To install Trailer Library head over to the Green Button forums post and hit the download link to get the latest version. Install the plugin and open up Windows 7 Media Center. The plugin should appear in the Extra’s Library and can be launched from there.

For European users you can select your locale from the Settings menu at the top of the screen. Simply select Settings, mark the radio box next to your location and select the Continue button. This should change the source of the trailers being downloaded from Filmtrailers.com and give you a more localized selection (as well as your native language in the details).

Inside the main interface select from three options: Latest Trailers, In Cinemas and Coming Soon to narrow down the results. Then in the main strip displaying movie covers select the title to get trailers for and somewhat counter-intuitively you’ll need to press down to select from the available trailers for the title. Though it may have been more intuitive to simply have a small listing of the available trailers as opposed to this strip method it does get the job done.

Another small drawback to the current interface is the inability to select the description and scroll down to read any text that may get cut off. It also tends to be somewhat repetitive and unnecessary for movies with only a single trailer available. Though despite these few shortcomings Trailer Library is very effective at getting movie trailers into the Media Center interface. Users will be hard pressed to do much better than this, especially those looking for European listings. Hopefully we’ll continue to see further development of this plugin in the future.

To get started with this example you’ll need to have mcShoutcast downloaded and installed, though the same process can be applied to any entry point. This example will launch mcShoutcast and start playing the first favorite station. To get started setting up the scheduled alarm open up Task Scheduler from the start menu (start –> “task scheduler” –> enter) and select the option to Create Basic Task.

Give the task a name and description of your own choosing and move on to the next step in creating the task, setting the trigger. For a standard Monday through Friday alarm setup choose the Weekly option. From here the task can be set to run on specific days each week at a specific time each morning.

Continuing on tell the Task Scheduler to Start a program at these times and enter the following to have mcShoutcast open and play the first favorite station: C:\Windows\ehome\ehshell.exe /entrypoint:{6691E7EC-EF42-4493-A2E9-2DA345F9B7D5}\{BB2F49CD-159C-4e06-91A8-80CE232DB19C}

Task Scheduler will inform you that the second portion of the string actually belongs in the arguments box (everything following the .exe) but will give you the option to do this automatically if not done by hand. Click OK on the dialog to move the entrypoint argument to the arguments box.

Some users may also need to set the options to run the program with Highest Privileges and to Wake the computer if sleeping. These options can be accessed by selecting the new task in the Task Scheduler Library and selecting Properties from the right. Select the Conditions tab from the Properties dialog and check the checkbox to enable waking the computer from sleep (which may also require highest privileges found on the General tab).

That should be all there is to it. Close any open dialogs and return to Windows. This method of launching mcShoutcast will open Windows Media Center if not already running, launch the plugin and then begin playing the first favorite station. To launch other plugins you’ll need to get the entrypoint as described in this previous article or use another Media Center switch to launch other media types.

Thanks to Marc for the tip and to all our Hack7MC readers. If you’ve got a tip for us let us know with our contact form! For those not yet signed up for one of our free subscriptions be sure to do that now as well!

For those comfortable with some minor system file manipulation bill24 lays out the steps to use the popular Restorator, which has a free trial, to change a few lines to enable the extra backgrounds. The first thing you’ll need to do is take ownership (Download, Apply, rclick ehres.dll and Take Ownership) of the ehres.dll file in C:\Windows\ehome. Next make two copies of the file one as a backup and another to edit. Once that’s done open up the file in Restorator.

First navigate to the html folder and locate the EXTENSIBILITY.BACKGROUND.XML, make a copy of this file on the desktop and rename it to RECORDEDTV.BACKGROUND.XML. Next open this new file for editing in any text editor (I personally prefer Notepad++) and find the following:

background=”image(Common.Background.png)”

into

background=”image(BD.RECORDEDTV.PNG)”

Now copy that file back into Restorator inside of the html folder and locate the RECORDEDTV.BROWSEPAGE.XML and edit it either inside Restorator or in a text editor. Change the following line:

<backgroundpage url=”COMMON.BACKGROUND.XML”/>

into

<backgroundpage url=”RECORDEDTV.BACKGROUND.XML”/>

This will instruct the program to load a custom image for Recorded TV’s background image. Each of these steps will have to be repeated, replacing the section name for RECOREDEDTV above. Then an image will need to be added for each background referenced in place of the Common.Backgound.png. These images should be dropped into the RCData folder inside Restorator. The following sections are known to be available: VIDEO, RECORDEDTV, PICTURES, MUSIC, RADIO and MOVIES.

Though there is a patch to make this slightly simpler it still requires use of Restorator. You’ll need to apply the patch to an editable version of ehres.dll and then replace the background images named:

BD.VIDEO.png
BD.RECOREDTV.png
BD.PICTURES.png
BD.MUSIC.png
BD.RADIO.png
BD.MOVIES.PNG

Users will simply need to drag and drop the image to replace the new black “replace me” background added by the patch. Then save the new dll file and copy it over the original in C:\Windows\ehome. Though still not particularly for novices this does make the process quite a bit easier. Even if trying your hand at the manual method didn’t work this may give better results when used on that backup file.

A great big thanks to bill24 for coming up with the work to make this possible and Australian Media Center Forums for the community to bring around these great people. Be sure to become a subscribing member of Hack7MC to catch all the latest posts, it’s free!

To find ATI’s Overscan/Underscan and GPU scaling options follow these steps:

Open ATI Control Center and bring down the Graphics menu and select the Desktops and Displays option.

Next select the display which isn’t showing the proper scaling near the bottom of the screen in the small toolbar of displays. Right-click the display and select the Configure… option.

From this screen you can enable or disable the built-in GPU scaling functions of the card as well as choose from a few modes which might better suit your display.

To adjust Overscan/Underscan, select the Scaling Options tab and select the checkbox to enable the feature. Then adjust the setting using the slider.

That’s all there is to it! Something that probably should’ve been quite a bit easier to find to begin with. If you’ve got any more tips or information on these or other ATI driver settings be sure to drop them in the comments below!

To get started you’ll need to have installed the server and client of My Movies 3 on your main Media Center machine. We’re installing the client and server on this machine so that we can use the client to browse movies in Media Center and the server will allow us to edit the data remotely. The server also adds the possibility of remotely accessing the same collection database from each PC on the network. Using a central database in place of flat files saves time and resources by not reloading flat files from the folders and downloading data to each client Media Center machine.

On the remote machine you’ll only need to install the client for browsing the My Movies 3 library. For editing the collection remotely, install My Movies 3 Collection Management from the My Movies download page. Unfortunately, the installation process doesn’t offer to change the firewall settings so that we can access the database remotely and it needs to be done manually. Start by opening up the Control Panel –> Safety and Security –> Allow a Program through the Firewall on the Media Center and press the Change settings button. Press the Add another program button and locate “Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Binn\” (64-bit users look in “Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\Binn\”) and add sqlservr.exe. Also, locate Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Shared\sqlbrowser.exe and add it to the exceptions list (64-bit users need not use program files (x86) this time).

Now to edit the collection launch the My Movies Collection Management program and you’ll be prompted to enter the network location of the My Movies server machine (after logging in to the My Movies server, which is the same username and password as a My Movies forums account: register here).

It takes some time to access and load the database. To change the location of the My Movies server later access the File menu and select the Connect to Server option. Management of the My Movies collection should now be possible from the client machine.

My Movies Collection Management offers a fairly comprehensive ability to edit movie metadata manually and retrieve data from remote sources. To change the title or source of a particular movie select it from the left hand pane and press the small red and green arrow icon in the toolbar.

From this next dialog change the title, location and format to help narrow down the results and find the correct selection for the title in question. For instance, The Patriot regularly comes up as a Steven Segal movie when it’s in fact the Mel Gibson revolutionary war tale of the same name.

Simply select the proper title and format (type) for the movie and press the Change button to download the updated information. That’s all there is to it! You should now be able to use the Collection Management tool to edit your entire movie collection’s metadata remotely for My Movies 3. Have trouble or tips? Leave a comment below!

1. Media Center Master

Media Center Master gets the top spot because no matter what movie library plugin you’re running it needs metadata, likely tons of it. The program features automatic metadata retrieval for your entire collection, simply point it in the right direction and Media Center Master does the rest. Under constant development as well as supported by a single man via the MCM forums the program has continued to expand from humble roots to support a number of metadata formats and options.

For users of the native Windows Media Center movie library simply pointing MCM at the same directories and letting it go to work is enough to fill out the complete metadata for most people’s entire collections. For those using alternatives you may want to run the program locally in the background and let it pick up new additions automatically using an incredibly accurate system for selecting the proper movie. Of course, there are a number of advanced options as well, especially for third-party plugin users, allowing users to download backdrops, posters, actor images and more with out raising a finger.

Though not technically a plugin, Media Center Master goes a long way toward putting a finishing polish on your Windows Media Center setup no matter which movie library used. Nothing makes a Media Center look more unsightly than an incomplete set of metadata in your movie library while showing off to the friends. Make sure you’ve got yours up to date automatically with this handy little program and you wont regret it. The latest downloadable version of Media Center Master is available from mediacentermaster.com. Need help getting started with Media Center Master? We’ve got a couple of short guides to using MCM here at Automatic Metadata Retrieval with Media Center Master and Master Metadata with Media Center Master.

2. My Channel Logos

Part program and part plugin, My Channel Logos secures the second spot for it’s ability to sublimely enhance the look of Windows 7 Media Center’s TV Guide listings. Adding white or full color logos to Media Center’s TV lineup greatly improves the usability of the guide itself especially when considering the sometimes cryptic call signs  displayed by default. The anticipation for this program was fairly high during it’s short development and when finally available it met all expectations. What began as simple white logos injected into the TV guide listings to replace those drab call sign codes has blossomed into white and full color logos for not only the US but a slew of countries around the globe.

The newest versions automatically update the available images once a week to ensure that users have the most complete collection of logos available and as always the program has the ability to auto-populate logos. My Channel Logos will look at the assigned guide listings to choose the right logo for each channel thereby bypassing the funky station names and getting the right logo for each channel. This alone make My Channel Logos a good way to improve the scan ability of the TV guide. What where once garbled strings of text are now easy to browse channel logos making perusing the guide much smoother.

Once again, aesthetics plays a large part in the Media Center and that’s why My Channel Logos gets the second spot in the list. Simple fixes to small problems that just work, My Channel Logos tackles the subpar TV guide with a simple solution that improves both the look and usability of the guide at the same time. The program is such a success it’s hard to imagine the TV guide without it. Though the program is pretty simple even for the most novice user, should you need help getting started with My Channel Logos check out our guide to  Add Channel Logos to 7MC with the latest My Channel Logos.

Theme Patches/Installers

• Around The Mountains – 20.8mb
• Midnight Magic – 48.5mb
• Astrotoy7 Black – 15.2mb
• Bokeh – 27.6mb
• Soylet Green – 27.8mb
• Flying Whales – 39.9mb
• Nowhere Road – 50.1mb
• Homeworld – 24.2mb

Channel Logos

• UK Freeview – 236kb
• UK Freesat – 621kb
• UK Channel pack – 2.8mb
• Canadian Channel Logos – 339kb

Looking for Media Center Studio Packages? Find five of these themes in MCT format right here!

If you’re new to Hack7MC have a look at some of our most popular articles for Windows 7 Media Center users:

• MKVs for Minimalists on Windows 7
• Playing FLAC files in WMP & Media Center
• The Short List of Small Fixes for Windows Media Center

Also, become a subscribing member through any of our free subscription methods including RSS and Twitter.

Over the coming weeks progress will continue to be made on improving the Download Center area to make it easier to find downloads and information about them through that area. Currently holding almost a hundred downloads, each entry will be getting a once over to add additional information and directions to allow to reader to begin using the download immediately. At the moment most downloads should have a Read More link under the download button which should take you to the most relevant article about the download here on Hack7MC.

With any luck we’ll also be expanding the Download Center to include even more programs and files available for download. If you’ve got any programs, hacks or files for Media Center that you would like to be included in our download archives drop a line at mhealy@hack7mc.com. Hopefully this will make it easier to not only find the downloads you’re looking for but also get some basic information on using them.

Thanks to all our regular readers and media center fans for being a part of the Hack7MC community!

Splitting Those MKVs

First on the list is a tiny little program which expands the number of video formats able to be played in Windows Media Center. Haali’s splitter now comes in both x86 and x64 and will enable new video formats, such as MKV, by simply splitting the content into audio video streams and sending it to the already available Microsoft decoders. This sort of software is known as a splitter.

Haali’s isn’t the only splitter available. Gabest’s splitter also comes in both x86 and x64 formats and will also take care of playing MKV files inside Windows 7 Media Center. Links to Gabest’s splitter can be found in the MKVs for Minimalists guide here on Hack7MC. Though the FFDShow installation is no longer necessary you can expand your playback options by installing it as well. FFDShow will allow for manipulation of settings not available in the built-in Microsoft decoders.

Extended Play

Ever paused Windows Media Center for so long that when you came back the show that had been playing has now been mutilated into a worthless unwatchable mess? This is due to the default pause buffer being too small, in spite of the fact that most Windows 7 Media Center machines carry hefty amounts of storage to hold the data.

This quick fix will let you set the default pause buffer as high as 120 minutes (2 hours). It’s both easy and efficient, just set it up once and forget about it from now. That is until you pause a show on the Media Center for over an hour and come back to a perfectly watchable show afterward.

Faster Forward

Ever notice skipping past those commercials in recorded television can be somewhat of a chore at the default settings? We’ve got a simple set of registry fixes that will allow for easily setting the skip intervals to new values. Changing the forward setting to a minute or even just matching the forward and reverse skip intervals, which by default are 30 seconds forward and 7 seconds reverse, can make a world of difference.

Expanded View

Media Center’s TV Guide defaults to a slim seven row display leaving ample room to display the Media Center background along with pertinent information. It’s an esthetic choice that limits the number of rows in the EPG and can even be a waste of time. Clear up this issue and bump the number of displayed channel rows up to ten. Take that big screen TV and use it’s real estate for all it’s worth.

Made for TV

Another slightly disturbing default behavior is Media Center’s habit of placing recorded from TV movies, full of commercials and cut to ribbons, in the Movie Library. Certainly this would be great if recording from HBO or Showtime but it doesn’t quite work out when recording from TBS. Take a minute to apply this quick registry fix to never have recorded from TV movies added to the main Movie Library again.

7MC Doesn’t Take Flac

Out of the box Microsoft seems to have a huge problem with supporting free and open-source formats, MKV and Flac among the many. Flac being a popular format for audiophiles and music lovers this can be a serious problem. The fix for this problem will require a couple of downloads but will get Flac working inside Windows Media Center and even Media Player. Though there isn’t any extended track information support inside either program or Windows Explorer for that matter.

Don’t Forget

Finally, don’t forget to become a participating member of Hack7MC! Leave a comment below, subscribe to our feed or send us a message.

The first step is to open up the Registry Editor by bringing up the start menu and entering “regedit” in the search box and pressing enter. This should launch the built-in Windows registry editor. Once inside navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Settings\Radio\presets

Right-click the presets entry and select the Export option. Save the file someplace safe. Now each time you’d like to restore your Radio presets you’ll simply need to double-click this new .reg file to restore the registry entries. Confirm the addition of the data to the registry in the pop-up dialog and you should be all set.

For those of you who aren’t taking advantage of the Radio section of Windows Media Center due to a lack of good AM/FM radio antenna this can make a good DIY project. There are several guide to making your very own radio antenna available online, an antenna is just a length of properly sized conductive metal after all. You can find a few good guides to creating a radio antenna here in pdf form, from eHow, or in this more complete guide to everything you’d possibly want to know about antenna.

Otherwise, just sit back and enjoy Windows Media Center knowing that your personal Radio presets are backed up for posterity. Thanks to Joe Hecht for sending us this handy little tip and thanks to all for reading Hack7MC. Have a tip you’d like to share? Send it to us here on our Contact Page!

Again, not being from the UK we can’t test the tool personally, however, it seems to be a fairly simple process. The program will launch, detect the Media Center’s EPG database then inject the channel manually. This will need to be done each time the channel lineup is rescanned however as the database starts from scratch after each tuner or channel scan.

To use the fix you’ll either need to check the TGB thread for the latest release or download version 5 (4/28/10) from Hack7MC here. Run the program and apply the fix. Then simply re-launch Windows 7 Media Center (we assume). The author has also setup a donation page for those who’ve been helped by the program.

If ITV HD is showing up properly in the TV Guide but there are no listings available you will need to associate them manually. Select the channel name in the guide, press i or right-click and select Edit Channel. Select the Edit Listings option from the following page and locate the listings for ITV1 HD and associate them with this channel. Media Center should now retrieve the ITV1 HD channel listings automatically with each guide update.

Hopefully this fix works for everyone having issues with getting this channel to show up properly. It’s great to see that the community can take over so expertly in Microsoft’s absence. For even more on channel lineups check out our guide on setting up custom channel lineups.