Manual
 

Preparations

Which preparations you have to take before you can setup MCE Guider depend on the version of Windows XP Media Center Edition you are using:

•  Preparations for Windows XP MCE 2004
•  Preparations for Windows XP MCE 2005

Setup MCE Guider

When you run MCE Guider Setup, you'll see the following window:

	First, press this button (the left one) to remove the German channel and program data (which was downloaded by the MCE setup wizard) from the Guide.
	Second, press this button to open the wizard for adding the TV channels you want to watch the easy way:  In the first field select your cable TV provider. Currently the following providers are supported:  CAI Westland  Casema  Cogas  Essent  Kabel Noord  Kabel TV Brabant-Gelderland  MultiKabel  UPC  After you've selected your cable TV provider, select your region in the second field. When you've made your selections, press the OK button, and the channels which your cable TV provider provides in your region will be added to the overview automatically:
	If you want to add additional channels manually, press this button as often as you want to add them to the overview:  Either select the name of the channel in the upper drop-down list, or type it in by hand.  Please note that program information is available only for channels you select from the list!  In the second field enter the frequency of the channel.  Be sure to enter the frequency in Hertz!  You can get an overview of the frequencies in your area from the website of your cable TV service provider.  By checking the box called "download program listings" you tell MCE Guider to download the program listings for the channel.  By checking the box called "download program details" you tell MCE Guider to not only download the program listings for the channel, but to download the program details as well.  Mind you: downloading the program details takes more time!
	Press this button to modify the properties of the selected channel. You can do this during the initial setup of MCE Guider, but it can be done later as well.
	Press this button to remove the selected channel(s). You can do this during the initial setup of MCE Guider, but it can be done later as well.
	Press this button to move the selected channel(s) upwards in the list. You can do this during the initial setup of MCE Guider, but it can be done later as well.
	Press this button to move the selected channel(s) downwards. You can do this during the initial setup of MCE Guider, but it can be done later as well.
	Press this button to save your settings.
	Press this button to re-open the last saved settings.
	Press this button (the right one) to remove the programs for the selected channel(s) from the guide.
	Press this button to activate your copy of MCE Guider (see below for more details).

Activate MCE Guider

Before you can really start filling your Media Center guide, you have to activate your copy of MCE Guider.

First you need to get yourself an activation code; you can get one using this link.
Enter your name and e-mail address, and you will receive your activation code in an e-mail.

Then go back to MCE Guider Setup, and from its menu called "Help" select the option "Activate MCE Guider".
Then you will see this screen appear:

Do the following:

•  In the field called "E-mail address" enter the e-mail address on which you received the activation code.
•  Enter the activation code itself in the field called "Activation code".
   Make sure to enter the code exactly as you received it, preferably by copying it from the e-mail.
•  Then press the "Activate" button to finish the activation of MCE Guider.

Download program information

Once you've completely setup MCE Guider, you can download program information into the Media Center guide.

Go to the option "More Programs" on the start page of MCE:

And select the option "Update guide" on the programs page:

Now MCE Guider automatically starts downloading program information:

Program information is downloaded for today and the upcoming 6 days.
Guide information is downloaded incrementally. This means that MCE Guider only downloads guide data for those days for which no data is available yet (up to 6 days in advance).

The amount of time the download takes depends on the number of channels for which information has to be downloaded, the amount of channels for which you want the program details to be downloaded and the bandwidth of your internet connection.