Posts Tagged ‘Media Center’
After publishing a piece on how to connect an Internet enabled camera to WMC, iPhones and iPads yesterday, I received a couple of emails basically saying, “great, but I want to monitor more than one camera in a master view like stand alone IP surveillance software”.
I thought about this for a bit and then tested to see if an HTML page could be hosted locally, placed in the C:ProgramDataMicrosoftWindowsStart MenuProgramsAccessoriesMedia CenterMedia Center Programs folder with the appropriate MCL and PNG file. The answer was yes, and this now opens the door to more customizations.
Further, I thought that the still images needed to be refreshed. Not much value in watching an image on the screen that just sits there. I fired up Microsoft Expression Web and created a page and added in a META REFRESH tag to reload every xx seconds (I used 30 seconds as the interval). While tables should not be used for layout on a page designed to be viewed in a real web browser (a deprecated means of coding), a nested table structure proved perfect for display inside Windows Media Center. I specified the Segoe UI font and ended up with something that looked pretty decent and worked. Here is the view inside Windows Media Center:
Some of my Canadian friends might be pleased to hear that Netflix intends to cross the border officially later this year. You can pre-register now if you are interested at http://www.netflix.ca.
Update: if you are a Rogers customer, this may have triggered lower usage limits. CBC news is reporting that Rogers is lowering their download limits.
Here’s what you’ll see if you access the site from a Canadian IP address.
CBC news has posted info, including the fact that this will be streaming only (no DVD’s by mail). “English only to start, French to follow over time”.
I don’t know if Media Center access to Netflix for Windows 7 Canadian users will be turned on at launch, but am trying to find out.
One comment, if you are a HD snob (and I have no qualms admitting that *I* am), the content is pitiful. And the content for PC’s and Mac’s (a subset) is shameful.
Fired up a machine that never had Netflix installed previously (W7 x64 Ultimate) and installed Netflix. I’m streaming Stargate Continuum in HD 3800/3800 (screen shot below) over 802.11n 5GHz wireless to me 1920 x 1080 Sony “laptop”. No HD icon, but it is definitely HD.
Intel’s Wireless Display fills the big gap in my Windows Media Center home theater experience.
This technology, first demo’d at CES 2010, may be one of the bigger successes in the HTPC and networking arenas as new computers (currently only laptops) hit the market with the Intel 2010 i3/i5/i7 processors. In a nutshell, I can use a laptop computer with an Intel i5 processor, Intel’s embedded graphics chip, Intel’s 6200 WiFi adapter, and a Netgear Push to TV bridge to stream any content I want to any TV connected to a PTV device over HDMI. The tiny Netgear device is connected to the TV via HDMI, and everything happens over a wireless Personal Area Network between my laptop and the Push to TV device.
So why is this such a big gap filler for me? My current home theater setup includes V2 Media Center extenders connected to the three HD TV’s in my home, with the Media Center desktop residing in my loft home office. What I can’t get with this set up (without buying a PC and connecting one to every television) are all the Internet based Media Center extra’s such as Internet TV and Netflix. Problem solved. With WiDi, I’ve got a nice, light (4.2 pound) 13.3 inch widescreen laptop to use anywhere in my home, around town, or on the road AND I’m able to display all of these Media Center extras. I gain the ability to browse the web and display anything I want on my TV’s.
The technology is nearly idiot proof. Connect the Netgear device via the included HDMI cable. Hit the special button on the laptop keyboard and enter a 4 digit code after your device is found. All the networking setup is handled without user intervention. WPA2 security is configured via WPS (wireless provisioning services) behind the scenes to secure the Personal Area Network (PAN) connection between the laptop and the PTV device. An ICS connection to the Intel internal WiFi is also established behind the scenes. You won’t see this in any of Windows 7’s GUI’s or discover it with netsh, but it is present. In fact, while the 6200 Intel NIC is a/b/g/n capable, when using WiDi with the Netgear device, it is not possible to connect to the 5GHz radio in a dual band router. An error message is returned stating only 2.4 GHz is supported. Some additional good news, even in my overly saturated 2.4 GHz environment of 19 different SSID’s, I had absolutely no interference.
My 52 inch TV, Netgear PTV attached via HDMI, waiting for a connection
WiDi equipped Laptop, connected and ready to rock and roll
The quality is awesome. My recorded (via cable card and OCUR/DCT) content looks great. (All the DRM rules apply here.)
Some HD Recorded TV..
Stargate Atlantis in full HD, via WiDi
Internet TV (the missing piece in my home theater experience) in Windows Media Center looks good.
Star Trek content, Windows Media Center Internet TV
Streaming Star Trek from Windows Media Center via WiDi.
Anything I want using the Media Center interface is streamed to the connected TV, music.. pix… videos..
Music – WMC via WiDi
Anything displayed on your desktop can be streamed. Want to read email? Use Windows Live Messenger? Participate in newsgroups or forums? Browse the web? Yep, it’s in there.
Windows 7 – Everything and anything over WiDi
And for me, there is another huge gap filler. My main beef with Windows Media Center Internet TV is the lack of HD content. With a 52 inch state of the art 1080p TV, can you blame me for wanting HD streaming? Here’s the good news. If one of the networks or other source offers an asset in HD for streaming, WiDi handles it effortlessly. As shown earlier in this post, Windows Media Center Internet TV offers a large amount of CBS content, including (at least at the present time) all three seasons of Star Trek, the original series. Inside Media Center, only SD is available, but I can navigate to the CBS website and view the remastered Star Trek original series in glorious full screen HD.
Needless to say, I’m a very happy camper these days.
Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse, media center, Media Center Windows 7, windows media center, WiDi, Intel Wireless Display, how-to, Tip