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Friday, May 23, 2008 9:00 AM

Maps Addin Photos

Jorge Mozo was kind enough to send me some photos of the Google Maps Addin for Windows Media Center running on his big screen TV using an XBox 360 extender. I think it looks pretty cool! He also has the new Moon and Mars maps addin installed.   Jorge has also been helping me to translate the instructions into Spanish. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!
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Friday, April 25, 2008 10:19 AM

Browse the Moon and Mars from your couch too

Google introduced maps of the Moon and Mars a while ago, now you can access those maps using the JavaScript API. I've created Windows Media Center addins for those too in case you've run out of places to explore on earth. Get the installs for GMAPMCE, GMOONMCE and GMARSMCE from http://savage.org.za/mediacenter.htm Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!
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Wednesday, March 07, 2007 8:48 AM

Media Center More Music v1-and-a-bit

Here's a new version of the More Music addin that adds some Media Center remote control support. Most of the ideas are stolen from the great work done on http://openpandora.googlepages.com/ . Download the files here Download the source code here Installation is not for the faint-hearted : instructions in the readme.txt file. NB: It only works on XP Media Center and is unlikely to work in Vista Media Center without severely crippling the security to run unsigned activex controls. I have no plans at...
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Monday, July 17, 2006 12:24 PM

Getting the DSTV guide in xmltv format

Since there's a bunch of smart programmers out there with some really creative ideas I'd like to open this question to the floor for some suggestions. The problem The dstv website lists 52 channels, 67 categories and subcategories for approximately 30 days ahead. Not all the scheduled programs have categories assigned to them but can be listed by date range. You can request data from the web page using the following parameters An optional channel number (without the channel it returns all channel...
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Monday, February 20, 2006 4:43 PM

Find music that you'll like using MCE and pandora.com

If you haven't been to http://www.pandora.com go check it out. It's streaming music like an internet radio station but with a difference. Type in a song name or artist and it plays lots of similar music that you are likely to enjoy. The streaming audio is excellent quality and it's free. To get this functionality in MCE 2005 I've created a simple addin that adds an item to the "More" menu. The "More" menu will be available in Albums view, Artists view and Song Details view. The artist or song name...
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Wednesday, December 28, 2005 1:25 PM

Good list of MCE links

Check out the hometek support page for some very useful links related to Media Center Edition 2005 including patches, blogs, utilities and many more. powered by IMHO 1.3 Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!
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Wednesday, December 14, 2005 9:53 AM

*new* platform information coming next week

Charlie Owen is hinting at some new features for media center developers on the new http://blog.mediacentersandbox.com/ . I hope it's something for the current version and not just previews for the Vista version. powered by IMHO 1.3 Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!
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Tuesday, October 25, 2005 9:06 AM

XMLTV grabber for DSTV tv guide

a command line program to read the South African DSTV website and parse the tv guide scheduling
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Wednesday, September 28, 2005 12:38 PM

Media Center addin development still waiting for an integrated ui

It seems we all have to wait a lot longer to write integrated addins for XP Media Center since the project to use the xml layouts was abandoned . I have a suspicion that mcextended was dangled off a building by his ankles . Even if it's not a direct reference, hopefully Microsoft gets a hint of what the developers really want for the platform. Share this post: email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! | live it!
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Monday, August 29, 2005 11:06 AM

Another week to wait...

The suspense is killing me ! It seems James has figured out how to write real plugins for Windows MCE 2005 that integrate correctly with the UI, not using the lame html addin options. He is putting together an “sdk” of sorts to build addins using MCE's own rendering system with xml based UI layouts. Download the Weather addin he has created here . It seems he was sick for a week so is a bit behind on releasing it. All I can say is get well soon because I'm itching to get my hands on the sdk. Share...
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Friday, August 05, 2005 9:42 AM

Browser specific with no remorse

The next installment in “I didn't know I could do that...“ I came across IE Filters and Transitions the other day, I've never seen them before. That's probably because they don't work in anything other than Intenet Explorer. It includes different transitions between pages like fade, pixelate, gradientwipe and various static filters for visual effects like dropshadows and emboss etc. Developing HTML applications for Media Center is one of those cases where cross browser is not important, so they may...
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Thursday, July 28, 2005 10:06 PM

Google maps on your XP Media Center

Ok...I was bored, so I started playing with the Google Maps API and the MCE SDK. The result was this page : http://savage.org.za/GMAPMCE/ which doesn't really add much functionality other than being able to browse the world from your couch with the remote. To add to your Media Center download GMAPMCE from this page and run the installer. The shortcut will appear under the "More Programs" menu. On the web page use the arrow keys to move around and PgUp / PgDn to zoom. On MCE use the...
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