Windows 7 Media Center : Setup Guide, Knowledge Base & Support - Page 114

Thanks Greeneyez I finally got my backdrop to work. Now I just wonder why with a lot of the mb themes the button for the settings is in the same spot as the medicenter green button so everytime I go to click on the settings the green button gets pressed instead?

PowerDVD 9

You can try checking registry keys under [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVers ion\\Media Center\\Extensibility\\Applications\\

Try to find the one for PDVD and make sure "Enabled"="True"

It is possible this may not be the issue, but try that.

While I was out of town and my HTPC was turned off my schedules ran out. I have tried numerous times to get it updated with no luck. Today it has run for over an hour and still nothing. Also do I need schedulesdirect for WMC? It ran out also while I was gone.

Any ideas?

I found PowerDVD under Media Center - Extensibility - Catagories. Opening this folder shows a string of letters and numbers. I'm not sure if this is where I need to be, and I don't see any place where I can "enable" something. I don't have much experience making alterations in the registry, in fact I know little more than how to open it.

Ok. Sounds like you don't have the "Enabled" string there so that means by default, it is enabled. Don't mess with it. If you had seen "Enabled"="False", then that would be a cause of your issue.

Other places to look will be under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVer sion\\Media Center\\Extensibility

and

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\\SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVer sion\\Media Center\\Start Menu

Don't mess with anything though if you're not sure of what you are doing.

I'm not finding anything with "enabled=false" in either of those places. The folder that had PowerDVD in it under start menu - applications did have a setting named OnStartMenu with a data listing of True.

Quick question on metadata. Tried fetching metadata for Kill Bill: Vol. 1 with Media Center Master. I can not get it to find the movie. I can't label the file exactly because it won't allow the use of : in the file name. I keep getting the error, "I have no idea what this movie is, skipping it." Can someone tell me how I can fetch the metadata foe this movie? Thanks!

I've found that if you use the title exactly as it's entered at http://www.themoviedb.org , including the year, it will find the movie.

That movie is entered there as: "Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003)" (notice there's no colon...) so you should label it exactly that way.

Does media browser and media center studio basically serve the same function, either way can you use them together, what about my movies too?

Yeah, I tried that and it still found nothing. I am really confused now though. I fired up 7MC and all of the info and art is showing. There are still no saved files in the folder I created other than the movie. Is Media Browser grabbing this stuff and saving it somewhere else? Even if it is, why won't Media Center Master find it? I guess I won't complain too much since it is showing up. I just don't like not knowing how it got there and where it is saved so I can edit it.

Do you have mode set to movie instead of tv show? If yes, chg the settings so MCM asks you for the IMDB ID if it can't find the movie. Then you can manually put in the ID and MCM will grab the metadata.

Its been a long time since I tried anything but just PDVD & ISO. But decided to mess around with some of these non-commercial type players again. So I got blu-ray playing on WMC using MKV rips and LAV Splitter/LAV Audio Decoder/LAV CUVID Decoder,ect. Bitstreaming HD audio is working ok also. Mostly wanted to try using Mymovies and it appears to work but very little time put into it so far. Plus PDVD 11 is a big mess right now.

What I am wondering about though is why the video levels are wrong in Windows 7 media center. Well, they are wrong for me anyway. Everything I have setup is using standard 16-235 levels and everything is fine. But playing WMC is washed out, too bright. Nothing really all that new I guess about having video level problems on a HTPC. Plus I'm pretty sure seen quite a few comments over the years about level problems with WMC. MPC works ok though.

Anyway, if WMC is putting out standard levels then just wondering what is causing the problem. I'm using a ATI graphics card on a Clarksdale Board. It appears I'm going to have to do that registry hack to WMC, but just seems odd to have to change to 0-255 to make levels correct.

Well, maybe I'm over looking or forgot something. It has been awhile since running to some type of video level flip-flop. All my stuff goes through a DVDO so I've always used 16-235 so all the inputs are the same.

Just curious if anyone knows why this is happening or maybe it's just the way it is.

[quote="Larry J"]Its been a long time since I tried anything but just PDVD & ISO. But decided to mess around with some of these non-commercial type players again. So I got blu-ray playing on WMC using MKV rips and LAV Splitter/LAV Audio Decoder/LAV CUVID Decoder,ect. Bitstreaming HD audio is working ok also. Mostly wanted to try using Mymovies and it appears to work but very little time put into it so far. Plus PDVD 11 is a big mess right now.

What I am wondering about though is why the video levels are wrong in Windows 7 media center. Well, they are wrong for me anyway. Everything I have setup is using standard 16-235 levels and everything is fine. But playing WMC is washed out, too bright. Nothing really all that new I guess about having video level problems on a HTPC. Plus I'm pretty sure seen quite a few comments over the years about level problems with WMC. MPC works ok though.

Anyway, if WMC is putting out standard levels then just wondering what is causing the problem. I'm using a ATI graphics card on a Clarksdale Board. It appears I'm going to have to do that registry hack to WMC, but just seems odd to have to change to 0-255 to make levels correct.

Well, maybe I'm over looking or forgot something. It has been awhile since running to some type of video level flip-flop. All my stuff goes through a DVDO so I've always used 16-235 so all the inputs are the same.

Just curious if anyone knows why this is happening or maybe it's just the way it is.

Lav cuvid is for NVIDIA gpus only. So if you have it setup solely for your video, that could be why.

I'm in the process of.switching from xbmc to wmc and I also downloaded my movies along with media browser, media center master, media center studio. How dies my movies incorporate into wmc?

Also I have all lav filters/Cupid etc. Setup in mpc-hc and planned on using it as an external player in mediabrowser. How do you also use it for wmc nature player as well?

Also could you explain the 16-235 0-255 thing to me.

^I Accidently included my response inside the bubble at the end of your statement above.^

Thanks, the manual IMDB ID thing did the trick. Still not sure why it didn't work to begin with? MCM renamed my folder back to what I had originally named it to do the search. Oh well, thanks again.

I think Shark007 has a good explanation of this in the Wiki for his codec pack: http://shark007.net/wiki/index.php?t...ardware_Output

If you use the Shark codec pack you can easily switch between the two modes on the Config tab and see which one looks best. I'm not sure if it's just doing a registry hack or if it's something you could also do in FFDShow or something.

I've also noticed that have Aero enabled or disabled can effect the colorspace as well. I leave Aero enabled since things seem to run better on my HTPC with it on.

Finally got the blue glasses and used the THX calibration from an Incredibles DVD we have. Went through that process and it improved the picture on my Panasonic plasma on top of what I already did in the driver. I played a blu-ray and noticed the better PQ as well. Thanks for the advice!

My LG plasma TV has THX certified settings already. I ran through the same process and the PQ did not change. It was already much better than the Panasonic. This HTPC is a C2D with Sapphire 5450 card. The card has nice set up features, better than the embedded i3 SB graphics driver.

Some folks say they NEVER have any issues with MCM and have it set to automatically chg the name to what it thinks the file should be. I had issues immediately with The Informant. It would NEVER assign the right data. So I switched to manually assign IMDB and gave it a funky name to ensure it would ask me. That worked out for me.

It's not perfect, but I think MCM is the metadata grabber out right now. Once in a while, a few kinks. But for the most part, it works trouble-free.

I haven't tested MCM in a while, but use Collection Management and metabrowser. metabrowser is a great management tool, but I know it does turn some people off since it isn't free. I guess the same can be said for CM since some of the features (such as backdrops) is not free.

After dealing with the Boxee Box I think I've decided to just go ahead and build a Windows Media Center PC for the living room. Looking forward to sharing my experiences with everyone.

I have searched and cannot get a HDD clone to work, different MB and CPU. I want to setup another HTPC with exact settings of current WMC and associated programs.

Suggestions without physically setting everything up again?

Not possible - changing of MB requires different drivers, etc. You will need to do a clean install.

I'm having a strange issue with Media Center (and by extension Media Browser) not taking up the full screen. I'm outputting to a 1080p television via HDMI from an I3 2100's integrated Intel graphics, for the record.

When I first installed everything it looked great. Everything was full screen, backdrops (downloaded material from Media Browser) looked great, etc etc. Well after rebooting last time all of a sudden I have a blue border around the edges. Media Browser is not taking up the full screen and indeed even the WMC controls (the ones that come up when you move the mouse, minimize, close, play, fast forward, etc) no longer show up on the edge of the screen. It just looks absolutely awful.

I've tried changing my resolution down to 720 and then back up to 1080, tried rebooting again, etc. No drivers have been updated. Does anyone know a solution for this?

I've drawn in red lines to emphasize what I'm talking about. Before the reboot the black Media Browser theme took up the entire screen. I had to take this screenshot in windowed mode as full screen shots kept coming up blank. But this is exactly how it looks in fullscreen mode as well.

HDHomeRun Prime now available for Pre Order (just placed my pre order with NewEgg)

http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2011...for-pre-order/

In xbmc this happens when you press the bacslash button above the enter button. So maybe you accidently pressed a keyboard button that controls the border. Just an idea.

That was it. Thanks!

Now, onto the next issue. Whenever I play a video in WMC I get stuttering every few seconds. It gets worse and worse until eventually WMC crashes completely and has to be restarted. It happens the most on large (1GB) MKVs, but to a lesser extent even on smaller AVIs. I'm playing media from another server over gigabit ethernet.

The strange thing is, I can play these same files in their entirety in Windows Media Player if I open them through Explorer with WMC not loaded.

Any ideas?

What codecs filters etc do you have installed?

Divx and Shark's, set up according to the guide in the OP.

It seems to do it more often when in Media Browser than it does when I browse a library via vanilla WMC, though it happens there as well. The only time I don't see any stuttering or crashing is when I play in WMP by itself. Very strange.