HDHomeRun for Media Center
As I have mentioned before, I am looking to cancel our cable TV service. This weekend I purchased a HDHomeRun Dual
I installed it in our attic, where our networking panel is, and the installation was very easy. All I had to do was connect the antenna cables and connect the tuner to the network. When I installed the software on one of my computers, I was able to scan for channels and make sure that the antenna was pointed in the right direction.
I was then able to install the tuner software on our Windows 7 Media Center. The tuners were instantly recognized, and the Microsoft’s program guide had all of the data for those channels. The quality of video is very good. I can tell that the video is not as compressed as it is through Comcast. Read more
Setting up D-Link DAP-2553
Our Airport base stations were starting to die. Every once in a while, the basestations would still broadcast the SSID, and wireless devices could still connect to them but wouldn’t transmit any data to our wired network. Since this was happening to both our Airport Express and Airport Extreme base stations, I assume that there was something, either on the wired network, or some RF interference that was causing them to lock up.
I took this opportunity to upgrade to a 802.11n base station, so I bought the D-Link DAP-2553
iPhone 3.0 and USASpec adapter
As I have written in my previous posts, I have been pretty happy with the iPhone 3.0 update. I have been experiencing one annoying problem.
When I connect my iPhone 3.0 to my USASpec PA15-HON2 adapter that is installed in my car, the iPhone stops playing audio and the screen flashes for about a minute, before audio starts playing. Here are the steps that I use where the problems occurs for me
- Play a track/playlist
- Connect the iPhone to the dock
- => The Radio switches to the cd changer input (correct for my setup)
- => The screen in the iPhone continues to flash the iPod graphic for about a minute
- => After about a minute a different track starts playing
Once music is playing, the interface works perfectly. It will continue to work, until I disconnect and reconnect the iPhone.
I think that the iPhone 3.0 software added some addition scanning that happens when connected to this adapter.
Hulu Desktop
Hulu has released Hulu Desktop in beta. This application, for Mac OS X and Windows, allows you to watch Hulu content with only using a remote for control.
I think that this is an interesting move on their part, and you can see why they wanted to stop Boxee from showing Hulu content. If they will also create a Windows Media Center plugin, that would allow this content to be viewed within the Media Center UI, I will be that much closer to canceling Comcast cable service.
[via Mashable]
Netflix on Windows Media Center
Microsoft just released the ability to stream Netflix movies to Vista Media Center. This is something that Microsoft had implemented in the New Xbox Experience last year.
These implementations allow you to play videos that are on your Netflix instant queue. It looks like Microsoft did a more functional implementation for Media Center, than what exists on the Xbox . In addition to letting you play content that is already on your queue, you can browse the whole library of videos available for streaming. Also, you can manage both your disc and streaming queues.
Playlist mode with USASpec dock
The USASpec adapter was included as part of the iPhone dock install. The USASpec adapters have several ways of accessing the music on the iPod or iPhone. You can access the media either by:
- Direct – where you need to select the music to play on the iPhone/iPod
- Folder – where you can browse the music collection by Artist or Album
- Playlist – where you can preselect some number of playlists that will be easily playable on the headunit
I decided to use Playlist mode, as it also offers the ability to play 6 playlist, also "all songs" and a direct mode. For the six playlist, it looks for playlist named HONDA1 – HONDA6. If not all six are found, then it will randomly pick other playlists to fill in the missing spots. If the adapter is connected to the radio through the XM interface, the playlists are accessed by tuning to channels 1-6. When using CD changer interface, the playlists appear as CDs.
In addition to playing user playlist, number 7 is used to play all tracks. And number 8 is for direct mode. (This is the mode that is used if you want to play Pandora.)
Fixed problem with MyMoves for WHS on Extenders
I have been using My Movies for a while now. I am using the Windows Home Server version. My Movies for Windows Home server allows you to keep all of your movies on the server, and play them back in Windows Media Center. This has been working great. I have been having problems with playing the movies on the Media Center Extenders
The first problem is that the cover art doesn’t appear. Then when attempting to play the movie, an error would appear that the file could not be found.
This thread on the My Movies forum describes the steps needed to fix the thumbnails on the extender. I found a similar solution that fixed the video files. I RDP’d into the Home Server and then went into the "Sharing & Security" setting of the share that has the movie files. In that setting page I made sure that both "Anonymous Users" and "Everyone" has read access to that share. Once I did that, everything works great.
spec.dock
I have been wanting to get better integration with my iPhone in my car. Normally I would just connect my iPhone to the line-in jack of my radio. The problem with this is that, if I want to skip songs, I need to wake the iPhone, enter the password, then select the skip track button. This is pretty dangerous while trying to drive. So I have been interested in getting a solution where I can use the controls on my head unit to control playback from the iPhone. In addition to controling the iPhone, I wanted a solution that would look stock in the car.
2point5 is a company that specialized in custom installs of iPhone and iPods. They took this experience and now sell docks that are custom made for various cars. In addition to the docks, they also bundle the needed adapters for the various manufacturers’ radios.
I bought the spec.dock package HONFGV2IPKG. This package includes the USASpec PA15-HON2. This adapter can be connected to either radio’s XM or CD changer interface. When connected to the XM interface, song meta data is shown on the radio’s display. Unfortunately, the XM interface doesn’t work with the Honda headunit that has navigation, so the CD changer adapter was used.
I like the way the dock fits into the car. It really looks good. Also the integration with the radio controls works very well. I would recommend the spec.dock. Here is an album with some photos of the install.
Garmin ecoRoute
In this post, I mentioned that Audi and Nissan are working on navigation systems that will give fuel effecient routes. Garmin is also doing the same thing for their portable navigation units. They are adding an ecoRoute routing type. Navigation units with ecoRoute will have a setting that lets you specify the type of car you have. Then it can provide you with an effecient route.
The best thing about this is that they are making this available for all compatible devices. I need to download the web updater to see if this will be available for our Nuvi 680.
[via CNET's CES blog]
Kodak EasyShare W1020
We bought a couple of of Kodak EasyShare W1020
picture frames for gifts. These are 10″ picture frames that can, in addition to displaying photos from memory cards, can display photos from flickr and KodakGallery. We wanted to use these frames as a way to share pictures with family members.
The initial setup of the frame was pretty straight forward. Once you turned on the frame, it detected all of the wireless networks. When you select one, and enter the password, it waits for a PC or Mac that has the Kodak software installed. When you install it, you will be able to configure various channels.
The problem that I had was getting flickr to work. The firmware that was initially installed has support for rss photos feeds. I was never able to get any of the rss feeds from my sets to work. But the built in flickr feeds worked fine.
I noticed that the frame tried to update its firmware, but the upgrade failed. There isn’t a menu option to manullay upgrade the firmware, so I just tried to power cycle it. On the next boot the firmware upgrade was successful (version from 10/2008)
