Netflix has a great plugin for Windows Media Center. In my opinion it is th best interface for Netflix’s Watch Instantly catalog. The onlt drawback is it can be difficult to browse for a movie without being overwhelmed.

Netflix really needs to add a “Most Popular” view in their Watch Instantly interface. It would help me wade through all the crap that is in their streaming catalog. Luckily a website, Instantwatcher.com, fills that niche for now.

Instantwatcher is a fairly simplistic website. It provides lists of movies available for streaming through Netflix. You can sort movies by Most Popular, New & Noteworthy, or even Expiring. If you find yourself wtaching more and more streaming movies and show through Netflix, take a look at Instantwatcher.com to see what you have been missing.

So you want to watch Blu-ray movies on a computer? Then PowerDVD Ultra 9 is the program for you. The latest version of Cyberlinks media player, at a cost of $99, is all about high definition movies and Blu-ray, plugging the hole left Vistas lack of native Blu-ray support. PowerDVD Ultra 9 is a solid step in the right direction. Nothing revolutionary but improvements all around.

PowerDVD Ultra New Features
Cyberlink was kind enough to provide me with a release candidate version of PowerDVD Ultra 9 to review for this article. From the press materials they provided me, the following features were added to PowerDVD:
TrueTheater Technology up-scales DVD for playback on HD displays
Cinema Mode provides seamless Blu-ray playback to Microsoft Windows Media Center PCs
Up-to 8-channel high-definition audio is supported for Dolby Digital and DTS surround sound
systems
FancyView enables easier, more pleasurable navigation of DVD titles, chapters and movie information.
Library features allow information to be stored about both DVD and Blu-ray titles
MoovieLive.com enables sharing of stored movie information, personal ratings and reviews.

The Good
For me, PowerDVD Ultra 9 offers two main upgrades over version 8: tight integration with Windows Media Center and DVD upconverting through its new TrueTheater settings. Support for HD Audio codecs is once again included, as it was in version 8 (note: hardware is still not available to actually listen to these HD audio codecs and wont be until Q3 of 2009).
Media Center integration works well. No dropping to the desktop or anything funky like that. The experience is almost seamless. Just dont hit the back button too many times or you will get kicked out of Media Center. Third-party plugins are able to piggyback on to PowerDVD. This means programs like Open Media Library and Media Browser are able to launch ripped movies from the media center UI. Finally.

PowerDVD Ultra had been losing market share in the media center word to TotalMedia Theatre by Arcsoft, mainly because TotalMedia Theatre was integrated better with Windows Media Center. Cyberlink had worked with OEMs like Velocity Micro PC to develop a media center plugin but it was never made available to the public. PowerDVD 9 rectifies this and once again appears to be the top choice for watching Blu-ray movies on a PC.

The Bad
PowerDVD suffers from an odd design choice, the inability to play ripped Blu-ray movies. You have to rip movies as an ISO file and then use a virtual drive to load the discs. For media center users, playing digital movies from a hard drive is essential. This has nothing to do with piracy. People just want to organize their movies like they organize their digital music files.
Out of Cyberlinks control, the copy protection for Blu-ray movies can be a real pain, especially on a computer. You have to have a video AND a monitor that both support HDCP. If you have a monitor or video card older than two years, you are most likely out of luck. I use a 24 Dell monitor to watch Blu-ray movies on my desktop. I have to use AnyDVD HD to strip out out the content protection since my monitor does not support HDCP.

Moovielive.com also seems kind of pointless. I really am not too interested to see what other PowerDVD users are watching. It seems like everyone is trying to add social networking to their products. Moovielive.com information should be made available though the media center interface.

Conclusion
With Blu-ray drives now easily found for under $100, high definition movies are more attainable than ever for the home theater computer crowd. PowerDVD Ultra 9 is an evolutionary product that should be looked at by any media center user, especially those with Blu-ray drives. If you are just looking for a software DVD player, PowerDVD is overkill, with cheaper options available.

In July, we told you about a new plugin for Windows Home Server called TV Manager. This plugin lets you copy your recordings from a Vista Media Center PC or XP Media Center 2005 over to your Home Server for storage and management. At the time we originally wrote about it, the plugin was still in beta. But now, the first version of the plugin has been officially released: TV Manager 1.0. With TV Manager, you can view your recordings stored on your WHS in Media Center as if they physically resided on your PC. Recordings can also be deleted from either the WHS Console or Media Center.

Since the beta, several fixes and additions have been added to the software, including the following, listed below.

Fixes:

• TV Manager Service setting permissions.
• Compatibility with limited user accounts.
• Launch recordings straight from the Windows Home Server Console.
• Changed how recordings were moved (to fix ghost file issue) but lost the ability to monitor progress percentage.

New Additions:

• Added Media Center Extender compatibility.
• TV Manager Add-In interface redone.
• Experimental ComSkip feature (disabled by default)
• Regenerate the Xml in case of cache corruption without tester.exe.

If youve been waiting for the final version before trying out this software on your WHS, you dont have to wait any more: you can download TV Manager 1.0 from here and the documentation from here.

For Brits, or anyone else who enjoys BBC radio, theres now a new plugin for Vista Media Center that lets you listen to BBC Radio from within Media Center: BeebMC. This plugin is pretty cool, but there are a couple of downsides that you should be aware of: 1) it uses Real Player to do the streaming (so you need to have that installed in order to use it) and 2) it doesnt work with extenders. Both of these problems have to do with the fact that the BBC streams their radio via Real Audio, an unfortunate choice on their part considering how many different options there are today. Still, if youre interested in listening to the British perspective on things, this could be a fun way to do so using your Media Center PC. You can download the plugin from here.

(via We Got Served)

I have been looking for a way to prioritize my tuners in Vista Media Center. Why do I want dictate which tuner is used as the default? Mainly to avoid digital rights management. I currently use the HDHomerun as a QAM tuner to receive unencrypted HD channels on my computer. This tuner allows me to record HD channels with digital rights management.

I ultimately want to get a digital cable tuner (I mean buy a new machine that supports DCTs). Ideally, I want to incorporate the HDHomerun into that system. Digital cable tuners incorporate copy protection into anything they record. The HDHomerun does not. I want the HDHomerun to be the default tuner.

Luckily, there is a small application that sets priorities for you: Media Center Tuner Priority. This app basically shows you a list of your tuners and you set which one should be used first.

With Cyberlink’s PowerDVD Ultra no longer playing hard drive based HD movies from ripped HD-DVDs and Blu-ray discs, the only way to watch such movies is to “mount” an ISO image of the disc and then watch it using PowerDVD. Not an easy thing to do while in Vista Media Center. MyMounter, brought to you by the makers of MyTV, is a plugin designed to streamline the ISO process with VMC.

In order to use MyMounter, you need the following programs: Daemon Tools, AnyDVD HD, and Cyberlink PowerDVD Ultra. Those programs let you rip, mount an image, and watch the movie. Basically, MyMounter scans your files looking for ISO images. Through VMC, you decide which one you want to load. As has always been the case, PowerDVD will be loaded outside of VMC, returning to the VMC interface once the movie is done.

Mounting ISO images has always been popular for gamers, allowing someone to play a game without an actual disc. I would love to see a MyMovies equivalent for video games using MyMounter.
I have not had time to test out this plugin. Once I have, I will post my thoughts.

Microsoft has announced details on the new Xbox 360 Arcade, the replacement to the initial Xbox 360 Core. The Arcade will retail for $279.99, which will be cheaper than the announced price of several stand alone media center extenders. It makes you wonder how media center extenders are going to differentiate themselves in the marketplace.

Microsoft has positioned the Xbox 360 as a media center extender for Vista. This means you can control your Vista PC through your Xbox 360, accessing your content wherever there is a 360. The Arcade has no hard drive, but that does not impact its functions as an extender. Most importantly, it still has a a HDMI port.

If you are looking to pair a 360 with your Vista Media Center, look no further than the Arcade.

One advantage that Media Center PCs have over their Tivo and DVR brethren is the ability to remove commercials from television recordings. Lifextender is the latest plugin for Vista Media Center that does just that, automatically remove commercials. From Lifextender’s website:

Lifextender is pretty simple. It scans the directory that Media Center records TV to every X minutes for new TV shows. All new TV shows are queued up to be analyzed and scanned for annoying commercials. After a show has been analyzed, a new file is created from the original with commercials cut out, around 3/4 the original size. The original show is then replaced by the new, commercial-free show. Rinse and repeat.

Lifeextender is a great example of the power of plugins for Vista Media Center. Almost any feature you want can be added to media center through free plugins developed by the Vista Media Center Community. Tivo will never have the ability to remove commercials. Too much legal pressure. The plugin architecture for Vista allows any would-be programmer to add that feature for teh community of media center users.

Via Chris Lanier