Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Integrate BeyondTV + Vista Media Center Plugin

Do you own a copy of Vista with Media Center built-in?  Like the Media-centric Vista Media Center (VMC) functions like music, video and photos, but want to be able to use the Hauppauge HD-PVR to tune your digital channels without needing CableCard?  A BeyondTV user has created a way to add BeyondTV to your VMC menu.
Here's a screen-shot of the BeyondTV menu item on the Vista Media Center Home Screen:
INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS:
The code is pretty simple and works with VMC Home Premium or Ultimate as well as with x64 or x68 installations.
  
To install you just go to the respective folder for your architecture and run the installation cmd file (or the appropriate uninstaller command file) for the appropriate version of BTV or BTV Link you have, and what operating system you're running. X86 works on Vista 32-bit, x64 on Vista 64-bit.

The only "catch" is that you have to own both Vista Media Center as well as BeyondTV to get it to work.
Requirements: BTV/BTV Link + Vista MCE
One reason this is handy for BeyondTV users is that it provides a way for them to replace Beyond Media (now abandoned by Snapstream) with VMC to give their HTPC true media functionality beyond TV and PVR that BeyondTV gives them.