One of the most requested feature by Media Center users has been the ability to play videos from the most popular video sharing site i.e. YouTube. Microsoft in the 4th quarter of 2007 did release a beta of "internet tv" but it was only limited to US audience and it only supported video playback by MSN Video (which was well kind of expected).

Comes Yougle - a third-party plugin for Windows Media Center which brings popular web services from YouTube, MSN Video/Soapbox, Flickr and many more right on our Windows Media Center so that we all can enjoy our favorite videos from these popular services right from the comfort of the couch in our lounge!

Yougle is currently only supported on 32 bit versions of Windows Vista Home Premium & Windows Vista Ultimate.

Download Yougle 0.4.0d

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

Speaking of Microsoft information lockdown, there’s been no word in ages from Microsoft about “Fiji,” the next version of Windows Media Center Edition.

But that isn’t because Fiji has evaporated. In fact, the Fiji beta began a few weeks ago, according to a few sources with whom I’ve spoken and who’ve asked to keep their identities under wraps.

It’s not clear how many testers are part of this current test phase. There’s also no word on when and if Microsoft is going to tap the many other Fiji testers whom the company has signed up over the past year-plus or when Microsoft expects Fiji — also known as “Media Center Edition +1″ in some circles — is due out.

Last anyone heard, Fiji was supposed to build on the functionality that Microsoft delivered as part of Vista Service Pack 1. Some potential testers said they heard that Fiji would deliver some of the fit and finish that was missing in the Vista release. DirectTV support also is expected to be added to Media Center with the Fiji release.

Microsoft initially sought testers for Fiji last spring. It’s not clear whether any of the selected testers ever received any internal Fiji builds. Last anyone heard, Fiji was looking like a late 2008 deliverable.

Microsoft’s only comment on Fiji, delivered via a corporate spokesperson: “Microsoft has many ongoing betas, however at this point we do not have any announcements to make related to any future version of Windows Media Center.”

Source: Mary Jo Foley

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

We have been waiting for Microsoft to open the beta for Fiji, the suspected codename for the next version of Media Center for well over a year now.  I first posted about it in March of last year, with invites first opening just a month after that, and now it appears we may finally have taken a step forward.

Users (who shall remain nameless, because I edited them out) at The Green Button are reporting that they have received e-mails from Microsoft Connect.  If true, this would be the first step to finally getting something in our hands to play with (under NDA of course).

This release will bring DIRECTV support among other unannounced features.  I had expected it to include HD DVD support, but I wouldn’t count on that any more.  Other features have been kept under tight wraps, though I’ve got a few in mind that I’m rather sure will be there.

Continue At Source

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)

plug-in. Damien Bain-Thouverez, developer of the Media Control Plug-in (ffdshow) has added functionality in the same plug-in to act as a Windows Live Messenger frontend.

This is the first attempt for a Live Messenger plug-in in Vista Media Center. Media Center 2005 had a built-in Windows Messenger plug-in, but with the release of Windows Vista this was kicked to the side as was Windows Messenger all together. Last year Microsoft announced a beta of Windows Live for TV which promised Live Spaces and Live Messenger integration, the product appears to be dead without a release.

Setup instructions can be found in the User Manual, and while the integration is not complete it does work pretty well. Maybe the new load of downloads mixed with a few donations will get full functionality and bugs fixed.

Source:
Chris Lanier's Blog

Taimur Asad (The Microsoft "Wow" Blog!)