Switch Video Inputs on Media Center with Your Remote

There is a great writeup over on The Green Button on how to setup your TV tuner card so you can switch to the other video inputs like S-Video and composite. Here’s the write up:

Anyways, here's the process I discovered on how to do so quite elegantly. First, set up the capture program:

1. Download Dscaler. This is the program that will actually capture your video feed. Install it with all the default options. I'm using version 4.1.11.
2. In Dscaler, click "Sources", then choosing your tuner.
3. Click "Dshow > Video Input" and choose your input.
4. Click "Sources > Define as initial source".
5. Double click the image to put it in full screen.
6. Right click and hit exit.

Great, now we have a program that can capture the audio/video feed. Now we need to find a way so we can start and stop this program using the remote control. To do this, I created two batch files, the first one, when launched, closes media center and opens Dscaler. The second one, when launched, closes Dscaler. Because media center wont launch batch files directly from the "More Programs" folder, I just created two shortcuts to the files in the same folder.

1. All you have to do is take the four files attached and place them in "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories\Media Center\Media Center Programs".

Now you're all done the set up. How does it work? Easy:

1. To start the video input, click "More Programs", then "Video Input On". Media center will close and Dscaler will open, in full screen if thats how you left it last.
2. To stop the video input, click the green button to launch media center again. Media center will come up but Dscaler is still running in the background. Go to "More Programs" and click "Video Input Off". You will get a message that says "Unable to Display Page". Ignore this and click "OK". This closes Dscaler and leaves you in Media Center. Sweet!

This might be a good way to hook up a video game console to your Media Center without the lag. (Due to Media Center buffering the TV input)