Well, this was the last plugin I expected to spring to life since my last post, but VMCNetflix has a new beta 1.16 available for download.  From the site:

• Fixed issue displaying Instant Queue.
• Fixed issue w/ listing all search items.
• Updates to login page
• Made install check less restrictive, now requires Vista+ instead of requiring Vista-only

I just installed it and tried it out on my bedroom HTPC and noticed right away that the load time (start pulling available covers) was drastically improved for me.  It used to take at least 2 minutes before I could start browsing titles.  This version starting populating movies >30 seconds.

It does appear that this may be the final beta before a rewrite is necessary, however.  It appears the developer needs to rewrite according to Netflix licensing terms since they have finally provided an API.  I think this will be great in the long term though.

Also, from around the house, I setup my NETSVR with the Kiwi Syslog Daemon to grab syslog messages from my unRAID server.  I’ve been having a few issues as of late, but I can never see anything in the syslog since it is reset at every boot.  I believe the mis-matched memory I’m using is causing a reset when copying to certain drives.  I’ll probably just remove that extra 1GB I added since it started happening right around that time.

For the past few weeks, I’ve noticed a very discouraging trend among the majority of Vista Media Center plugin developers – they seem to be at a standstill.  There are a few that still have some life about them – the Video Library that Jack Luminous over at thegreenbutton is working on and myTV both seem to pluggin right along.  Brian Binnerup’s MyMovies is still also undergoing some massive development, but it just seems to never be towards the long overdue MCML interface.

The OML project was steamrolling ahead up until a few weeks ago, then it just seems to have hit a brick wall – in their forums too, which were usually flowing with new threads and posts.  They’ll quickly show up on the forum to tell you that development is not dead, but their SVN updates speak another story.  Video Browser’s SVN has also been quiet now for about 3 weeks.  Nothing on the SVN side and the forum is pretty dead (although it wasn’t that active to begin with).  VMCNetflix seems to have halted at least a couple of months ago with no news anywhere regarding its status.  Finally, there’s MyMovies which is more than an enigma than a stalled plugin.  For nearly two years, perhaps the most popular Media Center plugin of all time, has been plagued by the outdated HTML-based interface within Vista’s Media Center.  The new MCML version has been promised for nearly a year now, but all I’ve seen are mediocre improvements and largely unnecessary additions to the data collection side of things.  The latest venture is the inclusion of a Windows Home Server edition due to popular demand.  Popular demand?  Hello?

There are some other new plugins that have hit the scene as of late, but I can’t call any of them as monumentous as the library-based plugins are.  They mostly fill a specific niche that I just can’t relate to.  So, what do you think is up with the latest “underdevelopment” of Media Center plugins?  Is it the return to school (as many of our developers are students doing this as a hobby)?  Maybe the introduction of the 2008 TV Pack has complicated some things?

In closing, I do want to say that I appreciate everything our plugin developers have done and this was not meant to be a slight against them.  I’m not a programmer so I am no one to criticize what they do for all Media Center lovers.  I do actively participate on most of the forums of the plugins I’ve listed so that I can help in my own way and will continue to do so as long as these plugins are being offered to us.

I got my HannSpree Xv37 LCD TV at a really good price from Buy.com about a year and a half ago.  It’s only 720p, but the picture has been terrific and for $600 shipped, I really couldn’t have asked for much more at the time.  However, the one issue that I have had with it is the way that it changes inputs.  If you use more than one input, you have to push an “Input” button, scroll with the direction pad, then hit “Select” in order to change.  This isn’t a big deal if you use the included remote, but for the Logitech Harmony 670, it has been a nightmare…until a couple days ago.

For the most part, I’ve only used HDMI1 input since I only used the HTPC in the bedroom.  Recently, I got dish and hooked my PVR up to HDMI2.  The way the 670 changes these inputs is to use an “InputNext” command to bring up the inputs menu and then scrolls left until reaching the appropriate input.  The only problem is that it is never right.  For kicks, I decided to change the direction it scrolls from left to right.  To my surprise, it actually works now!  I don’t know why, since the inputs are in the correct order, but I’m not complaining.

So, if you have a HannSpree TV and Harmony remote that has been having issues in switching inputs – change the direction of the scroll.  This may even work with any TV that has a three-selection combination to change inputs.

So, I got really bored with my old theme and decided to go with something new.  I didn’t feel the old theme used enough of the screen real estate, so I’m a little happier with the newer one.  I’m not really sure how well I like the sidebar layout, but I’m going to give it a chance before I start theme shopping again.  Hell, I’ll just let you all choose.  Poll ends in 30 days!

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Not a whole lot has been going on lately with me on the HTPC/HT front.  I did get to install Windows 2008 Server on my NETSVR yesterday though.  I had been wanting to try it out, along with an x64 version, for a while now.  The install was painless and I’m really liking it so far.  Everything that I typically use (application-wise) installed without issue and it’s 100% as functional as it was running x86 2003 Server.  It’s a keeper for sure.

I also finally got tapes for my new (used) DAT drive.  Amazon had incorrectly listed their 5-pack and kept sending me a single tape for a 5-pack price, so I canceled and went with SuperMediaStore.  I got it cheaper there anyway.  I’m currently running a backup of all my photos, my wife’s work folder and our home videos using NovaBackup Professional.  I had first tried the built-in Windows backup with supported hardware compression, but it didn’t actually compress anything and was going to use up the full 31GB I needed to back up (40GB with compression is supported by this drive).  So, I figured I would try my copy of NovaBackup to see if its software compression would be any better.  If it is, I’ll stick with it since its more flexible than the built-in backup anyway.

I also had to redeploy my old Gateway Pentium III 933MHz box since 2008 Server does not support the old Adaptec 2940U2W SCSI card I’m running my DAT from.  It will be used strictly for tape backups, so I’m going to look for a way to set it up for WOL since it only needs to run when I’m doing a differential.  It already had 2003 Server on it from when I was using it as my VPN server, so that made things much easier for me.

Other than that, the only other thing I did was add the replaced Seagate 500GB drive to my unRAID server and I bumped the memory up to 3GB – adding a couple of 512MB modules I had laying around (I had 4, but only two slots left).  I’d like to get it to 4GB, but it can wait.