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Rank: Member
Joined: 11/27/2006
Posts: 10
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What would be really nice for WebGuide is a Media Center
style web interface… You know, the kind which can be viewed via the “More
Programs” option in Media Center itself (like TVTonic or CinemaNow).
For example, I have two MCE PC’s. One in my home office, and one in my sitting
room. The MCE in my home office has a TV
aerial , while the sitting room one doesn’t (I use TiVo for day-to-day
use). Occasionally I want to watch something
I’ve recorded on the office MCE in the sitting room, and can currently do this
by simply sharing my “Recorded TV” folder on the office MCE. However I would be excellent if I could fully
control my office MCE from the sitting room (via the remote). I can do it at the moment thanks to WebGuide
via my PDA, and although excellent, would be slightly better I could do it
directly on the TV.
Would anyone else find this useful?
A.
(1828)
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Rank: Member
Joined: 11/24/2006
Posts: 18
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My features list:
1. A Standby button on mobile and web page would be nice. Could use WMI call to do shutdown.
Handy when you want to put machine into standby after telling it what to do.
2. On mobile version, put the CHANNEL STATION NAME at top of the guide list
3. For some reason, on my Pocket IE on Windows Mobile 5, every click on a link on the mobile service opens a new page. Would like this fixed.
4. A middleman application for PAL users so that the output of decoder is streamed by another encoder app so we can watch it.
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Rank: Administration
Joined: 8/19/2006
Posts: 3,365
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1) I don't think this is possible since WG doesn't have admin priviliges, but I'll take a look.
2) Not sure I follow. Do you mean in a drop down?
3) Never seen this on my device or emulator. They are just HREF's. Does this happen if you view the pages in a normal browser?
4) I don't understand this one. can you explain a bit more?
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Rank: Member
Joined: 12/14/2006
Posts: 13
Location: Nashville, TN
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First of all..great program...just what I have been looking for. I'll go into details some other time, but it's perfect (almost).
What would be very cool is if a plugin was built for windows media center that would connect to webguides' interface (similar to the browser) so that other mce computers on the network could access all the same content as the main mce computer? For example, I would like webguide to be able to replace the tv function on one of my mce boxes so it would function as an extender (acting much like, or similar, to my xbox 360 which shares all the same content as my main mce box). I notice in the online spotlight that there are services that you can watch movies or clips from and they open the video in mce's player. Could webguide be configured to do the same?
Again, great program.
The Softsled Project
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Rank: Member
Joined: 12/14/2006
Posts: 13
Location: Nashville, TN
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Didn't see an option to edit my previous post. So here is a follow up question.
How hard would it be to navigate the webpage (that opens the webguide interface) by a remote control and girder so that we could use webguide as an extender? Instead of opening the video in an external player, could the link to play the video just be pointed to a full width webpage that will play the video? If you used an iframe to do this you could even dynamically resize and relocate the video window and still navigate through the webguide interface while the video is still playing- much like mce itself. Sorry, visions of grandeur running through my head after seeing this program.
The Softsled Project
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Rank: Member
Joined: 12/14/2006
Posts: 13
Location: Nashville, TN
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Sorry to highjack this thread but I think this is on topic.
I was able to create an entry for webguide in the "More Programs" area of MCE. It will run and is usable. I just don't have it playing video within MCE "yet".
Here is how I did it if anyone is intersted. (Right click and "Save Target As" to download the files)
Created the file mediaguide.mcl with the contents below. Here is a link to the file.
<application
URL = "http://dei-dell:3831/"
Name = "WebGuide"
BGColor = "RGB(44,82,163)"
StartImage = ".\webguide_large.png"
Category = "2"
ThumbnailImage = ".\webguide_small.png">
<CapabilitiesRequired
DirectX = "true"
Video = "false"
Audio = "false"
IntensiveRendering = "true"
/>
</application>
Replace the url with whatever yours is. You can find it using the configuration tool. Save that file as webguide.mcl or just download mine. Place that file in "C:\Program Files\WebGuide\WebGuide4". Create a shorcut to that file in "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories\Media Center\Media Center Programs". I named my shortcut Media Guide. I also created two icons really quick using photshop.
The first is 300x300 @ 71dpi and I named it "mediaguide_large". Large Picture
The second picture is 130x130 @71dpi and I named it "mediaguide_small". Small Picture
I am going to change a few settings in that configuration file above to see if media center will play the content. If not, the settings may need to be changed on the link settings within the webpage itself, which shouldn't be too hard.
What this means (if the video will play within mce) is that any computer using mce can now be used as a true extender similar to the xbox 360. I was reading on the Green Button tonight that you can even add a link for a program in "more programs" to the start page in mce. So, on computers you want to use as an extender that don't have an encoding card you could add "My TV" to the main menu and just have it point to Web Guide.
I found this information at http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnxpmce/html/devgameswinmc.asp
You can also find some helpful information by looking at the .mcl files that other programs use that are in "More Programs" in mce.
I will update.
The Softsled Project
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Rank: Administration
Joined: 8/19/2006
Posts: 3,365
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Yep. MCE can host video content pretty well - I've done it on previous projects. The real issue is esentially creating 2 full UI's and have to maintain/sopport them both. I'll look into what "easy" stuff might be possible.
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Rank: Member
Joined: 12/14/2006
Posts: 13
Location: Nashville, TN
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Thanks,
Looking forward to it.
The Softsled Project
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Rank: Newbie
Joined: 4/26/2007
Posts: 1
Location: NZ
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I know this is an old thread but I just wanted to say that I agree that a Media Centre addin would be absolutely killer. IMO it really only needs to have the guide functionality and live TV streaming. This would allow another networked media PC without a locally attached tuner to have TV functionality. All the other content can just be shared within Media Center. To me this would be as good as softsled.
As an installer, I know that there is definite demand for this type of solution. Xbox360 extenders fall short in many cases due to lack of codec support (networked DVD librarys are a particular problem) and just being too darn noisy.
Any progress on this front Doug?
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Rank: Administration
Joined: 8/19/2006
Posts: 3,365
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Yep. Still on my list (and is being requested by my partners as well). The new beta's have kept me busy lately, but I hope to work on this feature next.
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Rank: Newbie
Joined: 4/28/2007
Posts: 2
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Please Doug, Make it happen Dude! :)
On MCE2005... lol
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Rank: Member
Joined: 12/14/2006
Posts: 13
Location: Nashville, TN
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Doug,
I am so glad this is on your to do list.
Also, I ran across some interesting information the other night about how mce streams audio/video to the extenders. I posted the excerpt on my website (as well as a link to the original msdn page). I am not a programmer, but it does make some sense to me.
This may not be news to you. I am just trying to help in any way possible.
http://softsled.net/node/22
After reading, do you think there is a way to receive (and use) the stream/information from ehPlayer?
The Softsled Project
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Rank: Advanced Member
Joined: 4/7/2007
Posts: 32
Location: Stockholm Sweden
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scott wrote:
I know this is an old thread but I just wanted to say that I agree that a Media Centre addin would be absolutely killer. IMO it really only needs to have the guide functionality and live TV streaming.
Couldnt agree more, I have a remote MCE wich has more tv-channels then the one at home. Today I´ll control its guide with remote desktop and have a script wich ftp´s the recorded shows to my local mce. It would be great if it was possible to acces the remote mce´s channelguide through a mce-webguideplugin.
L bev
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Rank: Newbie
Joined: 1/25/2007
Posts: 4
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let me add my voice to this request. even better if this could be done for live/currently recording tv without transcoding (on a local network) as it would be easier on the server mce and have a better picture quality on the client. i love this program and how well it integrates with media center. big ups!
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