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 [...]
There are a number of conceivable reasons to setup a RamDisk on your Media Center PC. The biggest plausible reason is for the performance increase that can be gained by using a RamDisk as opposed to a Hard Disk to store the temporary files created for time-shifting live TV. In place of writing and erasing this data to your [...]
If you’re looking for a way to record to one drive and move it to another, perhaps recording to a local disk then moving it to a network storage drive, then DVRMSToolbox may just provide the solution you’re looking for. Using the FileWatcher service and the right processing conditions you can setup a process to automatically move your recordings [...]
If you’ve participated in the Windows 7 program for some time now you may have noticed in more recent versions that the animated waterfall album art background that is displayed while playing music has slowed down considerably. Almost to a “glacial rate” as one user put it. This was done to accommodate lower performance PCs that were having trouble [...]
One of the greatest features of newer video container formats such as MKV is their ability to contain multiple audio and subtitle streams as well as chapter markers. These are the type of features that begin to bridge the gap between traditional DVD and Blu-Ray media playback and non-traditional digitally distributed or locally stored media. Unfortunately, Microsoft has neglected [...]
One of the problems people run into when using Windows 7 Media Center is that it’s locked into using Microsoft’s own decoder for live TV. Not only that but if you should try to simply disable this codec (because it’s also locked in for all h.264 content used in videos) live TV playback won’t function. This happens because codecs [...]
Converting MKVs to DVR-MS is the best way to guarantee full compatibility with any extender. Since DVR-MS is the default file type for all pre-Windows 7 (and TV Pack 2008) TV recordings, the file format will have no problem with playback on any Windows Media Center Extender. The DVR-MS file format will also preserve surround sound and full resolution [...]
Remove an entire strip with this simple program! Want to Add New Menu Strips? Check out this guide to Adding Start Menu Strips!
Using some of the same techniques as in this previous article on removing entire strips from Windows 7 Media Center, we can remove individual items from any strip. This is a somewhat difficult hack to employ and [...]
Try this Mikinhosoft Program which makes removing entire start menu strips even easier!
So you read the guide on Adding New Start Menu Strips and now you want to remove that Movies strip and replace it with a Media Browser strip. Maybe you just aren’t that into sports and want to get rid of the Sports strip. Either way, there’s a [...]
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 [...]
Currently, in Windows 7 Media Center, there is no way to edit the default start menu items. In previous versions you were able to add items to the existing strips using a third party program, which made sense when adding a movie or TV plug-in. Unfortunately, Microsoft has gone to some lengths to disable this ability in 7MC. It is [...]
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 [...]
Nothing kills a Media Center user like having to pull out the old keyboard and mouse just to sit in front of the TV and run some updates or install new software. Many have turned to a feature in Windows known as Remote Desktop Connection. This feature, though only included in some versions of Windows, provides an easy way to [...]
