I loved the A-team.

It’s one of those go-to shows of my 80’s childhood that always delighted. I loved that announcer’s voice in the title sequence, ominously intoning “If you need help…and if you can find them…Maybe you can hire….the A-team!” [Cue six gun shots, followed by the bold first notes of theme music.] Awesome!

I can’t remember the last time I saw an episode of the A-team, but I am happy to report that the Electronic Programming Guide in Windows 7 Media Center makes finding the A-team easier than ever. So the other day, I scrolled over to Search to see if any of our cable channels might be running re-reruns.

In the Guide, scroll to the left into View Categories in the guide, then select Search. You can search by title, keyword, actor or director.

If you have a keyboard, you can type in your search term. If not, you can triple-tap on the remote, or navigate around the on-screen keypad that appears.

 

Gold mine! Turns out, one of my local digital sub channels is showing the A-team. A-team, meet “record series,” Record Series…the A-team.

The guide search also lets you search by Actor or Director. Below, I searched for Mr. T:

 

It’s OK if you are surprised by the number of movies that come up for Mr. T. Most people are.

 

Here’s the best part, and one of the reasons I Love Media Center: I select DC Cab (a seminal film in Mr. T’s post Rocky III-pantheon) and select Record in Future.  Which means that if or when someone on some network somewhere needs to fill some time and thinks DC Cab will fit the bill to a ‘T’ (heh-heh), my Media Center is ready for it.

 

It’s easy to get addicted to “Record in Future.” I basically have a collection of potential future Mr. T recordings on my Media Center. it is a lean, mean, Mr. T-future-showings-recordin’ machine.

And I know the movie summaries come from a third-party provider, but kudos to the writer who got assigned DC Cab. Her lead says it all: “In this casual, uninvolved comedy running on a low-octane script…” Perfect! Most days, that describes my exact mood.

I use this feature, too, when I see a movie by a director I like – I pull up his or her other films and have my Media Center grab future showings. Below, I pull up all the films by Richard Linklater after seeing and enjoying Slacker:

Record in future lets me set some preferences now and then be pleasantly surprised when they turn up later. I suppose an economist would call this feature a “prediction of future happiness.” For me, it’s just good times.

***

Learn more about Windows Media Center @ windowsmediacenter.com.

***

Between Zune video podcasts, MSN video, CBS, NBC and Netflix, there is a ton of great content in Internet TV in Windows 7 Media Center. Luckily, there is also a great search function built in.

Say you’re planning your thanksgiving meal. Navigate to Internet TV, then Search and search for Turkey. You’ll be amazed at the amount of content that crops up.

There are clips from network shows like NBC’s Today show and CBS the Early Show on how to prepare turkey, but digging in to the Zune video podcasts and MSN Video gives you a lot more content: braised turkey, turkey tex-mex taco, turkey tetrazzini, turkey soup, turkey chili, turkey meatloaf, turkey pot pie and even turkey Waldorf salad; how to choose a turkey,how to roast a turkey, how to carve a turkey, how to make yams, how to make chestnut, bread or cornbread stuffing. And, of course, there are other videos for less traditional Thanksgiving items, like the Thanksgiving Vanilla Martini.

There’s pieces on the history of thanksgiving, the history of football and Thanksgiving, even a look at the Jennie-O turkey production line. 

Picking wines for your meal? There are a number of clips with recommendations, including, the Good Housekeeping recommendations...

…as well as the, uh, the Naked Wine podcast, which, um, is pretty much what it sounds like. Hey, it is the Internet, after all. And yes, because this is the Internet, there’s this:

When Turkey’s Attack!

Good times.

I use Internet TV in Windows 7 Media Center every day, and I am always finding new content that amuses and delights. The Search feature makes it easy to find what you want.

***

New to Windows Media Center? Check out WindowsMediaCenter.com for more info on how to get started.

***

In the US, the day after Thanksgiving is Black Friday – the busiest shopping day of the year, a day marked by lots of sales and loss-leading, door-busting deals to be had.

I’ve been reviewing the PC-related deals listed at GottaDeal.com, but if you’re finding better deals out there – post them in the comments, below. I also like ZDNet’s Black Friday guide, because you can check out their reviews of the items as well.

I’ve learned a lot of lessons about Black Friday over the years. All of them, the hard way. But if you’re looking to enhance your Windows Media Center experience by picking up some new hardware to add to your rig, here are a few things to keep in mind:

Adding Storage: Hard Drives

There are lots of deals on hard drives on Black Friday, making adding more storage a attractive option. Now my opinion is if you’re not interested in a portable hard drive (e.g., one that is easy to take with you to and from places), there’s no reason to go less than 1 terabyte. You’d be surprised how quickly recording TV shows on Media Center can fill your drive! 

If, like me, you prefer not to crack open your case, then look at some external hard drives. Before you do, realize that a USB-connected external drive is not as fast as one connected internally using SATA or eSATA.

Many external drives now have eSATA – so check and see if your PC has an eSATA port. If it does, you are styling. I use an external 500 GB drive for my pictures, and the USB 2.0 connection is sufficient for this purpose. If I was going to use an external drive for recorded TV, though, I’d want to use the eSATA connection if possible.

GottaDeal is reporting a number of external HD deals:

1 TB

• 59.98 Western Digital at Target
• 69.99 Seagate at Staples
• 79.99 Verbatim at Office Depot
• 79.99 Seagate at Meijer
• 79.99 Western Digital at Wal-Mart

1.5 TB

• 99.99 Seagate at Office Depot
• 139.99 Seagate at Staples

2 TB

• 179.99 Seagate at Office Depot

Also check out ZDNet’s Hard Drives, Flash media and storage page.

Adding RAM

Three lessons learned the hard way:

1) Make sure you are buying the right kind of memory. Memory comes in a lot of flavors – DRAM, SDRAM, SRAM, DDR, DDR2 – just to name a few. Make sure you are getting the right flavor for your PC.

There are some freeware apps out there that you can run to tell you what kind of memory you have, but I’ve not tried any of them (so I’m not linking to any).

Instead, I’ve always shut the PC down, opened the case, took out the memory and wrote down what kind it was. This also let me see how many extra slots were available in there.

2) You can stuff more RAM in there than you can use! It’s true. I put 6GB in my PC once before learning that only 3 GB were usable because I have a 32-bit OS. 64-bit systems can make great use of larger amounts of RAM. Microsoft has a pretty decent FAQ on this subject here.

3) Finally, in the “Maybe if it wasn’t 5 am, I would have noticed” category, one recent Black Friday, I picked up 2 GB of the DDR2 RAM I needed for my desktop. Not until I got home did I realize I had picked up the Laptop version of the RAM. No, the two don’t mix.

I haven’t seen MicroCenter’s Black Friday ads, and typically they have some good deals on RAM. And NewEgg.com started offering early Black Friday deals online last week.

Network: Wireless Routers

I have a collection of disappointments wireless routers I’ve used over the years. They are in a cardboard box in the basement, and collectively, they have one thing to tell me one thing that I want to share with you:

You get what you pay for with routers.

I went for some of those $20 deals on a few consecutive Black Fridays, and have never been satisfied with the results.

Now, the good news is that this year, the 802.11 N spec is no longer a draft, but an approved protocol, and there are plenty of deals for Wireless N routers popping up for this Black Friday running from $19.99 up through $89.99.

I would describe the wireless needs in my home as modest – we stream music, Netflix movies and on occasion push recorded TV around the HomeGroup using a D-Link DIR-615, which I’ve been happy with after spending about $50 for it earlier this year. Office Depot is offering it for $19.99 on Black Friday, though.

If you plan to push a lot of digital entertainment / HD around your house wirelessly, these deals may disappoint you as well. A lot of enthusiasts would recommend a simultaneous Dual Band router, where you can specify one band for data and the other for your media. Simultaneous means it will broadcast both bands at the same time.

Staples is offering a dual band (although not simultaneous) router from Linksys for 89.99. I’d check out the product reviews on this one before jumping in.

Final Thoughts

The worst Black Friday for me was a few years back when I got caught up in the frenzy and bought several hundred dollars worth of stuff I didn’t need. I picked up Power Strips and corded telephones because they were “free” (after rebate, if I had ever bothered to send in for the rebate). I’ve bought flash drives even though I already had more than I needed. One year I got an office chair that I hated, and also a paper shredder I’ve never used.

I used to always pickup a stack of blank CDs and DVDs, until I realized how infrequently I use them (I still have several hundred of each). And of course, I’ve found buying printer paper in bulk tends to beat the deals they offer on Black Friday as well.

Don’t let this happen to you. You can find a great deal to update your rig on Black Friday – just be sure you’ve got both eyes open when you do. Do your due diligence – check your product reviews and read the fine print. And don’t go for a “rebate” deal unless you’re committed to sending it in – the same day.

Seen any good deals? Got any plans? Add them to the comments, below.

 

Did you know new technology is helping blind folks learn to see with their tongue?

I’m serious. It’s something I learned watching an episode of Wired Science on the PBS channel in Internet TV in Windows 7 Media Center.

Now, in the past, I‘ve written about the content you could find using the Internet TV beta and beta 2.0 versions – pithy pieces about “snack-sized” entertainment like Viral Videos or Movie Trailers. All of which we’re well and good, and readily available in Internet TV.

But the new Internet TV module released in the US with Windows 7 is a whole new ballgame – lots of channels with full episodes and tons of content – from CBS prime time shows to classics like the Love Boat and the original Star Trek series.

Above: Get your Charo on with 25 episodes of The Love Boat. I just watched this one where Isaac's mom comes on board for a cruise, only she brings her new boyfriend, who is the dentist-dude that Isaac does not like one bit, and then Captain Stubing keeps it real for everyone by goin’ “Ahhh, young people….when they do ‘the Hustle’ or ‘the Bump’’ it’s fun, but when we do it, we’re being silly…”     Too true, Captain. Too true.

The PBS channel has 11 shows with ten or more full episodes online.

While it’s great that I can watch full episodes of stalwarts like Nova and Independent Lens, there’s also shows like Wired Science and e2 Design that I am seeing for the first time because our local PBS channel doesn’t carry them. In fact, I’m eager to wrap up this post because I just noticed an episode dedicated to fighting robots!

If you’ve not checked out Internet TV in Windows 7 Media Center, you need to. There is loads of great content and all you need is ‘net connection and you’re ready to enjoy it.

***

New to Windows Media Center? Check out WindowsMediaCenter.com to get started and learn more.

***

We’ve been all Windows 7 in my house for two full weeks now. Here’s a quick look at one of the features in Media Center we’re using all the time: categories in the TV guide and a customized channel lineup.

(And thanks to my peeps for helping with the video!)

 

Let’s talk about netbooks, the small form, low-cost mini-laptop phenomenon that Asus kicked off a few years back with its Eee PC. As CNet reported this summer:

Netbooks are projected to grab a 20 percent share of the worldwide market for 2009, according to a report released Monday by researcher DisplaySearch

I have to admit it, I jumped in way too early in this category – ordering, in late 2007, one of the first Eee PCs (a 2GB Surf). I loved the idea behind it, but in practice found the keyboard too small for my fingers, and was no fan of the Linux OS it shipped with. It had a 7” screen that seemed like it was getting bullied by the speakers on either side.

Also, uh, let’s just say I thought I was getting a dark blue one, and instead a light aqua one arrived, and that the CEDIA dealers who saw me using this to write blog updates from tradeshows were particularly ruthless in their mockery.

Above: My manly 2 GB surf….

The category has come a long way since that time. I spent some time at a big box retailer recently trying out the variety of netbooks now available. Keyboards and screens have gotten larger, but for the most part, they are still coming in under 3 lbs. And, I find I still love the idea.

Mostly, I like the idea of a very portable tool I can take with me when my travels won’t involve video editing or photo manipulation. I like how easily it moves around the house – next to the reading chair or on my night stand.

The new era of netbooks that add Nvidia’s Ion graphics processor to the mix suggests a whole new reason to like the idea: the netbook: as another element of the Media Center ecosystem in my house. 

A search on TGB shows folks have been toying with Media Center/netbook scenarios since they first launched, but I’ve not found anyone posting to the site about their experiences running a netbook with the Ion processor and Win7 Home Premium.

So while my use case is not entirely media-focused (for example, I don’t envision watching live TV on it), I do like the idea that I can add it to my HomeGroup and watch our backlog of recorded TV, or access our music collection and pictures. When my kiddos are home sick from school, I can bring it into their room and let them watch recorded TV, stream movies from Netflix or play Cartoon Network games on it.

Nvidia’s website shows three models currently available – HP’s Mini 311, Lenovo Ideapad S12 and a Samsung N510 with the Ion included. Of these, I could only find the HP and Lenovo actually for sale, and I should note that these beefed up specs mean a beefed up price – pushing the low-cost netbook into laptop-pricing territory.

I’m leaning toward the HP at the moment. Of the three, it is the only one offering any significant customization options, including Wireless-N, which I would have thought would be a no-brainer for a device whose primary purpose is Internet connectivity. Other than the cost, there’s really only one thing holding me back: They only come with these swirly-circle designs on them:

Above: Do I have to?

Have any of you jumped on an Ion netbook yet, or planning to? Have you integrated a netbook into your Media Center ecosystems? What were your results? What advice can share?  If necessary, talk me off the edge before I drop five bills, peeps.

 

Last week, I wrote about upgrading all of my family’s PCs to Windows 7 with a Windows 7 Family Pack. One additional step I had to take a few days later was updating the rights for the music we have via Zune Pass.

Our Zune Pass allows us to download unlimited music from the Zune Marketplace and enjoy it for as long as our Zune Pass subscription is valid. On our main media center PC, our music and photos are on a different drive than our OS – meaning that when I upgraded the OS to Windows 7 and updated to the latest version of the Zune software, my music and photos were unaffected.

Then I noticed when trying to play some Zune Pass music via Windows Media Center that I kept receiving the message that my rights had expired.

Now, I usually keep the Zune software running in the background on my Media Center PC, logged in to my account, and this seems to have helped me avoid any rights issues when playing the music through Media Center. What I discovered, though, after my upgrade, was that I did indeed need to update the rights to all of my Zune Pass music. The good news is, it’s very easy to do in the Zune software.

Once logged in, I selected SETTINGS, then account.

Then, I selected Subscription History, which showed me all of the music we had downloaded with our Zune Pass.

Now, I simply clicked the Restore All button.

I started this process before going to bed one evening, so I am not sure how long it took. I can tell you that since I did it, I’ve had no issues whatsoever playing my Zune Pass music through Media Center, through the Zune software itself, or on my Zune.

The Zune Pass lets you enjoy downloaded music on up to three PCs and on three Zunes (you can swap out a PC or player once every 30 days). So, if I get a new laptop and want to enjoy my Zune Pass collection on it, I just need to repeat the steps above to enjoy my collection.

 

If you’ve got an X-box 360, setting it up as a Media Center Extender is easier than ever in Windows 7.

Microsoft’s Ben Reed showed Channel 9 how easy it is in this short video, and talks more about the synergy between these two products. Check it out!

 

Like many Media Center enthusiasts, I jumped on the Windows 7 Family Pack deal, which provides three upgrade licenses to Windows 7 Home Premium for about $150 bucks. Like many who preordered at Amazon, my Family Pack came on Oct. 21, the day before the big release.

My home network has gotten a bit wily over the past two years – different Windows OSs, different virus protection programs, different network connections, different sharing permissions on each PC, different program versions, you know the drill. It got to be this way organically, of course, because as our computing needs changed, we simply added in or downloaded what we needed. The arrival of Windows 7 lets me rethink some of these decisions and put together a high-level plan to make managing things easier and more direct.

High-level plan

Upgrading all three of our PCs to Windows 7 Home Premium (thank you, Family Pack) and setting up a Home Group will resolve a lot of the sharing/network issues we’ve had for the past year. The pictures, videos, recorded TV and music on our PCs will be shared for all. I’m also going to standardize us all on Microsoft Security Essentials for virus protection, and download Windows Live Essentials so that we all have Photo Gallery, Movie Maker and so on. Finally, I want to make sure that each PC has the latest versions of Zune software (we have a Zune pass and have multiple Zune’s in the family), as well as some of the non-Microsoft apps we use like Skype and Adobe Reader.

So here’s the situation in our house:

1. Dedicated Media Center PC connected via HDMI to our 50” LCD TV. This started life as a Dell low-profile Inspiron, but over the past two years, I’ve upgraded it a good deal as components went on sale: better OS, more RAM, TV tuners, better video card, additional hard drives, etc. I believe the best ten-foot Media Center experience comes with connecting the PC directly to the TV, and the low-profile case fits well in our cabinet.

Strategy:

The Media Center has been running the Win7 Release Candidate beta since March. Since there’s no approved upgrade path from the RC to Win7 Home Premium, I rolled it back on Wednesday night to the version of Vista Basic that it showed up with. I have the OS on its own drive on this PC, while all of my music, pictures, videos and recorded TV are on separate drives. This makes changing the OS much easier since it only affects one drive.

2. General Purpose Laptop – This is an old work laptop that I brought home last year for the teen-age foreign exchange student we hosted to use. Since she returned home, we use it for general web surfing and e-mail checking, and it tends to move around the house. There’s no tuners for live TV, but we have used to watch movies – either DVDs or streamed from Netflix. It was running Vista Business Edition.

Strategy:

There’s no in-place upgrade from Vista Business to Windows 7 Home Premium, meaning I had to do a custom install – one that would wipe away the existing OS and apps entirely and create a Windows.old folder for all the old stuff to live in. I have a 500 GB Western Digital My Book external hard drive with a lot of space on it, so on Wednesday night I backed up all the files to it.

Tip! See what versions of 7 can support an in-place upgrade and which require a custom install on this chart.

Basically, I plugged the drive in and then dragged-and-dropped all my user file folders onto it and let it work on its own. It took about 10 minutes to finish. In Vista Business and Ultimate versions, I also could have done a complete PC backup using the Windows Backup and Restore feature (Start | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools |Backup Status and Configuration, or simply type ‘backup’ into the Start | Search box.)

3. My Wife’s Laptop is, of course, the PC that gives me the most worry. It’s been a rock solid performer for her for the past year, so I’m worried about upgrading the OS when everything is going well (if it ain’t broke…). Still, I’m not crazy about the third-party virus protection she has, which frequently and inexplicably pops up messages that seem to be more about marketing a more expensive version of itself instead of actually protecting the PC, but they’re worded in such a way that she always calls me when one appears. And adding her to the HomeGroup will make it much easier for her when she wants to email pictures to her parents that are on the Media Center downstairs.

Strategy:

Luckily, this is a direct Vista Premium to Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade – meaning it can be done while keeping her files and apps in tact. Still, I copied her files to the external hard drive, just in case, and then I did a complete PC image backup with Backup and Restore, too. Overkill? Probably. But when you’re working with your wife’s PC, you can’t be too careful.

10.22.09: Windows 7 Upgrade Day

With all of the PCs backed up the previous evening, I started the upgrade process Thursday morning just after getting the kiddo’s on the school bus. Here’s how it went down:

9:31 am     

I begin with general purpose laptop, dropping in the Upgrade DVD. Windows tells me I have to do a custom install, which will replace the OS entirely. Bring it on, I say.

10:20 am    

Windows 7 finishes the installation and restarts itself. I take the DVD and get the upgrade rolling on the Media Center PC before returning to this laptop and entering my product key and finishing the upgrade – setting my time zone, setting up the HomeGroup, and some other housekeeping tidbits.

10:20-10:50 

I download and install Microsoft Security Essentials and Windows Live Essentials on the laptop.

10:55 am   

On the Media Center, Windows 7 has detected the HomeGroup set-up when upgrading the laptop. I enter the HomeGroup password to join.

11:00-11:15 am   

I download and install Zune 4.0 software and the latest versions of Skype and Adobe Reader on the laptop. Then I attach the external hard drive and begin copying my files back over.

11:20 am

Windows 7 installation completes on the Media Center PC. I take the DVD to my wife’s laptop, say a little prayer, and begin the upgrade process there. I select in-place upgrade, and Windows begins examining everything on my wife’s laptop.

Also, I start wondering if it’s possible that I will complete all my tasks by lunchtime.

11:25-11:50 am

On the Media Center PC, I download and install Microsoft Security Essentials, Windows Live Essentials and the Zune 4.0 software.

11:52 am

On the laptop, all of my files have been copied back in good order. I delete the Windows.old folder that was created in the upgrade, which frees up a ton of space.

12:00 noon

The upgrade on my Wife’s PC is still running. It’s given me a list of potential issues with programs/drivers that the upgrade to Windows 7 may cause, but these are minor items that I anticipated. I tell it to go ahead.

Back on the Media Center PC, I run Media Center Express Set-up and then TV set-up. I know from experience that scanning for channels is the longest part of TV set-up, so I want to get it going before breaking for lunch.

The only hitch to this process is that I have to have Windows go look for and reinstall drivers for my AVer Media Tuner card before I can run setup in Media Center.

Check out “Compatible with Windows 7” tuner cards here. There’s even an AQ (Advanced Qualification) certification for Media Center that tuner cards can earn.

12:15

There’s no bread! Why is it every time I want a danged sandwich, there’s no bread in the house. Lunch consists of Cheez-its and dry cereal (yeah – we we’re out of milk, too).

12:30

TV setup completed on the Media Center, I edit the guide listings, looking for more channels (as described in Ben Reed’s post, here). I find about 15 additional channels, but once I rule out the shopping and foreign language channels, have about seven. These are mostly ClearQAM digital versions of channels I am otherwise receiving via analog cable, so I combine them with the analog listings.

1 p.m.

I wrap up Media Center setup by installing the Internet TV and Netflix apps and logging in to my Netflix account. I also change where Media Center will record TV (directing it to the 1TB hard drive I put in for this purpose) and add additional locations to the picture, video and music libraries.

1:15 p.m.

On my wife’s PC, I join the HomeGroup. Shortly thereafter, her in-place upgrade is done, and I have to admit, I am amazed. It took the longest of the three, but for all intents and purposes, on the surface, her PC seems exactly the same – down to the wallpaper and icons on her desktop. (I even do an aero shake just to make sure the upgrade actually worked).

1:15-2:00

Maintenance stuff on my wife’s laptop – uninstalling the old virus protection and replacing it with Microsoft’s Security Essentials, installing Windows Live Essentials, Zune 4.0 and removing a few other unused programs. This lappy is feeling lean and mean when I’m done.

2:00-2:30

I set up Media Center on both laptops; although neither has TV tuners, I want them to be able to access recorded TV on the main Media Center PC. Also, install Internet TV and Netflix apps on both and log in to our Netflix account.

2:30-3:00

Still plenty of time before the kids get home from school, so I head back to the Media Center PC to install some of my favorite plugins for weather, Internet radio, Hulu desktop and so on.

(Not sure how long hulu will be part of my life after today’s news – charging? Hulu? Really?)

3:05

In the new Internet TV, I immediately get involved in an episode of The Love Boat, season one. In it, both Isaac’s Mom and girlfriend come for a cruise on the Pacific Princess when- surprise! Isaac’s Mom also brings her new boyfriend – some Dentist that Isaac does not like one bit. Also, Gopher sneaks a pet baboon onboard and almost gets fired for it. Best quote was by Captain Stubben: “Kids these days – when they do the Bump or the Hustle, it’s fun, but when we do them, we’re being silly and immature.”

 

Above: This new Internet TV content is going to pose a serious threat to my productivity this year.

So there you have it – in one day I’ve upgraded all of our PCs, created a Home Group, re-set-up my main Media Center (and gained some digital channels in the process), am sharing content among PCs, have standardized our virus protection and removed the various apps and downloads that accumulate over time but aren’t being user or adding any value.

So of course, it’s time to start thinking about…MORE! What’s next? A netbook with 7 would be nice downstairs, and of course there’s my recurring dream of moving the PCs out of the media room entirely and into a dedicated AV rack…

I hope your upgrade experiences are as smooth as mine. Here’s the basic checklist I used for our house:

1. Run Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor on each PC you plan to upgrade, checking for potential issues.

2. Back-up files and/or do a complete PC backup using Vista’s Backup and Restore center.

3. For in-place upgrades, remove any unused programs and applications.

4. Run Windows 7 upgrade from provided DVD.

5. Set-up/join HomeGroup.

6. Download and install Microsoft Security Essentials.

7. Download and Install Windows Live Essentials.

8. Download and Install Zune 4.0 software.

9. Run Media Center set-up. For PCs without TV tuners, be sure to add recorded TV location to media library.

10. Install any additional, missing programs (Skype, Adobe Reader, Media Center plugins).

Want more? I learned a lot from Lifehacker’s Complete Guide to Windows 7.

- Pete

If you have a PC that you’re planning to upgrade to Windows 7 (and really, why wouldn’t you be doing this?) and you’ll be watching a lot of TV and movies on it, one thing you want to check out is your graphics card, which, Wikipedia tells us, is…

A video card, video adapter, graphics-accelerator card, display adapter, or graphics card is an expansion card whose function is to generate and output images to a display.

I moderate Media Center chats every other month over on Microsoft Communities website, and a common symptom people report there is seeing some stuttering or frames drop while watching TV – particularly high definition TV. The experts in the chats always start with the graphics card.

Back in the old days, by which I mean just a few years ago, graphics cards didn’t have their own on-board memory or processor. Many were built right into the motherboard and had a simple VGA out to the monitor.

Nowadays, graphics cards have their own processor (often called a GPU) and on-board memory – anywhere from 128MB up through 4 GB. That means a lot of work in processing and presenting the images is taken off the CPU and handled by the card, which can output to a variety of formats – S-video, DVI, HDMI, and so on. Some have their own fans on-board, too.

When I first hooked a PC up to my 50” LCD TV, this was the component that I needed to upgrade. Cards tend to run from $75 up through $200. I invested about $100 in a card with 512 MB onboard, and could not be happier with the results. Playback has been Billy Dee Williams-smooth and the picture sharp and crisp ever since. No stutters. The card itself has DVI and S-video output. I use a DVI-to-HDMI dongle and then connect it to my TV’s HDMI port.

Installing a Graphics Card 

I’m not usually an open-the-case kind of PC user, but this time, even I was able to install it myself.

After disconnecting the power from my PC, I opened the case and removed the old graphics card, which had no on-board memory to speak of. I took it with me to the store so I could make sure the new one was the same size and shape and would click into the spot occupied by the old one.

(There are terms for these slots and card connections and what not, but as I said, I’m usually not an open the case kind of guy. Luckily, the Tuner Guy is:)

 

L to R: PCI, PCI-e and AGP slots for graphics cards. Mine was PCI-e and it seemed like most of the options at the store were also.

When I got home, I clicked the new one into place, connected it to my display and powered it up. Windows installed the drivers and I’ve been golden ever since.

Here are some more resources I found online if you’re thinking about upgrading your graphics card. For me, it was swift, easy and well-worth the time and money.

• How to change my graphics card (video)
• Gamespot’s How To Article
• The Tuner guy on Graphics Cards

I’ve been seeing more and more blog posts about people getting ready to ditch their cable TV service. Like me, they are occasional TV watchers. They enjoy a good show, but aren’t fanatical viewers. With more and more content being made available online and my Media Center Pc connected directly to my TV, the case for monthly cable bills gets weaker and weaker in my house.

Over on the technology blog Gizmodo, Sean Fallon has a lengthy write-up of his experiences ditching his Direct TV service in lieu of an Over-the-Air antenna and various Internet TV services.

For a month, I simply used easily accessible, generally legal alternatives like Netflix, Hulu Desktop and network websites, plus Windows Media Center, which comes "free" with most PCs these days. The idea here is to prove that you don't need to spend tons of money, use complicated software or go to extreme measures to watch what you want.

As you might guess, Windows Media Center played an important role is his experiment. He used it to tune OTA channels and watch a variety of on-demand programming.

…with Windows Media Center, having Netflix and other plug-ins makes finding and watching on-demand shows a whole lot easier

I know I’m not the only one who thinks this is the way entertainment delivery is heading. In Windows 7, Internet TV content is integrated into the TV guide itself, putting Media Center ahead of the game.

As more and more content becomes available, Media Center seems poised to be the one place to bring it together in an interface that is elegant and simple to use.

Fallon points out that HD streaming is still in its baby steps, and details the types programming he wasn’t able to get, including a good deal of sports. College football is what seems to be holding me back from cutting the cable entirely, although Fallon points out a number of ways to get sports coverage without cable (including Media Center’s Sports Lounge).

Overall, for a casual TV watcher, Fallon concludes that

I found my experience without standard cable television to be more liberating than anything else. Sure, streaming video isn't always HD quality, not all of my favorite shows are readily available, and I have to search around a bit more for the things I want to watch—but I didn't suffer and I didn't feel like I was missing out.

Me? I’ve just started the conversation about cutting the cable with my wife. How about you?

 

Remember watching a movie on VHS and wanting to skip forward or skip back? You would push the rewind or fast forward button and listen to the motors whip into action to move the tape forward or back.

For a long time, digital controls functioned basically the same way (only without the motors). Then came the clickable seek bar. In Media Center, for recorded TV, you can click on a spot on the bar and the video playback will jump to it.

Above: a clickable seek bar is great if you’re using a mouse, but many MCE enthusiasts (myself included) mainly use a remote control. 

Here’s a great Windows 7 tip I learned from the Media Center community for remote control users:

Enter a number of minutes and seconds on the remote control keypad, then hit the Fast Forward or Rewind buttons and playback will jump forward or back (as the case may be) that amount of time. For example, to jump 30 minutes ahead, enter 3000 (30 minutes, 00 seconds) and press the Fast Forward button.

If you’re just starting a video, you can also enter a number of minutes, then press Play and it will jump to that point in the video for you as well.

Above: I’ve just entered 1500 and can jump ahead 15 minutes and 00 seconds by pressing Play or Fast Forward on the remote.

Skip forward and Skip back

Be sure to use the play, fast forward and rewind buttons. If you use the Skip Forward or Skip Backward buttons, the behavior is different. It takes the number you entered and multiplies it with the setting for the skip buttons.

Above: the skip forward and back buttons on your remote usually have symbols like these on them.

For example – the skip forward and back buttons typically default to 30 seconds, meaning the jump that far ahead or back when pressed. If you press 5 on the remote, then skip forward, it will jump 2 and a half minutes ahead (0:30 x 5).

Once you start using this feature, you’ll wonder how you ever did without it.

• Read more on The Green Button or on The Digital Lifestyle.

If you’re thinking about upgrading your PC to Windows 7, check out the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor Beta, which can be downloaded here.

It takes the program a few minutes to analyze your PC. I was able to working other programs without problems while the analysis was taking place.

 

The Upgrade Advisor splits the report back to me into three categories: System Requirements, Devices and Programs.

While I my system is in pretty good shape for an upgrade, the Advisor points out that I am running low on storage space. I can either add more or clear out some files.

The Devices section looks at the different devices I use on the PC. Again, I appear to be in good shape here, although I am asked to run Windows Update to update the drivers once Windows 7 is installed.

Finally, in Programs, the Advisor points out which programs I am using that may have performance issues. I get four programs returned that may experience issues. One of these I anticipated – my scanner program is as old as the scanner itself – and another – Skype – I can upgrade easily enough.

The other two programs were preloaded on the laptop when I bought it. I’ve never used them, so I’m not too worried about it.

It took me about 15 minutes to download, install and run the Upgrade Advisor. I have a few issues to take care of before upgrading, and conveniently, the Upgrade Advisor let me save off a copy of my report.

If you do have to upgrade some components in your PC, you’ll want to be sure the new components are Windows Logo’d.

For Windows Media Center enthusiast like myself, you’ll want to check out the TV tuners that have earned “Compatible with Windows 7” certification. For best results, look for a tuner that has earned “AQ” certification with Windows 7.

If you’re thinking about getting a new laptop with Windows 7, Microsoft also offers a Laptop Scout that will help you narrow down your best options.

Earlier this week, I looked at a plug-in that integrates Internet radio into Windows Media Center. Today, I look at another great plug-in I installed for Internet radio: radiotime.

I liked the big placement for Windows Media Center on their home page:

Like mcShoutcast, installing radiotime was very quick and easy, and like mcShoutcast, it was ready for Windows 7. It is a free plug-in, although you can pay to add a “red button” feature that lets you record the streams you are listening to.

 

Once installed, the RadioTime tile appears in the Extras library in Media Center.

If you want, you can right-click on the tile and select Add to Start Menu to move it out of the library and onto the main Extras strip.

Once in RadioTime, you can browse stations by genre. You can also add stations to “My Presets” area, but this requires you to have a free account set-up with RadioTime.

  

An important differentiator for RadioTime is that, if you have an FM Tuner in your PC (I wrote about these a few months back), you can enable the Local Radio option, and have programming information available for your local stations. For some stations – like NPR, there’s a good deal of information available about shows.

 

Both plug-ins I tried were excellent – easy to install and ready for you to explore tons of content. I was poking around RadioTime this week when I found Windows Weekly radio show.

If you use Windows Media Center at all, check out the Internet radio options. There’s a lot of great content out there for you to discover.

*   *   *   *

New to Windows Media Center? Start here. or here.Or even here.

*   *   *   *

I love to listen to Internet radio when I’m at work. I can tune into a genre I like and not worry about loading up my own tunes or remembering to bring my Zune to the office.

I don’t use Internet radio much at home. I think this is because at home, our PC is given over to Windows Media Center. This week, though, I’ll look at two Internet Radio plugins for Windows Media Center that I have installed, used and am happy to say, are bringing Internet radio into my home life as well. Both were easy to install and easy to use. First up: I try out Shoutcast.

Shoutcast gives me the ability to listen to 30,000+ radio stations over the ‘net. Its’ website is pretty crowded.

The SHOUTcast Radio Directory features over 30,000 online radio stations across 23 genres and over 300 sub-genres from around the world. A consumer can search for online radio stations by genre such as Rock, Jazz, Bollywood, Latin and Talk, or by language such as French, German, Swahili and Portuguese. Each station is programmed by either professional, community, or hobbyist broadcasters

Luckily, a member of the Media Center community has written a plug-in for Windows Media Center, and what’s more, it works with Windows 7. It was a quick download and installation.

Once installed, a Shoutcast icon appeared in the <radio> section of the Music menu.

All of the genres are organized into folders.

In addition to playing a station, I can add it to a list of my own favorites – a handy feature given the sheer number of stations available in Shoutcast.

 

Shoutcast is also concerned with what you look at on-screen while it’s playing. It has a few “visualizations” to play (bouncy green bars, anyone?), and will also play a slideshow of your photos.

But a feature I think is pretty cool is the web-based slideshow. Basically, it will search for images of the artist currently playing on the station you are listening to, then play them in a slideshow, or provide a gallery for you to browse at your leisure.

The Shoutcast plug-in has brought streaming radio into my home Media Center mix, and does a great job adapting a lot of station options to a remote control-based navigation paradigm. The web-based artist slideshow is a neat bonus. Check out another review from hack7mc.com, here.

Up next: RadioTime

Another streaming service with a Media Center plug-in is RadioTime. Check back in a day or two for more on Radio Time.

This week is the CEDIA Expo, the largest trade show for custom electronics installers. Microsoft used the opportunity to announce the winner of the 2009 Ultimate Media Center Install contest.

Above: 2009 Ultimate Install home. Realtors unlikely to use the word ‘cozy’ if this ever lands on the market.

This year’s winner was by Vision Audio of Lubbock, Texas for job that was four years in the planning. The 17,000 square foot home featured 30 zones of audio, 13 video displays (five with full surround sound), five Niveus media servers and full integration and control of climate, shades, lighting, and pool heater via a Crestron automation system.

Above: The trend of displays-over-fireplaces seems to show no signs of slowing. Check out the Windows 7 Music Wall screen.

I always look forward to checking out the winner of this contest, and it always reminds me how amazingly scalable Media Center can be. I can have a great experience using it to watch TV on my laptop or stream movies from Netflix, but it can easily scale to create an entire entertainment and automation ecosystem.

The server room pictures always amaze me. Try as I might, I can’t even come close to a neat wiring layout like this. I’d post a picture of what the wires behind my TV look like, but I’m afraid the Fire Marshall would come hunt me down.

A number of announcements from Microsoft this week at CEDIA, the annual expo for professional residential electronics system installers, many of which are good news for those looking to enhance their digital cable experience.

For one, Microsoft announced support for Switched Digital Video in Windows Media Center. SDV is a new technology that many cable providers have been adopting to deliver their programming while using less bandwidth. 

Problem was, if you were using a “one-way” DVR like Windows Media Center, you would lose those SDV channels when your provider switched to the new technology. Now, with the use of a tuning adaptor provided by your cable company, you can watch and record SDV channels with Windows 7 Media Center. Microsoft also worked to increase the portability of digital cable recordings, as well. Now any content marked as ‘CF” (Copy Freely) can be easily shared with other PCs and devices.

Finally, Microsoft announced they will soon be providing a tool to allow end-customers with Windows 7-based PCs to add a digital cable tuner with CableCARD to their PC. Previously, digital cable tuners were only available with new PCs. This great news for DIYers and hobbyist looking to build the ultimate home theater PC.

We’ve known for some time that Windows Media Center in Windows 7 added native support for the international broadcast TV standards that were released with the Windows Media Center TV Pack 2008, including native support for both ATSC and QAM, the ability to remap channels, as well as support for sub channels.

All good stuff.

These latest announcements help streamline the integration and enjoyment of premium and high definition cable content within Windows Media Center.

Media Center Extenders are cool little boxes that let you extend a lot of the Media Center experience from your PC to another screen in the home using the home network.

The XBox 360 is perhaps the best known, as it has Extender technology baked into it. A lot of folks may have their main PC in a home office, complete with a few TV tuners and all of their photos and music, and an XBox 360 at their main TV screen for getting at their digital content.

Over the years, there have been a few companies offering fit-for-purpose Extenders as well. Recently, two companies (HP and Linksys) discontinued Extender models, meaning you could pick one up on the cheap. I did this a few months back, getting a Linksys DMA 2100 for around a hundred bucks.

It was a few months before I even had a second TV location where I could set-it up. As I’ve mentioned before, I have a Media Center PC hooked up to our main (and until recently, only) TV. It’s a slim line model that lays on its side on the shelf and looks, for all intents and purposes, like a beefy DVD player.

This set-up works particularly well for me since there have been some new features rolled out in Media Center recently – Sports Channel and Netflix, for example – that don’t work on Extenders. (In the case of Netflix, there are some third-party options for Extender support). So know going in that if you are going to use an Extender, the experiences aren’t identical. While live and recorded TV, music and pictures – the core Media Center experiences – all extend, there are some exceptions as well.

In my case, for a hundy, extending our pictures, music and TV to the second screen in the guest room was worth it.

Setting up the Extender was easy. After I hooked it up and powered it on, it ran me through a few steps and gave me an 8-digit code.

Then I went down to my Media Center, which had already popped a box informing me it had detected the Extender on the network, and would I like to set it up?

I most certainly did. A few steps – enter the code – and that was it. I tried everything out on the Extender and was done.

Because it’s in the guest room, I honestly don’t use it much. I would pass along some guest reviews, but, uh, well, the only guests in the guest room lately have been massive piles of washed but not folded clothes. (Surely I’m not the only one to use the guest room for this purpose. In any case, the few times I’ve been in there folding clothes, I watched recorded TV from the Media Center downstairs without issue).

Here are a couple of tips I’ve picked up on Extenders along the way:

1. If you can, use a wired network connection. Connecting to your home network with CAT5e or CAT6 wire will always give you the most consistent experience.

2. If you must use a wireless network connection, be sure to avoid a “double wireless hop.” That means if your Extender is connected wirelessly, be sure that the Media Center PC you are associating it with is connected via wire. Or vice versa. Over on TheGreenButton.com, there’s plenty of folks who have had issues with double wireless hops. Not good times.

3. Tune your network. On the Extender, you’ll find a tune network tile right in the Tasks strip. It runs a network performance tuner and can make recommendations to improve your network reception.

This will help optimize your network for the large amounts of data involved in moving rich media files around he home.

4. Think about going dual band the next time you upgrade your wireless network. Many new wireless routers are simultaneous dual band – with two radios. With one of these, you can use the usual 2.4 GHz band for your usual email and web surfing from your laptops or other devices, but then connect the Extender to the less-crowded 5Ghz band for media.

5. Turn off transition animations. On TGB, we see folks with wirelessly-connected Extenders reporting some choppiness as they navigate the Media Center UI. The experts on the board there always recommend turning off the transition animations: On the Extender, navigate to Tasks | Settings | General | Visual and Sound Effects and uncheck the “Use transition animations” check box. Seems to solve sluggishness.

6. Be careful on eBay! I mention this because version 1 Extenders that worked with Windows XP Media Center Edition don’t work on Windows Vista or Windows 7. Hence, they tend to be available and cheap on eBay and other online auction sites. (I sold a v1 Extender on there a few years back. I made sure the buyer knew this before completing the transaction).

Extenders are a great way to send the core Media Center experiences around your home, and some great deals can be had on them. If you’re one of the 28 million folks with XBox 360s – hey – you’ve already got an Extender. What are you waiting for?

*   *   *   *

New to Windows Media Center? Start here. or here.Or even here.

*   *   *   *

Even though I have been living with and writing about Media Center for the past five years, I still stumble upon features that I am compelled to write about. As I did this week with the simplest of things: <date taken>.

I have all of the PCs on our home network now sharing their photos, which means from Media Center, when I go into Pictures+Videos, I can watch slideshows of all our pics – whether they are on our main Media Center PC, my wife’s laptop or my own laptop. Very easy to set-up and very cool experience.

But here’s a confession: I don’t tag my photos. Nor do I rate them. People who take the time to do this can have some cool experiences, but I’m just not one of those folks. What’s more, when we import photos to our various PCs from our cameras, phones or what not, we name them all manner of crazy things and stick them in new folders with bizzaro names.

 

Above: Looking for a specific picture…sure, uh, just check the 200-, uh, 9, uh…just, you know, look around…

We have no naming protocol. No file naming system. We’re just lucky to get the pictures off the card now and again. The “Play Favorites” slideshow feature is useless to me. Should I choose to view our pictures by tags, guess where they all end up?

The upshot of these traits is that when I go into Pictures + Videos in Media Center, there’s usually a hodgepodge of folder names and random pictures that are sitting outside of folders, etc. It’s as disorganized as family life can be in these times, and I don’t have the time, patience or wherewithal to try and organize them myself.

So why is it, after five years of Media Center living, did I only now realize I could simply scroll over to <date taken> and Media Center would amazingly present me with all of our pictures, no matter where they are on the network, organized into monthly folders! Check this out:

It brings instant order to the chaos. Not only that, it provides a really nice visual timeline of our family’s life. This is one of those amazing feats of technology: it takes all of our family photos, from tons of different sources, organizes them chronologically and provides an easy, visual interface for us to enjoy them. Or, put more bluntly, Media Center makes it seem like we actually have our s**t together. (Apologies for the language, but this is no small accomplishment, believe you me.)

Final cool fact about <date taken>: Media Center remembers that’s how I last looked at my pictures. So next time I go into Pictures+Videos from the main menu, I immediately get the <date taken> view.

Windows Social Media team has a very cool new project going on at MySpace that let’s folks discover, download (and keep!) new music…and the artists get paid, too.

Above: MySpace.com\Windows: It just doesn’t seem like MySpace unless something is blinking.

Basically, Windows has sponsored 1,000 songs or so that can be freely downloaded. And if you friend Windows on MySpace, you’ll get updates as new sponsored songs are rolled out each week. You can get songs right on MySpace or from the third partner in this deal: ReverbNation.

I’ve been downloading the songs right onto my Media Center PC. Here’s what Windows gets out of the deal (other than a boost to their overall coolness): a Windows banner along the bottom of the album art. Here’s what it looks like in Windows 7 Media Center:

That’s it! And for free tunes that I keep forever, I’ll take that deal every time.

I’ve been in a music rut for a long time. I pretty much checked out of music after Rick Springfield’s “Jesse’s Girl.” I mean, why even try once someone has achieved such perfection, right?

Above: Has anyone topped the master?

Turns out, folks kept right on making music and I’m using this promotion to catch back up. And I’ve asked my music geek friends what they think of the selection. So far, all positive reviews.

Check this promotion out…and, good times, peeps.

*   *   *   *

New to Windows Media Center? Start here. or here.Or even here.

*   *   *   *