Hello,

I am looking for a plugin or someone to make me a plugin for Vista Media Center which will allow me to set an alarm in media center so that it will change to a TV channel in the morning to wake me up.

Many thanks.

Terry H

exactly what i want to!!!

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VMC: HP d5100t, 3 cablecards, Linksys dma2100
Server 1: WHS Quad Core, 4.5TB Storage and growing.
Display: 42 inch LCD and 92" HD Projector.

I haven't tried this yet.  I remembered in my xp mce days, there was an alarm clock for xp mce.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/mcepowertoys.mspx
Check out the Alarm Clock Power Toy

-Josef

its not that great...it only lets you setup to play music, not tv

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VMC: HP d5100t, 3 cablecards, Linksys dma2100
Server 1: WHS Quad Core, 4.5TB Storage and growing.
Display: 42 inch LCD and 92" HD Projector.

ive been after one for a long time

any developers out there that can make one

one that can play music, online radio stations and tv/movies

that would be awesome

One that would work on Extenders would be brilliant - hopefully someone knows how to do this!

I can't believe with all the developers out there, and so many requests for this function, that someone hasn't been able to create one.

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Sky+, Hauppauge HVR-1100 running in a Quad core 2.4ghz, 4gb ram, onboard sound (realtek), 1gb ATI 1200HD. Vista Ultimate 64-bit. 500gb internal hard drive & 1.5TB external hard drive (500gb & 1TB)

Can Media center started and tuned to a channel via the command line ?

I know there is a bunch of commands to start media center in different modes, not sure if you can tuner to a channel.. If you could do that you could use Scheduled Tasks do this....

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-Dave

MCP, MCSA, MCSE 2003
Windows Vista Connected Exp:Home Theater for Technologists
Windows Vista Connected Exp:Home Theater for Sales professionals

Home theater specialist (10+ years)

 

I don’t believe you can launch mediacenter with any command parameters to fire off TV.  This isn't really a mediacenter development solution, however you can do what you want right now using a existing mediacenter application(VMC controller), a vbscript and your windows task scheduler.

I'm just throwing this out there with little to no thought so feel free to suggest a better alternative. Due to the EPG changes in TV Pack, this will only work on Non TV pack machines.

Install VMC Controller.

Create a vbscript(ie.  LiveTVAlarm.vbs) and put the following commands in

'Begin file
set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
strWinDir = WshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%SYSTEMROOT%")
WshShell.Run strWinDir & "\ehome\ehshell.exe"
WScript.Sleep 30000   'this is set to 30 seconds to allow vmccontroller to initialize
WshShell.Run "cmd"
WScript.Sleep 100
WshShell.AppActivate "C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe"
WScript.Sleep 500
WshShell.SendKeys "telnet localhost 40500 {ENTER}" 'first extender session would be 40501
WScript.Sleep 100
WshShell.SendKeys "play-tv 1021{ENTER}"  'change 1021 to the channel you want to tune to
WScript.Sleep 200
WshShell.SendKeys "fullscreen{ENTER}"
WScript.Sleep 2000
'End File

This script will launch mediacenter if it isn't running however it will not fire off a extender session.  If you are only looking to start live tv on a extender then mark out lines 2-4 as they are use to start mediacenter if it isn't running.  Also make sure your extender is left on and logged into the mediacenter as well as change the port number to 40501 or whatever port number the extender you want to control is running on.  

After you have saved the file, setup a scheduled task(Administrative tools | Task Scheduler) and setup a task to launch the vbscript you have created at the time you want it fire off.

Obviously this isn't the most ideal solution as it can easily be broken(Extenders logging on in different order screwing up port numbers, etc), however it will do what you want and was only a quick thought I had after reading your request. as far as I know there isn't a exit function for the VMC Controller, so this will leave a command window open. 

Just a thought.

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Jay Brown
2 Vista X86 Ultimate (Family Room, TheaterRoom)
2 Linksys DMA 2100 (Bedroom, workout room)

I wrote a really simple app to be able to use command line parameters with Media Center.  This will only work on the actual Media Center machine (not on an extender) - but if used with scheduled tasks, it would be a really easy way to do it right now.

You can download MCKeySender here: http://www.mediacenterguides.com/node/113

If you run it without parameters it will give you a box with how to use it.  Example for an alarm with TV, you would run it as follows:

"MCKeySender.exe /greenbutton /t 9000 /livetv /t 5000 903"

This would start Media Center, wait 9 seconds (to give it a chance to open fully), start Live TV, wait for 5 seconds, go to channel 903.

Not as flexible as what jbworks came up with, but it is dead simple, and doesn't require actually installing anything. 

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Just my $0.02.

Thanks for that. Not perfect, but it is definetly a step in the right direction, and will work for now.
Hopefully someone can create an interface for this to make it easy to change details via a remote.
I would try myself but I wouldn't know where to start

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Sky+, Hauppauge HVR-1100 running in a Quad core 2.4ghz, 4gb ram, onboard sound (realtek), 1gb ATI 1200HD. Vista Ultimate 64-bit. 500gb internal hard drive & 1.5TB external hard drive (500gb & 1TB)

Even if you get something to have media center start and tune to a channel, you still need something to turn on your TV....

Maybe your looking towards a remote feature ? Like a Harmony or something that will run macros at a time ?

Not sure who makes such a product but, I have not been looking for one...

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-Dave

MCP, MCSA, MCSE 2003
Windows Vista Connected Exp:Home Theater for Technologists
Windows Vista Connected Exp:Home Theater for Sales professionals

Home theater specialist (10+ years)

A lot of TVs also have an alarm feature on them, so you can specify a turn on time.

I think most remotes would have a hard time with this, most won't let you do any kind of background processes, and to put a delay in a macro seems like it would really kill the battery.

If the TV doesn't have an on timer built in, then I think you would need to move up to an automation system (could be a basic one for this) - could also look at the thread about making the IR blaster universal, there might be a way to do it with that (though I haven't looked), or you could break out your coding skills and use something like the global cache if you want to get really fancy.  :)

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Just my $0.02.

ryan.tollefson:

A lot of TVs also have an alarm feature on them, so you can specify a turn on time.

I think most remotes would have a hard time with this, most won't let you do any kind of background processes, and to put a delay in a macro seems like it would really kill the battery.

If the TV doesn't have an on timer built in, then I think you would need to move up to an automation system (could be a basic one for this) - could also look at the thread about making the IR blaster universal, there might be a way to do it with that (though I haven't looked), or you could break out your coding skills and use something like the global cache if you want to get really fancy.  :)

Hey Ryan,

If a tv has a built in timer, this should work then.

1. Set alarm on TV

2. Download file from Ryan's post, set up a small batch file (schedule.bat) with the commands as listed and to what you need.

3. Create a Scheduled task (start>control panel>adminstrative tools>scheduled tasks),  to run the batch file at the time you need. (you can set a schedule here, just Mon-Friday or Tues and Wends only, however)

4. Enjoy your TV waking you up in the morning

It would be neat if you could use the IR blaster as the for the remote and to start a TV, that would be awsome here, because it would be all built in and someone make a quick app, it could be all done....

As for remotes, any $50 remote wouldn't do it, it would be in a higher end remote ($300+), I have seem some with some cool features but, never even looked for an alarm feature but, I am sure it's out there.

From what I see here, with a little tweaking, you can get this all working in under 25 min....

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-Dave

MCP, MCSA, MCSE 2003
Windows Vista Connected Exp:Home Theater for Technologists
Windows Vista Connected Exp:Home Theater for Sales professionals

Home theater specialist (10+ years)