There are many methods for getting content from optical discs into Media Center. Some are more complicated than others, some are more reliable. There’s even been previous posts on this site about this same topic. This is a story about my attempts, and what I found worked and didn’t work. I’m going to write it in a way that I hope will make it easy to follow.
Couple things to lead off with: First, this is not the only method, just the one that worked for me. Second, it’s not perfect, …

Some times you just want to keep things simple or gasp keep it “Apple” like. That is the case with this nice little gem of a find. A user over at Life Hacker found out that with a simple registry edit you can use alternative IR remote controls within Media Center and even Windows Media Player.
A while back I documented on how you can have two media center PC’s in the same room by editing the IR registry settings on one of the Media Center PC’s so that you could …

It’s no surprise to any of our regular readers how much I love Window 7 Media Center. That passion has probably crossed the line into obsession now though. If you’re like me, and for the sake of humanity, let’s hope not, you want to constantly know what your Media Center is doing. That’s where Ian Dixon’s (a fellow Media Center MVP) wonderful Media Center Health Monitor comes in.
Simply register for an account over at http://health.thedigitallifestyle.com, download the software, and you’ll be tracking the status of your Media Center to your …

Since buying an iPod Touch, I’ve been seeking ways to integrate the device into our media system.  Being a Microsoft Windows Media Center user, you wouldn’t think this would be very easy but as it turns out, there are several options that will not only allow you to stream content to a Touch/iPhone but remote control your HTPC as well.  I was pleasantly surprised at the number of apps available to turn your portable device into a full use remote control.  I’ve used two so far and you’ll find all …

If you listen to Entertainment 2.0 or read The DMZ regularly, you know that our own Josh Pollard recently posted a how-to on ripping DVDs to a hard drive.  There are a number of ways to achieve this and Josh has provided a good step-by-step to get you streaming your movies around your home.
Media Center MVP Pete Stagman, who runs the NEDMUG site, has just provided the same service for Blu-rays.  The process is a bit more involved than DVDs but Pete takes you through the whole process from …

If you spend any time at all with Windows Media Center one of the things you’ll want to eventually do is rip your movie collection to Media Center. You would probably head over to The Green Button for suggestions on the best approach. You would very quickly see that there are more options and methods for this than can possibly be covered in a single blog post. Instead I’m going to detail how I’ve chosen to rip my DVD collection. This post won’t cover Blurays as I don’t even …

If you’re anything like me, it’s impossible to memorize everything you need to know to properly setup and maintain a great home theater experience in your home.  It used to be easy.  Hook up a good 5.1 receiver with some good sounding speakers and a DVD player and you were set.  Well things have changed.
Now you damn near need a Ph.D. to understand what’s going on behind the scenes.  I highly doubt there’s anyone out there who knows everything and if they tell you they do, they’re lying.  Nope.  …

   If you want more than just your local channels in HD within Media Center, you either have to have a generous cable company which doesn’t encrypt their QAM channels, get an ATI CableCard tuner or wait for Ceton’s M-card tuner.  There are other ways but until David took time to write up a tutorial over at Geektonic, these things seemed a little complicated.
Well, this latest guest post has you covered.  David takes time to walk you through the entire process of getting the Hauppauge HDPVR working within Media Center …

Having recently started using my HTPC directly on the main television in our home has been a good experience.  It’s given me access to more content than is available on extender and overall a lot more control of my experience in my main viewing area.
One of the issues you come across with this method however is access to non-Media Center functions.  We all know that you can use RDP or Microsoft Live Mesh to remote into your HTPC to perform these tasks but the problem we run into is …

With the release of Windows 7, Microsoft is finally starting to leverage the fact that Media Center runs on PCs.  By adding Netflix and Internet TV (that’s actually worth something!) they’re showing that they’ve heard the community and want to provide what a lot of other HTPC solutions are providing.
Even with Netflix and Internet TV, some users might not feel that the experience is complete.  First we’ll talk about adding applications that can be used on your HTPC.  Unfortunately, neither are going to work on extenders but we’ll get to …