I have been adding some additional functionality to our media centre over the weekend. I used to run many plugins on Vistas Media centre, but after the upgrade to Windows 7 some of these did not work and others I just have not got round to installing. I thought I would post about the three that I see as being the most beneficial.
1. Remote Potato
Remote Potato has to be my number one must have plugin. Indeed it was this plugin that I was waiting for with the Windows 7 version of Media centre as the one I used to use did not work with Windows 7. Basically what this plugin does is allow you to access your media centre via a web browser. It allows you to schedule recordings, view your recorded content and even stream it over the web if your Internet connection is good enough.
I understand from the developers website that this plugin has undergone a great deal of development over the last year or so, and is set to have more functionality added, however as it stands it does everything I want.
Imagine you are out and about, at work, out in the pub or even on holiday and you have forgotten to record your favorite program. Simply find a connection (us use my HTC mobile phone) enter the address of your home network (again I use dyndns.org to create a static address) and load up your media centre, browse or search for your program in the listings and click record, and hey presto it will be recorded for you to watch when yo get back home.
Here is a video that the developer has created of the plugin at work:
In my opinion this plugin essentially adds the missing functionality to Windows media centre that I have been looking for.
2. Macrotube
The MacroTube adds the facility to watch Youtube, Dailymotion, and MSN’s Soapbox videos from your media centre. I am a fairly light YouTube user, but having said that there are occasions when I would like to be able to view YouTube on the TV. This plugin adds this functionality to Windows 7 Media centre meaning that you can do it without exiting the media centre and starting a web browser. This also means that I can do it from my Media Centre Remote rather than having to use the mouse and keyboard.
3. Trailer Library
Trailer Library links into FilmTrailers.com to bring trailers of files soon to be released to your Media Centre. We find that this is a great plugin as we are subscribers to LoveFilm and we always struggle to find movies that we want to rent. Having the ability to preview some new releases as and when we want on the media centre gives us ideas to add to our LoveFilm rental list.
I understand that it only currently works for UK and US users, but as I am UK I am happy!
There are many other great plugins out there. These are just some that I use on our Media centre.
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