More Cutting the Cable w/ Tommy

Since Tommy's original post about building an antenna, ditching cable, and watching TV on your computer has been the most popular thing on the blog (most popular by far actually) I asked Tommy to write a follow-up post on whatever he thought cable cutters should know to make the experience even better.  Hopefully I can continue to convince him to write guest posts. - Seth

I’m Using Windows Media Center to Watch/Record TV, Now What?

This post is intended to let you know about some of the best add-ins for Windows Media Center (WMC). Add-ins provide additional functions that are not available in the basic version of WMC, some of them must be purchased but many are free.

Recorded TV HD http://www.recordedtvhd.com/

Price: $20 for single license, $30 for a household if you have multiple PCs running WMC

This add-in pulls in a bunch of “metadata” for all your recorded TV. Basically you get artwork (posters, cast photos, etc.) for each TV show you have recorded it also allows you to sort shows in several ways that you normally can’t. These sorting options include favorite’s lists for the various members of your household so that only the shows they actually watch are displayed when their list is selected. It is also fully integrated with the next add-in My Channel Logos.

My Channel Logos http://www.mychannellogos.com/Pages/default.aspx

Price: Free for MCL 2.0 Lite & $3.40 (or more) donation for MCL 2.0

The basic function of My Channel Logos is to give your program guide channel logos instead of the boring letter descriptions it defaults to. They have a huge database of channel logos but on top of that you can add your own. Up here is Alaska we have a small local access channel called 360 North and I was able to easily pull their symbol off their website and turn it into a channel logo. With the pay version it will automatically assign logos to the correction channels (the free version requires you to do this manually). The pay version also allows you to change the number of channels that show up in your TV guide and your mini-guide (note some of the features of the pay version will not work in Windows 8). When used in combination with Recorded TV HD you can even sort your shows by channel.

Remote Potato http://www.remotepotato.com/

Price: It depends, setting up the server is free but if you want to use it on your mobile devices the app is priced differently depending on whether it’s the Apple, Google, or Microsoft store.

This add-in allows you to remotely access your WMC machine through any internet connected computer. This not only includes accessing your recorded TV and pictures but also the ability to schedule recordings you forgot to schedule while you were at home. The only problem with this program is figuring out what you IP address is since you need it to access your host machine. If you’re a frequent traveler and like accessing your recorded TV from afar you can typically get a static IP address from your ISP (Internet Service Provided) or a domain name from a DNS service. These services usually start around $25/year.

Tuner Salad http://www.mychannellogos.com/Pages/TSdl.aspx

Price: $5

This add-in is specifically designed for television addicts. WMC by default only supports four tuners, so you could record a maximum of four shows at once, or watch one live and record three others. With Tuner Salad you can have up to twelve tuners installed, if you ever use twelve tuners at once you may want to seek professional help.

Show Analyzer http://www.dragonglobal.biz/showanalyzer.html

Price: $29.98 including lifetime upgrades

Show analyzer is an add-in that allows you to identify and delete commercials that appear in your TV shows. It is not the most user friendly program but those who use it swear by it. If you use it in conjunction with DVRMSToolkit you can delete the commercials before you even watch the show or if you use it in conjunction with Recorded TV HD your commercials will appear as red sections on the progress bar (as seen in the screen shot below). Personally I didn’t find it to be worth the price but maybe you hate commercials more than I do. 

Is the add-in you were hoping see missing? Don’t worry there is a whole website devoted to just keeping track of all the add-ins for Windows Media Center: http://www.hack7mc.com/

My favorite one not mentioned is a very little add-in that allows you to switch back and forth between Hulu Desktop (http://www.hulu.com/labs/hulu-desktop) and WMC. Here is the website to download it: http://huluwmc.teknowebworks.com/