Today we’ve got another theme available for download thanks to a submission from Matt Osburn. The theme is a variation on the single color theme like the original blue or black themes, only this time in sweet Cherry Red. The theme and gradients are all very smooth, clean and pleasant to look at but there were a few problems for [...]
Remote Potato is a fantastic app for adding remote DVR capability, common in commercial DVR set-top boxes, to Windows 7 Media Center. We’ve taken a look at this handy tool previously here on Hack7MC and the feature set remains largely the same with a few additions. The most current version of Remote Potato adds support for a number of additional [...]
One of Windows Media Center’s many self-imposed limitations is to prevent the user from utilizing more than four tuners of any one type at the same time. With many tuners commonly coming with more than one tuner per card these days it’s easy to reach and pass this limit even on a tight budget. It’s hard to image why Microsoft [...]
With this handy tip from Marc, a reader of Hack7MC, we can setup a regular alarm clock using Task Scheduler, mcShoutcast and Media Center. Much like your standard alarm clock this setup will be set to wake each morning and start a radio stream. Users can setup the alarm to wake regularly on weekdays, weekends or whenever you need an [...]
So you’ve sprung for one of those fancy new ATI GPUs and downloaded the newest drivers but you’ve got black bars all around the screen? I thought so, it’s a common problem recently and with ATI having some of the best GPUs on the market currently for HTPC playback with their onboard HDMI sound output and sheer video processor power [...]
While these may not be fixes in the traditional sense, nothing is actually broken, but they do go a long way to altering and improving the default Media Center experience. There are several options available for adjusting Media Center’s displays that don’t require extra programs or even installations in most cases. These small fixes can make a rather big difference, [...]
It’s an often overlooked feature of Windows Media Center, the Radio, but most likely everyone has at least one FM tuner available in their Media Center machine. If you’re one of those people who frequently uses Media Center’s Radio feature you’re likely interested in backing up your lineup of Radio presets. There currently aren’t any programs available that incorporate Radio [...]
Is Microsoft’s shoddy time keeping making you miss the beginning or end of your favorite shows? Sure in most cases being a few minutes off one way or another is no huge deal but when it comes to scheduling precise television recordings minutes count. For instance if your time is just a few minutes too fast you could very well [...]
Sure, Microsoft already offers a slimmed down version of Windows 7 known as Starter which is light enough to run on even the trimmest of netbooks. Not to mention that standard version of Windows 7 are excellent performers as well but there’s always room for improvement and the Starter version of WIndows 7 doesn’t include things like Media Center. Se [...]
Though the demographic is likely small there are certainly a group of Media Center enthusiasts who have already started using a more centralized server setup to store movie media removing the need for a DVD drive on their actual Media Center machine. This goes for many main stream desktop machines as well, with the ability to buy practically any digital [...]
Are you one of the many Media Center users already running a Vista Media Center and planning to upgrade to a new Windows 7 install? If so, it’s likely that you’d want to move your recording schedule over as well. For those planning to do a simple upgrade the process should be automatic, however, if you’re planning a clean install [...]
Just getting started with Windows 7 Media Center? Microsoft has created a short series of videos to help you get started using your brand new media experience. These videos are perfect for the absolute beginner to the Media Center experience. If this is you and you’re more of a visual learner be sure to give these videos a quick view [...]
We’ve already covered replacing the built in movie library with a third party plug-in like MediaBrowser or Open Media Library. There are even a handful of solutions to hide the default movie start strip and add our own, such as MC Studio and Mikinhosoft’s Hide Strips program. The one problem that has persisted, however, is that pressing the video button [...]
Around here we love when someone comes along and creates an application to take even the simplest processes and refines them into an even easier single solution. Previously we covered creating your own bootable USB Windows 7 installation manually and today we’ve got a couple of applications that make the entire process a snap. Even better, both applications are entirely [...]
There are a good number of guide to creating a bootable USB disk to install Windows 7 which is handy when installing on a system that may not have a DVD drive (or any drive at all). Some people like to keep their Media Center HTPC as small as possible and taking the disk drive out of the equation makes [...]
A default installation of Windows 7 already has incredible performance, capable of running on even the lowest end hardware. That doesn’t mean we aren’t able to eek out just a little more performance from a dedicated Windows 7 Media Center machine though. Windows comes ready to perform a wide range of functions but a dedicated machine really only performs a [...]
Wish you could start Windows 7 Media Center without the startup animation, in media only mode or without the shutdown options? Missing Remote has the details on some undocumented startup switches that will allow you to do that and more. Windows 7 Media Center comes packed with a number of ways to start up your Media Center experience just the [...]
