Fix for Editing Recorded TV Shows in Vista Media Center

While it's true you can edit your recorded TV shows in Movie Maker with Windows Vista you might run into an 'unspecified error' stating that Movie Maker can't open your DVR-MS file. This means Movie Maker is probably having compatibility issues with the different video decoders installed on your system. If you go to Tools and then Options, you can click on the Compatibility tab and deselect the different video filters and that should solve your problem.

Listen to the Latest Media Center Show with CES Coverage

The Media Center Show is one of my favorite podcasts and Ian is back from CES with his first roundup of CES coverage while he was there:

Well I made it back from CES, and what a week it has been. From seeing all the great Media Center content, to meeting Bill Gates and seeing 107″ 1080p displays
I got plenty of interviews both video and audio. This week on the show are my first thoughts from CES, an interview about the new Sports Lounge in the Vista edition of Media Center and a chat with Tim Cutting from Niveus about their display at CES including their CableCard products.

Have you watched The Media Center Show Extra yet? Its my new video accompaniment to the show, new show about CES coming soon

Vista Media Center Tries to Beef Up Online Media

In the Windows XP version of Media Center the online media content (titled Spotlight) was a big dissapointment. There wasn't a standard framework that the developers had to follow so everyone's applications looked different and the video quality of some feeds were terrible. Plus there was not a lot of content on there. Well Microsoft is going to try it again with Vista and hopes the new powerful graphic features of Vista will make it a better experience. Bill Gates recently announced more content partnerships with Nascar and Fox Sports and at CES more content partnerships was announced. You can catch a video of Vista in action over at on10. From what I have seen Vista online media will look a whole lot better; we'll have to see about the content.

Vista Media Center CableCard Solution is Ugly

One of the big draws for Vista Media Center is the ability to record and watch high definition TV from the major service providers. However, in order to get the big providers to sign up, Microsoft had to agree to some heavy digital rights management protection which makes it so you can't add your own HDTV tuner card that will work with Vista. You have to buy a certified PC that has gone through specific testing from an OEM vendor like Dell. PVRWire breaks it down for us:

The video will be decrypted from cable and then re-encrypted in the tuner with Microsoft DRM. The video will then travel through a USB port to the media center, even if the Tuner is an internal PCI card.

So you will have an external device that holds the digital TV tuner that connects to your PC via USB. You can watch this Microsoft on10 video to see how big it is. This is one ugly solution; I can only hope that eventually you will be able to buy a PC that has the tuner integrated. I know for me this will drive me to just buy my HD content from the Xbox Windows Live marketplace for the TV shows I want to watch.

New Recorded TV Look and Feel in Media Center Vista

In the latest Windows Vista beta release it looks like they are going to add thumbnail views to your Recorded TV! (via The Green Button) I was hoping that this would be added – I hate having to look at a list of recorded TV shows. I have seen screenshots of MythTV with this functionality and I think it will be pretty slick.

I’m getting pretty excited about Vista, hopefully more screenshots will be coming … what feature are you most looking forward to?

Get the MetaData Including Cover Art for My DVD in Media Center

Below is the 12 step program to getting the metadata for the My DVD feature in Media Center (via The Green Button) This worked perfectly for me and it does not require you to reload all of your DVD’s in your computer so you can find out the disc ID that My DVD is looking for. Above is a screenshot of the DVD profiler program which is really useful. You do have to register on the site and then get a key for the program but after that it is free to use. This makes the My DVD feature really rock!

Here are the 12 steps to add all of the rich DVD data to your My DVD's collection:
* (If you already have DVD profiler and have catalogued all your DVD's, skip to step 6)
1. Download and install DVD Profiler from www.dvdprofiler.com or www.intervocative.com.
2. Register an account with them and retrieve a free registration ID. Enter this ID when you use the software.
3. Add all your DVD's that you have in your My DVD's menu by selecting "DVD|Add To Collection" from the main menu, then going to the "Add By Title" tab. Find each of your DVD's by filtering the title, region, locality, release date, rating, genre, or any combination thereof.
4. Select "Add DVD" (bottom right) for each DVD you find that matches yours. Please note that the AMG database stores mostly U.S. versions of the DVD, so you might want to filter on United States as your locality even though your disc is rated for a different region.
5. Once you selected all the titles, click on "Add Now" (You might want to uncheck "Prompt for personalization" (bottom left) if you're adding dozens of DVD's.) DVD Profiler will start downloading all of your DVD profiles and cover art. When it's done you will be back at the main screen.
6. Click on "File|Export Profile Database" from the main menu, then click "Accept" in the "Acceptable Use Policy" dialog.
7. In the "Export Profile Database" dialog, make sure your "Output Format" is set to "XML Format", "Filter Criteria" should be "All". Specify an output file and REMEMBER where it is.
8. Exit the DVD Profiler application and now launch My DVD Settings v0.2 (Attached)
9. Under the "Intervocative DVD Profiler" group, click on the folder icon and browse for the file that you generated from step 7.
10. Click on "Generate DVD Disc ID Files..." and select a folder where you would like all the DVD dvdid.xml files to be stored. Click OK and the program should generate your xml files in the folder you specified.
11. Exit the program and open the folder where you generated the dvdid.xml files. Each file should be named in the format {DVD Title}.dvdid.xml. Copy each xml file to the appropriate folder where you stored your DVD image (again, put it in the same folder as VIDEO_TS, NOT inside VIDEO_TS, ie. the parent folder of VIDEO_TS).
12. Launch Media Center, click on My DVD's and enjoy!

Video Playlist Creator Plugin for Media Center

Someone wrote the plugin that I was waiting for: a way to create a video playlist. I’m not sure why Media Center doesn’t have the ability to create video playlists when you can do this in Windows Media Player. This program works great – I use it to play my recorded TV shows back to back.

Attached to this post is an application to create ASX video playlists within MCE. The application provides the following functionality within MCE:

• Input a title for the playlist (you can reuse and overwrite playlist filenames if you want)
• Select videos listed in the RecordedTV and MyVideos section of MCE to include in a playlists*
• Rearrange the order of the playlist after selecting the video files
• Create an ASX with the title of the playlist you entered
• Play the playlist by selecting the ASX file in the MyVideos section of MCE

Increase Channel Change Speed in Media Center

One thing about watching live TV in Media Center that I don’t like is how long it takes to change channels. I have a PVR 150 MCE TV tuner card going to a LCD monitor via the video card and it is a lot slower than a normal TV with cable hookup. Some people have claimed that using a different combination of TV tuner cards and DVD decoder software has made all of the difference.

But if you have a PVR 150MCE TV tuner card then you might be able to use this registry hack (via The Green Button) to bypass the encoder and send the TV signal straight to your viewing source. I’m not sure if this works if you are using your monitor connection (like the VGA or DVI) to view the TV signal or if you need to use the TV out connection.

Enable Live Preview , bypass encoder for 0 delay and fast channel change

This will bypass the decoder and result in a 0 sec image delay as well as faster chanel change. Very useful if you plan to hook up your gameconsole.

Note : Live preview won’t work with all driver version, most of the 1,7 version work and some of the 1,6 just. There are to many drivers to list every driver here, so just test it and see if it works.

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Hauppauge\hcwTVWnd] LivePreview"=dword:00000001

(1 for on, 0 for off)

http://www.cask-of-amontillado.com/pvr_reg.html#_Enable_Live_Preview

I use an ATI Radeon display card for computer and TV output so I assume that the non encoded signal gets passed directly to the Radeon's TV output when using MCE. I use a PVR-150 for TV input. I can only assume that the registry hack tells the PVR-150 not to encode live TV being passed to devices other than disk. I also have to assume that the 30 minute "pause Live TV buffer" being recorded to disk at the same time is encoded.

I noticed an immediate improvment in the speed of channel changing when I applied this registry "trick", it's almost back to normal.

I will have to try this out and see how it does. Has anyone tried this without using the TV out connection?

Best Way to Recover Deleted Recorded TV Shows?

I don’t know about you, but I hate it when I deleted a recorded TV show only to find out that I really wanted to keep it or that someone else in the house hasn’t watched it yet. Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a way to recover deleted recorded TV shows? Hopefully this will be a feature in Vista; I remember reading about how Vista in general will have a way to recover everything deleted somehow.

But until that happens, what’s the best program to use to try to recover deleted recorded TV shows?

Resolve Remote Conflicts with Media Center and Extenders (Including Xbox 360)

If the green button on your Media Center remote is turning on your Xbox 360 then try this setting to disable the green button interference on your Xbox 360: (via The Green Button)

I had this too. In the XBox 360, go to System blade, Console Settings, Remote Control. Set this to Xbox Media Remote. Then, the green button shouldn't turn it on anymore.

And you can also use TweakMCE to set the remote control ID numbers for all of your Media Center and Media Center extender remotes so your Media Center PC listens to only one remote. I had this problem when I had an extender close to my Media Center PC so this is a great tip to know.

with tweakmce you can also set mce to listen to a remote number (and program the mce remote to the same number). allows up to 9 different mce systems to be within ir range and not control each other. However this is somewhat limited on extenders (aka missing) but I don't use a 360 so it might also be an option.

Change Channels on Your Set Top Box in Media Center with Free Programs

Via The Green Button:

Zapper (attached) is a free, open source, plug-in that will run any arbitrary command line when Media Center changes.

You might find it useful if your STB is not supported by the normal Media Center blaster, and you have some way of changing channels with the command line. (E.g. Girder and USBUIRT like me)

Or you can try another free program to control your set top box via the serial port: (may only work with certain set top box models):

I was able to spend some time and change DirectTVSerialControl to work with the motorola digital cable box. If you want to try it, at your own risk, extract the files in any folder and then run reg.bat to install it. A reboot is required. The config file is self-explanatory. To uninstall just run unreg.bat and reboot.
Enjoy, and let me know if it works or what issues are found.

New Media Center Vista Release Reviews

The reviews of Media Center on the recent February Vista release have been slow but are starting to trickle in. So far I haven’t heard anything new and exciting yet: (via The Green Button)

Apart from that I haven't seen anything really new most of the options and menus are the same as MCE2005. I had hoped for more customizing options to allow me to lock down the interface, things like removing that delete option after a movie, or a pin number being required to access settings to stop clumsy users messing with my setup.

It is still early to make any final conclusions but when is Microsoft going to release the ‘big guns’ for Media Center?

Media Center on a Flash Drive

I have seen quite a small linux computers for applications like car computers that just use a flash drive to run the operating system. There is a good discussion over on The Green Button about if anyone has ported Media Center over to a flash drive. This would be a really port because you could make a really small Media Center box – maybe one that fits in your pocket!

What would you do with flash based Media Center box?

Switch Video Inputs on Media Center with Your Remote

There is a great writeup over on The Green Button on how to setup your TV tuner card so you can switch to the other video inputs like S-Video and composite. Here’s the write up:

Anyways, here's the process I discovered on how to do so quite elegantly. First, set up the capture program:

1. Download Dscaler. This is the program that will actually capture your video feed. Install it with all the default options. I'm using version 4.1.11.
2. In Dscaler, click "Sources", then choosing your tuner.
3. Click "Dshow > Video Input" and choose your input.
4. Click "Sources > Define as initial source".
5. Double click the image to put it in full screen.
6. Right click and hit exit.

Great, now we have a program that can capture the audio/video feed. Now we need to find a way so we can start and stop this program using the remote control. To do this, I created two batch files, the first one, when launched, closes media center and opens Dscaler. The second one, when launched, closes Dscaler. Because media center wont launch batch files directly from the "More Programs" folder, I just created two shortcuts to the files in the same folder.

1. All you have to do is take the four files attached and place them in "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories\Media Center\Media Center Programs".

Now you're all done the set up. How does it work? Easy:

1. To start the video input, click "More Programs", then "Video Input On". Media center will close and Dscaler will open, in full screen if thats how you left it last.
2. To stop the video input, click the green button to launch media center again. Media center will come up but Dscaler is still running in the background. Go to "More Programs" and click "Video Input Off". You will get a message that says "Unable to Display Page". Ignore this and click "OK". This closes Dscaler and leaves you in Media Center. Sweet!

This might be a good way to hook up a video game console to your Media Center without the lag. (Due to Media Center buffering the TV input)

Play iTunes in Media Center with HP Tunes

I really like using the Apple iTunes music store to browse new music and even buy tracks for my iPod Mini. What I don’t like is not being able to use iTunes inside of Media Center. In HP’s failed attempts to sell their own branded iPods they did make a program called HP Tunes that provides an interface to iTunes within Media Center. HP Tunes use to come standard on all HP Media Center computers but if you look in the right places then you can find the stand alone program to download and install.

HP Tunes work but it is a very ugly interface; I would much rather use the Media Center interface. You can do some basic filtering by viewing by albums, songs, artists, genres or your playlists. Nothing really impressive but it will allow you to play your iTunes music without having to leave Media Center. I’m pretty sure HP has discontinued this program because they aren’t selling iPods anymore but it would be nice if they released the code for this program so the user community could develop and enhance it.

Record HDTV from Your PC Over Firewire

I came across FireBus DTV Recorder (via Video Help) and it looks like a nice and simple way to record HDTV over your firewire port.

• Record MPEG-2 (HD & SD) content* from your DTV or DSTB to your PC over IEEE 1394 interface
• Record and play individual movies from the PC
• Self-configuring software identifies your PC as a storage device to the DTV.
• The PC can be configured to act as a Digital VCR or AVHDD upon startup.
• DTV recorder operates in the background and frees up the PC for simultaneous use. Less than 5% of the CPU is consumed when the PC is simultaneously recording and playing.
• Compressed video is captured from the DTV and stored to your PC. No need for expensive decoders or encoders on the PC.
• By using the DTV remote control, recorded movies (MPEG-2) on the PC can be played back to DTV with ability to stop, pause, fast-forward and fast rewind video on most DTVs with integrated tuners.
• Time Shift Viewing allows movies to be viewed from the beginning while recording is still in progress.
• Movies recorded on the PC can be burnt onto a DVD or CD.

Not sure about pricing but I think I saw a suggested price of $100. Seeing how all cable companies are required to provide a set-top box with firewire then this may not be a bad way to go.

Stream Live TV in Media Center Without an Extender

I came across a great tip over on The Green Button about how you can stream live TV from Media Center without using an extender. You can use Windows Media Encoder and setup to broadcast an event and stream live TV to another interent connected PC. Here’s a quick rundown of the steps:

1) Grab a copy of WME9.

2) It starts in wizard mode, select "broadcast live event."

3) Select your TV tuner as the audio and video source.

4) Click "configure" for the tuner to ensure it'll use the right video input source.

5) Select "pull from the encoder."

6) Use the default URL and port (8080).

7) Select the video bitrate and window size.

8) Click "finish."

That's it.   Now just fire up media player on one or more machines on your network, open the url (with correct port), et voila.   You're streaming TV on multiple clients in your home.   The only hurdle remaining is changing channels....

Browse the Web in Media Center

I have been waiting for a plugin that allows you to browse the web without leaving Media Center and it’s finally here! Anthony Park developed a browser plugin for Media Center (via Chris Lanier) and it looks pretty slick. It sounds like you can use it over extenders and it has a zoom feature which will come in handy. Here’s a list of features:

Browse to home page or favorites

Scroll around within web pages

Highlight and select links within web pages to navigate

Zoom in and out for 10-foot style surfing

Compatible with Media Center Extender devices

I’m not sure if you can specify which browser to use?

Cool Web Based Demo of Windows Media Center

SercurHome (via Chris Lanier) has a cool web demo (flash?) of Windows Media Center Edition 2005. So if you want to check out how it works or show someone else then this is a pretty cool demo. Just click on ‘mce demo’ under the More Information tab in the middle of the page. This is one of the best non-video demos of Media Center that I have seen. SercurHome also has security camera based software for Media Center.

Bit Torrent for Media Center

KangarooTV (via digg) has developed a bit torrent front-end interface for Windows Media Center. This works with the Azureus bit torrent client and will help you manage and download your torrents right in Media Center.

Enable Automatic Live TV on Media Center Startup and Other Tweaks

This is a great post from The Green Button showing the necessary registry edits to make so you can have Media Center go directly to Live TV on startup. Other tweaks include hiding menu items and startup/shutdown options.

Live TV use HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\CurrentVersion\Windows\RUN) by creating a new EXPANDABLE STRING value. (Faster than putting into STARTUP folder of Start Menu)

%SystemRoot%\EHOME\EHSHELL.EXE /HOMEPAGE:VideoFullscreen.XML /PUSHSTARTPAGE:TRUE

Anyone else have some cool registry tweaks for customizing Media Center?

Creative Media Center Plugin for X-Fi XtremeMusic

Creative has a Media Center plugin for the settings (I’m assuming since I don’t have one of these cards) of an X-Fi XtremeMusic sound card. If you have one these cards, leave a comment if you like it or not.