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Windows Media Center XBMC integration

17. February 2010

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Windows Media Center XBMC integration

Not content with integrating only Boxee, Teknowebworks have made the same integration possible with the project that started it all, XBMC.
BMC Integration 1.0 provides an easy way for users to go back and forth between Windows Media Center and XBMC. When clicking on XBMC in Windows 7 Media Center, the software automatically closes Windows Media [...]

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Windows Media Center Boxee integration

17. February 2010

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Windows Media Center Boxee integration

If you have a Windows 7 powered HTPC, Boxee Integration 1.0 provides an armchair viewers way to control the excellent Boxee app directly within Media Center.
Boxee Integration 1.0 provides an easy way for users to go back and forth between Windows Media Center and Boxee. When clicking on Boxee in Windows 7 Media Center, the [...]

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XBMC gets native DXVA2 support (Hardware Acceleration)

2. February 2010

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XBMC gets native DXVA2 support (Hardware Acceleration)

XBMC has been progressing at an incredible otherworldly pace and tonight’s latest Changeset is no exception. From Revision 27376 Onwards, XBMC now supports dxva2 decoder support for vc1/h264 courtesy of the Boxee DXVA implementation.  Thats right, my aging Athlon 4400XP now barely hits 20% CPU usage with most 1080p material.
This is for the Windows [...]

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Boxee Beta Revealed

8. December 2009

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Boxee Beta Revealed

The popular xbmc fork with a social networking twist, has just had its impressive beta unveiled at an event at the Music Hall of Williamsburg. The Boxee team will open up this Beta to the public on Jan 7th (at CES) and over the next 4 weeks will gradually release invitations to our early access [...]

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DTS Audio and XBMC

8. November 2009

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DTS Audio and XBMC

As default, XBMC uses the internal audio player, PAplayer to output music.  The issue with XBMC at the moment is that it cannot passthrough DTS audio streams to your receiver using PAplayer so the sound gets converted into stereo.
The solution to this is relatively simple, and is achieved by using the internal DVDPlayer.
Simply add this [...]

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Enable Multiple Remote Desktop Sessions with Windows 7

23. October 2009

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Enable Multiple Remote Desktop Sessions with Windows 7

One of the major benefits of having a *Nix based solution for your HTPC is the relatively easy ability to have Concurrent Remote Desktop Sessions with the likes of VNC and No Machine NMX.
I require my HTPC to be connected 24-7 though I also require the ability to install and update software, run a local [...]

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Android Remote for XBMC

12. October 2009

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Android Remote for XBMC

Ever wanted to control your XBMC Media Center with an Android powered device like the HTC magic or the HTC dream?
Now you can, The Android Remote for XBMC makes controlling your XBMC powered HTPC or Xbox a slick affair.
Just a word of warning, This software is still considered as “in development”. Once the developers are [...]

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Windows 7 and Vista Audio Changer

8. October 2009

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Windows 7 and Vista Audio Changer

I have recently updated my main HTPC to the RC of Windows 7 and unlike Windows XP, it is not currently possible to set the default sound output device for the entire system through software.
With my previous HTPC build, My Auzentech DTS X-Plosion card would encode DTS on the fly for stereo sources and was [...]

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Power DVD now with HD Audio.

7. October 2009

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Power DVD now with HD Audio.

I have been using Power DVD  for a while on my HTPC mostly due to the ability to hardware decode High Definition content like h264 using only your Graphics card – utilising next to no CPU cycles.  This method works with Xp & Vista Media Centre and Open Source HTPC frontends such as Mediaportal.
For those [...]

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ProjectM Visualisation in XBMC

25. September 2009

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ProjectM Visualisation in XBMC

This is ProjectM, an opensource alternative to Milkdrop running on the XBMC front-end.
The hardware is powered by an Athlon 4400 Windows XP HTPC based system with a cheap ATI radeon 4350 HD HDMI graphics card.
I set the visualisation playlists to change every 5 seconds which highlights the different results each ProjectM preset can achieve.  I [...]

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