Michael's Blog

Nice – Media Center Studio – MCE customization

Got this one through a friend – exactly what you need if you want to go one step further in MCE.

Media Center Studio is a free application for Windows Vista and Windows 7 that enables you to customise Windows Media Center. It is the successor of MC Menu Mender, bringing it up to date for Windows 7 and adding support for theme application and editing.

http://adventmediacenter.com/

Nice posting on my Multimedia Home setup on ZD Net

Good story on my setup at home and very detailed. Amazing the journalist remembered all of this.

http://www.zdnet.be/reviews/106651/heel-je-huis-digitaal/

Good and fairly cheap way to extend your IR signals over CAT5/6 Cable

As you know I’m a bit into Home Media and Domotics. One of the things which has kept me busy for a while was how to extend IR (all my equipment is in the basement, only screens in the house) in a working way. Have tried everything and now I have the best solution – the Marmitek MegaView 51 extender. Works beautifully (after heavy duty testing by Katrien) and is very accurate. A must have… It also does TV/Video signals but analog so I don’t use this. Just the IR part.

Composite Audio Video Extender over CAT5 with Infrared Return channel. Broadcast your Audio/Video Sources to your TV's over CAT5 cable network.

More on my Home Setup can be found on my blog…

 

Nice review on Windows Media Center 7

Cannot agree more to be honest…. It’s the best kept secret at Microsoft.

Once you switch to Windows 7 Media Center there is no going back. It might not seem like that much at first, but when you try to go back to Vista or even another solution like Moxi or TiVo, it is like going back in time. The fact is that Microsoft has been in a league of its own with Vista Media Center and while the competition is still sitting idle suing each other, Microsoft has yet again raised the bar.

http://www.engadgethd.com/2009/07/27/windows-7-media-center-review/

Windows 7 Media Center Themes

As you probably know I am a big fan and user of Media Center. Have my full house on Windows 7 MCE now and bumped into this site where you can change the look and feel of MCE. Cute…

http://www.theme7mc.com/

Digital Life and Real Life

During presentations and discussions with people on the changing world it’s always interesting to still hear people talking on the “Online world”. Isn’t the Online or Digital world the place we live in ? And not something you go to, or start to do. Probably old versus new world thinking but I still find it weird. Same when you speak to some school teachers who say “We spend 2 hours a week on the online world in the class-room”. Makes me wonder if these teachers really understand the lives of their pupils to be honest. They are probably online 24/7…. Love the picture below:

Nice new site on HomeServer add-ins

Add-ins for the best kept consumer secret at Microsoft – the Windows Home Server. A must have if you want worry less backup and recovery, simple sharing of music, documents and pictures.

Home Server Plus (http://www.whsplus.com) is a new resource for the Windows Home Server community that builds on the collection of add-ins we’ve hosted here at We Got Served with a whole host of new features to make finding, installing and using Windows Home Server add-ins easier and more enjoyable

 

Our new Multimedia House – The Story – Part 3

First of all – my apologies for the people waiting for the next episodes in the story of my house. Have been a bit busy, some vacations and busy at work. And then things slip. But here we go again….

Last episode I explained the setup in diagrams and promised to spend an episode on the hardware used. As I mentioned before I wanted everything to be standard industry hardware and software. No exotic flavors of Linux or other non-manageable stuff. So this is where I ended up to match the diagrams and have installed at home:

Start with the basement setup – actually everything used in the first floor is located in the basement, except for the screens and remotes. Did this for sound and noise reasons and works out beautifully. Including remote controls which use USB over UTP to go to the basement located devices.

Basement Setup

Cable Modem is a basic cable modem doing nothing else than internet. No DHCP or whatever. Patch Panel is a HP Procurve 3500yl switch – I know, a bit of an overkill but still handy – does Power Over Ethernet which is useful. But you can do with less if needed. The 2 Media Centers run on Windows Vista Ultimate (currently they are on Windows 7 build 7077 for testing purposes). The Fujitsu Siemens Scaleo HomeServer runs Windows Home Server SP2. Wiring is CAT6 STP for performance reasons – I don’t want to run HD television over wireless and have chosen to have my full house cabled. Internet is plain Telenet Turbo “something”. Satellite set is using 2 FireDTV external FireWire tuners connected to TV Vlaanderen Digital Television.

Ground Floor Setup

1 Media Center Extender – LinkSys DMA2200 (which is in the basement actually and cabled using HDMI cable) Amplifier is a Harman Kardon Digital Amplifier, capable of multi-room support and powering both the kitchen and the living independently. The touch screen in the living is a plain 7” standard touch screen which is attached to the Media Center as a dual screen using a standard VGA connection in the basement and allows you to play music without turning on your Television. Energy wise.

First Floor Setup

1 Media Center Extender – LinkSys DMA2200 attached  to a screen connected to the network. Xbox 360 used as a gaming console and Media Center Extender connected to the network and a screen.

Remotes I use are a Philip SRM7500 and a Microsoft Wireless Media Keyboard 7000 (Bluetooth) for typing if needed.

Again, the goal was to use standard stuff. And I’m pretty much there I think. The proof of the pudding is in the fact that I upgraded all to Windows 7 build 7077 last week and it works flawlessly.

Next post will be about the Domotica integration. A sneak preview – I’m using BTICINO MyHome everywhere and have this integrated into Media Center. Meaning we can control all our house from the screen if needed.

 

Our new Multimedia House – The Story – Part 2

As promised I would keep on writing…. So – let’s start at the begin. When we decided to build a new house from scratch I was made owner of the Audio/Video/Music/PC department. And also for the Domotics we wanted to have in the house. Not in the style where you can control your coffee machine from 12.000km but energy saving or handy kind of Domotics. I’ll talk about that later on. First the Multimedia part. Some criteria I made for the choice:

• Affordable :)
• Easy to maintain
• Scalable – start small but grow in the future
• Upgradable and based on “open” technology, both on software and hardware
• Understandable for me and my family
• Needs to offer different types of devices for different purposes – e.g. music, video
• Be able to switch functionality in rooms
• Centralized Storage and access
• Backup facilities
• Want everything to be in the basement and limit the amount of hardware in the rest of the house
• Standardized Wiring

After investigating what is available on the market (ranging from Bang & Olufsen to proprietary systems) my choice was made quickly. It will all need to run on standard PC hardware and software. Why ? I want to be able to keep up with ever changing technology and future developments and not being stuck in some hardware lock. So I decided to go for Media Center and Windows all over the place. Also of course since I work at Microsoft :>). After some thinking and brainstorming I came to the following setup “wish” in a simple drawing:

Basement Setup

Ground Floor Setup

First Floor Setup

In the next blogpost I’ll explain what hard and software I’m using.

 

Our new Multimedia House – The Story – Part 1

2 months ago we moved into our new house. After 2 years of discussing, designing and building we finally got what we have been waiting for. All credits go to Katrien, my wife, since she did all of the design, colors and other thinking. My “only” contribution was the IT and Audio/Video part of the house. And yes, I spend some time on this indeed. Being the General Manager of Microsoft Consumer and Online, the unit which is ultimately responsible for bringing the Multimedia Home alive, I feel kind of obliged to have a decent setup at home. So that’s what I did the last 2 years, in the evenigs and weekends. And now the result is there and I must say – it has been worth all the sweet and tears. A lot of people ask me what I have done and how and in order to prevent having to tell the same story 25 times I will blog about it the next weeks. Starting from the ideas I had, the challenges I faced and the solutions I came up with. Do not worry – it is not going to be geek stuff. If you just want to watch TV and record some Analog Television – just get a Media Center PC with Vista on it and you’re done. But I wanted a bit more. I’ll tell you what my dream was over the weekend J. Have an interview with L’Echo now – on my house and setup J.

Cheers,

Michael