MCE / MSN Remote Recording Service

[JohnWPB]

For those that have not yet heard, Microsoft has recently taken the remote recording service out of beta for MCE 2005 machines (They say it MAY work with some MCE 2004 machines as well, but no guarntees).

This basically allows you to schedule to record a TV show / movie from any web broswer. (I was actually pleasantly supprised that it al works flawlessly with FireFox.)

I just installed it, and it seems to work great! You have to jump through a few of the preverbial MS hoops to intall it, including having to have a .Net Password, about 5 dialog boxes, 4 licencing agreement windows ect.

When all is said and done, I browsed to tv.msn.com from my laptop, and browsed the TV guide. I picked a show (That was currently in progress), and clicked on the name, a pop-up window then displays with the recording options. I made my selection, and wala, my MCE machine across the room was recording the show within a couple seconds! Tivo has this, but it can take up to a couple hours to propigate from the web, through the satellite and to your Tivo to actually start recording, so it really needed to be done well in advance of the airing of the show.

This will come in handy when away from the house, and there's something I see advertised or something that I want to watch when I get home.

TO INSTALL IT:

Open MCE, go to "Online Spotlight" and then "TV & Movies" there is a link there for "MSN Remote Record Service".

Best of all it's ABSOLUTELY FREE! Since setting up the MCE machine, I dumped the $12.95 a month Tivo service and now pocket that $156 per year.

 

[Mike]

Nice. I'll have to try that. That is one thing Tivo had that MCE did not, and you are absolutely right, you need to schedule it via the web far in advance on Tivo. I'm guessing that may be because the unit has to dial out and it does that somewhat infrequently. I wonder how they get around that on the MCE side.... I have to assume the MCE box is not continually connecting to an MS site.

I have 2 Tivo's but alas, I paid the lifetime fee so no further savings for me.

 

[electron]

I was a beta tester for this service, and it does run pretty nice. I also use Webguide 3, which has a much better interface, and more advanced features, but it does require direct access to your home network (while the MSN service doesn't).

 

[JohnWPB]

Thats something I forgot to mention..... Yes, it DOES require an always on Internet connection. It puts an icon on the system tray that acts like a client waiting for instructions from MS when you schedule a program remotely. The nice thing is that when you schedule a program remotely, it will verify if the command made it through to your MCE machine.

 

[eufreka]

Forget that service...it is terrible compared to this much more elegant, personal solution:

MCE WebGuideâ„¢

I originally tried the msn stuff, but hey, what's better than directly connecting to your own box (why involve the Man to know what's on your box, etc....)

It even includes mobile friendly pages for pocket pc (I can schedule shows from my Cingular 8125 with ease)

 

[eufreka]

I was a beta tester for this service, and it does run pretty nice. I also use Webguide 3, which has a much better interface, and more advanced features, but it does require direct access to your home network (while the MSN service doesn't).

Whoops, didn't notice your reply when I posted! But you are very right about the more advanced features.

I actually run it on the same machine as my HomeSeer website, so direct access is a given...

I might add that I found the msn software to be a huge resource hog on my PC...