My Channel Logos for 7MC is updated to version 2.  New features, and a conversion of the application to a paid model…read on for details.

Andrew first introduced me to My Channel Logos here back in November 2010.  It is an application that allows you to dress up your Windows Media Center in Windows 7 with cool logos for the channels.  It’s a very nice application, and at $3 USD, it’s a bargain.

The developer notified me that Version 2 is now available via email this morning, and I  wanted to let you know about the new features and the conversion to a paid model.

Here’s what’s new in Version 2’s feature set:

What new features are in Version 2?

• Alter the logo cell to your own liking- Have you ever lamented the loss of callsigns? Whined over the wasted width in the logo cell? Oppose the order of the logo cell? Now, if you want both the logo and the callsign there, you can do it. If you don’t care what the channel number is, you can delete it. If you’d rather the logo appear to the left of the channel number, go ahead. If you think the logos should be centered in your guide instead of right justified, you can center it. With our simple new user interface, you can select which components you want to see in the logo cell, which order they appear in, whether the logo is centered, and how wide the logo cell is. And in an instant, we make all the changes needed to make your guide perfect for you.
• Increase the number of rows in the guide and mini-guide- Now with just the click of a slider, you can add up to eleven rows to your guide, and 4 rows to your mini-guide. These changes have been carefully adjusted to keep the professional look in Media Center, including a well aligned “View Categories” bar, layout adjustments to fit all the important information, and an extension of the blue fade for those adjusting the mini-guide. These tweaks were originally championed by the Australian Media Center community.
• Actually automatically update logos- You may have noticed that although the option was in earlier versions of MCL, it never really worked. Sorry about that. But now, MCL will automatically download new logos if available, and then autopopulate, without having to open MCL. So if a new channel comes to your guide, the logo will be downloaded and added without lifting a finger.
• Help make MCL Better- Now you can create a spreadsheet to send to the MCL team so that we can work on better matching with autopopulate. Not only will this alert us to new channels, but it will give better matches for existing channels, as they can have different callsigns depending on the region and cable provider.
• Brand new overall user interface- Gone is the utilitarian look of MCL from the past. Without losing the user-friendliness of the previous version, MCL now has a better graphical interface, with new buttons and tabs to better let you leverage all the functions.
• Brand new Logo user interface that gives you a better idea of what your logo will look like in the guide. It presents the information in a prettier, more informative way.
• New separate list of callsigns: We’ve also transitioned from the tree-view to separate lists, so that manually adding logos doesn’t collapse the list every time.
• New Download Screen- Tells you exactly how many logos you will be downloading, as well as a progress bar.
• Far fewer flakey servers- Our logos and system checks are on much more stable servers now, so hopefully this will mean less problems for everyone.

What’s the same in Version 2?

• Fast Autopopulate– the same algorithm from V2 will add your logos in seconds.
• Drag and drop logo assignment- To manually add logos quicker.
• Exemptions- Choose which logos stay the same during automatic updates or Autopopulate clicks.
• Logos, Logos everywhere- Access our database of over 1800 unique logos, designed especially for Media Center. We’ve got logos from USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, Germany, France, Sweden, Australia, and New Zealand.