Media Player Control for Home Theater

Chapter 7: Digital Home Theater using your Computer

Digital Home theater has become a new application for PC.  The so-called digital home theater include the acquisition of digital contents, management, playback and recording.  Right here, we will first cover about how to download the digital contents.  Then, we will cover the playback of the media files.

The home theater based on personal computer is now very possible.  Generally speaking, personal computer may process (1) TV signal (NTSC, PAL) with help of some add-on card, (2) Digital video (mpg, ram, .....) (3) digital photo (.jpg, .gif, .....) (4) radio, (5) digital music (MP3, ...) (6) Digital Game (Flash game, programs, (7) text file.

Computer may pre-record, store, sort, backup, sharing, delete, download, edit, and modify  the  digital contents.  All of these needs to be completed with software.

For the Multimedia media software, there are two major categories: (1) digital home software package, (2) functional software.   For the first category, it is designed to have the full control of the computer. That means they are trying to control all of the data on the computer.  The typical software in this category are:(1) Microsoft MCE/Vista(2) Yahoo Go (Previously Meedio)(3) Arcsoft Total Media(4) Media Portal

Most fo the software  in this category are free. Some of them may need you to pay. The quality of the software is typically inferior compared to the functional media players.

For the related information and download site:http://www.charisma-usa.com/html/main_mediaplaayer.htm

For the second category, the functional multimedia players.  They are much more professional and they are often, better than integrated multimedia center software. Their function may even be better than the hardware players.  For example, the DVD players are better then the DVD player hardware.  It give you more controllability and quality equalizer feature.   The typical software are:(1) Real Player,(2) iTune/Quick Time,(3) Power DVD,(4) Yahoo Music Engine,(5) Photoshop Album,(6) Microsoft media player,

For the related information and download site, you may check:http://www.charisma-usa.com/html/main_mediaplaayer.htm

For the time being, to use personal computer as the home entertainment center, there are several issues:(1) cooling fan could be too noisy,(2) signal remote control is needed,(3) size for the computer is too huge,(4) Microsoft O.S. is too huge.

Even though some of these are true, we do believe these issue will soon be taken care of.

Next, we will be discussing how to use Studio Commander to control the softwares. For Studio Commander, there are two modes: PC mode and Media mode.  The PC mode is for text input. The media mode is for multimedia application control.

When the blue PC mode key is pressed.  Studio Commander is set to PC mode, All of the keys are defined as the blue key prints.  When the yellow Media mode key is pressed, Studio Commander is set to Media mode.  All of the keys are defined as the yellow key prints or red key prints.  For all the black (or white) key prints, it means it is shared between PC mode and Media mode.

PC mode is used for text input.  In this chapter, we will be focused on Media mode. Without help of any software, C5032 Studio Commander, has its media mode defined the same as the media player of Microsoft. It only difference is that Pause is actually new (control+N).  In Media player, Pause is defined for the same key as Play.

The current hardware is defined based on Media player version 10. If you are using version 11, you may need to download some patch file and using it with Studio Input software:

Patch for  v11 for Studio Input:

Patch for V10 for Studio Input:

To download Studio Input software: <>

In Studio Input, you may set the Studio Input as Media mode, Studio Input will automatically switch the keymap for you. That means, you do not need to remember the hardkey of the software, you just need to press "Play".  Then, no matter which software you are using, you will all get the "Play" function.  Most of the software are actually using different hot-key setting, Studio Input's media mode help you to overcome the gap.  If you find a new software that is not in our support list, please Email us at: sales@charisma-usa.com

Or, you may use Studio Input's Keympap Editor to add a new keymap for your application.

If you do not need Media mode to auto-switch the keymap for you, you may click the blue PC mode key to switch into PC mode.  That will give you the Standby mode.  In that mode, your computer will be the same as there is no Studio Input software.  The standby mode indicator is as

To download Studio Input:http://www.charisma-usa.com/html/main_download.htm

For the download of digital contents, we will provide explanation for the text input in some next blog page.