Adding Applications and Services to Windows Media Center John Canning Technical Evangelist Windows eHome Division Microsoft Corporation

Session Outline Media center extensibility overview User-centered design for 10 foot UI Developing HTML applications for Media Center Developing.NET add-ins for Media Center Integration applications into Media Center Call to Action and Resources

Extensibility Overview

Media Center Allows Diverse Services

10 Foot Setup of PC Audio Intel Audio Studio

Partner Opportunities Top 3 Reasons Businesses are Investing in MCE 1.Reach high value target market anywhere in the home 2.Leverage existing investments and infrastructure 3.Demonstrate innovation and leadership Get beyond the desktop and basic web browsing to reach people where they want the service the most A new way to sell existing content and add value to existing investments by creating a new “front end” Create positive publicity and test new ways of promoting content

User-Centered Design for 10 Foot UI

Designing for TV Displays Brightness and Contrast TV makes images brighter Flicker Avoid single pixel horizontal lines Color Use low saturation, NTSC & PAL safe colors Fonts Use at least 18 point fonts Sans Serif fonts are generally better than Serif

Design Challenges for 10-Foot UI Users navigate with a remote control Interaction model has changed navigation is limited highlight (button focus) always present Some traditional UI elements are hard to use sliders, drop down menus Media Center users also have access to mouse and keyboard – don’t forget that!

Design Challenges for 10-Foot UI Simplicity and Ease of Use Experiences test better when UI is more like a consumer device Interface understandable at first glance Minimal learning curve Minimal number of steps to accomplish task Only show relevant notifications

Fonts for Distance Experiences Sans-serif font Fonts readable over background Big fonts Color and Contrast

Highlight and State Examples State is noticeable with Thick, visible line for highlight Use consistent color for highlight

Developing HTML Applications for Media Center

Media Center Edition Applications MSHTML.DLL hosted inside of Media Center Internet Explorer technologies supported DHTML, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), JScript, JavaScript, VBScript, XML, ActiveX, Flash Use events provided by Media Center (onRemoteEvent, onPlayStateChange) A few constraints: Some HTML elements don’t work well with remote (select boxes, radio buttons) By design Only one browser instance at a time No pop ups Can not side step security dialogs

Sampling of Media Center APIs PlayMedia() loads a media file (WMA, WMV, ASX, MP3) and initiates playback Dialog() displays a Media Center dialog box with remote control interaction capabilities CreateMCL() creates a Media Center Link (.MCL) to your application in Media Center CustomViewPort() creates a playback window anywhere in the Media Center window Experience.MediaPosition() reports the current position in the media playback Lots, lots more!

Media Center Edition SDK Contents Documentation (.chm file) and on MSDN Designing HTML Applications for Media Center Object Model Reference Media Center Link Reference (.MCL) Media State Aggregation Service (MSAS) Input Method Editor Module API Hosted HTML Templates and Code Samples Plug-n-Play Script Plug-n-Play Cascading Style Sheets (.css) MSAS FileWriter C++ Sample Application

More Useful Stuff Improved Video Streaming – Windows Media Player 10 Click-To-Record Feature CD/DVD Recording Add-ins Video DRM enhancements Inform & enforce Enhanced Support for Media State Aggregation Service SKU-detection (useragent)

Developing.NET Add-Ins for Media Center

What are Add-Ins and When to Use Them? Managed assemblies.NET FX 1.0 Implement interfaces defined in microsoft.mediacenter.dll Run inside of Media Center Have access to Media Center APIs and.NET APIs Background Add-Ins Run in the background at startup On-demand More Programs New entry points More… Services such as More Music and More Pictures

What Can I Do With an Add-in? Anything that you can do in managed code and more! Use them for UI-less controls that run in background Control Media Center Play media Navigate around the shell Get metadata about current media Display notifications …

Integrating Applications into Media Center

Many Integration Points Available

Call to Action Download the SDK today from Consider creating hardware setup and config applications as 10-foot experiences Work with service partners to differentiate your hardware offering Integrate services tightly into the Media Center experiences

Community Resources Windows Hardware & Driver Central (WHDC) Technical Communities Non-Microsoft Community Sites Microsoft Public Newsgroups Technical Chats and Webcasts Microsoft Blogs

Resources Software Development Kit (SDK) and Developer Website Product Support Services (PSS) and Premier Developer blogs Community Sites

© 2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. This presentation is for informational purposes only. Microsoft makes no warranties, express or implied, in this summary.