This is something that is not a secret, but is also not very widely known. I would imagine that it is because not too many people have a use for it or know how it could be used.

Of course, I’m talking about creating video playlists that can be used within Vista Media Center. I’m sure everyone knows what a playlist is, as they’re most commonly used for music playback on just about any media player available. Anyway, I don’t like rambling that much, so I’ll get right into it.

First, you need a media player capable of generating a playlist with the asx extension. This is most commonly a Windows Media Streaming extension. However, Vista Media Center can recognize and playback this format in both the Music and Video Libraries. I used Windows Media Player 11 to create mine. Simply drag your files into the Drag items here section, arrange them in any order you wish, click on the Untitled Playlist menu directly above and choose Save Playlist As…. When naming your playlist, be sure to add the .asx extension and then choose Save As Type “Any Playlist” so that the asx extension is applied correctly (simply RENAMING it DOES NOT WORK). That’s it, you’re done!

You do need to place the playlist file within the directory structure of your Video Library (obviously) so that it is picked up. You can even create a JPG file of the same name (playlist.asx = playlist.jpg, for example) to get a thumbnail to show up in the library – nice.

“Why do I need this?”, you ask. For me, it was for my son. He loves Scooby-Doo, The Flintstones, Dora the Explorer, etc. However, most of these episodes are only a little over 20 minutes long, so as soon as one was over he would come wanting another. He falls asleep to the TV, so at night, this was a bit of a problem. By creating a playlist for all the individual episodes, he doesn’t have to get bored of watching the same feature-length movies he has. I created a new “Playlists” directory and tossed them all in there. Other uses could be for music videos or collections of playlists to group several shorter TV episodes together – similar to what I do for my son…just for yourself (i.e. 2-3 episodes of Scrubs). It’s a much easier solution than joining videos and whatnot.

For you MCE 2005 people out there, you’re not left in the dust. There is a playlist creator available that creates compatible wvx-based playlists. Now, I could not get this to work, so your mileage may vary. It created the lists perfectly. However, my son’s MCE2K5 system was unable to play them. That is what prompted me to upgrade to Vista since I knew it worked. The download for the playlist creator is at XPMediaCenter.com.au and it does require registration to download. Link to the thread is here.

There is also a plugin available that allows creation of playlists within the Media Center interface, but you can hunt for that on your own. I wasn’t interested in it, so it doesn’t get linked :)

I never really cared so much about customizing my Vista MCE menus – until I found a utility that allowed me to do just that.

Some background:

I don’t listen to music, I have no music and, therefore, my HTPCs have no need for music playback.  In fact, I’d find it an incredible waste to require so much equipment to play back mp3s or whatever.  That’s not to say that I don’t understand audiophiles or music lovers in general.  Most home theater equipment was created with music playback in mind, so I’m grateful.

Anyway, considering I don’t need the music capabilities in Media Center, it only makes sense to remove it – or at least hide it.  There’s never really been an easy way of doing that without editing a bunch of XML files, unregistering MCE applications, etc. ad nauseum.  I tried an older application from XPMediaCentre.com.au called MCE Customizer, and while it did some things well, it failed at editing menus for me.

Now, there is a drag-and-drop interfaced application that allows us to hide, move and even delete some menus.  You can also easily create more than two (previous limit for available offerings) custom menus, although you can still only see up to two custom menus in VMC.  This utility is a successor to MCE Customizer and is called MC Menu Mender.  I found a thread at TheGreenButton.com, but the origination is at XPMediaCentre.com.au.

I’ve since tested this out on two of my VMC boxes and it works very well.  I was able to disable the entire Music strip, as well as disable some unused objects within several strips.  It also allowed me to group a few objects into more convenient strips so that I could limit my scrolling for similar object links (i.e. placing the MyMovies Movie Collection object in Pictures + Videos).  I also like the fact that the utility allows you to rename any item available (I didn’t like TV + Movies, so I renamed it to TV + DVD and renamed Pictures + Videos to Movies + Pictures).  I realize most all of this is glam and preference, but it does add to the HTPC experience, in my opinion.

I did find a bug or two that caused VMC to crash upon saving and starting up.  VMC doesn’t like it when objects of static strips are moved to other strips.  I found this out when trying to move “play dvd” from TV + Movies to Pictures + Videos.  If I recall, there was a fix available in the thread at XPMediaCentre.com.au, but it involved some XML hacking that I’m not real interested in doing.  Could I do it?  Sure…no problem.  It’s just that I’m really not that inconvenienced.  The pay isn’t worth the work, if you will.

So, if you’re jonesing for some menu customization with Vista Media Center, head on over and grab the utility.  It’s a very nice addition to my collection.

If you have an extra $1600 just lying around that you don’t know what to do with, maybe you could use a new…keyboard!

I spent a few minutes this morning checking out the latest releases of MeediOS and MediaPortal – two HTPC frontends.  I actually used MediaPortal for a short period of time 6 months ago or more and really enjoyed it.  However, it had a few quirks that I just couldn’t live with and had to go to Vista Media Center, which is what I use now.  I like it, but I’d really like to move on to something else that has more options and a more active community (more plugins, functionality, less cost, etc.).

MediaPortal has a new v2 preview available, but I did not try that.  It looks absolutely awesome though and it my be what I eventually move to.  MeediOS looked pretty good too, but I’m very unfamiliar with it.  I couldn’t find a way to do a MyMovies database import either.  That is a big catch for me as there is no way I’m reinventing a movie database.  I’m sure there has to be a way to do it, but I didn’t spend a very long time searching.  Maybe later if I decide to take a closer look.

I’m just starting to see the real limitations of VMC and starting to get really disappointed with the lack of options.  There are many people out there attempting to come up with plugins, but they either do not apply to me, or the support is so thin that I can’t implement them.  Sometimes I really wish I knew how to code.

I may actually give MeediOS a real run on my son’s system since it doesn’t make use of MyMovies and only needs the built-in video browser.  It’s on MCE2K5 and has been having some real stability issues as of late and I’d like to try that before removing my secondary encoder from service to make him a new VMC system.

I don’t really have anything additional to add except that I never did mention that the X10 devices I installed apparently had no issues with noise interference.  I was very worried that they wouldn’t work correctly, but so far I can’t see any effect at all.  Considering the bedroom does not have as much, it seems likely there will be no problems there either (knock on wood).

I’ll be installing two wall switches in the bedroom – one each for the fan and light.  Everything will need to be re-wired, but I don’t need to buy anything and it doesn’t appear to be overly difficult.  I’m pretty sure I mentioned it before, but pull-chains suck.