Media Center

Oh do we have fun this week!  After moving through a ton of reader email and comments (THANK YOU!), Josh and Adam get into the question of fair use and recorded TV.  How long should you be allowed to keep your recordings?  Can you archive them forever or are you obligated to buy the DVD series once it’s available?  We try to focus on these questions this week.  (Notice I said we try.  We stray a bit!)

We had some great emails and comments this week and you’ll find links shared by our listeners below.  Don’t forget to call and leave us a voicemail (1-877-856-4933), post a comment or email us your questions and comments.  Our shows are getting better and most of that improvement has to do with listener feedback and questions like yours.  We don’t know everything but if we don’t know, we’ll find out for you.

Show notes:

• Guide to building an HD HTPC
• Video Cards with Component Out
• SONY CORP. OF AMER. v. UNIVERSAL CITY STUDIOS, INC., 464 U.S. 417 (1984)
• Apple wants to offer unlimited TV for $30/month

Click here to download Episode 52!

As always, we want to thank Dragon Global, creators of Show Analyzer for their support of Entertainment 2.0.

Having recently started using my HTPC directly on the main television in our home has been a good experience. It’s given me access to more content than is available on extender and overall a lot more control of my experience in my main viewing area.

One of the issues you come across with this method however is access to non-Media Center functions. We all know that you can use RDP or Microsoft Live Mesh to remote into your HTPC to perform these tasks but the problem we run into is that it kicks the Media Center session that someone may be running at the time.

Missing Remote, with help from a larger community, has come up with a solution to the issue. Just like in Windows Vista, it’s possible to enable concurrent Remote Desktop sessions in Windows 7. This allows you to RDP into your HTPC as one user, while the main user is able to continue using Media Center or any other application they may be running.

While it’s probably a complicated process to do yourself, fellow Media Center MVP, Mike Garcen, has been able to work with the Media Center community to put together a batch file that when run will automatically turn on concurrent sessions.

After posting a TV Tuner setup how-to, I thought it would be a good idea to do a quick screencast on some of the things you can do with guide data. This isn’t an in depth, edit channel mapping type of how-to but more about how to remove channels and setup favorite listings. Not the most complicated of Media Center tasks but if you don’t know the option to edit your guide is there then you may be spending time scrolling through 800 channels when you only have 50.

Enjoy!

It’s a task most veteran Media Center users know how to do. But, if you’re someone who’s looking to upgrade to Windows 7 and are thinking about using the included Media Center feature, adding a tuner may seem difficult. It doesn’t have to be.

In the screencast below, I walk you through the standard TV Tuner setup. In this case, I had already added the tuner previously. This doesn’t really change the process though. It simply made it so that you didn’t have to watch my PC download PlayReady or guide data. Other than that, you still have the same choices to make.

Overall it’s a straight forward process. The only differences in the time it takes will be the tuner you install in your system. As I’m using an older NTSC tuner it’s pretty quick. There’s no need to scan for channels like when setting up a QAM or ATSC tuner.

If you’re setting up a tuner for the first time, sit back and enjoy the show!

Most people know that Microsoft is unleashing its latest OS to the world today.  Many of us have been running various versions of the software since last January but the official release is still a huge deal.

While us in the tech community have been running Windows 7 for awhile now, I sometimes forget that not everyone is.  Whether people simply don’t trust beta software or haven’t been interested enough to give Windows 7 a shot, now is the time to jump.  The title says it all.  While this isn’t a full on Windows 7 review, I will say that the majority of people should upgrade to the new OS as soon as possible.  The features it adds will certainly make it worth it for you.

First and foremost (for this site) is Windows Media Center.  Not just Media Center but media in general.  With the addition of Homegroup and internet sharing, Microsoft has made it extremely easy to share the content spread around your home with others and to use it while you’re not on your home network.  Both of these go way beyond Media Center.  In fact, internet sharing is all done within Windows Media Player and is really easy to setup.

I woke up this morning on a mission. To get my HTPC upgraded to the RTM of Windows 7. Once the reinstallation was complete, what to my wondering eyes did appear but a Netflix logo sitting on the Movies strip of my Media Center main menu!

It seems that MS has come through and right before the retail release of Windows 7 has gotten Netflix support worked in. The downside? It’s not showing up on my Xbox 360 extenders…

I guess this was to be expected but come on! I get it, you want me to have and Xbox Live Gold subscription but guess what? I already do because I’m a gamer! Let’s not half-ass it on this on MS. Get us Netflix on the extenders and you’ll have a ton of happy MCE users!

Most people who read here or are involved with the HTPC community in any way know most of the options out there.  For those looking to get started you may have heard of Windows Media Center and maybe SageTV, two of the bigger players in the market.  What you may not know is that there are a ton of options out there.

Luckily, if you are looking for a free alternative solution to some of the bigger softwares out there, the Telematics Freedom Foundation’s “Freedom Box Project,” has put together a white paper comparing Boxee, Elisa, Entertainer, Freevo, MediaPortal, My Media System, MythTV, Neuros OSD, Plex, and XBMC.  There are also comparisons for all in one solutions such as Mythbuntu.  The paper is available in PDF format for download. For more information as well as links to download the whitepaper, please visit DeviceGuru.

Take a look at the video put together by the foundation: