Thread: VW Jetta

Windows7 screen shots...

Below is Windows Media Player in Library Mode


Here's the desktop on the JettaPC with Microsoft Maps and other widgets. The widgets can now be placed anywhere you want them on screen.




Dateline NBC News widget/mini screen above is there to watch breaking news as it happens. The Map widget tells me in real time where an accident has occurred, so, I can reroute my travel in advance.


Here's the new Microsoft Paint program; as you can see, it has been revamped with many useful tools and features.





Here's the new Control Panel hardware pane, listing the devices attached to the carPC..



SnagIt screen capture software doesn't allow me to capture full screen video of WebTV within Windows MediaCenter7.

Anyhow, as a work around, I used my cheap digital camera to capture these three consecutive shots;

Here's the WebTV version of the History Channel in my car while at the gas station.


streaming video via ClearWire's Mobile Broadband access;



The photos don't do any justice vs watching the actual video, but you get the picture.


This is a highlight of my review of features in Windows7. More will be added soon.

Originally Posted by dMand

I've tried a few different front ends and found that I have no need for them. Hands free phone control, GPS, and internet experience is a non issue.

Since my primary screen is rather large, at 17", I have no problem reading internet text from six feet away using 1280 X 960 screen resolution. Bump the res down to 600X480, text might be legible from across the street.

Additionally, the LCD isn't a touch screen. I went with it because it was soo cheap, half the price of most seven, through ten inch displays.

With an embedded HD-TV tuner, the decision to purchase was a no brainier. No tuner is card necessary to recieve over the air HDTV channels. Processing power is left for all the fun multimedia stuff like burning DVD's, gaming, and full screen webTV.

Windows7 makes the latter a very pleasant experience using Media Center 7. I've decided to do all my pics, videos, and tv programming through it.

Eventually I will yank the 10.4 widescreen from my personal netbook, and add the display to the dash. The small netbook will serve as a security center to control various functions that I plan on implementing to become operational from the internet. I'm still doing some research and development.

My carpc has become my primary "all in one" computer. Reclining bucket seats are great to sit on all day, plus, I'm always in the garage doing something to the car.

What front end do you use, and why?

Well my media center recently took a cr@p, so I am going to try W7 on that PC. Some file got corrupted and it will not boot. Id rather test it on another PC first, then if I like it, I will go ahead and do the carpc.

HAHAHAHAHA, everyone knows I am major major majorrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Centrafuse person. In fact my car is called the HiJack ZX1 CFSC which equals CentraFuse Street Cruiser. When they originally designed CF it was lacking alot of features, but now it has turned into a multimedia monster that suits my multimedia truck. David designed the software to be very versatile and I think he is focusing the software on people that are building high-end multi sound card and multi screen systems. When I changed focus with my install after being insulted by my mother (she tried to use it and a blue screen of death came up), I decided to go for a huge install that can do as many things as possible, out do any luxury car. Then I saw Jan ( RedGTiVR6) and saw how she competes in shows. I then decided to build my ride around that, only difference is that I am simply going for theater sound, not so much boom. CF has the best audio handling, it is simple to use, and its abilities just work for me. They are in the process of updating it to allow the rear seats to have their own controls so the driver doesn't have to do it for them, also they are adding it so you can tell certain things to go to certain sound cards. In my case, I have the X-Fi for main audio, then a 7.1 Virtual surround sound USB card that connects to Infrared Headphones, so they can do their own thing. No other front end can do that. Also customer support is awesome, they are very quick to help and correct things, even if people loose their cool and are very nasty to them.

Originally Posted by HiJackZX1

Well my media center recently took a cr@p, so I am going to try W7 on that PC. Some file got corrupted and it will not boot. Id rather test it on another PC first, then if I like it, I will go ahead and do the carpc.

HAHAHAHAHA, everyone knows I am major major majorrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Centrafuse person. In fact my car is called the HiJack ZX1 CFSC which equals CentraFuse Street Cruiser. When they originally designed CF it was lacking alot of features, but now it has turned into a multimedia monster that suits my multimedia truck. David designed the software to be very versatile and I think he is focusing the software on people that are building high-end multi sound card and multi screen systems. When I changed focus with my install after being insulted by my mother (she tried to use it and a blue screen of death came up), I decided to go for a huge install that can do as many things as possible, out do any luxury car. Then I saw Jan ( RedGTiVR6) and saw how she competes in shows. I then decided to build my ride around that, only difference is that I am simply going for theater sound, not so much boom. CF has the best audio handling, it is simple to use, and its abilities just work for me. They are in the process of updating it to allow the rear seats to have their own controls so the driver doesn't have to do it for them, also they are adding it so you can tell certain things to go to certain sound cards. In my case, I have the X-Fi for main audio, then a 7.1 Virtual surround sound USB card that connects to Infrared Headphones, so they can do their own thing. No other front end can do that. Also customer support is awesome, they are very quick to help and correct things, even if people loose their cool and are very nasty to them.

looks like you have everything setup pretty good. As with CF, David has answered my question regarding the magicjack and centrafuse. CF is great, however, for the time being, I found more interest in tweaking Windows7.

Have you downloaded it yet? It's the best thing since sliced bread!

Originally Posted by dMand

looks like you have everything setup pretty good. As with CF, David has answered my question regarding the magicjack and centrafuse. CF is great, however, for the time being, I found more interest in tweaking Windows7.

Have you downloaded it yet? It's the best thing since sliced bread!

Yes I did download it and got my product key, but I havent had time to install. My Media center has 2 huge drives, but one was filled. SoI put some of my most favorite shows with the Windows install, and as you know you can only upgrade from Vista. If you have XP, then you have to do a clean install. Once I got my shows off the main drive I can start restoring.

WINDOWS 7 is amazing.... Its most def geared to using it on tons of different computers, especially a carpc. People that are saying W7 is close to Vista are brain dead. I am most def liking this. I still dont feel comfortable replacing my CarPC OS with it. For media its amazing. Media Center seems a bit clunky though, I like the XP media center better. Also I cant get extended display to work...

Originally Posted by HiJackZX1

WINDOWS 7 is amazing.... Its most def geared to using it on tons of different computers, especially a carpc. People that are saying W7 is close to Vista or braindead. I am most def liking this. I still dont feel comfortable replacing my CarPC OS. For media its amazing.

Right on! I'm glad to see that you like it. Thus far Windows 7 has been very stable. Just a short note tho: If you're using an X-fi sound card, I recommend downloading the latest drivers from creative.com. Somehow, the older drivers prevent the OS from shutting down quickly.

Needless to say it's best to make it a routine, every six months or so, to download all of the latest hardware drivers for your computer components. New bug fixes are being released frequently by the manufacturer.

Aside from getting the latest drivers for added system stability, sometimes the newer driver may even add more functionality to the component you have. So it can be a good thing to be on the lookout for the latest drivers.

Have fun with Windows7! My brother downloaded his copy yesterday, and he is enjoying it too!

Originally Posted by HiJackZX1

Yes I did download it and got my product key, but I havent had time to install. My Media center has 2 huge drives, but one was filled. SoI put some of my most favorite shows with the Windows install, and as you know you can only upgrade from Vista. If you have XP, then you have to do a clean install. Once I got my shows off the main drive I can start restoring.

Dude you are simply a brilliant tech guru too. What favorite shows do you download? I have a few Monster Garage sequels that I recorded via DVR from HD-TV. I am more into HD music video. Ever since the pc got integrated in the car, I became a Hi-Fi music video collector, slash, download-meistro. lol

Thus far I have 250 single hits that consume approximately 25gigs of storage space. That equals to roughly 100 megabytes per music video.

I don't think i'll ever fill up 1,810 gigs of storage space any time soon, even if I stay away from low-res u-tube specials and look out for high def 1080p movies.

Originally Posted by dMand

Dude you are simply a brilliant tech guru too. What favorite shows do you download? I have a few Monster Garage sequels that I recorded via DVR from HD-TV. I am more into HD music video. Ever since the pc got integrated in the car, I became a Hi-Fi music video collector, slash, download-meistro. lol

Thus far I have 250 single hits that consume approximately 25gigs of storage space. That equals to roughly 100 megabytes per music video.

I don't think i'll ever fill up 1,810 gigs of storage space any time soon, even if I stay away from low-res u-tube specials and look out for high def 1080p movies.

I dont know if I should say, I'll look like a total geek, lol. I only have a few favorite shows, but I have all the episodes except the ones still going. Star Trek Voyager (Yes I like it better then TNG), Star Gate Atlantis (Yes I like it better then SG1), and the new Battlestar Galactica. I also have all the Star Trek Movies, Battlestar Galactica Razor. I then have a japanese batsu game show, where these guys have to survive 24 hours without laughing or they get punished everytime they do they made about 4 or 5. Then the rest is all porn 200+.

When it comes to the carpc, I dont want all that stuff on my HDD, and also have to get bigger drives to fit it all. So what I do is a have my Dishnetwork and Media Center PC connected to my slingbox. The only down fall is that the 2 devices share the same audio port on the Slingbox so if both are on, the audio is reduced to almost nothing. My trick was to buy a automatic RCA switcher box. When it senses the video of a new device, it switches to that mode. So all I do is turn on the media center from the car, then the box switches over. The other downfall is driving through the city, sometimes the signal get cr@ppy. Also when driving fast, but im willing to put up with it.

As before I got W7 installed, I restarted and it was all messed up. Also when it did work, it did not work with my graphics card when it came to extending to the other screen. Kept saying unable to save settings. I think its a video driver causing the issue.

man that's a hardcore setup.