[coolclayton]

I am using Windows Media Center to record shows on tv and I have been contemplating making the XBMC settop box they put together on Lifehacker. If I use the settop box on my tv, can I watch the shows that I record on my computer using Windows Media Center?

[mcborzu]

What do they name the files?

XBMC perfers s02e08.avi or something close like Lost.s02e08.kate.whines.about.something.avi. This type works perfectly with XBMC.

Tough there are plenty of other naming conventions XBMC accepts...In short, give XBMC a shot when you run into a roadblock look in the Wiki or the forums.

[coolclayton]

It saves them as .dvr-ms files. For example, "The Office_KING_19_11_2009_21_00_02.dvr-ms"

I am going to try it on XBMC for windows now, but I just want to avoid buying the parts for the settop box if it won't work properly.

[automated]

I use http://mcebuddy.com/ to convert the recorded files from mce to playback in xbmc, it does it automatically, you can even set it to remove ads. I didn't have any luck playing back the dvr-ms files straight from mce, but it was a while back that I tried so you might have more luck with a more recent build. I don't add the files to xbmc library, i just set mce buddy to split the shows up into folders and play them back through "videos" in xbmc.

MCE doesnt need to be running to record shows either, if you have them scheduled it will just show up on the startbar as recording, it doesn't disrupt xbmc at all.

I use http://www.icetv.com.au/ to schedule the shows from my iphone too, so I dont have to launch MCE.