Hello Everyone,

Is there a Weather Plugin specifically for Vista?  I have used mceWeather back when I had Windows MCE.  I recently went to Vista and would prefer a weather plugin that uses the new interface instead of the hosted HTML.  Does anyone know if mceWeather will be upgraded to use MCML?

I looked at Big Screen Weather v2,  it's not yet available for download.  I also read they will be offering it as a 2 year subsription for  $19.95 instead of a license.  I understand their reasoning behind the subsription.  I'm being cheap though.  I'd rather pay for a license than a subscription.

Thanks,

-Josef

lol, so basically...you want exactly what BigScreenWeather is offering, just don't like paying for it?

Yes, I'm being cheap.  But hear me out...

I don't mind paying for a license.  I prefer not to pay for a subscription.  Of course free is always good. 

I haven't used Big Screen Weather v1 since that plugin only shows weather in Australia.  I'm in the San Diego, CA, where the weather doesn't change very much. Big Screen Weather v2 is supposed to be global.  I missed their private beta.  They are supposed to start public beta soon.  If their plugin is really good, it may be worth the subscription.  But for now, I haven't used BigScreenWeather at all.  All I know is it uses MCML, where as mceWeather uses hosted HTML.

MyMovies is free, I use that all the time.  I bought licenses for myTV, mControl, InTheMoviesSE.  I use those plugins alot.  I don't see myself using the weather plugin all that much.  So that's why I prefer not to pay for a subscription for a plugin that I won't use very much, again because I'm in SD.

Thanks,

-Josef

p.s.  I actually installed the latest version of mceWeather.  Their dark blue skin look matched Vista MCE.  So I may stay with mceWeather since that's free.  The only thing is that when I exit from their plugin, they show a splash screen for 7 seconds. 

from what you've said, then you're better off just sticking with MCEWeather. It's still a very competent program even though it's based off the old HTML.

but i still gotta ask, you live in SD...you really need to look up the weather? I used to live there, i can be your weather guide. "Today, it's gonna be 70 degreez and sunny!"

:-)

jcuesico:

Hello Everyone,

Is there a Weather Plugin specifically for Vista?  I have used mceWeather back when I had Windows MCE.  I recently went to Vista and would prefer a weather plugin that uses the new interface instead of the hosted HTML.  Does anyone know if mceWeather will be upgraded to use MCML?

I looked at Big Screen Weather v2,  it's not yet available for download.  I also read they will be offering it as a 2 year subsription for  $19.95 instead of a license.  I understand their reasoning behind the subsription.  I'm being cheap though.  I'd rather pay for a license than a subscription.

Thanks,

-Josef

sorry to hear things are that tight for you (0.83c per month could be quite a killer if finances are low).  ... did you know if you stand on your roof and make a telescope type shape with your hands - you'll be able to get a free 7-14 minute forecast... (this will save a lot of money too). 

8)

But on a serious note. Weather 2 offers a lot more than just a basic temperature (if you're after that - would suggest you just stick a thermostat on the wall). US locations are especially well covered - not just with forecasts/observations - but a comprehensive catalog of imagery (ie. i think theres probably 10-20 animated loops for SD area alone).

Also... if $$ is really an issue (or should I say c')... keep in mind Weather2 uses a highly efficient/compressed datastream - ie. data for 3,000 locations can be delivered in around a ~20k packet.  On most HTML/Web based weather addins I've seen - the very first page request would be several times larger than this (and then each and every page would cost you more) - and your 80c per month saving would quickly be out the window.  Similarly the animated loops etc you special caching techniques so you are only downloading the very small .gif frames on animations.

Anyhow keep an eye next few days for it. try and see if you like it I guess (will never keep everyone happy of course)... in terms on another MCML addin or one that gives you unlimited license - well don't hold your breath (unless someone is going to make something that breaches copyrights - they will need to do the significant backend processing that I need to - and highly doubt any freeware developer would do this - or pay for endless data for free). 

Niall

Hey Niall!  Just wanted to drop a howdy to ya!  I was part of Headlines and Photos beta a while back.  I'm playing around with your version 2's and got a quick discovery you should be aware of...  In Weather 2, all I can access in the first menu with the remote.  I can access the other pages with a keyboard's arrow keys though.  This might be just my problem because I'm using HIP (3rd party remote software to remap buttons).  But if not, you should check in on it.  :)

hansolo77:

Hey Niall!  Just wanted to drop a howdy to ya!  I was part of Headlines and Photos beta a while back.  I'm playing around with your version 2's and got a quick discovery you should be aware of...  In Weather 2, all I can access in the first menu with the remote.  I can access the other pages with a keyboard's arrow keys though.  This might be just my problem because I'm using HIP (3rd party remote software to remap buttons).  But if not, you should check in on it.  :)

Hi -

Not too sure what's going on there - as in theory,  the 4-way direction keys on remote should be always mapped directly to the arrow keys on the keyboard (so MediaCenter really shouldn't know the difference - or act any differently between the two).    Is there any chance that you are maybe running in window mode - and HIP is sending the keystrokes to the wrong window?

I can confirm though that I have tested extensively on -  MCE Remote control, MCE Keyboard , std Keyboard, plus the various Extender remote options you get (ie. joystick, ir remotes etc).

However - I do have a few old 3rd party remotes (non 'green-buttoned' - like the ones bundled with dvico and avermedia cards) - so please let me know if you're sure there's not something  else causing this - and I can try to see if it can be reproduced here.

thanks

Niall

 

I'll have another look at it.  HIP is configured to use the arrow buttons on the remote as arrow keys on the KB, so it's really wierd that it doesn't work.  Just so ya know too, this is a Hauppauge MCE remote from a Happauge PVR-150 tuner.  I have another remote for my Happauge PVR-1600, a remote for my Silverstone MCE case (imon I believe), a remote for my Zalman case (another wanna be MS-MCE ripoff), and an ATI Remote Wonder.  Since I only need 1 remote, the others are all safely packed away for the rainy day when this one stops working.  :)  I'll try disabling HIP and see if fixes the problem.

Also, I know your in the process of building up the new website (address purposely withheld for ya ^_^) and realize these apps are probably no longer being nit picked on.  However, since I lost contact with the betas from you for some reason, I haven't been able to toss you some feedback and further ideas for improvement.  If at all possible, something that would be really could would the ability to scroll between the images when looking at radars, etc.  You know, rather than having to go BACK (which goes to the main menu) and scrolling through the entire list to find the next image.  It would be nice to hit NEXT or BACK on the remote, or LEFT and RIGHT arrows to go to the next image.  Just a thought!

Happy to see the projects are still being produced and glad to know they're nearing final release soon!  Keep up the good work.

Hi Niall,

I like the screen shots of Big Screen Weather 2.  Will the public beta be in January or February?  I'd like to try it out and if the WAF is high, then it will be worth the subscription. 

Thanks,

-Josef

Hi,

Sorry not to have dropped in here to answer these q's earlier...

Just to clarify a couple of q's/comments from above -

josef : Both Weather v2  and Photos v2 are final releases (not beta) - but for various reasons (one of the main ones being that I'd be a little foolish to try and do a big launch with the likes of Macworld and CES going on over past 2 weeks) - I haven't made it completely public yet (although 100+ users that were involved in previous betas and provided valuable feedback were sent invites 2 weeks ago and are up and running with this right now).

hansolo : sorry if you had the impression I'd left you out of the beta's etc - but was the same for everyone else for past couple of months (up until invites were sent out 2 weeks ago for the final products). This 'lockout' occurred as I was working on the new registration/backend system - and would have added significant headaches trying to migrate accounts etc (which also would have required client side updates to cope with changes) - as well as educating users on how to change/undo registry settings along the way.  (and the compromize was to leave the Photos2 R8 registration backend running/stable - and not migrate everyone to the interim R9 release). 

Also - in regards to any issues with use of HIP etc - like with any software - there's a bunch of different/unusual configurations people may have out there (something that can't always be accounted for) - and also the new PIKA 2.0 extenders will continue to evolve and change over time.   To counter this - I have to set a baseline (which is comprehensively tested for) - which matches what 'most 10 foot users' are likely to have (which is supporting official MediaCenter/Extender remote controls and keyboards).

Although I'm not making use of the 'green button' (as it's off limits to VMC developers anyhow) - just as long as your HIP (or other 3rd party) configuration/remotes is able to 100% emulate the media center remote arrow keys, the OK button and the Back button (without doing strange things like removing focus from the media Center window - which is what I suspect is occuring in your case) - then you shouldn't have any issues. (and Media Center itself should not know the difference or behave any differently - including all MCPL addins such as the Big Screen series).

As new 'official' hardware/extenders come out - then updates/patches etc will be released as appropriate (assuming of course the manufacturer doesn't screw me around and make it impossible to get hold of test units and/or required tech information, about how/where they stepped outside the standards that were supposed to have been adhered to for logo certification).

Also in regards to the suggestions regarding images and scrolling left/right to quickly change them - I'll definitely keep this in mind for future updates. The other feature that I didn't add in this release (which is definitely on the cards for next update - is the inclusion of 'image favorites' - similar to how it works now for forecast/observation favorites - so this may solve some of this for you).

Anyhow - hope that clears some of the above up! And hope you are enjoying the new releases (and have sorted out whatever issue you were experiencing with your configuration).

For others waiting to try it - please be patient - and look forward to an announcement this week (and removal of the 'invitation code' requirement on the login/signup forms).

cheers

Niall / mobilewares

ps - if users could please contact me directly regarding these products - that would be appreciated - as I don't want to be accused of using this forum for 'commercial support purposes'...

 

 

Well, after trying out Big Screen Weather V2.  I must say the plugin is superb.  It was way more responsive than mceWeather. 

So long story short, I bought a 2 year subscription to Big Screen Weather V2.  Actually I also bought a license for Big Screen Pictures V2.

I took advantage of of Big Screen Global's promotion, take a look here. http://mobilewares.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns%2178533A1A2E078194%21884.entry
I was able to save some money too.

So thank you Niall for making the plugin and for doing the promotion.

Thanks,

-Josef

i TOLD you you get what you pay for!!! :-) Kudos to you for giving it a shot!! Definitely a fantastic (and Gorgeous) app!

I have to say I didn't like Big Screen Weather 2.  The navigation & interface are great but the content is awful.  I live in Wilmington DE but have to use Dover DE for forecasts.  The temperature for Wilmington has been way off everytime I have checked it(off by 20 degrees or more).

The maps are even worse.  The only maps that are "local" for me is again Dover DE & its a bunch of dots with no map behind it.  In MCE weather I can put in a custom address & I use an animated gif map of Northern DE from one of the local TV stations. I think I will be sticking with MCE weather for now.

Again the interface & moving around the app are spectacular.  I can't wait for Big Screen Headlines to be released.  I will keep an eye on Big Screen Weather but won't be purchasing it when the trial expires.

I installed it the other night and after playing around with it a bit, I changed back to MCE weather.

Same reasons as above. I looked at one of the maps (Ireland) and it showed Dublin in the south east of the country, miles from where it should be.

The content is probably good for USA and Austrailia, but for Ireland it was terrible.

Just my 2 cent.

Hi,

Joe -  thanks for purchasing the addins. From your initial posts I didn't think you'd be interested at all - but a fantastic win-win that you used and liked them (and resulted in you becoming a full subscribed user). 8-)

For the Irish Guys - it definitely sounds like something is a amiss there with the temperatures for some locations in Ireland. (and I will look into this as a matter of priority - however please note this is processed from raw data coming from actual AWS Weather Stations in your country - so the problem may in fact lie there - and weather.com may in fact use different sources for these reasons). 

In most other european locations that I am aware - the data appears to be 100% OK (and have many users registered + happy with what is coming up for them - and have not received any complaints).

In fact - if you look at the weather.com (used for MCEWeather) data for Australia - it's actually woefully incorrect - (both forecasts and current temperatures are substantially wrong) - and hence a completely unusable product for us - which was what led to the v1of this product being written in the first place. (and I don't think any one data source has 100% global accuracy).

These accuracies however on Weather v2 is something that can be improved over time (and without reinstallation) - as all data is being processed via the bigscreenglobal.com servers (and hence providors can be switched without users noticing or needing to change anything).

The map plotting accuracy in some areas (wher the geographic zoom is at the maximum x32) - and is a known/noted problem (and is due to the MCPL layer not supporting floating point values correctly for the layout positioning - which was required for that level of enlargement).  This will hopefully be improved in future revisions (as potential workarounds are found) - however the map plotting was only ever intended to be a 'rough guide' to the where the location is (and I noticed many tv news stations simply don't put the dots in at all to deal with this) - and the actual data is what is important.

I will hopefully get a chance to publish some more of the FAQ for this product online (however there are some notes already in the 'readme' file that gets installed with the product) - to help better explain how/where data is sourced from (and what to expect in terms of accuracy).

cheers - and thanks for the comments.

Niall