There was a heck of a lot of talk over the past week about how Virgin Radio (who I love) were now broadcasting to Wii and PS3 owners. Surely there had to be a way to get it working in Media Center?

I figured all I’d need to do is find the URL for their Wii/PS3 friendly flashplayer and set it up in Media Center. Since all three are designed to be used with a TV my theory was the player should work equally well on any of them.

20 minutes later, after much spoofing of both PS3 and Wii browser agents, I’d drawn a blank. No matter what I tried I always ended up with the regular, and somewhat un-TV friendly, web player that PC users get.

So I fired up my Wii, downloaded the latest Internet Channel and visited the Virgin website. Whereupon I realized the problem.

There is no Wii/PS3 specific player. Virgin’s regular player just happens to support the Wii and PS3. Bah!

So, how hard could it be to knock up a quick add-in for Media Center that supports Virgin Radio?

About eight hours hard.

(more…)

Internet Radio Pack for Windows Media Center is a package for Windows Media Center 2004/2005/Vista that allows you easy access to popular Internet radio stations via the “Radio” menu in Media Center.

The list of radio stations will grow over time as I add more of the stations I listen to. The current list of supported stations are:

• Virgin Radio UK
• XM Online
• Live 365

XM Radio and Live 365 are supported courtesy of the MCL file these companies provide for Media Center. The installer simply creates the appropriate link in the “Radio” section to avoid the need to traverse through Online Spotlight or manually edit files.

Virgin Radio support is via a custom HTML page designed for access using a TV and remote control. Audio is played natively through Media Center, the artist photos and information are pulled via AJAX from the feed used to power the “Listen Now” page on the Virgin Radio website.

Known issues:

• On first listening you may be prompted by Media Player to confirm streaming from the Virgin Radio site. If Media Center is running full-screen they may be hidden
• The Virgin Radio interface has been designed for access via a Remote control - literally. There is no support for navigating the interface via mouse, though the arrow keys on the keyboard may be used.

Coming soon:

• More stations