Fix for Editing Recorded TV Shows in Vista Media Center

While it's true you can edit your recorded TV shows in Movie Maker with Windows Vista you might run into an 'unspecified error' stating that Movie Maker can't open your DVR-MS file. This means Movie Maker is probably having compatibility issues with the different video decoders installed on your system. If you go to Tools and then Options, you can click on the Compatibility tab and deselect the different video filters and that should solve your problem.

Listen to the Latest Media Center Show with CES Coverage

The Media Center Show is one of my favorite podcasts and Ian is back from CES with his first roundup of CES coverage while he was there:

Well I made it back from CES, and what a week it has been. From seeing all the great Media Center content, to meeting Bill Gates and seeing 107″ 1080p displays
I got plenty of interviews both video and audio. This week on the show are my first thoughts from CES, an interview about the new Sports Lounge in the Vista edition of Media Center and a chat with Tim Cutting from Niveus about their display at CES including their CableCard products.

Have you watched The Media Center Show Extra yet? Its my new video accompaniment to the show, new show about CES coming soon

Vista Media Center Tries to Beef Up Online Media

In the Windows XP version of Media Center the online media content (titled Spotlight) was a big dissapointment. There wasn't a standard framework that the developers had to follow so everyone's applications looked different and the video quality of some feeds were terrible. Plus there was not a lot of content on there. Well Microsoft is going to try it again with Vista and hopes the new powerful graphic features of Vista will make it a better experience. Bill Gates recently announced more content partnerships with Nascar and Fox Sports and at CES more content partnerships was announced. You can catch a video of Vista in action over at on10. From what I have seen Vista online media will look a whole lot better; we'll have to see about the content.

Vista Media Center CableCard Solution is Ugly

One of the big draws for Vista Media Center is the ability to record and watch high definition TV from the major service providers. However, in order to get the big providers to sign up, Microsoft had to agree to some heavy digital rights management protection which makes it so you can't add your own HDTV tuner card that will work with Vista. You have to buy a certified PC that has gone through specific testing from an OEM vendor like Dell. PVRWire breaks it down for us:

The video will be decrypted from cable and then re-encrypted in the tuner with Microsoft DRM. The video will then travel through a USB port to the media center, even if the Tuner is an internal PCI card.

So you will have an external device that holds the digital TV tuner that connects to your PC via USB. You can watch this Microsoft on10 video to see how big it is. This is one ugly solution; I can only hope that eventually you will be able to buy a PC that has the tuner integrated. I know for me this will drive me to just buy my HD content from the Xbox Windows Live marketplace for the TV shows I want to watch.

New Recorded TV Look and Feel in Media Center Vista

In the latest Windows Vista beta release it looks like they are going to add thumbnail views to your Recorded TV! (via The Green Button) I was hoping that this would be added – I hate having to look at a list of recorded TV shows. I have seen screenshots of MythTV with this functionality and I think it will be pretty slick.

I’m getting pretty excited about Vista, hopefully more screenshots will be coming … what feature are you most looking forward to?

Get the MetaData Including Cover Art for My DVD in Media Center

Below is the 12 step program to getting the metadata for the My DVD feature in Media Center (via The Green Button) This worked perfectly for me and it does not require you to reload all of your DVD’s in your computer so you can find out the disc ID that My DVD is looking for. Above is a screenshot of the DVD profiler program which is really useful. You do have to register on the site and then get a key for the program but after that it is free to use. This makes the My DVD feature really rock!

Here are the 12 steps to add all of the rich DVD data to your My DVD's collection:
* (If you already have DVD profiler and have catalogued all your DVD's, skip to step 6)
1. Download and install DVD Profiler from www.dvdprofiler.com or www.intervocative.com.
2. Register an account with them and retrieve a free registration ID. Enter this ID when you use the software.
3. Add all your DVD's that you have in your My DVD's menu by selecting "DVD|Add To Collection" from the main menu, then going to the "Add By Title" tab. Find each of your DVD's by filtering the title, region, locality, release date, rating, genre, or any combination thereof.
4. Select "Add DVD" (bottom right) for each DVD you find that matches yours. Please note that the AMG database stores mostly U.S. versions of the DVD, so you might want to filter on United States as your locality even though your disc is rated for a different region.
5. Once you selected all the titles, click on "Add Now" (You might want to uncheck "Prompt for personalization" (bottom left) if you're adding dozens of DVD's.) DVD Profiler will start downloading all of your DVD profiles and cover art. When it's done you will be back at the main screen.
6. Click on "File|Export Profile Database" from the main menu, then click "Accept" in the "Acceptable Use Policy" dialog.
7. In the "Export Profile Database" dialog, make sure your "Output Format" is set to "XML Format", "Filter Criteria" should be "All". Specify an output file and REMEMBER where it is.
8. Exit the DVD Profiler application and now launch My DVD Settings v0.2 (Attached)
9. Under the "Intervocative DVD Profiler" group, click on the folder icon and browse for the file that you generated from step 7.
10. Click on "Generate DVD Disc ID Files..." and select a folder where you would like all the DVD dvdid.xml files to be stored. Click OK and the program should generate your xml files in the folder you specified.
11. Exit the program and open the folder where you generated the dvdid.xml files. Each file should be named in the format {DVD Title}.dvdid.xml. Copy each xml file to the appropriate folder where you stored your DVD image (again, put it in the same folder as VIDEO_TS, NOT inside VIDEO_TS, ie. the parent folder of VIDEO_TS).
12. Launch Media Center, click on My DVD's and enjoy!

Video Playlist Creator Plugin for Media Center

Someone wrote the plugin that I was waiting for: a way to create a video playlist. I’m not sure why Media Center doesn’t have the ability to create video playlists when you can do this in Windows Media Player. This program works great – I use it to play my recorded TV shows back to back.

Attached to this post is an application to create ASX video playlists within MCE. The application provides the following functionality within MCE:

• Input a title for the playlist (you can reuse and overwrite playlist filenames if you want)
• Select videos listed in the RecordedTV and MyVideos section of MCE to include in a playlists*
• Rearrange the order of the playlist after selecting the video files
• Create an ASX with the title of the playlist you entered
• Play the playlist by selecting the ASX file in the MyVideos section of MCE

Increase Channel Change Speed in Media Center

One thing about watching live TV in Media Center that I don’t like is how long it takes to change channels. I have a PVR 150 MCE TV tuner card going to a LCD monitor via the video card and it is a lot slower than a normal TV with cable hookup. Some people have claimed that using a different combination of TV tuner cards and DVD decoder software has made all of the difference.

But if you have a PVR 150MCE TV tuner card then you might be able to use this registry hack (via The Green Button) to bypass the encoder and send the TV signal straight to your viewing source. I’m not sure if this works if you are using your monitor connection (like the VGA or DVI) to view the TV signal or if you need to use the TV out connection.

Enable Live Preview , bypass encoder for 0 delay and fast channel change

This will bypass the decoder and result in a 0 sec image delay as well as faster chanel change. Very useful if you plan to hook up your gameconsole.

Note : Live preview won’t work with all driver version, most of the 1,7 version work and some of the 1,6 just. There are to many drivers to list every driver here, so just test it and see if it works.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Hauppauge\hcwTVWnd] LivePreview"=dword:00000001

(1 for on, 0 for off)

http://www.cask-of-amontillado.com/pvr_reg.html#_Enable_Live_Preview

I use an ATI Radeon display card for computer and TV output so I assume that the non encoded signal gets passed directly to the Radeon's TV output when using MCE. I use a PVR-150 for TV input. I can only assume that the registry hack tells the PVR-150 not to encode live TV being passed to devices other than disk. I also have to assume that the 30 minute "pause Live TV buffer" being recorded to disk at the same time is encoded.

I noticed an immediate improvment in the speed of channel changing when I applied this registry "trick", it's almost back to normal.

I will have to try this out and see how it does. Has anyone tried this without using the TV out connection?

Best Way to Recover Deleted Recorded TV Shows?

I don’t know about you, but I hate it when I deleted a recorded TV show only to find out that I really wanted to keep it or that someone else in the house hasn’t watched it yet. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a way to recover deleted recorded TV shows? Hopefully this will be a feature in Vista; I remember reading about how Vista in general will have a way to recover everything deleted somehow.

But until that happens, what’s the best program to use to try to recover deleted recorded TV shows?

Resolve Remote Conflicts with Media Center and Extenders (Including Xbox 360)

If the green button on your Media Center remote is turning on your Xbox 360 then try this setting to disable the green button interference on your Xbox 360: (via The Green Button)

I had this too. In the XBox 360, go to System blade, Console Settings, Remote Control. Set this to Xbox Media Remote. Then, the green button shouldn't turn it on anymore.

And you can also use TweakMCE to set the remote control ID numbers for all of your Media Center and Media Center extender remotes so your Media Center PC listens to only one remote. I had this problem when I had an extender close to my Media Center PC so this is a great tip to know.

with tweakmce you can also set mce to listen to a remote number (and program the mce remote to the same number). allows up to 9 different mce systems to be within ir range and not control each other. However this is somewhat limited on extenders (aka missing) but I don't use a 360 so it might also be an option.

Change Channels on Your Set Top Box in Media Center with Free Programs

Via The Green Button:

Zapper (attached) is a free, open source, plug-in that will run any arbitrary command line when Media Center changes.

You might find it useful if your STB is not supported by the normal Media Center blaster, and you have some way of changing channels with the command line. (E.g. Girder and USBUIRT like me)

Or you can try another free program to control your set top box via the serial port: (may only work with certain set top box models):

I was able to spend some time and change DirectTVSerialControl to work with the motorola digital cable box. If you want to try it, at your own risk, extract the files in any folder and then run reg.bat to install it. A reboot is required. The config file is self-explanatory. To uninstall just run unreg.bat and reboot.
Enjoy, and let me know if it works or what issues are found.

New Media Center Vista Release Reviews

The reviews of Media Center on the recent February Vista release have been slow but are starting to trickle in. So far I haven’t heard anything new and exciting yet: (via The Green Button)

Apart from that I haven't seen anything really new most of the options and menus are the same as MCE2005. I had hoped for more customizing options to allow me to lock down the interface, things like removing that delete option after a movie, or a pin number being required to access settings to stop clumsy users messing with my setup.

It is still early to make any final conclusions but when is Microsoft going to release the ‘big guns’ for Media Center?

Media Center on a Flash Drive

I have seen quite a small linux computers for applications like car computers that just use a flash drive to run the operating system. There is a good discussion over on The Green Button about if anyone has ported Media Center over to a flash drive. This would be a really port because you could make a really small Media Center box – maybe one that fits in your pocket!

What would you do with flash based Media Center box?

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)

Play iTunes in Media Center with HP Tunes

I really like using the Apple iTunes music store to browse new music and even buy tracks for my iPod Mini. What I don’t like is not being able to use iTunes inside of Media Center. In HP’s failed attempts to sell their own branded iPods they did make a program called HP Tunes that provides an interface to iTunes within Media Center. HP Tunes use to come standard on all HP Media Center computers but if you look in the right places then you can find the stand alone program to download and install.

HP Tunes work but it is a very ugly interface; I would much rather use the Media Center interface. You can do some basic filtering by viewing by albums, songs, artists, genres or your playlists. Nothing really impressive but it will allow you to play your iTunes music without having to leave Media Center. I’m pretty sure HP has discontinued this program because they aren’t selling iPods anymore but it would be nice if they released the code for this program so the user community could develop and enhance it.

Record HDTV from Your PC Over Firewire

I came across FireBus DTV Recorder (via Video Help) and it looks like a nice and simple way to record HDTV over your firewire port.

• Record MPEG-2 (HD & SD) content* from your DTV or DSTB to your PC over IEEE 1394 interface
• Record and play individual movies from the PC
• Self-configuring software identifies your PC as a storage device to the DTV.
• The PC can be configured to act as a Digital VCR or AVHDD upon startup.
• DTV recorder operates in the background and frees up the PC for simultaneous use. Less than 5% of the CPU is consumed when the PC is simultaneously recording and playing.
• Compressed video is captured from the DTV and stored to your PC. No need for expensive decoders or encoders on the PC.
• By using the DTV remote control, recorded movies (MPEG-2) on the PC can be played back to DTV with ability to stop, pause, fast-forward and fast rewind video on most DTVs with integrated tuners.
• Time Shift Viewing allows movies to be viewed from the beginning while recording is still in progress.
• Movies recorded on the PC can be burnt onto a DVD or CD.

Not sure about pricing but I think I saw a suggested price of $100. Seeing how all cable companies are required to provide a set-top box with firewire then this may not be a bad way to go.

Stream Live TV in Media Center Without an Extender

I came across a great tip over on The Green Button about how you can stream live TV from Media Center without using an extender. You can use Windows Media Encoder and setup to broadcast an event and stream live TV to another interent connected PC. Here’s a quick rundown of the steps:

1) Grab a copy of WME9.

2) It starts in wizard mode, select "broadcast live event."

3) Select your TV tuner as the audio and video source.

4) Click "configure" for the tuner to ensure it'll use the right video input source.

5) Select "pull from the encoder."

6) Use the default URL and port (8080).

7) Select the video bitrate and window size.

8) Click "finish."

That's it.   Now just fire up media player on one or more machines on your network, open the url (with correct port), et voila.   You're streaming TV on multiple clients in your home.   The only hurdle remaining is changing channels....

Browse the Web in Media Center

I have been waiting for a plugin that allows you to browse the web without leaving Media Center and it’s finally here! Anthony Park developed a browser plugin for Media Center (via Chris Lanier) and it looks pretty slick. It sounds like you can use it over extenders and it has a zoom feature which will come in handy. Here’s a list of features:

Browse to home page or favorites

Scroll around within web pages

Highlight and select links within web pages to navigate

Zoom in and out for 10-foot style surfing

Compatible with Media Center Extender devices

I’m not sure if you can specify which browser to use?

Cool Web Based Demo of Windows Media Center

SercurHome (via Chris Lanier) has a cool web demo (flash?) of Windows Media Center Edition 2005. So if you want to check out how it works or show someone else then this is a pretty cool demo. Just click on ‘mce demo’ under the More Information tab in the middle of the page. This is one of the best non-video demos of Media Center that I have seen. SercurHome also has security camera based software for Media Center.

Bit Torrent for Media Center

KangarooTV (via digg) has developed a bit torrent front-end interface for Windows Media Center. This works with the Azureus bit torrent client and will help you manage and download your torrents right in Media Center.

Enable Automatic Live TV on Media Center Startup and Other Tweaks

This is a great post from The Green Button showing the necessary registry edits to make so you can have Media Center go directly to Live TV on startup. Other tweaks include hiding menu items and startup/shutdown options.

Live TV use HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\CurrentVersion\Windows\RUN) by creating a new EXPANDABLE STRING value. (Faster than putting into STARTUP folder of Start Menu)

%SystemRoot%\EHOME\EHSHELL.EXE /HOMEPAGE:VideoFullscreen.XML /PUSHSTARTPAGE:TRUE

Anyone else have some cool registry tweaks for customizing Media Center?

Creative Media Center Plugin for X-Fi XtremeMusic

Creative has a Media Center plugin for the settings (I’m assuming since I don’t have one of these cards) of an X-Fi XtremeMusic sound card. If you have one these cards, leave a comment if you like it or not.

Use ChrisTWEAK to Optomize Your TV Tuner

I haven’t tried ChrisTWEAK yet, but it looks like it has a lot of options to optomize your TV tuner. Here’s a list of features:

• Image settings (brightness, contrast, saturation, hue, sharpness)
• Video standard ( PAL, NTSC, SECAM etc.)
• Image Prefilter Settings (Dynamic Noise Reduction) available only for Hauppauge PVR 150/250/350/500, ATI Theater 550 PRO, TV Cards with Blackbird and Falcon Conexant Chipset ( Leadtek PVR 2000, Prolink Pixelview PlayTV@P7000, Provideo PV258 Series and others).
• Sound mode (mono, stereo or dual)
• TV channel number and country channel table
• Video and audio input

Has anyone tried this program with PVR 150 MCE?

Away Mode Drivers Starting to Appear

Some folks over on The Green Button have noticed that some Away Mode drivers are starting to appear for certain motherboards. Has anyone found any drivers to work with Rollup 2?

Name That Tune Media Center Game

Someone left a comment/email on one of my previous posts about Media Center party games pointing to AV Music Game, which is best described as ‘name that tune’. This game allows you to use your existing music collection on your Media Center PC and you have to guess what song is playing by what artist in a certain amount of time. This looks like a pretty fun game and will certainly test how well you know your music collection!

Complicated But Complete Method to Convert DVD to WMV9 with 5.1 Sound

A lot of people trying to use the Xbox 360 as an extender are bummed out that the Xbox 360 only supports a few file types like MPEG and WMV. So here’s a rather involved but complete guide to converting your DVD to WMV9 with 5.1 sound. I haven’t tried this exact procedure myself, but something similar, and once you get the steps down it’s not that bad.

This method decrypts DVD to VOB (MPEG2+AC3) files using DVD Decrypter. Video: creates the d2v file using DGIndex , creates an AviSynth script file to access the DGIndex project. Audio:  Converts the AC3 audio stream to WMA9 Lossless using Windows Media Encoder (WME). The AviSynth script file will be used as the Video source and the WMA9 Lossless file will be used as the Audio source in WME to covert the DVD to preferred audio and video bit rates.

Automatically Edit Commercials in Media Center with VideoReDo

VideoReDo is a MPEG editor that allows you to edit TV shows recorded on Media Center as well as Tivo. What makes this product so interesting is their claim to be able to automatically detect commercials and edit them out for you:

Let VideoReDo take the pain out of finding the best places to cut advertisements from your favorite TV shows.  VideoReDo's AdDetective will scan your files for the likely places where advertisements start and end. You can preview and change the recommendations before editing, or let VideoReDo Plus do the job automatically.

I haven’t tried this program yet but it their website does have a free 14 day trial and after that it is 50 bucks. If it works, I would pay them 100 bucks …

Easily Add Digital Audio to Your Media Center PC

Turtle Beach (via avs forum) sells a USB Audio Adapter with analog and digital audio outputs so you can add digital audio out to your Media Center PC (or laptop) if you don’t have S/PDIF out. A lot of people will just take the digital audio out S/PDIF and connect that to their audio receiver and use their nice sounding home theater speaker system. But if you are like me and your motherboard didn’t have built in S/PDIF out, and your PCI slots are full of other cards like TV tuners, this is a great way to add digital audio out.

The included Digital Audio adapter allows you to easily digitally connect to home theater or recording equipment. Just plug the adapter in to the Audio Advantage Micro, then connect your equipment via an optical digital cable.

Is Vista MCE Going to Allow Audio Control Between Applications

Matt Goyer posts about someone asking why they can’t be watching a football game in Media Center and listening to their music library at the same time. It turns out there is some volume control application issues under the hood in previous versions of Windows. But will Vista solve this problem? Read Larry Ostermans’s blog for an in-depth discussion.

The other day someone wrote me wondering why the couldn’t have be watching the football game in MCE but listening to music from Media Player. I incorrectly assumed it was a Media Center limitation but in Larry Osterman’s blog about Volume control in Vista he explains the changes being made to enable app volume control in Vista, but first starts us off on an audio architecture history leason:

Vista Media Center Extenders in Beta Testing

BetaNews (via digg) is reporting that Microsoft is testing a ‘Slingbox-like’ add-on that would allow Media Center users to watch TV from any PC connected to the internet. This beta is going to be software based and apparently will only allow you to watch recorded TV shows. This could be the beginning of the software Media Center extender that everyone has wanted since day one or it could be a freebie that is going to go up on Windows Live so you can watch your recorded TV. I think I’m starting to see how Windows Live is going to be very useful if Microsoft really does plan on integrating it heavily with Media Center ….

The feature uses a software application rather than a set-top box, as Slingbox utilizes to control a TiVo, cable or satellite box remotely. The resulting stream would play through Windows Media Player.

Media Center Integration with Windows Live

If you watched Bill Gates CES demo then you probably saw how Windows Live was used to interact with your Media Center PC. One ‘gadget’ (not sure what to call it?) of Windows Live allowed you to connect to your Media Center PC and select TV shows to record and also see what shows you have recorded. According to this PC World article (via Yahoo) this service is in beta for Windows Live but I haven’t seen it?

One service communicates to Windows Media Center over the Internet and allows users to sign in to Windows Live and see what television shows they are recording and the status of those recording sessions, he said. It also will allow Media Center users to click on an icon for a TV program to choose to record that program on a Media Center PC, he said. That service is available now in beta form at Live.com.

I’m wondering if it is the MSN Remote Guide but I thought that was separate from Windows Live. Has anyone been able to sign up for this service through Windows Live?

Also mentioned in the article is Windows Messenger Live and it’s interactive bots. The CES demo showed how you could ask the TV bot what’s on TV and could get the recommendations from your messenger contacts. This looks very promising in terms of helping you filter through all of the TV channels and find what you want.

Another service, expected in a few months, allows users to communicate with a TV "bot" via Windows Live Messenger and get information about TV shows based on their personal preferences. The bot can also be used to find out about the TV preferences of other users on a personal buddy list, Sohn said.

Party Games for Media Center

I am a big trivia fan and just recently started looking into how I could use Media Center to play some party games on my home theater setup. Unfortunately there are not a whole lot of options but here’s what I’ve found that works so far:

• Media Center specific games. The only two programs I’ve found for Media Center so far is KMS World Trivia and a karoke plugin by Microsoft.
• DVD Trivia Games. There are a few DVD games like Scene It and Shout! About Movies that work in a regular DVD player and also work quite well on your Media Center PC

Playing party games on your Media Center PC is a lot of fun – especially if you have a large screen like a projector. One issue I have run into is that the Microsoft Media Center remote keys are not always mapped one-to-one to the standard DVD remote control keys that some of the games use. And if you want to use two remotes (one per team) in Media Center, try buying remotes from two different vendors like Microsoft and Harmony. The theory is that they will use different drivers and should allow you to use two different remotes at once on the same system.

How Do You Find Shows to Record on Your Media Center PC?

With over sixty channels of quality television programming (*ahem*) I sometimes find it difficult to discover new shows that I might like to record with my Media Center PC. Now, I’ve tried several different methods:

• Picking a channel I like, say Discovery Channel, and scrolling through the Media Center programming guide looking for interesting shows
• Searching in Media Center by keyword or the ‘Movie’ feature
• Going to websites of different TV channels and programs
• Going to content providers in Online Spotlight

So we can see the amount of work involved in trying to find new and interesting shows for me to record. A nice web 2.0 killer app would be to take a profile of my viewing habits and then provide suggestions via an RSS feed.

I’m hoping that Vista will provide some help in this ‘auto-discovery’ category for TV programming. In Bill Gates CES keynote there was a demo of Windows Live offering a recording interface for your Media Center PC and also suggesting shows based upon your profile. In the meantime, how do you discover new shows to record with your Media Center?

Dragon Maze Game for Media Center

I just came across Dragon Maze, a game that you can download for Media Center. It looks like an interesting take on the old atari line game.

Do you think you can corral a hungry dragon? You are the guardian of ancient Chinese dragons intent on eating anything in their path, even if this leads them off cliffs or into pits. Instead of controlling the dragon, use the mouse to manipulate the walls that guide your creatures to yummy “bao” or Chinese steamed buns. Eat enough bao and a pagoda will open to magically transport you to the next level.

 

Internet Radio from Around the World

MCE More Radio is a plug-in for Media Center that gives you access to over 200 radio stations from around the world. I haven’t tried this plug-in yet but it looks like a nice way to discover some internet radio stations from different countries. It seems to have a search feature so you should be able to add your favorite internet radio streams as well.

Latest Vista vs XP Screenshots

Someone put up some comparison screenshots of Vista vs XP (via digg) and included a few Media Center screenshots. It’s interesting to see the old vs the new. I’m starting to like the new Vista interface – what do you think?

Get the Latest Game Emulator for Media Center

GameEx, a front-end plugin for MAME (a multi game system emulator) just released version 5.36. This is a pretty cool plugin because it allows you to use MAME in Media Center. MAME allows you to play old Nintendo games and games from other systems.

This might be a good alternative if you are still out in the cold for an Xbox360. But setting up MAME and GameEx isn’t that straightforward, so if you have any tips then leave them for the rest of us.

Tetris for Media Center

I can’t believe I missed this but someone made Tetris for Media Center! Here comes hours of entertainment …

Backup Tool for Media Center

Ian Dixon (of Media Center Show podcast fame) has written a backup application for Media Center that will backup your recorded TV shows and your TV recording settings. Remember that recorded TV shows take up a lot of space so you will need a big drive to do the backup.

I have updated mceBackup so that it can also backup your recorded tv content as well as your scheduled recorded TV settings .

So if you have another hard drive or another server mceBackup will copy your recorded TV as part of the backup schedule

 

It’s still in beta but feel free to try it and please let me know how you get on

Getting Remote Desktop to Work in Media Center Part 2

I have been trying for a while to get Remote Desktop to work in Media Center but with no success. I just recently noticed that there is an option under ‘Settings’ to enable Remote Desktop – and once I went through this simple setup it works! I don’t remember seeing this before Rollup 2, but maybe I was just missing it. It is kind of strange that it seems you have to use this option under Media Center settings to enable Remote Desktop. I did enable Remote Desktop manually under the Remote Desktop tab under My Computer but that didn’t seem to do anything. So if you want to get Remote Desktop working, then I suggest trying it through Media Center.

And Microsoft does only allow one user logged into the system at one time. I can understand trying to limit this so their software license isn’t abused, but I would think that allowing at least two people would be the default – otherwise you can’t be doing anything on your home theater while you are logged in remotely.

Using a VCR with Media Center

Well, I haven’t heard of too many people wanting to hook up their VCR’s to Media Center but if you are still holding onto your old VHS tape collection you can try using your TV tuner card to feed in your VCR (via The Green Button):

What you can do is take the RF out from the VCR, and plug it in the Media Center in place of your existing RF (assuming you are receiving analogue TV) and then add a new channel mapped to the frequency the VCR is putting out for it's video channel.

Multiple DVD Drive Disc Changer Hack in Media Center

Over on The Green Button they are reporting that if you have more than one DVD drive installed on your computer then you can use the My DVD feature to view both drives at once and choose which movie to play.

I got the same setup (2 DVD Drives; 1 DVD-ROM, 1 DVDRW). If you use the My DVDs feature available in rollup 2 you get a new sub menu which will tell you the name of the disc in each drive and allow you to switch between them.

This can be used as a disc changer hack but you will need an awful big computer case to house 200 DVD drives. Maybe you could setup up a USB hub with external DVD drives? If you installed Rollup 2 then you can use Tweak MCe to enable the My DVD feature.

Media Center Highlights From Bill Gates CES Keynote Speech

Although I couldn’t go to CES this year I did watch Bill Gates keynote speech from last night and here are my thoughts on what I saw as it related to Media Center:

Look and Feel of Vista MCE. The fifteen minute demo of Vista Media center was nice but it didn’t really show much of the new interface that I haven’t seen yet. I can say that as I see more of the new Vista interface I am really starting to like it. I think with the new improved graphics of Vista it is going to make Media Center even better with many different ways to view and categorize your digital media. But I was really hoping to see some of the TV and video capabilities more in-depth like picture-in-picture or and multiple video streams. But I guess they need to save something for next year

New Online Spotlight content. I know there was five new content partners announced but the only one I can remember is Comedy Central. Their new app actually looks very slick, allowing you to see recent and new video clips and lots of other interactive content. I can’t wait to check that out. Hopefully more solid content like this will be coming to Online Spotlight.

New Portable Media Center players. The portable Media Center player is not dead. Toshiba and LG Electronics are going to launch some new portable Media Center players – I think the widescreen LG looked pretty slick. The Toshiba device had a battery life spec of 4 hours for video, which  surprised me, since my iRiver portable Media Center player easily gets six to eight hours. I was happy to see support for connecting your digital camera and digital/audio recording capabilities, two features I thought the portable Media Center players really needed. I was disappointed that there wasn’t any GPS capabilities, as I think that would be a killer app for these devices. The other thing that surprised me was that the user interface didn’t change to match Vista’s new interface.

HDTV support. Thomas Hawk should be pretty happy now – CableCard support and a partnership with DirectTV will certainly seal the deal for HDTV in Vista MCE.

HD DVD support. Microsoft is definitely going with HD DVD and will be making available an external HD DVD drive for the Xbox 360 later this year. The interesting thing about the HD DVD demo was not the quality of the picture but the way that the extra features work in HD DVD. For example, you can look at scene selections while the video is still playing, you can get a list of actors in a particular scene, and most importantly, you can rip the DVD to your hard drive with ‘managed copy’.

Windows Live.  A demo was shown where through Windows Live you can not only schedule and record TV shows via your Media Center PC but there will be features to help you find the shows you like. Messenger will have some capability too. This is one of the features I was hoping to see in Vista – more ways to help discover TV as well as music.I’m starting to understand how Windows Live is going to be useful to me and it could mean some really exciting things.

Overall, it was a pretty solid message that 2006 is the year of the digital home and Vista with Media Center is going to make it happen.

 

Cheap Alternative Media Center Extender

Last year Gateway released the ADC-320 networked DVD player that could play your media files over your network. What makes this a great cheap Media Center extender is that it supports Media Center recorded TV shows in the DVR-MS format. So while you can’t watch live TV you can watch your recorded TV shows as well as any other media off of your Media Center PC. Plus you have a DVD drive, which all current Media Center extenders besides the Xbox and Xbox 360 lack. PVR Blog did a review of it a while ago and had mostly good things to say. It looks like Gateway has discontinued this player and I’ve seen it on ebay for under 100 bucks. So if you’re in the market for a cheap Media Center extender that can play DVD’s, this might be for you.

Media Center Online Spotlight Reviewed

ExtremeTech (via Chris Lanier) reviews the Online Spotlight feature of Windows Media Center and has mixed feelings:

What we found is a mixed bag of applications—some good, some not so good. But the whole affair left us feeling like we'd entered some sort of balkanized, schizoid online world where nothing behaves the same from one app to the next

I have to agree here – the concept of the Online Spotlight is great but the execution is poor. There is not one application that I constantly use or consider a ‘must have.’ The MSN news stories are full of ads and the NPR programs I can get in RSS. The best applications are the music programs like MTV’s OverDrive and AOL’s Music app. Hopefully Microsoft can line up some bigger content to make the Online Spotlight feature more appealing, which won’t be easy because it’s up to Hollywood to release the content.

KMS Software Titles MCE-Sudoku and MCE World Trivia Half Off

KMS Software is having a winter sale with half off all of their Media Center software! Titles include Sudoku and World Trivia. These are great games for the holidays.

Listen To the Media Center Show Awards

Okay, I didn’t win the Media Center Show award for ‘Best Enthusiast Media Center Blog’, but you should still listen to the latest Media Center Show by Ian Dixon with special guest-host Thomas Hawk. Seriously, congratulations to Chris Lanier for the award; he has a great blog and deserves the recognition.

Build Your Own Media Center Device

There is a project called LMBOX, or the Linux Multimedia Box, that is an application framework for developing your own set top box or multimedia box like a Tivo. Just think, with this free source code you could make the next Tivo. Here’s a list of features:

LMBOX is application framework for multimedia desktops or computer-based set top boxes. Features

• Fully skinnable GUI interface system
• Multi-threaded architecture
• Tcl scripting language for all events and handlers (button click, page load etc.)
• Control by mouse, keyboard, infra-red remote via LIRC
• Wide range of image format support (with alpha transparency)
• TrueType font support
• PlayerObject based on xinelib for playback any music and video formats supported by xine(mp3, wav, streams, avi, mpeg)
• FileBrowser widget for displaying file system contents
• Images zoom/rotate methods for photo albums or dynamic icons
• SoundObject for sound effects thought SDL_mixer
• Default Tcl event script included with the skin which implements movies, weather with radar, radio from Shoutcast, search and categories, hidden codes, screensaver-like album viewer.
• Calendaring with scheduling, alarms can be popups, music or movie
• Berkeley DB used for config and storage
• TV listings from zap2it, refresh in the background
• News and Stocks from Yahoo
• Live Camera streams with mosaic view
• Contacts database with reminders
• Financial stock quotes from Yahoo
• CallerID support using optional modem or network notification
• TCP/IP/HTTP/UDP support for remote control and alerts
• Embedded Mozilla browser (optional)

NFL Football Media Center Plug In

I saw this mentioned over on The Green Button that the NFL team Washington Redskins had a Media Center plugin available for download.

Sudoku for Media Center

I haven’t gotten caught up in the Sudoku craze yet but if you have then you can download Sudoku for Media Center from KMS Software for about 10 pounds. Bit-Tech did a quick review and liked what they saw:

It's hard to review the game itself, since you either like the puzzle or you don't - if you hate playing Sudoku, you're not exactly going to like this version. If you love the puzzle, you'll find this a happy rendition of it. In future versions, however, we'd like to see the ability to play some of the increasingly popular variants of the game - such as Killer Sudoku or Sudoku X.

Rocketboom Plugin for Media Center

Thomas Hawk points to a recently released Media Center plugin for Rocketboom. Rocketboom is a short daily videoblog based in New York City that is sort of real news meets The Onion that is gaining some serious traction. It’s pretty amateur video without any focus in my opinion but the delivery method (think podcasting) has a real potential to take off. It’s nice to see some micro-content making it onto Media Center.

Don't Forget About the Sound in Your Media Center PC

HD Beat has a great post about setting up surround sound for your HDTV home theater.

But we can curb that by breaking it down to three different types of experiences. One, just by adding a simple subwoofer or two speakers is not going to give you the digital experience HD carries, but it will give you a lot better sound then the TV can produce alone. Second, home theater-in-a-box systems are often the cheapest way to add surround sound but can lack necessary options to maximize the digital sound. Third, separate components will give the consumer the best sound possible, but it can be daunting to purchase and use.

I admit that I’m guilty of neglecting audio for video but investing in your speaker system as well as your new HDTV is important and can greatly enhance the experience. HD Beat talks about adding a surround sound system for your HDTV but the same applies to your Media Center PC. If you have the right audio outputs you can just feed the audio to your surround sound system and you are good to go.

So what’s your recommendations for the best surround sound setup for a Media Center PC?

ExtremeTech Builds a Dual Core Media Center PC

Following up on a previously popular build-your-own Media Center PC article, ExtremeTech is back again with all new hardware including a dual core processor. Here’s their build list:

This is an expensive system coming in at $2300. I wonder why they didn’t use a dual tuner PCI card? I also don’t think they need a second DVD burner and I defintley don’t agree with the Nvidia DVD decoder.

What components would you use/not use?

Using Instant Message Client as a Media Center Extender

My wife found a very interesting feature of AOL Instant Message Client – if Media Center is taping a show then you can watch the video like it was coming from a video chat camera. She was talking with a friend and he said ‘Why are you showing me a video of someone baking a cake?’ .But we don’t have a video chat camera installed on our Media Center computer. Apparently AOL IM client is picking up the Media Center video feed taping The Food Network. We could switch the camera source feed in AOL and see the Food TV show playing. There wasn’t any audio but it was pretty interesting to see.

So here’s a whole new Media Center extender experience for you to try. I don’t know if it will work if you do have a video chat camera installed or not. If you try it out with your IM client, then let me know which one’s work.

What It Takes to Certify a Media Center PC

Imaging Science Foundation is an organization that ‘certifies’ Media Center PC’s and has some interesting pdf articles about how they do their testing. There is a lot of good information on how video processing, encoding/decoding and scaling should be done within Media Center.

Cable A La Carte and What It Could Mean

Engadget has a great post dissecting the recent FCC announcement to try and get the cable companies to offer a la carte pricing for consumers. So this means that you could just pay for ESPN and that’s it. Sound great, right? Well, maybe not; it could actually cost you more based upon how the cable companies ink their deals with the different media companies that own the TV programming.

Second, your costs could actually go up. It seems hard to imagine that purchasing a few select channels could increase your costs, but it’s true. Besides some of the classic supply and demand-type arguments addressed earlier, there are technical issues with a la carte programming.

I don’t think a la carte would be any better in the end. Do you really think the cable companies are going to switch to an a la carte system and potentially lose money? If anything, they will charge more for the most watched channels, drop the least watched channels and make even more money. The only way TV programming is going to change is when the telco companies like Verizon get momentum behind their Fios programming (that’s TV over the internet) and provide some real competition.

Internal Media Center IR Remote Receiver

Thanks to Chris Lanier for pointing out that Ricavision has an internal Media Center IR remote receiver available. I’m not sure if they are selling individual units or if you have to purchase some type of system from them but it would be great to get a hold of this if you are building your own Media Center PC!

TV Everywhere for Media Center

TV Everywhere allows you to broadcast an audio/video signal wirelessy in your house and might make a great Media Center extender!

Just plug the 2.4GHz wireless tuner/transmitter into your cable-TV line, VCR or DVD player, then connect the 2.4 GHz wireless receiver to any other TV or monitor.

Transmitter sends audio and video signals to the receiver up to 100 feet away unobstructed (approximately 60 feet through walls and floors).

Switch between your VCR/DVD or cable/broadcast TV at the push of a button.

Change channels on the tuner/transmitter using buttons on the receiver or the included wireless remote.

This won’t work with HD content but it might be a cheap solution for adding a Media Center extender somewhere else in your house. Sharper Image is selling the units for about 150 bucks reconditioned.

The Ultimate Media Center PC Remote

Philips has a wi-fi touchscreen remote with a color LCD screen that would make a killer remote for Media Center.

This revolutionary remote offers a single simple Activity-Based interface to control the home entertainment experience. The RC9800i does not only control your traditional Audio and Video equipment. It is also equipped to control new Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) devices, which allow the transfer of PC content such as MP3s and photos to your entertainment system.

I did see this in the FAQ on the Philips website that doesn’t sound good but I’m sure someone could make it work:

Will I be able to control my PC running Windows Media Center, which is connected to a wireless network with the RC9800i?
Jo, Tallahassee, USA

Yes you can control the Media Center PC using infrared control of the RC9800i and the IR dongle that came with the PC. To be able to control the PC through the network and see the content on the RC9800i screen, you will need to have a UPnP 1.0 compliant media server on the PC which the current Microsoft Media Center Edition is not

Of course, it’s not cheap coming in at almost 350 pounds but it sure would be nice on my coffee table.

HDTV Tuner List for Media Center

PC Alchemy has a nice selection of different HDTV tuners available for Media Center including USB HDTV tuners. VBox is the new kid on the block with several HDTV tuners available. The USB interface should be able to handle the bandwidth of HDTV but has anyone tried one for HDTV recordings?

TightVNC is Your Media Center Remote Desktop Answer

In a previous post I talked about trying to setup remote desktop on my Media Center PC but I just couldn’t get it to work. After some searching I found TightVNC that is a free remote desktop application available for Windows. Install and setup was a breeze and I was up and running in under 5 minutes. This is a great little program so if you can’t get remote desktop to work then try this out. And I really hope that Microsoft is going to change how remote desktop works in Vista Media Center. If people are going to be hooking their home theater up to their PC then they will need another way to conveniently run maintenance and upgrades on their home theater PC.

Video of Vista Media Center

Windows Vista Lounge put up a video of recorded screen shots so you could see the latest release of Vista Media Center in action. This is a very cool video and really gives you a better feel of what to expect in Vista Media Center.

Connecting Your Media Center PC to Your HDTV

So you’ve decided to jump into the 21st century and setup your digital living room using a PC running some media center application like Microsoft’s Media Center. But when you go to hook up your PC to your new plasma HDTV the cables don’t match and you’re confused – what’s going on here? Well, using a PC in the digital living room has a few hang-ups so here’s my do’s and dont’s for hooking up your PC to your HDTV.

Do make sure your HDTV (or projector or whatever) has a HDMI connection. The HDMI interface is all digital meaning you won’t lose any picture quality going from your PC to your HDTV. Most HDTV’s have multiple video input connections available like S-Video as well as HDMI so even if you aren’t using it now still get it because eventually everything will be using HDMI.

Do plan on getting some conversion cables for connecting your PC to your HDTV. Most video cards now have a DVI output which is great for connecting to your HDTV. DVI is an all digital interface (which is good because there is no picture quality loss) and HDMI is actually based upon DVI except better because it can also carry audio. The problem is that most HDTV’s don’t have a DVI port – only a HDMI port. Since HDMI is backwards compatible with DVI then you can buy a converter cable. But people have had lots of issues connecting DVI to HDMI due to a number of issues ranging from some TV manufacturer’s not fully supporting DVI backwards compatibility and the copy protection built into HDMI.

Don’t think you are going to keep the same video card forever. As we just talked about, your current video card only had a DVI output at best – there are not any video cards that have an HDMI output yet. But HDMI video cards from both ATI and Nvidia are coming and will probably be the best type of video card to buy or upgrade to. The most recent HDMI specification released (1.2) included some new improvements for connecting your PC HDMI port to your HDTV HDMI port as well. Again, the real issue is that the DVI output from your video card may not be compatible with the HDMI input on your HDTV, especially with the HDCP copy protection scheme.

Do plan on downloading the PowerStrip program to deal with overscan and learning how to use it here. Overscan is a known issue with connecting a PC to a TV and what it does is basically cut off part of the image on your TV (It really has nothing to do with using a PC and is an artifact of how video images are displayed on TV’s and monitors to keep a solid image on your screen). So this is an issue when you are trying to see your Start menu or other text on the edges of your screen. Some video cards now have built-in overscan controls like Nvidia.

Don’t forget to calibrate your TV. Check out this CNET article on the cheap and expensive ways to calibrate your new HDTV. Chances are you will get a much better picture by not using the out-of-box settings.

Workaround To Adding a HDTV Tuner Without an Analog TV Tuner

HD Beat has been building a sub thousand dollar Media Center PC and found out the hard way that to install a HDTV tuner you actually need an analog TV tuner installed:

Apparently Windows Media Center won't configure the tuners because it isn't detecting the presence of an analog, or NTSC tuner in our computer. Um, that's because we don't care about analog television; we're building this configuration for high-definition and digital TV! No matter what I said to the computer, it wouldn't budge. No analog tuner, no television at all!

This is a known issue with Media Center and no, it doesn’t make any sense at all. One workaround is to temporarily put in an analog TV tuner card if you have one or a USB TV tuner will work too. The second option, if you happen to have an ATI HDTV Wonder card is to use some hacked drivers called the ‘Kram’ drivers. These drivers allow you to install the ATI HDTV Wonder card without an analog TV tuner card but you may lose some TV functionality.

I wonder if there is a workaround for other HDTV tuners for Media Center?

Getting Remote Desktop to Work with Media Center

With Windows XP (and Windows Media Center) Microsoft has made it easy to setup remote desktop so you can remotely login to your PC and run applications or do whatever you want. But before you ask, you really can’t use remote desktop as a full featured Media Center extender. That’s because you can’t view video over remote desktop. I have read on The Green Button of people being able to use remote desktop to play music and view photos though so there are some possibilities.

Setting up remote desktop is pretty easy and I found Pain In the Tech to have the best instructions. Here’s the quick setup:

1. First, enable remote desktop on the computer you want to login to by going to ‘System Properties’ and selecting the ‘Remote’ tab. Then select the check box to enable remote desktop.

2. Next, you need to make sure you have a password protected user account on the computer you want to login to. Go to control panel and select add new user and make sure it’s password protected.

3. Now, still in the ‘Remote’ tab, go to the ‘Select Remote User’ and add the user account you just created.

4. If you have a software firewall, you will have to open the port 3389 to allow remote desktop to work. You have to do the same with your router. I have a linksys router and if you go into the configuration setup you can set the port forwarding:

5. You need to know the IP address of the computer you want to login to. You can do this by typing ‘ipconfig’ at the run prompt. You’ll need to enter this IP address in your router configuration for port forwarding.

6. On the computer that you are using to remote desktop into the computer you just setup for remote desktop (say that five times fast) go to ‘Start|All Programs|Accessories|Communications|Remote Desktop Connection’. You need to enter the IP address of the computer you want to login to and then you should see the login screen. Enter the username and password of the account you setup and you are done!

This works fine for me on a Windows XP PC but when I try to login to my Media Center PC it doesn’t work – it says it can’t find the host computer. Maybe I don’t have my linksys router settings correct? Or is there something different I need to do with Media Center?

If you’ve got remote desktop working with your Media Center PC leave me some comments if you had to do something different to set it up.  

Where is Media Center on the Kick Ass Curve?

Creating passionate users is my favorite new blog. One of the latest posts asks the question ‘Where are you on the kick ass curve?’

How long do your users spend in the "I suck" (or "this product sucks") zone? Once they've crossed the suck threshold, how long does it take before they start to feel like they kick ass? Both of those thresholds are key milestones on a users path to passion, and it's often the case that he-who-gets-his-users-there-first wins.

This got me to thinking about Media Center – are we still in the “this product sucks” zone or are we in the “kick ass” zone? I would be interested in hearing your comments on this one.

And my favorite solution:

6) Make sure there's a way for the user to know when they've crossed the thresholds. Sometimes the user is capable of doing more than they realize. Find a way to prove to them that they really can kick ass (or at least that they no longer suck). This must not be faked! This must be real, and again--not some attempt to dumb it down to make the user feel good. It may be that the user is doing something meaningful, that applies directly to what they really want to do, but the materials/instructor/app haven't made it clear enough how this seemingly simple thing relates or bridges to something that matters.

Why My iRiver Portable Media Center Is an iPod Killer

I bought an iRiver Portable Media Center PMC-120 a few months ago and thought I would share my thoughts on it. The PMC-120 is a ‘portable media center’ device that shares the Windows Media Center interface and syncs to your computer (XP or Media Center) so you can play music, photos, and videos.

The iRiver PMC-120 series plays your movies, TV shows, music, photos and more. It features the ultra-intuitive Microsoft® Media Center interface and connects seamlessly to Windows Media Player**. Plus, it comes complete with a widescreen vivid color display, integrated speaker, 20GB† of internal storage and a removable rechargeable battery.

Features
• Plays digital music and video files
• Synchronize your media library with Windows Media® Player
• Intuitive Windows Mobile™-based Portable Media Center interface
• 20GB of internal storage†
• Store up to 80 hours of video or up to 600 hours of music*
• Wide 3.5 inch vivid color display
• Supports secure transfers from Windows Media Player™
• Connect to your home entertainment system
• Built-in speaker
• Store or transfer files of any type
• Rechargeable, replaceable Lithium-ion battery
• Up to 14 hours of battery life (audio)
• Up to 5 hours of battery life (video)

Syncing with Windows Media Player

When you connect your PMC to the computer, Windows Media Player automatically detects the player and shows you your sync options. Besides manually selecting files to put on your PMC, you can setup automatic synching based on all sorts of criteria like new files, favorite list and so on. Overall, the sync options are pretty good and easy enough to use. The only downside is when you want to sync video. Since the iRiver PMC has a max resolution of 320x240, just about any video on your computer from recorded DVR-MS TV shows to ripped DVD’s (in a compatible format such as wmv) has to be transcoded to the proper resolution. And this takes a long time. A really long time. Did I mention it takes a really long time? I’ve found it best to sync my video overnight (while on the charger) so it’s ready for the next day. Music and photos sync a lot faster and since the PMC-120 is play for sure compliant it supports DRM music services like Napster. I have transferred multiple songs downloaded from Napster without any issues.

Extra Hard Drive

When you hook up your PMC to your computer, Windows automatically detects the device and it shows up under My Computer. If you click on your device, then you can browse the contents. All of your Media is stored under the Media folder and you can use the Data folder to store any additional files that you want. I really like this feature because with the 20gig hard drive this is a lot of extra storage if I need it.

I haven’t tried just placing my media files directly in the media folder, bypassing the syncing, and seeing if the media files show up under the portable media center interface. One thing to try would be to copy over a video file at full resolution and then try to play it back on a TV using the TV out. This would test what the real video output resolution of the player is – the 320x240 resolution may just be for the screen but the actual video encoder may be able to output a higher resolution.

Player Controls

I think the player controls are very well done for this device. On the left, you have an arrow style control for navigating and a center button to select options. You also get the infamous Green Button and a back button. On the right, you get the typical player functions for fast forward, rewind, stop/play/pause and volume up/down.

 Here is the main screen – just like a Media Center PC:

 My Videos

You can sort your videos by date and other options. You can see above how the video looks and the list view you get.

My Music

You have a lot of options for viewing and playing your music. You can view by album, song, artist – just like in Media Center. Since there is no keyboard input or typepad, it is a little tedious to scroll through your music if you have a lot of songs on your player. I am really impressed with the music options and I think it really blows the iPod out of the water in this category.

My Pictures

Viewing your photos on your PMC is as easy as using your Media Center PC. You can search by folder or by name and thumbnails are visible. The coolest thing is you can setup a slide show with music playing in the background. This is how I often have mine setup – it’s a music player and a digital photo frame all in one.

Options

There aren’t too many options but you get a few to change the backlight brightness, how long it stays on and some other audio settings.

Audio and Video Output

The audio output is as good as my iPod mini with headphones. I’m not much of an audiophile but it sounds great to me. The external speaker could use some work though. For some reason it is a lot louder for video playback of my recorded TV shows than my songs.

The iRiver PMC-120 comes with a widescreen 3.5in screen. Watching video on this screen is surprisingly pleasant – even for two people. I don’t think I would want to watch video on the 2.5in screen of the video iPod – there is definitely a fine line on screen sizes for these devices. The quality of the video is good and the screen resolution of 320x240 isn’t too bad. It’s not as high res as some recent Creative players or the Play Station Portable but it’s good enough.

Playing video through the TV out port isn’t going to be that enjoyable since the max resolution is 320x240 but if there is a hack to get around this then it might not be a bad portable movie player.

Battery Life

I was very impressed with the battery life. It actually lived up to the manufacturer’s claims. I’m able to watch 4 to 6 hours of video back to back on one charge and about double that for just music playback. Having an iPod mini myself, this is a huge improvement in battery life. This gives you enough battery life for a cross country flight which is great for travelers.

Final Thoughts and Why It’s an iPod Killer

It should be pretty obvious by now why these portable media center’s are iPod killers: they have bigger screens and more functionality than an iPod. And if you have a Media Center PC, then you don’t have to pay to watch downloaded TV shows. The iPod may be smaller, but you get what you pay for: smaller screen and less capability. Overall, I’m very happy with my portable media center and have no desire for a video iPod. I think the media center interface is perfect for a portable player and has been sorely overlooked by tech reviewers when comparing the iPod to other devices.

So what’s your vote – Portable Media Center or iPod?