i dont claim to have more knowledge about these things but i do have the answer to your wish about streaming radio via mce and not through wmp11. this has been taken from a posting some time ago regards doing the same in mce 2005, and i just tested it and it still works in vmc, so here goes:-
the trick is to create a mcl file which then links through to a htm file, this then can control the playback of streaming radio through the vmc interface as opposed to wmp. ok so first thing to do is to create the htm file:-
create your htm file with the same name as the radio station, for example "virgin.htm" and open it with notepad and copy and paste the code below:-
<html>
<head>
<title>name of the radio station</title>
<script language="JScript" id="clientEventHandlersJS">
function playMedia()
{
/* this function plays the media file and puts the focus on the custom viewport */
// Play the media file
window.external.MediaCenter.PlayMedia(1,"your streaming media link")
window.external.MediaCenter.SharedViewPort.Visible = false;
}
</script>
</head>
<frameset framespacing="0" border="0" frameborder="0" rows="*" onload="playMedia()">
<frame name="Website" src="the url of the radio stations website" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" noresize>
<noframes>
<body>
<p>Op deze pagina worden frames gebruikt, maar uw browser ondersteunt geen
frames.</p>
</body>
</noframes>
</frameset>
</html>
make sure to change the sections in red to the correct values then save the file.
now create your mcl file with the same name as the radio station, for example "virgin.mcl" and open it with notepad and copy and paste the code below:-
<application
name="radio station name"
url="./name of the htm file you created earlier"
startimage=".\name of your radio station.gif"
thumbnailimage=".\name of your radio station.gif"
description="name of your radio station" category="1"
companyname="name of your radio station">
<capabilitiesrequired
directx="false"
audio="true"
video="false"
intensiverendering="false"
console="false"
cdburning="false" />
</application>
make sure to change the sections in red to the correct values then save the file.
now open up vmc, goto the radio section click on the newly created radio station link and enjoy streaming radio through the vmc interface :-), i hope this helps!!.