The developer provides a 32-bit and 64-bit version of the program so that both 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system are supported.

The new video services are installed in the Extras section of Windows Media Center. Selecting Extras and then MacroTube displays the three video services that are currently integrated.

A search is provided that can be used to search for specific videos on the site. The videos can then be sorted by rating, views or relevancy. Selecting a video will load it in Windows Media Center.

All the usual controls are also available during playback. The process is straightforward, robust and very responsive.

Windows Media Center users can download the 32-bit or 64-bit edition of the Macrotube plugin from the forum post where the plugin was announced. (via Into Windows)

Many digital camera manufacturers on the other hand have not created codecs that support the framework and both 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7. That’s where the FastPictureViewer WIC Codec pack comes into play which is a collection of digital camera codecs for about 300 different digital camera models that make use of the framework under 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7.

The codecs are then automatically used by programs that support WIC which includes most of Microsoft’s own software programs including Windows Media Center, Windows Live Photo Gallery, the developer’s Fast Picture Viewer and all Microsoft .net Framework 3 applications.

The digital camera codec pack is currently available as a beta version from the developer’s website. It adds support for the following formats:

• *.tga, *.tpic Truevision Targa (TGA) Supports most format flavors: uncompressed and RLE-encoded grayscale 8 and 16-bit, true color 15, 16, 24 and 32-bit (with alpha) and 8-bit indexed with 15, 16, 24 and 32-bit colormap.
• *.dng Adobe Digital Negative BETA
• *.cr2, *.crw Canon Raw Images BETA
• *.raf Fuji Raw Images BETA
• *.3pr, *.fff Hasselblad Raw Images BETA
• *.kdc, *.dcr Kodak Raw Images BETA
• *.raw, *.rwl Leica Raw Images BETA
• *.mrw Minolta Raw Images BETA
• *.nef, *.nrw Nikon Raw Images BETA
• *.orf Olympus Raw Images BETA
• *.rw2 Panasonic Raw Images BETA
• *.pef Pentax Raw Images BETA
• *.sr2, *.arw Sony Raw Images BETA
• All formats Thumbnail provider for XP Provides support for thumbnail views in Windows XP Explorer, for all the above format variants.

The developer is currently investigating possibilities to add additional codecs to the codec pack. Check out the website for more information.

The only working way at the moment is to convert the wtv video to dvr-ms and from there to another format. That’s not really practicable but it probably is only a matter of time until additional video converters add support for the wtv format. The command line tool ToDvrms can convert wtv files to the dvr-ms format.

The easiest way to convert the wtv files is by placing the todvrms.exe converter in the same folder as the wtv file to be converted. The command is the following:

todvrms.exe c:\test.wtv c:\test.dvr-ms

This will convert the test.wtv file to the dvr-ms format. The developer provides access to another tool that can be used to convert dvr-ms videos to another video format. The software DVRMSToolbox comes with a graphical user interface and can be used to convert the dvr-ms videos.

NBC holds the rights to the Games and they’ve gone the online way by tying up with software TVTonic. The tie-up offers users the chance to download videos of Olympic events for free. In addition, you can also watch each event online with TVTonic 12 hours after it finishes, which is fine when you’re halfway around the world and are sleeping during the live event.

There are some drawbacks though. TVTonic works only with Windows Media Center. That means you need to be a Windows Vista or XP user with the Media Center installed. Plus, you need a broadband connection or you won’t get good playback on the videos. A third drawback is that online viewing is possible only with Internet Explorer.

Although TVTonic looks promising, I didn’t like all the restrictions it imposed. I’m pretty sure there are plenty of less restrictive ways to get your Olympics fix online. What did you think of TVTonic? Fancy trying it out? What are you doing to watch the Olympics online? Let me know in the comments.

What many users don’t know or realize is that Windows Media Center has a whole lot of keyboard shortcuts that can be used to control various aspects of the program. SimpleHelp has compiled a pretty big list of keyboard shortcuts you might need. 42 to be precise.

If you are watching a video or DVD, you can use Ctrl+B and Ctrl+F respectively to go back and forward between various chapters. Ctrl+U switches between various subtitle languages. In the case of TV viewing, hit Ctrl+G to go to the guide and Ctrl+R to record a TV show. There are shortcuts for radio and pictures as well. Just a small note; these shortcuts have been provided for Vista. I’m not running Media Center on my PC but I don’t think the shortcuts for XP would differ all that much.

While you may not need to use all 42 shortcuts, it’s still worthwhile checking out the ones you will probably need. For me, keyboard shortcuts means I can concentrate on the task at hand a bit more easily. How about you? Are any of these shortcuts helpful for you? What shortcuts do you normally use for Media Center? Is there anything else you can add? Let me know in the comments.

According to that email Microsoft adheres to broadcast flags included in the video stream that limits the rights of the users on the receiving end. Windows Media Center users however will not be pleased to hear that software and hardware developers do not have any obligations to interpretate the broadcast flags at all but Microsoft apparently decided to side with the content distributors effectively turning against a part of their customer base.

EFF’s Danny O’Brien commented on the issue in a blog post at the Electronic Frontier Foundation website. (unfortunately slashdotted right now): “They’ve imposed restrictions way beyond what the law requires. Customers need to know who Microsoft is listening to and how that affects their equipment. Right now, the only way customers know what Microsoft has agreed to is when the technology they’ve bought suddenly stops working. Microsoft needs to come clean and tell its customers what deals it has made.’”

It is still unclear if NBC set the broadcast flag to test the waters or if it was an accident that was not supposed to be happening. The most interesting information of the whole incident is the fact that Windows Media Center follows the broadcast flags, that content distributors can regulate what viewers may or may not do with the content stream and that old hardware that was produced before hardware had to be broadcast-flag compliant was not affected at all.