Mce 2005 Faq - Page 2

Sorry, I got my wires crossed.

"At an Intel conference a MS guy came to tout MCE. When asked if it could record content from a cable STB he said "no, but that someone had hacked it to permit that use." Any idea if that hack is available?"

You're obviously talking abuot the ATI HDTV Wonder because MCE can record fine from a cable or sat receiver through a regular card.

You guys probably know this already, but MCE does not have to be running in order to record a show. As long as the recording has been scheduled, all you need to do is have Windows up and running. I tried this last night when I recorded both Lost and Smallville at the same time. Worked perfectly with MCE turned off. The only thing that I noticed was that the HD recording of Lost had some terrible skipping and stuttering. Not sure if this was playback or recording related. I think I'll try recording to a separate drive next time to see if that helps.

Using ATI MMC (I do not have Windows MCE installed yet) - I am able to hibernate my machine and setup tasks manually that wake the machine to run a task - five minutes before the recording is scheduled in MMC to record.

This works great, it then goes back into hibernation - after 10 minutes of no activity.

Was wondering if this works for MCE's aplications as well - seems it shoud be. Would love for this stuff to be automated - so that I would not need to do it manually.

Has anyone tried any other remotes with MCE2005 such as the Niveus? If so how does it work?

Q: Does MP10 in MCE 2005 support ASIO or have a way to bypass kmixer when playing back lossless WMA files? I use JRMC10 now, but I'm looking at MCE2005. Not using ASIO or bypassing kmixer is a deal breaker for me.

One more...

Q: In MC10, can I assign a number to an album and use a remote to plan the album by number? With JRMC and Girder, I can select and play all my albums/playlists using my Pronto without firing up the projector.

Note, my HTPC is connected to a fp system. There is no other monitor, so being able to use a remote without requiring a monitor is important. Eventually, I plan on adding a touchscreen, but even then, it would be good to be able to do things without requiring a monitor.

Looks like the AVSForum folks were right. There wil be an updated DTV Wonder driver posted to Windows Update shortly. It may take a few days to propagate through to the website.

JPK,
Any word on whether we will see a Dvico Fusion HDTV driver on Windows Update?

Thanks for info Jay, do you know specifically which problems are being fixed on the DTV Wonder? I have run into a couple of minor issues. Thanks.

Jay-

Do you mean that the current HDTV Wonder Drivers (9/23?) will be more accessible via the normal Windows update process, or that more updated drivers will be available.

And thanks for checking that out and getting it fixed. Impressive.

I'd like to extend the earlier posed question about the ATI All-In Wonder 9800's use in MCE2005, to ATI's AIW9X00 family. I think the drivers and behavior is similar.

So the questions are:

1. Can ATI All-In Wonder 9x00's analog tuner (or composite/S-video input) be recognized / used by the MCE2005, and if so, what are the steps to do so;

2. If one has both the ATI All-In Wonder 9x00 and an ATI HDTV Wonder, one has a total of 3 tuners (1 analog in AIW, 1 analog in HDTV Wonder, 1 digital in HDTV Wonder) and 2 analog video inputs. Which of these can be addressed / used in MCE2005 at the same time (i.e. for simultaneous recording or picture-in-picture) or at least recognized individually for switching amoing them? What drivers or install procedures are needed to enable this?

3. Can ATI's RemoteWonder 2 be programmed somehow to work as the Windows MCE remote control, and if so, what can and what can't be done?

Thanks
Alec

Please excuse my ignorance here, but could someone clarify a few things for me. MCE 2005 is basically Windows XP with "Media Center" functions and programs right? I mean, can you "switch" over to a regular XP desktop and run XP programs at anytime?
Can you also have ATI MMC loaded on a computer running the MCE 2005 operating system?
Thanks,
Ritch

Yes, you can either close or minimize the "Media Center" interface and see the standard XP desktop.

Yes you could run the ATI MMC app as long as MCE isn't accessing the Tuner (recording a show in the background). The real question is why would you use the ATI app if you have MCE? MCE is a 1000 times better then the ATI MMC program.

dantenatas,

Yes, it's basically Windows XP Professional with the Media Center application, which you can run and exit at any time. ATI MMC should run without any problems, I assume .

Actually, you can only use the MMC app after shutting down the Media Center Service(s) that run in the background. Basically, even if MCE isn't running, the MCE services are loaded and have control of the tuners.

Just in case I want to record an HD program to an HD mpg that I want to watch on another computer. From what I've read here, it seems that the HD recordings from MCE can only be played back on the computer they were recorded on, or at least another computer that is running MCE. Am I wrong?

Any computer with Media Player 10 can play the recordings.

You can play recordings on WMP 9+. You will need the patch to enable this, it's a part of SP2. You will also need an MPEG-2 decoder installed.

Content can be protected from any source (S-Video, Analog, HD, etc). So far, the only ones that I know of that protect their content are HBO and Cinemax. These recordings can only be played in MCE on the machine they were recorded on.

He asked because he wanted to watch an "HD" program on another TV. There is no DRM on over the air HDTV..........

gnollo,
I believe DRM can and is being used with s-video input. I can play .dvr-ms files on my non-MCE computer except for shows recorded on HBO. The HBO files will not play because MCE is honoring the broadcast flag (I think it's the only channel on DirecTV using it at the moment) and using DRM. I am using s-video input into a Hauppauge PVR-250 card. MCE must be using the EGP data to determine whether or not to use DRM.

Jay/Chris,

What's going on with the analog tuner reboot issue? Is MS aware of this? It's really annoying that the analog tuner has to be reinstalled every time you boot up Windows. Please let us know if there will be a fix for that .

When you say FFDshow won't work with MCE, you mean just with the built in DVD player? If I install or use a 3rd party DVD player I can get it to work, right?

MCE uses WMP as a player, and since WMP does not support ASIO, there is no ASIO support in MCE. Having said this, you can get bit perfect playback with several cards: RME is one, and I believe Lynx as well. You have to have WMP's volume at exactly 0db (max) to get bit-perfect, and of course turn off any "enhancements" (you can search this group for more info re this). Also, to get bit-perfect rips, rip through EAC, instead of through WMP, then import into WMP (and then you can play through MCE).


It depends how your cable/sat provider sets the flag: many will not let you record to MCE at all.

Audio Codecs
You can change audio codecs (and video, as well) by using ZoomPlayer. Once you register your preferred codecs in ZP, MCE will use them. (Sometimes, if you have NVDV audio codec installed, it will remain even if another codec is chosen in ZP - in this case just delete NVDVD, then your chosen codec will be accepted by MCE.)