Entertainment 2.0

Ian Dixon and Pete Stagman have teamed up to provide a new feature for the Media Center community.  Starting tonight from 7pm until 10pm EST, and every Thursday at that time, Pete and several other MS MVPs will be hosting a chat room which can be found at on NEDMUG.com. 

MVPs will be there to discuss various Media Center issues as well as answer any questions you might have.  I’m hoping to join the festivities each week though I know I can’t be there the whole time.  Much like a lot of others, I’m looking forward to getting a chance to hear from some of the MVPs out there.

From the email to NEDMUG.com members:

The chats will be hosted by Microsoft Media Center MVPs Pete Stagman and Richard Miller (and maybe a few guest MVPs). There will also be some well known Media Bloggers like:

• Adam Thursby from Entertainment 2.0
• Phil Lozen from Living High Def
• Mike Brown from The Green Button
• Peter Brown also from The Green Button
  • Others may drop in from time to time. Like:
  • Ian Dixon from TheDigitalLifestyle
  • Terry Walsh from WeGotServed
  • Andrew Edney from Using Home Server

Thanks to Pete and Ian for setting all of this up.  I think it’s going to be a lot of fun getting more community interaction going.

You can get to the chats by going to NEDMUG.com and clicking the “Live Chat” link at the top of the page or clicking here.

It’s been a busy week for Ian Dixon of The Digital Lifestyle.  Besides posting regularly and pushing out the latest Media Center Show, Ian has added two new people to those writing/podcasting for The Digital Lifestyle.

First up is Andrew Edney.  Andrew is a blogger, author and Windows Home Server MVP.  He’s put up the first post to his new blog and, as I’m looking to add a WHS machine to my home, I’ll be reading his new blog quite a bit!

From his first post:

Well this is my first blog post here on the Digital Lifestyle. My name is Andrew Edney and I am an author, blogger and Windows Home Server MVP. Ian has been asking me for a while to blog on here as well as my own blog so I figured that it was about time I got around to doing it!

A quick little bit about myself – I have written and co-written 9 computer books (if you search for me on Amazon, I am not the Andrew Edney who writes all the cat books) ranging from the Xbox 360, to Windows Vista, Windows Home Server and also a couple of books on Windows Media Center.

 

There’s also been a new podcast added to TDL, The Custom Integrator Show.  While this may not be the perfect show for the enthusiast, I imagine that it’ll provide some great insight into looking at your system from different angles.  How to bring it all together within a connected home using the Media Center ecosystem.

From the first episode’s show notes:

…this first installment covers some of the more mundane topics like who we consider our target audience, what we plan to cover, and what is different about working with the Windows Media Center ecosystem as integrators designing and implementing systems for someone else’s lifestyle versus enthusiasts who constantly tweak, change, and add onto their own systems at home (although that last part is key to why we started up this show).  We definitely plan to start diving deeper into the meat and technicalities of the platform after the first couple of shows, so please hang in there with us.

Again, it looks as though there’s going to be some great content.  I haven’t had a chance to listen to the first episode yet but it’s been added to my Zune software and I look forward to it!

Good luck to both of these gentlemen as they do their best to bring us information on setting up, maintaining and enjoying a connected home!

Yes, this has absolutely nothing to do with Media Center but I like to share great apps no matter how they might be used.  I recently received an invite to the private beta of Bumptop, a desktop application that makes your desktop look like, well, an actual desktop. 

Since I started using the software two days ago I’ve fallen in love with it.  With the ability to make piles of files, have rotating picture frames and the 3D interface, I find it much easier to use than the standard Vista desktop.  Also, there are other apps out there that allow you to put sticky notes on your desktop, but Bumptop just does it better.

As a special offer to Entertainment 2.0 readers, Bumptop as offered me twenty invitations to give out.  As such, there are just a few things you have to do to qualify for the invite:

1. Follow me on Twitter
2. Follow bumptop on Twitter
3. Direct tweet me the email address that you’d like the invite sent to.

You can send your info up until Friday, January 9th at 12:00pm EST.  Some time that afternoon I’ll choose the recipients from those posted on the drop and send your email to the Bumptop team.  I’ll also include your audio file in the next podcast.

Good luck!

It looks as though the Netflix juggernaut is going to continue in 2009.  Fortune is reporting that Netflix has struck a deal with LG to start offering their online streaming service through the TV itself.  No more boxes!

From the article:

More options on the way for watching Netflix (NFLX) streaming movies in your living room: Beginning this spring, Korean electronics giant LG will build Netflix streaming directly into some of its plasma and LCD HDTVs, the companies will announce today.

This means that Netflix subscribers will be able to stream more than 12,000 movies and TV shows on their TVs without a separate set-top box or a PC.

More and more companies are jumping on the Netflix bandwagon.  Now if they can just start providing some more up-to-date content.  I have a Netflix subscription which we watch through the Xbox 360 dashboard and it’s great, but you’re mainly watching older movies and shows.  Hopefully three things will happen with Netflix service very soon:

1. They’ll make it so I don’t need to pay for multiple Xbox Live gold accounts and multiple Netflix accounts to watch it on different Xboxs in my home.
2. MS will work with Netflix to bring streaming to Media Center and extenders.
3. Netflix will be able to start offering more current content, a la Hulu.

With these few tweaks, Netflix would be the perfect service for our home.  See my next opinion piece on my current issue with the service and how it integrates with Xbox Live.

From time to time, new users will hear me complain about certain things in Media Center and wonder why I bother.  To be honest, I love my VMC machine and I wouldn’t change it for a DVR, Tivo or anything else for that matter.  With the ability to extend my experience anywhere in my home, all my media in one place and the ease of use once it’s running, it’s the best home entertainment experience available right now and I’d like to see as many people as possible using it.

That said, I do think that VMC is incomplete.  There are a lot of features that should be there that aren’t for some reason.  These are actually small problems, but put together, they add up.  So below you will find my current list of wants.  These are things that VMC should do and that I know a lot of users would be happy to see implemented.  Whoever at MS is reading this (no one I’m sure) please pass this along.  I’m not the only one looking for this.

1. Video Resume–When watching recorded TV in VMC, if you stop your show, go out and then come back to watch, you have the ability to resume said show where you left off.  Not only on the VMC but on any extender connected as well.  (I stop the show in the living room, I can resume it in my bedroom.)  This is a great feature which is offered by any DVR on the market.  However, I can’t do this with other video files.  As someone with over 200 movies available on HDD, as well as over 200 episodes from TV, this is a huge inconvenience.  No one at MS is going to convince me that it’s impossible to do either.  It works through the Xbox 360 dashboard when streaming from my PC.  But I shouldn’t and don’t want to have to switch between the two.  VMC is supposed to handle all of it for me.
2. Compatibility–I have music playlists in my Zune software and in WMP (which will show up in VMC).  Can we make this software talk to eachother?  Not just for music playlists but for RSS and podcasts as well?  I enjoy several weekly podcasts (see recomendations at end of post) and I have to subscribe to them in both my Zune software and in add on programs in VMC to be able to listen to them anywhere.  Also, this leads back to point one.  Make it so I can resume them.  I have kids…they need and deserve attention.  If I’m listening to an episode of TWiT, I don’t want to have to start over every time.
3. Video Playlists–I love music.  I have an account on Last.fm, I have music playing now and if we’re not on the phone for work, then you can bet music is playing in my home.  I also enjoy music video.  It would be nice to be able to set up a music video playlist, or a home movie playlist and let it run.  Then I get the best of both and I don’t have to run back to my VMC everytime one ends.
4. Video Codecs–I know this can be a problem due to licensing and whatnot and it’s really not that big of a deal for me because I don’t have a problem converting everything to WMV.  It’s MS’s own codec, and VMC plays nicely with it.  However, it would be nice not to have to convert and everytime you do you lose some quality.  In a perfect world, all video would play on both VMC and any extenders I have connected.  Right now, I can stream divx, xvid and other popular codecs to my Xbox 360 dashboard, but not through the VMC extender.

That’s about it for now.  If you have any wants or needs from you VMC or suggestions, please post them.  I certainly don’t have any power with the people in charge but I’m happy to pass them along!

I’ve added the Askablogr widget to the site.  While I certainly don’t expect the VMC experts out there to come to me for advice, if you’re just starting out, please feel free to use this to contact me with questions.  As I’ve said, this blog is mainly for the beginners out there and as such, I’m happy to provide as much help as possible.

All questions and answers will be posted to the blog to help out others as well.  If for some reason you don’t want to have your question posted, please let me know and I won’t share it.

Have fun!