Last week we talked about Microsoft Vista Media Center using the HP Pavilion Media Center m8000n ($950 Buy Now).  After getting a ton of emails on the subject, we decided to revisit the topic and install some add-on programs to trick out the Media Center a little.  While Microsoft has done a solid job at creating a well rounded home theater PC interface, there are a few companies and individuals out there that have extended the original design to create the ultimate experience.

One of those companies is AMD.  The AMD LIVE! platform adds all sorts of functionality to your Windows Vista Media Center.  While there are literally hundreds of media center add-ons out there and we simply couldn't try them all.  AMD offers a convenient one stop shop for a bunch of cool functionality.  We'll cover a few of the ones we liked in the show, but there are certainly more.  We'll also hit a couple independent add-ons, but there are many we won't be able to get to.  Feel free to send email about the ones you can't live without that we didn't talk about.

AMD LIVE! On Demand powered by Orb

AMD LIVE! On Demand powered by Orb extends your entertainment experience to anywhere you are, at home or on the go! Access and control your live and prerecorded TV, music, photos, videos and more from virtually any web connected electronic gadget.

Using On Demand essentially turns your Vista Media Center into a slingbox, with just a bit more power.  Slingbox can either be used as a tuner, or it can sling content from another source, like a DVD player or a set top box.  The HTPC is a tuner, and a DVR and a DVD player and so much more all in one box.  Orb allows you to watch and control any of it from anywhere.  This application is very, very cool.  The Orb player is web based, so you can use it on virtually any Internet enabled device.  But probably because it's a web based application, the quality didn't seem to be as good as the Slingbox pro.  It also isn't ideal for just broadcasting content around in a local area network like your home, but that's what extender devices or other HTPCs are supposed to be for,

AMD LIVE! MyTV ToGo powered by Roxio

AMD LIVE! MyTV ToGo powered by Roxio allows you to easily sync your Media Center recorded TV shows to your portable media player by simply connecting your media player to your AMD LIVE! PC.

This is what we've been talking about all along.  A way to get all my content on a portable device, with ease.  It's pretty simple and straight forward to control, and does just what it's supposed to, put the content on your portable player.  The free version supports: Windows SmartPhone Devices, PocketPC Devices, the Toshiba Gigabeat, the Treo 700w Mobile Phone and the Creative Zen Media Player.  To get iPod and Playstation Portable support you have to upgrade to the paid version for $29.99.

AMD LIVE! TV Genie powered by Proxure

AMD LIVE! TV Genie powered by Proxure, learns your viewing preferences and enhances your viewing experience by recommending and automatically recording new shows that you may enjoy.

TV Genie works very much like the Tivo thumbs up stuff.  It will let you rate the shows you watch and suggest others you don't watch that you may like.  Most of the time Braden finds this kind of behavior annoying, but during rerun season any new show that could be even mildly entertaining is worth at least one viewing.  We didn't have too much time to test this module, so we only received a few suggestions based on the limited amount of information we were able to give it.  This seems like, if nothing else, a fun little program to play with when you're bored.  Even with 500 channels, there are still times that "nothing is on."  It's nice to have some recorded suggestions to fall back on.

AMD LIVE! LogMeIn

AMD LIVE! LogMeIn allows you to remotely access and control your AMD LIVE! system, get access to content, files, programs, bookmarks, etc., from anywhere and move media or files between work and home PCs.

Have you ever been out somewhere and remembered that you forgot to set the DVR to record something?  Or you get a tip from someone that a really cool show will be on that night, but you won't be home in time to see it?  That's what LogMeIn is for.  You can get right to your media center PC and set up the recording.  Then after it records you can actually copy the file to wherever you are to watch it.  Of course, if you have the On Demand functionality, you can just watch it straight off the media center.  Some of the more advanced features require a 49.99 per year subscription fee, but the remote DVR control is free of charge.

My Movies for Media Center

This one isn't from AMD LIVE!, but rather from an independent developer who just gives it away.  It's worth mentioning because it adds some very cool functionality to the HTPC.  My Movies acts like a DVD catalog and database, and can automatically backup DVD movies to your hard drive, including cover art and meta information.  It took about 20 minutes and 8 Gigs to back up Spider-man 2, but the resulting movie didn't play.  We had similar trouble with Fantastic 4 before giving up.  The concept is right on, and the interface is very nice, we just encountered a bug that kept us from using it.  Listeners have emailed in about this one, raving about it and how much it has transformed their lives, so we'll have to take their word for it.  There might have been some compatibility issues with DVD ROM drivers or video card drivers or something.

At any rate, if the movies has played back in DVD quality, we'd be looking at a pretty impressive home video server.  It also appears that My Movies will control the Sony DVP-CX777ES ($625 Buy Now) 400 disc DVD changer.  We have one in the office, but didn't get a chance to get it connected and configured, so we'll have to report back on exactly how it works and how well it performs.  But if you assume each movie is 8 GB, 400 movies would be 3.2 TB.  $625 for the changer is quite a bit less than 3.2TB of storage, and if you keep your eyes peeled, you can sometimes find the 777 for close to $500 on a really good sale.  No telling if My Movies would allow you to stream the DVD to another room though, but we doubt it.

Speaking of other rooms, My Movies supports playing back your backed up DVDs on an extender device, but only if you have them backed up as MPEG, MPEG2 or WMV (not DVD).  Extender devices may not play back everything in your library.

Conclusion

Overall we still like Vista Media Center, the interface is very slick.  Our comments from last time mostly apply, but now we know that any limitations someone finds with the software can usually be fixed or overcome by an add-on.  If you've got a Microsoft Media Center, it's worth doing some searching to find out how you can trick out your system.  If you don't have one yet, maybe some of the add-ons will help make up your mind.