Caller ID

[Advent]

I have not been happy with any of the available caller ID solutions that are currently available (at least, not the free ones ) for Media Center, so I decided to write my own in my spare time. I've nearly got this working well enough to meet my personal requirements, but I was wondering what kind of interest there would be in getting it to a point where I could release it to the wild.

The features that I would include in an initial release would be:

• The basics - show dialog in VMC when someone calls you, showing their name/picture etc.
• Perform actions on call start/end (i.e. pause whatever you're watching when the someone calls you, then resume playback when the call ends, or automatically lower the volume while the call is taking place (any other ideas?))
• The call start/end actions would work regardless of whether you have caller-ID enabled (for those that don't want to pay for caller-ID)
• Various call sources (internal modem, YAC server)
• Various contact sources (Windows Contacts, Outlook, Windows Live (i.e. MSN) contacts)

So, let me know if you are interested/have any other ideas. Seeing the lack of response to Innie808's thread about YAC, I just wanted to check if anyone would actually use this before I go spending lots of time on it

[simbot82]

I would be keen for that, do you have a 360 as the only reason I stopped caring was it would not extend to extender environment

[Innie808]

Hi Advent,

I would be interested, unfortunately I think most of those that had callerid in MCE2005 have given up hope in Vista.

I have a working server/client solution with YAC and Babgvants port, however this does not support extenders. This solution does let me run the Server service on an XP workstation, then send callerid info to my Vista Machine. Works good!

One of the most important aspects i look for is the ability to have 1 machine connected to the phone line, and send the callerid information across the network to my media center, since there is no phone outlet near my TV. There are a couple of solutions out there, such as OABSoftware, which looks great, if only it worked with Australian Callerid Protocols. There's no way to contact OABSoftwares author, no forums, nothing. So i gave up on that solution too!

I guess i'd only be interested if you can utilise the server/client solution. I'm not a programmer of any sorts so it's out of my league.

[Advent]

Unfortunately I don't have a 360, and have no plans to buy one, so it will probably be a little difficult for me to test extender support. Of course, I could probably borrow one, or someone from the forums might be able to work with me on it if they were keen enough.

In my setup I have my phone line connected directly to the pc running Media Center, so I didn't need the client/server setup. However, it shouldn't be all that difficult to achieve - I could add that to a list of initial features. Also, it would be easy to support your current setup by acting as a YAC client (no need to change your XP YAC server), but YAC only sends notifications on an incoming call, not when you hang up (so some features wouldn't be available).

[simbot82]

I would be more than willing to test out. The extender will recognise a call from memory, but won't retrieve details just indicates a call is incoming. Not all that helpful really

[kirstglen]

I use Tapirex across Vista and 360 and it works fine