Floppyhead – Digital Media and Streaming

Silicondust DVR Finally Receives DRM Approval

Tuesday, January 31, 2017

Over the last two years, Silicondust has been attempting to migrate away from Windows Media Center. Protected content playback was available on Android TV using the HDHomerun app. They tried to get the DVR portion moving with Kickstarter project. The DVR worked fine but did not support protected content, like HBO. Over the weekend on […]

How to Prioritize Tuners in Vista MCE

Friday, May 2, 2008

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I have been looking for a way to prioritize my tuners in Vista Media Center. Why do I want dictate which tuner is used as the default? Mainly to avoid digital rights management. I currently use the HDHomerun as a QAM tuner to receive unencrypted HD channels on my computer. This tuner allows me to […]

Auzentech Driver Update | Improved Support for Dolby Digital Live

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

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This week, Auzentech updated their X-FI Prelude drivers for improved Dolby Digital Live support. Why is this important? This proves that Auzentech is a company that is willing to increase the performance of their product through timely release of driver updates, something Creative is notoriously bad at doing. While somewhat pricey, the X-Fi Prelude appears […]

Sony | Refurbished Digital Cable Tuners Now Available

Saturday, April 26, 2008

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Sony made a splash in the media center world a couple of months ago being the first OEM to sell individual digital cable tuners, which are used to watch HD programming on premium cable channels. While you still need to have a computer with the special version of Vista that supported digital cable tuners, Sony […]

THX Display Set-up Guide | How Big a TV Should You Buy?

Thursday, April 17, 2008

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Bigger is better, right? People buying shiny new TVs always struggle as to how big a TV you should buy. With the prices of HDTVs falling, people can afford to buy bigger and bigger TVs. To help everyone find the right size TV, THX has developed a quick process for calculating the optimum viewing distance […]

Rip Blu-ray Movies 3 Ways

Sunday, April 13, 2008

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So you want to rip Blu-ray movies to a hard drive? Good news! You can rip Blu-ray movies even though they have a ton of content protection that make watching them on a computer difficult, which is especially frustrating for people who simply want to watch their own movies.

PowerDVD 8 Ultra now supports Dolby TrueHD

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

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Cyberlink has announced the release of PowerDVD 8 Ultra, which is the only viable option right now to watch Blu-ray (or HD-DVDs) on a computer since Windows XP or Vista does not have a native ability to play Blu-ray movies. PowerDVD Ultra has been a maturing piece of software. Version 7 lacked HD audio codecs […]

MyMounter Plugin: Mount an ISO Image in Media Center

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

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With Cyberlink’s PowerDVD Ultra no longer playing hard drive based HD movies from ripped HD-DVDs and Blu-ray discs, the only way to watch such movies is to “mount” an ISO image of the disc and then watch it using PowerDVD. Not an easy thing to do while in Vista Media Center. MyMounter, brought to you […]

Dolby Updates Home Theater PC Certification

Thursday, March 13, 2008

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Dolby has announced a new certification for the home theater pc, called “Dolby Home Theater,” which includes Dolby Pro Logic II decoding to produce 7.1-, 6.1-, or 5.1-channel audio from a two-channel source. The certification also supports Dolby Digital Live, which converts any analog audio signal, as from a PC or game console, into Dolby […]

List of Vista SP1 Media Center Fixes

Sunday, February 24, 2008

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Vista Service Pack 1 fixes several items in Media Center. This Service Pack is more an incremental step in the evolution of Media Center and not the next leap in features. Besides a roll-up of hot fixes, SPI adds the following features: Adds support to enable new types of Windows Media Center Extenders, such as […]

Author Archives | Kevin