If you’re a YouTube user in Windows 7, there are a few ways to watch your favorite videos without having to leave the comfort of your media center. The first way is to use the YouTube app on your desktop. The second way is to use the YouTube website. The third way is to use the YouTube app on your phone or tablet. And finally, you can watch videos on your computer if you have an HDMI cable and a TV that supports HDMI. The best way to watch videos on Windows 7 Media Center is probably the third way: using the YouTube app on your phone or tablet. This method works best because it doesn’t require any special hardware or software, and it’s easy to use. Plus, it’s a great option if you don’t have an HDMI cable and want to watch videos through your computer’s screen. To start using the YouTube app on your phone or tablet, open it and sign in with your Microsoft account. Then open the main window and click on the three lines in the top left corner of the screen: “Video” under “My Videos,” “New Videos” under “New Videos,” and “History.” Under “History,” you’ll see all of your recent videos—including those that you’ve watched recently but haven’t added them to your playlist yet. To add a video from this past week, just click on its name and select Add To Playlist from the pop-up menu that appears. Once you’ve added a video to your playlist, just hit play by clicking on its thumbnail in My Videos or New Videos. If everything goes well, you’ll see a message telling you that video has been played successfully. If not, try refreshing My Videos or New Videos so that video starts playing again automatically when you next start Media Center.
Install Macrotube
The first thing we need to do is download and install the plugin called Macrotube (link below) following the defaults through the install wizard.
After it’s installed, open Windows 7 Media Center and you’ll find Macrotube in the main menu.
Currently there are three services available…YouTube, Dailymotion, and MSN Soapbox. Just select the service where you want to check out some videos.
You can browse through different subjects or categories…
Or you can search the the service by typing in what you’re looking for…with your remote or keyboard.
There is the ability to drill down you search content by date, rating, views, and relevance.
There are a few settings available such as the language beta, auto updates, and appearance.
Now just kick back and browse through the different services and watch what you want from the comfort of your couch or on your computer.
Conclusion
This neat project is still in development and the developer is continuing to add changes through updates. It only works with Windows 7 Media Player, but there is a 32 & 64-bit version. Sometimes we experiences certain videos that wouldn’t play and it did crash a few times, but that is to be expected with a work in progress. But overall, this is a cool plugin that will allow you to watch your favorite online content from WMC.
Download Macrotube and get more details and troubleshooting help fro the GreenButton forum
