As you may have noticed we’ve been suffering a bit of downtime lately. Unfortunately, our previous hosts’ (vps.net) services have been degrading for quite some time and we’ve been forced to make a change. They seem to have expanded far passed what their actual staffing would allow resulting in poor uptime and support services. I saw the signs and should have made the move sooner.

That said, the actual move was far less frustrating than I suspected it would be (so far). It appears that the bulk of the site is once again functional. However, if you do find something not working properly on the site please drop a line below so I can check it out. It’s been a while since I’ve had the ambition to post a steady stream of updates but I am committed to keeping the site online for as long as possible. With luck that task will be reasonably easier now.

Unfortunately, this also means a bit of the database was lost (actually 2 portions from two separate time periods in the last 30 days) and some comments have been lost. If your comment was lost and you’d like to repost it (contains helpful info or questions yet unanswered) feel free to do so and apologies for the inconvenience.

I don’t have a new theme available at the moment but it’s nice to have one on the front page ready to download and I particularly enjoy this one. You can download the original wallpaper as well right here at Perfect Hue, created by Jason Benjamin.

DOWNLOAD MOBIUS THEME

Post Open Questions / Tips / Media Center Related Below

Also, feel free to use the comments section below to drop questions, tips or media center related links and such. I’ll try to reply as I see them and as I have time or a fellow Media Center enthusiast may come along and have the answer. Dropping links is fine but they must be Media Center related and if a comment contains 2 or more links it is sent to moderation, please be patient. You can also send an email to mhealy@hack7mc.com and I will do my best to answer them but they frequently fall by the wayside due to time constrictions and the nature of an email inbox.

Get started by downloading the file here, zipped and including a readme instruction file. Find the instructions below as well as a new theme sent in by reader Mike J. called Blue Space. Download the theme here as well and give it a try!

Download Blue Space Theme

Here are the steps to get MCS themes working with this file and Media Center Themer as sent along by Todd:

1) use winrar to extract the entire set of theme resources to c:\programdata\Media Center Themer\Theme

2) edit my MCTDefault.xml to modify any text color for the themes (my file is stock from MCT) and any other MCT additions

3) backup original MCTDefault.xml

4) copy MCTDefault.xml to c:\programdata\Media Center Themer\

5) restart MCE

Let us know how you get by with this method below if you’re using Media Center Themer, as well as any other tips you may have for the program as well!

First you’ll need a copy of the files which are mirrored here to spare Assassin the bandwidth but don’t hesitate to visit his blog here. The installation instructions follow:

Assassin’s Instruction for Media Center Studio work around…

1. Download the zipped folder directory “Assassin’s MCS Directory”

2. Unzip the file

3. Make sure you have “show hidden folders” enabled under the folders option in your Start -> Control Panel menu.

4. Move the unzipped directory to C:\users\*your_user_name*\Appdata\local\Apps\2.0\*huge_string_of_junk*\ where “*huge_string_of_junk*” is the name of the directory that you just unzipped and pasted into that folder.

5. Then run the executable : Media Center Studio.exe

A text copy is also available here.

That should be all there is to getting Media Center Studio running as long as the official site stays dark. Should anyone have contact with the owner of adventmediacenter.com we’d love to see the site come back or would gladly host the files here at Hack7MC to make them available to the community.

It may also be worth note at this time that there is another media center theme application available here at Patchou’s Cabana. There aren’t very many themes available for the program currently however, though that may change with the outage of the official Media Center Studio site. Hopefully Assassin’s method to installation eases that pain for now.

As you can see in the screenshots below there should be nice red tinted text as in the author’s screenshots but instead the text is default blues.

Download Cherry Red Theme

A fantastic theme though for those who can get the font colors working properly and sure to be a classic if the font issue is resolved. So download it, give it a try and if your fonts change color let us know what voodoo you were practicing at the time in the comments below. As always, here’s some install instructions:

Installing this theme requires Windows 7 Media Center and Media Center Studio, a free media center theme creation application. Once you’ve downloaded the zip file extract the .mct file inside to a location of your choice. Open Media Center Studio and select the themes tab then select Import Theme. Locate the file and import the theme into the program. Select the newly imported theme from the listing and hit Apply. The theme will be applied the next time media center is started.

To brighten things up you can find a few new themes for download and installation on your Windows 7 Media Center machine. The first is from Astrotoy7 with a follow-up to his original Black theme. The theme has been updated to feature a red theater drape in the main background and still includes fully black themed bits in other areas of Media Center.

Download Black (and Red) Theme

If red doesn’t fit your style you can try blue with this new HexGlowBlue theme from Grayline23. What makes this theme so fantastic? The background is animated to slowly strobe a glowing blue effect! It really is quite a neat effect and is one of the first backgrounds to be animated with anything other than the original style of blue glowing mist from the original Media Center theme.

Download HexBlueGlow Theme

That’s all for today, hopefully this server issue gets fixed promptly and everything is smooth sailing from here on. Find instructions for installing these themes below.

Installing this theme requires Windows 7 Media Center and Media Center Studio, a free media center theme creation application. Once you’ve downloaded the zip file extract the .mct file inside to a location of your choice. Open Media Center Studio and select the themes tab then select Import Theme. Locate the file and import the theme into the program. Select the newly imported theme from the listing and hit Apply. The theme will be applied the next time media center is started.

Also newly released is an app for you iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch that enables remote streaming of your media directly to the device. This is another feature currently being instituted by cable providers that is a fantastic addition to Media Center. The app isn’t free, costing around seven dollars and including most of the features of the web-based service including TV guide access, recording scheduling and remote media streaming. Check out the video below from developer FatAttitude showcasing this new feature.

The base program, using a web based interface, still does much of what it had done previously as would be expected though with some slight upgrades to the streaming. Though there were still problems streaming video in anything above normal quality, even over a local gigabit network. Recorded TV, video and movies now support full seeking so you can skip past commercials or any other bit without much trouble however, which is a welcome feature indeed.

Remote Potato still takes on remote TV scheduling with relative ease, though the Silverlight version of the guide can be sluggish at times it’s more than a competent replacement for the cable companies often less than stellar offerings. For those looking to replace their costly commercial DVR with Media Center without loosing out on any of the features it’s hard to image not giving the free Remote Potato server a try. Browsing through your other media collections just serves to sweeten the pot, especially when combined with the portability of the iPad/iPhone app.

DOWNLOAD MOBIUS THEME

Installing this theme requires Windows 7 Media Center and Media Center Studio, a free media center theme creation application. Once you’ve downloaded the zip file extract the .mct file inside to a location of your choice. Open Media Center Studio and select the themes tab then select Import Theme. Locate the file and import the theme into the program. Select the newly imported theme from the listing and hit Apply. The theme will be applied the next time media center is started.

Be sure to check back for more additions to the collection as well as other media center add-ons and software.

Though there is a free version of the software, the ‘lite’ version is severely gimped even over the original version of MCL in that it no longer includes an auto-populate function. The removal of this feature is due to the fact that the software is no longer relying on the kindness of it’s users hearts to get by in these hard economic times. Users wanting the simple ease of the first MCL are going to have to pony up this time but at a mere $3.40 it shouldn’t break the bank.

The full version includes everything available in previous version and additional features like increasing the number of channels displayed in the guide. Previous only available as a direct hack MCL2 adds the ability to increase the listings to display from 7 to 11 channels at a time and the mini-guide from 2 to 4 channels at a time. All of this at the press of a button is far above previous implementations and in itself makes the full version well worth the cost of entry. Also, available are options to display (or not) the callsign, channel number and even the logo itself, allowing even more customization of the guide.

This version has a retooled auto-update as well that will check the server periodically and retrieve the newest logo versions from the master server, applying them even without having to exit Media Center. Locked channel logos are still available, as in previous versions, as well as the option for color or monochrome logos.

All in all, the program is well worth the three bucks and change but so was the first one. This new version only adds to the appeal with the ease in which it manipulates the guide listings, putting you in virtually total control of the TV guide display. New users can get a feel for the app with the free version but Media Center fans shouldn’t hesitate to pick up the full version.

Thanks for reading! Be sure to drop a comment below!

So, without further ado, here’s the ‘Crowd’ theme available for download and use with Media Center Studio. Further directions will be cut and pasted below, installation is standard as with any other theme.

DOWNLOAD ‘CROWD’ THEME

Installing this theme requires Windows 7 Media Center and Media Center Studio, a free media center theme creation application. Once you’ve downloaded the zip file extract the .mct file inside to a location of your choice. Open Media Center Studio and select the themes tab then select Import Theme. Locate the file and import the theme into the program. Select the newly imported theme from the listing and hit Apply. The theme will be applied the next time media center is started.

Enjoy! Look out for some non-theme updates soon as I try out some of this updated software that has come out.

DOWNLOAD PLATFORM THEME

Installing this theme requires Windows 7 Media Center and Media Center Studio, a free media center theme creation application. Once you’ve downloaded the zip file extract the .mct file inside to a location of your choice. Open Media Center Studio and select the themes tab then select Import Theme. Locate the file and import the theme into the program. Select the newly imported theme from the listing and hit Apply. The theme will be applied the next time media center is started.

Again, don’t forget to head over to perfecthue.com and check out more wallpapers from the same artist and grab a few for your desktop. Also, thanks again to Jason for allowing the use of his fine workmanship!