MCE Live TV Buffer Manager

I'm a big fan of using Windows Media Center as my DVR for watching and recording TV. But I do have one gripe: Very often I'll pause a show, only to return a while later to discover it has "unpaused." Why? Because Windows Media Center's default "pause buffer"--the amount of hard drive space reserved for live-TV storage--is just 30 minutes.

If you've got drive space to spare, you can increase the size of this buffer. One tiny tool makes it possible: MCE Live TV Buffer Manager. There's nothing to install: Just run the program, choose your desired buffer (any 15-minute increment between 30 and 120 minutes), and then click Apply. Reboot your PC and you're good to go.

Note: Although the author offers this program free of charge, he asks for donations to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.

--Rick Broida