My Media Center Setup – the software

I don’t think I’ve ever actually talked about how and what I use to run my Media Center. This is a little list of what I think is some truly excellent software that’s been produced by some very talented individuals. I run Vista Ultimate on my Media Center and I try to run it pretty clean.

LifeExtender – This app extends your life! It sits and goes through your recorded TV and removes the adds. I have it configured to do this at 10am every day, as that’s when we are less likely to be watching. It’s just been updated. I learnt about this from The Green Button.

myTV – This is a really cool tool for managing your archived TV shows. I love the “helix” display, so cool! myTV took me a while to get setup properly and I’ve blogged about that before, in my opinion this is the single best independently created plugin I’ve seen. I learned about this from the Australian Media Center community.

TVTonic – What this app does well is allows me to watch on10.net content on a big screen. That’s all I really use it for but it can do much more. I learned about this from on10 actually.

K-lite Codec Pack – For ages my box was crashing whilst we were watching TV. I recently found this codec pack and that has mostly gone away. My box is much more stable now.

VNC – This is simple remote control, I use it to do most of the work on the Media Center. This is a staple tool that ITPro’s have been using for years.

FBMCE – This is a neat little too that’s just come out for updating your facebook status with what you’re currently watching. Jason Langridge’s blog turned me on to this.

WebGuide – The guy that created this now works for Microsoft, this is one of the best bits of software out there for Media Center. I use it to access my Guide from my phones to remotely record stuff!

Yawcam – I’ve just set this up, so just have a look at this post for more.

DivX Converter – Great, simple software. I use this to convert stuff to view on my mobile.

I think that’s about it, I’m looking something cool for managing movies that aren’t in DVD format and that isn’t myMovies.