Part1: My Movies for Windows Home Server

I recently decided to check out My Movies for Windows Home Server, in part one we will look at the installation and configuration.

If you have a WHS on your home network, it is the logical place to install your My Movies database and then your Windows Media Center PC clients can access this centrally stored information.

My Movies can be used to get rich metadata for your movie collection, there is a large online database and most titles can be found in there. Using My Movies is an easy way to get front covers, synopsis and actor information and more for each of your movie titles.

You can use My Movies own Media Center user interface to browse and play your movies, or you can use other third party plug-ins such as Media Browser and Open Media Library.

You can download My Movies for Windows Home Server here

Installation is easy just follow the wiki guide here

Once you have My Movies for Windows Home Server installed you need to configure it. This is also covered in the wiki guide.

If you don’t have a My Movies user account you will need to create one by registering on the My Movies forums here.

Below you can see some of the configuration options I setup.

The default country is United States, I also selected the option get data from the USA or UK if data isn’t found for your country.

I also selected Automatically create database backups, this will backup your My Movies database to a file in case you have any database issues later and you need to restore.

The default path is in the Software shared folder on the WHS.

My Movies Disc Copier

The disc copy service is not available in the free version of My Movies for Windows Home Server. This enables users to copy DVD’s, HD-DVD, Blu-ray and Audio CD’s simply by inserting a disk in to the Optical drive on the Windows Home Server.

You can however earn this feature if you have 1250 points. Contributor points are awarded by the My Movies service, for titles and information you add to the online database using the My Movies Collection Management program.

Alternatively you can purchase My Movies from an authorised dealer.

Note: if you wish to copy protected disks to your WHS then you will also need AnyDVD / AnyDVD HD installed on the server.

After installing a My Movies for Windows Home Server licence file, this option is then enabled.

Now you can select the format you want to rip the disc’s to?

DVD Target Format:

• ISO File
• VIDEO_TS Folder
• MPEG-2 File
• VIDEO_TS Folder and MPEG2 File

Blu-ray and HD DVD Target Format:

1. ISO File
2. BDMV or HDDVD Folder

I would rather see a DVR-MS option on the DVD Target Format over MPEG-2, as the FFWD/Skip works better on DVR-MS files on Media Center Extenders. But I have been told the developers are thinking about adding support for DVR-MS in the future, lets hope they do!

However as that option is not here, I am going to select MPEG-2 File. For Blu-ray I will use ISO File.

I’m not so sure about the next option. Store on Share. There is only the option to select one folder share. With my current setup my DVD rips and Blu-ray rips are in two different folders. This forces me to lump all my discs rips together in just one folder.

My Movies Meta Data

I’m going to go with the default options here and not change anything.

The main item to note here for Media Center users is that the top option is selected.

Store meta-data for Media Center DVD/Movie library (dvdid.xml files)

My Movies Monitor

Here you can tell My Movies which folders you want it to monitor for movies and which file extensions.

I’ve added in two folders one is my DVD folder the other is the Blu-ray folder. The list of file extensions is comprehensive and I did not need to add anything else in to the list. Don’t forget to hit the Start button!

My Music Disc Copier

This is new to me and something I have not seen before looking at the My Movies WHS add-in. You can rip Audio CD’s in Windows Media Center natively with what Microsoft have provided so it will be interesting to see what this My Movies feature adds to this area.

The service is not started by default.

Target Format options:

• Free Lossless Audio Codec (.Flac)
• MPEG-1 Audio Layer (.MP3)
• Wave (.WAV)
• Windows Media Audio (.WMA)

I’d usually select MP3 but WMA might be a better option because if you click the Configure button you can choose WMA Lossless.

From the Wiki:

“On the tab "My Music Disc Copier", you can choose to start the My Music Disc Copier service. You should also configure which target format you would like the Music Disc Copier to copy to - recommended is Windows Media Audio Lossless, since it does not decrease the audio quality of your music.”

Store on Share: here you select the shared folder where you store your music files.

There is also an option for Additional Mobile Format. With options for MP3 and WMA. I guess if your main music collection was all in Lossless .Flac for example you might use this option to have MP3’s on your mobile device.

Target Directory Name, I was happy with the default variable, other possible variables you can use are shown in yellow.

Target File Name, again I left this with the default variable.

Backup / Restore

I previously had an other Server/Client installation of My Movies on a Vista Media Center PC and I have a good clean database already from that installation, so I exported the data to a backup.mmb file using the My Movies Collection Management program on that PC and then imported it in to the WHS My Movies database using the WHS Console UI.

I don’t need to worry about the file paths being wrong for the movie titles, as they where looking at the WHS Video shared folder anyways using UNC paths \\WHS\Videos\Movies\DVD\Ronin etc, so everything should be good to go.

Obviously if you are starting from a refresh and do not have a previous My Movies database you want to restore, then you won’t need to do this and you will just be starting from a blank database which is created during this setup, which you will then populate with your Movie titles as you rip them to your system.

Summary

In part two we will look at connecting the My Movies Collection Management program to our new My Movies database on the WHS. We will also have a look at some of the features in the Collection Management program and some of the My Movies features in the Media Center user interface.

Clubhouse Tags: Clubhouse”, Media Center”, Story”, My Movies for Windows Home Server”

An in depth look at Casa Tunes

Casa Tunes Review Document

Mirror Link

Ever since I first got in to Media Center, one of the first things I started searching for was a whole home audio solution that played nicely with Media Center. I liked the idea of being able to play the same music in two different rooms at the same time and for it to be in sync. I liked the idea of being able to play different music in different rooms at the same time and also to have a party mode where all rooms would play the same music at the same time. Zoned Audio!

Unfortunately Windows Vista / Seven Media Center does not provide these features out of the box so your only option is a 3rd party solution.

Searching Google nearly 3 years ago and Casa Tunes was the only real thing I could find and over this time things remain pretty much the same. Recently I’ve had the opportunity to take an in depth look at Casa Tunes which is a whole home audio solution with Windows Media Center integration. I’ve written a detailed review of this product and anyone who is seriously interested in purchasing Casa Tunes should take a look at the review here which is in PDF format.

Overall I like the Casa Tunes concept and functionality and the way it works, read the full review for my thoughts about the product.

Clubhouse Tags: Clubhouse”, Media Center”, Story”, Casa Tunes”, Zoned Audio”

Windows 7 released to manufacturing

We just noticed that Windows 7 RTM has been released. More details can be found on the Windows Team Blog.

I’ve just check my MSDN subscription however and its not yet listed on there for download, looks like we will have to wait a little while longer!

(Update: 6th of August for MSDN and Technet subcribers)

“I am pleased to announce that Windows 7 has RTM’d!

As I mentioned previously, RTM officially happens only after sign-off occurs. What happens is a build gets designated as a RTM contender after going through significant testing and meeting our quality bar for RTM. Then, it goes though all the validation checks required for RTM including having all languages of that build completed. If all the validation checks have passed – sign-off for RTM can occur. Today after all the validation checks were met, we signed off and declared build 7600 as RTM. “

Full article

When will you get Windows 7 RTM?

A look at the Luxa2 LM Series – HTPC Cases

Here we have two HTPC cases from Luxa2. On the bench today I have the LM 200 and LM 300 Pro models and the first thing you notice about these cases when viewing them in person is their size, they are massive and I mean big!

LM 300 Pro - Dimensions

Height:
203.5mm (8.01 inches) / food stand included: 218mm (8.58 inches)

Width:
460mm (18.11 inches)

Depth:
410mm (16.14 inches)

However they look like really expensive bits of kit. The finish is excellent in Aluminium and the build quality has an attention to detail.

They both have a IR/VFD display from Soundgraph with the usual Imon Pad remote control. There are some control buttons on the front of the case, however not all of which are really doing anything for me in Media Center at the moment, despite installing the latest Imon software, this is something I need to fix.

Volume Knob – Not currently working with Media Center

Start – Not currently working should take me to the Media Center start menu

Imedian – When pressing this button Media Center jumps between windowed and full screen mode

Menu – Does seem to do anything when pressed

App Exit - Does seem to do anything when pressed

The Up, Down, Left, Right arrows do work and I can navigate the Media Center menu’s also the Esc (Back) and Enter buttons are working.

There is a flip down panel on the front under the LCD display which hides the usual USB and card reader ports.

I love the way the optical drive cover slowly closes back up, after you have inserted a disk in to the optical drive.

One thing I don’t like about these chassis in that despite their large size you can only fit two 3.5” Hard disk drives. There is a simple metal shelf that runs inside the case and your two HDD’s and the Optical drive simply sit on top of this shelf. There are no drive bays and there is lots of wasted space inside the chassis that is not used, there is plenty of room to have 4 HDD’s but no provision has been made for doing so. This is the biggest problem with the Luxa2 IMHO.

Below are some photographs I took of these two models, click to enlarge.

Overall a nice HTPC chassis, large in size but a little short on internal HDD bays.

Clubhouse Tags: Clubhouse”, Media Center”, Story”, HTPC CaseC Case”, Luxa2”

The Green Button – Site Maintenance

This has been a long time coming, but The Green Button website is finally being migrated to the Microsoft data center and we are also getting an upgrade on the Community Server software hooray!

Site Under Maintenance

http://www.thegreenbutton.com is currently undergoing a site migration to the Microsoft hosting data center, as well as an upgrade to its Community Server platform. Expected timeframe for these changes is end of day 7/21/09.

Please check back here for updates

A look at the Moneual 312 HTPC case

UPDATE: There is a fault with the IR boards on these cases and the triple tap text input on the remote control for Windows Media Center does not work.

This is my favourite HTPC case at the moment, the micro ATX Moneual 312.

It looks like a DVD player which is why I like it so much, it blends in very nicely with your exiting A/V equipment. It’s available in Black and Silver, I prefer the black myself. The case is made from aluminium and they are of good build quality.

I haven’t needed to install the IMON software from SoundGraph on these cases which is always a good thing, The volume knob and IR receiver just work out of the box with Windows Vista. The drop down front panel hides an array of ports including:

Mic, Headphone, Firewire x 1, USB x 2, Card Reader – MS/Pro/Duo, SD/MMC, CF/Microdrive, SM.

Inside there is room for the micro ATX motherboard, DVD or Blu-ray optical drive and two 3.5” hard disk drives.

There can be an issue with the eject button for the optical drive not working correctly, if the drive bay is not lined up exactly. This is the only thing I think could be improved. Overall a nice product for the lower end HTPC build.

Spec of the machine in my photographs:

• Motherboard:- Gigabye GA-MA78G-US2H Rev 1.0
• Chipset:- AMD 780G
• CPU:- AMD Athlon Dual Core 2.7 GHZ
• GPU:- Onboard ATI Radeon HD 3200
• Audio:- Realtek ALC889A 7.1-CH High Def
• Ram:- 4GB
• Hard Disk Drives:- Western Digital 500GB (OS) Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB (Data)
• DVD Writer
• PSU:- Cooler Master P/N RS-460-PCAR-A3 (312W)

Clubhouse Tags: Clubhouse”, Media center”, story”, HTPC Case”, Moneual 312”

Windows Media Center – Service Alert

This doesn’t affect me due to my locale, but my Vista Media Center machine just came up with a Service Alert icon, which gives you information about the digital TV switch over in the US.

There is a Microsoft KB Article here with more information. Below are the screen shots from the Service Alert being displayed inside Media Center. The Green Button gets a mention on the last page as well!

Click the images to enlarge.

Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse”, media center”, story”, service alert”

New wiki guide for Transcode 360

It seems there is still allot of confusion over Transcode 360 and how to get it setup properly, I've decided to write a new updated Wiki guide as some things have changed now since the last one here.

This new guide covers updating the mencoder.exe and ffmpeg.exe files, tweaking the MEncoderTranscoder.cs file to enable multi-thread decoding.

I also look at using Transcode 360 with Media Browser this time and talk more about local vs network setups with WHS.

Hopefully users can follow this guide and get transcode 360 working. The guide is based on a 32bit Vista Media Center setup, I've not tried this on Windows 7 lately but things should work pretty much the same way.

Use at your own risk and make sure you have a full backup of your system before you start.

You can see the new wiki guide here it's in PDF so you need Adobe Reader.

Download mirror here

Turn your MCE remote in to a mouse & keyboard

UPDATE:

RemoteKC has been updated to now work properly on Windows 7, by a user called fbird17 on The Green Button forums.

I've not tested it yet but I assume it's working.

You can download the new .exe and .ahk files from these links.

I just had to highlight this little application it's fantastic!

It's been around for awhile I think but I've only just discovered it, it's called RemoteKC

RemoteKC allows you to use your Windows Media Center Edition remote control as a mouse and keyboard.

I am mainly interested in this for the mouse functionality. Having TunerFree MCE in mind when those auto mouse clicks don't work and those parental guidance pop-ups appear, you have no option but to get up and get out the mouse in order to click.

Now with RemoteKC, I don't have to leave the sofa. The mouse is basic, up down left right but enough to click on a prompt you can't otherwise click on with the remote control in normal operation.

I've only tested this on Vista Media Center, looks like it was written for MCE 2005. I've not tried it yet on 7MC.

You can download RemoteKC here

Live TV with EPG in Media Center comes to Thailand

I’ve been wanting to get this working for a long time now and we finally have a solution for integrating live TV from True Visions in to Windows 7 Media Center.

True Visions offer both Satellite and Cable TV, we have only tested this so far using a satellite dish and a FloppyDTV S2 and also a FireDTV S/CI.

This is still work in progress, but as you can see from the below screen shots we have EPG data in Media Center for the TV channels, I believe this is a first in Thailand using Windows 7 Media Center!

We used the Big Screen EPG beta application written by Niall Ginsbourg to import the XMLTV data in to Media Center.

I’d like to give Niall a massive thank you for his help with this project.

If anyone is interested in Live TV / PVR functionality within Windows Media Center here in Thailand, then please feel free to contact me and I can put you in touch with a CEDIA registered custom installation company in this region.

True Visions EPG data in Windows 7 Media Center

Click the screen shots for larger images.

There’s a mixture of English and Thai language in the EPG, depending on what data is being imported in to Media Center from the XMLTV grabber.

We can potentially have up to a full month of program guide data.

Record Live TV

Mini Guide

Program Info

Big Screen EPG is currently in beta state and will be a commercial application when it is released.

We added logos to the majority of the TV Channels.

Custom XMLTV Provider.

Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse”, media center”, story”, Live TV”, EPG”, Thailand”, True Visions”