Bill Gates in his WinHEC keynote last week sang the praises of Media Center Center

 

 

Well done to everyone on the Media Center team, there passion is really showing in there products

 

The Media Center Show #59(MP3 - 16.2mb- 47mins 08secs)
LISTEN HERE

The Media Center Show with Orb Networks

Joining me this week is Steven Hughes of BostonPocketPC.com to talk about mobile devices and how to take your content out with you on the go. We will be looking at Portable Media Center devices, Pocket PC’s and the new Ultra Mobile Devices.

As ever I have your email in to the show

Some links sent over by Steven:

Tatung V620 Portable Media Center
Toshiba Gigabeat S Series Portable Media Center
LG PM70 Portable Media Center

Using Windows Mobile-based Portable Media Centers and Windows Media Player 10
Tips and Tricks for Using a Portable Media Center
Mobile Media Without Limits
UltraMobile PC site from Microsoft
UMPC Interview with Otto Berkes
How to Develop for the UMPC
UMPC site by Intel

See the variety of equipment and setups that Media Center users have posted,the pictures are on my site HERE and there is an RSS feed for the pictures

Send your questions and feedback to isdixon@gmail.com (feel free to send your questions in mp3)
or you can send your questions and comments in to the show Skype Line “MediaCenterShow”

Don’t forget your to check out Media Center Show Gear

The forums are at Iandixon.co.uk/forums

Show Times:

00:45 Coming up this week
01:12 Email - update on Webguide, Syncing PMC’s
02:33 Email - update on XBOX 360 music problems
04:19 Time problems
05:40 Frontrow opinions
07:00 Still having problems with Roll up2? Aaron Stebner’s help
07:29 Media Center Pro Magazine (more next week)
08:20 New Media Center PC’s from Embedded Automation
08:55 Orb VideoMail
09:53 A Message from One Voice
10:43 Welcome to Steven Hughes
11:00 Mobility Guys Podcast
11:39 Boston Pocket PC
12:30 The state of the Pocket PC now
14:22 Windows Mobile 5
15:00 Portable Media Centers
18:20 New PMC’s
19:27 URGE
28:00 UMPC
31:00 Uses for UMPC
31:20 Logmein
33:00 Niveus Pocket PC Remote Control
36:00 More on UMPC
40:05 Mobility Guy’s Podcast
42:19 Thanks to Steven
42:55 Coming up next week

Music by Ian Dixon (new CD coming soon!!)

Orb continue to impress me with the roll out of new products that enable communications and entertainment on a many devices.

Now they have launched Videomail for Outlook and Thunderbird. Where this is interesting is that it uses the power of your home pc to enable you to watch messages sent to you on most devices at optimal bit rate.

 

So if your at work on your fat internet connection you get it at a hight bit rate or if your on your mobile phone you get it at a lower bit rate on what ever player your phone supports.

 

Oh and its free!

More details from Orb when Ian McCarthy comes on the show in a few weeks

 

ORB VIDEOMAIL LAUNCHED FOR USERS OF

MOZILLA THUNDERBIRD AND MICROSOFT OUTLOOK  

      Video email free of file constraints and playable on huge range of mobile phones 

Emeryville, CA – May 16, 2006 – Orb Networks, the pioneering developer of software for instant enjoyment of content everywhere, today announced the release of Orb™ VideoMail for users of Mozilla® Thunderbird™ and Microsoft® Outlook.  

For the first time, Orb VideoMail frees video-based communication through email from the constraints of file sizes and file formats and extends videomail’s reach to millions of mobile devices. Right from the email applications they use every day, users can express themselves with all the passion and precision that only video can provide. 

“Until now, file-transfer through email was what passed for videomail. This was bad enough for a PC-only experience. It’s completely untenable in today’s world of mobile Webmail,” said Jim Behrens, CEO of Orb Networks. “Orb removes the barriers to videomail communication in our multidevice world. You shouldn’t have to think about file sizes or file formats when you’re sending a videomail, any more than you do when you’re writing a text email. With Orb VideoMail you don’t. This is true video mail: you author your message right from within the interface of your everyday email client; you make your message as long as you want; and you’re sure that your contact can get your message, even on mobile devices.”  

“Combining Orb VideoMail with a Creative® webcam is the perfect way to make video-based email as simple and as universal as text-based email,” said Dr. Jeff Stoen, general manager for cameras at Creative. “From right within the email application you use daily, Orb integrates with Creative webcams – such as the new Live!® Cam Voice – to provide a seamless way to communicate with personalized, high-quality video messages.” 

The Orb application running on the user’s always-connected PC streams the videomails that are authored within the Thunderbird or Outlook plugin on any PC and then securely transferred in the background from the plugin to the user’s Orb PC. The videomails stream to recipients in the right media formats, bitrates, and screen resolutions for the devices on which they open the videomails. Any device with a streaming Windows Media® Player, RealPlayer®, Winamp Player, 3GP Player, or Macromedia® Flash™ Player can play an Orb videomail, including mobile phones on any carrier network.

“Orb VideoMail puts the power of the Orb platform at the service of communication,” said Behrens. “Up until now, Orb has mainly been focused on empowering our users to ‘mycast’ all their home and Internet television, music, and video content to themselves wherever they are. Orb users could already share photos and streams of home videos right from their home PC without having to upload them. Now Orb-enabled mycasting includes videomails from our users to all their contacts.” 

“The evolution of extensions like Orb VideoMail for Mozilla Thunderbird is exciting for users and a testament to the success of open source, community-driven projects,” said Scott MacGregor, the Mozilla Thunderbird project lead. 

Orb VideoMail is available now for free download at www.orb.com/videomail. 

 

Are you still having problems installing Roll Up 2 on your Media Center PC?

If so follow Aaron Stebners guide to install the components of Roll Up 2 manually

 

I got sent a preview of the magazine its a good guide for professionals that build and sell Media Center, it has some very usefully tips and articles.

 

Julie Jacobson from CE Pro will be joining me on the show in a few weeks time

 

It was bound to happen -- a magazine focused on networked digital entertainment, with special emphasis on Media Center Edition. We are happy to be the ones to do it. The first issue of Media Center Pro will ship with the June issue of CE Pro. The official Website will launch in June.

We are thrilled to introduce Media Center Pro, a magazine for people who build, sell, install, integrate and support Media Center PCs and related technologies

My good friends over at Embedded Automation (guests on the very first show!) have released two new Media Center PC's:

 

Embedded Automation announced today that it has released two new Media Center PC’s as part of their mHome product line, mTheater HD and mTheater MC. Both mTheater models have been designed to fit nicely in the living room alongside other home theater components, manage all forms of digital media in the home, and are “home automation ready”.

Embedded Automation announced today that it has released two new Media Center PC’s as part of their mHome product line, mTheater HD and mTheater MC. Both mTheater models have been designed to fit nicely in the living room alongside other home theater components, manage all forms of digital media in the home, and are “home automation ready”.

mTheater HD and mTheater MC come in the same, sleek, A/V style case to give the appearance of a conventional home theater component (e.g. DVD player, receiver). However, on the inside mTheater is loaded with the latest technology for the management of digital pictures, music, movies, and more. mTheater also provides tremendous flexibility for how and when TV is enjoyed with the ability to pause and record live TV, and easily set recording schedules so favourite shows will never be missed.

Both mTheater models also ship “home automation ready” with Embedded Automation’s leading home management software, mControl, and a starter kit for lighting control ². mControl manages whole house lighting, security, IP camera, HVAC, and IR communication, in addition to a host of other features for increased convenience and accessibility. For more detailed information on mControl, its features and benefits please visit: http://www.embeddedautomation.com/EAHAmControl.htm.

mTheater HD has been optimized for HDTV. This is accomplished with Intel’s latest chip design, the Pentium D (Dual Core processor), an over-the-air HD tuner card, antenna, and 500GBs of hard disk space. Hard disk space is very important for HDTV as it requires over 10GBs of space per hour of programming. mTheater HD is also an Intel Viiv compatible device.

“HDTV awareness and enjoyment have increased significantly with the penetration of HDTV-Ready displays and the increased availability of HDTV programming” says Maury Lum, Sales and Marketing Manager for Embedded Automation. “Major cities in the US can have a number stations being broadcast over-the-air digitally, with an increasing amount of the content in HD quality. This, in combination with the advances in home automation technology and reductions in price was the impetus for Embedded Automation to provide a single platform to service both needs” says Lum.

For complete specifications and additional information on mTheater HD and mTheater MC please visit: http://www.embeddedautomation.com/EAHAmTheater.htm.
Ø mTheater is available in custom configurations, contact Embedded Automation
Ø For information on authorized dealer programs, dealer pricing, and availability, contact Embedded Automation at the information below

¹  The mTheater HD model has been optimized for HDTV
² Choice of starter kits are available, contact Embedded Automation for more information

Interested in mTheater?
mTheater is currently available in limited quantities directly from Embedded Automation. Embedded Automation can be contacted through their website www.embeddedautomation.com, by email sales@embeddedautomation.com, or by telephone (604) 596-4999.

The Media Center Show #57 -Mike Seamons (Lifeware)

May 12th, 2006 by Ian Dixon

Top tip from Matt Goyer.

How to enable My TV even if you don't have a TV card. If you have a Media Center PC that has no TV card (like my new laptop) but still want to be able to have the TV functions so you can watch TV recorded from another PC ,there is a registry setting to enable it

 

 

If you don’t have a tuner but want to turn on My TV because you have DVR-MS files from another source I setting this reg key equal to 1 will do the trick: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Settings\TVConfig\iVideoSource

The Media Center Show #56 - Jason Alinen

May 4th, 2006 by Ian Dixon

 

The Grand Prix Show #21 - Imola

May 3rd, 2006

Aaron Stebner has a nice list of registry setting that can be changed to configure advanced settings in Media Center.

So the normal warning apply about changing the registry but if your like me you can't resist fiddling

 

Looks like the Media Center Show has a young audience , maybe its down to her Dad Hubert?