More on my blog here 

 

 

As I suspected I think its only looking at watch folders, so if your like me and most people and use shortcuts for Pictures and Videos to avoid unwanted items appearing in the wrong places within VMC then the SideShow gadget does not show the content, i.e. my pictures and videos are not showing up. Niether is the album cover artwork showing up, as I am using Hi-Res 600x600 images with the Urltocoverart.exe program and not the default 200x200 cached images VMC creates. Bummer!

The only cached artwork images I have in my Music Library are for the Media Center Show and when looking at that podcast in the SideShow gadget the coverart does display correctly, so it's as I suspected.

Hopefully in Fiji we will be able to have Hi-Res album artwork without the need to use the Urltocoverart.exe work around.

 

 

Media Center Gadgets - General Information and Known Issues
There are 4 Media Center gadgets:

Download and install the Beta Media Center Gadgets: Click here to download 

1. TV
   • Browse TV and schedule recordings. Browse the TV program guide, view metadata on upcoming or current shows, and pick shows to watch and record (single showing or series), without interrupting the TV viewing experience.
   • Recorded TV. Select a previously recorded program to play back, without interrupting the viewing experience on the TV.
2. Music
   • Play Music. Browse the media library, control music playback on the PC by using the remote control device instead of the primary display, such as a TV.
   • Play radio presets. Browse your radio presets and playback that station through your Media Center.
3. Pictures + Videos
   • Browse the picture and video libraries.  Make a selection on the remote and that picture or video will be displayed on the TV.
4. Now Playing
   • Provide "now playing" information. The remote control device shows information about the currently playing medium, such as the track title or the time elapsed.

Known Issues:

• Enabling the Gadgets on more than one SideShow device to control the Media Center PC is not supported for Beta
• Enabling the Gadgets for more than one user session on your PC is not supported for Beta

Clicking on "click here to download" = Page Not Found

The content that you requested cannot be found or you do not have permission to view it.

I'd really like to try this out.

Thanks,
sYn

Hi Stuart

This looks excellent. I can't wait to try it. I can't download it either.

Pete

You need to look for the Windows Sideshow Connection at Microsoft Connect.

This Sideshow gadget doesn't appear to work for extenders despite the rumors that it would --- hopefully this is only a limitiation of the beta.

Good catch, I just blogged about it. 

Thanks to cw-kid for the find.
Thanks to joshbish for clearing up how to get to it.

I got it, installed it and for the most part it's working.

The only issue I'm having under TV > guide, I cannot get it to synchronize my guide data... when I click on it vista pop's up a sideshow for media center has stopped error and the phone just displays synchronizing data message. When I back out of TV on the phone the sideshow device stops controlling anything. At that point I have to disconnect and reconnect the sideshow control on the phone. Sometime I have to cycle the connection a few times before it will reconnect and control media center again. Oh well it's beta... I'll send a bug report and see what happens.

My setup is...
HTC Hermes / AT&T 8525 running windows mobile 6 (sim card removed).

HP 9000T
Microsoft Bluetooth Dongle
2 ATI DCT's Cable Card Tuners : Charter Cable
1 HDHomerun
Vista Premium



sYn

Unfortunately I cannot test the TV side of things with this new gadget, recently moving to a new house (new country actually) I don't have a media center hooked up to a TV input source currently. We need losts of people to test this beta and report back all issues to Microsoft.

I also saw some disconnecting issues last night when controlling my music library! And I wasn't even using a SideShow enabled hardware device just the SideShow device emulator software on the actual Media Center PC itself.

awesome news, thanks stuart!!

anyone else wondering where the original promise of sideshow (with the whole EPG grid) went? :-/ I just remember all those promos of "Sideshow" prior to Vista  and that was the big fluff :-(

shadymg:

awesome news, thanks stuart!!

anyone else wondering where the original promise of sideshow (with the whole EPG grid) went? :-/ I just remember all those promos of "Sideshow" prior to Vista  and that was the big fluff :-(

Just checked it out, and it's neat, but not breath taking.  Granted it is only BETA 1.

Some things I noted:

TV - Always says TV Off? 
Guide - There has got to be an easier way to move through?  Next 8 channels, what if I wanna go from 04 backward to say 872?

The TV controls for stopping/pausing/fast forward did not work for me.  If I select a show and then chose to play it, it would come up.  But no working controls beyond that.

-D

shadymg:

awesome news, thanks stuart!!

anyone else wondering where the original promise of sideshow (with the whole EPG grid) went? :-/ I just remember all those promos of "Sideshow" prior to Vista  and that was the big fluff :-(

Just checked it out, and it's neat, but not breath taking.  Granted it is only BETA 1.

Some things I noted:

TV - Always says TV Off? 
Guide - There has got to be an easier way to move through?  Next 8 channels, what if I wanna go from 04 backward to say 872?

The TV controls for stopping/pausing/fast forward did not work for me.  If I select a show and then chose to play it, it would come up.  But no working controls beyond that.

-D

@dravor

Sometimes my TV gadget says TV Off when it's running, I can usually kickstart it by starting a song from the music library and then a recorded program from TV.

It's very beta, but at least it shows some SideShow promise. I think that if properly leveraged with some more hardware support (think SideShow enable home cordless phones/alarmclocks/shower radios...) and some love for the gadgets SideShow could become the second killer ap for Vista.
Lets hope this is just a start with this gadget.

cheers
sYn

It looks like the sideshow boat is finally getting ready to sail!  Ricavision is getting ready to ship their sideshow vave100 remote in a few weeks.  Let's hope that it's not as beta as this software release.  I think I'll wait unit my remote shows up before I start my sideshow journey, but I will follow this thread closely.

Can someone please post some screen shots of how the TV side of things look ? The guide etc .

Thanks

Looking forward to receive the Vave100 and to test the sideshow gadgets as posted here.

/Jesper