Mce 2005 Faq - Page 62

thewarm

I cannot argue the price point is great. My research indicates all 1.2 (and upcoming 1.3) are/will be backward compatible. My guess is that if I want Blu-ray over HDMI with Directx 10 I will have to 'upgrade' to Vista. I want to keep MCE 2005 as the DRM is less intrusive ( I can burn off almost any SD capture to DVD).

Thanks for the assist!

Dave

MCE 2005 is getting on my last nerve with the EPG on one channel over OTA. It is a PBS affiliate (KLRU2-DT or KLRU-P) and I know they are broadcasting the correct PSIP info as the guide info is correct on my bedroom TV which doe not have HTPC but is directly connected to antenna.

But on MCE 2005 I cannot get the correct station info... it's either the primary PBS [incorrect] listing or nothing. Is there any way (short of filling out the form to MS) to get this resolved... any manual way to overide the guide and grabt the info from PSIP? What if the correct channel info is displayed at zap2it, but the channel listing is not available via MCE for some strange reason?

Well MCE2005 is far less supported now, as the add on community has definitely moved forward. But I prefer 2005 simply because XP is far less bloated and I am running a 2003 rig with only a gig of RAM.

I must say though, HDTV wonder, despite not having a hardware decoder works nicely with my nvidia 6800 w/ purevideo as all the mpeg2 decoding is pushed off to gpu so my cpu is barely taxed while watching tv... my system will be dead the day broadcasters move to h264/mbaff etc. in this country though.

What is the best? Is there one that will also play Blu-Ray from an internal drive?

Thanks!

Well, you can't use the psip data, but you may be able to get the right data. There are two tricks for this. One I am not familiar with, and one that I am. The one I use basically works because my "digital cable" lineup in my area has the same first 78 channels in analog, and the digital channels include listings for some of my ATSC OTA channels (including PBS-HD). I tell media center I have digital cable (ignoring its warning that I am not using a set top box with digital cable) and then remove all of the digital channels form my lineup. I then go into Settings>TV>Guide>Add listings to a channel and change the listing for my PBS-HD channel to the actual channel info found on the digital cable channel of PBS-HD. This also finds info for one of my other subchannels, but thats it.

Good idea... but when I set up guide, the only option I have for feeds is 'antenna'.

got it! went through initial setup again and chose digital cable (no box as choosing cable box would not let me continue)... then chose Time Warner Digital for the listings. Now I have a buttload of channels in the guide but cleared all 500 of them, less the digital ones... weird that now all channels start with 2xx.x as opposed to being their true major minor numbers xx.x, but they all match up on the last 3 digits. Can anyone explain that, and why digital cable still allows me to tune into OTA antenna?

Anyway, I'm glad I have a EPG listing now for Create (PBS2)!

That's what I did... very ez and painless.

I also just set up DVRMS toolbox w/show analyzer the other day. Auto commercial skip... yaaay!

Anybody have problems after installing XP SP3 with Media Center 2005?

I get "Components not registered..." errors and crashes, the screen saver comes up during play back of xvid files, etc.

I should have left well enough alone. I just uninstalled SP3 hoping things go back to calm. This box has been running low maintenance for a couple of years or more now.

EDIT: Nope, uninstalling SP3 didn't fix the components not registered error. Looks like time to troubleshoot for awhile.

Go to www.thegreenbutton.com If you search there, there is a download to fix this issue.

Larry

How are people doing with Vista version and any benefit??????

Larry

I'm looking to build / buy a HTPC and I'm wondering if the new TV Pack will allow me to use my HTPC to record premium HD content (not as in HBO, etc., but more along the lines of National Geographic, Discovery Channel, etc.) to my Drobo (where I store all of my media files) and share them across the network?

Vista MCE novice here. A few first questions I could not easily find answers to.

1) Is there any way to make MC to not lock the mouse within its screen when in full screen mode? And also to not interrupt the translation for a couple of seconds when I switch to another window. Makes it impossible to do anything on the same PC on a different monitor.

2) When MC window does not have focus MC remote buttons do not really work except for the green button. Is there a fix for that? I am guessing not.

3) It looks like there are no widely available tools to make Vista MC to output to multiple sound devices such as HDMI and S/PDIF. Did I miss anything? Can I at least change sound output without restarting MC like other applications allow me to do? I could not find a way.

4) Quality of both HD and SD broadcast is worse compared to an HD cable box (Comcast). The main reason I figured is that the PC outputs to TV (Samsung LN52A750) 1080p signal to which the TV applies very few optimizations. If I send 1080i the picture gets so vibrant that I can't tweak NVidia tools to match it when sending 1080p. Also, the Samsung TV applies edge smoothing and 120Hz movement optimizations. Are there tweaks for MC picture quality besides what I can find in its set up menu?

5) Probably a naïve question: if PC sends 1080p/24 to the TV will software DVD/BD players be smart enough to render a frame per monitor/TV frame?

Thanks a bunch

I posted this as its own thread, but I've only gotten a few views and no replies. I figured I'd post it here to try my luck. In the meantime, I've been checking out the MediaPortal website and like what I see. While I enjoyed MCE when it worked, I must eventually accept the fact that it is no longer being maintained. I have no intention of switching to Vista or VMC at this point.

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I've searched every possible thread on AVSForum as well as Google with regard to this issue. From what I've been able to gather, most everyone experiencing this issue is using an ATI/AMD video card. As a result, I purchased an nVidia card just for this purpose, and the problem still persists.

On a clean install of Windows MCE 2005, I've installed the latest Catalyst drivers as well as drivers for all other hardware. When I launch the Media Center application (ehshell.exe), I almost always get a black screen on my LCD monitor.

Very occasionally, when I come out of a reboot, I can get the application to display on the LCD. However, my end goal is to display the application on my CRT TV, which is connected through the S-Video port on my secondary video card (my primary video card is mobo-integrated and has no s-video out). Out of everything I've tried below, I've not been successful once in getting the application to display on the TV:

1. ALT+ENTER to switch between windowed and full-screen.
2. ALT+TAB or launching Task Manager to put the MCE application in the background.
3. Connecting the TV through a Radeon HD 3450 card.
4. Connecting the TV through an nVidia GeForce 7200 GS card.
5. Installing older Catalyst drivers.
6. After getting the app to display on my LCD, "dragging" it to the third monitor (TV).
7. Running the app in Compatibility mode with various settings enabled/disabled.

I'm sure there are lots more, I just can't think of them now. As I said earlier, I'm running a GA-MA78GM-S2H motherboard and using the s-video out of a PCIe card (tried both ATI and nVidia).

The interesting thing is that, if I run the MCE app from the command prompt with the /gdi switch (c:\\windows\\ehome\\ehshell.exe /gdi), I can see the MCE app on the TV perfectly. However, the /gdi switch does not let me watch any video. From what I've found on Google, "the GDI graphics mode simulates a low-fidelity graphics environment that does not support DirectX graphics mode."

So, based on that, I'm inclined to think the problem has to do with MCE 2005 not being compatible with newer hardware/drivers. I tried installing an nVidia driver from 2006 which was confirmed to work with MCE 2005, but I couldn't even get a picture on my TV from the s-video out due to the driver not being compatible with the new video card.

I really, really want to have MCE work. I know other solutions exist, but I've invested so much time and effort in this. I wish I could throw in my old AGP card which I know works with MCE, but that's not possible with this motherboard.

I will attach some screenshots soon, but in the meantime, I'd appreciate any and all input you all can provide me. Thank you.

How about now with SP3 out? I was thinking of getting a QAM tuner but love the MCE interface. When I was reseting everything up it gave me the option of Digital Cable or Analog? I have an analog tuner so just choose that option. But if I were to get a QAM/ATSC/NTSC tuner will it bring the QAM and HD's into the menu now if set up to recieve Digital Cable? Or it is still only through its own software? I don't want to upgrade to Vista.

Currently running MCE 2005 for a couple of years now with no issues. Recently upgraded my Sharp LC37D90U TV to a Sony 46Z4100. Running at 1920x1280 resolution. Everything works except when playing music and showing my pictures. When it transitions to another picture I get static through my music. Through troubleshooting, I discovered if I lower my resolution to 1280x720 that it's fine. Is it a problem with my video or just adding more memory???

FWIW... I was have the same problem running MCE 2005 thru Vizio 42" via HDMI....(it only started after I replaced the Video Card with a ATI/HDMI Video Card) It might not work you but I started going through the Settings/media center setup option and re-setting up my speakers, But before I went through their options, back out and open music and no more static...

Good Luck

is there a vista media center thread? i can't find it.

i use ms all through but i never happen to this things

New ATI video/MCE 2005 quirks

Had an Nvidia 7300 with Purevideo but it died. Replaced with ATI Radeon HD4650. MCE 2005 OS.

Now if I am watching a prior recording while making a new recording and press stop it also stops the new recording. It did not do this before. It would only stop the recording I was actively watching. ?????????????

After boot the first time starting MCE I get "no signal" on all channels. Do nothing but exit MCE and immeadiately restart and it is fine on all channels and remains that way until a new boot. This is not that big of a deal but if I forget, temporarily placed in startup, then I lose any scheduled recordings. ????????????

Now that I know the above it is an aggravation but lost a number of good shows and tore out some hair that I can't afford before I figured out the pattern.

Any Ideas anyone ????????????????????

Wow, what a great resource.
Thanks.

I have been running MCE 2005 for about 2 years. I tried the switch to Vista and switched back. I didn't like the whole MY movies thing. I liked MCE 2005 with Tweak MCE and My DVD's. The problem I had with Vista is My Movies kept crashing. I liked the htpc with MCE 2005 so much I built a second one. I recently loaded the second one with windows 7 rc..not bad. I don't need My Movies or My DVD's it comes with Video Library which is like My Movies (except it works). I heard windows 7 has some kind of copy right junk on recording of TV shows ..I have a DVR for that. I have been playing around with it for about a week and like I said... not bad. No problems with drivers or video software or playing bluray.

I posted this question to thegreenbutton.com, but thought I'd post it here as well to see if anyone has any insights:

I'm in the process of taking my wife's old laptop (Compaq Presario V5000, 1GB RAM) and converting it into a simple PVR and streaming media player for my exercise room TV (SD-CRT, so nothing fancy). I ordered an AverTV Hybrid Volar MAX and received it the other day, and I'm having several issues getting it working.

For starters, I use Time Warner Cable in Austin, TX, and the exercise room has no cable box or anything. I've rebuilt the laptop with XP MCE 2K5 and patched to the absolute latest in Windows Update. I've installed the most recent drivers for the Volar MAX and connected it straight to the wall outlet with coax.

Here's what works:
* Aver Media Center seems to see both analog and digital channels through the coax and seems to decode them smoothly.
* SageTV seems to recognize it decently, but I can't quite get the channels recognized and guide working like I'd want.

Here's what doesn't work quite as well:
* Aver Media Center doesn't send a TV signal over S-Video out from the laptop. I can see it on the laptop screen, but not on the TV.
* Windows Media Center finds the analog channels but doesn't seem to find the digital channels. Seems like I remember reading that MCE 2K5 didn't support QAM?
* The analog channels that Windows Media Center does find are painfully slow and choppy. I don't know if this is because the analog receiver in this device is software-based instead of hardware-based or what, but it doesn't explain why both Aver Media Center and SageTV can play them smoothly.

So far SageTV seems like my best option, though I hate to pay for it when I really do like MCE. If I could get that working smoothly on this hardware, it'd be my preferred option.

Can anyone please help? I'm feeling incredibly stupid and just know that this should be easier than it seems!

Thanks in advance,
Scott

If you have updated Windows to the SP3, that may be your problem. I updated to SP3 on my XP MCE 2005 and had all sorts of problems. I had to go back to SP2 and everything was fine.

The sticky list is overly long and this would be a good one to remove.
The product is 2 generations behind and about to go off support.
Very few posts here over the past few months. Those still on this old version could find this post via search

MCE 2005 ran just slightly better on the same hardware as Windows 7 MCE for me, so just wanted those here to know there is a slight performance hit. For me it seems the video is a bit jerky on high def programming than it was in 2005. I lost my MCE2005 install when the MSDN WindowsXP I was using had too many hardware changes and Microsoft was keeping count, so I tried Windows 7 in its place. I think I could improve performance on this machine with a better video card. Currently I have a NVidia 6200. What would be the best cost-effective 2D upgrade for this AGP-only Pentium-4 class computer?

I am thinking of upgrading from XP-MCE2005 to Windows 7, If the hardware does not conflict and all the drivers work on 7. !!

Did you find out anything further about the copyright on recorded programs?