As any bachelor can tell you the basic sleep timer function built into any recent (or even not so recent) television is the perfect partner for those nights falling asleep on the couch. This basic functionality has long been missing from Windows Media Center however. For those missing this feature, look no further. The Green Button forum member StixBit has created a plugin to fill the gap, providing a Sleep Timer menu that allows for 30 minute, 60 minute and custom sleep timers.

To get started using this handy little plugin, download and install the package either from StixBit’s LiveDrive or MC7 Sleep Timer (518). Once installed, launch Windows 7 Media Center, you’ll find the plugin in the Extra Programs area under the Extras menu.

From inside the plugin interface you’ll find options to set a sleep timer for 30 and 60 minutes as well as the ability to setup a custom time at five minute intervals by selecting the Custom Timer button and pressing the right arrow until you’ve got the appropriate amount of time. Once you’ve got your custom timer set just press the button and the sleep timer will take care of the rest.

There are even options to turn off the Monitor from the sleep menu as well as cancel the timer completely. Unfortunately, however, this plugin doesn’t currently work with extenders and accessing the Sleep Timer from the Extras Menu is slightly more cumbersome than your standard TV sleep timer. If the timer could be set through a simple button press of the remote it would be quite a bit more user friendly.

For those looking to add this basic function to their Windows 7 Media Center though the solution is more than adequate to get the job done. It’s great to see the Media Center community coming together to add the type of features included in other systems that seem to have been left aside by the Microsoft team. Thanks to StixBit for this handy plugin and be sure to give it a try!

As you most likely know by now Hulu has revealed at long last it’s own desktop application for browsing Hulu content outside of the web browser. Of course, the Media Center community immediately jumped into action to bring this new platform into your Media Center setup. While not quite what would be described as “integrated” it will get the job done none-the-less.

The first step you’ll need to do for all of these methods is to download the new Hulu Desktop client from the Hulu Labs website. Once you’ve done that you could do things the manual way and follow the guides on Win7Media for Media Center Launcher and Configurator then Creating New Start Menu Strips. You could also edit one of these registry files included in the Extra Programs for our Media Browser menu strip and add Hulu Desktop to that strip.

Although, if that seems like an awful lot of legwork to you there are a few other options to have a look at. The first is this solution from Missing Remote providing a plug-in and some directions to add a Hulu Desktop Icon to menu strip. It still requires a bit of work for you and may not work fully with Windows 7 Media Center since additions to the default menu strips are no longer allowed. You should be able to find the new app listed in Extra Programs with this method however.

The other option is a plug-in from SecondRun.tv developer Yaggs. This plug-in is essentially the same as the Missing Remote except slightly simplified. For some reason you’re required to make a copy of the Hulu Desktop application in your root C:\ drive though. This should provide the easiest method for beginners but the least customizability.

No matter which option you choose you’ll get Hulu on your ten foot interface but it won’t be the holy grail. None of these solutions will work on extenders as Hulu desktop is developed entirely in Flash. The interface could carry some learning curve as well for the less technical family members since it’s quite a departure from the Media Center interface.

This may signal some level of receptiveness to distribution of Hulu content outside the browser but I wouldn’t hold your breath for Microsoft and Hulu to sign a deal any time soon. In fact, I’d expect to see Microsoft pushing it’s abhorrent Internet TV betas on us for the next decade or so.

Plugin Download: Hulu Plugin (206)

Application Download: Hulu Desktop (117)

Original Artical Link: Hack7MC.com