Remote Record for Media Center official release.

Schedule TV recordings for your MCE over the web.

Update: Phillip Torrone has lots of photos of the app on his Make blog/

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Xtras.Net’s XPMCE 2005 Hardware Kit:

We’ve collected all the specialty hardware you need to turn practically any modern PC into a full-fledged Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 and we are bundling them for your convenience!

I know how hard it is to go shopping for MCE compatible hardware so it is great to see someone taking the guess and leg work out of the process.

They also have this offer, Buy MSDN Universal, Get a FREE
Windows XP Media Center 2005
Hardware Kit

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We have a new KB article that I alluded to yesterday.

Microsoft.com, “The DVD may be in use by another application or it is copy-protected” error message when you try to play a DVD in Windows XP Media Center:

This problem may occur if the following conditions are true:

• You are trying to play a DVD that has protected content.
• A high-definition television set is connected to your computer by using a component video cable.
• Your television is set to a resolution of 720p or 1080i.

My take on this is that you shouldn’t be using component :). For the best experience you should be using a DVI connection.

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Today is my one year anniversary at Microsoft (I forgot the candy but will bring it tomorrow). Since today is going to be a crazy twelve hour long day (gotta love those 6-9pm meetings) I’ll reflect on my year tomorrow :) Friday (I now have a 6-9pm tomorrow night too).

Update: I have a pound of Reese’s Pieces outside of my office (if you can find my office :))

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Frequently asked question: How do I report a Media Center bug or get Media Center support?

The recommended option is that you contact the company who manufactured your Media Center (i.e. HP, Dell, Sony,…).

Alternatively here are some other resources:

• Media Center newsgroup
• The Green Button

As a last resort you can email me with your problem but understand that while I’ll likely read your email there is a high probability I will be unable to respond.

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For all you crazies running domains at home Andy has an article on How to Setup a Mapped Drive on your MCX with a Domain-based Computer:

Abstract: With the development of Media Center Extenders (MCX), you can not join the Media Center PC to a domain. This document will outline steps you can take to create a mapped drive for a MCX when media files are stored on a domain-based computer’s shared folder.

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Niveus Pocket Remote Software:

• Control all aspects of MCE via WiFi Pocket PC
• Transform your MCE system into a dedicated music server
• View, Choose, and Play Music on your MCE system
• Adjust the Volume on your MCE system
• View your music collection album art
• Syncs in realtime with your MCE system
• Song Progress Bar with real-time song seek
• and much more….

Cool! Niveus, any chance you’ll release a SmartPhone version?

Sidenote: I demo’d an i-mate JAM the other day and it’s a serious competitor to my Audiovox 5600 SmartPhone which is a nearly perfect phone.

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Thanks everyone for your feedback on my quest for an alternative to an iPod.

You’re probably wondering where I’ve netted out on this… I still hadn’t made up my mind before leaving on vacation because I did not see a clear winner. Nothing was over 20 gigs, smaller than an iPod, with a decent user interface. So for my vacation John graciously offered me his iPod mini. Two thoughts on the iPod mini, battery life was shorter then I expected, and second, I don’t like how after you queue up a song you have to then select the ‘on the go’ playlist, it should just start playing the playlist when the current playing media stops.

Now two of my officemates recently purchased Creative Zen Micros and are pretty psyched about them and I’ve heard good things about the Rio Carbon, but I need something with 20+ gigs of storage. I *hated* having to decide what to remove from my 5 gig 1st gen iPod when I bought a new album and wanted to load it on. I don’t want to have to think about my music collection that much and make those tradeoffs. So my plan is to try holding out a bit longer in the hopes that either Creative, Rio, iRiver,… ? is going to launch a competitive 20+ gig player. It’s clear they can compete in the 5 gig market segment but I’m not yet convinced there is any competition in the larger storage player market.

Yes, I should probably just get an iPod but despite my past hatred for Windows Media Player (which I was quite honest about when I interviewed with the Media Player team a year and a half ago) it is now my preferred music playback software (besides Media Center) and I want a music player which works with it. If only iPod supported Windows and WMA! (Remember Apple’s music store is a loss leader for their hardware sales so it’s really unclear why they won’t adopt WMA).

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