Media Center

Last year Microsoft announced that we would let people add their own digital TV Tuners to their computers to create their own Media Center PC's. (The big difference with CableCard and the TV Tuners you can get today is the ability to record pay channels like HBO in HD.) This was great news, except…

Every so often we do a program in my House Calls for Healthcare Professionals series of audio and video-casts that really seems to hit the mark in demonstrating the value of Microsoft technologies in the healthcare industry. I want to draw your attention to one such program. Arkansas Children’s…

It’s a nightmare scenario. You’re out with family and friends, having a wonderful dinner when you suddenly remember that you forgot to set the DVR for tonight’s big game/film/soap (delete as appropriate). It starts in 10 minutes, and you spend five of them wondering how rude it would be to just…

It seems that lately I’ve just been finding more and more Windows Media Center plugins. The latest one I stumbled across (Thanks Ian!) is a way to get Facebook on Media Center. This is thanks to a soon-to-be-released application called Photato, which will be available in beta later this month. It…

For Brits, or anyone else who enjoys BBC radio, there’s now a new plugin for Vista Media Center that lets you listen to BBC Radio from within Media Center: BeebMC. This plugin is pretty cool, but there are a couple of downsides that you should be aware of: 1)  it uses Real Player to do the…

The Windows Team Blog has the scoop on the newly released Ceton InfiniTV 4 digital cable tuner card, which Media Center enthusiasts have been waiting on for some time. Last November, changes to industry policy allowed for the installation of digital cable tuner cards to any Windows PC that…

By now, you probably heard the news that Hulu has finally unveiled its new subscription-based service called Hulu Plus. But in case you missed the details, it’s worth mentioning that one of the ways you’ll be able to enjoy this service in the near future is via your Xbox 360. That’s right - …

Today the Windows SideShow Team Blog announced the long-anticipated Windows Media Center SideShow gadgets. In case you’re not familiar, Windows SideShow is the technology that delivers information from a PC to a secondary display. That display can be a small LCD screen on your desktop or laptop…

Life|ware is a home automation system whose goal is to merge control of your home with access to all of your digital entertainment. You can integrate Life|ware into Windows Media Center and, from there, you can manage your music, your photos, your videos, watch DVDs, and you can even schedule and…

Sean Alexander recently posted a good tip for Windows 7 Media Center users which is something that some of you may have overlooked: turning on color-coded program categories in the on-screen guide. With this option, you can easily see at a glance which channels are Sports, which are News, which are…