The popular Windows Media Center plugin, TunerFreeMCE, has been updated in a release the developer, Martin Millmore, is calling a major upgrade. The new plugin is now Windows 7-only, forgoing Vista support in order to allow for the numerous improvements it includes.

Vista users can continue to use the older version of the plugin, though. The developer says that two-thirds of the plugins users are on Windows 7, so he made the decision to make improvements the majority can enjoy.

So whats new in this release? Things users have been asking for, including:

• A new popup screen for managing the TV programs, allowing you to play the program, set a timer recording to record other showings of the program if you have a TV tuner configured, and if the program supports it you can add it to a playlist or download it (the last two work for BBC WMV programs, but not flash).
• When playing flash content, sometimes the mouse didn’t click in the right place. Now you can mode the cursor round the screen with the remote by pressing the cursor keys, and OK to click. This allows you to play even the most troublesome programs.
• The interface is now touchscreen enabled, so if you have a touchscreen media center you can easily navigate through the screens.
• Plugins are now directly available within the application. When you go to preferences you will see a list of plugins. When you pick one, the system will take care of installing and updating it to keep you up to date with your favorite content.
• MSN has been removed. This is because there is now a native media center app to support MSN.
• Improved memory management – only one instance of TunerFreeMCE will be active at any one time

If youve never tried TunerFreeMCE before, I recommend checking it out. Its a great plugin for watching streaming Internet video on your PC and Media Center extender, including BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five for UK users and Hulu support for US users. Believe it or not, the plugin is actually free. However, donations are accepted.

(via Ian Dixon)

For those that dont know, Windows 7 comes with a feature called Windows Media Center. Windows Media Center can be used to turn any Windows PC into a DVR (Digital Video Recorder) when a TV card is present in the PC. Windows Media Center also comes with Internet TV which provides free access to shows and movies streamed across the Internet. Windows Media Center is designed to be used with big displays. People can connect their Windows PCs to their HDTVs and use Windows Media Center to display content. In this post Im going to talk about my own setup in my living room which is powered by Windows 7 and Windows Media Center.

A little over 3 years ago, I published a blog post about my Windows Media Center PC and setup in my living room. That post was celebrating the 5th anniversary of Windows Media Center. This year it celebrated its 8thanniversary and I still have that very same PC I blogged about 3 years ago running my all-things digital entertainment in my living room but with Windows 7 of course! That PC – a CineMagix Grand Theater Entertainment System from Velocity Micro has probably been on and recording tons of TV shows for 90% of those 3 years. Its held up pretty well. Over the course of the last 3 years, Ive done a few things to the PC such as adding Blu-ray. But I think after 3 years, I decided it needed a more substantial upgrade: a new graphics card and a new TV tuner card with better capabilities.

Note: In the rest of this post, I am going to be talking a lot about cards such as graphics cards or TV cards. These cards are components to PCs that add and provide functionality. For example a graphics card provides the graphics capabilities for the PC and a TV card provides TV capabilities. There are sound cards and network cards too you can probably guess what those cards do

For the last 3 years, my Windows Media Center PC has been running with a pretty decent graphics card (an ATI Radeon X1950) but it didnt have HDMI. I had been using a DVI-to-HDMI cable to connect to my HDTV. But I wanted to go native with straight HDMI. Back in March, I had posted about HDMI and Windows PCs. I recommend giving this post a read for understanding the benefits of HDMI especially in the particular scenario my Windows Media Center PC is serving in my living room with my TV. I also wanted to have a DirectX 11 capable graphics card in this system. So I went out and picked up one of AMDs low cost DirectX 11 capable graphics cards (with HDMI!): an ATI Radeon HD 5450. I will likely upgrade this card again to something more higher-end in the future (likely a graphics card with more onboard memory) but for now this works perfectly for my needs.

Next was the TV tuner card. When I bought this PC from Velocity Micro, it came with a TV tuner card that supported CableCARD or digital cable tuner. When digital cable tuners were first introduced, they were only available as part of a new PC. Whats a CableCARD? A CableCARD is a special PC card that you can lease from your cable company (U.S. only) that can be used with a digital cable tuner to view and record digital cable TV channels (pay TV channels like DiscoveryHD or HistoryHD as well as premium channels like HBOHD and ShowtimeHD) without the need for a special set top box such as a DVR unit from a cable provider. A TV card that supports CableCARD has a slot in the back that allows a CableCARD to be put in. With a digital cable tuner card in a PC, you can use Windows Media Center to watch and record digital cable TV channels – and in HD!

The TV card that came with the PC was an ATI TV Wonder Digital Cable Tuner. At the time, it was top-of-the-line. However, there were draw backs that over the years have grown into a little bit of some frustration. For example this digital cable tuner card was a single tuner. That means that you couldnt watch and record different channels at the same time. Whatever you were recording at any given time, you had to watch it too you could not change the channel. There were many times where I wanted to watch something and record something else at the same time.

This is where the new Ceton InfiniTV 4 digital cable tuner card comes in.

Last November, we announced it would be possible to add a digital cable tuner card to any Windows PC that supported it. Because of this, I could now replace my current TV tuner with something newer on my own. Cetons new InfiniTV 4 TV card is a brand new PCIe 1x digital cable tuner that is hitting the market that includes 4 tuners in one card! That means with the InfiniTV 4 TV card, I can watch a TV show at the same time Im recording 3 other shows at the same time. At any given time, in Windows Media Center you could be recording up to 4 HDTV shows at the same time. For me the InfiniTV 4 offered an incredible upgrade to my Windows Media Center PC. Cetons work here with their InfiniTV 4 TV tuner card this a great example of a product from one of our partners that takes Windows to a whole different level and makes a good feature (Windows Media Center) great.

After I completed the upgrade of my Windows Media Center PC – my living rooms digital entertainment experience was simply awesome. Recording multiple TV shows while watching another is amazing. However, I foresee another upgrade in my future: more storage! Im running out of hard drive space from recording so many TV shows!

Do you want to add one of Cetons new digital cable tuners to your Windows PC? In Windows Media Center, you can use the Digital Cable Advisor Tool (located under the Extras gallery) to check if your PC is capable of running a digital cable tuner. If your PC checks out and has a spare PCIe 1x slot, you can buy a Ceton InfiniTV 4 here. Ceton has begun shipping units to those who have pre-ordered and people are starting to see them arrive this week.

I suggest visiting the website The Green Button as it is a great place to find Windows Media Center and home entertainment experts to help you out if you need assistance or any tips or tricks integrating your Windows PC with your TV!

Audio junkies and gamers listen up imagine a device that could easily upgrade any stereo headset to 7.1 Channel Dolby Surround Sound. Turtle Beach is lifting the covers on a device that does just that. Today, Turtle Beach is announcing their Ear Force DSS product a surround sound processor that takes in audio from an analog stereo source (like a stereo headset) and upgrades it to Dolby Pro Logic IIx for virtual surround sound (7.1 Channel Dolby Surround Sound). With any stereo headset, you can use the Ear Force DSS to get 7.1 Channel Dolby Surround Sound while watching movies and TV (or Internet TV) through Windows Media Center, Blu-ray movies, or playing games all on your Windows PC. Turtle Beach makes some amazing headset products that the Ear Force DSS serves as a perfect complement to such as the Ear Force X31, X11, XLC, Z1 and PX21. The Ear Force DSS and Ear Force headsets are perfect for gamers looking to have impressive audio capabilities while gaming and work not just with Windows PCs, but also with Xbox 360s (and PlayStation 3s) as well.

There are a lot of web browsers out there but only a handful of them ever make any real news. Kylo, on the other hand, has caught the attention of Media Center users everywhere by claiming to be the perfect web browser to use on the big screen. Though it seems this new product should be aimed squarely at the Windows Media Center crowd there is a catch, it doesnt work with the standard MCE Remote. In fact the software is somewhat a thinly veiled guise at selling a piece of hardware (an air mouse).

It seems that Microsoft has finally taken Internet TV out of beta and released a final version to public users. Not only does this give Windows 7 Media Center users support for Internet TV but also adds Netflix and Adobe Flash support to the package. Netflix was an entirely expected addition with the retail release of Windows 7 finally upon us as Windows Vista users have had access to Netflix for quite some time now. What wasnt as expected however is the addition of Adobe Flash support, required to take advantage of the addition of some full length episodic content.

Upon first entering Internet TV from the main start menu, listed under the TV strip, youll be required to agree to the first in a series of end user agreements. Several sections of the new application require you to agree to extensive user agreements, a small price to pay to finally get the functionality Media Center needs to stay relevant in a world of ever more powerful cable and satellite company provided DVR boxes.

The new Internet TV applications most apparent change is an extremely improved interface in terms of both design and functionality. The most popular shows are listed in a large format at the top of the interface, allowing you to quickly select and watch full episodes from a number of channels including CBS, PBS and the Zune Videocast library. This new interface is very reminiscent of the menu systems featured on the Xbox gaming consoles from Microsoft and its likely the company is finally utilizing its stable of talented interface developers for Media Center projects (or theyre at least talking to one another).

Scrolling down to the lower menus youll find a listing of previews for upcoming shows, available channels featuring full episodic content, top shows and a full lineup of news content. Hopefully Microsoft will be working on developing relationships which other networks such as NBC, ABC and Fox whove already shown a willingness to develop relationships with other internet broadcasting services such as Hulu. Here youll also find a listing for the popular Netflix movie service.

Entering the Netflix application youll need a Netflix unlimited subscription to enable downloading and viewing movies from your Windows 7 Media Center. Just agree to the Netflix user agreement and enter your username and password to enable Netflix viewing. Youll also see a popular Netflix movies strip in the main Internet TV interface listing a handful of popular selections from the service.

To the actual meat of the application, streaming full episodic content, the first thing youll notice is the addition of Adobe Flash support to the Windows 7 Media Center program. This is important being easily the most popular format for distribution of broadcast network television over the internet. Most networks are now providing flash episodes through their corporate websites as well as other third party services. For years Microsoft has resisted this addition to the Media Center arsenal but its an integral part of the streaming TV revolution and was only an eventuality if Media Center was to remain the product it aspires to be.

After updating Media Center to include Adobe Flash youll be able to select recent episodes from a show listing, whether by channel or show. Each channel even includes a few sorting options to help you locate the program your interested in, though the listings are per channel. Perhaps as time progresses well see a longer timeline of shows available as the product matures, currently only the most recent episodes are available. This, of course, is a vast improvement over the previous Internet TV offering however.

Launching an episode youll be presented with the customary commercial introduction along with an episode name and description. Selecting the content box will enabled full screen content viewing once the commercial has finished.

Typically this is about the time we get around to the downside and in this case its downright huge. In an era of HD everything and high quality video even on sites like Youtube the quality of content provided by Microsofts Internet TV application is still utter crap. Theres no sidestepping or candy coating the situation to be had. Watching NCIS or How I Met Your Mother inside Internet TV is almost painful, especially for those accustomed to watching those shows in HD.

We had hoped that the addition of Flash to the Windows 7 Media Center arsenal would lend itself to an improvement in video quality and perhaps it will in the future. For those truly desperate to catch the latest episodes of their favorite shows from the handful of partners provided there are much better methods to get your content fix. The convenience cant be beat, free streaming internet TV from your couch, but the video quality seems almost defeatist.

Since the plugin is in beta stage of development, there are a few bugs that needs to be sorted out. According to the developer, only shows from Hulu will open in full screen while others wont. But in my case, some shows

NOTE: HotSpot Shield is blocked by Hulu and most other services. You can now use UltraVPN to watch the shows for free.

Hotspot Shield is a free VPN service for your PC, laptop or iPhone that creates a VPN between your Internet device and their gateway. This tunnel effectively hides your Internet traffic and secures all your data from prying eyes, which even include packet sniffers as well as any firewalls. Since, its based in US, were also able to access US only websites and web services using it. The installation method is very simple. Just point your browser to Hotspot Shields homepage and download the 3.0 Mb application. Hotspot Shield works with

• Windows Vista
• Windows XP
• Windows 2000
• Mac OS X (10.5 Leopard)
• Mac OS X (10.4 Tiger)

After youre done downloading it, just install the application and run it. Itll load up your browser and connect to its Internet Gateway.

No configuration is required as itll do everything itself. You wont even need to change any proxy settings. Just right click on the taskbar icon and click disconnect whenever youre done with Hotspot Shield.

Using this, youll be able to access Hulu, NBC, ABC, WMC Internet TV and any other website that requires you to be in US. Keep in mind though, that Hotspot Shield will show Ads in a frame at the top of the website you visit, which can be closed with just a click. But hey, support the guys! This is one hell of a service they are providing, and it really helps you stay secure for free. Apart from letting you access free TV shows for free !

Last year, Neflix started offering the ability to stream movies over the internet to your PC. Of course, for Windows Media Player enthusiasts, the next logical step was to port Netflix into Media Center by way of a plugin. Luckily, there’s a pretty active developer community for WMC, so we ended up with not one, but three, Windows Media Player plugins from which to choose: vmcNetflix, MyNetflix, and NetflixMC.

But which one is right for you? Let’s compare:

MyNeflix

• System Requirements: Vista MCE, .NET 2.0, Netflix WatchNow player
• View Netflix queue
• Manage Netflix queue
• View history
• View recommendations
• Browse movies by title, genre, or top 100
• Browse “Watch Now” movies
• Play movies in full screen
• Nice interface, very responsive
• Does Not Work With Extenders
• Download MyNetflix

vmcNetFlix

• System Requirements: Vista MCE and Netflix WatchNow player
• View Netflix queue
• Manage Netflix queue
• View history
• View recommendations
• Browse movies by genres; sort by title or year
• Browse “Watch Now” movies
• Keyword Search
• Play movies in full screen
• Support for x64 and x86
• Support for Netflix Instant Queue
• Support for Episode Listings
• Prevents standby/sleep mode while downloading
• Clean interface, easy to browse, runs smoothly
• Works With Extenders
• Download vmcNetflix

NetflixMC

• System Requirements: Vista or MCE 2005 and .NET 2.0 or 3.5
• Browse movies by genre
• Browse “Watch Now” movies
• Fast, Real-time “Watch Now” search
• Bookmark “Watch Now” movies
• TV Series episode selection
• Image caching stream speed settings
• Menu Personalization
• A bit slow, still a beta app
• Runs on extenders but WILL NOT play WatchNow videos
• Download NetflixMC

So which one should you choose? The quick answer here is that if you have Windows XP, you only have one choice: NetflixMC. For Vista users, both MyNetflix and vmcNetflix are nice, but the extender support that vmcNetflix has makes it the clear winner. You can download vmcNetflix here.

The second feature, which I’m very excited about, is the ability to enjoy the content on your Media Center PC from a web browser anywhere in the world through a feature called WebGuide. This means you can watch “Lost” on the Media Center at your house from a hotel on the road or from your cellphone on a bus.

WebGuide also allows interaction with your Media Center through RSS for your recorded TV shows as well as interaction with a Vista Sidebar gadget on your desktop. And for those of you lucky enough to already have a Windows Home Server, there is also a beta of WebGuide available now that will give you these same features.