The Media Center Blog

In case you didn’t already know, Microsoft is going allow anyone who has the desire to do so, to download the Windows 7 beta and take it for a test drive. Here’s the main part of a Microsoft press release:

LAS VEGAS — Jan. 7, 2009 — In a keynote address at the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer announced the beta availability of the Windows 7 operating system as well as the availability of the latest version of the Windows Live, a suite of personal communications services and applications.

“I’m thrilled to announce the availability of the Windows 7 beta, which is on track to deliver simplicity and reliability,” Ballmer said. “Windows 7 and Windows Live are part of an incredible pipeline of consumer technology that is making it easier than ever for people to communicate, share and get more done.”

The beta version of Windows 7, Microsoft’s next-generation PC operating system, can be downloaded today by MSDN, TechBeta and TechNet customers. Consumers who want to test-drive the beta will be able to download it beginning Jan. 9 at http://www.microsoft.com/windows7.

To view the rest of the press release, head on over to Microsoft’s site.

Cox Communications here in Topeka, KS just added some more channels to my lineup. As of December 30th, 2008 I now have access to the following channels:

• Fox News HD
• Cartoon Network HD
• Speed HD
• FX HD

In addition to those new channels, they also split up the Golf/Versus HD channel into 2 full time channels. All total I now have 48 HD channels on Cox, and while that’s not nearly as many as you can get with DirecTV or Dish, I think that’s a pretty decent number for a cable company in a smaller market. Even moreso, I have most of the channels I actually watch in HD now and switched digital video has NOT been implemented in my area so those two items matter most to me. I would love to see ESPNews HD soon though! Here’s a complete list of channels in my market (listed in order of channel number):

• ABC HD
• CNN HD
• NBC HD
• Fox HD
• Fox News HD
• PBS HD
• TBS HD
• TLC HD
• HBO HD
• Discovery Channel HD
• CBS HD
• Starz HD
• Showtime HD
• History HD
• A&E HD
• TNT HD
• ESPN2 HD
• ESPN HD
• Discovery HD Theatre
• National Geographic HD
• Universal HD
• Palladia
• NFL Network HD
• HGTV HD
• Food Network HD
• Travel HD
• Science HD
• Golf HD
• Cinemax HD
• Sci Fi HD
• Bravo HD
• USA HD
• CNBC HD Plus
• Lifetime HD
• AMC HD
• Cartoon Network HD
• Speed HD
• MTV HD
• VH1 HD
• CMT HD
• Planet Green HD
• Lifetime Movie Network HD
• Hallmark Movie Channel HD
• Nickelodeon HD
• Versus HD
• FX HD

This offer has expired.

Dell is currently offering an XPS 420 desktop with 20″ monitor for just $999 after $344 off. This doesn’t come with a tuner like the Ace Computers LMS 250 that will be selling for $999 but if you’re willing to shell out an additional $278 for the tuner with this XPS 420 you will probably be getting an overall better deal since you get a 23″ monitor, double the RAM, and more hard drive space. It also comes with a 2 year in-home warranty service that probably won’t be included with the LMS 250.

Hurry, this deal is set to expire on 1/5/2009 at 6:00AM.

I recently decided I wanted to use my Media Center remote in the bedroom where I just have a TV and an Xbox 360. This sounded like a pretty fool-proof plan. All I needed the remote to do was turn off the TV and control the volume on the TV. If you have a model of Media Center remote that has the TV power button on it, this remote can be programmed to control a TV (not all Media Center remotes have this functionality). If you want to look at the manual for the remote, click here.

Well I quickly found out that my task wasn’t going to be as easy as originally planned. No matter what I did, I coudln’t get the thing to work with my 27" Samsung LCD TV. The power button wouldn’t work and neither would the volume buttons even though I got confirmation from the remote that it did learn the commands from my Samsung remote. I tried this for 20 minutes on a few different occasions and gave up on it numerous times. Then, the other night I was determined to finally figure it out. I was successful but I’m ashamed that I didn’t think of something so simple quicker.

As it turns out…the BATTERIES DIDN’T HAVE ENOUGH JUICE. The remote worked fine with my Media Center PC but when it came time to program it, the juice in the batteries just wasn’t enough. So, I decided to try and replace the batteries and VOILA…worked like a charm. So if you’ve been struggling to program your remote as well, be sure to change those batteries to some brand new ones before trying again.

In case you’re looking for the programming instructions for the remote and don’t feel like looking through the manual, here they are:

Using the Remote Control Learning Functionality

The TV, VOL +, and VOL - buttons on the remote control for Media Center PC can "learn" IR commands from other remote controls. This feature lets you use the TV button to turn on your TV and the VOL + and VOL - buttons to adjust the volume on your TV or another device, such as an audio receiver.

Notes

• By default, the VOL + and VOL - buttons on the remote control for Media Center PC control the system volume on your computer, and the TV button has no command assigned to it until it "learns" one.
• Do not perform this procedure in bright natural or artificial light.

To program buttons on the remote control by using the learning feature

1. MAKE SURE BATTERIES ARE NEW OR HAVE BEEN RECENTLY REPLACED (I added this one)
2. Place the remote control for Media Center PC head to head (2 to 3 inches apart) with the remote control from which it is learning.
3. On the remote control for Media Center PC, press and hold the DVD MENU and OK buttons at the same time until the remote control lights turn off (2 seconds).
4. On the remote control for Media Center PC, press and release the TV, VOL +, or VOL - button, depending on which command you want it to learn. The remote control for Media Center PC lights blink once to confirm the selection.
5. On the remote control that is teaching the command, press and hold the button (I found that mine worked better when I just pressed it rather than holding it) that you want the corresponding button on the remote control for Media Center PC to learn. The remote control for Media Center PC lights blink twice to confirm the selection. If the remote did not learn the command, the lights blink quickly four times. To try again, repeat steps 1 through 4.
6. Repeat steps 1 through 4 for the other buttons that can learn commands.

To restore the default remote control settings

1. Press and hold the DVD MENU button and LEFT navigation button at the same time until the remote control for Media Center PC lights turn off.
2. Press the OK button.
3. The remote control for Media Center PC lights blink twice to confirm that the buttons have been reset. The TV button will have no command assigned to it and the VOL + and VOL - buttons will adjust the Media Center PC volume.
4. If the default settings were not restored, the lights blink quickly four times. To try again, repeat steps 1 and 2.

Sean Portnoy over at ZDNet is reporting that Ace Computers is going to be announcing a couple of budget CableCARD PCs at the upcoming CES that will enter the market at only $999…and yes, that does include a tuner!

The LMS 250 will come with 2GB of RAM, 500GB hard drive, DVD burner and an internal digital cable tuner. You can choose either an AMD Phenom triple core processor or an Intel Core 2 Duo processor. The AMD version will even include 12 USB ports, if that’s something that is important to you, while the Intel version will have 8. You can also add a Blu-Ray drive for an additional $100 (just a wild guess but I’m pretty sure this is not a burner) and another digital cable tuner for $250.

I haven’t really heard much about Ace Computers, especially when it comes to Media Center PCs, but it’s nice to see a smaller manufacturer actually offering a relatively affordable CableCARD option. Usually you have to wait for Dell or HP to have some kind of special to get into a PC of this magnitude for under $1000 so it will be nice to have another option out there.

No word yet on when you can order your LMS 250 but I’m sure something will be announced at CES.

If you’re in the market for a cheap Linksys DMA2100 Media Center Extender be sure to check Ebay first. There are a lot of listing that are Buy-It-Now for less than $100 and all of the online stores seems to have raised their prices back over that mark.

Read into it what you will but DirecTV has suspended the development of the highly sought after HDPC-20 tuner. To read more, head on over to Chris Lanier’s blog or Gearlog. Here’s the release that DirecTV sent out:

“DIRECTV has suspended the development of the HDPC-20 tuner project that was designed to integrate DIRECTV service into Windows Media Center after assessing the impact of missing the August 2008 release of Windows Media Center update and considering timing of the next release.

“Both DIRECTV and Microsoft understand the desirability of offering consumers an all encompassing DIRECTV programming solution via Windows-based PCs. We are continuing to explore ways to integrate DIRECTV service with Windows-based PCs in the future.

“The HDPC-20 tuner that appears on the driver list of a pre-Beta build of Windows 7 is an artifact that was listed prior to the decision to suspend the tuner project. As our plans progress toward a Windows Media Center-compatible product, we will make an announcement at the appropriate time.”

I know some users are going to be jumping ship from Media Center because of this. Many avid users over on The Green Button have been anxiously awaiting this tuner’s arrival for quite some time (including myself for a while) and this might just be that last straw that makes them bid farewell to Media Center. I hope it doesn’t because Media Center is a great piece of software but at the same time, I completely understand the frustration.

After all, we’re talking about a tuner that was originally announce in January of 2006…nearly 3 years ago. I know it can take a while to develop new technology but 3 years?!?! And now to hear that they are ’suspending’ the development is just a shame. It appears as though there are some huge flaws that they just can’t see fixing or figuring out before the Windows 7 release.

While this news comes as a HUGE disappointment to many Media Center fans, I hope it makes them at least take a longer look at a CableCARD system. I also hope that when they say they are suspending the development that doesn’t really mean they are cancelling it altogether. It’s taken an extremely long time to develop this tuner but it would still be highly sought after at any point I’m sure.

If you read my post entitled “My area is getting 8 new HD channels,” then you know I was pretty excited about getting some new channels and trying to be proactive about the lineup changes so that I wouldn’t have to wait long for them to show up in my Media Center guide. I found out my cable company was adding the channels in October and they were slated for release on 11/18/2008. So I promptly sent an email to Zap2It notifying them of the changes well in advance with hopes that they would have the guide listings updated on that day. Unfortunately that didn’t happen. In fact, they have added some but some are still missing. It’s a somewhat strange problem because all the new HD channels show up on the Zap2It website but they still are not showing up in my Media Center guide. I’m at a loss of things to do right now because it seems like a Microsoft problem now that they are showing up on the Zap2It site.

So to sum things up…it’s been about a week since Cox launched the new channels in my area and I still don’t have all of them in HD. To top that off, the channels that are out there hardly have anything in HD. In fact, I looked through the 2 weeks or so of guide information for MTVHD and could not find one program in HD. What’s the point of having an HD channel if there is no content?

Newegg’s Shell Shocker for today is the Samsung HD103UI 1TB Green Hard Drive with 32MB Cache. Starting at 8AM PST you can pick up the hard drive for $98.99 shipped. If you’ve been holding out for a sub-$100 1TB hard drive without any mail-in rebates, here’s your chance to pick one up. Hurry though because this is a “while supplies last” kind of deal so it may not be out there long.

If you are interested in beta testing Windows 7 Media Center, here’s your chance. Pete Brown of Microsoft posted the following on The Green Button:

Greetings members of the Green Button community:

The Media Center team periodically posts a hardware survey to Microsoft Connect in order to update their records of potential beta testers.  

By completing the survey below, you will automatically been entered into a pool of potential testers we can select from. If you are chosen as a Media Center beta tester, we will follow-up with an email when a beta will be available.   

Please take a moment to complete the following instructions to access this survey. 

1.       Go to http://connect.microsoft.com.

2.       Please enter the following invitation code on the Connect main page, where it says “Were you invited to join Connect?”: 

         WMC-JM7K-RRM6

3.       Complete Survey. 

You are only allowed to complete this survey once.   

Please chose just one (1) dedicated PC for testing when responding to this survey. 

If you experience any issues accessing this survey, please contact wmcbeta@microsoft.com.

Best, 

- Pete Brown,  Green Button Moderator