Auto Rip n Compress adds DVD Ripping to Media Center (Almost)

Despite Windows 7 Media Center’s inclusion of a native movie library no function to actually rip the DVDs to the library was included. Certainly an attempt to avoid this legal grey area of copying purchased media to a secondary source, this also leaves out an important feature from the Media Center platform. This of course leaves an area open for third party developers to come up with a solution, however, up until this point very few options were available such as My Movies’ Media Center plugin. Fortunately, eMpTy3000 of The Green Button forums has taken up the initiative to create another option for Media Center users though not quite as developed as the My Movies option.

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

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…

Building Your Own Custom Movie Strip for Windows 7 Media Center

Many Windows 7 Media Center enthusiasts have forgone the built-in Movie Library for something a little more sophisticated and feature packed. Plugins such as Media Browser and Open Media Library can provide a much more evolved move browsing experience than the native Movie Library.