Posts By: Jon Scaife

1Windows Media Center eHome LogoSolution to Media Center Library Error

Posted by & filed under 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 Cen­ter Extenders… Read Full Article

0Motorola NYXBoard QWERTY RemoteLooking beyond the boxee remote-keyboard

Published by & filed under Media PC Hardware. Last updated .

For a long time I’ve been search­ing for the ideal HTPC remote con­trol.  I want a fairly stand­ard remote, but with a QWERTY key­board on the back, or inside a flip/slide out part.  I’ve been track­ing the options in [int­link id=“46” type=“post”]an art­icle from Jan-2010[/intlink], and even­tu­ally ordered myself a Boxee remote a few months back.  The boxee is an excel­lent wire­less key­board, but unfor­tu­nately, boxee have opted to go the “Apple route” (aka dumbed down) on the non-qwerty side.  There are a total of 7 but­tons, non of which is a power but­ton.  There is also no “back up” type but­ton.  This makes the boxee pretty use­less for Media Cen­ter 7.… Read Full Article

14MC-TVConverterMC-TVConverter: An alternative to MCEBuddy?

Published by & filed under Misc Media Software. Last updated .

I’ve been fol­low­ing the devel­op­ment of MCE­Buddy for a while now, as it was the only free way to transcode WTV files to a more com­pat­ible format.  It is still in Beta how­ever, and whilst it works it has 2 down­sides to my mind.  It transcodes the video which means an inev­it­able loss of qual­ity, and this also means it takes a long time to transcode each record­ing.  Around 4 hours for a 1Hr BBC HD record­ing on my Sem­pron LE-1100 serv­er.… Read Full Article

0Media ServerA new Media Server

Published by & filed under Media PC Hardware. Last updated .

As I men­tioned recently, I am [int­link id=“1836” type=“post”]planning a new media system[/intlink] for a new res­id­ence.  Hav­ing already exper­i­mented suc­cess­fully with dvblink, I decided it was time to move my TV cards from my HTPC to my serv­er and hand the duty of record­ing, transcod­ing and stor­ing TV to the serv­er.… Read Full Article

0HTC Desire Android LogoAlternative ROM for HTC Desire

Published by & filed under Android. Last updated .

For the last 9 months or so I’ve been experiement­ing with altern­at­ive android ROMs for my HTC Desire.  Whilst there is noth­ing par­tic­u­larly wrong with the offi­cial HTC ROM, they are often slow to release new ver­sions of Android or Sense for older phones like the Desire.  I was keen to have some of the Sense 3 fea­tures, along with the sense web­site access to my phone.

… Read Full Article