3 Plug-ins to Make Windows Media Center Better
Posted on 31. Mar, 2010 by Sourojit in Windows
Windows Media Center is a feature available in Windows that lets us view movies, listen to music and fulfill all our entertainment needs with a very interactive interface. Now, you can increase the limits of Windows Media Center to view and read your emails, watch You tube, Dailymotion and Soapbox videos and view Facebook friend’s albums and photos on your TV.
This helps improve the Windows Media Center experience. Lets take a look on how easily you can setup these applications.
Installation
In order to use these applications, you have to install them normally on your PC, then you can find them in the Extras part of the menu in your Media Center.
Media Center Mail
Media Center Mail is a small application that allows you to read email on your Media Center TV. It supports all POP3 mail servers. Before using it with Media Center, you have to configure it a bit. These configurations are easy as shown.
First thing that you have to do is open the application and add a user. You can also add an image to be displayed with the created username. As you are done with creating user, you have to add email accounts providing name of email server, port number and whether the server uses SSl connection. Then, put in your login details like username and password for that mail server.
Complete these steps and save settings. Now, you will be able to get new mail on Media Center. From configuration, you can also set time interval for checking new mails and notification sound for new mail.
Macro Tube
Macro Tube is a Media Center plug-in that does not require any additional user settings. You can directly use it from Media Center. It allows you to view YouTube, Dailymotion and Soapbox videos. You can view videos of your preferred category or if you are in search of a particular video, you can perform a quick search using the provided on screen keyboard. This plug-in has different versions for windows 32 bit and 64 bit.
Photato
Photato plugin allows you to view and synchronize Facebook, so you can view friends’ albums, tagged photos and slideshows. You can also view all friend information about their total albums and tagged photos. Friend names are sorted in alphabetic order and can be easily found. To use this plug-in, you have to login to your Facebook account and select the option to remember your login details.
Conclusion
Though all these services can be used separately from your browser, it is always beneficial to get things at one place. What are your favorite Windows Media Center plugins?
(By) Sourojit Nandi is a tech blogger from www.tech-compass.com with an eye for details and features of softwares and web-services. He likes exploring new concepts and software in his free time. He has years of experience in troubleshooting beginner problems in Windows and to him, blogging is an attempt to share this knowledge.
Related Posts
Pingback: WrapUp: Mastering Windows Search, iPad Review, and More