Thanks to Dave Bryce, a Hack7MC reader and AVForums member, we have a new theme available for download today. Dave sent us this theme via mhealy@hack7mc.com and you can send your themes in as well if youve got them! Just attach the MCT file from Media Center Studio and well post it here for our users to enjoy.

Daves theme, Streaming Light is currently being worked on and has an active thread available for comments over at AVForums. Be sure to drop in and leave comments, suggestions and praise in the thread. Weve got the latest version, 1.02, available for download right here in our Download Center. Youll need Media Center Studio installed in order to apply the theme.

For those unfamiliar with Media Center Studio simply run the program and select the Themes tab. From that tab select the Import Theme button and select the Streaming Light MCT file to add it to Media Center Studios theme listing. From there select the Streaming Light theme and press the Apply button. The theme will be applied to Media Center and should appear the next time you launch the program.

Easy as that! Thanks to Dave Bryce for sending in this theme and everyone else who does the same. Be sure to share your creations with the world, just send us your MCT files to mhealy@hack7mc.com or give us a link to your custom theme.

In case you hadnt noticed previously weve added a pair of new Media Center themes to our Download Center. Future themes and updates will appear in the Download Center section and users can email their themes as attachments to mhealy@hack7mc.com to have them added to the section. This new pair of themes comes from a Hack7MC reader, Steve Firestone (thewarm). Both themes are created to be used with Media Center Studio and since this program has been having issues lately adjusting the start menu items weve included a fix for this as well at the end. Hopefully well see further updates to the MC Studio program soon.

The first of the themes, called Black Desert, features a black background with 3D style blocks as well as a handful of custom start menu icons. To use the theme using will need to have Media Center Studio. Import the theme file from the Themes tab and youll see a new selection available on the main themes window. Select the new theme and press the Apply button under the Themes tab. That should be all there is to changing your Media Center theme.

The second theme, also from Steve, is called A Touch of Red. This theme is a variation of the original with a slightly varied layout of the blocks and a slight touch of red on the forward side.

Both themes are a sleek addition to any budding Media Center theme collection and are very usable inside the Media Center interface. Users may have noticed that a recent update to the Media Center software has left certain features of the Media Center Studio program not working. The update seems to have added what actually appears it may be a simpler replacement for editing the start menu items, though its not currently supported by the Media Center Studio software.

For now there are a few temporary fixes around though to get your start menu back the way you like it. The simplest solution is a handy tool created by Tyborg of The Green Button forums. Simply download the zip file, extract to somewhere accessible and run the program. This will make the changes (described in more detail later) necessary to allow MC Studio editing of the start menu possible once more. In order to keep these changes through future updates the author advises us to add the file to our startup folders or schedule the program to run regularly. Find even more details or follow the discussion here at TGB forums.

What the program does is to rename a couple of files created in a recent update to Media Center. If youve got an aversion to handy tools or it doesnt seem to work for you try the following. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to C:ProgramDataMicrosofteHomePackagesMCEClientUX. Inside youll find two folders: dSM and dSM-2 with files inside each. To revert to the old method rename the files in these folders. Users have reported more permanent success by created a set of text files with the names of the originals and removing all access to the files.

That should have Media Center Studios start menu functions operating again. Be sure to try out those two new themes and read a few more Media Center Studio guides here at Hack7MC.

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)

Due to the popularity of our (fairly outdated) top five plugins post here at Hack7MC lets take a look at some of the new plugins that have come out since then and look at what is available now. Lets not limit it to purely plugins however instead focusing on the whole range of programs that make your Windows 7 Media Center run more smoothly. The Media Center is supposed to be a hub for the whole family, providing not only the latest entertainment but also information. Getting the latest weather and even the latest YouTube sensation have become critical to the Media Center experience. Lets take a look at some of the best plug-ins and programs for getting it done.

1. Media Center Master

Media Center Master gets the top spot because no matter what movie library plugin youre running it needs metadata, likely tons of it. The program features automatic metadata retrieval for your entire collection, simply point it in the right direction and Media Center Master does the rest. Under constant development as well as supported by a single man via the MCM forums the program has continued to expand from humble roots to support a number of metadata formats and options.

For users of the native Windows Media Center movie library simply pointing MCM at the same directories and letting it go to work is enough to fill out the complete metadata for most peoples entire collections. For those using alternatives you may want to run the program locally in the background and let it pick up new additions automatically using an incredibly accurate system for selecting the proper movie. Of course, there are a number of advanced options as well, especially for third-party plugin users, allowing users to download backdrops, posters, actor images and more with out raising a finger.

Though not technically a plugin, Media Center Master goes a long way toward putting a finishing polish on your Windows Media Center setup no matter which movie library used. Nothing makes a Media Center look more unsightly than an incomplete set of metadata in your movie library while showing off to the friends. Make sure youve got yours up to date automatically with this handy little program and you wont regret it. The latest downloadable version of Media Center Master is available from mediacentermaster.com. Need help getting started with Media Center Master? Weve got a couple of short guides to using MCM here at Automatic Metadata Retrieval with Media Center Master and Master Metadata with Media Center Master.

2. My Channel Logos

Part program and part plugin, My Channel Logos secures the second spot for its ability to sublimely enhance the look of Windows 7 Media Centers TV Guide listings. Adding white or full color logos to Media Centers TV lineup greatly improves the usability of the guide itself especially when considering the sometimes cryptic call signs

Bear with us now, not being native to the UK we havent been able to get this one to work locally but with such hard work going into it this fix appears to warrant some attention. Apparently, you in the UK have a new channel thats acting up in the Windows 7 Media Center guide. More accurately its not showing up at all now that the channel has become an official station. Microsoft claims to be unsure if it can fix the issue after several weeks of widespread reports of the issue. A user on The Green Button forums who goes by Alban, on the other hand, has managed to come up with a fix that seems to work for most everyone.

Again, not being from the UK we cant test the tool personally, however, it seems to be a fairly simple process. The program will launch, detect the Media Centers EPG database then inject the channel manually. This will need to be done each time the channel lineup is rescanned however as the database starts from scratch after each tuner or channel scan.

To use the fix youll either need to check the TGB thread for the latest release or download version 5 (4/28/10) from Hack7MC here. Run the program and apply the fix. Then simply re-launch Windows 7 Media Center (we assume). The author has also setup a donation page for those whove been helped by the program.

If ITV HD is showing up properly in the TV Guide but there are no listings available you will need to associate them manually. Select the channel name in the guide, press i or right-click and select Edit Channel. Select the Edit Listings option from the following page and locate the listings for ITV1 HD and associate them with this channel. Media Center should now retrieve the ITV1 HD channel listings automatically with each guide update.

Hopefully this fix works for everyone having issues with getting this channel to show up properly. Its great to see that the community can take over so expertly in Microsofts absence. For even more on channel lineups check out our guide on setting up custom channel lineups.

Many Windows 7 Media Center users will have a point where they need to backup important information and settings for their Media Center machine. Information such as custom TV listings, recording schedules and certain plugin and meta data can take a fair amount of time to setup. Certainly no one enjoys missing a favorite show due to a reformat followed by forgetting to reset the schedule for that show. Ian Dixon, of The Digital Lifestyle and Made for Media Center, may just have the solution. mcBackup 3.0 can not only backup your setup but it can even be scheduled to do so regularly and for free.

To get started download mcBackup 3.0 from Made for Media Center and install. Youll need to sign-up as a member of the site before being able to download the program, there is no confirmation email. Once downloaded and installed, run the program from the start menu under TheDigitalLifestyle.com > mcBackup 3.0.

Under the Backup and Restore Now tab you can select the type of data to backup: schedule, lineup, recorded TV, extra. To do an immediate backup just check the boxes for the data to backup and hit the Backup Now button. Once a backup has been created you can restore the latest backup using the Restore Now button. However, the restore option should only be used on fresh started Media Center setups. Running the restore on an already setup Media Center will likely mess up your listings and such requiring a clearing of the data and then restoring once more.

On the next tab, Backup Location, you are able to set the location where backup images should be saved. These are the folders youll need to copy to a safe location if doing a full clean install. For listings and recording schedule backups Id even recommend having the default save location be a USB drive. This keeps your backup separate from the actual Media Centers system drive should it cease operating properly.

Also available is the option to backup another folder, important plugin data or even just large downloaded caches such as MediaBrowsers ImagesByName folder make good candidates.

Coming to the Schedule tab we have one of the more important features of mcBackup. Here we can setup a schedule to regularly backup frequently changing things such as the recording schedule. Being something that typically changes often, its an especially good idea to regularly backup the recording schedule.

Simply enable the scheduler then select the days and the time youd like backups to be created. Either restart the program or enable the service using the link on the Home tab of the program. This home tab will report the status of the backup service whenever needed as well as the option to start or stop the service.

Now as long as youve set the backup to a safe location you should have a recent backup of your scheduling and lineup data whenever you need it.

The program works incredibly well in the background requiring virtually no intervention from the user beyond the initial setup. Simply set it up and forget it, just the way regular backups should be done. Thanks to Ian Dixon for making both the program and Made for Media Center. Stick around Hack7MC for future updates and a review of the Made for Media Center platform for Windows 7 Media Center.

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If you frequently pause TV to go handle other, more pressing issues, then come back to find the program has begun paying once again chopping off sections of watchable TV and just destroying the show you were watching youve likely been a victim of the paltry pause buffer assigned by Microsoft. By default the pause buffer is capable of holding somewhere in the neighborhood of 30-40 of show time. This amount of time is all well and good if youre on a DVR with limited disk space but, come on, weve got terabytes here.

Of course, we could go in and edit the registry manually increasing buffer time. Its not incredibly simple though and may even test your math skills a bit, not to mention cutting into your TV time. Luckily, theres a handy app available that will do the heavy lifting for you. MCE Live TV Buffer Manager from Doug Knox is a small app whose sole purpose is to increase the default live TV buffer size.

This little app based on code from Schmecky on The Green Button Forums gives you a handful of options ranging from 30 minutes up to 120 minutes of replay buffer length. Just choose the duration youd like to set and press the Apply button. Of course, before the new setting will take effect youll need to do a quick reboot of your PC as well.

Thats all there is to it. Now you can increase the live TV buffer in less time than i takes to make popcorn. Thanks to Schmecky and Doug Knox for making this incredibly useful little application and Rick Broida of PC World for bringing it to attention. Though the program doesnt specify working with Windows 7 Media Center, the changes needed to alter the replay buffer are the same as in previous versions of Media Center. Enjoy and be sure to stick around Hack7MC for even more handy tools like this one!

Converting audio streams already contained inside an MKV can be a daunting process for the beginner. First, well need to extract the audio tracks from the MKV container then well begin the process of converting the track. Finally, well re-mux the entire project back into a new MKV file. There are any number of reasons why one would want to convert from one audio type to another, compatibility with certain hardware such as Media Center Extenders not being the least of them. For this guide well convert from an incompatible DTS stream to an AC3 stream for Media Center Extender compatibility.

Before we get started well need to download and install a few programs. First, in order to read and thereby convert the DTS stream we need a decoder such as FFDShow installed. Under a default installation FFDShow should be all set to decode a wide variety of audio formats including DTS. Next, we need to download and install MKVToolnix and MKVExtract. Installing MKVToolnix

Now that weve covered a handful of great plugins to improve your Windows 7 media Center, here and here, its time to go through a few programs and background plugins that can greatly improve your experience. These programs and plugins will improve on the Media Center interface as well as adding some missing options and features that are lacking in the basic Media Center installation. Add logos to the TV guide listings, create your own Media Center themes, put Caller ID on your TV and more.

Programs

My Channel Logos

My Channel Logos allows you to quickly and easily add channel logos to your Windows 7 Media Centers TV guide listings improving both the appearance and usability of the guide. The newest versions of this program even include sets of downloadable channel logos including color versions. Using the program is quite easy as well, once youve setup your TV guide listings inside Media Center just open the program and select your region then apply channel logos. My Channel Logos will search through your guide files and make the appropriate changes to add logos, just relaunch Media Center.

Media Center Studio

Media Center Studio, the successor to Menu Mender, is the ultimate in Windows 7 Media Center customization apps. Allowing you to design, create and distribute your own Media Center themes as well as customize and create your own start menu strips. Change the Media Center background, add a games strip and more all with ease using this handy program. This program makes it simple to create and rearrange your Media Center interface until youve got it just the way you like it. Make changes to the graphic interface by using your own images and fonts then just drag and drop start strip tiles to make your Media Center truly unique.

More Plugins

MC7 Sleep Timer

Though a sleep timer likely isnt one of the firs things to cross your mind as a missing feature, if youre used to having one on your television it can be a sorely missed feature. MC7 Sleep Timer is exceptionally easy to use as well. Simply install the plugin then use the plugin interface in the Extra Programs listing to set a sleep timer for any number of intervals. Quick buttons are available for 30 and 60 minutes as well as teh ability to create a custom timer button and even just turn off your monitor. This handy little tool is sure to make at least a few Media Center enthusiasts setups complete.

Refresh Rate Changer

There are plenty of movie and media enthusiasts that prefer to watch their content the way is was originally intended, which includes in the original refresh rate. By default Windows 7 Media Center runs in the default resolution of your monitor, typically 60hz, however much of todays HD media is intended to be played back at 24hz. Refresh Rate Changer will let you do just that. Just setup the resolutions and refresh rates for your monitor and media in the options file then access the plugin inside Media Center to change the refresh rate. Though not automatic and requiring an automatic restart of Media Center its a solution to the problem.

Vista Caller ID

Not just for Vista any longer, Vista Caller IDs developers have even create a plugin to allow you to harness the programs functions to get Caller ID right inside your Windows 7 Media Center. A feature commonly included in modern cable and satellite DVR boxes and sorely missed by many making the switch. As long as youve got a compatible analog modem, install the basic program and the Media Center plugin to get started. Then be sure to setup your preferences and youll be all set.

Finally, dont forget to subscribe to Hack7MC as we bring you the latest and greatest news from the Windows 7 Media Center community including plugins, hacks and programs to complete your dream Media Center setup. Hopefully youve found most of the plugins you need already in this guide, including the previous parts 1 and 2. Stay tuned to Hack7MC as we bring you even more!