Sean Alexander

As I’ve switched our main media room DVR over to Windows 7, I’ve been increasingly interested in finding new add-ons.  After messing around around with Seesmic Desktop and searching for MediaCenter tweets by other users, I stumbled upon the Media Center Status Application by Jussi Palo, an add-on for Facebook and/or Twitter that serves two purposes:

• Share your Media Center status (what you’re listening to, watching etc) via FB or Twitter status
• Pop notifications of status updates made by friends via FB or Twitter

Setup
Setup was relatively painless though required a reboot.  I installed the 64-bit version on Windows 7 and one reboot later was off to the races.  I can’t vouch for Vista, but expect it will work without issue.

Windows 7 Tip: If you run into access errors committing Media Center Status settings, re-run the configuration tool in Windows Vista compatibility mode. 

Sharing your Status

Now the first question you have to ask yourself is do you really want to be sharing what you’re listening to/watching on a regular basis with Twitter and Facebook, a practice that’s likely to get you quickly de-friended.  Fortunate the application gives you the ability to confirm updates automatically – probably a good idea if you’re cycling through songs quickly or want to avoid others making fun of your ABBA afternoons.  You can also disable status updates based on specific media types. 

My suggestion: Turn on Confirmations so you’re not auto-spamming your friends and taking a few moments to consider what you’re sharing.  Here are some examples of what others can expect to see via Twitter:

and Facebook:

Receiving Status
Receiving Friends’ status notifications are pretty straightforward.  You can configure to only receive messages at certain times of the day, or from certain friends.  There’s no way to respond to the Tweets or Facebook status, and no other visual app integration in Media Center outside the status popups and confirmations.  Still, if you have a small set of friends you want to monitor status on, the utility is there. 

It’s great to see others building interesting apps merging Windows and social media platforms like FB and Twitter.  Let me know below if you’ve seen other apps to consider.