For the second week in a row Adam is off doing…well…maybe I don’t want to know what Adam is doing! He is however on a much a deserved vacation. We still have a great show this week for you though. Our regular listeners know that when it comes to digital media and how its produced and consumed in Europe, Adam and I aren’t what you would call “experts.” So this week we were able to convince a 100% certified Brit to stay up way past his bed time and come …

Since I’ll be on vacation next week and won’t be a part of the show, I really wanted to be here this week.  Unfortunately, refinishing hard wood floors means that other things had to take priority.  The best for you, the listener, is that my space is filled by Craig Scholle, a previous guest of the show.  Craig and Josh roll through the week’s news and other topics you’ll enjoy.  Between the impending rollout of Hulu Plus and discussing the future of Media Center, it’s an entertaining show to say …

Welcome back for another rousing Entertainment 2.0  It’s summer and NOTHING is going on.  Whether it’s with HTPC news or with movies, summer is the slow period.  Luckily, we’re here to keep you entertained with our special guest, Derek Flickinger.
This week, Derek joins us to discuss the future of not just Media Center, but where Microsoft’s entertainment segment is moving in general.  We cover Xbox, Windows Phone 7, online content, cable card, and of course, Media Center.  How does it all tie together and where will we get our content …

Microsoft was the first of the big three video game companies to hold their press conference at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, E3. Yesterday afternoon they spent a lot of time talking about their upcoming games, and their latest peripheral, the Kinect which is a 3-dimensional camera and microphone that can be used to play games using advanced motion detection capabilities.
That was great if you are a gamer, but Microsoft also announced two new big features. Perhaps the biggest is that they are now shipping a brand new version of the …

In the past, the Internet TV options in Media Center have been a bit of a joke.  The same tired clips over and over and never replaced with anything fresh.  Add the fact that you couldn’t even watch full episodes of anything and it was basically a non-starter. 
MS has been changing that lately and it started with Windows 7.  We suddenly had access to full episodes from CBS, PBS and other content.  Netflix was next and while it’s STILL not available on extenders within the MC interface, it …

Ian Dixon, over at The Digital Lifestyle, spotted an important new Hotfix from Microsoft for Windows 7 Media Center users. There has been a bug within Media Center that if the application is not shut down properly it can cause the music library to completely rebuild itself the next time it is launched. If you have a large library, and especially if you use the album view, the library can take many minutes to rebuild.
The fix is currently only offered as a Hotfix, so you will not be getting this …

We’re back again folks and Josh made sure that it would be a rousing episode.  We of course take time to go through all the the listener email this week and we thank all of you.
Josh’s Hockey Minute returns this week and we find out that if you stopped watching hockey four years ago because of the strike, you should probably start again!
Both VMC with TV Pack and Windows 7 Media Center received updates this week and we’ve got you covered on what’s included.  Not really a whole lot …

You read that right.  Slamingest is now a word.  So much so that I’ve added it to the dictionary so that it doesn’t get that red squiggly line under it.  I might have coined it, but after listening to our show, you’ll know that it’s James Montemagno who’s made it famous.  James is the owner of RevoHTPC.com and he’s joined us this week to share his experiences with the Acer AspireRevo PC he uses as his Media Center.  I’ve been curious about the Revo for a long time and …

Windows 7 was a big step forward for acceptance of certain codecs and containers by Microsoft.  Prior to the release, Media Center users had a lot of issues getting their movie files to play on extenders.  Even AVI wasn’t supported within the extender UI basically locking you down to some very difficult to obtain formats.  Windows 7 changed most of that.  The AVI container became supported as well as several other popular file formats.  One that was left out however was MKV.
Seen by some as nothing more than a …

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 …