Webcam screensaver for your media center

February 9, 2006 eirikso5 Comments

Webcams are soooo last century. I remember how uttrly impressed we were when we back in 1995 discovered that a bunch of programmers at the University of Cambridge had placed a camera pointing at their coffee maker so they could keep an eye on the amount of coffee left while sitting in front of their computers one floor above.

Wow! We could actually see a live picture of the coffee machine at the University of Cambridge here in Norway. Big deal at that point. Not very interesting today. Like most webcams.

But, for some strange kind of reason it’s cool to have a screen saver on the media computer in the living room that gives a glimpse of the world. A screen saver that cycles trough a list of webcams that you can control yourself.

So, right now when I know that I am going to Zermatt for the weekend I have a nice live picture of the Matterhorn in addition to the mandatory pictures of Bergen and Paris. Not to forget the TullipCAM.

V-CamShow from Virdi software is free, flexible and works very well. It also has the very important feature that lets you name all cams and superimpose the name on the picture while cycling through the cams.

You need the direct link to the picture if you want to add a cam to your list in V-CamShow. Here are some cameras to start with:

(…and please add your favourite webcams to the comments here! Among others, I would really like a nice and frequently updated picture from a satellite… Anyone?)

Zermatt – Matterhorn
Webpage:
http://bergbahnen.zermatt.ch/d/web-cam/zermatt4.html
Direct link:

Paris, France – The Eiffel Tower
Webpage:
http://www.abcparislive.com/paris_webcam/eiffel_tower_webcams.htm
Direct link:
http://www.images1-abcparislive.com/eiffel2.jpg?1139513484641

Bergen, Norway – View from NHH
Webpage:
http://www.nhh.no/it/weather/
Direct link:

Voss, Norway – Hangursheisen
Webpage:
http://www.bt.no/kamera/
Direct link:

Devon, England – Tulip Cam
Webpage:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/devon/content/webcams/tulip_webcam.shtml
Direct link:

The silence of the fans

February 3, 2006 eirikso17 Comments

I have my HTPC and the amplifiers inside a cabinet in the living room. The cabinet is well wentilated and has a specially mounted fan in the bottom to push air though it.

I have described the cabinet here and the mounting of the fan here. To put it short the fan is mounted in rubber bands to eliminate vibrations and noise.

However, I should have said “was mounted”. The problem is that rubber bands need maintenance. Of course I could try to find better quality rubber bands, but I have choosen another soultion. It works fine so far, so I decided to post a little “How-to” for the people that might want to build something similar.
To fix this mess I used a perforated strip and some parts from a kit for silencing fans and hard drives:

Mounting the fan using these parts you get rid of nearly all vibrations and can have a fan that push a lot of air through your cabinet. I’ll let the pictures talk for themselves and keep the comment option open for the people that have questions.
Continue reading “The silence of the fans” →

Web Browser for Media Center Edition

February 2, 2006 eirikso4 Comments

Browsing standard web pages on a TV screen with a remote is never very comfortable. Most web pages are made for navigation with a mouse and a keyboard.

Still, if you have a media center and an LCD screen it can be interesting to have a quick look at some news headlines, a couple of blogs or something like that.

Doing that from within media center has been difficult until now. Meet the MCE Browser. An excellent little plugin that gives you a browser with zoom functionallity and easy navigation with the arrow keys, OK and channel up/down for browsing links.

(Via Thomas Hawk and The F-Stop Blues)

Sudoku for MCE

January 22, 2006 eirikso3 Comments

I don’t know how it is for the rest of the world, but in Norway there’s a complete Sudoku craze right now. A craze that’s so evident that I learned to hate Sudoku even before I had solved one single puzzle…

But for you Windows Media Center users out there that has joined the craze, this is good news. KMS Software has made a simple, yet excellent implementation of Sudoku. This is a game that is perfect for the TV screen and the remote control. Simply navigate with the arrow keys and enter numbers with the numeric keypad on the remote.

They have added a possibility to enter numbers as “maybe” to let you draft out as you play. They have also implemented the game so that it will remember your current puzzle until you start a new one. So, you can quit MCE, watch a movie etc. When you start Sudoku again it will present you with the last game you where working on.

I tried to install Sudoku on a computer running standard WinXP Pro and Meedio just to see if this game will work for non MCE users. No success so far.

KMS Software has a little collection of stuff for MCE and quite a bit coming up. Will be interesting to follow the popularity of small time killers like this one for MCE.

The ultimate Apple remote control

January 17, 2006 eirikso3 Comments

More wishful thinking. More Apple rambling. And a description of the ultimate remote control. No doubt about it. I was disappointed in the remote control that Apple made for Front Row experience. For a second I was thrilled. Fantastic! A remote control with a scroll wheel! But no, it has six buttons. Period.

It looks like this:

It’s IR. It’s one way. It has no screen. It has no scroll wheel.

Throw this away. Apple has already designed the ultimate remote. They only have to change some parts inside the iPod Nano.

In other words, the ultimate remote looks like this:

Remove all the memory. Remove the audio part. Throw in a bluetooth chip. Make a two way communication with Front Row Experience.

Voila. The coolest remote ever built. For listening to music from your Apple media box in your living room you don’t have to turn on the big screen. Just navigate with the remote and music plays from Front Row. When watching movies etc. you turn on the big screen. The LCD on the remote still gives you navigation info etc…

Then Apple makes an add on for the existing iPods. An accessory like the photo connector. A little something that you clip onto the bottom of your iPod Video or iPod Nano that turns it into a bluethooth remote for Front Row.

Dream on…

Two good news for the Media Center Community

January 11, 2006 eirikso1 Comment

The green button is currently the most popular community for Windows Media Center Users. Unfortunately, the web site has performance issues, browser compatibility issues and problems with their search functionallity. That’s bad.

So for the good news:
1. The green button gets competition: Remotely Cool.
– Sounds like a promising project

2. The green button (TGB) gets a performance and functionallity boost
– TGB is a fantastic source of information for MCE users. Firefox support, good search, better RSS support and better performance in the works are lovely!

Edit:
Seems like remotely cool is gone…

Via Thomas Hawk

First take: XBox 360 Media Center extender

November 20, 2005 eirikso6 Comments

Having a Media Center PC somewhere in the house and extend the content from it using an Xbox 360 is absolutely a good idea. But does it work? Chris Anderson thinks it does.

How to program the buttons on your MCE Remote

November 16, 2005January 31, 2015 eirikso70 Comments

Some of the Windows Media Center remotes has the ability to control other hardware in addition to the Media Center. The most common one is the one in this picture. On that one you can program the “TV”-button and the Volume-button. Most likely you would want to control the ON/OFF-function on your TV and the volume on your amplifier.

This is how you do it (from the MCE Remote Manual):

Update2: The manual is no longer available from Microsoft

~~Update:~~
~~Link to the manual (PDF).~~
Continue reading “How to program the buttons on your MCE Remote” →

Converting DVR-MS files from your media center

November 15, 2005 eirikso7 Comments

Windows Media Center edition records video in MPEG2 wrapped in a format called DVR-MS. Basically a plain MPEG2-file with some metadata. I can’t understand why Microsoft has not included a tool to automatically recompress DVR-MS to Windows Media Video 9 in Media Center Edition.

But, as always – if it is something that people want, people make it.

Just a quick list of alternatives:
AutoDVRConvert
DVR-2-WMV
Tsunami MPEG Xpress
dCut
PowerCompress
GraphRenderer
CyberLink PowerDirector
PQ DVD to iPod Video Converter (Can convert DVR-MS according to spec, but look in the comments here in this post, seems like a user have had problems and that the DVR-MS conversion doesn’t work)
VideoReDo
DVR-MS Toolbox

I know that I have forgotten many tools that does this kind of stuff. In addition to the fact that I am going to expand this list please feel free to comment and suggest other tools.

Interior design and home theaters

November 13, 2005 eirikso3 Comments

I remember a comment in a forum at a point where the talented Mr. Mastiff posted some pictures from his impressive home theatre. He had a question about some technical issues and the first answer was something like:

“You should not concentrate on the tecnical problems. You should have a serious talk with your interior designer.”

I would agree on that comment, but interior design is something very personal and something that many of us have quite a bit of possibilities controlling. And we do. And the brilliant Mastiff, owner of the home theatre in question here likes it. So, he don’t need to talk with an interior designer.

I follow huge amounts of home theatre blogs and forums. It is a strong tradition to post pictures and specs of home theatres on the net. That’s a very nice tradition and helps people solve problems, get inspiration and comment on the work that has been done. And, if you look past the technical issues, these pictures can be quite interesting cultural studies as well.

I used a picture from our own living room in a previous post. One of the comments was:

“Wait, your LIVING room? How in the world did sneak a conference table and chairs into your living room without getting thrown out of the house!”

Fantastic. And I can understand that comment as well. Still, urban Scandinavian interior design is something quite different from American interior design or rural Scandinavian interior design. And, fortunately your own home is something that you can control quite well. Mastiff likes coulour and pinewood. I like black, white and clean surfaces. Now have fun looking at some Norwegian Home Theatres: AVForum min hjemmekino. Never mind the strange norwegian language. It’s the pictures you’re after.