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0 Get Media Center 8 free

Published on 14^th November 2012 by Jon Scaife in Windows Media Center.

If you’ve got Windows 8 Pro, and wish to add Media Center to it you need a key from Microsoft. In future this wont be free, but you can get one free until 31^st Jan 2013 thanks to a Microsoft offer. I have registered for mine, even though I don’t run Windows 8 because I… Read more »

0 Media Center Themer 1.45

Published on 14^th November 2012 by Jon Scaife in Windows Media Center.

Media Center Themer 1.45 has been released. This finally brings support for adding items to built-in menus, making full Media Center menu customisation possible. v1.45 is also compatible with Windows 8. This finally relegates Media Center Studio to history.

2 Media Center Studio

Published on 12^th November 2011 by Jon Scaife in Windows Media Center.

It seems that the Media Center Studio site is permanently down. Fortunately several people have managed to archive the files needed to install it, and have provided them, along with some instructions. I have improved upon their manual instructions by making a self-extracting installer with shortcut. My version of the installer can be found on the

0 Solution to Media Center Library Error

Published on 7^th November 2011 by Jon Scaife in Windows Media Center.

A couple of days ago I started getting an error on my HTPC when I tried to change library locations — either adding or removing. Media Center shows the error which says “A necessary component of windows media center did not start properly. Restart windows media center”. I understand this error can also affect Media… Read more »

2 MCEBuddy Reloaded: h264 wtv conversion

Published on 14^th May 2011 by Jon Scaife in Misc Media Software, Windows Media Center. Updated 4^th December 2012.

I have wanted the facility to convert my recorded WTV files to another format for as long as I’ve had a MediaPC. The lead candidate has always been MCEBuddy, but for over 2 years the project was stalled (as far as the user was concerned at least) by problems supporting h264 video inside wtv files.

2 Full 7MC codec setup

Published on 10^th September 2010 by Jon Scaife in Codecs, Misc Media Software, Windows Media Center. Updated 30^th December 2011.

I’ve previously posted several times about codec issues on 7mc, but I’ve now got a solution that is comprehensive, fairly simple and works consistently. With a few free codecs and utilities you can have full decoding support, DXVA, subtitles and fantastic flexibility working in 64bit (or 32bit) Media Center. The following instructions are specific to… Read more »

0 Channel Logos (formerly on Theme7mc.com)

Published on 9^th September 2010 by Jon Scaife in Windows Media Center. Updated 5^th October 2011.

The Theme7mc site seems to have been pulled, and locating the resources that used to be on it isn’t straight-forward. As a former contributor I was keen to find where the contents had gone and am pleased I can point people to the Theme7mc archive post on Hack7mc.com where they can all be found.

0 Media center basic codec tweaks

Published on 6^th February 2010 by Jon Scaife in Codecs, Windows Media Center. Updated 5^th October 2011.

Following on from my that I use with my media center PC here are the details of the basic set of codec tweaks I use to enable maximum file compatiblity with DXVA support enabled…

0 Media Center apps

Published on 5^th February 2010 by Jon Scaife in Windows Media Center. Updated 4^th December 2012.

Below is a list of (and links to) all the apps I have used to enhance my Media Center PC

0 Update on BBC HD / ATI corruption issues

Published on 25^th January 2010 by Jon Scaife in Freesat, Misc Software, Windows Media Center. Updated 17^th September 2012.

Just a quick update on a about problems with BBC HD in Windows 7 Media Center when using ATI video cards.