Here is a video tour of my new media center based setup. It's in three parts.
Part 1: The Main TV
Part 2: The Upstairs TV
Part 3: Caller ID (Almost Forgot)
The TV Tuners have shipped
The TV tuners have shipped and are on their way from Miami via DHL. They shipped late yesterday and are scheduled to arrive tomorrow. I will try and finish moving my cable across the room tonight so that I can be done with that.
So I should be up and running with live TV tomorrow. Once that is done I have to get WebGuide configured and get the cable cards installed. At that point my basic setup will be done. The only thing I might change are the addition of a few plugins (like the Picassa plugin) and an additional tuner.
I'm getting close!!
So I should be up and running with live TV tomorrow. Once that is done I have to get WebGuide configured and get the cable cards installed. At that point my basic setup will be done. The only thing I might change are the addition of a few plugins (like the Picassa plugin) and an additional tuner.
I'm getting close!!
CallerID is Working!!
I am really thinking that I should have named this blog "My Media Center Adventure" instead of "My Network Project". It has been an adventure but these are the kind of things that I enjoy doing. The negative of all this is that it shows that Media Center is still not ready for the everyday person.
I did a lot of research but the answer came to me once again for the great community at TheGreenButton.com. I just can say enough about everyone over there. You can check out the thread here. I will also summarize what I did after the jump.
The first step in my research was determining if the modem that had come with my PC was caller id capable. Most modems these days are so I wasn't to worried about that. I did the HyperTerminal test and determined that my modem uses a caller id initialization string of "AT+VCID=1". There are actually a number of different strings. You just need to test them all to find out which one works for your modem.
So once I determined that the modem actually supported caller id I had to figure out why it didn't work with TapiRex. The short answer is "message formatting". When the modem gets the caller information from the caller id service and provides it the Tapi software on your PC it has to been a particular format. If it's not correct then the software will always show an incoming call from an unknown source.
To correct this I had to reinstall the modem drivers with an updated INF file. I update the INF file to include the missing information, reinstalled the driver and then restarted my Tapi software (aka TapiRex). Like magic it started working and now I have caller id on my PC and thanks to the media center plugin on my TV as I use media center.
For all the nitty gritty details read the thread over at the Green Button.
I did a lot of research but the answer came to me once again for the great community at TheGreenButton.com. I just can say enough about everyone over there. You can check out the thread here. I will also summarize what I did after the jump.
The first step in my research was determining if the modem that had come with my PC was caller id capable. Most modems these days are so I wasn't to worried about that. I did the HyperTerminal test and determined that my modem uses a caller id initialization string of "AT+VCID=1". There are actually a number of different strings. You just need to test them all to find out which one works for your modem.
So once I determined that the modem actually supported caller id I had to figure out why it didn't work with TapiRex. The short answer is "message formatting". When the modem gets the caller information from the caller id service and provides it the Tapi software on your PC it has to been a particular format. If it's not correct then the software will always show an incoming call from an unknown source.
To correct this I had to reinstall the modem drivers with an updated INF file. I update the INF file to include the missing information, reinstalled the driver and then restarted my Tapi software (aka TapiRex). Like magic it started working and now I have caller id on my PC and thanks to the media center plugin on my TV as I use media center.
For all the nitty gritty details read the thread over at the Green Button.
Still waiting on my TV Tuners
The estimated ship date on my two ATI Digital TV Tuners is still showing as March 7th on the DELL website. I called customer support to check on the order and see if there was any new information. According to the rep I spoke with the estimated ship date in his system had been updated to February 27th (aka tomorrow!!!). He also offered to try and get the order shipped next day instead of 3-5 days.
I tell you what, as a first time DELL customer I am VERY impressed and satisfied with the level of customer service I have received. It has gone above and beyond for me so far. Now granted this is in the sales cycle of my relationship with them. I hope I do not need to experience the service side, but if I do I expect and hope to get the same level of service that sales side of the house has given me so far.
I tell you what, as a first time DELL customer I am VERY impressed and satisfied with the level of customer service I have received. It has gone above and beyond for me so far. Now granted this is in the sales cycle of my relationship with them. I hope I do not need to experience the service side, but if I do I expect and hope to get the same level of service that sales side of the house has given me so far.
MyMovies and Transcode 360 up and running
After the adventure with my hard drive I was hoping that my next install would run smoother. Unfortunately it was not to be. I installed the MyMovies MCE plugin with no issues whatsoever. I moved onto installing Transcode360 to work alongside of MyMovies and the adventure started again.
For those that do not know, Transcode360 is a program that runs in the background on the main media center PC that allows you to watch videos that are not supported on your media center extender by "transcoding" the videos as you watch them to a format that the extender can natively support. Simple translation: It lets you watch XVID/DIVX movies on your extender.
I had two issues with this that I had to hunt down through a lot of research. The first was that I had an old version of the Transcode 360 Vista install. I acquired 1.6.0 from http://runtime360.com/projects/transcode-360/ and the latest was 1.6.3.
Once I had the right version installed and "working" my movies would start to transcode and then stop. The problem there was my Virus Protection software. Once I uninstalled that then it worked. There is a patch to allow the virus protection software to run concurrently with transcode360.
Of course all of this would be a moot point if the Xbox 360 was updated to match the current capabilities of the other V2 Extenders on the market like the Linksys DMA2100. These extenders can stream XVID/DIVX with no problem. I believe that the vendors are getting a 6 month lead time on this so that they can compete against the Xbox 360 in the extender market.
Long story short, I have it working!!
For those that do not know, Transcode360 is a program that runs in the background on the main media center PC that allows you to watch videos that are not supported on your media center extender by "transcoding" the videos as you watch them to a format that the extender can natively support. Simple translation: It lets you watch XVID/DIVX movies on your extender.
I had two issues with this that I had to hunt down through a lot of research. The first was that I had an old version of the Transcode 360 Vista install. I acquired 1.6.0 from http://runtime360.com/projects/transcode-360/ and the latest was 1.6.3.
Once I had the right version installed and "working" my movies would start to transcode and then stop. The problem there was my Virus Protection software. Once I uninstalled that then it worked. There is a patch to allow the virus protection software to run concurrently with transcode360.
Of course all of this would be a moot point if the Xbox 360 was updated to match the current capabilities of the other V2 Extenders on the market like the Linksys DMA2100. These extenders can stream XVID/DIVX with no problem. I believe that the vendors are getting a 6 month lead time on this so that they can compete against the Xbox 360 in the extender market.
Long story short, I have it working!!
Busy couple of days
Wow! The past couple of days have been a blur. The computer arrived on Tuesday and it happened to coincide with a CRAZY work week. I haven't had much time to setup the new PC over the past few days, but I have had some. This weekend should see the rest of the non-TV related setup completed. Now on to what has happened so far!
The first adventure with the new computer started as soon as I opened the box. I bought a 750GB sata hard drive from NewEgg to compliment the 500GB hard drive already in the PC. The hard drive arrived wrapped in bubble wrap with nothing else (no box, nothing). So turns out I was missing a sata data cable to hook up the hard drive. Late night run to Best Buy fixed that problem.
The next issue to resolve was that the hard drive was no showing up as installed. Enabling the sata data port on the motherboard through the system BIOS resolved that issue.
The next issue was getting the new hard drive to show up as usable in Windows Vista. It was showing up in the disk manager as unallocated. The disk manager though would not give me an option to create a new allocation. I resolved that one after a few hours of research and installing the Western Digital utility for my drive. It was only for XP so I had to install it in a compatibility mode.
So getting the additional hard drive and turning on the computer was the extent of day 1. I started to copy my data over and called it a night.
More setup follies including Transcode360 and Caller ID to come later.
The first adventure with the new computer started as soon as I opened the box. I bought a 750GB sata hard drive from NewEgg to compliment the 500GB hard drive already in the PC. The hard drive arrived wrapped in bubble wrap with nothing else (no box, nothing). So turns out I was missing a sata data cable to hook up the hard drive. Late night run to Best Buy fixed that problem.
The next issue to resolve was that the hard drive was no showing up as installed. Enabling the sata data port on the motherboard through the system BIOS resolved that issue.
The next issue was getting the new hard drive to show up as usable in Windows Vista. It was showing up in the disk manager as unallocated. The disk manager though would not give me an option to create a new allocation. I resolved that one after a few hours of research and installing the Western Digital utility for my drive. It was only for XP so I had to install it in a compatibility mode.
So getting the additional hard drive and turning on the computer was the extent of day 1. I started to copy my data over and called it a night.
More setup follies including Transcode360 and Caller ID to come later.
The Eagle Has Landed
My new computer was ordered on Friday and I was given an estimated ship date of Friday February 22. Well the computer was shipped this past weekend and arrived today! It is sitting at home waiting for me to get to work.
My additional 750GB hard drive from NewEgg also arrived today. The only thing missing now are the dual ATI Digital Tuners. The tuners still have an estimated ship date of March 7th with an estimated delivery date of March 12-14. That is going to be a long wait.
My additional 750GB hard drive from NewEgg also arrived today. The only thing missing now are the dual ATI Digital Tuners. The tuners still have an estimated ship date of March 7th with an estimated delivery date of March 12-14. That is going to be a long wait.
Picasa MCE Plugin
A new potential Day1 plugin: mcePicasa. Ian Dixon blogs about it here. My family are very big picasa web users so I am very excited to try this one out. Here is a quick screenshot:
The developers website is here: http://www.codeplex.com/mcePicasa
The developers website is here: http://www.codeplex.com/mcePicasa
The computer has officially been ordered
I finally ordered the computer! It is scheduled to ship on February 22 (a week from today). The ATI Digital Tuners as expected are scheduled to ship later. The estimated date given today was March 7 (3 weeks from today). Hopefully my order matches the trends that I have seen online and ships earlier than the estimated date.
As soon as I have a definite ship date for the tuners I will schedule Time Warner and the arrival of my tuner cards.
I called into the Dell sales desk and was able to negotiate an extra $300 off. It doesn't hurt to ask! I used the savings to buy an extra 750GB hard drive from NewEgg. So my total storage in the PC will be 1.2TB. When I add the Windows Home Server I will have PLENTY of storage for all my media.
Here are the full specs:
As soon as I have a definite ship date for the tuners I will schedule Time Warner and the arrival of my tuner cards.
I called into the Dell sales desk and was able to negotiate an extra $300 off. It doesn't hurt to ask! I used the savings to buy an extra 750GB hard drive from NewEgg. So my total storage in the PC will be 1.2TB. When I add the Windows Home Server I will have PLENTY of storage for all my media.
Here are the full specs:
| New PC Setup | |
| XPS 420 | Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor E6850 (4MB L2 Cache,3.0GHz,1333 FSB) |
| Operating System | Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium with Digital Cable Support |
| Memory | 4GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz - 4 DIMMs |
| Video Cards | Radeon ATI HD 2600 XT 256MB |
| Hard Drive | 500GB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache 750GB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache (from NewEgg) |
| Bluetooth and Media Reader | Dell 19 in 1 Media Reader with Bluetooth |
| Optical Drive | Single Drive: 16X CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) w/double layer write capability |
| Sound Cards | Integrated 7.1 Channel Audio |
| TV Tuner & Video Accelerator | Dual ATITV Wonder™Digital Cable Tuner with Remote |
| Software | Adobe Elements Studio for XPS™ 420 |
New Day1 Plugin: MCE Customizer
I found a new plugin today while listening to the Media Center Show called MCE Customizer. It gives you a nice user interface to tweak settings that otherwise would require you to hack the registry. There are some nice tweaks here like "Enable Caller-ID" and "Skip Intervals" and it's absolutely free. The full feature list after the jump.
Current features:
- Hide Or Show Startmenu Items
- Autostart Enhanced DVD Content
- DVD Notification Timeout
- Skip Intervals
- More Info Panel Timeout
- Seek Bar Timeout
- Mini Guide Timeout
- Display My Music As Last Viewed
- Display Wireless Passwords
- Disable Refresh Rate Changes
- Disable DirectX Check
- Enable DVD Gallery
- Disable EPG Discovery Service Reset
- Set Temp & Store Path For Recordings
- Notification Before A Recording Starts
- Recording Pre And Post Padding
- File Naming For Recordings
- Enable Caller-ID
- Enable Universal Remote Control
- Set Remote Control-ID
- Show Network Congestion Notification
- Show 'Not Enough Bandwidth For TV' Notification
- Prompt When Navigating To Insecure Pages
- Prompt When Submitting Nonencrypted Information
- Prompt On Mixed Content
- Start PC With Media Center Remote Control
Current features:
- Hide Or Show Startmenu Items
- Autostart Enhanced DVD Content
- DVD Notification Timeout
- Skip Intervals
- More Info Panel Timeout
- Seek Bar Timeout
- Mini Guide Timeout
- Display My Music As Last Viewed
- Display Wireless Passwords
- Disable Refresh Rate Changes
- Disable DirectX Check
- Enable DVD Gallery
- Disable EPG Discovery Service Reset
- Set Temp & Store Path For Recordings
- Notification Before A Recording Starts
- Recording Pre And Post Padding
- File Naming For Recordings
- Enable Caller-ID
- Enable Universal Remote Control
- Set Remote Control-ID
- Show Network Congestion Notification
- Show 'Not Enough Bandwidth For TV' Notification
- Prompt When Navigating To Insecure Pages
- Prompt When Submitting Nonencrypted Information
- Prompt On Mixed Content
- Start PC With Media Center Remote Control
New DVD backup method
I just cannot say enough about the community over at the Green Button. Everyday I find some great information there that will help me build the best MediaCenter experience for me and my family. Today it may have been an answer to my DVD backup needs.
One feature that I have been researching for awhile now in building the MediaCenter is DVD backup. I have been planning on using MyMovies plugin to access and organize the movie collection but I have gone back and forth on how I would get the movies off the disc and onto my hard drive.
Last night I sat down and cataloged all of my DVDs in a Google Docs Spreadsheet. I came up with a list of 290 DVDs. I ranked all of the movies on a tiered system to help me prioritize the order in which I ripped the movies and added them to my MediaCenter "always available" movie collection. The priority starts with tier 1 and works down to tier 4.
The method that I had been planning on using was the "Fast No Convert" method. This was the easy method to date and worked great with MediaCenter since it was MediaCenter specific. The steps are as follows:
1) Rip main movie with DVD Decrypter into single VOB file (1 click after initial setup)
2) Use VideoRedo to put the mpg file inside the VOB into a DVR-MS container (2 clicks)
3) Add DVR-MS file to MyMovies collection
It doesn't get any easier than that. The only drawback is the file size. I did a quick estimate on hard drive space need to fit all 290 movies. If I did an average file size of 5GB per movie then I would need 1.4 Terabytes worth of storage for everything. Wow! I will have that kind of space by the end of the year when I get my Windows Home Server but I'm not there yet. That's also a lot of space for what I have now. I'm not going to stop buying DVDs.
Now I have two options to deal with this. The first is to cut down the list of DVDs that I rip. Do I really need every DVD that I own to be available at the press of button? Of course not and I plan to revisit my list and trim it down.
The second option is to find another backup solution. I previously had a plan to convert all my movies to XVID. I found a great guide that even though it was a number of steps it produced great looking backups with 5.1 audio at half the file size. The only drawback here is that while the XVID codec is supported directly on my Xbox 360 these days, it is not supported when I use it as a Media Center Extender. The new version 2 extenders that have just been released do support DIVX/XVID so I am hoping that the Xbox 360 will be updated to match their capabilities. Unfortunately we are not there yet and I would prefer to no use Transcode 360 due to the FF/RW limitations.
Today I may have stumbled upon another backup method that I may be able to use. The new method is a one-click batch job that uses a number of applications to produce a WMV file with 5.1 audio. This has the added benefit of being compatible in more ways than the XVID method and it seems to have the file size that I am looking for.
I am going to test out the new method now and will post later on the results.
One feature that I have been researching for awhile now in building the MediaCenter is DVD backup. I have been planning on using MyMovies plugin to access and organize the movie collection but I have gone back and forth on how I would get the movies off the disc and onto my hard drive.
Last night I sat down and cataloged all of my DVDs in a Google Docs Spreadsheet. I came up with a list of 290 DVDs. I ranked all of the movies on a tiered system to help me prioritize the order in which I ripped the movies and added them to my MediaCenter "always available" movie collection. The priority starts with tier 1 and works down to tier 4.
The method that I had been planning on using was the "Fast No Convert" method. This was the easy method to date and worked great with MediaCenter since it was MediaCenter specific. The steps are as follows:
1) Rip main movie with DVD Decrypter into single VOB file (1 click after initial setup)
2) Use VideoRedo to put the mpg file inside the VOB into a DVR-MS container (2 clicks)
3) Add DVR-MS file to MyMovies collection
It doesn't get any easier than that. The only drawback is the file size. I did a quick estimate on hard drive space need to fit all 290 movies. If I did an average file size of 5GB per movie then I would need 1.4 Terabytes worth of storage for everything. Wow! I will have that kind of space by the end of the year when I get my Windows Home Server but I'm not there yet. That's also a lot of space for what I have now. I'm not going to stop buying DVDs.
Now I have two options to deal with this. The first is to cut down the list of DVDs that I rip. Do I really need every DVD that I own to be available at the press of button? Of course not and I plan to revisit my list and trim it down.
The second option is to find another backup solution. I previously had a plan to convert all my movies to XVID. I found a great guide that even though it was a number of steps it produced great looking backups with 5.1 audio at half the file size. The only drawback here is that while the XVID codec is supported directly on my Xbox 360 these days, it is not supported when I use it as a Media Center Extender. The new version 2 extenders that have just been released do support DIVX/XVID so I am hoping that the Xbox 360 will be updated to match their capabilities. Unfortunately we are not there yet and I would prefer to no use Transcode 360 due to the FF/RW limitations.
Today I may have stumbled upon another backup method that I may be able to use. The new method is a one-click batch job that uses a number of applications to produce a WMV file with 5.1 audio. This has the added benefit of being compatible in more ways than the XVID method and it seems to have the file size that I am looking for.
I am going to test out the new method now and will post later on the results.
Interesting Plugin to Organize TV
I just came across a plugin on the GreenButton forums that gives you a different way to organize your TV. I am definitely interested but this will not be a Day1 plugin for me. If I started collecting episodes then I may think about installing and configuring it. I can see this as a strong possibility when I get my Windows Home Server and have 4TBs worth of storage.
Full Info HereIncreasing the Pause Buffer
Everyone with a DVR knows that it is always recording. The thing never stops unless you turn it off and sometimes that doesn't stop it. It does this so you can pause/rewind/fast forward Live TV.
In Media Center, the default "Pause Buffer" is 30 minutes. This means that if you paused live TV it would "unpause" automatically after 30 minutes because your DVR is not storing more than 30 minutes back from whatever is Live at this moment.
With a simple registry hack in Media Center you can increase the pause buffer up to 2 hours. Here is how:
1) Run RegEdit
2) Go to registry entry "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media
Center\Service\Video\Tuners"
3) Find setting "BackingFileDuration" with the default value set to "300 "
4) Change setting "BackingFileDuration" to "600" for 1 hour, "900" for 1.5 hours, "1200" for 2 hours.
This was taken from the community at the Green Button HERE.
In Media Center, the default "Pause Buffer" is 30 minutes. This means that if you paused live TV it would "unpause" automatically after 30 minutes because your DVR is not storing more than 30 minutes back from whatever is Live at this moment.
With a simple registry hack in Media Center you can increase the pause buffer up to 2 hours. Here is how:
1) Run RegEdit
2) Go to registry entry "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media
Center\Service\Video\Tuners"
3) Find setting "BackingFileDuration" with the default value set to "300 "
4) Change setting "BackingFileDuration" to "600" for 1 hour, "900" for 1.5 hours, "1200" for 2 hours.
This was taken from the community at the Green Button HERE.
Moving my Cable Outlet
As part of my Media Center Project I have to get a cable outlet in the same vicinity as my new network outlets. I am not going to run cable across the room. Since I will be using the media center itself to watch TV in the office going forward, I have decided to move the outlet that is in the room rather than add another all together.
So the current plan is to put a blank cover on the current outlet and cover that up. I will then go into the attic and hijack the cable that is going into that room already and redirect it over to the other side of the room.
If I split the wire and leave to active outlets this will cause unnecessary signal degradation since I will not be using that outlet again. I do want to leave myself the option to reactivate the outlet though for when we eventually sell the house.
So the current plan is to put a blank cover on the current outlet and cover that up. I will then go into the attic and hijack the cable that is going into that room already and redirect it over to the other side of the room.
If I split the wire and leave to active outlets this will cause unnecessary signal degradation since I will not be using that outlet again. I do want to leave myself the option to reactivate the outlet though for when we eventually sell the house.
New Reciever
One of the home theater pieces that I am looking to upgrade is my receiver. I currently have a Bose Lifestyle 25 Series. It was great for what I originally bought it for, but I have definitely outgrown the unit. I really want a true receiver with all the proper inputs and the performance to match.
Based on listening the the Engadget HD podcast I am really looking at the Onkyo 605. It looks like the perfect swiss army knife as far as the feature set. So far I only see it for sale at specialty stores and Circuit City.
This is definitely at the bottom of the shopping list so it may be the end of the year before it shows up on my shelf.
Based on listening the the Engadget HD podcast I am really looking at the Onkyo 605. It looks like the perfect swiss army knife as far as the feature set. So far I only see it for sale at specialty stores and Circuit City.This is definitely at the bottom of the shopping list so it may be the end of the year before it shows up on my shelf.
Netflix Plugin
One of the plugins I have been excited about using was the Netflix plugin. It allowed you to view your Netflix queue and add/edit/delete movies from the queue through a media center interface.
Unfortunately the original author of the plugin stopped updating a while ago and just recently officially suspended all developlment and support of the plugin.
Well as soon as that announcement was made it was announced that another MediaCenter community member had been working on a new Vista MC version of the plugin that also included access to Netflix "Watch Now" content. The new version is now available for beta right here.
Unfortunately the original author of the plugin stopped updating a while ago and just recently officially suspended all developlment and support of the plugin.
Well as soon as that announcement was made it was announced that another MediaCenter community member had been working on a new Vista MC version of the plugin that also included access to Netflix "Watch Now" content. The new version is now available for beta right here.
Network Pictures
I finally found a camera to take a few pictures of the work I did a last week as part of my network project.
Here is the 6-Port outlet that I installed in my home office. Installing this box was probably the easiest part of the install. Thanks to my closet attic space I have direct access to the framing behind the wall. This allowed me to do a quick, easy and clean install.
I am currently only using 3 out of the 6. The 3 not in use have blank covers in the slots. The 3 in use are primarly for use with Media Center so they connect to the Master Bedroom (1) and the Living Room (2).
Here is a picture of the PVC pipe I ran down the side of my house. The purpose of this pipe is to run network cable from the attic down into the crawl space and up into the living room wall.
It's 1" in diameter and 22 feet long. The day I installed this was pretty windy so it was kind of a pain to have this laying against the wall swaying in the wind. Once I got the first bracket installed it became a lot easier.
Here is a picture of the PVC elbow going into the brick on the side of the house. The PVC going through the brick is about 5" long.
Finally, to the right are a few of the tools I used after the wire was run. Starting on the left are the network outlets. Very easy to install using the provided punch down tool in the middle. I bought a punch down tool but was able to return it once I realized that one was already provided (and it worked great). And last to the far right is the much needed wire cutter/crimper tool.
Here is the 6-Port outlet that I installed in my home office. Installing this box was probably the easiest part of the install. Thanks to my closet attic space I have direct access to the framing behind the wall. This allowed me to do a quick, easy and clean install.I am currently only using 3 out of the 6. The 3 not in use have blank covers in the slots. The 3 in use are primarly for use with Media Center so they connect to the Master Bedroom (1) and the Living Room (2).
 |  |
| Master Bedroom Outlet | Living Room 2-Port Outlet |
Here is a picture of the PVC pipe I ran down the side of my house. The purpose of this pipe is to run network cable from the attic down into the crawl space and up into the living room wall.
It's 1" in diameter and 22 feet long. The day I installed this was pretty windy so it was kind of a pain to have this laying against the wall swaying in the wind. Once I got the first bracket installed it became a lot easier.
Here is a picture of the PVC elbow going into the brick on the side of the house. The PVC going through the brick is about 5" long.Finally, to the right are a few of the tools I used after the wire was run. Starting on the left are the network outlets. Very easy to install using the provided punch down tool in the middle. I bought a punch down tool but was able to return it once I realized that one was already provided (and it worked great). And last to the far right is the much needed wire cutter/crimper tool.
Webguide
One of the MCE plugins I am most excited about is WebGuide. This is most definitely a DAY 1 plugin. Lifehacker had a great write-up on WebGuide today. Go check it out and if you have not seen the video of WebGuide in action (as well as Steve Lindsay's awesome setup) check that out over at on10.net.
MCE Plugin: Big Screen Photos
I found a new plugin today that I may add to my Day 1 Plugin list. It's called Big Screen Photos 2 and looks like a very cool replacement for the default Picture Library in Media Center.
I think I will used the default on Day 1 and do a 30 day trial of Big Screen Photos 2. I'll report back in a few weeks with a review.
I think I will used the default on Day 1 and do a 30 day trial of Big Screen Photos 2. I'll report back in a few weeks with a review.
New router
One of the new pieces of equipment that I am thinking about is a new router. My current router is 6 years old and I would like to up date it to take advantage of advances in technology since I bought mine (especially improved wireless).
In my research I came across the Linksys Ultra RangePlus Wireless-N Broadband Router. This router has a great wireless range, incorporates the new wireless "N" standard and looks great!
I haven't read any reviews on it yet, but it has definitely caught my interest. It's not at the top of the list but I do want get it!
In my research I came across the Linksys Ultra RangePlus Wireless-N Broadband Router. This router has a great wireless range, incorporates the new wireless "N" standard and looks great!
I haven't read any reviews on it yet, but it has definitely caught my interest. It's not at the top of the list but I do want get it!
Another Xbox 360
I have always wanted to add a second xbox 360 to my setup for the purposes of utilizing it's MC Extender capabilities. When I had originally thought of this plan, I was convinced that I should just go ahead and buy an Xbox 360 Elite. Now thanks to a refreshed 360 lineup, that is no longer the case.
My primary driver behind buying an Elite was HDMI. If I was going to add another xbox I definitely wanted one with HDMI. Just before the holidays Microsoft refreshed the 360 lineup and now all the sku's have an HDMI port. Great news for me.
So now the plan is to get an Xbox 360 Arcade. A savings of $170. I still get another wireless controller and HDMI. I do not get a HardDrive, but I do get a memory card. This is actually a bigger win for me. The second xbox was always going to be a media center extender first and xbox 360 second so the hard drive loss is not huge. If I really want to later I can always buy a used one (but I doubt I will). Also I have always wanted a memory card to make my GamerTag portable but I never wanted to spend the money on one. Now I get one.
As far as the HDMI goes I plan on putting the new xbox downstairs with the 42" plasma hooked up via HDMI with the old hard drive attached to it. The current launch (once-refurbished) non HDMI xbox will go to the master bedroom to act as a media center extender to the 19" HDTV we have in there.
I will probably pick up the Xbox sometime in March if possible. Hopefully sooner.
My primary driver behind buying an Elite was HDMI. If I was going to add another xbox I definitely wanted one with HDMI. Just before the holidays Microsoft refreshed the 360 lineup and now all the sku's have an HDMI port. Great news for me.
So now the plan is to get an Xbox 360 Arcade. A savings of $170. I still get another wireless controller and HDMI. I do not get a HardDrive, but I do get a memory card. This is actually a bigger win for me. The second xbox was always going to be a media center extender first and xbox 360 second so the hard drive loss is not huge. If I really want to later I can always buy a used one (but I doubt I will). Also I have always wanted a memory card to make my GamerTag portable but I never wanted to spend the money on one. Now I get one.
As far as the HDMI goes I plan on putting the new xbox downstairs with the 42" plasma hooked up via HDMI with the old hard drive attached to it. The current launch (once-refurbished) non HDMI xbox will go to the master bedroom to act as a media center extender to the 19" HDTV we have in there.
I will probably pick up the Xbox sometime in March if possible. Hopefully sooner.
Harmony Remote for Xbox 360
I finally picked up a Harmony Xbox 360 Remote Control this past weekend in anticipation of the media center's arrival. This has been on my shopping list for awhile now so I was extremely excited to get it setup and to start using it.
My first experience with the Harmony remote was at my Dad's house. He purchased one to go along with his home theater setup. I was sold after the first 10 minute demo.
When the Xbox 360 version was released it was a sign that this was the smart remote for me. So far I still agree with that sentiment.
I borrowed my brother-in-law's laptop with XP Media Center so that I could test out the activity creation with the Xbox 360 actually functioning as a Media Center Extender. Unfortunately since there is no TV Tuner in the laptop I could not test out what I really wanted: launching Media Center directly into Live TV.
There is also the power on issue which I was able to test but not fully due to time constraints. I had the "Play Xbox 360" activity working correctly and the "Start Media Center" activity working correctly. The only thing that I was not able to fully test was going in between activities. That just saves some of the fun for when the media center arrives.
Cool Media Center Tip
I was reading a blog post entitled, "The Pros and Cons of Media Center Vista" today and came across a great tip in the comments section of the post:
I will definitely be using this tip!! How cool is that? I will be trying this with UNC Basketball.
