Last week, Netflix began rolling out a new feature that allows subscribers to watch some titles in high-definition when streamed to the web via Silverlight. The update, supported on both Mac and PC platforms, allows the HD streaming to occur in the browser by way of the Netflix player.

Now that same HD streaming is available in Media Center too. Ian Dixon reports that Netflix members running Windows 7 will have access to over 1800 movies in HD in Windows Media Center. In addition to streaming, from within the WMC Netflix app, you can also search your Netflix library, manage your Instant and DVD queues, filter searches and more.

For any Media Center enthusiast with a decently sized movie library the problem quickly becomes keeping it all organized. Things like movie metadata, covers, backdrops and more contribute quite a bit to the look and feel of a Media Centers library. At some point most turn to a software solution to keeping it all in line and one of the most popular is Meta. Recently a trial became available for a version 2 of Meta which adds a good amount of polish to the interface and some extra options.

To get started with version 2 of Meta access the official site click on Files and download the installer .msi file. Go through the normal setup process then launch the program from the desktop icon. On the first run youll be prompted for a username and password. For the trial version (which is limited) just enter trial and trial for both. Currently the software is only up for preview so trial is the only thing available to users.

The limitation of the trial seems to be that any movie marked (trial) is unable to have the metadata saved. The trial version does give you a good idea of what you would get with a complete product, which is the point of a trial after all. Program developers have previously noted that this version of Meta will be a paid product.

To get down to business start by pressing the Settings button in the upper left hand corner of this extremely well stylized new interface. Under the Locations settings youll need to add at least one path to search for movie content. Use your movie collection (with caution, this is not feature complete software) or download the fake movie collection from the Files section of the Meta site.

This new settings dialog is an important part of the new Meta with most of the settings and output now capable of being modified and expanded through plugins. Expanding the Movies section, Locals, Fetchers and Savers all allow for plugins to expand on the base functionality of the program. Under Savers you will need to check whether or not you would like to save folder images as well as the types of metadata to save.

There are also settings available for renaming your media as well as downloading the latest movie trailers. Developers have taken an interest in providing a broader spectrum of data, images and video as metadata as well as supplying the data better to programs other than Media Browser. Returning to the main interface, youll notice that the main difference, aside from the new style, is the ribbon across the top of the window.

Load the listing of movies by pressing the Rebuild button to scan the directories you listed earlier. Once the listing has completed loading, narrow the list by pressing the filter button, selecting a criteria and setting a value. For instance, select backdrops equals 0 to find all movies that dont currently have and backdrops available.

Select the movie to edit in the left hand pane to get started downloading metadata and images for the movie. Select the service to download information from on the ribbon then press the Fetch button on the far right. Confirm that the fetcher has found the right movie and Meta will fill out any missing data.

Navigate through the wealth of metadata provided using the tabs just under the movie information. Each new tab will give you a slew of options for editing and retrieving that data. For instance, select the Cast tab and youll have the option to fetch Cast images for each of the people listed. Though we couldnt figure out how to work downloading trailers for the current selection, the software does feel like it would do a great job of taking care of not only the dirty work but some of the light dusting as well.

Meta 2 looks like it could become one handy tool for not only organizing your media and downloading metadata but also grabbing those extra touches that give a Media Center the edge over a DVR. Being able to have trailers already downloaded and ready to go when browsing a movie collection could be handy. After all, most of us arent trimming down our media collection so why not store the trailers locally as well.

Depending on the final price tag Meta 2 could be well worth the money.

Despite Windows 7 Media Centers inclusion of a native movie library no function to actually rip the DVDs to the library was included. Certainly an attempt to avoid this legal grey area of copying purchased media to a secondary source, this also leaves out an important feature from the Media Center platform. This of course leaves an area open for third party developers to come up with a solution, however, up until this point very few options were available such as My Movies Media Center plugin. Fortunately, eMpTy3000 of The Green Button forums has taken up the initiative to create another option for Media Center users though not quite as developed as the My Movies option.

To get started with Auto Rip n Compress well need to download a few programs. First, well need to get a copy of DVDFab which includes the command line interface such as the latest version. Once installed youll need to run the program once to select the Free edition of the program as well. Also required is a copy of the latest version of the Handbrake CLI available from the Handbrake site as a separate download. Finally, install the Auto Rip n Convert program downloadable here at Hack7MC or check the TGB thread for the latest version.

After installing the program we need to setup the options. The main options dialog will appear once setup completes allowing you to set the basic options and define the locations of the programs weve downloaded as well as the DVD drive.

Be certain that the locations are correct as well as setting the final location to an area available to the Windows 7 Media Center Movie Library. On this screen there is also an option available to rip just the main movie or the entire disk. The Compress Settings allows you to establish the Handbrake CLI settings to be used by Auto Rip n Convert. Be certain to set the correct location of the Handbrake CLI, the file type extension to be used as well as the preset and subtitles options on this window. If youd prefer to not compress the disk and leave the Video_TS as it is simply change the Compress option to No.

Once all the settings have been established correctly most Media Center users will want to create a start menu strip entry for the program as well to enable launching the program from inside Media Center. Unfortunately the program doesnt offer this option and well need to use Media Center Studio to do that at the moment. Also, the program doesnt include a Media Center interface for naming the titles and instead minimizes Media Center to require manual title entry which will certainly be a turn-off to many Media Center users.

For those unfamiliar with Media Center Studio check out our previous articles on using the program as well as creating custom start menu strips. In order to add Auto Rip n Convert to a strip well need to take the extra step of creating an entry point for the program inside Media Center Studio. From the Start Menu options pages press the Application creation button on the top actions strip to create a new entry. Then enter the location of the Auto Rip n Compress program and give the entry point a title then save the changes.

Now we can return to the main Start Menu tab and drag the new entry point from the listing to any strip wed like to have it listed in. Once again save the changes and you can now close the program and launch Windows 7 Media Center.

As mentioned earlier the current version of Auto Rip n Convert doesnt include a method for setting the DVD title from inside Media Center and will minimize the program to request the title entry. This is a serious downside and hopefully something that will be addressed in the future as there are many people who would prefer a complete Media Center experience.

From there the program will send the relevant options to DVDFab and Handbrake to automate the ripping and conversion process. The launching of these various windows may also interfere with the display of Windows 7 Media Center but this isnt necessarily something that the author will be able to rectify. Also, DVDFab presents a number of additional options that will need to be answered before processing the first disk. Be certain to select the Do Not Ask Again option on each of these windows so as to not be prompted each time. Thats all there is to it! Auto Rip n Convert is certainly a decent new project and were sure the future will bring some updates that will improve the user experience though as always wed love to see the project go open source.

Many Windows 7 Media Center enthusiasts have forgone the built-in Movie Library for something a little more sophisticated and feature packed. Plugins such as Media Browser and Open Media Library can provide a much more evolved move browsing experience than the native Movie Library. The problem is that, although these packages typically install a basic start menu strip of their own, they dont include some of the default features of the native movie strip or allow you to customize the tiles appearing on the strip.

Luckily we can take our favorite movie plugin, Media Center studio and a simple plugin from Mikinhosoft we can recreate the original movie strip experience while using our custom movie plugins. To get start youll need to download and install your favorite Windows 7 Media Center movie plugin, Media Center Studio and the extra Mikinhosoft plugin to add some of the default functions to our new strip.

Once installed open up Media Center Studio and select the start menu tab to begin editing our start menu strips and tiles. Youll also need to enable the start menu toolbar to allow us to add and edit new start menu strips.

Next press the Insert Menu Strip button and a new strip with the title Custom Strip will be added to the end of the menu strip listing just above the auto play handlers. Start by renaming your new strip, probably to something like Movies since well be replacing the original Movies strip. Then, using the arrows to the left and right of the menu strip title rearrange the strip and place it just below the original movie strip.

Begin adding tiles to your new start menu strip by expanding the Entry points menu at the bottom of the Media Center Studio window. From here you can add any entry points available, with the exception of the default tiles. Some of the default tiles can be dragged from their original place on the native movie strip onto our new strip. Others, such as the copy disk tile may need to be added from the Entry points listings under the Mikinhosoft plugin. Dont forget to add a tile linking to your favorite movie plugin to replace that default movie library as well.

Once youve finished dragging new tiles onto your custom start menu strip, disable the default strip by unchecking the box next to the title of the original strip. Then be sure to save your changes as well (Media Center must not be running to save these changes). Finally, relaunch Windows 7 Media Center and check out your new customized Media Center Movies start menu strip.

Thats all there is to it! This isnt limited to movie strips either, build custom strips for your music, video and games and launch them all directly from the Windows 7 Media Center start menu.

You can find Netflix under TV & Movies section of Windows Media Center.

Sean Alexander recently posted a good tip for Windows 7 Media Center users which is something that some of you may have overlooked: turning on color-coded program categories in the on-screen guide. With this option, you can easily see at a glance which channels are Sports, which are News, which are Movies, etc., just like what you would see in the guide on your home television. To turn this option on, go into Settings>TV>Guide Page Options, and click the first checkbox option which is “Apply colored backgrounds to shows, based on their category”.

After turning this option on, your channels will be identified with the following colors:

• Green – Sports
• Purple – Movies
• Light Blue – Kids & Family
• Orange – Special
• Yellow – News

While youre in the settings there, you can also set channels to display by name instead of number an especially useful option for identifying which channels are which if you cant remember them by number.

Under the TV + Movies menu in Windows Media Center, you may have noticed a new tile: MSNBC News Beta. The MSNBC News Beta tile will begin appearing in Windows Media Center for users in the United States and Canada running Windows Vista Home Premium and Ultimate. Users dont need to download anything to enable MSNBC News Beta in Windows Media Center. MSNBC News Beta gives users quick access to the latest election news, top stories and weather all from one screen.

Directly within Windows Media Center, users can browse Editor Picks and Most Popular videos (which are selected by viewers). I discovered that when I click on a specific video, a + icon appears. When this + icon is clicked, it gets added to a custom news video playlist. There are quite a few videos to choose from which is nice.

I was able to quickly browser through a bunch of MSNBCs Decision 08 videos and add them to a custom news video playlist to watch all at once.

I was also able to browse other categories such as Business, Sports, and Entertainment which all have videos I can either watch as I go or add to a custom news video playlist. MSNBC News Beta also sports some pretty neat search functionality that lets me search for stories with specific keywords.

And the 5-day weather forecast (available for any ZIP code in the United States) is impressive too!

As a heavy Windows Media Center user myself, I for one will be using MSNBC News Beta to stay on top of not only the upcoming U.S. Election but all the latest news.

For more on MSNBC News Beta and Windows Media Center click here!