One major advantage to be had when using a Windows 7 Media Center over your standard cable DVR is the ability to scan and remove commercials from Recorded TV shows. Programs such as Lifextender, which can be setup to use either comskip or Showanalyzer, can arrange for new shows to be scanned and the commercials removed without having to process each file by hand. Unfortunately, Lifextender doesn’t work with the new WTV format so first we’ll need to convert the files using a program such as WTVWatcher.

To get started you’ll need to download and install both WTVWatcher and Lifextender or, if you prefer, we’ve also got a guide on using DVRMSToolbox with Lifextender. Once you’ve got both programs installed you’ll need to setup WTVWatcher to monitor the Recorded TV location. Use the preferences to set the location of your Recorded TV folder, typically C:UsersPublicRecorded TV. WTVWatcher will begin to go to work converting the WTV recordings into DVR-MS files that are readable by Lifextender.

WTVWatcher uses the built-in conversion program provided by Microsoft to convert each WTV file into a DVR-MS file. For even more information on WTVWatcher check out our previous review of this handy little tool right here. Once the files have been converted we can setup Lifextender to automatically scan for and cut commercials from these files. Next, open Lifextender and choose Options by right-clicking the icon in the system tray.

Under the general settings be sure to set the TV Recording path to the same directory as the one you set previously inside WTVWatcher. Also, unless you plan to run the process by hand enable the Automated Library Scanning so that Lifextender will automatically find your new shows for processing. To test your settings you can start a manual processing of the files by right-clicking the Lifextender system tray icon and selecting Scan Media Center Library.

Lifextender’s processing dialog will appear as the program scans each recorded show for commercials. This can take quite a bit of time depending on the length of the show and the complexity of commercial scanning process.

After processing each file will be added to the “blacklist” inside Lifextender’s options. This allows you to check the progress of Lifextender’s processing of files as well as preventing the program from scanning the same program each time the library is scanned for new content. You can find the blacklist under the Options –> Advanced tab. Here you can also add individual files to be excluded from processing, though if you have a certain show or channel you’d like to permanently exclude from processing there is an included Rules feature to allow for easier management.

Unfortunately, there has been some issues reported with Lifextender not accepting the converted files from WTVWatcher and the Lifextender program is no longer in active development. If you experience the same issue your only option may be to use the DVRMSToolbox method in this guide using an alternative program for converting the WTV files to DVR-MS. Also, be sure to drop a line in the comments below with as much detail as you can provide including which version of Windows 7 you’re using, Lifextender log info and anything else noteworthy. Perhaps we can sort out the issue with more information.

For most people, however, this method should provide a simple solution to easy commercial removal from Windows 7 Media Center recordings. Hopefully the future will bring us an alternative to Lifextender and more active development (and hopefully more open source projects as well!).

Source Article:
Using WTVWatcher and Lifextender to Cut Commercials from Recorded Shows

Windows Home Server was designed to “grow with you”. That may be obvious when it comes to adding additional hard drives but also includes the option to install extra software features to help customize your Home Server. The development community has created “add-ins” for Windows Home Server that extends its capabilities in fun, exciting, and useful ways. There are currently over 100 add-ins available for download.

Three widely popular add-ins that are being used today include: Lights-Out, WebGuide, and Whiist.

Lights-Out

This power management add-in is used to put your Windows Home Server in a hibernated mode when you are not using it. This is a great way to cut down on energy bills and make your home or office a little “greener”.

*Windows Home Server console screen shot of Lights-Out add-in

This add-in allows your Home Server to go into hibernation mode when users are not using it, based on your calendar of events, or a combination of both. You will also have the option to set a defined time in which the Home Server will fully turn back on. Windows Home Server will never remain asleep if you have a backup scheduled. Therefore, all of your important data will remain safe and still be automatically backed up.

WebGuide

WebGuide allows you to remotely view live and recorded TV programs while you are away from home. It will also enable you to remotely schedule and manage your recorded television programs, music, pictures and videos on your Windows XP Media Center edition or Windows Vista Premium, or Windows Vista Ultimate PC.

*Screen shot of Windows Home Server’s add-in, WebGuide

*Screen shot of streaming videos through Windows Home Server’s add-in, WebGuide

WebGuide provides you with mobile access to your music and videos from your Windows Mobile devices. This means you can have access to all of your pictures and movies while you are on the road.

Whiist

Whiist is a Windows Home Server add-in that allows you to create and manage web content on your Windows Home Server. Once downloaded, Whiist can be used through your Windows Home Server console. This tab makes it so that you can easily create and manage new websites, photo albums, and homepage links.

*Screen shot of Windows Home Server console with the Whiist add-in

Some of the key features that are found in Whiist include:

• Quickly create new websites on your home server.
• Create new photo albums to share with family and friends in a few simple steps.
• Share photos with family and friends through online photo sharing.
• Create public content, or restrict access to users of your Windows Home Server.
• Easily customize your public and private Windows Home Server Homepage links.
• Fully integrates with the Windows Home Server management console.
• Customize your Windows Home Server homepage

You have now seen three out of many Windows Home Server add-ins. If you are interested in learning about all of the other available add-ins to download, you can visit: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/windowshomeserver/add-ins.mspx.

Source Article:
Windows Home Server Add-ins: Lights-Out, WebGuide, and Whiist

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

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

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. The problem is that, although these packages typically install a basic start menu strip of their own, they don’t include some of the default features of the native movie strip or allow you to customize the tiles appearing on the strip.

Luckily we can take our favorite movie plugin, Media Center studio and a simple plugin from Mikinhosoft we can recreate the original movie strip experience while using our custom movie plugins. To get start you’ll need to download and install your favorite Windows 7 Media Center movie plugin, Media Center Studio and the extra Mikinhosoft plugin to add some of the default functions to our new strip.

Once installed open up Media Center Studio and select the start menu tab to begin editing our start menu strips and tiles. You’ll also need to enable the start menu toolbar to allow us to add and edit new start menu strips.

Next press the Insert Menu Strip button and a new strip with the title Custom Strip will be added to the end of the menu strip listing just above the auto play handlers. Start by renaming your new strip, probably to something like “Movies” since we’ll be replacing the original “Movies” strip. Then, using the arrows to the left and right of the menu strip title rearrange the strip and place it just below the original movie strip.

Begin adding tiles to your new start menu strip by expanding the Entry points menu at the bottom of the Media Center Studio window. From here you can add any entry points available, with the exception of the default tiles. Some of the default tiles can be dragged from their original place on the native movie strip onto our new strip. Others, such as the copy disk tile may need to be added from the Entry points listings under the Mikinhosoft plugin. Don’t forget to add a tile linking to your favorite movie plugin to replace that default movie library as well.

Once you’ve finished dragging new tiles onto your custom start menu strip, disable the default strip by unchecking the box next to the title of the original strip. Then be sure to save your changes as well (Media Center must not be running to save these changes). Finally, relaunch Windows 7 Media Center and check out your new customized Media Center Movies start menu strip.

That’s all there is to it! This isn’t limited to movie strips either, build custom strips for your music, video and games and launch them all directly from the Windows 7 Media Center start menu.

Source:  Hack7MC.com

The latest version of Open Media Library is now available for download from openmedialibrary.org and it includes a number of bug fixes and some minor additions. The additions are mostly in the back-end and database manager, however, the bug fixes are certainly worth the update. Much of the work in this patch focuses on the database editor provided to allow users to work with the new SQL database backend which makes OML performance incredible compared with other Media Center movie library plugins. If you haven’t already be sure to check out our post on the Open Media Library .4 beta.

For those who’ve already got the SQL server version installed updating to the latest version is as simple as downloading and installing the latest client version. We’ve got the 0.4.2 client for x86 systems and x64 systems available for download or you can head over to the Open Media Library site to get the latest versions. For those who haven’t given the 0.4 server a try yet we’ve got them available for x86 systems and x64 systems as well. As previously noted in the last Open Media Library article, single system installs require the server version to be installed though if you’ve already got server version 0.4 the latest client is all that is required to update to version 0.4.2.

For those updating, here’s a list of bug fixes and changes in this update, from the OML website:

Fixed:

• Bug fixes to importing previous oml.dat files
• Bug fixes to importing MyMovies.xml files
• bug fixes to importing oml.xml files
• bug fix to the moviecollectorz plugin
• Trailers now work
• fixed disappearing box art in db editor
• bug fixes to backing up/restoring the database
• various crashing fixes relating to meta data searches
• fanart from 0.3 versions of oml will now be pulling into 0.4 during import
• fixed race condition in the database layer
• deleting and updating favorites should now work
• fixed various issues when using 4:3 resolution tvs
• bug fixes relating to extenders (diff bugs for vista and win7 fixed) (extenders)
• fixed bug in transcoding mkv files under win7 (extenders)
• various fixes to drag/drop in the db editor

Added:

• Added firewall exception to the installers for sql server
• Added separate settings for plugins (movies vs tv)
• ability to remove fanart from db editor
• more logging
• ability to rebuild the database from scratch
• ability to do meta-data searches for tv shows and seasons

Changed:

• tv episodes now use “frontcover” image instead of thumbnail for display

If you’re haven’t already given Open Media Library a try be sure to check out our previous guide to getting started with version 0.4 and check it out. With development speeding up recently OML is sure to become a favorite for Windows 7 Media Center users in no time. Also, if you’ve got graphic design experience or coding skills be sure to head on over to the OML forums and lend a hand. Currently they’re looking for someone to create a few icons for use inside Media Center and coders and plugin creators are always in demand.

Many movie enthusiasts prefer to watch content in it’s original resolution and refresh rate. Unfortunately, Windows 7 Media Center doesn’t automatically adjust the refresh rate or resolution of the program to suit content instead resizing and adjusting the content to suit Media Center’s settings. This of course distorts the content from it’s original format. Luckily for purists, Dgaust of the Australian Media Center Community has created a simple plugin to allow users to adjust the resolution and refresh rate of Media Center. Now changing Media Center to suit the content is fairly simple, even if not completely automatic.

To get started download and install the plugin from the Aus. Media Center Community forums. Next you’ll need to edit the settings.xml file and adjust the resolutions and refresh rates to suit your needs. Locate the settings.xml file in “C:Program Files (x86)RRC” and open it up in your favorite text editor.

Next, adjust the resolutions and refresh rates by adding a new line to the resolutions section of the file. For each new resolution add the following WidthxHeight@XXhz. To accomplish changing the resolution and refresh rate the plugin requires a restart of the Media Center application. While this is a somewhat cumbersome method it certainly beats not being able to change the settings at all. You can set the delay in ms of the restart function in the settings file under the section.

Once inside Media Center you’ll find the plugin under the Extra Programs section. You can of course add this to a custom start strip using one of the popular programs available for download such as MC Studio or WMC Custom Configuration Wizard. Also, using the entry point /entrypoint:{3a8e5756-f890-42a4-8d7a-1a4a32242507}{751885da-f449-4c0e-a21c-4fc142240245} you can setup the plugin to launch from a button on your remote using a program such as Intelliremote.

From inside Windows 7 Media Center, select the plugin then choose the proper resolution and refresh rate. The plugin will take care of adjusting the settings and restarting the program with the proper display options. The plugin is still a work in progress but will suit users looking for an easy way to handle refresh rate and resolution switching.

That’s all there is to it! If you’ve got trouble or suggestions be sure to head over to the Australian Media Center Forums post and let the developer, Dgaust, know. Don’t hesitate to let him know if you’ve found this plugin useful either as the community of developers working to improve on and add the features left out of Windows 7 Media Center play an extremely important in advancing Media Center for everyone.