Concerning #3, I am currently working on something similar. This is not a simplistic process and don't expect anything out of me before a Vista timeline (that is if my current arch is functional).

For an hint of the direction I'm going see http://www.thegreenbutton.com/community/shwmessage.aspx?ForumID=40&MessageID=160479 along with a post I made somewhere around here concerning PICMG 1.3 SHBs and backplanes. As I progress I will try to share what lessons I learn with the community. I would enjoy seeing others take their own routes with this, one of us is bound to come up with something good.

Personally I'm not interested in softsled as a primary display device. The UMPC version is nice and would work well on UMPC and Tablets, but is just not what I would be looking for on my primary TV.

I have read all your posts and it is very interesting to read this!! I my home I have a mce in my livingroom and one in my bedroom. It is working but what I am looking for is a CE device that could replace my pc in the bedroom. it should be able to play my recorded videofiles as well as show my pictures, play my music and let me be able to use the guide. I live in Europe and I dont believe that many Europeans actually use MCE as the primary tuner to watch tv so I dont see "live TV" as a primary goal for me. What is important is that the box itself is cheap, runs the same gui (WAF) and remote. I would love to see a CE thin client next to my tv instead of having a PC because I would have the same struggle in my kitchen which is my next project.

I havent tried the HP/Linksys extenders as they were not available in Denmark but a box half the size would be a preferable solution.

So Softsledge or not there are tons of wishes to a viable solution and I strongly believe that if someone could start a project like this we could get a great product in the end. If the MediaPortal guys and xbox boys can why shouldnt we be able to come up with something that could make MCE an even greater succes???

Jeppe

I was thinking about the how to get live tv to another machine issue and I may have 2 solutions for at least teh video part of things.  I haven't tried either of these.

1: repeating playlist.

For those that don't know, the playback buffer is a series of files that are reused over and over for live tv.  change changes, they start over.  go back their max length, they reuse the file one.  Using a playlist and wmp you should be able to quickly test if you can open and play the temp files that mce is using at the same time.  keep in mind the main mce needs to be watching what you want to see on the other machine and might be the killer of this method.

the registry does have an entry for the first file to use.  that would be your first playlist item.  just a matter of gettng the other names of files.  This should work right now, just drop the playlist into your my videos section and viola, you can watch the same thing on any computer with wmp and an mpeg2 decoder

You might also be able to make a mini playlist generator that passes back the path and filename of the currect file in use.  just 1 playlist entry with an entryref to your app and set the playlist to repeat.  get to the end of the file, it repeats which calls an entryref for the current filename.

2: temp recordings.

Nothing stopping you from having an app to start/stop/delete recordings and use that file in the playlist to watch.  when it ends, you can call your little app for a new playlist entry and get the new current recording filename.  When the file isn't in use by anything for 5-10 minutes, auto-delete it.  If you want to save it, just dont delete it.  Also doesn't require the mce machine to be watching live tv and it can watch another station.

It wont work accident.  The file is locked by MCE so no one can read from it.  This should explain it better.

Ooo, don't try that.  The Guide is backed by a SQL Lite database, and needs local access to it.  Also, I doubt any changes you make there would stick anyhow--the next time the guide downloaded it would just change it.

Why do you want to use a single Guide?  If it's for the overrides, etc., you can ship those around separately.  Just copy the files from "%ALLUSERSPROFILE%\Application Data\Microsoft\eHome\EPG\prefs" from the “source” machine to your “target” machines to get all of the lineup edits you’ve performed.

The recordings.xml file can be copied—you just need to stop the ehsched service on the target PC before doing it, since changes are only read from it when the service starts.  Changes are written to the file in 5-second windows (i.e. every 5 seconds, if there are changes, they get flushed to the file).  There is another way to get ehsched to read the file, but it involves programming a C# MCE AddIn and using the CompleteRollback() API.

There’s an easier way to share recordings, though.  You can add network paths to the WatchedFolders list (under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Service\Recording) in the registry, and recordings can be viewed on the local machine from the remote as you like.

•  Peter  •

I know most of this looks like garbage but the idea is their.  I just have to pull this all together, then find someone to program the bits that need done.  Or I can just drop it because I really dont have the know how to do this.

Media Center Extenders do not do file access.  They access the MCE computer using Remote Desktop protocol with extensions for streaming audio and video.  The MCE computer runs sessions on the local machine for each connected extender.  I would assume that the processes responsible for streaming live TV to an extender is the same one that is holding the locks on the temporary storage file.

Thanks,
WRK

I don't understand why we keep belaboring the "video isn't over RDP" point.  For all practical purposes, and for the design of a software based extender, the video is sent as part of the RDP protocol.

When you boot an extender, you can see the RDP communications between the extender and the MCE computer.  To watch live TV, it appears that the MCE computer contacts the extender over another port/protocol with the streaming data.  When you communicate with a PC over RDP to a MCE computer, it appears to use the same protocol.  And in fact this is supported by the fact that when you RDP to a MCE computer, you get MCE menus of an extender, NOT the menus you would get if your were sitting at the MCE's console.  However, (and I am making an educated guess here) when the MCE computer attempts to stream the video to the remote computer running the Windows RDP client, it gets no response, and thus gives you the error that video is not supported over remote terminals.

Now, if a custom RDP client was written that could respond to these streaming audio and video ports, I think you would have your SoftSled.  I would imagine that the protocols for the streaming audio and video are documented somewhere in the Windows CE SDK, since it seems that you can generate a CE build with an RDP client with audio and video streaming extensions.  I imagine this is exactly how the CE build for extenders is created.  The custom RDP Client would have to process the streaming audio and video through local codecs to decode and display the video, much as I imagine local codecs for video playback are included in the Windows CE build of extenders.

I fully comprehend that streaming video and audio aren't sent over port 3389 as part of the RDP communication with the RDP client that comes with Windows.  But surely you can concede the point that current extenders use an extended RDP protocol that includes video and audio streaming extensions, that RDP by itself gets us 80% of the way to SoftSled, and that cracking these audio and video streaming extensions would get us the remaining 20% of the way home.

I guess we don't have any CE programmers following this thread, which is a shame.  I have believed for a long time that this type of solution would provide the most functionality and versatility in a Softsled client, but unfortunately I do not have the expertise to write such a program.

Thanks,
WRK

It's important to understand that the video isn't over RDP for one key reason. You can't just connect to port 3390 on your MCE system with any old build of MSTSC and have it be an extender. It's best to think of extenders as two separate clients. An MSTSC UI client and a Windows Media Center streaming client, with the Media Center shell on the MCE system literally gluing them together. The way extenders view live tv (using the same ehshell as if you were on the MCE) and the way you watch live tv on the MCE system itself (via ehshell) are totally different. EHShell handles the UI eye candy and either has DirectX render the video and audio locally (console), or send it remotely (extender). Think about the way the MCE shell reacts when you connect over port 3389 - it tells you it cannot render video. Because it cannot render it live via RDP, and it knows you aren't an extender. It never tries to transmit the video - because you didn't log in as an extender. There's an entirely different series of login events that happen when an extender logs on. Trust me - I've traced it.

Don't hold your breath on this one.  Microsoft is well aware of the demand.  If they had intended to provide such capability, it would have been out by now.  You'll have to wait on v2 Extenders (whatever they are) and have two devices at these locations.  That's convergence, Microsoft style!

WRK

BTW, in all fairness I must admit that in 20 years of working in IT and software development, I have come to believe that Microsoft is one of the most incompetent, mismanaged and bloated software companies that exists, despite their success.  They do accomplish many things; but they accomplish few if any things well (Excel is the one exception).  I am sure this view taints my responses.

Sorry - I totally agree with you about MS.

However, how do you KNOW that MS knows of the demand?  Where can I complain as well?

If you have a request, put it here...

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/using/featurerequest.mspx