see no point in an upgrade, and those who think it’s time to move on to another product. I have mixed views about Vista Media Center, keep reading to see what they are! PVR/CableCARD:  CableCARD … Continue reading Updated: Here It Is: My Thoughts on Vista Media Center

The Media Center Show Extra #1 | To go along with The Media Center Show this week Ian’s got a cool new feature, sort of a video blog.  FlickrMCE and Big Screen Weather are both demoed by Ian. The video is just over 3 minutes long, so you have no excuse for not giving it a view! Watch on YouTube Download WMV

The Media Center Show #78 | 12th October 2006 (39mins 11secs) MP3 – 13.4MB (Download Here) This week Ian Dixon talked with Ian McCarthy of Orb and Embedded Automation’s Ted Singh about Home Automation. Also, a new video accompaniment to the show called The Media Center Show Extra, showing off two of the new applications talked about on the show this week.  Be sure to send Ian your feedback afterwards. Lastly, The Media Center Show Award nominations are up for your vote.

XviD & DivX Coming to Xbox 360? | Everyone is a-buzz over an article published at 360-HQ.com that is saying Microsoft has a new project called “Mission 360” which aims to support some of the currently unsupported video formats such as DivX and XviD. Here’s to hoping this one comes true!  Transcode 360 is a great application/hack to get these formats to play on the Xbox 360, but native support is of course what everyone is looking for. Before the Xbox 360 launched, I suggested that Microsoft should take advantage of Xbox Live! In order to have third parties sell … Continue reading "Mission 360" Brings DivX and XviD Decode to the Xbox 360?

Over a year ago I posted about a new piece of Media Center called Power Compress which aimed to provide DVR-MS to WMV conversation.  It looked to me like a perfect product, it has a nice clean MCE style UI that can be controlled with your remote.  That’s key for many people, and the main two products that do this were not in constant development at the time (these being DVR2WMV and dCut).  Both DVR2WMV and dCut use the same DVR-MS to WMV engine and some people have had problems with it, that was the reason I thought Power Compress … Continue reading Consumer Alert: Power Compress | Deceptive Marketing, Support Issues, and More!

I’ve yet to really ask ya’ll out there the biggest question of the year.  So here it goes. . . Do you like Vista Media Center over Media Center 2005?  Why or why not? Simple question for some, but I’d be interested to know what everyone out there thinks.  Will you be upgrading?  Yes/No?  Upon release or wait it out a few months? var dc_UnitID = 14; var dc_PublisherID = 11967; var dc_AdLinkColor = ‘6699cc’; var dc_adprod=’ADL’;