Recorded TV HD

[IT Troll]

I am in the very early stages of my trial install of Recorded TV HD for Media Center but I must say I am very impressed so far.

RTVHD is a bit like Media Browser (I am guessing - I have never actually used it) but aimed more at enhancing Recorded TV. What is really smart is that it will take both your over-the-air recordings and any downloads you may have and automatically combine them together into a single, richly presented library. Although the name implies TV it actually works well for movies too and so is a great all-in-one solution for all your gogglebox media.

RTVHD adds the concept of Favorites to your media which you can assign to individuals. You can then select your personal list and only see the TV and movies you are interested in. You can choose from four completely different display themes and have a lot of control over how the layouts are configured. It also integrates with My Channel Logos for logos and ShowAnalyzer for skipping commercials if you have them.

It is a little more expensive than some other Add-Ins at $20 but I understand it is sometimes on offer with 50% off (last time was Christmas).

Here are a few screenshots of it in action on my box.

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[gladiateur555]

It looks very nice! At the beginning of Windows Media Center (2005) I used it to watch TV, make pause and recording. At this time I had a CRT TV Sony Flat Trinitron and the simple cable TV.
I put a double tuner Hauppauge card. Works fine. When I made a demo of my media center to my friends & my family, I was "the" guy. 

Some years later came my first LCD (Sony KDL-40Z4500) and I realized that I can't see TV programs with the "simple" analogic signal anymore, too ugly. So, I have to take digital TV and that comes only
with the box of my internet/tv provider. A this time my Media Center was no more utility to see TV programs. I think the only way to still use Media Center with digital TV is with satelits parabols and that's
not for me.

[IT Troll]

That's a shame. I guess we are lucky in the UK that we have free HD digital terrestrial and satellite broadcasts.

[IT Troll]

I have continued to refine my configuration and RTVHD is working great and has passed the WAF. 

I did have problems with a couple of things which were being misidentified or incorrectly split into separate series. This is mostly due to the really poor guide data we get fed in the UK. However RTVHD has override rules which can be used to reconcile and correct these errors. Most of this can be done inside the Media Center interface, but for a couple of the more advanced options you have to use the separate Settings application from the desktop.


RTVHD has the ability to create a custom menu strip for TV and actually remove the standard built-in one, which I have now done. I have further customised my other menu strips to my liking using MCE RTB Themer. For example, the Movies strip was always next to useless (even more so now that I have RTVHD) and so I have removed this and replaced it with a Disc menu. This just contains "play blu-ray" and "play dvd" (which are also configured as auto play handlers).

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[Oliver]

This looks pretty good, I use media browser and love it, but might give this a go at some point.
Thanks

[IT Troll]

Just noticed that Recorded TV HD has gone free! Which is great news for new users.

However this does also spell the end for active support or any future updates.

I still use this everyday. Highly recommended for any Media Center users.