You Too Can Watch TV in the Bathroom... Let Me Show You How
At our April 07 MSDN Connection Evening, I showed how you can watch your Media Center content on a Windows Mobile device hence allowing you to watch TV anywhere (including the shower, toilet, pool, etc). The funny thing is that you can do all this via the addition of a 3rd party app. Here's the link:
WebGuide from AsciiExpress
(for both MCE 2005 and Vista Media Center)
http://www.asciiexpress.com/webguide/
The WebGuide application exposes the content on your Media Center via a web app (for both normal and mobile use). The web app can be used directly (http) or via a Vista Sidebar Gadget. The content on the Media Center can be consumed "raw" or "trans-coded" into a smaller WMV. Best of all, WebGuide allows you to schedule recordings via the web app and Gadget.
In Singapore's Microsoft Innovation Center, we had Vista Media Center set up with this application and was able to concurrently run:
- 2 x XBOX360 Media Center Extenders
- 1 x Vista Media Center Laptop consuming a show "raw" (in the native Media Center file format... requires the Media Center codec)
- 1 x Vista Laptop consuming a trans-coded show via WebGuide's Gadget
- 1 x Windows Mobile 5 device (http then streamed via the built-in Media Player)
All this and we were watching TV on the main Media Center machine! WOW... I love my Media Center machine.