1. Make full use of my Windows Home Server backup system. I have a pretty solid build on my dekstop and I should really preserve it before I muck it up.

2. Back everything up and buy an external drive to backup the backup of important docs and pics.

3. Finish ripping my DVD collection. This is the project that I never seem to finish.

4. Review the new version of Movie Collectorz :). Oops

5. Get a complete SageTV/Placeshifter install working. 

6. Spend more time with XBMC. Currently I use it to access all of my music on my desktop.

7. Beta test and install W7.

8. Get more mobile. Spend more time with my Zune and Windows Smartphone. 

9. Home Automation! I am not sure where I am going to start on this one, but I will have something automated beside me turning off the light when my wife asks.

Have a GREAT 2009 and thank you for your readership!

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There are a couple of threads over at The Green Button that discuss Windows 7. The first one, the one I find most interesting, is using the Xbox 360 as an extender for W7MC. Good news is that DivX, Xvid and H.264 files all work :). mkv files did not work but once it was remuxed to a m2ts container, it did play.

The second thread talks about the newest beta to hit the street and what sort of problems people are having.

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A $1000 price tage for a CableCard equipped HTPC really won't break down any barriers in the HTPC world.Let's face it, if you are out shopping a TiVo looks a lot more attractive in terms of price than an HTPC. In my opinion, releasing tuners that are reasonably priced for all major TV sources would be a much better way to increase adoption rates.

Of course I shouldn't complain when prices come down. For just under a grand, you can expect an AMD tri-core or Intel E7300 setup with a couple of gigs of ram and an internal digital cable tuner.

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Hulu has been a very elusive creature on our beloved HTPCs. Sure we can hop on PCs to get slightly outdated shows but we are a picky bunch on want to do everything with a remote :). Sure there is Boxee, the social crotch fruit of XBMC, but that isn't available to everyone and has a ways to go. XBMC, the open source whore that has spawned a few projects itslef, has come through with in spades thanks to contributions from a couple of kick ass users in the community.

Enabling Hulu on XBMC requires a special build that can be found here.

The feature required for Hulu to work can also be found in the latest SVN's. This option would probably get you improved stability, though I can't say for sure until I test it.

There are multiple scripts in the above thread. The one I used with success on the above build can be found here.

Various ways to browse Hulu	Top movies by the week

You will want to copy the script to the  plugins->video directory to install the script :). Yes, its that simple.

Phsych by season	Popular shows, view by icons

In order to access Hulu from the XBMC menu click on videos->video plugins and then Hulu :). As you can see from the screen cap above, browsing with your remote is actually very similar to using the webpage. You are typically 3 to 5 clicks away from selecting the media you want to view. Endless drill-downs are a no-no in plugin navigation land, and this plugin avoids it for the most part.

Select quality based on your bandwidth

Good luck with Hulu on your big screen :). Here is to hoping 2009 brings Hulu to all of the major HTPC platforms. 

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First off, why didn't I get the memo that scrubs was moving to ABC? Seriously? I guess I should have been more loyal over the past couple of years. Yah, you guessed right, I am typing this while watching an episode of Scrubs with ABC.com's built in web player.

The selection seems pretty resonable but like most websites. ABC.com is acting as a limited archive for their current shows. It is a mixed bag on what episodes are out there. As an example, LOST has the entire current season on it while Grey's only has episodes 2,3 and 9 from this season.

Hit the read more button for the full rundown.

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Well folks, 2008 has come and gone. And along with MissingRemote.com's continuing growth, we wanted to take the time to take a look at the things that came about in our wacky world of home theater & pc components and remember what were some great things that came out, and what are some failures that should be learned from.

So in case you've been living in a cave for 2008, or you just have short term memory loss and enjoy recaps, here you go!

There are a lot more examples after the break :). 

	Arcsoft Total Media Theater Hard to argue that a niche previously dominated by Cyberlink for so many years, has now been overthrown in a matter of months with Arcsoft. They continue to demolish the competition in features, stability and performance, while Cyberlink continues to cut features such as HD-DVD support & ability to play ripped movies.

DirecTV in MCE One in the same as the above, maybe? No, now that we've been told DirecTV's tuner for MCE is done, dead, finito, this gets a big fat thumbs down for 2008. We went from potentially getting DirecTV inside MCE with its own tuner, to now not even a glimmer of hope.

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I'm not one to be overly politically correct, so here goes...

From the family here at Missing Remote to yours, I want to wish you a merry Christmas.  We do appreciate you hanging around our neck of the internet.  You, the community, are what makes this site so special.  Thanks for the effort you put forth submitting news, answering questions, and posting build blogs.  As the uncertain economy yo-yos, it's comforting to know that the people here are a known constant.  It may sound corny, but we do consider you as family.  Again, enjoy the holidays and we hope the best for you in 2009.

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As a ton of Media Center programs gain popularity, its easy to bypass the old stalwarts that have been in development for years and years :). Media Portal turned 4 this year and brought with it version 1.0 :). I have yet to try out MP this year, but I assume with the popularity of it that it must be quite stable. Getting a stable PVR core is easier said that done of course :).

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Time to get your new SageTV features on.  Some of the key updates are listed below.

Enabled switching between different audio tracks for MKV, ASF, MOV and AVI files when playing back with the HD Media Extender (firmware update required)

Preserve watched information when doing a content reindex

Program Guide data options for a tuner: choosing to use an existing lineup now offers the option to simply use the lineup as done before, or to copy the lineup to a separately configurable lineup.

[SageTV Forums]

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Ah, the joy that is CableCARD keeps rearing it's ugly head.  How could something that was meant to work in the consumer's favor get so far off the rails?  It's no surprise that people aren't choosing to use them in anything but set top boxes.

Cablevision's numbers, for instance, show that its CableCARD deployments increased by less than one percent over the quarter. This means that the company did less than 167 installs in the last three months, yet it recorded 2,138 CableCARD problems in its service database. Even after they are initially installed and functioning, the CableCARD ecosystem is a delicate one. Simply looking at your TV funny can cause issues as varied as blank channels, incomplete channel lineups, and inscrutable onscreen error codes.

[Ars Technica]

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