Windows 7 Media Center (7MC)

[dunks517]

Gents, How are you finding 7MC if you have Windows 7? What customisiations have you used? Plugins installed?

I have used Media Center Studio to hide the TV and Movie Library menu, installed the Brokeh theme from theme7mc.com, this useful site also has colour channel logos for the TV guide. I have stopped using Media Browser and installedMy Movies 3 which is a far more polished product although some features aren't free but then MB will soon be going to a paid model.

I musn't forget the excellent TunerfreeMCE which captures the BBC, ITV Ch & Five online libraries in one place (includes HD for BBC programming)

One shortcut I have found from CWkid on TGB is to launch straight into My Movies:

Target: %windir%\ehome\ehshell.exe /entrypoint:{8984aed5-7c9d-42f0-b2ad-c39bbcf04a25}\{810d7b87-1300-4aed-a700-1c6179f8f14b}

Start Menu:

Start Menu:



My Movies:





Heatwave:



TunerfreeMCE:

[elootos]

Looking very slick! I must confess that customisation of Media Centre is one of the things I have yet to undertake; I think because I have it running as the main system and have no backup I'm always careful with any 'modding'.

I had an email from someone recently suggesting this site for theme modding:

http://www.adventmediacenter.com/

BTW, does it always rain in Arbroath? And, why am I on here at 9.20 on a Friday night?!?

[fredrarrojar]

Hello Friends.
I read your entire post and it is too useful for me because of currently I used the VLC Player because of I have not any link of Media Player.
Thanks.

[Docta Teef]

Hi guys
Just followed you over from AVForums.
I ve been having a play with 7MC on the laptop i got for the otherhalf a couple of weeks back and have to say i managed to achieve as much on it in terms of setup in a weekend as i managed on media portal in about 18 months.
The tuner free tv is a great idea plus if sky player end up working as well as it does on xbox will be fantastic.
Only wall i ve hit so far is the fact that TMT3 will not work with media browser.

[elootos]

(11-22-2009 01:51 PM)Docta Teef Wrote:  Hi guys
Just followed you over from AVForums.
I ve been having a play with 7MC on the laptop i got for the otherhalf a couple of weeks back and have to say i managed to achieve as much on it in terms of setup in a weekend as i managed on media portal in about 18 months.
The tuner free tv is a great idea plus if sky player end up working as well as it does on xbox will be fantastic.
Only wall i ve hit so far is the fact that TMT3 will not work with media browser.

Hello and welcome to the site! Yeah, back in 2006 when I started looking at different systems, Media Center got a lot of bashing on the internet and I tried all the alternatives (Media Portal, Meedio etc...), but none have (had) the ease of use or stability of Media Center.

In the last week I've also got a Home Server up and running with Media Browser on my Media Center PCs. I'm still consolidating the drives over to the server and all film ISOs etc, but Media Browser is great! I tried My Movies 3, but for me it still suffers the same problems My Movies on MCE2005 did: TOO MANY BLOODY OPTIONS, ARGGGHHHH!!

I'm finding the simplicity of Media Browser (also with Meta Browser to catalogue those films not done automatically), to be a real bonus.

I'll post more about it all (along with Home Server, and now Sky Player!) in the upcoming week.

[dunks517]

(11-22-2009 01:51 PM)Docta Teef Wrote:  Hi guys
Just followed you over from AVForums.
I ve been having a play with 7MC on the laptop i got for the otherhalf a couple of weeks back and have to say i managed to achieve as much on it in terms of setup in a weekend as i managed on media portal in about 18 months.
The tuner free tv is a great idea plus if sky player end up working as well as it does on xbox will be fantastic.
Only wall i ve hit so far is the fact that TMT3 will not work with media browser.

Hi there Docta,

Have you tried My Movies 3? Once you have it all installed it works a treat, even transcoding .vobs on the fly.

[Docta Teef]

Hi there Docta,

Have you tried My Movies 3? Once you have it all installed it works a treat, even transcoding .vobs on the fly.
[/quote]

Hi Dunks
I ve previously used My Movies with MCE2005 so will give it a go at present im just palying around with the laptop to decide if its worth shelling out for some other copies of windows 7 for my 2 HTPC's
I did manage to get sky on the laptop today though.

[u101440]

elootos

Welcome to the dark side of MCE tweaking...I know you've had a play in the past but I much prefer Media Browser over MM (even V3) as it's so much simplier to use and configure, IMHO. Good to see you've made this choice. Only problem is that at some point in the near future it'll be a paid product but as you know, to ge the most out of MM you either need to contribut a hell of a lot to the content or donate...so you pay either way.

You may like to have a look at Stark Covers (http://www.simplify-i-t.com/forum/viewfo...fd516478e) as this allows you to do some nice effects to the plain movie posters you have in your coverflow view.

I prefer the Diamond theme in MB myself and when I get a chance I'll post what I've done on mine (using my office system to write this which doesn't access the media hubs.

[Docta Teef]

(11-24-2009 06:53 PM)u101440 Wrote:  elootos

Welcome to the dark side of MCE tweaking...I know you've had a play in the past but I much prefer Media Browser over MM (even V3) as it's so much simplier to use and configure, IMHO. Good to see you've made this choice. Only problem is that at some point in the near future it'll be a paid product but as you know, to ge the most out of MM you either need to contribut a hell of a lot to the content or donate...so you pay either way.

You may like to have a look at Stark Covers (http://www.simplify-i-t.com/forum/viewfo...fd516478e) as this allows you to do some nice effects to the plain movie posters you have in your coverflow view.

I prefer the Diamond theme in MB myself and when I get a chance I'll post what I've done on mine (using my office system to write this which doesn't access the media hubs.

Oh i totally agree media browser looks much better it was options like having coverflow which sent me over to mediaportal in the first place. Thing is mediabrowser doesn't appear to want to play ball with TMT3 which is an absolute deal breaker. Im sure i could get it to work with something like FFDshow but as im gonna be using TMT3 for blueray playback i'd rather use it for dvd upscaling as well if possible.

[elootos]

Please do let me know your results with Media Browser. I like the fact you can install it on a client PC in all of 2 mins.

I don't know why exactly but I've never warmed to My Movies. It seems to overdo something that should be straightforward; catalogue films. Done.

(11-24-2009 06:53 PM)u101440 Wrote:  I prefer the Diamond theme in MB myself and when I get a chance I'll post what I've done on mine (using my office system to write this which doesn't access the media hubs.