We bring Windows Media Center to life using the add-on – Media Browser. Windows Media Center. Plugins and codec settings

Windows setup Media Center

To achieve the task assigned to us, that is, work with our HTPC using only one remote control remote control, first of all, we need to set Windows Media Center to autorun. You can do this on the tab Launch and Behavior menu Settings, which is discussed in more detail below.

We launch the media center itself. Afterwards we get to the program settings menu. It appears by default when you first start the program, and can also be called up later if necessary. It looks like this:

The first point the program asks us to configure is the main device for displaying graphic information. Click Further and select the section we need:

The next stage of setup is optimizing the multimedia library. The library itself consists of several items: music, images, videos, recorded TV shows and films. We believe that you should not focus on all points at once, since the settings in all of them are similar to each other. So, select the item Music and we get the following:

Our goal is to add files to the library. We select this item, in the next menu we have to select the folders where our multimedia files are located. It can be local disks, connected network drives, or files from another computer. Having selected the item we need, we can easily connect the folders we need. After checking the boxes for the sources where the files will be searched, click Further. Files are added to the library, which takes some time.

After adding all the above points, the media center setup is complete.

Afterwards we return to the main menu. It consists of the following sections: Add-ons, Videos and images, Music, Movies, TV And Tasks. Each menu item has its own sub-items. It all looks like this:

Now let's go through all the menu items with brief description. We think it makes no sense to post screenshots of all of them, so you will only see the most interesting ones. So, the first point is Add-ons. It contains only one subparagraph - Add-on library. Here are Windows games, which it makes no sense to describe.

In chapter Videos and images There are the following subsections: Gallery, containing all the images included in the multimedia library, the ability to add new ones, sort and much more:

Except Galleries, this paragraph contains a subparagraph Play, designed to play video and call the media player, as well as Video library, where we can view the titles and thumbnails of all the video files we have added previously:

Video playback in Windows Media Center occurs through the well-known Windows Media Player, which is tightly integrated with our media center. It looks like this:

Chapter Music similar to the previous one, but contains four subsections: Music library, similar Video library, but for music, Play, Radio And Search. The music library is a tape consisting of multi-colored squares, each of which is separate folder with music (read album), very vaguely reminiscent of a long shelf of CDs in a music store:

In addition, search, sorting mechanisms and the ability to listen to all the music at once “in bulk” are also implemented here. When choosing specific folder a special menu appears that allows us not only to play the audio files we like, but also to give them our own rating, create a playlist, burn a disc, delete a song, and also purchase music via the Internet.

Want to view downloaded files, streaming videos and other media content on your TV? Not sure which media center is right for you? Here, a summary table and Venn diagram show the characteristics of each of the most popular applications.

Not yet familiar with the idea of computers that support television? Below under the diagrams you will find an explanation and more full comparison systems If you are already familiar with the concept of creating a computer-based multimedia center, we will first offer you good software.

We compared three publicly available, and also popular, media center programs. Of course, there are many alternatives, both free software, and the equipment itself, but these are the most popular media centers that are constantly being improved and are easily installed on large number home multimedia centers.

Graphic explanation

The characteristics of the three main programs are presented here in the form of a summary table and a Venn diagram.

Note: The table compares standard features, which do not require the installation of additional plugins.

What is a media center?

What is a media center for? Media centers vary in features, but in general they all provide the same features that you can access on your computer or portable device, like listening to MP3 music, watching video files, Netflix and Hulu content, digital photos and Internet/ social applications, reproduce them using speakers, and can be transmitted over wireless network. Media centers can run on a wide variety of computers, but are primarily designed for small, dedicated computers called multimedia centers, or HTPCs.

Multimedia centers have the video and audio ports needed to connect to modern television high definition and generally have a powerful processor and enough memory to handle converting, playing and sometimes even recording files from high resolution. If you have a local network with files public access And network device data storage, media centers can transfer their content to other systems and devices, as well as receive files for storage and download them directly from the Internet.

Simply put, a media center allows you to sit on your couch and enjoy most of the features you would have on a computer with a remote control. You can record a movie from streaming Netflix service or a file you've already downloaded, use Hulu to find the show you missed last night, show your guests photos you've posted on Flicr or Picasa, and much more.

Not every media center has all the features at once - some are better suited for certain actions, than others. The editors at lifehacker.com compared several apps to find out which job each one does best, tried to highlight what each system can do, and presented the data in a way that makes your choice easier.

Windows Media Center, XBMC, and Boxee

This paragraph presents more detailed review media centers - installation and configuration, pros and cons.

Windows Media Center included in Windows package Vista Home Premium or Ultimate series, all versions of Windows 7 except Starter or Home Basic, and a separate version of the XP operating system, Media Center Edition, is also available. XBOX is free and publicly available software for multimedia centers, originally appeared as a qualitative new xbox modification, but now works on Windows, Mac, Linux and XBOX systems, and also boots and works from a USB drive.

Boxee is based on the same internal code as XBMC, but is aimed at bringing Internet content - video sites, blogs and social applications - into your living room, while XBMC is still focused on downloading and playing files.

Plex- a popular and pleasing media center for Mac OS X - of course a competitor in this category. In terms of goals and objectives, however, this is an option XBMC. Most of everything written and shown in this article about XBMC also applies to Plex, with the exception of the appearance and interface.

In any case, this is just brief information. Now let's take a closer look at the advantages and disadvantages of each system.

Windows Media Center

Installation and Initial setup: Everything is quite simple. The application is included in the latest packages Windows versions Vista and Windows 7, and provided that your computer or media center has the necessary connectors, Windows will be able to output the data displayed on the computer monitor to the TV screen quite easily. If other systems on your wireless network are also running Windows operating systems, you won't have to figure out how long to figure them out. system settings to start sharing files between the media center and other platforms. If your computer is running Mac or Linux, then this process will be much more difficult. If your computer already has a TV tuner installed, Windows will recognize this and use it to record TV shows.

Advantages:

- Attractive and simple recording device digital video: And you don't have to pay monthly.

— Unobtrusive, simple interface: Separate obvious sections and intuitive layout.

- A large number of compatible devices Remote Control: Look for "Windows Media Center remote" devices online or at an electronics store, and you'll be sure to find a device with lots of buttons that will connect seamlessly to your media center, usually via a USB receiver.

- Ease of networking: On Windows systems, that is, if you constantly create shared folders.

Flaws:

- Working with files: In general, Media Center processes the same files as Windows Media Player, and after installing the right codecs, this wave may be enough. But don't expect your media center to support wide range video and audio formats found on the Internet.

- Windows only: But you knew that.

- Complex remote control devices: Media Center is compatible with a large number of devices, but they often look like parodies of remote controls with a huge number of buttons. If you find a simple Media Center remote similar to Apple's navigation device, let us know in the comments.

- Recorded files are locked: Of course, there are decoders, but if you want to watch recorded TV shows on anything other than your personal set of authorized Windows machines, Zunes, and XBOX devices, good luck.

Note: By Windows default Media Center does not support Hulu, but this can be achieved by connecting the necessary modules.

XBMC

Installation and initial setup : Depends, of course, on the platform and equipment on which the installation is performed. Connection to modern Windows or Mac system should not cause any difficulties, at least as far as software is concerned. Working in XBMC from a live USB drive is also not too difficult, and, in addition, you can install the program from it on HDD your HTPC. However, installing it on Madriva Linux and connecting it to a specific plasma system with an optical audio output could likely lead to a subsequent hair transplant and years of therapy.

Advantages:

— Open access: Do you want XBMC to perform any additional functions? You have a chance to achieve this, a smart programmer is working on it. XBMC runs on a different platform than its descendant Boxee, but coders have access to it and can convert it.

- Metadata and file recognition: XBMC is really good at recognizing data, including personal files and comments on jokes, when and where on the system you placed new files, their type (movie, TV show, music or picture) and quickly connects to the Internet to upload important pictures, information, reviews, and even links to video trailers and music you've uploaded.

- Light and dynamism: In general, XBMC has quite nice graphics and menus, but since it originally appeared on the basis of a project to create an entire multimedia center for a gaming system, it is aimed at the image multimedia files as smooth as possible.

- Excellent, customizable design: XBMC beats even Plex with its appearance, making a person think that he is living in the future when displayed on a really big beautiful TV. Don't like the standard design? Install a new skin and get a completely different look.

- Format support: It is unlikely that XBMC will not be able to play any file found on the Internet or downloaded from a friend, only if there is something wrong with this file.

Flaws:

- Lack of support for Netflix, Hulu: it will take a lot of effort for XBMC to be able to support these two largest resources streaming video. IN in this case XBMC is not the best choice.

- Overloaded, sometimes overly complex menus: The menus and display of information in XBMC are quite bizarre - your reaction to them depends on your temperament. You can do anything from any screen, GUI The application will seem somewhat futuristic to you. However, for newbies who just want to play something, it can be quite impressive.

Boxee

Installation and Initial Setup: Installation process for the latest Boxee beta version on Windows and Mac systems quite simple, thanks to the use of built-in video and audio systems to display content. In the case of Linux, the situation is somewhat more complicated. The program can also be installed on the Apple TV player, although to do this you need to know some installation nuances. Boxee is essentially based on XBMC and is compatible with the same software. OpenGL or DirectX compatible video cards are required.

Advantages:

- Support for Hulu and Netflix: There are some difficulties in the interaction between Boxee and Hulu, but you can watch most of the popular TV shows and movies streaming on Hulu. Netflix works well on Windows and Mac, as long as you don't mind installing Microsoft Silverlight.

— Ability to install extensions: Do you like FailBlog? Are you amused by videos on Twits? Browse them all with the Boxee app and add more resources to the "vault" where user-streamed content is intelligently curated.

- Play any content (technically): To support Hulu, Boxee uses a converted FireFox version browser, moreover, with this version you can access almost any video on the network. Boxee Browser is sort of the last resort for any web content that doesn't have its own app.

Flaws:

— Interface: Even with the app's content-focused design, many media center users find it difficult to get used to the hidden sidebars on the left side of the Boxee window and the rewind function. Some people just don't like the way the default app looks. But this is not the most important thing; in principle, the main tools here are the same as in XBMC. But if you intend to use this media center regularly, you'll have to get used to the way it looks.

- Treatment local files: Boxee is not that good at recognizing and updating local file stores. As one would expect from a system so focused on transferring Internet content. However, Boxee provides many more features to simplify the process of collecting, organizing, and accessing your downloaded files.

Some users do not want to interfere with the software part of Windows Media Center and change its interface, and I understand them. Since setting up an HTPC begins with installing all the necessary codecs, I can recommend the most popular package called K-Lite Codec Pack Full, but Windows Media Center does not want to show video files with MKV extension and AVI in the Movies section, which can be corrected as follows:

Open Windows Media Player and on the Tools | Options | Performance" check the "Enable DXVA video acceleration for WMV files" checkbox. For video formats, you can't do anything else, but the important MKV is still missing.
Install the DivX Plus Codec Pack - the package will add an MKV filter to the Media Foundation, but your computer must be connected to the Internet when installing the filter. When selecting components, make sure that the checkbox is only in front of “DivX Plus Codec Pack” - you won’t need anything else.
In terms of audio formats, Dolby ASZ and DTS are primarily lacking. Both are used when playing DVDs and Blu-rays, but are not available in Windows Media Center. The situation can be corrected using the ACZ filter: if you activate the ACM driver in the 32- or 64-bit version during its installation, this will allow you to use filters from Microsoft ACZ and DTS for all other file formats - at least in the Media Center program. If you prefer as multimedia center use other players, you will also need to select “ASZ Filter” separately.

Setting up video playback in Windows 7

To ensure that Windows 7 can actually play files of any format, disable Media Foundation and install the DirectShow filter. The most convenient way is to use a codec package specially designed for this case - Shark007 Pack. Download codecs for Windows 7, and for 64-bit systems - x64 Components. Before installing this package, remove all free codecs that were previously used. After installing Shark007 Pack, you need to configure it. Go to the Start menu, select the Shark007Codecs folder and run as administrator Settings app Application. On the “MKV” tab, check the “Disable the “DivX Media Foundation splitter” box. On the “SWAP” tab, check the “Disable Windows Media Foundation” and “Use FFDshow DXVAforWC 1 not Microsoft” checkboxes, and for “DirectShow” in the top left use “Use FFDshow’s codec”. In the “MPG-MP4” section, for “MP4 Playback” enable “Use Haali’s splitter”, and for “Overall MPEG Playback 1/2 PS/TS” - “Use Gabest Blu-ray splitter”. If your video card supports hardware acceleration, on the “H264” tab at the top left, change the parameters to “Do not use FFDshow”, and on the right - to “Use FFDShow DXVA codec”. If there is no such function, enable “Use FFDshow with multithreading”. On the “AVI” tab, in the “Playback” section, set “Use Haali’s splitter”. Finally, confirm the settings in both modules by clicking the “Save ALL Settings” button on the “Misc” tab.

Plugins for Windows Media Center

For Windows Media Center there is a large number of various plugins that allow you to customize this playback tool to suit your individual needs. To make WMC the main and only player for your files, the program lacks several important playback functions. Using a plugin Media Control you can change the image settings during playback, as well as soundtrack and subtitles. All options will be displayed while the movie is playing by pressing the key combination “Ctrl+Alt+B”.

DVRMSTOOLBOX. This program processes recordings of TV shows made using Media Center. It recognizes the advertisement and cuts it out.

Media Center Studio. IN currently that's the only thing comprehensive solution to transform the Media Center interface. Allows you to completely change the Windows Media Center menu in a few steps. Installation - Launch - Tab Start Menu— Renaming — Saving. Now we look for the names of films on Kinopoisk and when downloading we immediately indicate correct name file – data about the video file will be loaded automatically (icon with cover, background image, description, etc.).

AV ART FIXER. This program associates the album cover with the corresponding audio file.

CLIPSHOW. This plugin will add a timeline to all your video files. Additionally, it offers a random play feature.

MCE Standby Tool. This program solves Windows problems with standby function - for example, when Media Center needs to start recording a TV program according to the schedule.

Media Browser- a plugin for Windows Media Center, which is designed for organizing convenient viewing collections of films and videos available on your computer. Media Browser offers a large amount of content linked to its own media libraries. This browser allows you to manage TV series and movies more conveniently than the corresponding feature in Windows Media Center. When installing, the plugin will ask for the date older than which films will be considered viewed (the checkbox will be checked). Settings can be made either in the media center itself, or using a special wizard. For minimum settings you need to specify the paths to the movie folders. Video files can be sorted by type, and they can also be assigned age restrictions.

Additional Media capabilities Browser:

“parental control” - age restrictions for various movie catalogs, which also allows you to hide all the “strawberries” from children’s eyes with a password;
ability to specify an alternative player for certain file types in Windows Media Center;
displaying weather information in the menu;
support alternative topics;
notification about the movie you watched.

To get information about films from the Internet (Kinopoisk website), I recommend using the plugin for Media Browser - Kinopoisk (KinopoiskMetadataProvider.dll) - and having an Internet connection makes it possible to automatically receive all kinds of information about the film of interest in Russian: posters, film content, composition actors, film stills, etc. Download the latest version and put it in the folder “C:\ProgramData\MediaBrowser\Plugins”.

Attention! For the plugin to work, you need to name files or folders containing 1 video file with the full Russian name, which matches the name on Kinopoisk, and the year of release indicated in brackets. Specialist. characters can be skipped.

Detailed configuration of the Media Browser plugin

After installation, Media Browser has its own icon in the Windows Media Center start menu. The Application.png file in the program folder is responsible for the plugin icon. Icon labels can be changed using Media programs Center Studio described above. note that this plugin allows you to customize the WMC start menu in graphical mode, renaming or completely excluding from it all unused items (for example: Add-ons, TV, Movies, etc.). On the Internet you can download many beautiful alternative design themes for MS, which are also installed using Media Center Studio.

Media Browser comes with its own configurator, which allows you to fine-tune the application, select folders with videos, create several categories for more convenient sorting, connect plugins, configure the launch of an external player, and also enable the function parental controls. To access additional content, go to Start | All programs | Media Browser | Media Browser Configurator". In the “podcasts” tab you can add podcasts, and through the “plug-ins” section you can include a movie trailer in Media library Browser.

You should add at least one category on the “Media collection” tab and assign one or more content folders to it. Here you can also set an icon for the category using the Change Image button - it will be displayed in the main menu of the Media Browser plugin, if the selected theme provides such an option.

After running the plugin, you can verify that the category was successfully created and the folder is enabled. Within a category, you can navigate through the collection in one of five display modes (the “View” item), sort by title, date added, year of release, IMDB ratings, duration and fact of viewing. And also select films not by title, but by actor, genre, studio, year and director, but Media Browser does not determine which films are about we're talking about, when their name is indicated in Cyrillic. If you use original titles from IMDB.com, the information will be obtained in full from themoviedb.com, but only in English.

Integrating an alternative player into Windows Media Center

The player built into Windows Media Center is based on the Windows Media Player engine and has similar capabilities. They are enough for most files, but you always want more. For example, switching audio tracks with one button when using any container; enable and disable subtitles - both built-in and external; using fine image scaling to reduce the black bars at the top and bottom, which sometimes take up more than 30% of the screen area. In such cases, you can use any external player, which will be called from the MS, and after finishing viewing, control will return back to the shell.

Let's move on to setting up and integrating the external player. Let's consider Media Player Classic HomeCinema (MPCHC), but in its place there might be KMPlayer (I prefer it, but MPC HC is still more popular). The most important thing is the ability to customize hotkeys, as well as use hardware acceleration to play heavy formats. MPC HC includes a built-in H.264 (AVC) decoder that works well with EVR (Enhanced Video Renderer) and NVIDIA ION. Although no one bothers to replace it or supplement it with other popular decoders - CoreAVC, Nero and ArcSoft.

Setting up Media Player Classic:

change the interface language to Russian (View → Language → Russian);
in the Settings → Player menu, enable the items “Show OSD” and “Remember position in file”;
in the Settings menu → Full Screen activate the item “Run files in full screen mode”;
if external filters with DXVA support are not used, then you need to enable DXVA decoders in the “Built-in filters” menu.

To integrate an external player with the Media Browser, you need to launch the configurator, switch the settings display mode from basic to advanced and add the desired “player + extension” combination pairs on the external players tab. The configurator supports auto-mounting of ISO files and auto-start of playback by an external DVD/BD player. You can make this setting on the extenders + iso tab.

Now when you start playing the selected types Media files The Browser will minimize and launch the external player, and after closing it, return to the directory. If the file was not played back to the end, then when you reopen this file, MPC HC will start playing from the same place where viewing was interrupted last time.

Some of the buttons on the RC6 remote control work in Media Player Classic HomeCinema without additional settings: play, pause, stop, volume control and move to the next/previous file. You can assign any player function to any key on the remote control using a utility called EventGhost.

EventGhost- This powerful utility to automate processes on a PC running MS Windows, carried out by assigning macros of varying degrees of complexity to pressing a specific remote control button. EventGhost supports a huge number of IR receivers; a complete list can be found on the developer's website. To control the player, elementary macros are used in one action: a button on the remote control emulates pressing one or several keys on the keyboard.

Example of setting up EventGhost and Microsoft RC6 remote control media player Player Classic Home Cinema:

run EventGhost as administrator, create a new one configuration file: menu File → New;
to work with MCE-compatible receivers, add the appropriate plugin: Configuration → Add Plugin → Microsoft MCE Remote;
since in our case the remote control will also be used to control the MC, the Disable HID service checkbox must be unchecked;
add a macro that emulates keystrokes: Configuration → Add Macro → Window → Emulate Keystrokes;
in the Text to type column we write necessary combination in curly braces, for example: (Ctrl+Shift+Left), (e) or (Alt+1);
press the button on the remote control to which the new function will be assigned, and make sure that the Log field appears new entry type MceRemote.Button_name (for example, MceRemote.Forward);
All that remains is to drag this entry from the Log field to the Configuration field directly onto the new macro icon.

Steps four through seven are repeated as many times as the buttons need to be assigned new feature. Upon completion of the configuration, the configuration file must be saved, and the program itself must be registered in autoload in a minimized state (File → Options → Autostart and Minimize). Please note that EventGhost can only work correctly if run with administrator rights, and therefore you will have to abandon UAC (User Account Control) or look for workarounds to solve this problem.

Now all that remains is to go to the player settings and bring Keyboard shortcuts(Settings → Player → Keys) in accordance with EventGhost macros.

Entering and exiting sleep mode. Problems and solutions.

Problem 1. By default, the PC shutdown button on the Microsoft RC6 remote puts the PC into sleep mode, but you can turn it back on only from the button on the case. This drawback is corrected through the BIOS by disabling the Deep Sleep function and enabling the Wake up from USB option (in different BIOS versions The function name is different).

Problem 2. Another unpleasant little thing can be spontaneous switching on HTPC from a sleep state, usually occurring late at night. This behavior is caused by the option to turn on the PC to perform one of the scheduled tasks. Disable: Control Panel | Power supply | Setting up a power plan | Change Extra options nutrition | Dream | Allow wake timers | Switch off.

The other day I decided to once again speed up the startup of Windows. This thought simply stuck in my head like a huge nail and did not allow me to live in peace. I released it only after accelerating this process to 9.2 seconds.

Today I’ll tell you about how to disable Windows Media Center- this greatly influenced the achievement of my personal record for speeding up system startup.

I have already written many times about overclocking the startup of the Windows operating system (there are several links at the end of the article). Having applied all my knowledge in this area, turning everything off unnecessary services etc., I reached a value of 13-15 seconds. But subconsciously I felt that it was possible to achieve best result that you can cross the 10 second mark - and so it turned out.

And all because I looked at the “Scheduled Tasks” tab (with the “Advanced Mode” checkbox checked) in the “Startup” item of the CCleaner program...

Here I found about a dozen items marked “Media Center”. To do this, just move the slider to the far right position...

During my searches, I did not take screenshots, since I was not going to write an article on this topic - as a result, I cannot show you a screenshot with these items, my Media Center is already disabled.

At first I simply turned off all these startup items, but then it dawned on me that it’s probably possible to disable Windows Media Center completely. I rushed to look for information on the Internet and it turned out that this is a very simple, easy and fast operation...

How to disable Windows Media Center

The fact is that this thing is very strongly integrated into the system (as well as Internet Explorer) and you cannot completely remove Windows Media Center - you can only disable it.

To do this, go to Control Panel - Programs and Features - Turn Windows features on or off...

...and just uncheck “Windows Media Center”...

Click “Ok” and boldly agree with all the warnings. Rebooting...

That's all - now you know how to disable Windows Media Center.

If you are afraid to turn it off, here you go link to official page Microsoft Corporation - describes what happens if you disable Windows Media Center.

By the way, I also turned off (as you can see in the screenshot) the DVD studio - I don’t need it either.

This way I speeded up the computer startup to 10 seconds...

...and by disabling ALL programs from startup, except for the antivirus, I got 9.2 seconds (out of joy I even forgot to take a screenshot)! But this is too much - in this way you can not turn on the computer at all and get 0 seconds.

For information - I have a (recently) i5 processor, SSD drive and 8 GB fast RAM. The measurements were taken using free program BootRacer.

But as you know, in the operating room Windows system 7 (starting with the Home Premium version) already has its own media center installed, which is called: Windows Media Center.

This program, like XBMC, is used for:

1) Watching the video.

2) Listening to music.

3) View photos.

But most users (including me) consider the Windows media center to be a very inconvenient and poorly functional program. And in this regard, they either simply do not use it, or try in every possible way to remove it from the computer.

But the fact is that you can’t just take it and remove it, since it is built into the system itself. It does not need to be deleted, it must be properly disabled.

How this program can be disabled was already mentioned in principle in the article “”, but I’ll still tell you about it again.

How to disable Windows Media Center

1) In order to do this, you need to open a window called “ Windows components" There are several ways to open it.

First I'll tell you the easiest way:

A) Press “Win + R”, and write “OptionalFeatures”, then press Enter. You can also enter this phrase by clicking the start button in the search bar (as you prefer).

You can also use the control panel:

b) Click the Start button, go to Control Panel\All Control Panel Items (that is, icon mode), and select “Programs and Features.” Next, on the left side of the window, click on the “Turn Windows features on or off” link.

Why is the first method better? It's simple, you don't have to look for the desired item in the control panel. And if you don’t use it very often, and don’t remember by heart which item is where, then this can take a lot of time.

2) When the Windows Features window opens, find and expand Media Features. Next, uncheck Windows Media Center and click Ok.

P.S. If a message appears that disabling this program may affect other Windows and program features, simply click Yes.