There is a program in Windows systems called Windows Media Center. Based on the name, it is easy to understand that this package is a means of playing multimedia content. But how optimal and expedient is its use? Let's try to figure it out.
What is Windows Media Center?
Immediately I would like to draw the attention of all users of Windows systems that the last time this component was present in the OS shell was in Windows 7 as a "wired" application.
For Windows 8.1, Media Center, as well as for the tenth version of the system, must be installed separately, since it is not in the main distribution kit. But is it really necessary?
In principle, systems above the seventh have their own tools for viewing and managing multimedia files (the same viewers or players). The trouble is different: for each media file, you need to open a separate application. But "Windows Media Center" combines everything in one. It is not clear why, but after Windows 7 this software package was excluded from the built-in applications of the system. But in vain.
"Media Center" Windows 7 ": development prospects
To date, the software package can be downloaded directly from the Microsoft website. This version, although it is designed for Windows 7, nevertheless behaves quite well in both the eighth and tenth versions (in principle, all "seven" programs are compatible with versions of a higher rank).
The question is: will Microsoft develop this area? Apparently not. It's a pity. Such a software package would be in demand by many users.
Using the program
If you immediately pay attention to the program interface, you can conclude that everything here was created to completely simplify the actions of any, even the most unprepared user. The distribution of the categories immediately inspires confidence.
True, setting up television online deserves a separate discussion. Unfortunately, this option is only available if the corresponding prefix is available. Without it, the TV will not work, not to mention the fact that AppleTV is not supported at all (for this you need to install an additional applet). In addition, "Windows Media Center" tends to cause system errors, although it is a system application "built-in" in Windows 7 and below. On the eighth and tenth modifications, failures were also noted, however, due to the fact that the package is installed as third-party software, this does not particularly affect the system.
But back to the interface. Everything is pretty simple here. It is enough to set a search. Note right away that it will be redirected to the resources of the software itself, that is, you will not be able to specify the folder with the same MP3 files manually. In principle, this is what the program is designed for. The priority is given to the use of Internet sites, not local resources.
Update issues and bugs
As for the installation of updates, quite often, being installed in Windows 8 and higher systems, the multimedia center tries to install updates spontaneously. It would seem that there is nothing wrong with this, but some packages that are not designed to function on operating systems higher than the seventh can cause critical failures.
Errors also occur. But they are mainly related to the inability to play files of a certain type or the lack of appropriate codecs and decoders. As it is already clear, such problems can be corrected exclusively by reinstalling the corresponding software products. If we are talking about Windows 7 and lower systems, one of the simplest tools that can be advised for use can be the standard Microsoft Fix It utility, which was originally developed to fix errors with downloading and installing critical system updates.
Want to view downloaded files, streaming videos, and other media content on your TV? Not sure which media center is right for you? Here, the PivotTable and Venn Diagram show the characteristics of each of the most popular applications.
New to the idea of TV-enabled computers? Below, under the diagrams, you will find an explanation and a more complete comparison of the systems. If you are already familiar with the concept of creating a computer-based multimedia center, first of all we bring to your attention good software.
We compared three publicly available and popular media center programs. Of course, there are many alternatives to both free software and the hardware itself, but these are the most popular media centers that are constantly being improved and easily installed on a large number of home multimedia centers.
Graphic explanation
Here are the characteristics of the three main programs in the form of a pivot table and a Venn diagram.
Note: The table compares standard functions that do not require additional plugins to be installed.
What is a media center?
What is a media center for? Media centers vary in functionality, but basically all of them provide the functionality available to you on a computer or portable device, such as listening to MP3 music, watching video files, Netflix and Hulu content, digital photos and Internet / social applications, and playing them using speakers, and can transmit wirelessly. Media centers can run on a large number of computers, but are designed primarily for small, dedicated computers called multimedia centers or HTPCs.
Multimedia centers have the video and audio ports needed to connect to modern high definition television, and basically have a powerful processor and enough memory to handle converting, playing, and sometimes even recording high resolution files. If you have a local network with shared files and a network storage device, media centers can transfer their content to other systems and devices, as well as receive files for storage and download them directly from the Internet.
Simply put, a media center allows you to sit on the couch and enjoy most of the functions that would be available to you on a computer with a remote control. You can record a movie from streaming Netflix or a file you've already downloaded, search Hulu for a show you missed last night, show guests photos uploaded to Flicr or Picasa, and more.
Not every media center has all the characteristics at once - some are better suited for certain activities than others. The editors of lifehacker.com compared several applications and identified which task each one performs best, tried to highlight what each of the systems is capable of, and presented the data in such a way to make your choice easier.
Windows Media Center, XBMC, and Boxee
This paragraph provides a more detailed overview of media centers - installation and configuration, pros and cons.
Windows Media Center is included in Windows Vista Home Premium or Ultimate Series, in all versions of Windows 7 except Starter or Home Basic, and a separate version of the XP operating system, Media Center Edition, is also available. XBOX is free and open source software for multimedia centers, originally released as a brand new XBOX modification, but now works on Windows, Mac, Linux and XBOX systems, and also boots and works from USB media.
Boxee is based on the same backend code as XBMC, but aims to bring online content - video sites, blogs, and social apps - into your living room, while XBMC is still focused on downloading and playing files.
Plex Is a popular and eye-catching media center for Mac OS X - certainly a competitor in this category. By goals and objectives, however, this is an option XBMC... Most of everything written and shown in this article about XBMC also applies to Plex, with the exception of the look and feel.
In any case, this is only a brief summary. Now let's take a closer look at the advantages and disadvantages of each system.
Windows Media Center
Installation and Initial Setup: It's pretty simple. The application is included in the packages of the latest versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7, and provided that your computer or multimedia center has the necessary connectors, Windows can fairly easily display the data displayed on the computer monitor on the TV screen. If the other systems in your wireless network also have Windows operating system, you won't have to go through system settings for a long time to start transferring files between Multimedia Center and other platforms. If you have a Mac or Linux on your computer, then this process will be much more complicated. If you already have a TV tuner installed on your computer, Windows will recognize this and use it to record TV shows.
Advantages:
- Attractive and simple digital video recorder: And you don't have to pay monthly.
- Unobtrusive, simple interface: Separate obvious sections and intuitive layout.
- Large number of compatible remote control devices: Search for devices for "Windows Media Center remote" on the Internet or in an electronics store, and you will certainly find a device with a lot of buttons that can easily connect to your multimedia center, usually via a USB receiver.
- Ease of networking: On Windows systems, that is, if you constantly create shared folders.
Flaws:
- Working with files: In general, Media Center processes the same files as Windows Media Player, and after installing the correct codecs, this may be enough. But don't expect your multimedia center to support the wide range of video and audio formats found on the web.
- Windows only: But you knew that.
- Sophisticated remote controls: Media Center is compatible with a wide range of devices, but they often look like parodies of remotes with a huge number of buttons. If you find a simple Media Center remote like Apple's navigation device, let us know in the comments.
- Recorded Files Locked: There are decoders, of course, but if you want to watch recorded TV shows on anything other than your own set of authorized Windows machines, Zunes, and XBOX devices, good luck.
Note: Windows Media Center does not support Hulu by default, but you can do this by plugging in the required modules.
XBMC
Installation and initial setup: Depends, of course, on the platform and equipment on which the installation is performed. Connecting to a modern Windows or Mac system should be straightforward, at least when it comes to software. Working in XBMC from a live USB is also not too difficult, and you can also install the program from it to your HTPC's hard drive. However, installing it on Madriva Linux and connecting to a specific plasma system with optical audio output can probably lead you to subsequent hair transplants and years of therapy.
Advantages:
- Open Access: Do you want XBMC to perform some additional functions? You have a chance to achieve this, a smart programmer is working on it. XBMC runs on a different platform than its Boxee descendant, but coders have access to it and can convert it.
- Metadata and file recognition: XBMC is really good at recognizing data, including personal files and comments on anecdotes, when and where in the system you placed new files, their type (movie, TV show, music or picture) and quickly connects to the Internet to upload important pictures, information, reviews and even links to trailers for videos and music that you have uploaded.
- Light and dynamic: Generally speaking, XBMC has quite nice graphics and menus, but since it originally came from a project to create an entire multimedia center for a gaming system, it aims to display multimedia files as smoothly as possible.
- Great, customizable design: XBMC outperforms even Plex with its appearance, which makes a person think they are living in the future when displayed on a really big beautiful TV. Don't like the standard design? Install a new skin and get a completely different look.
- Format support: It is unlikely that XBMC will not be able to play any file found on the Internet or downloaded from a friend, only if something is wrong with this file.
Flaws:
- Lack of support for Netflix, Hulu: It will take a lot of work to ensure that XBMC can support these two largest video streaming resources. In this case, XBMC is not the best choice.
- Overloaded, sometimes overly complex menus: The menus and information in XBMC are quite quirky - your reaction to them depends on your temperament. You can do whatever you want from any screen, the graphical interface of the application will seem somewhat futuristic to you. However, for beginners who just want to play something, it can make a strong impression.
Boxee
Installation and Initial Setup: The process of installing the latest beta version of Boxee on Windows and Mac systems is quite simple, thanks to the use of built-in video and audio systems for displaying content. In the case of Linux, the situation is somewhat more complicated. The program can be installed on the Apple TV player, although for this you need to know some of the installation nuances. In essence Boxee is based on XBMC and is compatible with the same software. OpenGL or DirectX compatible video cards required.
Advantages:
- Support for Hulu and Netflix resources: There are some difficulties with the interaction of Boxee and Hulu, however, watching most of the popular TV shows and movies streamed on Hulu is available. Netflix works well with Windows and Mac, as long as you don't mind installing Microsoft Silverlight.
- Ability to install extensions: Love FailBlog? Are you amused by the Twits videos? Mix them all up with the Boxee app and add more resources to the "repository" where a smart selection of user-generated streaming content takes place.
- Play any content (technically): Boxee uses a converted version of the FireFox browser to support Hulu, moreover, with this version you can access almost any video on the network. Boxee Browser is sort of the last resort for any web content that doesn't have its own app.
Flaws:
- Interface: Even with the content-oriented design of the app, many media center users find it difficult to get used to the hidden sidebars on the left side of the Boxee window and the rewind function. Some people just don't like the way the default app looks. But this is not the most important thing, in principle, the basic tools here are the same as in XBMC. But if you intend to use this media center all the time, you will have to get used to how it looks.
- Local File Handling: Boxee is not that good at recognizing and updating local file repositories. As you would expect from a system so focused on the transfer of Internet content. However, Boxee provides many more options to simplify the process of collecting, organizing and accessing your downloaded files.
Most users of Windows operating systems up to and including the seventh have come across such an interesting program as Windows Media Center, which is designed to organize their own collections of multimedia and play any content of such content known to date. But with the application itself, not everything is so simple. In Windows 7, Media Center may sometimes require additional settings so that you can use all the functions of the program in full. But in Windows 10, this application is absent altogether, since it was replaced by other (albeit scattered) applets. But you can install this media combine in the tenth OS modification (this will be discussed separately).
Windows Media Center: what is this program?
So what is this application? In short and in general terms, Windows Media Center is a collection of multimedia applications that are combined into one whole.
In other words, in order to watch movies, photos or listen to music, it is absolutely not necessary to call the corresponding programs separately. It is enough to launch Media Center (Windows 8 professional version can use it exclusively during installation as an additional component) in order to carry out all operations under one software shell.
Key features
But that's not all. This package has a unique ability to project the interface not only to other monitors, but also to television panels. There is also an interesting function for watching and recording TV programs. To do this, you need to connect and configure a special set-top box (TV tuner) Media Center Extender (such applets are often included in the firmware of DVD players and even Xbox consoles).
In addition to basic tasks, you can use the tools for organizing libraries of any multimedia content, synchronize files with portable and mobile devices, install add-ons (include additional programs in the shell) and much more.
Getting to know the interface
The program interface is quite simple. All the main elements in the main menu are placed in a single list, which can be navigated vertically, and horizontally along the elements contained in each item.
The selected active element is highlighted in color and has a slightly larger size compared to passive ones.
What should especially please the average user is the presence of informational prompts at each stage of performing certain actions. In addition, libraries can be sorted by file names, directories, and creation date.
There are some interesting possibilities for music lovers too. You can not only listen to your favorite tracks saved on your hard drive, mobile device or in a network environment, but also use the online mode, for example, to add covers and other information, not to mention using the connection to Internet radio stations.
Note: at the first start of the program, in order not to bother too much, you can use automatic express settings, which are suitable for most computer configurations. Advanced settings can also be used, but for an ordinary user at first it will be quite problematic to deal with them.
Set-top box setup issues
Setting up the set-top boxes is quite simple. There is no point in dwelling on this, since the application itself has a special guide that will offer to follow a few simple steps, and at one of the stages enter a special 8-digit key that will be shown on the TV screen when connected to the Windows Media Center application.
With television, too, everything is simple. If the user has a set-top box, you can use a special "Wizard", which will help to set the correct parameters for TV channels, based on the location of the computer (you will need to enter your postal code).
Alas, without a set-top box, Internet TV can only work with those providers who initially provide such services. In some cases, you may need to update your Flash player from Adobe because the two work in tandem.
How do I install the program on Windows 10?
Unfortunately, this software product is not included in the preinstalled Windows 10 components. Nevertheless, you can install it in the tenth version of the system (in the simplest case, you can try to install the version for Windows 7).
But it is better to use special repacks, in which the _TestRights.cmd file is first launched (necessarily with administrator rights), and then a complete installation of all program components is performed using the Installer.cmd file, similarly launched on behalf of the administrator.
Typical errors when running the application
If an error message appears when trying to install in the Shell, after testing (launching the first specified file), you just need to reboot the system and perform all the actions again.
In case of errors after installation (usually this is a notification about the inability to use the program due to the established prohibitions), you need to configure the default programs, where in the appropriate section activate the Windows Media Center line and check the box next to "Make the program available".
If you have questions about how to disable Windows Media Center, in this list you just need to rearrange the checkboxes from one field to another (for example, activate a standard player to play audio). The same goes for all other items.
Disconnection and uninstallation issues
Finally, let's see how to remove Windows Media Center. In principle, it is completely unnecessary to do this, since the whole package does not "weigh" so much. According to many users, it is enough to limit ourselves to solving the problem of how to remove Windows Media Center from the list of active applications installed by default (as shown above), and the program will simply be deactivated.
On the other hand, if you really need to uninstall, you can use the standard section of programs and components in the "Control Panel", where in the system components you just need to uncheck the box from the "Media Center" line (this will deactivate all components), and then restart the computer. You can also use the services section (services.msc) and set this item to disabled in the startup type. But all this is also a kind of disconnection, not deletion.
If you want to get rid of the program completely, the standard tools are not suitable for this, since the application is embedded in the Windows 7 shell. In this case, it is best to use programs like iObit Uninstaller, go to the Win Manager section, select the Windows programs menu and completely remove the package with the further inclusion of powerful scanning to identify and remove all residual elements.
If the application was installed on Windows 10 in the above way, uninstallation can be done by running the Uninstaller.cmd file located in the distribution as an administrator. Complete removal, as well as installation, will be performed in the command console.
In Windows 8, when installing the package as an additional element, the program is uninstalled using the standard method from the section of programs and components.
Brief summary
This is, in short, everything you need to know about the Media Center. It is not clear, however, why the developers of the eighth and tenth versions of the Windows operating system did not include this application in the list of standard ones, since there are a lot of possibilities in it, and it is simply impossible to describe them all (especially in terms of adding additional tools directly to the program shell). In general, the idea of combining several separate applications into one, although not new, is executed at the highest level. This is understandable, because instead of several applets, the user gets at his disposal a real multimedia combine from the "all-in-one" category.
Some users do not want to interfere with the software part of Windows Media Center and change its interface, and I understand them. Since setting up HTPC begins with installing all the necessary codecs, I can recommend the most popular package called K-Lite Codec Pack Full, but Windows Media Center does not want to display video files with MKV and AVI extensions in the Movies section, which can be corrected as follows:
- Open Windows Media Player and on the Tools | Parameters | Performance ”check the box next to Enable DXVA Video Acceleration for WMV Files. For video formats, you can't do anything else, however the important MKV is still missing.
- Install the DivX Plus Codec Pack - the pack will add the MKV filter to the Media Foundation, but when you install the filter, your computer must be connected to the Internet. When choosing your components, make sure that only the “DivX Plus Codec Pack” checkbox is ticked - you won't need everything else.
- With regard to audio formats, Dolby ASZ and DTS are primarily lacking. Both are used for DVD and Blu-ray playback, but are not available in Windows Media Center. The situation can be corrected using the ACZ filter: if you activate the ACM driver in the 32- or 64-bit version during its installation, this will enable filters from Microsoft ACZ and DTS for all other file formats - at least in the Media Center program. If you prefer to use other players as a multimedia center, you will also need to separately select "ASZ Filter".
Configuring video playback in Windows 7
For Windows 7 to truly play any file format, disable Media Foundation and install the DirectShow filter. The most convenient way is to use the specially designed codec pack - Shark007 Pack. Download codecs for Windows 7, and for 64-bit systems - x64 Components. Before installing this package, remove any free codecs that you used previously. After installing Shark007 Pack, you need to configure it. Go to the Start menu, select the Shark007Codecs folder and run the Settings Application as administrator. On the MKV tab, check the Disable the DivX Media Foundation splitter box. On the "SWAP" tab, check the boxes "Disable Windows Media Foundation" and "Use FFDshow DXVAforWC 1 not Microsoft", and for "DirectShow" on the top left, use "Use FFDshow's codec". In the “MPG-MP4” section, enable “Use Haali’s splitter” for “MP4 Playback”, and “Use Gabest Blu-ray splitter” for “Overall MPEG Playback 1/2 PS / TS”. If your video card supports hardware acceleration, on the "H264" tab at the top left, change the parameters to "Do not use FFDshow", and on the right - to "Use FFDShow DXVA codec". If there is no such function, enable "Use FFDshow with multithreading". On the "AVI" tab in the "Playback" section, set "Use Haali's splitter". Finally, confirm the settings in both modules by clicking the Save ALL Settings button on the Misc tab.
Plugins for Windows Media Center
There are many different plug-ins for Windows Media Center that let you customize this playback tool to suit your individual needs. To make WMC the main and only player for your files, it lacks several important playback features. Using a plugin Media Control you can change the picture settings, as well as the audio track and subtitles during playback. All options will be displayed during the movie showing by pressing the "Ctrl + Alt + B" key combination.
DVRMSTOOLBOX. This program processes TV recordings made using Media Center. She recognizes the ad and cuts it out.
Media Center Studio. It is currently the only end-to-end solution for transforming the Media Center interface. Allows you to completely change the Windows Media Center menu in a few steps. Installation - Start - Start Menu tab - Rename - Save. Now we are looking for the names of films on Kinopoisk and when downloading, we immediately specify the correct file name - data about the video file will be loaded automatically (icon with cover, background image, description, etc.).
AV ART FIXER. This program associates the album cover with the corresponding audio file.
CLIPSHOW. This plugin will add a timeline to all your video files. Moreover, it offers a shuffle function.
MCE Standby Tool. This program solves Windows standby problems — for example, when Media Center should start recording a TV program on a schedule.
Media Browser- plug-in for Windows Media Center, which is designed to organize a convenient viewing of a collection of films and videos available on your computer. The Media Browser offers a large amount of content related to its own media libraries. This browser allows you to manage TV shows and movies more conveniently than the corresponding function in Windows Media Center. When installing, the plugin will ask for the date older than which the films will be considered viewed (a check mark will be set). Settings can be made either in the media center itself, or using a special wizard. For the minimum configuration, you need to specify the paths to the folders with movies. Video files can be sorted by type, and you can also assign age restrictions.
Additional features of the Media Browser:
- "Parental control" - age restrictions for various directories with films, which also allows you to hide the entire "strawberry" from children's eyes with a password;
- the ability to specify an alternative player for certain types of files in Windows Media Center;
- displaying weather information in the menu;
- support for alternative themes;
- notification about the watched movie.
To get information about films from the Internet (Kinopoisk website), I recommend using a plug-in for the Media Browser - Kinopoisk (KinopoiskMetadataProvider.dll) - and the presence of an Internet connection makes it possible to automatically receive all kinds of information about the film of interest in Russian: posters, film content, composition actors, stills from the film, etc. Download the latest version and put it in the "C: \ ProgramData \ MediaBrowser \ Plugins" folder.
Attention! For the plug-in to work, you need to name the files or folders containing 1 video file with the full Russian name, which coincides with the name on Kinopoisk, and the year of release indicated in brackets. Specialist. characters can be skipped.
Detailed configuration of the Media Browser plugin
After installation, the Media Browser has its own icon in the start menu of Windows Media Center. The Application.png file in the program folder is responsible for the plugin icon. Icon captions can be changed using the Media Center Studio program described above. Please note that this plugin allows you to graphically configure the WMC start menu by renaming or completely excluding all unused items from it (for example: Add-ons, TV, Movies, etc.). You can download many beautiful alternative themes for MCs online, which are also installed through Media Center Studio.
The Media Browser comes with its own configurator that allows you to fine-tune the application, select folders with videos, create several categories for more convenient sorting, connect plugins, configure the launch of an external player, and enable parental control. To access additional content, open the Start | All programs | Media Browser | Media Browser Configurator ". In the "podcasts" tab you can add podcasts, and through the "plug-ins" section you can add a movie trailer to the Media Browser library.
You should add at least one category on the "Media collection" tab and assign one or more content folders to it. Here you can also set an icon for the category using the Change Image button - it will be displayed in the main menu of the Media Browser plug-in if the selected theme provides such an option.
After starting the plugin, you can make sure that the category has been successfully created and the folder is included. Within a category, you can navigate through the collection in one of five display modes (the "View" item), sort by name, date added, year of release, IMDB estimates, duration and the fact of viewing. And also to choose films not by title, but by actor, genre, studio, year and director, but the Media Browser does not determine which films are in question when their names are indicated in Cyrillic. If you use the original names from IMDB.com, the information will be obtained in full from themoviedb.com, but in English only.
Integrating an alternative player into Windows Media Center
The player built into Windows Media Center is based on the Windows Media Player engine and has similar capabilities. For most files, they are enough, but you always want more. For example, switching audio tracks with one button when using any container; enable and disable subtitles - both embedded and external; using fine scaling of the picture in order to reduce black bars at the top and bottom, sometimes taking more than 30% of the screen area. In such cases, you can use any external player that will be called from the MS, and after the end of viewing, control will return back to the shell.
Let's move on to setting up and integrating an external player. Consider Media Player Classic HomeCinema (MPC HC) but there might be KMPlayer in its place (I prefer it, but still more popular is MPC HC). The most important thing is the ability to customize hotkeys, as well as use hardware acceleration to play heavy formats. The MPC HC contains a built-in H.264 (AVC) decoder that works perfectly with EVR (Enhanced Video Render) and NVIDIA ION. Although no one bothers to replace it or supplement it with other popular decoders - CoreAVC, Nero and ArcSoft.
Setting up Media Player Classic:
- change the interface language to Russian (View → Language → Russian);
- in the Settings → Player menu, enable the items "Show OSD" and "Remember position in file";
- in the Settings → Full screen menu, activate the "Run files in full screen mode" item;
- if external filters with DXVA support are not used, then you need to enable DXVA decoders in the “Built-in Filters” menu.
To integrate an external player with the Media Browser, you need to launch the configurator, switch the settings display mode from basic to advanced and add the desired pairs of combinations "player + extension" on the external players tab. The configurator supports auto-mount ISO files and auto-play playback with an external DVD / BD player. You can make this setting on the extenders + iso tab.
Now, when starting playback of the selected file types, the Media Browser will minimize and launch the external player, and after closing it, it will return to the directory again. If the file has not been played completely, then when you reopen this file, the MPC HC will start showing from the same place where it was last interrupted.
Some of the RC6 remote control buttons work in Media Player Classic HomeCinema without additional configuration: play, pause, stop, volume control and skip to the next / previous file. You can assign any player function to any key on the remote control using a utility called EventGhost.
EventGhost is a powerful utility for automating processes on a PC running MS Windows, produced by assigning macros of varying degrees of complexity to pressing a specific button on the remote control. EventGhost supports a huge number of IR receivers, the full list can be found on the developer's website. To control the player, elementary macros are used in one action: a button on the remote control emulates pressing one or more keys on the keyboard.
An example of setting up EventGhost and a Microsoft RC6 remote control to control the Media Player Classic Home Cinema:
- run EventGhost as administrator, create a new configuration file: menu File → New;
- to work with MCE-compatible receivers, add the appropriate plug-in: Configuration → Add Plugin → Microsoft MCE Remote;
- since in our case the remote control will also be used to control the MC, the Disable HID service must be unchecked;
- add a macro that emulates keystrokes: Configuration → Add Macro → Window → Emulate Keystrokes;
- in the Text to type column, write the required combination in curly braces, for example: (Ctrl + Shift + Left), (e) or (Alt + 1);
- press the button on the remote control to which the new function will be assigned, and make sure that a new record of the form MceRemote.Button_name has appeared in the Log field (for example, MceRemote.Forward);
- all that remains is to drag this entry from the Log field to the Configuration field directly onto the icon of the new macro.
Steps four through seven are repeated as many times as the buttons need to be assigned a new function. At the end of the configuration, the configuration file must be saved, and the program itself must be written to startup in a minimized state (File → Options → Autostart and Minimize). Please note that EventGhost can work correctly only if it is started with administrator rights, and therefore you will have to abandon UAC (User Account Control) or look for workarounds to solve this problem.
Now all that remains is to go into the player's settings and bring Keyboard shortcuts (Settings → Player → Keys) in line with EventGhost macros.
Entering and exiting sleep mode. Problems and solutions.
Problem 1. By default, the PC shutdown button on the Microsoft RC6 remote control puts the PC into sleep mode, but you can turn it back on only from the button on the case. This flaw is corrected through the BIOS by disabling the Deep Sleep function and enabling the Wake up from USB option (the name of the function is different in different BIOS versions).
Problem 2. Another unpleasant little thing can be the spontaneous activation of the HTPC from a state of sleep, which, as a rule, occurs late at night. This behavior is "to blame" for the option to turn on the PC to perform one of the scheduled tasks. Disable: Control Panel | Power supply | Setting Up a Power Plan | Change advanced power settings | Sleep | Allow wake-up timers | Turn off.
Good day, dear Khabrovites!
I have been a reader of Habr for a long time, so I decided to become a writer, all the more there was a reason. Not so long ago I solved the problem of watching movies on an LCD TV from a computer, for, so to speak, "unprepared users" - parents. They don't understand anything in their computer, but they want to watch movies. I am tired of writing them to discs. I went through a search on the site, I could not find a similar topic and decided to fill in the gap. It's about setting up Windows Media Center, or rather about a wonderful addition to it in the form of the Media Browser.
To begin with, I will describe the connection diagram. My LCD TV is connected to my computer as a second monitor (DVI -> HDMI), the desktop is extended to it. Windows 7 Ultimate is installed on the computer and it never turns off - torrents are downloaded and distributed. In order not to even need to touch the mouse and keyboard, the Microsoft Remote Control for Media Center was purchased for ridiculous money.
It does not require any special configuration and works as they say - out of the box. I will not talk about setting up the WMC itself - everything is quite simple there. Let's talk about MediaBrowser separately.
Media Browser is a plug-in for Windows Media Center and is designed to organize a convenient viewing of a collection of movies and videos available on your computer.
Download the latest version (at the time of this writing, this is version 2.2.2.) And install. During installation, the program will ask for the date, "older" than which the films will be considered viewed (a check mark will be set) :-)
After installation, a new item will appear in the WMC menu: 
Settings can be made either in the media center itself, or using a special wizard. For the minimum configuration, you need to specify the paths to the folders with movies. Video files can be divided into groups (for example, "TV Shows", "Porn", "Cartoons", etc.), and in the future, these groups can be assigned an age limit.
In principle, after that you can already watch films, but this was not enough for me. Digging around on the Internet, I found a plug-in for automatically updating information about films from the Internet, or rather from Kinopoisk.
Plugin Media Browser - Kinopoisk ( KinopoiskMetadataProvider.dll) - and the presence of an Internet connection makes it possible to automatically receive all sorts of information about the film of interest in Russian: posters, film content, cast, footage from the film, etc.
Take the latest version (Version 1.0.0.5 (01.12.2009)) and put it in the "C: \ ProgramData \ MediaBrowser \ Plugins" folder.
For the plug-in to work, you need to name the files or folders containing 1 video file with the full Russian name, which coincides with the name on Kinopoisk, and the year of release indicated in brackets. Special characters can be skipped.
For example - the film "Adrenaline: High Voltage".
Correct name:
c: \ movies \ adrenaline high voltage (2009) .mkv
Wrong name:
c: \ movies \ adrenaline 2.avi
I will list some more features of the Media Browser (hidden behind the advanced button):
- "Parental control" - you can specify age restrictions for various directories with films and hide the entire "strawberry" from children's eyes with a password;
- it is possible to specify an external player for certain types of files;
- displaying weather information in the menu;
- the menu interface is fully customizable and supports themes;
- there is a note about the watched movie.
Then it remains only to search for the names of films on Kinopoisk and when downloading immediately indicate the "correct" file name - the rest is loaded automatically.
Finally, a couple more screenshots of what the result is: 
Now, in my absence, parents can easily select and watch any of the films in the collection.
Download links.
