Adventures in Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005

Here’s a few items that I wanted to share (or follow up later) regarding various cool things you can do with Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 (MCE).

Case

I haven’t decided what I want to do regarding a case, but this one looks nice. Need to do some evaluating…

Caller ID

Although MCE (2005 version) supports on screen Caller ID if you have a compatible modem installed, the issue I’ve run into is my main MCE box doesn’t have the hardware. What to do? Well, use YAC and MCE-YAC. Not only does this bring Caller ID to Media Center, but to every machine in the house.

Channel 9

I really have enjoyed watching Channel 9 whenever I can remember to take the time to go look. Even having an RSS feed doesn’t seem to keep me as up to date with it as you’d think. Well, there’s a MCE solution. TVTonic offers the ability to subscribe to Channel 9 videos, they get downloaded in the background and upon availability you can watch them as if they were an individual channel. Now when nothing is on, I have something to watch while being a couch potato.

MAME

I’m a huge emulation enthusiast, so I need to take some time to play with GameEx, a MAME emulation front end for the 10 foot view.