Windows 7 Media Center : Setup Guide, Knowledge Base & Support - Page 140

Yes I knew of the Jriver but that comes with a price tag - trying to skip that part for now. Are any of the XMBC pieces better for xbmc?

Is this the XBMC remote - http://code.google.com/p/android-xbm...rrent_Features

Hi - I'm just about to setup a WMC-based HTPC and have a couple of questions. My aim is to have WMC as the only GUI for the HTPC, so I want to consolidate all forms of media into WMC through plugins etc.

1. I'm a Brit living in the USA and one of my dreams has been easy access to the BBC's iPlayer through a remote control on my big-screen TV (i.e. not having to sit at a laptop, connecting to a VPN etc...). From what I understand, this is achievable through the TunerFreeMCE plugin - it seems that I can feed it my UK VPN details and it will automatically connect through this VPN when I select a British channel and disconnect when I move back to a US one (e.g. Hulu). Is it really this simple or am I being naive!?!

2. What's the easiest way to access Pandora through WMC? Would I have to go through XBMC or some other intermediate, and, if so, do I have to leave the WMC application to access it? Alternatively, is it easier to access Spotify or some other streaming radio station? We're not tied to Pandora, so an alternative that has a more solid integration into WMC would also be OK!

Thanks so much!

I can't speak to any of the british stuff, but as far as Pandora and other things like that...

WMC is an awesome product but it lacks a robust plugin library. One of the things that I do to overcome this limitation is use Boxee. You can use Media Center Studio to have Boxee launch directly from WMC and then have WMC come back after Boxee closes. Boxee has a lot of apps including Pandora.

You can use this plug in as well, I'm using the version for XBMC, works great.
http://boxeewmc.teknowebworks.com/ but I read an article were boxee pulled their PC version of the software over the weekend.

Thanks! I'm quite happy to switch to other applications as long as it can be done without leaving WMC. Trying to keep this as wife-friendly as possible. I have a Logitech Harmony remote, so maybe I can even program a shortcut key to jump straight to the XBMC version of Pandora...

So I got a new TV (LG LCD 1080P) and was having some resolution issues with WMC when the HTPC would wake up so I reran the WMC setup for my TV. Now I am getting a weird issue where the WMC start button, back button, minimize buttons, and lower control buttons are no longer at the edge of the screen.
Instead they are offset in the screen almost as if WMC is adjusting for some type of overscan. Video plays fine in full screen. However, Media Browser does not fill the whole screen either until a video is playing. I can't get a screen shot so I created an example image: Left is what it should normally look like with the buttons at the edge of the screen. Right is what mine looks like where the light blue is the area of the screen that is offset.
I'm not sure what to even search for this issue so so any thoughts or ideas would be helpful!

System:
Windows 7 with Intel Core i3 (using internal graphics)
HDMI to 1080P TV

What is the model of your onboard GPU?

Does Win 7 look fine when 7MC isn't running (i.e., start menu and taskbar all look like what you want)?

My processor is the core i3-530 Clarkdale.
I should have mentioned that yes, Windows 7 outside of WMC looks fine (i.e. the taskbar / minimize buttons / etc are at the edges of the screens where they are supposed to be).
I did come across something about adjusting the registry to make the User Interface buttons on WMC go back to the edge. Supposedly they can be moved (i.e. making a border). I will probably look into that to see if it works.

Is anyone else having random crashes of 7mc? The last few days I have been going to whatch TV in the morning and there is a crash error on my HTPC. I will try to get the clipboard save I did of the error when I get home tonight.

This htpc has been running for over a month with no problems until the last few days, was there maybe a windows update lately that changed something?

Here is the error detail. Any thoughts?

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: ehshell.exe
Application Version: 6.1.7600.16385
Application Timestamp: 4a5bd053
Fault Module Name: audiokse.dll
Fault Module Version: 6.1.7600.16385
Fault Module Timestamp: 4a5be01e
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 0000000000067ca8
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033

I found a post about this error from some time ago but it is the same error (ACM Wrapper::Output not supported) that i am seeing today. In the original posting it talked about changing the codecs enabled in FFDSHOW to correct the problem but I have tried that and it has not corrected the problem.

I have sharks007 configured to use the LAV Splitter. I am not sure any more if FFDSHOW is even being used or not but regardless, how can I correct this problem?

Do we still need FFDSHOW installed?

thanks

I think your player is the problem. It isnt using the installed codecs. On my tools page I re-release SVN versions of MPC-Homcinema that are preconfigured to use the installed codecs. Another cause could be that your codec installation is just to old. Just to be sure, I thought I'd mention, ffdshow should not be installed independantly because it is included in the release.

When you ran the setup, did you choose TV or flat panel ? I seem to remember it's better to choose flat panel.

Thanks for the feedback Shark007. After posting this I had gone into Shark007 and drilled down into the ffdshow config only to find a different configuration than what I expecting. I suspected that Shark007 was handling it internally for me at that point but it is good to get confirmation. I am going to uninstall the independent version of ffdshow.

Good to know about the config files for MPC-HC, going to check it out. Should make upgrading to a new version of Shark007 easier. As it is now, I always end up going back through the first page of this thread to get everything setup again...

Do you recommend uninstalling the current version of Shark007 before installing the new one? Seems like the uninstall asks you if you want to save the current settings but have not seen where they can be imported to the new version. Must be missing something...

thanks again.

I very highly recommend using the uninstall feature of the Help TAB. Upgrade installations are not a feature I support. The Save settings feature activated upon uninstall is incomplete. When I am done, it will offer the user a choice upon 1st use after installation to restore saved settings or to reset all settings to default. Sorry for any inconvience.

Being able to have multiple restore points as well as reset to Win7 default would be real nice!

Thanks for the feedback Shark007 and nothing to apologize for. Your work has greatly simplified setting up both the audio and video for HD playback on our PC's. Any inconvenience resetting the few options needed for a new release is very minor in both effort and time.

I for one wish to thank you for what you have created and supported for so long now.

As long as I am focused on Shark007, I run a win7 64 but I have stopped using MPC-HC 64 bit and am currently running MPC-HC 32 bit without issue.

Do I need to run the 64 bit version of Shark007 or just the 32 bit version?

thanks

Installing the x64Components addon will enable the Preview Pane of Windows Explorer to handle non native filetypes such as flv, flac, mkv etc. It will give you thumbnails in Windows Explorer for non native filetypes such as flv and mkv. It will give you file details in the status bar of Windows Explorer for MKV just like it does for AVI. (hieghth/width, playback time, video codec, framerate in fps).

If non of the above interests you and playback will be solely in 32bit, you do not need the x64Components addon.

Im currently using Win7 WMC/Media Browser on my HTPC.
I also am using VLC as its main external player for all videos as directed within the Media Browser configurator.

My issue is video studder mainly when playing true 1080 videos.
Studder goes away when playing 720p videos and of course less quality videos

Does anyone else experience same issues with external players when using WMC/Media Browser?


My hardware:
CPU: Q6600 cpu
MOBO: msi board (unsure model number)
OS: 32bit Win7
RAM: 3gb DDR2/800mhz ram
OS HD: WD blue
SOUND CARD: Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium
VIDEO CARD: nVidia 9500GT (both monitors extended display mode)
MONITOR1: Samsung 40" (1920x1080)
MONITOR2: LG 23" (1920x1080)

So it stutters only when you launch VLC fro Media Browser, or even when you play your 1080p movies from VLC as a standalone? Can you try a different 3rd party player like MPC to see if you get the same results?

yes, stutters only when video launched with VLC and Media Browser.
The 2nd monitor has Media Browser open at same time as when VLC is playing video.
I just noticed if I choose to close Media Browser app(on 2nd monitor) that the stutter stops and video plays smooth.

So this must be a GPU overload problem. The nVidia 9500GT has 1GB DDR2 mem but I think this card may not be able to handle the dual monitors with the Media Browser GUI open at the same time.

Try dropping down to just one monitor and play with MB open. If you don't get the stuttering then, you are correct it is probably a GPU issue when using dual monitor mode

The links to the video test files dont work.... since Megaupload has been shut down.

Windows Media Center has stop working. That's the message showed up when i press Play button to play DVD files from within Media Browser.TV working ,ISO playing using PowerDVD 11 working.WMC works perfectly over a year until now.I try everything but nothing work. Any help i would appriciated.Thank You. I am using Win 7 64/i3-2100

Ok I did a little more looking at this.

My Sony EX500 has a setting called "Display Area". For my DVD player it was set at normal mode(Displays pictures in their recommended size.) Interesting thing is if I am playing back anything from my DVD player in any other mode than "normal mode" I see the black bars top/bottom just like I am seeing with playback from my HTPC.

In my manual it says for 1080p setting and PC input to use Picture settings in "Wide Mode", Wide mode to "Full", and Display Area to "Full Pixel".

So I did the above, then set my Overscan to fill the screen in my amd driver.

So if I select "normal mode" for the HTPC while the movie is playing back it fills the screen but then when I go back to the main screen it isn't sized correctly unless if I put it back to Full Pixel.

I tried all modes in the "Display Area" w/overscan but then they all have the black bars top/bottom.

So is this something with the amd video driver and overscan?

I have those on my computer at home but have no way to get them to you. If you have an ftp I could upload them to you.