Hey everyone... I just wanted to drop everyone here a note to let you know that I am developing a new plugin for media center that allows you to watch internet based TV episodes (mainly from Hulu, but also from other sources like CBS's website, etc) in Media Center.

Its a native plugin for Media Center and I really like that way it is coming together... when I first stumbled across Hulu I couldn't believe that no-one had developed a plugin for media center yet... again... it doesn't do just Hulu and its not a direct interface into Hulu but most of the video right now comes from Hulu... I plan on expanding it to work with all kinds of video sources but I am concentrating on getting Hulu content up and running primarily.

I am posting this tonight because I have just gotten to a point where I have a full working app and all the big issues have already been ironed out... I just need to clean up the app and put a screen or two in and the first run of the app will be ready to release.

I hopefully will have a release to post THIS COMING WEEK... it just depends on how much free time I have over the course of the week... I will keep this thread updated with my progress!

Oh and here is just a teaser shot or two for everyone:

http://www.xnaresources.com/vmc/mediacentertvsample.jpg

http://www.xnaresources.com/vmc/mediacentertvsample2.jpg

P.S... I am VERY excited about the Outlook of this app!!!!

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EDIT: 2/9/2009 11:38pm EST
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Here is another image... I have a name worked out a name for the addin (SecondRun.tv) and have the "Show Selection Menu" finished up!  I even had time tonight to put in some sounds and animation when moving from item to item!  Here is another screenshot:

http://www.xnaresources.com/vmc/mediacentertvsample3.jpg

http://www.xnaresources.com/vmc/mediacentertvsample4.jpg

NOTE: It says "FOX TV Shows"... I know that all those shows are not FOX... In my test build I have ALL of the shows being returned... its easier to see how things are looking this way as I dont have all the assets in to show the posters for the every show yet...

ALSO I CAN'T STRESS ENOUGH... WHAT YOU SEE HERE IS ALREADY WORKING... I know some people have started hulu type plugins before and they fadded away... that is not going to be the case with my addin!  I didn't post anything here until I had a working version with all the major roadblocks worked out!  These are not just mockup screens... you can navigate the show posters click into them and browse episodes and start them... right now it is almost usable... its just a big list of shows... hopefully tomorrow I should be able to get the "Network" menu done and be close to getting out the first build for people to start messing with!

I will probably be putting some time into getting a little website up and running for this tomorrow... I already have my new domain secondrun.tv registered (did that today) and should have some time tomorrow to get atleast a little blog setup!

THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR THE KIND WORDS OF SUPPORT HERE!

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UPDATE: 2/10/2009 1:40AM EST
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Just posted a little video walkthrough of the app in its current state:

http://secondrun.tv/videos.htm

NOTE: If it doesn't play its probably because I just registed the domain today... so if you get a page can't be found just try it again later!

Take a look!  Hopefully that will keep the excitment level high ;)

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UPDATE: 2/11/2009 2:26AM EST
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Just a quick update from tonight... I didn't spend much time on the app itself but I did get the website up and running so that portion is out of the way... You can checkout the site at: http://www.secondrun.tv

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UPDATE: 2/12/2009 2:10AM EST
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Network screens are in!  I have posted an update at the www.SecondRun.tv website... jump over a take a look!  I plan on spending some time addressing the picture content (show backdrops, network logos, etc) tomorrow and should be releasing the first build of the add-in on Friday!  Jump over to the site to check that latest update!

That sounds and looks great.

I was looking for quite a bit of time for plugni for CBS and FOX.

I believe the wehole community will apreciate this plugin, the fact is that the Networks Player is widely used now a days, for HD onDemand and Live streams.

Cheers mate.

I am assuming that this will only work on the PC and not on the extenders.

it would seem to me that if some type of transcoding was done in the plugin then it would be possible to work on extenders.

 

Just my two cents

 

JC

I presume this will only work in the U.S.?

gillmacca:

I presume this will only work in the U.S.?

Would be nice if the plugin would allow users to set a proxy so it would work for users outside of the US :)

I haven't yet tested on Extenders but I am pretty sure it will work... I had a previous implementation of this that was based on the HTML features of the Media Center SDK that are now depreciated... Once the main app is done I will be testing it on extenders and on Windows 7!  The plan is to make it work on exenders as I have 2 360s in the house! ;)

Yaggs you got me pretty excited on this one. Looking forward to it. If you need a test pig :)

PLUCKYHD:

Yaggs you got me pretty excited on this one. Looking forward to it. If you need a test pig :)

Thanks!! Hopefully I will have sometime tonight to get at least a video posted to show the app in it's current stage... I WILL be looking for testers as well!

Yeah, this looks really good, and I know a lot of people would be really happy, myself included.

Hopefully you can get it to work on extenders, because that is all I really use for media center.

Looking forward to hear more.

Wow, I think you will really excite the whole board with something like this.  Not quite sure why no one has done this prior, but it is certainly welcome now!  Might not be a bad idea to put a developer donation link so people can contribute if they like the app to help you further development in the future.

 

Good luck, and I would LOVE to be able to test if you need guinee pigs.

Yaggs:

PLUCKYHD:

Yaggs you got me pretty excited on this one. Looking forward to it. If you need a test pig :)

Thanks!! Hopefully I will have sometime tonight to get at least a video posted to show the app in it's current stage... I WILL be looking for testers as well!

Yaggs - I'd be interested in helping you test this out (I could help with Win 7 and extender testing, as my PC is dual boot Vista/7 and I have a DMA 2200 as well an an XBOX 360.

VERY cool looking!

extremely excited to test this out. I'm currently using Boxee being launched from Media Center and although it works it's very cumbersome.

PLUCKYHD:

Yaggs you got me pretty excited on this one. Looking forward to it. If you need a test pig :)

Same here, looking forward to this BIG TIME !

Cool! Can't wait.

Fancast.com is another site with lots of TV/Movie content -- it would be great to aggregate this as well.