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Category: Software

Published on Monday, 20 September 2010 22:26

Written by Martin Millmore

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LoveFilm for Media Center allows you to watch streaming movies , trailers, and control your rental list, all from your Media Center PC.

MCE LoveFilm is completely free with a premium upgrade to gain access to additional features. You can compare the free and premium features here.

NEW: You can now see all films available to stream with subscription in the new Watch Online section.

Not got a love film account? Sign Up for LoveFilm now

Thanks to Matt Matthias who came up with the excellent new screen designs.

NOTE: To stream movies (licensed version), you need to log in to the lovefilm site a second time. When you first try to play a move, press L to go to the login page, and log in to the LoveFilm web site. You should only need to do that once.

System Requirements

• Windows 7 Home Premium or Ultimate
• 2BG RAM or greater
• A LoveFilm account

Instructions

When you first start MCE LoveFilm you will be taken to an authentication page so that you can link  Media Center to your LoveFilm account.

To start this process, click on the button to launch the LoveFilm web site. Log in to LoveFilm and click on the link in the browser to grant access to MCE LoveFilm. When you have granted access you can close the browser window and return to Media Center. In Media Center you must now click the post authorization button to complete granting access.

Once you have authenticated, you will see a list of your rental items. You will see all of your queues, and the movies in each queue. You will also see any films that you have at home at the moment.

Clicking on a film in your list will open the film details, allowing you to play the film or the trailer if available, and allowing you to remove the movie from the list if you want to.

You can also see a list of the cast and crew;

And take actions, such as changing the rental priority;

Clicking on films & tv will show you a list of genres. Click on a genre to see the top films for that genre. You will see 50 films at a time. Click on Previous and Next to see more films.

Click on the search link to search for movies by movie title. Enter part of the film name and press OK to search.

When you click on a film, you will see it's details, plus a list of possible actions. If you are looking at Watch Online, a Play button will be shown. Depending on your LoveFilm subscription, playing films be subject to additional fees.

To play films, you will have to log in once to the web site in addition to having authorized in Media Center. Press L when you are on the film screen to be taken to the login page.

If a trailer is availalable for the movie, the play trailer button will be displayed. This again opens the LoveFilm site to play the trailer, but does not require you to log in. Note, at the moment a play trailer button is always displayed as we have no accurate way of detecting if a trailer is not available.

If the film is available to rent (yes, some films are not actually available to rent) then you will see the Rent button. Clicking this will add it to your primary rental list.

Favourites

If you want to save a movie for later without adding it to your rental list, you can add it to your favourites in MCE LoveFilm. This is a special list of movies that you might want to save for streaming later without renting.

If you have licensed MCE LoveFilm, you can also keep favourites in sync between multiple installations of MCE LoveFilm on different computers, and even send favourites from your browser. To enable this feature you must enter a pin code in the settings. Enter the same pin code on each computer to synchronize the movies.

Chrome

To send films from Chrome, install the extension from here. Go to Tools-> Extensions to see the installed extensions. Click on the Options link next to MCE LoveFilm favourites to enter your e-mail address and pin. When you visit the page of a LoveFilm film, an icon will appear in your address bar like this . Click on it to add the movie to your favourites.

Firefox

To send films from Firefox, install the Firefox add-on from here. Once you have installed it, visit the Add-ons Extensions page and click on Options for MCE LoveFilm favourites to enter your e-mail address and pin. This will put a small icon like this  in your status bar. When you visit the page of a LoveFilm film, the icon will become enabled like this . Click on it to add the movie to your favourites.

Internet Explorer

Sending favourites from Internet Explorer is not yet supported.

Playing video

While the video is playing, press 0 to play/pause, and press back to return the media center.

Sometimes the video is not quite centered on the screen. Use the arrow keys to center the video if required.

You will see a "Full Screen" button on the video. That is for use in web browsers, and is not required in the LoveFilm player, and won't improve resolution or play stability. Don't get a mouse out and press it, because silverlight will not then let you exit. If you disregard that warning, press the windows key to get the task bar up, and right click on LoveFilm Player, and select "Close" to kill it. And don't do it again.

Change Log

2.1.5 Made sure mouse auto-fades
Suppress LoveFilm script errors.

2.1.4 Added additional scaling capabilities - press Channel +/- or PgUp/PgDown to zoom in and out of video
Improved detection of trailers and streaming
Improved click to play reliability 

2.1.3 Added ability to use Play and Pause buttons

2.1.2 Video now opens on the same screen as media center
Fixed a problem with not moving to previous 50 in the watch online list
Fixed a problem with navigating after adding a favourite 

2.1.1 Added "New Releases" and "Just Added"
Fixed a bug with empty favourites.

2.1.0 Added the ability to save favourites.
Online favourites for licensed customers.
Improved streaming capabilities.

2.0.0 Full streaming capabilities added.
Split out Blu-Ray and DVD content.
Improved streaming capabilities.

1.2.3 Improved screen resolution compatibility.

1.2.2 Fixed a problem with entering usernames.

1.2.1 Allow logging in to the new video display.

1.2.0 Re-written the code that displays video.

1.1.2 Fixed another issue with having no titles in your queue.

1.1.1 Fixed an issue with having no titles in your queue.

1.1.0 Fixed an issue with having no titles at home.

1.0.8 Fixed an issue with having multiple titles at home.

1.0.7 Added a link to the LoveFilm site so that you can log in

1.0.5 Added Logging capabilities

Minor UI tweaks.

1.0.4 Added the ability to search by actor or director.
Numerous bug fixes.

1.0.3 First non-beta version.

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