November 2006 - Posts

• File updated: DSTVGuide2XML grabber removed

  The DSTVGuide2XML grabber that Colin wrote to grab the XMLTV data from the DSTV website has been removed from this site as well as his. The guide update process to compile the ZAXMLTV files is becoming increasingly difficult to complete.  The process is taking longer and longer.  I had a chat to Colin today on MSN Messenger.  He is of the opinion that too many people are running it now and degrading the DSTV site performance.  To put it in his words: We have dug our own grave.  The problem is compounded when we try and and provide up to date XMLTV files and are not successfull due to the problems currently being experienced, people decide to grab their own files which in turn makes the situation worse and worse.  From now on, Colin and I will manage the guide updates, probably swopping the responsibility every now and then.  We will then post these files on the sites for general consumption.  In this way, we don't upset DTSV too much and everyone gets a nice new XMLTV file more often! Colin has wriiten a new grabber which uses much less bandwidth as it only check for changes to the previous time the grabber was run so from a DTSV point of view, it is much better too! If everything goes to plan, we should have up to date ZAXMLTV files soon.  This file will be kept up to date every few days.  All in all, a much better situation for the whole community. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this, please let us know. Posted Nov 26 2006, 03:29 AM by Site News and Announcements

• Site news: New skin

  A custom theme made especially for our community has been applied to the site.  It is something I have been working on for a week or so.  Hope you like it! There are still some small things that need to be finished here and there but for the most part it is finished. If things look a little strange, please do a hard refresh (Ctrl + F5 in most browsers) or clear your web cache. As always, you can also give some feedback and tell us what you think of the SA MCE Community using this forum post or suggest some articles we are missing using this one. There will be some other small changes around here soon.  We'll keep you posted as and when they happen. Thanks Chris Posted Nov 26 2006, 02:35 AM by Site News and Announcements

• Article added: MCE 2005 shutdown menu options

  An article called MCE 2005 shutdown menu options has been added to the site. The article describes how to enhance your MCE experience by changing some power settings within Windows for MCE 2005.  It can be found in the articles section of the site or you can click here to view it.  You can use this forum thread to discuss the article. Enjoy! Posted Nov 26 2006, 01:35 AM by Site News and Announcements

• File added: MNET ZAXMLTV File

  A new file has been added to the site.   It can be found in the downloads section of the site or you can click here to view it. This is the XMLTV file required to populate the EPG of the media centre application of your choice.  MNET-XMLTV.zip contains a 30 day guide with only SABC 1, SABC 2, SABC 3, E-TV and MNET.   If you need the guide data for all of the DSTV channels you need DSTV-XMLTV.zip which contains a 30 day guide with all the DTSV channels. Use this one if you have a DSTV decoder.   The files are in XMLTV format and includes show title, description, start time, stop time, show rating and show categories. You can then import the schedule into Windows Media Center Edition using Webguide2 & SmartGuide, QuickGuide or EPGRunner. The files should be updated at least once a week. Leave a comment on this post if something is not working properly and I'll do my best to help. For those of you who want to automate the download of the file from this site, the direct link for the download is http://savage.org.za/zaxmltv/xmltvfree.zip Thanks to Colin for creating and hosting these files. Posted Nov 22 2006, 10:41 AM by Site News and Announcements

• File added: DSTV ZAXMLTV File

  A new file has been added to the site.   It can be found in the downloads section of the site or you can click here to view it. This is the XMLTV file required to populate the EPG of the media centre application of your choice.  DSTV-XMLTV.zip contains a 30 day guide with all the DTSV channels. Use this one if you have a DSTV decoder.   If you do not need the guide data for all of the DSTV channels, like if you do not have a DSTV decoder, you need MNET-XMLTV.zip which contains a 30 day guide with only SABC 1, SABC 2, SABC 3, E-TV and MNET.  The files are in XMLTV format and includes show title, description, start time, stop time, show rating and show categories. You can then import the schedule into Windows Media Center Edition using Webguide2 & SmartGuide, QuickGuide or EPGRunner. The files should be updated at least once a week. Leave a comment on this post if something is not working properly and I'll do my best to help. For those of you who want to automate the download of the file from this site, the direct link for the download is http://savage.org.za/zaxmltv/xmltv.zip Thanks to Colin for creating and hosting these files. Posted Nov 22 2006, 10:29 AM by Site News and Announcements

• Site news: Spread the word!

  Now that we are almost fully up and running here at the SA MCE Community it is time to spread the word. Tell your friends, write a post on your blog, post a message in any relevent forums or link to us from your website. Do whatever it takes.  Lets get this community up and running so we can help fellow MCE enthusiasts! Remember, this may be the South African MCE Community but that does not mean we can't have members from all over the world.  This community can cater for everyone.  The internet is the global village after all! Posted Nov 22 2006, 10:21 AM by Site News and Announcements

• Site news: We're open for business, well almost...

  Well, this is the first post on the new SA MCE Community site.  There is still a lot of work to be done before we can actually call this a community site but we are on track to deliver an awesome resource for media center community in South Africa. This site, the only Windows XP Media Center Edition Community for South Africa, is the only place you need to come to read news, reviews and interact with fellow MCE enthusiasts. The site was created in an attempt to pull together the large amount of good information regarding MCE.  Although it has a South African focus on MCE we welcome users from all over the globe as a lot of information is useful no matter where you live! If you're an MCE fan, or just a new user looking for an answer to a problem you're having, this is a good place to chat in the forums with those with similar interests. To take advantage of all the features offered by the SA MCE Community such as the ability to post in the forums, post comments, setting your own avatar, tracking post counts, emailing users, private messages, access private forums, keep track of your favorite posts by adding them to you online favorites and many others you will need to have an account. It only takes a few seconds to register, and it is recommended you do so. There are a number of items still left on the to-do list such as migrating the MCE specific content from my blog to this site. All this will be done by the 15th of March 2006. Come back often and have a look at our progress. In the mean time, go ahead and join the SA MCE Community today! Contributions to the community are always welcome!  Contact us if you feel you can contribute to our community in any way possible. This is a community site and with your help we can make it one of the best around! If you have any content for the site or suggestions regarding the site, please contact us.  You can also give some feedback using this poll. Enjoy the site! Chris Posted Nov 22 2006, 10:20 AM by Site News and Announcements

• Site news: MCE related content required

  I will be migrating the content from the various Media Center related posts that are currently on my blog over to this site over the next few days. If anyone has writen any articles that they think would be useful to the community, please forward them to me.  Each person that submits content to the community will obviously recieve full credit for it. You can use the Contact Us page to get hold of me.  You can also post the content into this thread and I will convert it into an article. Thanks Chris Posted Nov 22 2006, 10:18 AM by Site News and Announcements

• Site news: External News section added

  A new section has been added to the site:  External News. This page will contain a list of news items concerning Media Center from around the globe. We use the Newsgator free web RSS reader to read the RSS feeds from a number of MCE related blogs and websites.  The Newsgator service allows you to save certain posts from various sites and blogs into a folder called "My Clippings".  You can then syndicate your clippings as an RSS feed.  The External News list is this RSS feed displayed on the site.  We now have a way of selecting various posts from a number of sources and having complete control of what external news is displayed on the site. del.icio.us also allows you to syndicate your own RSS feeds of the pages you have tagged and this is another source you can add to your external news page and we will be using this in the same way do add content to this External News page. Clicking on a link will take you to the original blog or website that posted the content in the first place and you can keep track of the comments and updates to that post there. Enjoy! Posted Nov 22 2006, 09:54 AM by Site News and Announcements

• Site news: SA MCE upgraded to Community Server 2.1

  Over the past few weeks it has come to our attention that the stability of this site is not what it should be.  Most of the issues experienced are around replying and creating new posts due to exceptions generated by the editor.  After spending a considerable amount of time trying to rectify the situation without much success, we decided to upgrade this site to the latest version of Community Server which has a new editor packaged with it. Hopefully all the issues have been resolved.  We will be monitoring the site closely over the next few weeks to iron out any problems.  Thank you to all those who emailed us to let us know that this problem was occurring.  Posted Nov 22 2006, 09:50 AM by Site News and Announcements

• Article added: Finding analogue TV broadcast frequencies for MCE 2005

  A new article on how to finding analogue TV broadcast frequencies for MCE 2005 has been added to the Articles blog. The article steps through the options you have to get the all important frequency data and registry keys that MCE requires to view the TV signal for your area. Click here to read the article. All of our articles are listed on the Articles page. As always, you can post any questions you have in the forums and we will do our best to help. Enjoy! Posted Nov 22 2006, 09:32 AM by Site News and Announcements

• File added: SA MCE Community RSS feeds OPML file

  An OPML file has been added to the files gallery.  You can grab it here.  Use this forum thread to discuss any issues or ask any questions about this file. This file can be used to import our various RSS feeds into your RSS reader.  By default the feeds within the file are structured as follows.  Most RSS readers will allow you to choose what folders or feeds you would like to import.  SA MCE Community RSS Feeds Forums Hardware - RSS Software - RSS Hacks & Mods - RSS Tips & Tricks - RSS MCE Extenders - RSS MCE Marketplace - RSS Show & Tell - RSS General Discussions - RSS Other PVR's - RSS SA MCE Community - RSS Related Hardware - RSS Blogs The SA MCE Community Blog - RSS External News Blog - RSS Most RSS reader applications and online RSS readers allow you to import OPML files.  Download the zip file and extract the contents.  Open your RSS reader application and import the file.  Posted Nov 22 2006, 09:32 AM by Site News and Announcements

• Article added: Install MCE 2005 on Windows XP Home or Windows XP Professional

  A new article on how to install MCE 2005 on Windows XP Home or Windows XP Professional has been added to the Articles blog. The article explains how to to get MCE 2005 installed on a normal copy of Windows using a number of little hacks to the Windows OS. Click here to read the article. All of our articles are listed on the Articles page. As always, you can post any questions you have in the forums and we will do our best to help. Enjoy! Posted Nov 22 2006, 09:28 AM by Site News and Announcements

• Article added: Analogue TV signal issues

  An article on Analogue TV signal issues has been added to the site. The article goes through some of the common causes of what can cause havoc with your TV signal and some possible resolutions to those issues. It can be found in the articles section of the site or you can click here to view it.  You can use this forum thread to discuss the article. Thanks to Etienne for submitting this article. Enjoy! Posted Nov 22 2006, 09:24 AM by Site News and Announcements

• Article added: Keyboard shortcuts for MCE 2005

  An article on Keyboard shortcuts for MCE 2005 has been added to the site. The article lists all the keyboard shortcuts available in the MCE 2005 interface. It can be found in the articles section of the site or you can click here to view it.  You can use this forum thread to discuss the article. Enjoy! Posted Nov 22 2006, 09:23 AM by Site News and Announcements