Windows Media Center in Windows 7

After playing with Windows Media Center in Windows 7 for almost half a day, I pretty much decided to use my Tablet PC as my mainly media center, and use the O!Play to play whatever content that my Tablet PC couldn't handle, that includes:

• ISO files
• DVD files in Video_TS folder structure
• Files with strange codec
• mkv files

For everything else though, using windows Media Center is a much better solution for the following reasons:

• My PC remote control is totally compatible with Windows Media Center (YEAH!)
• I can use my mouse to do fine grain navigation
• Wireless keyboard provides short cut for me to navigate the environment at ease.
• I can delete files using my remote
• It supports more codec than I expected, including SOME rmvb files

Some tidbits:

• Some files seems to be "not fast forward/backward" friendly when using my remote control. No problem, for I can still use my wireless keyboard to jump forward and backward using short cut. And worst come to worst I can use my wireless mouse.
• It took me some time to strategically position my IR receiver for my remote and wireless transceiver for my wireless keyboard and mouse. But once done, everything work very well.
• Nice list of features in Windows 7 Media Center
• Hacking Windows Media Center
• Forum for people to share tips on how to use Windows Media Center effectively
• Suggestion on TV tuner cards that are friendly with Media Center
• List of some cool Windows 7 Media center features
• Cheap tuner for option for laptop, but beware that you got what you've paid for
• More tuner information. Keep researching.

Here's some keyboard short cut that I found:

In Video Library mode, select [Play All], and when you press [Page Up], it move forward to the next video, while [Page Down] move you back to the previous one.


On a totally unrelated note, I tried the latest firmware update for my TV. Turns out my TV is already up today. What a bummer.

Nope. Not another TV related purchase.

I know this will eventually happen. After having a new 40 inch HDTV, I know I will start thinking about getting more TV related products and services. So I let myself got hyped for 1.5 hour, researching on all kind of TV related devices and subscriptions.

Final verdict: nope, I am not getting anything.

First: DVR.

I like this idea of pausing TV, especially since I already get used to the concept of watching video content on demand, so switch back to watching off-the-air HD video content and forcing myself to adjust my life based on TV network schedule sounds nonsense to me. So I looked around.

Unfortunately, because of the restriction imposed by the entertainment industry, there is NO product in the market that records HD content in plain PC friendly video file. There are hacks here and there, but NONE Of the device work is easy to use. Plus most have horrible user interface. Tivo is the one with the best user interface, and it require $10 per month subscription fee. $10 a month!? For recording off-the-air TV? Are you kidding? Not to mention that I have to pay $259 for the device. Thanks but no thanks.

Most cable TV and satellite TV provide DVR for lease when you subscription their plan. So here's another category I tried to research on.


Second: cable and satellite TV subscription

Checked, subscription fee ... well, $50 a month ... sort of reasonable. But here's what I hate: 18 to 24 month contract. I HATE contract. That's why I use pre-paid phone instead of a montly plan. Also I don't see programs that are SO attractive that I have to subscript.

Finally, I remind myself: life priority and addiction. I know that I am the kind of person who can get so occupied by TV that I can surf TV day after day after day. If I can get addicted surfing regular off-the-air TV, imagine what will happen when I get hundreds of channels.

So 1.5 hour spent and no stupid decision was made ..... until next time I get hyped up again.

Edison Chan should have done this: physically destroy harddisk

Privacy is a real and huge issue these days. If your personal information got stolen, not only you will suffer financial lost, it will also take forever to reverse the image. That's why you should take getting rid of your hard disk, which contains tons and tons of your personal information, seriously.

The best strategy? Physically destroy the hard disk, and here's how:

The goal is to destroy the magnetic plates insides the metal case. The magnetic plates are where the data being stored. You want to physically destroy the plate to a point that it is not recoverable.



So first you have to open up the hard disk metal case. Most hard disk use the hexagon screw shown below. You may need to buy a screw drive with that kind of head.



I brought mine from Lowe's . They have this screw drive with 8 exchangeable heads, all for about US$6. Plus the people there are friendly and helpful. Highly recommend shopping there.



Almost in all cases, the hard disk will have a few screws that hidden underneath some plastic cover, like the 2 spots below. You just have to be patient and spot them out.



Now that the metal case is wide open, you can see the circular discs. Some hard disks have more discs than the others.



Unscrew screws in the middle of the pile of discs.



If it's possible to take the discs out, do so.



Now it's time to destroy those discs. Some discs are made out of brittle material, while others made out of more elastic material. I suggest you putting the discs in a plastic bag before smashing them.



Now smash.



Here's what happen when material is elastic. They tend to be older harddisk with lower capacity.



This is what happen when the discs are brittle.



Enjoy destroying your hard disk!

That's why I won't use the build in media player feature that comes with my TV

I was a bit excited when I first realized that my TV comes with media file playback feature. To use it, all I needed a USB storage device with media files plugged into the USB port(s). After using it for a day, I realized how crappy it is. It's a nice gimmick, but far from practice.

Here's why the media file player feature that comes with Samsung LCD monitor sucks:

• Doesn't remember what file you were last playing.
  I have serious ADD problem, and I constantly jump form one task to another task. Obviously with a device that has so many feature cramped inside it (play video game, watch TV, surf the net, read news, check weather and watch media files), of course I will jump from feature to feature like crazy. However, every time I jump out and then back into the media file playback feature, it throws me back to the first screen. That means, if I was playing a file like 6 levels deep inside folders, I have to navigate all the way back to taht file to continue. On the plus side, it DOES remember my last play position. So it seems like this media play back feature is meant to be used with no too many media files in your USB storage device, and no more than 2 folders deep.
  
  
• Codec support lack lust
  It couldn't play rmvb. It also have problem playing a lot of mkv files even though it claims to support it (I keep getting audio codec unknown)
  
  
• Crappy photo viewing feauture
  The GUI for photo viewing is terrible. No way to zoom at ease.
  
  
• No search capability
  This is particularly anonying to me since I have more than thousands of media files.
  
  
• No regular "TV" feature when using media file player
  All the TV feature like screen resize, PnP, Info Link ... they are all GONE when using media file player.
  
  
• No DELETE capability
  This a feature that even O!Play is lacking. My habit of viewing media file is that once I finished viewing it, I want to delete it. Otherwise I will forget whether I've already watched it or not. On PC I can easily delete the file right after I finished watching. However I can't do that on Samsing media file player.
  
  
• Lousy music (audio file) player
  No way to save last listened position means the audio player is audio book and podcast unfriendly. Also, the audio speaker of the Samsung TV is just not that good for music playback.
  
  
• Lack of video playback features
  No frame by frame forward/backward. No slow motion or change playback speed what so ever. Lame.
  

This is why right now I am using my Tablet PC as a media center PC. I get the flexibility of choose KMPlayer, iTune or Windows Media Center to play my media files. My wireless keyboard and mouse allows me to access all the content at ease, and I can manipulate them in the way want. Even after I received the new O!Play media form Amazon, I may still hook my Tablet to the TV from time to time just because the media playback and navigation experience is so much better than an appliance device. Use mouse to instantly jump to the point I want: priceless.

Another reason to update to Windows 7: Media Center PC

I am pretty happy with my new TV so far, and the interesting thing is that I don't seem to use it as a regular TV (to watch broadcast TV or cable TV), but rather use it as a gaint computer monitor, a display for my Wii, and utilize the media file playback capability. Once my media player Asus O!Play comes, I will be able to use the TV to play 1080p blueray quality mkv files and all the video files with strange codecs, particularly all those .rmvb files from mainland China.

Since I am getting ultra sensitive with noise these days, I start avoiding using my noisy desktop computer (very powerful though), and instead use my Tablet PC, hook up to the 40 inch TV, using wireless keyboard and mouse, and turn my TV into a giant monitor. Because my Tablet PC has Windows 7 Ultimate edition installed, I am take this opportunity to try out features that makes Windows 7 LCD TV friendly. So far, I like what I've seen.

To start, Windows 7 comes with a little utility call Magnifier. It allows you too magnify either the whole screen or partial of the screen. I find it very handy since, regardless of how big the TV is, I am still 10 feet away from it, so technically it's as if I was looking at a 6 to 7 inch screen on my lap. Even though I can bump up the screen font to large font size, it's still not big enough. So the magnifier comes in handy frequently.

Then, there is Windows Media Center. At first, I was not impress with it at all. The codec support is still far from perfect. Performance also suffer from time to time, like sometime the user interface will go totally sluggish after getting into the Internet TV area, or jumping from movie to movie. However, compare with the older version, the Media Center in Windows server added some nice features, like remembering my last playback position. You also don't have to use a Media Center remote controller, as long as you have wireless keyboard with some basic media buttons, like stop, rewind and volume control. The photo navigation is also very smooth (when it's not going slugglish all the sudden with no good reason). Overall it worthy of trying if you happens to have a PC with Windows 7 Ultimate edition installed.

That extreme long shot...

Somehow I keep having nightmare these days.

This time the dream involves no one that I know personally. In fact everything happened like miles away from me.

The scene started with a bunch of teenager playing at the rooftop of a building where a bunch of teenagers playing, running and fooling around. Soon they started playing "see who jumps the farthest." At first they just jump among the rooftop they were at, but a few teens started jump across building and barely made it. All teenagers got very excited and cheering.

My dream ended when one of them tried and fell off the building.

Everything was happened far away from where I was, like an extreme long shot. But it was still scary enough to woke me up. Framing-wise it was very YouTube alike, but the effect was very Hitchcock: you didn't see what happened, but it was the imagination of what you didn't see that scare the heck out of you.

So you can see that I don't really need to watch scary movie to scare myself. My brain already generate that for me very once in a while.

Lossing car key at office parking lot ... right after I arrived the office parking lot

So it was a normal work day morning. I woke up, took showed and then drive to work, found a parking space, and left the car.

Fun started after I closed the car door, about to close the door with my car key, and found that the car key was gone.

Ridiculous. The car key must be around, since I USED IT TO DRIVE HERE! I looked around, check my jacket, looked into my backpack, inside out upside down. 30 minutes passed, and I still couldn't find my car key! Then suddenly I remember that I have a tiny LED flashlight in my backpak. So I yanked it out, and used it to check underneath the car. Still nothing.

Finally, I checked underneath the area underneath the driving seat ONCE AGAIN (tried before), and there it was the car key at the corner.

At least I found it eventually, but I am still puzzled how it got there, consider that it the time because I turned off the engine of my car and stood outside of the car was merely 5 seconds.

Crying for my divorce with kids ... wait, I don't have kids!

Just woke up and still settling from a strange nightmare. It was about getting divorce and how I felt sorry for my kids for not getting the love they need because of the divorce. There was some action sequences some how about me being chased and such (I managed to have action sequence regardless of whatever kind of hardship I was enduring .... strange ....)

So I woke up, and still feeling very upset, until I realize, "wait I don't have kids." Suddenly it was a awesome sensing of relief.

I suspect that my dream was actually a dramatized version of something I heard playing out in my brain.