The BBC is in the process of updating its iPlayer site, releasing a new beta version today. The update adds some more ‘social’ elements, and more interestingly for me, the ability to download future episodes…
More details here
MSN Video Player now on Media Center
26
May
You may have already noticed, but there’s a new option on the TV menu. MSN Video Player. You may have seen it before, as it was trialled in August last year but then disappeared. Its return brings with it around a 1,000 programmes at launch and a load more to follow.
When selecting the link for the first time, you need to go through a few setup steps. None of these are very complicated though.
Basically you have to accept the terms of service, and a download of around 5mb. If you haven’t got Silverlight on your machine, youwill be asked to download that as well.
Once installed, you get to select a programme genre from a standard looking set of links at the top of the page, or you can use the useful search page to find what you are looking for.
I have a seven year old nephew who is into Dr Who big time, and this sounds like a really good excuse for Uncle John to get to watch old episodes of Dr. Who, particularly the Tom Baker ones – purely in the interests of education though;-)
Dow Da Dow, Dow Da Dow Dow Da Dow, whooooo hoooooooo
Push2TV – Intel Wireless Display TV Adapter
21
May
These look really cool. Not got my hands on one yet, and even if I did, I need a laptop that has Intel wireless display support on it, But I love the idea of working on my laptop and then connecting to a large screen projector or TV to share some stuff with the room or watch a movie.
Might even convince me I don’t need a PC permanently connected to the TV (That’ll please the wife!)
Archive your Movies into Windows Media Center
20
May
Having just reinstalled my Media Center, I had changed the hardware, I decided I needed a way of taking media off the physical DVDs I own and store those movies on the Media Center for easy selection later. I had a look round and decided on Auto Rip n Compress.
It uses third party ripping software such as Vobs for DVDFab or anyDVD
The Green Button has a write up at http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/t/81697.aspx?PageIndex=1
You can download Auto Rip n Compress from the Windows Media Center App Store, and its Free!
http://www.madeformediacenter.com/m4mc/app.aspx?id=849f978d-f206-4d6a-a503-fad1c1a86dcb
New forum on Microsoft answers for End User Media Center Questions
19
May
Microsoft have introduced a new forum over on Microsoft answers. It seems geared towards the end user more than the developer, but thats a good thing. It starts to lower the barriers to end user adoption of Media Center as the ‘3rd screen’ in the the 3 screens and a cloud vision from Microsoft.
As end users start to see that they can get help, that its really simple to use, and that people can talk to them in a way they understand, then they are more willing to accept use of a product which should fit into the consumer space, and not just used by some geeky people 😉
http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/mediacenter/threads
NetFlix HD inside Media Center
19
May
Microsoft and Netflix have announced that you can now access your Netflix account directly inside Windows Media Center for both Windows 7 and Vista.
Heres a link to some details
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-media-center/netflix.aspx
So as well as your normal DVD through the post, you can access nearly 2000 movies online and in HD.
You can also see a demo over on http://www.netflix.com/
Cool!
Bing – The Soap Opera!
19
May
This could be the start of a new cult over here in the UK. Bing – Los Links !
Episode 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2lN3-i2t7k
Episode 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFlaIQCWZcA
No more rebuilding my Media Center library
13
May
One minor bug with Windows Media Center on Windows 7 for me was the too-frequent loss of the media library index.
Often, when starting Media Center you’d go and try to pick a music track but be greeted by no tracks, or more scarily, you could watch as Media Center cheerfully removed all of your song from the index.
The way back was to remove and then re-add the directories holding the media back in, and then wait for the library to rebuild…
This has now been fixed and is available as a hot fix from Microsoft. Attached to Knowledgebase article number 981770, you can request the hot fix from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/981770
Free Upgrade to Mobile Office 2010 for Windows Mobile 6.x Office Users
13
May
If you use Microsoft Office on your Windows 6.x phone, you can now upgrade to the 2010 version for free. For a look at what this new version offers, have a look here http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/05/first-look-at-office-mobile-2010-for-windows-mobile-6x.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss
Windows Phone Developer Tools CTP Refresh
29
Apr
I have been waiting for this for a while. I am developing some stuff for Windows Phone 7 Series for a few weeks, but because the tools only worked with the release candidate, I needed to do this within a VPC. Now I can use directly the power, and memory, of my development kit directly as this tools refresh now works with the RTM version of VS2010.
You can read more here http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/wpdev/archive/2010/04/29/windows-phone-developer-tools-ctp-refresh.aspx
