The Media Center Show Podcast - All Comments

re: The Media Center Show #231 – Tagging your photos

Mark Williamson — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 22:20:56 GMT

Ive been using the trial of adobe since the show but although the tags in the application show for example people family mark only the mark is saved in the file when I update the file. So in media center the tags remain flat.

Im doing something wrong any pointers

Mark

re: The Media Center Show #231 – Tagging your photos

IRudy — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 20:56:48 GMT

Great episode and comments! I have lived in this world for music and it was like a smack upside the head when I listened to this episode. Great think to the Dim.jar tool as well that made me organizing my files to get ready for a mass tagging exercise SO much easier.

Keep up the great work!

re: The Media Center Show #231 – Tagging your photos

dmccall — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 21:43:22 GMT

Thanks for getting to this topic. As they mentioned having the actual photos tagged is a HUGE luxury in Media Center. I also love having the hierarchical tags that only force the user to drill down a level or two to get to a topic they want to see.

There are a few points I'd like to make though:

* Brian is correct in the fallacy of Picasa (that it doesn't change the tag in the photo itself, but keeps the data in a separate database file). The other problem with Picasa is that it does not allow tag hierarchies, so "Cruise" will be right next to "Christmas" and "Chrissy" in the list of tags - a mess if you have 50 or so tags!!

* Brian did not get to the organization of the physical file. Because we all have more than one camera in the family, it is important to rename the files so that there are not two IMG1003.jpg files in the system. Therefore, move all of your files from the picture card to a temporary directory (I call it "Unprocessed photos"). Then use a little, free program like dim.jar (www.alanlight.com/.../Dim.htm) to rename the pictures and move them to a folder hierarchy based on date taken. I use the filename of YYYYMMDD-XXX.jpg (where XXX is an arbitrary 3-digit number that is assigned for the photo in the batch.). This way if you are browsing photos and you see something called 20081225-134.jpg, you know that it is the 134 file from Christmas in '08. (\shared pictures\2008\12\20081225-134.jpg).

* Windows Live Photo Gallery does everything Brian mentioned he does with the bulky, expensive Adobe product! Tagging with a hierarchy is perhaps EASIER in PG than in AP. PG doesn't really do face recognition, but really, every picture likely needs to be tagged and Event-based and/or Location-based tag anyway, so I don't see the need for it. Bottom line, save your money and try Windows Live Photo Gallery.

What I really love about tagging the image itself, is that the image tags are transferred with the images if you put them on a CD for family members. When they import the old family photos you've scanned into Photo Gallery, the entire tag structure is right there for them, so they don't have to do any of this work you've already done.

Thanks for a great show!

re: The Media Center Show #231 – Tagging your photos

bfrost — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 15:09:18 GMT

@invicta - Take care though - your hierarchy is probably only in the database used by the viewer. For future-proffing your photos, right-click them, choose proprties and look at the tags embedded in the picture - I'll bet they dont show the hierarchy for you.

Brian

re: The Media Center Show #231 – Tagging your photos

invicta — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:30:15 GMT

I too listened to this weeks show. I decided to download the freeware application iTag feom www.itagsoftware.com

I have just had a play and it appears that your can easily manage and add tags.

When I then went back an viewed in Windows Live Photo Gallery, all the new tagged date was there. I then dragged the folders to create the hierachy I wanted.

Regards,

Richard

re: The Media Center Show #231 – Tagging your photos

Mark Williamson — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 11:55:58 GMT

I think you guys should get commission from adobe , Im downloading the trial right now. My flat tags have become unmanageable and using the people tags on live photo app they dont appear in MCE. This will certainly get me brownie points

Mark

re: The Media Center Show #227 – Mobile Media Devices

jetbootjack — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:37:45 GMT

This is the first podcast I've been really underwhelmed with, it came across rather anti apple and very forgiving of other platforms that provide less mature and useable experiences...

re: The Media Center Show #222 Small Form Factor PCs

skatingn330 — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 16:11:08 GMT

Hey Mike, I think you could boot win 7 from a server, by using open source software like etherboot (www.etherboot.org)

re: The Media Center Show #220 – S1Digital

JohnCz — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 20:02:37 GMT

Thank Ian for getting Paul on this weeks podcast. This company has single handedly restored my confidence in the Media Center Platform with S1Digital add-on features.

I would have asked Paul though, regarding the network cablecard technique they employ...how did they solve the issue that previously locked protected TV recordings to the PC that originally recorded it? Is it locked to their Windows Home Server product? That would be ideal way to handle this. But I sense its may have something to do with an unannounced capability of Windows HomeGroup and PP3 for Windows Home Server. That would be very cool. Keeping my eyes peeling on CEDIA.

re: The Media Center Show #218 – Microsoft’s Ben Reed

gadget — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 23:53:18 GMT

Something i feel Ben is failing to understand is the Uk Tv standard

Ben we have 2 main Tv suppliers here in the Uk Sky ( sat ) and Virgin Cable, freeview and freesat are already catered for in Media Centre if the user needs them but they are the least used formats

IF Microsoft want to make Media Centre a winner in the Uk they MUST intergrate Sky and cable Tv

Some points that perhaps point to Ben being out of touch with the Uk standards :

The Uk already has digital Tv delivery, we moved over before the US

We do not have a large distribution of people with aeriels and dishes as mentioned, thats completely incorrect , we have 3 main standards only

OTA TV aeriel ( DVB-T ) with flavours like 2

Sky Tv Via Satellite ( DVB-S )

Cable Tv ( DVB-C )

Thats it , so it is no good saying the Uk is complex and having lots of differences it simply does not, we do exactly the same as Germany except as part of the Satellite buying package a man does the installation for you from the company you buy from ?? why is that different to Germany ?? it isnt

There are NO changes due to the UK broadcasting standard now or in the future , each country has exactly the same delivery method the only differences are International standards ( NTSC , PAl , PAL 1 ) and so on

i like listening to Ben and his thoughts but to be completely truthfull i feel Ben is well out of date and is not getting the correct information from the many sources he has at his fingertips

The Best value to the largest number of consumers in the Uk is adding SKY and Cable .... now if you cant intergarte them OR if they dont want to play ball with Microsoft just say so for goodness sake, dont reel out the Corporate speak, its annoying and frustrating

adding Sky into an Xbox is not the same as adding Sky into Media Centre and does not fit within the Media Center Eco system , Media Centre by definition presently is not a Media Centre, it needs proper Tv intergration from the main providers and not the fringe providers

my feelings are that Sky Tv is refusing to let Microsoft intergrate, if that is the case then get Virgin Cable into Media Centre and then push UP the price to sky for intergartion as Sky realise what a mistake they have made, it would serve there arrogant ar**s right

Hey, if i`m wrong and Sky do allow proper intergration i`l gladly retract the above but only after sky has been running with proper EGP and record funcionality on my Windows7 Media Centre Pc for a week without a glitch .

blimey getting of this high horse looks tricky from here .. ( smiley face )

re: The Media Center Show #218 – Microsoft’s Ben Reed

Ian Dixon — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 20:22:47 GMT

@alton your right but the focus of the interview was TV formats only, the PC on the TV is a topic for another time and something I will be talking about on the show next week

re: The Media Center Show #218 – Microsoft’s Ben Reed

alton987 — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 18:53:25 GMT

Ian, thanks for the Podcast,

I have to ask why no harder questions for Ben? I know it's hard to balance between letting people come and do their corporate speak and asking real questions, but with so many changes and concerns going on in the Media Center Community it puzzles me why you didn't ask any harder questions. (Possible death of extender Model, Dish\DirecTV Tuners, Netflix on Extenders, Push back from content providers for online video on your TV, just to name a few).

Thanks

Alton

re: The Media Center Show #213 – Ed Bott

skatingn330 — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:21:27 GMT

y sounds like it is going to be pink.

re: The Media Center Show #207 – Round Table

Garry [WMA] — Thu, 21 May 2009 16:18:56 GMT

Just a note on my comments on Easy Transfer in this session some things have changed for the better and worse in WIndows 7 RC it is not quite so easy to just copy your old programs across but it does now prompt about which programs you need to reinstall and tell you where to reinstall from(when it knows) - which is pretty neat. One thing to really watch is file ownership is not transferred on non user folders. Although it prompts to upgrade file ownership there seems to be a bug where this doesn't work when you don't have a password on the originating account.

You can get round this by using the take ownership reg hack from hack7mc.com but it can be a pain if your media files are not stored in your user accounts.

re: The Media Center Show #206 – Niveus

Niveus-Casey — Mon, 18 May 2009 17:21:25 GMT

I just listened to the podcast, good stuff. This was originally recorded over a month ago so Tim's comments that units have not started shipping is no longer valid. ZONE has been shipping for over a month to many satisfied customers all over the world.

Keep up the great work Ian.

re: The Media Center Show #205 – TDL Coffee Morning

Garry [WMA] — Sat, 09 May 2009 21:33:57 GMT

Hi Ian that is the most unique spelling of my surname yet :-)

re: The Media Center Show #200 –Three Wise Men

JohnW248 — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 16:04:47 GMT

Great show, and congratulations on make it to #200.

Your guests were very interesting, but their history of recorded media is a bit fuzzy. Recordings started (with flat records) as 78 rpm discs and it was the running time of the disc that influenced the length of songs. The first albums were really "books" of 78 rpm disc which were played on record changers that dropped on disc after another (without breaking) on top of each other. The 33 rpm disc existed back in the 30s for radio transcriptions and later became the LP and then had multiple songs (although the original reason CBS Masterworks did it was to do symphonies without improper breaks). The 45 was just another of the many RCA innovations to replace the 78 rpm record and there were 45 albums which were multiple disc sets just like 78s.

As for tv aspect ratios, actually tv came before widescreen movies. In fact the BBC was on the air before WWII and ironically suspended broadcasting in the middle of a mickey mouse cartoon. In true british fashion, at the conclusion of the war and the restart of the BBC Television service, they picked up the cartoon right where the left off before the war!

In any even the first tv CRTs were round and the then movie frame of 1.37 was used to fit well inside that circle. It was in the 1950s when the movies were losing audiences to tv that the widescreen came into it's own with various masked versions with shorter focal length lenses and the new squeezed cinemascope widescreen process.

It's worth noting that Western Electric had stereo optical sound recording for 35mm movies in development before WWII as well, but after the war it wasn't resumed until the 1970s when it was "re-discovered" by Ray Dolby.

So the "historic" models really don't mean alot.

John

re: The Media Center Show #200 –Three Wise Men

tlh523 — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 20:42:41 GMT

Great show...it was great to hear about the upcoming features etc.

re: The Media Center Show #194 – Chris Lanier returns

ray.casey@arestar.com — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 07:53:17 GMT

What Chris fails to call out (and a flaw in is premise/conclusion logic re his marketing conclusions) is that WE ARE ALL CUSTOMERS and have been for over 6 years. I pay hard cash for this stuff. So to say there is no market, or it is not defined, is just not correct. His last point about Cable providers being the competition is right on. Using ATT as an example it is stated that it is using the Microsoft foot print so that is a win/win. The way that Media Center competes with the cable/att paradigm is at the productivity base, e.g. the desktop. The dual role of Productivity base/plus server based computer (MCE enabled), aka an Extender server is the sweet spot. That way a user at their desktop running MCE becomes the center of the home "solar system" (quoting Ballmer re "solar system") and the extenders are the slaves fetching up content from the dual purpose PC (Interactive USer/Server). That way you do NOT pay the cable companies for all the remote boxes, and you squeeze out the cable company as the only source of content (as the PC can be used as the content gateway). Also, since the center of this ecosystem is the productivity PC, it can be used to broker out, manage, fetch, record, rip, control, monitor, whatever content. The "fork" strategy (MSFT is the expert chess/knight piece re strategy) is that you can do BOTH with the Xbox, ether have it as a slave or use it to "go direct" either via the internet or local DVD. So i will not rant more here.. but Chris. U sound like you need some rest. Get well. I think you need to take some advice given to me and "slow down". Get on the Windows 7 bandwagon. Think more about the PC centric center being the desktop (managed and tuned) and the "forked" strategy. Windows 7 will level the playing field out and it is a rock solid center (star) of the ecosystem... Oh, and lastly re the “PC centric” focus. It is not just the PC… it is the API’s…and familiarity. Also, one last thing about strategy (and i would love to play you in chess if you are online), I think you are confusing the FORK strategy (aka the knight movement) as MARKETING CONFUSION, or mixed message... It is neither and it is intentional. What may seem like uncertain direction is tactic and a redirection strategy, much in the way that a snake charmer uses a slight of hand to distract the Cobra. At least that is my take... Give it some thought. Stop fighting the cobra head on ;) and try some charm (i should do the same LOL)

re: The Media Center Show #192 – Custom Integrators

jonathand — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 18:38:12 GMT

It just worked when I tried updating again, excellent, I can now catch up on my commute home :)

re: The Media Center Show #192 – Custom Integrators

jonathand — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 18:19:55 GMT

My iTunes is not updating with this show, im still on 191 as the newest, any ideas?

re: The Media Center Show #191 – Vidabox and Netbooks

JohnCz — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 19:01:32 GMT

As far as I can tell, the Vidabox socalled "Extender" is really just another Media Center PC and does Not support Live TV.

re: The Media Center Show #186 – Tingz

JustSmitty — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 18:43:56 GMT

Good podcast. I signed up to try and get in on the Beta Program.

re: The Media Center Show #185 – HP TouchSmart

Ian Dixon — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 09:16:32 GMT

two systems can share content so that would work for you. With Vista is a bit of a hack but it works and on Windows 7 it will work out of the box

re: The Media Center Show #185 – HP TouchSmart

nalio22 — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 23:07:35 GMT

microsoft says that the media center supports upto 5 extenders for 5 different rooms what if i have 10 rooms how can i extend this further can i just get another media center pc with an additionally support for a further 5 extender and link the two media center pc together so they could share the same content or is there another way to add further extenders and still share the same content

re: The Media Center Show #99 - mceTunes (2007-03-15)

rüya tabiri — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:14:10 GMT

thank You.

re: The Media Center Show #129 - Pete Stagman

ray.casey@arestar.com — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 17:34:35 GMT

I am listening to this podcast right now on my Xbox360. I know i keep talking about this over and over again, but here is the cool usage scenario:

1. My WHS is part of a Windows live Mesh where IAN DIXON as a TheDigitalLifstyle Podcasts

2. The folder contains MP3 that have tags that list IAN as the Artist

3. My XBOX connects to WHS, i select media from computer and VIOLA! Podcasts! Every time IAN creates a new pod cast and updates the folder, I have the info Automatically.

I AM NOW AT MY PLACE IN CHICAGO. WHEN I GO TO WEST PALM IN FLA NEXT MONTH ALL THE SAME INFO IS THERE VIA MESH. COOL

Tranquil PC SQA-5H Home Server Interview. « MS Windows Home Server

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The Home Server Show 20 - Denon AVR3808CI

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My Movies for Windows Home Server Now Available | eHomeUpgrade

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News Roundup | Windows Home Theater

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News Roundup

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A slow news week but some interesting stories, Ricavision disappearing along with it's long delayed Sideshow...

re: The Media Center Show #172 - CEDIA

b3nz0n8 — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:38:49 GMT

Pingback....post #245 , Thanks Ian

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=14681944#post14681944

Entertainment 2.0

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PingBack from http://mediacenter.irreverentblogs.com/?p=184

Short Bits: CableCARD, Media Center Show | Windows Home Theater

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Short Bits: CableCARD, Media Center Show

Chris Lanier's Blog — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:46:57 GMT

Ed Bott has a great post on why CableCARD will never be mainstream. Not only is the process...

Short Bits: CableCARD, Media Center Show

Chris Lanier's Blog — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 12:46:48 GMT

Ed Bott has a great post on why CableCARD will never be mainstream . Not only is the process of getting

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Kevin Tofel on the Media Center Show | PocketPc Reviews

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Short Bits: Storage Pack, CE Pro, Media Center Show, More | Windows Home Theater

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