Remote Potatos original accomplishment, allowing us to view Media Centers EPG remotely and even schedule recordings may have been dwarfed by its newest one. Remote Potato now has the ability to stream recorded TV from your Media Center machine to anywhere with internet access. Theres also been a number of improvements to the guide functions (the original reason we love it). Lets take another look at what used to be just a handy way to schedule recordings while away from the Media Center.

To get started with Remote Potatos newest features well need to download and install the latest version of Remote Potato from FatAttitude. The program will need to be installed on the main Media Center machine only. Remote Potato uses a web-based front end for remote viewing meaning no extra software to install on each machine. Once installed on the Media Center machine access to the front end can be found at http://networkname:9080. This of course is only possible if the proper firewall rules are allowed during setup, which you will be prompted for during installation.

Once installed and running the first thing of note is the revamped start page for Remote Potato. This new look is certainly more stylish and even a little bit entertaining watching the background respond to mouse movements. Those looking for something different can even choose from a few other themes in the Remote Potato server configuration including retro and minimalist. Theres also a blank theme included for those looking to customize for themselves.

The biggest new feature of recent version, however, is the ability to remotely stream Recorded TV to anywhere with access to the internet. Simply press the Recorded TV entry in Remote Potatos menu to bring up a listing of recorded television. Just choose an episode, press play and select a quality. Here of course is where it gets a little sticky.

In normal quality, over a gigabit network, everything was able to stream from the main Media Center machine (no lightweight machine). Unfortunately, normal quality was terrible to actually watch. Content was fairly blocky during action sequences even on HD content.

Likely this was only due to the quality settings chosen when play began, unfortunately, we couldnt get HD content to successfully stream over the local network in any higher quality setting than normal. Hopes were high as it is a gigabit network but the buffer would start to climb then abruptly wonk out displaying random numbers. Also the server would report all clients disconnected in debug modes event viewer.

Standard Definition content was able to be streamed in full quality (Ultra) with considerable success over the local network. There was quite a bit of buffering going on at some points but the show was ultimately watchable in the default view. Under the full screen view, however, there was considerable interlacing visible though when scaling standard definition to 1080p in a web browser this is completely forgivable.

Yet to be tested personally, streaming across the internet is likely to only give worse results with a much more limited available bandwidth to work with. Though the program has spawned an epic thread on The Green Button spanning over 52 pages at this point and the answer may lie somewhere in there to solve our streaming troubles. If you experience any issues the thread appears to be a fantastic place to get technical support for Remote Potato bot from the community and the project owner carlosp_uk.

Browsing around to the older features of the program this is one thing Remote Potato still does extremely well. Remote scheduling of recordings and viewing of the TV guide have become much more stylized and easier to use. New features include loading the EPG data, including channel icons, directly from the Media Center machine as opposed to retrieving them on each client machine.

With new selectors for popular times of the day and the ability to quickly select later dates its almost easier to use than the built-in Media Center TV guide. Shows are now colored coded similar to the option available in Windows 7 Media Center and any icons added by My Channel Logos are loaded automatically.

Search the guide from the main menu as well as managing scheduled recordings and even series schedules, Remote Potato still does all of this very well. Even better its all complete free and open-source, two of our favorite words. Be sure to give Remote Potato a try, its definitely worth the time to install and even seems to run straight out of the box very well. Even if you havent the need for remote scheduling capability its interesting to see whats slowly becoming possible with Windows 7 Media Center.

Remote Potatos original accomplishment, allowing us to view Media Centers EPG remotely and even schedule recordings may have been dwarfed by its newest one. Remote Potato now has the ability to stream recorded TV from your Media Center machine to anywhere with internet access. Theres also been a number of improvements to the guide functions (the original reason we love it). Lets take another look at what used to be just a handy way to schedule recordings while away from the Media Center.

To get started with Remote Potatos newest features well need to download and install the latest version of Remote Potato from FatAttitude. The program will need to be installed on the main Media Center machine only. Remote Potato uses a web-based front end for remote viewing meaning no extra software to install on each machine. Once installed on the Media Center machine access to the front end can be found at http://networkname:9080. This of course is only possible if the proper firewall rules are allowed during setup, which you will be prompted for during installation.

Once installed and running the first thing of note is the revamped start page for Remote Potato. This new look is certainly more stylish and even a little bit entertaining watching the background respond to mouse movements. Those looking for something different can even choose from a few other themes in the Remote Potato server configuration including retro and minimalist. Theres also a blank theme included for those looking to customize for themselves.

The biggest new feature of recent version, however, is the ability to remotely stream Recorded TV to anywhere with access to the internet. Simply press the Recorded TV entry in Remote Potatos menu to bring up a listing of recorded television. Just choose an episode, press play and select a quality. Here of course is where it gets a little sticky.

In normal quality, over a gigabit network, everything was able to stream from the main Media Center machine (no lightweight machine). Unfortunately, normal quality was terrible to actually watch. Content was fairly blocky during action sequences even on HD content.

Likely this was only due to the quality settings chosen when play began, unfortunately, we couldnt get HD content to successfully stream over the local network in any higher quality setting than normal. Hopes were high as it is a gigabit network but the buffer would start to climb then abruptly wonk out displaying random numbers. Also the server would report all clients disconnected in debug modes event viewer.

Standard Definition content was able to be streamed in full quality (Ultra) with considerable success over the local network. There was quite a bit of buffering going on at some points but the show was ultimately watchable in the default view. Under the full screen view, however, there was considerable interlacing visible though when scaling standard definition to 1080p in a web browser this is completely forgivable.

Yet to be tested personally, streaming across the internet is likely to only give worse results with a much more limited available bandwidth to work with. Though the program has spawned an epic thread on The Green Button spanning over 52 pages at this point and the answer may lie somewhere in there to solve our streaming troubles. If you experience any issues the thread appears to be a fantastic place to get technical support for Remote Potato bot from the community and the project owner carlosp_uk.

Browsing around to the older features of the program this is one thing Remote Potato still does extremely well. Remote scheduling of recordings and viewing of the TV guide have become much more stylized and easier to use. New features include loading the EPG data, including channel icons, directly from the Media Center machine as opposed to retrieving them on each client machine.

With new selectors for popular times of the day and the ability to quickly select later dates its almost easier to use than the built-in Media Center TV guide. Shows are now colored coded similar to the option available in Windows 7 Media Center and any icons added by My Channel Logos are loaded automatically.

Search the guide from the main menu as well as managing scheduled recordings and even series schedules, Remote Potato still does all of this very well. Even better its all complete free and open-source, two of our favorite words. Be sure to give Remote Potato a try, its definitely worth the time to install and even seems to run straight out of the box very well. Even if you havent the need for remote scheduling capability its interesting to see whats slowly becoming possible with Windows 7 Media Center.

Remote Potatos original accomplishment, allowing us to view Media Centers EPG remotely and even schedule recordings may have been dwarfed by its newest one. Remote Potato now has the ability to stream recorded TV from your Media Center machine to anywhere with internet access. Theres also been a number of improvements to the guide functions (the original reason we love it). Lets take another look at what used to be just a handy way to schedule recordings while away from the Media Center.

To get started with Remote Potatos newest features well need to download and install the latest version of Remote Potato from FatAttitude. The program will need to be installed on the main Media Center machine only. Remote Potato uses a web-based front end for remote viewing meaning no extra software to install on each machine. Once installed on the Media Center machine access to the front end can be found at http://networkname:9080. This of course is only possible if the proper firewall rules are allowed during setup, which you will be prompted for during installation.

Once installed and running the first thing of note is the revamped start page for Remote Potato. This new look is certainly more stylish and even a little bit entertaining watching the background respond to mouse movements. Those looking for something different can even choose from a few other themes in the Remote Potato server configuration including retro and minimalist. Theres also a blank theme included for those looking to customize for themselves.

The biggest new feature of recent version, however, is the ability to remotely stream Recorded TV to anywhere with access to the internet. Simply press the Recorded TV entry in Remote Potatos menu to bring up a listing of recorded television. Just choose an episode, press play and select a quality. Here of course is where it gets a little sticky.

In normal quality, over a gigabit network, everything was able to stream from the main Media Center machine (no lightweight machine). Unfortunately, normal quality was terrible to actually watch. Content was fairly blocky during action sequences even on HD content.

Likely this was only due to the quality settings chosen when play began, unfortunately, we couldnt get HD content to successfully stream over the local network in any higher quality setting than normal. Hopes were high as it is a gigabit network but the buffer would start to climb then abruptly wonk out displaying random numbers. Also the server would report all clients disconnected in debug modes event viewer.

Standard Definition content was able to be streamed in full quality (Ultra) with considerable success over the local network. There was quite a bit of buffering going on at some points but the show was ultimately watchable in the default view. Under the full screen view, however, there was considerable interlacing visible though when scaling standard definition to 1080p in a web browser this is completely forgivable.

Yet to be tested personally, streaming across the internet is likely to only give worse results with a much more limited available bandwidth to work with. Though the program has spawned an epic thread on The Green Button spanning over 52 pages at this point and the answer may lie somewhere in there to solve our streaming troubles. If you experience any issues the thread appears to be a fantastic place to get technical support for Remote Potato bot from the community and the project owner carlosp_uk.

Browsing around to the older features of the program this is one thing Remote Potato still does extremely well. Remote scheduling of recordings and viewing of the TV guide have become much more stylized and easier to use. New features include loading the EPG data, including channel icons, directly from the Media Center machine as opposed to retrieving them on each client machine.

With new selectors for popular times of the day and the ability to quickly select later dates its almost easier to use than the built-in Media Center TV guide. Shows are now colored coded similar to the option available in Windows 7 Media Center and any icons added by My Channel Logos are loaded automatically.

Search the guide from the main menu as well as managing scheduled recordings and even series schedules, Remote Potato still does all of this very well. Even better its all complete free and open-source, two of our favorite words. Be sure to give Remote Potato a try, its definitely worth the time to install and even seems to run straight out of the box very well. Even if you havent the need for remote scheduling capability its interesting to see whats slowly becoming possible with Windows 7 Media Center.

There have been quite a few Windows 7 Media Center plugins that enable watching streaming video from services like Youtube. Most, however, cover the basics of getting the content to your screen but leave quite a bit to be desired in style and usability. MacroTube does both quite well allowing you to browse Youtube, DailyMotion and Microsofts Soapbox rather stylishly and even efficiently. This handy plugin from MCExtended of The Green Button forums definitely deserves a look from internet video aficionados.

Once the correct version of MacroTube for your operating system (32-bit or 64-bit) has been installed launch the plugin from the extras menu of Windows Media Center. This first page gives you a few options to choose which video service youd like to peruse or to set a few basic settings. Currently the only available settings are language, automatic updates and some (very) basic appearance options. Luckily the appearance of MacroTube requires little tampering to look very pleasing on your big screen.

After choosing which service youd like to browse not only does MacroTube keep from overloading you with millions of videos in row after row or too few videos with uber-sized icons but youll also be given several options for narrowing your search. The plugin has the basic narrowing options including date, rating, views and relevance but also includes a fantastic search feature and categorical breakdown.

Searching the services is a snap, just select the Search button and enter in your query using the onscreen keyboard, Media Center remote or standard keyboard and go. The results are speedy and accurate taking only seconds to begin compiling a list of relevant video content. Once each page loads it can take a few moments to fully load the preview pane for video content which can be slightly disconcerting at times however.

MacroTube certainly goes a long way toward making streaming services look good on the Media Center. Each video will display the title, date, rating and short description of the content below in the standard Media Center fashion. In fact at no point does the plugin look entirely out of place in the standard Media Center setup, though the onscreen keyboard wont match what you find in most Media Center screens.

Playing the videos was also extremely seem-less. Just as if changing the channel or starting a new movie from your collection the video goes right to full screen and begins playing along with all the fast forward, rewind and other manipulation options. MacroTube does streaming video so well on the Media Center it actually takes the medium from being a chore to being somewhat fun (from someone who isnt that into online streaming videos).

Those who enjoy streaming services such as YouTube should definitely give MacroTube a try on their Media Center setup. Youll likely find it easy to use and even better a convenient way to find the video youre looking for to show all your friends. MacroTube made it easy to locate any video with its handy search feature saving the time of searching through scattered categorical systems for that one video.

As any bachelor can tell you the basic sleep timer function built into any recent (or even not so recent) television is the perfect partner for those nights falling asleep on the couch. This basic functionality has long been missing from Windows Media Center however. For those missing this feature, look no further. The Green Button forum member StixBit has created a plugin to fill the gap, providing a Sleep Timer menu that allows for 30 minute, 60 minute and custom sleep timers.

To get started using this handy little plugin, download and install the package either from StixBits LiveDrive or the Hack7MC server. Once installed, launch Windows 7 Media Center, youll find the plugin in the Extra Programs area under the Extras menu.

From inside the plugin interface youll find options to set a sleep timer for 30 and 60 minutes as well as the ability to setup a custom time at five minute intervals by selecting the Custom Timer button and pressing the right arrow until youve got the appropriate amount of time. Once youve got your custom timer set just press the button and the sleep timer will take care of the rest.

There are even options to turn off the Monitor from the sleep menu as well as cancel the timer completely. Unfortunately, however, this plugin doesnt currently work with extenders and accessing the Sleep Timer from the Extras Menu is slightly more cumbersome than your standard TV sleep timer. If the timer could be set through a simple button press of the remote it would be quite a bit more user friendly.

For those looking to add this basic function to their Windows 7 Media Center though the solution is more than adequate to get the job done. Its great to see the Media Center community coming together to add the type of features included in other systems that seem to have been left aside by the Microsoft team. Thanks to StixBit for this handy plugin and be sure to give it a try!