Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with windowsmedia

XBMC + Xbox360 + Vista: Help me build a DVR.

iamisaid — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:41:23 -0800

Help make my own DVR. I have basic cable, an Xbox with XBMC, and an Xbox 360 in the living room, and a Windows Vista desktop machine in the bedroom. I want to be able to record shows on a schedule and watch in the living room. What's the best way to do it? More about my setup:

I have basic cable straight from the wall outlet and don't use any type of cable box. There is a cable outlet in the living room and in the bedroom.

The Xbox has the latest version of Xbox Media Center, while the 360 is stock. Both are on my wireless G network.

The Vista machine does not have any type of tuner card, although I am open to installing one if needed (if so, a recommendation would be great).

I want to be able schedule recordings either via the TV or computer (doesn't matter), and ultimately be able to watch any recording on demand via the living room TV.

I'm guessing I could achieve this with the 360 and Windows Media Center on the PC, but are there any other solutions available using the hardware I have at hand? Or is that the way to go? Any suggestions appreciated.

How do I script video/audio recording on Windows?

esd — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 16:37:56 -0800

What is the best way to script video/audio recording on Windows? Part of a research project I'm working on involves recording video and audio of subjects using a USB video camera attached to a Windows machine. I would like to set up two scripts: one that begins recording, saving the audio and video to a file that Windows Media Player could later play back, and one that stops the recording. The idea is that the researcher conducting the experiment could simply run the first script when the subject begins and then run the second when she/he is finished.

What is the best way to go about this? I've looked at the wmcmd.vbs file included with the Windows Media Encoder, but it doesn't seem to have exactly the properties I'm looking for—it requires a duration parameter for live video, and doesn't seem to provide any way to stop recording before that time is up.

Any ideas are welcome, including ones that involve commercial software.

Help me drag an 88-year-old radio commentator into the 21st century ...

WCityMike — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 15:04:06 -0800

Help me drag radio commentator Paul Harvey into the 21st century. A request for podcast help and Mac compatibility follows inside. Paul Harvey is not officially available by podcast, but has made Windows Media files of his show available on his website. I have a twofold request. Preferably, has anyone made an unofficial Paul Harvey podcast feed available (preferably in MP3 format)? As a fallback, has anyone with a Macintosh computer successfully gotten the Windows Media files that Paul Harvey makes available on his site to play on their machine? Windows Media Player, VLC, and the Flip4Mac stuff all seem to have failed me when it comes to getting those files to play.

I grew up listening to him now and then. I'm nostalgic. Sue me.

How to capture audio streams?

ascullion — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 08:26:00 -0800

Does anyone know a command line program that will dump real media and/or windows media audio streams to a file (on a windows PC)? I've been trying to do this using mplayer, but there are two problems..

1 - It's unreliable on some real media streams, and i can't get it to work with Windons Media files at all.
2 - I can only get it to work by dumping wav files to disc, not the original files.

Ideally, I'd like something that dumps the original ra/wma file to disc, which I could would then be able to convert to wav/mp3 manually. It's got to be command line, as I need to be able to schedule it.

I'm got a download manager (reget) that I can use to dump Windows Media files to disc, but it's not command line. A command line download manager might be of some use to me..

All suggestions welcome!

Avoiding Real/wma

The Michael The — Fri, 06 May 2005 13:15:36 -0800

I want to listen to NPR (esp. All Things Considered) on my OS10.3 Mac, but the only options they give are Real and Windows Media. I don't want to install any bloated spyware (read: RealPlayer or Windows Media Player) on my sweet sweet aluminum baby, so what kind of good, lightweight, and free player can I find that will let me play one or the other of those formats?

How to get a video screenshot

davebush — Mon, 13 Dec 2004 18:08:55 -0800

I know I've done it successfully in the past, but I just can't seem to take a screenshot that includes a Windows Media or Quicktime video that's playing.

Playing Windows Media video under OSX

inksyndicate — Tue, 30 Nov 2004 12:51:18 -0800

Best way to play the latest Windows Media movies under OS X? I've tried the latest version of MPlayer, but it only plays the sound, not the video, of WMV movies.

I don't even know if playing Daily Show WMVs embedded into comedycentral.com is in the cards...but I'd just like to be able to play downloaded Windows Media movies reliably, at least, since it seems to be such a hot format.

Can it be done without some fancy open source re-compile of my Mplayer?

Computer freezing up

zaelic — Sat, 16 Oct 2004 16:15:45 -0800

My PC has developed a sudden allergy to various types of Media files (Windows, Quicktime) causing the PC to freeze and have to be rebooted! (MI) The worst offender is Windows Media files, which play for a second or so and then freeze the computer. Not even Ctrl-Alt-Delete will unfreeze the durn thing. Have to shut down and restart. A lot of media pages (Quicktime, especially) no longer load without something popping up telling me that MIME settings have changed. This includes online web radio pages that used to cause no proiblem at all.

Help me! I need to watch Jon Stweart rip Crossfire a new A-hole!

Buffer Problems

Juicylicious — Thu, 14 Oct 2004 09:39:25 -0800

Why is it impossible for me to watch/listen to streaming video without the program stopping every few seconds to buffer? I tried to watch this video on both RealPlayer & Windows Media the same thing happened with both.

Windows Media movies don't work after paying for Quicktime Pro?

inksyndicate — Mon, 27 Sep 2004 21:41:13 -0800

It seems like ever since I paid for Quicktime Pro for my Macintosh, Windows Media movies stopped working, especially embedded ones -- they complain about inability to create a "unique tmp file." Plus my file associations are screwy. Wonder what happened and how I can fix it...?

Media Player Codecs

page404 — Tue, 06 Jul 2004 16:58:35 -0800

[Media Player Filter] I've downloaded several TV programs via torrent in an .AVI format which on my XP system is associated with Windows Media Player, unfortunately all I get is audio.

What / where do I obtain the appropiate codecs or a better media player?

Windows Media file error on my Mac OS X.

bcwinters — Thu, 25 Mar 2004 09:34:21 -0800

Every time I load a Windows Media file on my OS X system, I am momentarily redirected to a file called "AOLTemp.html" on the site hosting the file. I don't use AOL; the files are not hosted by AOL; a Google search turns up nothing on that filename. What are these mysterious AOLTemp files strewn across the 'net, and what kind of MS-AOL conspiracy have I uncovered?? (Just kidding on the conspiracy bit. And for further clarification: I use Safari as my browser & WMP 9.0 for playback in these cases)