While not officially supported by Microsoft, there is an excellent modification that The Missing Remote has published. A simple batch file installs a different DLL for Terminal services that allows the console to remain logged on while up to 2 other users log into a separate RDP session.

Now I can do any management and monitoring or changes necessary without having to submit a “TV-Outage Request”. :-D Very cool.

Short answer, an awesome remote for a VISTA Media centre… Of course, I was planning on posting an awesome how-to on configuring the device for Win7 MCE but as it doesn’t work how I’d planned…

Now I know that Windows 7 isn’t officially released until the end of this week but what’s really disheartening is that the Sideshow team have posted that they do not plan to release a 7 Compatible MCE Sideshow gadget.

My aim originally was to have a remote control I could use to the Guide and check my scheduled recordings without having to disturb who was watching TV AND to control the music from the back porch.

Interestingly the pre-installed Windows 7 media player Gadget is able to manipulate the now playing music but only when you start playing music from MCE. The downloadable MCE Gadgets just completely fail to work.

All up the sideshow remote idea isn’t a complete failure. We can control music from around the house but the interface is painful and un-intuitive. I’m certainly going to keep an eye on what happens in this area.

My goals are still the similar:

1. Provide scheduled recording for our favourite TV programs using the new Digital broadcasts.
2. Provide easy access to our pictures, music, videos & movies stored on the Windows Home Server.
3. I had to use existing equipment at home and spend no more than $250 per month control spending for upgrades.

I have moved this page to its very own tab now, so if you’re interested, check out http://brendon.davis.to/mymce.

So far I have found two add-ins that seem to work quite well. Both have a slightly different aim and features but both are very well written. For all the Goss,

WebGuide is an extension for both XP Media Centre and VISTA Media Centre to provide remote control and access to your content via a web browser. Doug Berrett has ported his code (in Beta currently) to be a WHS Add-in (installed using the console). The add-in runs an Apache web server and will share all content stored in the Pictures/ Videos and Music folders, thumbnails are generated for the pictures and music folders are displayed using the album art. The only downsides are the separate APACHE server requires a separate port to IIS and maintains its own user name and password list separate to the system.

Doug was recently hired by the Microsoft Media Centre team and is now providing his WebGuide for MCE free of charge. For anyone running a MCE box at home, who wants to provide access via a web browser (to PC’s and Mobile devices!!!) head on over and download a copy of the XP or VISTA versions.

The Windows Home Internet Information Services Toolkit, otherwise known as Whiist… (makes perfect sense) was coded by Andrew Grant and won the Code2Fame challenge for WHS Add-ins. It provides a lot of configuration options on how to publishh the site. It allows for both Public and Private (local basic authentication) access to your photo directories. Allowing for:

• Public gallery e.g.. http://my.homeserver.com/photos
• Private authenticated gallery e.g.. https://my.homeserver.com/gallery

Thumbnails are automatically created for all pictures and the folders use the standard folder structure. The software does not allow for the publishing of Music or Video libraries and cannot be used to upload photos. The only downside with the software is the inability to publish the root \\server\photos share, You must publis a folder at least one level below the root e.g.. \\server\photos\public. (You can publish the root, but it requires playing with permissions, files and IIS.)

So what am I using??

Well I run Whiist on my production server publishing the \\server\photos\ share as http://server/photos. The share requires authentication and I have placed a link to it after logging into the WHS web site. I also have modified the main picture to bring me back to the WHS main site.

He has documented a very simple procedure to RIP your (legally purchased) DVD’s onto the hard drive for storage and quick access on your VISTA media centre. Please be advised, the instructions include a registry change so if you are not confident changing these settings, ask your favourite teenage child/ nephew to help you.

When designing your media centre setup you really need to consider exactly what you want to do with the device and what other roles computers already play in your house. You might find that a TiVo suits your needs, or that a pre-build MCE case is what you are looking for. Maybe all you need is a Media Centre Extender to play videos and music from your main computer. In short, look at what options are available before going out and spending $$$ for something that doesn’t suit your needs.

<DISCLAIMER> Please note, my setup was done on a major budget with individual components added over time as they could be afforded. </DISCLAIMER> If you are interested, then read on.

When I built my media centre, I had three goals.
1. Provide scheduled recording for our favourite TV programs using the new Digital broadcasts.
2. Provide easy access to our pictures, music & videos stored around the house. (This was before WHS)
3. I had to use existing equipment at home and spend no more than $250 per month for upgrades.

Physical Layout – My wife hates the idea of computers all around the house. So I had to hide the fact that our MCE box was running on a computer, without buying a fancy $1’200 case. Luckily there is a little space behind the fireplace, just big enough to hide a computer and UPS out of normal view.

I stole the DVD burner from my main PC and mounted it in an old USB2 IDE caddy I was not using. Likewise, I used an old StreamZap infra-red remote with a small USB reciver beside the TV. I find people normally point a remote at the TV, even if it is for a video, DVD player or anything else…

My success was confirmed when my wife did not realise the MCE was a computer until I actually showed her the box and by that time, she was addicted to her daily Oprah & Dr. Phil recordings.

Internals – I have found recently that the box is slightly under-spec’ed. When recording two HD shows and watching a DVD or another recorded program it does skip and jump a little. I suggest using a Dual Core & faster RAM for anyone else designing a system. But for reference, I currently run:

• Microsoft Windows VISTA ULTIMATE!!
• A single core, AMD Athlon 3200+
• ThermalTake Blue Orb II Quiet CPU Cooler
• ASUS A8V Motherboard
• 2GB Kingmax DDR RAM
• Samsung 320GB 7200RPM 16MB Cache SATA II HDD
• Samsung 4x IDE DVD-RW (in a USB2 Caddy)
• DigitalNow DNTV Live! PCI-E Dual Digital Tuner
• ASUS Fanless Radeon X550 with Component out
• StreamZap Infra-red remote
• 300W PSU with 12CM Low RPM Fan
• APC 500VA UPS & Surge Protector

Software - I use VISTA Ultimate quite happily and have had little to no problems. Installing MCE on custom hardware is one of those black-arts that need a bit of tweaking to work just the way you want. Once you have it going though, it works very nicely.

I pay for an IceTV EPG subscription because Australian broadcasters fight EPG’s and Microsoft will not provide a local listing. I use the IceTVGuide software to download my Program Guide and the KeepKey utility from XPMediaCentre to maintain the regional settings.

Due to the StreamZap remote being released in 2002 (2 years before XP Media Center) it does not integrate very easily. I could spend $60 on a MCE Remote but I have the whole setup working well now and do not feel like changing it. I ended up using LM Remote Keymap to interface the remote control software with MCE. Thanks again to XPMediaCenter for the tip.

Recording, Music & Pictures – I have partitioned the hard drive into a two volumes, 40GB for System and the remainder for recorded TV. This gives us approximately 260GB or 2 weeks of recording for our regular programs.

I have configured recording to start 5min early on all programs and manually set each recorded program to record 15 min after the program finishes. I also recommend setting the program recording to record on ‘any channel’, if you have problems with a certain channel dropping out and need to re-scan and configure it the record settings will not need to be re-configured each time.

Now that my WHS box is running well at home, I have moved all my music (legally purchased of course), pictures and videos to the redundant storage on the server and have added the shares to the MCE library.

Once again, thanks to the XPMediaCenter community for pointing out MCEBuddy, it is a DVR-MS to AVI/ DivX converter that runs as a service and can be configured to work on files several days old and even removes add breaks.

What’s Next – As the MCE is working really well, I have ordered an Eye-Fi (Wireless enabled) SD memory card, configured to automatically copy all new photo’s up to the windows home server from Rosie’s camera.

Now that the MCE is in the lounge room; Scott, Tim & Rosie are using it more for both media and television. FreeEPG has been missing details on special events like the swimming or CSI starting 30Min late BECAUSE of the swimming…. Grrrr. It also didn’t list Cirque de Sole that played on the weekend.

A number of mates at work are using IceTV, It’s $11.00/ month but well worth the expense. I did an un-install of FreeEPG and signed up for 3 months of IceTV, now every program slot is entered with details on the program. Their PIMP remote recording scheduler is also really cool, it lets you using a web browser schedule recording of programs. So if your at work/ on holidays you can still schedule recording of that program you just can’t miss.

I just love the ability to come home and choose what TV shows you want to watch and when you want to watch them. It is definitley the way of the future.

Being able to sit in the recliner in the lounge room and watch pre-recorded TV or movies streamed from the server is really nice. Both Tim & Rosie are getting very comfortable using the MCE too, so much so I think we would have trouble getting rid of it. :-)

Maybe now we can justify getting a sexy PC Case with built-in touch screen :-)

If your interested in building a media center, check out CaseMod for a whole heap of really cool MCE cases by Silverstone

Basically, Microsoft in their infinite wisdom setup their EPG settings so that each time Windows Update runs it checks the value of the registry key and will reset it to the default. This way if Microsoft decide to change their epg update URL, they can. Only problem is that it breaks all the other EPG programs.

It has now been 2 weeks with no EPG download problems. Read on for a step by step guide to how I fixed it.

1. Install KeepKey into the C:\ProgramData\KeepKey folder
2. Install the KeepKey service by running %windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\installutil /i C:\keepKey\keepKey.exe
3. Stop Keepkey Service
4. Run Media Center channel & guide detection. STOP before putting in the post code.
5. Alt+Tab to install your EPG (FreeEPG or IceTV) Next -> Next -> Finish.
6. Alt+Tab back to your MCE, enter the post code and finish the detection.
7. Assign the names to the channels.
8. Alt+Tab again to CMD and start the KeepKey Service 

9.   Go out for a beer knowing that your precious CSI, CSI NY & Two and a Half Men episodes are being recorded for you to watch later.