The last look we had at MCEBuddy was of the still forthcoming 2.0 version which was and still is missing a user interface. While this was fairly cumbersome on the end user it did get the job done. Luckily since then WTV support has been added to the version 1.1 product allowing for doing the basics that MCEBuddy could originally [...]
One major advantage to be had when using a Windows 7 Media Center over your standard cable DVR is the ability to scan and remove commercials from Recorded TV shows. Programs such as Lifextender, which can be setup to use either comskip or Showanalyzer, can arrange for new shows to be scanned and the commercials removed without having to process [...]
Now that ShowAnalyzer has support for WTV just how do we get this setup to skip commercials for us automatically in Windows 7 Media Center? The solution is actually surprisingly simple. Before we get started have a look at our guide to installing ShowAnalyzer and we’ll cover more of the options for setting it up to work with DVRMSToolbox in [...]
ShowAnalyzer from Dragon Global is a premium commercial scanning application which was a favorite among Vista Media Center users. When Windows 7 came along and introduced the WTV format it took quite a bit of manual work to get it working for 7MC users however. Not any longer! ShowAnalyzer now has native support for the WTV format and a number [...]
This week in place of Reader Question and Answer we have a hot reader tip from a member named N3M3515 to share. If you’ve got a tip of your own to share with the Hack7MC readers be sure to send it in through our contact form. This particular tip involves increasing the default buffer length for Live TV in Windows [...]
So you’re recording everything under the sun with your Media Center and you laugh in the face of those 80gb DVR users. That is, until you realize that you too have your limits. The options quickly become an ever expanding number of hard drives ($$) or find a way to squeeze those WTV files down into something more reasonable. There’s [...]
Comskip is the default commercial detection software for most commercial skipping Media Center programs. In some cases to get optimal results you will need to tweak the settings to get the best results for your situation. There is no GUI for editing comskip’s settings and instead it must be done through a settings file named comskip.ini in the same folder [...]
One of the few things I wish was much easier to change is the intervals which Media Center uses to skip content forward and back. It’s frustrating to be able to skip ahead through commercials at thirty second intervals but then have to press the back button numerous times once you get to the content. By default Media Center’s skip [...]
One of the most serious problems introduced for those switching from Vista Media Center to Windows 7 Media Center is the abandoning of the DVR-MS format. Up to this point commercial removal software such as comskip or Show Analyzer only work with the DVR-MS format, which has been replaced by WTV in Windows 7. This means no commercial removal in [...]
Even though the last build of Lifextender predates the Windows 7 beta itself it’s still possible to use this app to remove commercials from your recorded TV shows. Lifextender provides a number of benefits over DVRMSToolbox, providing a much simpler configuration of file monitoring and commercial removal. This simplified experience can prove to be the most important benefit to many [...]
While being able to skip commercials in your recorded TV shows is a big deal with home DVRs, when your Media Center does it for you automatically that’s huge. This is the kind of feature many previous users of Media Center have become accustomed to using DVRSMToolbox. Unfortunately, with the advent of Windows 7 Media Center there is a change [...]
Presently there is no program to automatically remove commercials from Windows 7 Media Center recorded TV files. With a little bit of manual work though we can get rid of those pesky commercials though. The first step is to convert the WTV files to DVRMS using this guide. Once you’ve got a DVRMS file it’s much easier to scan and [...]
WTV is the new file type created by Media Center for recorded television shows. The problem with this file format is that it isn’t compatible with older commercial removal tools. It’s also incompatible with DVRMSToolbox, which can be used to convert DVRMS files into other formats such as Mpeg or AVI. The first step to converting WTV files is to [...]
