I was doing my usual morning read of some blogs I follow when I came across a post over at Multimedia-PCs that I thought was interesting. I do a lot of switching back and forth between Windows 7 Media Center, XBMC, and Boxee which can be a PITA since I can’t do this easily using use a remote. Well, a company called Teknowebworks LLC has come up with an easy way to do this all from W7MC. Simply install the XBMC, Boxee, or Hulu Media Center Integration app, and the next time you open up W7MC you will have a menu item for each application waiting for you. When you click on the application you want to access, W7MC will automatically close and the other application will open up full screen. When you are done with the other application and close out, W7MC will restart in full screen. I know it has been possible to add entry points to other applications in W7MC already, but this is by far the easiest method I have found. The only downside is that you may never have a reason to leave your couch again!!!
Of course, a prerequisite is that you already have XBMC, Boxee, and Hulu installed on your PC prior to installing the Windows 7 Media Center Integration application.
UPDATE – FOR ANYONE LOOKING TO LAUNCH ZINC FROM WMC, YOU CAN GET THE PROGRAM LAUNCHER HERE (THANKS JJ FOR THE TIP)
Article by Damian
Hi, my name is Damian, and I'm tech gadget addict! Although I always had some interest in technology, it wasn't until I got my EX470 and more importantly found Mediasmartserver.net, that my interest became an addiction. My goal, aside from world domination and to see the Mets/Broncos win another championship, is to set up the perfect digital home where all my media is available at the click of a button. When I am not writing for Mediasmartserver.net you can find me over at my blog at http://dbone1026.blogspot.com.
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
This is excellent info! Thanks for this Damian.
I inspired all of these creations =)
It would be nice to see one for Zinc TV as well!
Will it works with extenders? (like Xbox 360)
Unfortunately not, only HTPCs
@ Ray – I am sure there is a way to add the entry point for Zinc, I will see if I can get it done, report back
Thanks for the info. If only I can find a way to port XBMC to my original Xbox360
I have Boxee for awhile and really enjoy it. I have played briefly for xbmc on my hacked apple tv and couldn’t find a great use for it. Does anyone really like it and why???
Yeah, I think you can only port over XBMC on the original Xbox
@ Mike,
The appeal about XBMC is the ease in which you can set things up, the WOW factor with the various skins, and the SVN repo. At least these are things I like
it’s easy to do it with zinc, I made a pack that puts zinc on WMC for W7, however I never released it to the public, I don’t know how many people use zinc, and actually since the last release of zinc it is so slow, that I can hardly see the need for it, however if some people ask I’ll upload it somewhere.
RS.
chuby, I would like to have Zinc integrated if you have an .msi that does the job!
I am in the process of setting up an HTPC. I am curious to know why you would need to use xbmc, boxee and 7mc. Isn’t this overkill, like using 7mc and mediaportal? Wouldn’t one be enough?
@ Michael,
Just personal preference. For instance, Boxee has a solid collection of online content (including Hulu). I prefer to use WMC as my main UI but can use the Boxee launcher if I wan to access online content on Boxee
I too would like to have Zinc integrated, though I do agree that it seems to have gotten slower hear lately. It seems to have the greatest WAF of anything I have tried.
You can find a zinc launcher @ http://zinclauncher.codeplex.com It was created by a member at http://thegreenbutton.com