Media Center Plugins And Skins

Haven't had a chance to play with this yet, but seems like it has potential. Quick question though...anyone still using MSN's SoapBox?

{joomsay link=http://mymce.wordpress.com/2010/03/12/enjoy-dailymotionyoutube-msn-soapbox-in-windows-media-center/ [MyMCE]}MacroTube 0.8 Beta plug-in will help you to view Dailymotion,YouTube and MSN Soapbox videos within Windows Media Center.This application is available both in 32 bit and 64 bit.{/joomsay} 

Looks like not much longer til I'm going to have to  update our Movie Manager Battle article . I know Mikinho is actively working on his YAMMM application, and now word that a new 2.0 Release of Meta Browser is scheduled and includes a ton of changes. Going to be honest, I'm not exactly sure how necessary the drag and drop capabilities are, but apparently a lot of work has gone into being able to automate things, which was my major issue with the original release. Kudos to the developer!

In the time I’ve spent testing and reviewing this application, it has become clear to me that this is not an ‘upgrade’ to the currently available meta 1.0 application. meta 2.0 is completely rewritten from the ground up and has improved upon the old release in every way. The settings, interface configuration, monitoring, open plugin framework, etc. are all vastly improved and/or completely new. It is also completely possible, with the right configuration, to make meta 2.0 a set-and-forget application as it can automate all tasks it is capable of doing manually.

[TheHTPC.net]

 

Media Browser continues on with its fast development, this time beating up a memory eating bug and a wealth of others. Head over to their website for the full list.

{joomsay link=http://community.mediabrowser.tv/permalinks/1540/media-browser---thunder-blade-2-2-2-0-now-released}Much has been said about Media Browsers memory usage, we have taken the plunge and added setting that minimizes memory usage (and in turn take up more CPU) to enable this setting have a look at: Memory usage of MB is really high. In particular there is a new setting in the configuration file that can be set manually: called CacheAllImagesInMemory when set to false, memory usage goes way down.; Local trailer support is pretty cool very high WAF see: Local trailers support {/joomsay} 

The ability to rip movies to your hard drive is supported in some commercial applications (like MyMovies), but here's not only a FREE plugin for Media Center to do that, but in addition to ripping it will compress it into a format of your choice, such as WTV so you can view your movies on all your extenders.

{joomsay link=http://thedigitallifestyle.com/cs/blogs/ian/archive/2010/02/01/auto-rip-n-compress-for-windows-media-center.aspx?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheDigitalLifestyle+%28The+Digital+Lifestyle+and+Media+Center+Show%29 [The Digital Lifestyle]}The application called Auto Rip n Compress uses 3rd party apps to do the ripping and will use Handbrake to do the compression. I like the idea of doing the archiving from Media Center and not having to go back to the desktop to kick off a rip, the more apps that keep us in the 10 foot UI the better.{/joomsay}