Over at the HomeServerShow, a very interesting story just popped up that I had to pass along.  “Do you need Anti-Virus on your Media Center PC’s?” is the title and it offers up some good reasons why you might want to think twice about whether a computer needs an AV solution or not.

Just a little snippet from the article may get you thinking

How did I come about such an exploit you may ask?  Downloading actor images, and meta data via the MetaBrowser utility!  I never imagined I would run across an exploit in such a way but there is also a good chance that it’s just a false positive.  I don’t blame MetaBrowser for it but should we be concerned?

about the need for an AV solution for your WHS.  You may not access the web through a browser on your WHS, but if a utility like My Movies for WHS looks for meta data, it might just grab more than it intended.

Food for thought…

Source Article:
Does WHS need AV? Here’s a Good YES Reason

Looks like the defrag guys are starting to ramp up their next releases as today I received a copy of the all-new Diskeeper 2010 HomeServer Edition.

At first glance, it looks like Diskeeper 2010 offers one key improvement from last year’s release, a new feature called Intelliwrite, which Diskeeper claim “prevents the majority of disk fragmentation from ever occurring, dramatically improving Windows system performance.”

IntelliWrite is a ground breaking technology that prevents the
majority of fragmentation from ever occurring, dramatically
improving Windows system performance.

A small percentage of fragmentation is not preventable and will
be eliminated by Automatic Defragmentation. The combination of
IntelliWrite and Automatic Defragmentation will keep your system
running at optimum performance in the most effective and efficient
way possible.

Prevention of fragmentation with IntelliWrite has been found to be
more efficient than other defragmentation methods. IntelliWrite reduces the need for disk head movement and results in a reduction of system resource usage and power consumption.

No pricing or release dates available as yet, but stay tuned for a review and full details soon.

Source Article:
Just Landed: Diskeeper 2010 HomeServer Edition

Now that we’ve covered a handful of great plugins to improve your Windows 7 media Center,  it’s time to go through a few programs and background plugins that can greatly improve your experience. These programs and plugins will improve on the Media Center interface as well as adding some missing options and features that are lacking in the basic Media Center installation. Add logos to the TV guide listings, create your own Media Center themes, put Caller ID on your TV and more.

Programs

My Channel Logos allows you to quickly and easily add channel logos to your Windows 7 Media Center’s TV guide listings improving both the appearance and usability of the guide. The newest versions of this program even include sets of downloadable channel logos including color versions. Using the program is quite easy as well, once you’ve setup your TV guide listings inside Media Center just open the program and select your region then apply channel logos. My Channel Logos will search through your guide files and make the appropriate changes to add logos, just relaunch Media Center.

Media Center Studio, the successor to Menu Mender, is the ultimate in Windows 7 Media Center customization apps. Allowing you to design, create and distribute your own Media Center themes as well as customize and create your own start menu strips. Change the Media Center background, add a games strip and more all with ease using this handy program. This program makes it simple to create and rearrange your Media Center interface until you’ve got it just the way you like it. Make changes to the graphic interface by using your own images and fonts then just drag and drop start strip tiles to make your Media Center truly unique.

More Plugins

Though a sleep timer likely isn’t one of the firs things to cross your mind as a missing feature, if you’re used to having one on your television it can be a sorely missed feature. MC7 Sleep Timer is exceptionally easy to use as well. Simply install the plugin then use the plugin interface in the Extra Programs listing to set a sleep timer for any number of intervals. Quick buttons are available for 30 and 60 minutes as well as teh ability to create a custom timer button and even just turn off your monitor. This handy little tool is sure to make at least a few Media Center enthusiasts’ setups complete.

There are plenty of movie and media enthusiasts that prefer to watch their content the way is was originally intended, which includes in the original refresh rate. By default Windows 7 Media Center runs in the default resolution of your monitor, typically 60hz, however much of today’s HD media is intended to be played back at 24hz. Refresh Rate Changer will let you do just that. Just setup the resolutions and refresh rates for your monitor and media in the options file then access the plugin inside Media Center to change the refresh rate. Though not automatic and requiring an automatic restart of Media Center it’s a solution to the problem.

Not just for Vista any longer, Vista Caller ID’s developers have even create a plugin to allow you to harness the program’s functions to get Caller ID right inside your Windows 7 Media Center. A feature commonly included in modern cable and satellite DVR boxes and sorely missed by many making the switch. As long as you’ve got a compatible analog modem, install the basic program and the Media Center plugin to get started. Then be sure to setup your preferences and you’ll be all set.

Source Article:
Programs to Customize and Improve Your Windows 7 Media Center

In its first week of sales, Windows 7 has already surpassed Vista. Looks like the hype and impressive reviews of Windows 7 are paying off.

Windows 7 software unit sales in the U.S. were 234 percent higher than Vista’s first few days of sales, according to the NPD Group. In comparison, first-week retail sales of boxed copies of Windows Vista were almost 60 percent below sales of boxed copies of Windows XP in the week after its 2001 launch.

The numbers for revenue growth weren’t as stellar, but are still impressive. Due to low-cost pre-sales, discounts, and a lack of promotion for the expensive Ultimate Edition, Windows 7 clocked in just an 82 percent increase over Vista.

“Microsoft’s program of early low-cost pre-sales, high visibility marketing, and aggressive deals helped make the Windows 7 software launch successful,” said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD, in an e-mail message. “In a slow environment for packaged software Windows 7 brought a large number of customers into the software aisles.”

However, customers weren’t flocking to the hardware aisles as much as they were during Vista’s launch. Sales of Windows PCs were up 49 percent in units year-over-year and were up 95 percent over the week prior to launch. The growth of PC sales during Vista’s launch was, in comparison, 68 percent in prior year’s sales and 170 percent over the week prior to launch. There are several reasons for this. The economy, of course, limits the purchase of brand-new PCs.

During the Vista launch, Chris Swenson, a software analyst with NPD, said consumers “were getting the message that they need a more robust system to take advantage of some of the new features in Vista.” Vista was a notorious memory hog, and switching from XP to Vista was an intimidating feat that required powerful PCs. Accustomed to higher-end OSes, customers likely did not need to beef up their existing computers to handle Windows 7.

Sounds like Windows 7 is doing a bang-up job of leaving its Vista predecessor in the dust. You can almost hear the champagne corks popping at Redmond.

Source Article:
Windows 7: The Numbers Are Looking Good

Heatwave, one of the more popular weather plugins for Windows Media Center has been updated to support the final release version of Windows 7. Previously, a small change to the Windows 7 Media Center code had made running the application problematic for those with the final release to manufacturing version. Luckily, version 1.2 brings support for the RTM version and Media Center enthusiasts can once again add this handy, stylized app to their complete setups. For those taking a first look at this plugin let’s check out some of the features that Heatwave has to offer.

To get started with Heatwave 1.2 just download the correct version for your operating system, either 32-bit or 64-bit and install the plugin. You’ll notice that the installer includes an option to add the plugin to the start menu, an option becoming more common in Windows 7 Media Center plugins, though you’ll need to take some extra steps to enable it after installation.

Once installed, launch Media Center and browse to the Extra Programs menu to locate and launch the Heatwave plugin. Now at the top of the screen you’ll find a Settings option where you can enable the start menu strip, add locations, change languages and more. To ensure that the start menu strip appears the next time you launch Windows 7 Media Center you’ll need to ensure that the start menu options are selected in settings and then save the options. A restart will be required to load the new start menu strip though you should probably establish your locations, language and other options first.

To add your location to the Heatwave listings select the Add Location page from the list of settings on the left and enter your city, state/province and country or your zip code to search for your location. Next select the correct listing from the results below to add it to the list of locations Heatwave gathers weather data for. Be forewarned that this version of Heatwave contains a bug that crashes the plugin when trying to launch the onscreen keyboard however, so it’s best to avoid that button at this point.

To edit, rearrange or remove locations, including those that come with Heatwave by default, enter the Edit Locations page. Here you’ll find a listing of all the locations currently saved to Heatwave and scheduled to be updated. Pressing the pencil icon will allow you to edit each location while the arrows will allow you to move the order in which each location appears in both the main menu and the start strip. Of course, pressing the X after each location will remove it from the plugin’s listings entirely.

That’s it! Just save your settings, restart Windows 7 Media Center if you’ve edited the start strip options or just installed the plugin, and you should be all set to start viewing your weather in style with the Heatwave plugin.

From the main page you’ll get a complete five day forecast for each location as well as the ability to switch between day and night by pressing OK on your Media Center remote (or Enter on the keyboard). Forecasts are retrieved from Weather.com, the official website of The Weather Channel, and each forecast has a very nice set of icons that are easily identifiable at a glance.

If you’re searching for a weather plugin to fill the gap in your Windows 7 Media Center be sure to give the newest version of Heatwave a try. It’s stylish interface and start strip support are sure to go a long way toward filling a gap in easy, accessible weather information for your ten foot interface.

Source Article:
Heatwave 1.2 Weather Plugin Adds Windows 7 RTM Support

The latest version of Media Browser, code named “Phoenix”, includes the addition of a parental control option. This much requested feature enables the locking of content of a certain rating and requiring a pin number to be able to view the media. Much like the common cable DVR this is enacted to prevent younger audiences from getting access to content that’s inappropriate for their age. The new parental control options inside Media Browser allow you to define a maximum rating above which users will be required to enter the pin number before being able to play the media.

To use this new feature make sure you’ve got the latest version of Media Browser, from the forums at mediabrowser.tv, installed. Also, be sure that your content has been properly tagged with the ratings metadata. To do that you can use the popular metadata tool MetaBrowser (or any other tool of your choice that supports the ratings tag). Make sure that each movie or piece of media in the collection contains a proper rating to ensure that your parental control selection will be effective.

Inside MetaBrowser you can set the rating of each listed item by selecting the title in the left hand pane then adjusting the MPAA Rating dropdown to the appropriate rating for each movie. Be sure to press the Save Metadata after each movie has been edited to be certain your selection is saved to the metadata of that movie. Remember, the parental controls will only be as effective as the ratings employed in the collection.

Once you’ve assigned ratings to your media collection it’s time to open up Media Browser’s configuration and setup the parental controls feature. Inside the configuration program be sure to select the Advanced options selection from the top to enable the extra options then open the new parental controls tab. Here you can set the maximum rating allowed to be viewed by everyone in the household as well as the pin number to unlock content.

You also have the option to hide blocked content until the pin is entered. This will remove all titles from the listing that are above the maximum rating until pressing the “lock” button on the main Media Browser window, next to the configuration wrench, and entering the pin number. Unchecking this option leaves the titles in the listing and will prompt for the pin when attempting to play the content. Also included is the option to unlock all content for a period of time once the pin number is entered. This will keep you from having to repeatedly enter the pin while using Media Browser for extended periods but also makes the system vulnerable should you leave the machine unattended in that time.

That’s all there is to it! Just re-launch your Windows 7 Media Center and start up Media Browser to see the new parental controls in effect. There are sure to be many happy parents happy to see this feature added to the Media Browser plugin and the ease of setup makes the system even more effective though the lynch pin here is still in the rating system itself. You need to be certain that your entire collection is properly tagged before the system becomes effective.

Source Article:
Using Media Browser’s Parental Control Features

With the release of My Movies 3 one of the most popular movie library plugins for Media Center makes it’s way into Windows 7. The plugin has received a complete makeover to the user interface as well as updated code to work with the new structure of the Windows 7 Media Center platform. How does this update to an old standby fare against the new mainstays in the Windows 7 Media Center arena? My Movies does bring some features to the table that similar applications don’t have such as disc copying inside Media Center that may well make some converts of other plugin users. Let’s see how My Movies 3 stands up.

To get started My Movies 3 can be downloaded from the My Movies website. Downloading the plugin is completely free and the basic features are free for everyone to use but there are limitations built into the software. Users who haven’t used the My Movies software previously are likely to be surprised by the limitations. My Movies uses an Xbox Marketplace style points system for purchasing extra features. Points can be had for participating in the submission of movie metadata to any titles with less than adequate metadata or can be purchased for cold hard cash. A full compliment of features will set you back a whopping $50 if you should choose the cash route.

My Movies uses a collection management application to manage the titles in your movie collection. This setup allows you to install a server/client setup to enable storing your collection data at a single machine and network the data between multiple computers. This is certainly a plus, allowing edits to metadata and images to be propagated across a users entire network without needing to make the changes on each machine. Collection management applications are becoming a much more popular alternative to downloaded or handcrafted text/xml files to store metadata for your movie collection and proves to be much more user friendly.

For those opting to add points to their account through submitting metadata, they can do so through the collection management application. Simply locate any titles in your collection that contain less than adequate metadata, indicated by a yellow or red indicator icon next to the title. These titles are able to be updated inside the management application and will then ask you to submit your additional data to the My Movies service. You’ll need to read the guidelines first and agree to the terms of the service or face penalties including suspension of your account. The guidelines are an effort to prevent questionable data from being entered into the central system and keep the metadata complete and clean and curb submitting data simply for points.

Onto the real meat of the plugin, the actual Media Center application, we see a familiar interface similar to other popular movie collection plugins such as Media Browser and Open Media Library. This is actually a departure for My Movies, formerly featuring a more menu based interface reminiscent of the original Media Center. The interface has been updated to reflect the Windows 7 Media Center style but has run into some growing pains along the way.

As you can see in the image above, My Movies uses the default style to output the movie title, date and rating information. The problem comes in when the movie title extends to cover the majority of the third row, obscuring the view. To complicate the situation further, stopping on a single title for approximately four seconds results in the entire display fading into the fan art view and hiding the collection completely.

The other view available to users without the appropriate point levels, list view, suffers the same problem with the fan art display. Stopping on a single title fades the view making reading the listing impossible. Though the list view does have a description of each movie as well as ratings, dates, cast and crew and more information that remains visible.

For those not opting to go the metadata submission route the other two collection views will run you $20 and $40 respectively for covers with details or centered covers. While probably the biggest included feature, disc copying, costs a full $50 to unlock the feature. While this is likely a killer feature for a select few many will likely be content with ripping their disks on a networked pc and simply transferring them with plenty of free software available to get the job done.

Despite setbacks in the interface design, once they’re addressed My Movies 3 looks to provide a feature complete solution to browsing and even growing your Windows 7 Media Center movie library. The collection manager is solid and easy to use for even the newest of users and the plugin interface meshes very well with the default Windows 7 Media Center design making for a seamless integration into an existing system. Unfortunately, considering these usability problems and the price involved in unlocking many features that are included free with other Windows 7 Media Center plugins, disc copying aside, it’s hard to recommend My Movies 3 over the alternatives.

Source Article:
Popular My Movies plugin comes to Windows 7 Media Center

By default the new Netflix application remembers a users login information for use each time you enter the movie browser. However, what if you should change your username or password via the Netflix website? Unfortunately at this point instead of allowing you to re-enter your information the Netflix app simply returns a login error and sends you back to the start menu. In order to re-enter our login information and once again be able to login to the Netflix app we need to clear the registry entries containing the login information.

To get started we need to launch the Windows Registry Editor by opening the start menu and enter “regedit” into the search box and press enter. A dialog will appear asking you to confirm, since the program needs administrator privileges to run. Once inside you’ll see a folder style listing on the left and a few entries on the right. In the left hand pane navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionMedia CenterExtensionsNetflix.

Delete the Netflix folder or just the entries on the right hand side to erase the saved login information and once again be able to re-enter your login information. Just relaunch Windows 7 Media Center and enter the Netflix application and you should once again receive the login prompt.

Afterward re-launch Windows 7 Media Center and you should be presented with the login screen next time you enter the Netflix application.

Source Article:
Resetting Netflix Login Information in Windows Media Center

Using the latest version of DVRMSToolbox from Andy VT we can easily convert an MKV file to the new WTV format thanks to the inclusion of an updated todvrms program. Why would we want to do this? Well, for those who use Windows 7 Media Center exclusively for watching movie content it means ultimate compatibility. Converting to the WTV format for those who use Media Center exclusively means full fast forward and reverse support, no more codec packages and all the other features supported by the native format. The downside, of course, is limited support at this point for the format in other popular media players. For those concerned only with the best Media Center experience, however, this may be the best way forward.

To get started download and install the latest version of DVRMSToolbox which includes the new todvrms and a profile to convert MKV TV shows to WTV.

Then give your profile a name and description and remove the extra methods that aren’t needed for our simple conversion. Since we don’t need to retrieve and save TV series metadata we can remove most of the existing profile. Those experienced with DVRMSToolbox can add other actions such as removing the original file and moving the file to an alternate location at this point as well. Save your profile and close the settings application.

Now that we have a profile to do our conversion open up the DVRMSToolbox GUI program to get started with the conversions. Determine whether you’d like to process a single file or a complete directory and select the appropriate tab. Select the proper input and output files/directories and our new profile from the dropdown box and hit run. Simple as that the profile should start converting our MKV to a more Media Center compatible WTV.

It’s also possible to run the entire operation from the command line though the DVRMSToolbox GUI provides a graphical interface that most uses will find much easier to use. Once the conversion has completed, that’s all there is to it. You can now open your movie inside Windows 7 Media Center with full support of the built-in codecs including Dolby Digital audio and audio support on first level fast forward. No more fussing with codec packages and settings.

Remember, there is slim support for the WTV format from third-parties at this point however and if you’re accustomed to viewing movies outside Media Center or Windows Media Player you may want to hold off on converting until your favorite third party programs add support for the format. This is likely to be a fairly popular solution for those who are Windows 7 Media Center exclusive however.

Source Article:
Converting MKV to WTV with the latest DVRMSToolbox