tobias-tobin

Outlook does not popup reminders

2011-11-22T08:50:00.004-05:00

First try running the command from the Start>Run box (with Outlook closed):
Outlook /resetfolders /cleanreminders
If that does not work try turning on 'Use cached exchange mode'
To do this:
Start>Control Panel>Mail>click Email Accounts button>on the Email tab highlight the Exchange account and click the Change button. Put a checkmark in 'Use Cached Exchange Mode'. Click Next. Click Finish.
Try Outlook and see if reminders popup. I have had success with this.

Internet Explorer 9 does not open .ica links

2011-08-19T11:05:00.003-04:00

If IE9 is saving your .ica links instead of opening the connection here is something to try.

1) Run regedit as administrator
2) Browse to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\PROTOCOLS\Filter\application/x-ica
3) Rename application/x-ica to application/x-ica.old
4) Close regedit
Try opening the .ica link now. Hopefully it will open the connection this time instead of saving the .ica file.

Outlook 2007 The messaging interface has returned an unknown error. If the problem persists, restart Outlook.

2011-08-05T09:44:00.006-04:00

One thing that I've found that may fix this is if the profile is set to use cached exchange mode uncheck that option. Click Next and then Finish. Restart Outlook.

To get to the setting go to Control Panel>Mail>Email Accounts>on the Email tab double click your email profile. Uncheck the 'Use Cached Exchange Mode' box. Next. Finish. Reopen Outlook.

Keep in mind I am guiding you down the road to no more cached exchange mode. If you want to go back to cached exchange mode you will want to rename the .ost file it was using to .old and recheck the box so it will create a new .ost file.

OST file locations:
Windows 7 and Windows Vista
drive:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook

Windows XP
drive:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook

Simple vbscript on using named arguments

2011-08-02T10:47:00.003-04:00

'Holds named arguments
Set colNamedArguments = WScript.Arguments.Named
'This will get the value for the argument /Computer:
strFirstArg = colNamedArguments.Item("Computer")
MsgBox(strFirstArg)

'You can use more named arguments
'just do something like
'strSecondArg = colNamedArguments.Item("Arg_Name")

The commandline for calling this script would be script.vbs /Computer:"MyMachine"
This should produce a msgbox that says MyMachine

Simple vbscript to write computer name to file

2011-08-01T10:56:00.006-04:00

On Error Resume Next

Const ForReading = 1
Const ForWriting = 2
Const ForAppending = 8

'Create commonly used objects
Set WshShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set WshNetwork = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Network")

'get the computer name
strComputer = WshNetwork.ComputerName

'Write Computer Name to file
Set objTextFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile _
("C:\computer.txt", ForWriting, True)

objTextFile.WriteLine strComputer

objTextFile.Close

Windows Autologon script

2011-07-27T14:31:00.002-04:00

Here is a script you can use to set a Windows PC to autologon. Edit the script and set the variables to your desired settings.

VPMSECE.DLL errors in Outlook

2011-07-25T15:34:00.003-04:00

These errors usually occur when something has changed, like the Symantec Endpoint Server address or a Symantec reinstall. You may be able to fix this error by deleting the extend.dat file from Outlook.

Close Outlook.

On XP browse to: C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook. Delete the extend.dat file.

Reopen Outlook and see if error goes away.

On Windows 7 or Vista browse to: C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook. Delete the extend.dat.

Reopen Outlook and see if error goes away.

Windows 7 Printer Driver Installation Error 0x00000057

2011-07-01T08:06:00.008-04:00

We are seeing this error when attempting to install printers (drivers) on new Windows 7 builds. The simplest solution I have found is reboot the computer and log on with a different administrative account. Often then the printer driver can be installed without getting the error.

Here's another thing I have found. Running procmon during the installation shows 'access denied' on C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\infpub.dat. Try editing the security on this file and add the local Administrators to it, will full control. After doing this I've had success getting printer drivers to install that would give the error 0x00000057. Note - it may be necessary to change the security on all of the .dat files in the DriverStore folder to get the driver to install. Here's a script that will change the security on all the files for you.

Also, I have noticed after changing the permissions on the files Windows will change them back, removing what you have added.

If you need help on changing the permissions on the file maybe these will help:

Change permissions on C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore\infpub.dat to include Administrators with Full Control.

Browse to C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore
Right click the file infpub.dat
Choose Properties
Click Security Tab
Click Edit Button
Click Add Button
Click Locations button and choose the local computer account (should be first item in list)
In the box type: Administrators
Click Check Names – this should come back underlined
Click Ok
With Administrators highlighted, put a checkmark in the checkbox next to Full Control
Click Ok
Click Ok
Retry installing the printer driver.

Cannot open VCD error with Virtual Clone Drive on Windows 7 x64

2011-06-30T15:21:00.004-04:00

Right click Computer and choose Properties. Click Device Manager. Under Storage Controllers right click Virtual Clone Drive. Choose Uninstall. On the Uninstall dialog box check the box for 'Delete the driver software for this device'. Click Ok.

Now reinstall Virtual Clone Drive. When prompted about the driver choose to trust it and click the Install button. After VCD installs it should work now.

Windows 7 Internet Explorer 8 will not open

2011-06-30T07:21:00.003-04:00

On a freshly built machine (Windows 7 x64 Enterprise) Internet Explorer would not open. If I brought up task manager, I could see the iexplore.exe process start and run briefly, but close without ever opening an IE Window.

Resetting the Internet Explorer settings fixed this issue:

Open the Control Panel, in the upper right change the view to small icons.
Click Internet Options.
On the Advanced tab, click the Reset button, click Reset in the Reset Internet Explorer Settings dialog box, and then click Close.

Retry IE and see if it works now.

How to view more than 64 snapshots (shadow copies) on Windows 7 / Windows 2008

2011-06-15T14:27:00.008-04:00

Windows can store a max of 512 Volume Shadown Copy Snapshots. But you may have noticed when you go to view the list of snapshots in Windows 7 or Server 2008, only 64 are displayed.

*****Use the following at your own risk and watch to make sure you do not have network performance issues after implementing this*****

On the server perform the following regedit to enable viewing more than 64 snapshots:

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\LanmanServer\Parameters
Create a value with the name Smb2 and type DWORD.
Set the value to 0
Reboot the server

Try viewing snapshots and you should now be able to see more than 64 provided you have configured your server to store more.

Incidentally, if you want your server to provide more snapshot perform the following regedit:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\VSS\Settings
Create a value with the name MaxShadowCopies and type DWORD. Set the value to the number of snapshots you want to keep. The max is 512
Reboot the server

Samsung LCD TV makes clicking sounds when attempting to turn on

2011-04-28T14:22:00.002-04:00

This recently happened to my father's Samsung LCD TV. When he would go to turn it on it would click but not turn on. Often, if he kept trying, it would eventually turn on. Once it was powered on it would work fine. He could then turn it off and if he tried to turn it on within a few minutes, it would turn back on. If he waited a while and the internals cooled down, it would not turn back on without multiple tries.

He had a tech come out and the problem was bad capacitors. The tech demonstrated that the capacitors were 'popped' and the tops were pushed out and a small amount of gel was exposed. Upon replacing the bad capacitors the tv now turns on properly.

SCCM client will not uninstall using ccmsetup.exe /uninstall

2011-04-11T14:22:00.003-04:00

I had a system where the SCCM client was installed but the client was not functioning correctly. I attempted to uninstall the client using the usual method which is running ccmsetup /uninstall command. Whenever I would run this command it would not uninstall. In the ccmsetup.log file I would get:
==========[ ccmsetup started in process 3040 ]========== ccmsetup 4/11/2011 1:54:23 PM 1796 (0x0704)
Version: 4.0.5931.0000
Command line parameters for ccmsetup have been specified. No registry lookup for command line parameters is required.
Command line: ccmsetup.exe /uninstall
Updated security on object C:\Windows\system32\ccmsetup\.
Sending Fallback Status Point message, STATEID='301'.
State message with TopicType 800 and TopicId {B81805F6-98AA-4C2D-918A-D15E6974FFE3} has been sent to the FSP

That's all.

I tried another method of uninstalling and it appears to have worked. On a 32-bit system ccmsetup is located at %windir%\System32\ccmsetup and on 64-bit systems it is at %windir%\ccmsetup. In these directories should be subfolders. Open the subfolder i386. Inside should be a client.msi. From that directory run msiexec.exe /x client.msi. This should uninstall the client.

Office documents open slowly in SharePoint

2011-04-06T11:55:00.003-04:00

I'm on Windows 7 with IE 9. I believe this works with other versions of IE also. When clicking on a document in SharePoint it opens very slowly. It appears there is a fix for this. Go to Control Panel>Internet Options>Connections>LAN Settings and uncheck 'Automatically detect settings'. Now try opening a document from the Sharepoint site. It should pop right up.

Sharepoint site prompts for authentication when opening Office documents

2011-02-28T07:34:00.003-05:00

If your sharepoint site is in your trusted sites and is set to use existing user and password for authentication, but it still prompts for authentication, there is a fix. You may find when prompted for authentication that you can click cancel on the prompt and the Office document will open. If you want to do away with the prompt for authentication try this regedit.

1) Run regedit
2) Browse to: HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\services\WebClient\Parameters
3) Create a new Multi-String Value called ‘AuthForwardServerList’
4) Enter each web address as a value of the 'AuthForwardServerList'
a. Do not include port numbers
5) Reboot the computer
6) The documents should now open without being prompted for authentication.

XP File Association fixes by Doug Knox

2011-02-25T09:30:00.001-05:00

Doug Knox has made reg files to fix various broken file associations. This can be handy in a number of circumstances so I wanted to link to his site. Check it out if you loose a file association (especially .exe).

http://www.dougknox.com/xp/file_assoc.htm

Dell E6500 and E6510 Encrypted with PGP Blue Screens after Windows Update

2011-02-18T08:01:00.003-05:00

We have found on our Dell Latitude E6500 and 6510 laptops that are encrypted with PGP have an issue with a particular Windows Update. Update KB2393802 seems to be the culprit.

The blue screen occurs after PGP Bootguard authentication. To work around this, boot the computer into Safemode. Go to Control Panel>Add/Remove Programs>check the box to show Windows Updates. Look for the update KB2393802 and uninstall it. Reboot and the computer should now boot without blue screening.

Script to clear Outlook email address cache

2011-02-18T07:48:00.002-05:00

This script searches XP/Vista/Windows 7 profiles for the Outlook cache file *.NK2 and renames it to .Bak thereby clearing the Outlook email address cache.

Run this script on the client system to clear the cache for all profiles.

Windows XP: Trying to open task manager and nothing happens

2011-02-09T10:22:00.003-05:00

Try deleting this registry key:
Run Regedit
Browse to:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Image File Execution Options
Find taskmgr.exe listed underneath. Delete it.
Close Regedit
Try opening the task manager.

This fixed it for me.

Music I make

2011-01-18T16:19:00.005-05:00

I am an amateur at this...I do it for fun. My songs are short. I am posting them in case anyone wants to check them out and leave me comments.

If you want the whole 'album' aka Zero Out it is here.

Windows 7 Easy Transfer Tool PC to PC configuration

2011-01-11T07:00:00.006-05:00

I could not get this to work until I made a program based firewall exception.

Make a firewall exception on both machines for the program %windir%\system32\migwiz\migwiz.exe. Once I did that the transfer found the other computer and I could do the PC to PC transfer.

Here's a nice little blurry video trying to show you how to create this firewall exception on Windows 7.

Getting back purchased apps on Android phone after hard reset

2011-01-04T12:57:00.003-05:00

I just went through this. If you have to hard reset your phone you may not remember all of the apps you have purchased. One thing you can go is go to the Android Market and hit the menu button. Select My apps (or Downloads) and it should list everything you have purchased.

Adobe Acrobat Pro Customization Wizard for Acrobat X (10)

2010-12-22T08:14:00.004-05:00

http://ardownload.adobe.com/pub/adobe/acrobat/win/10.x/10.0.0/misc/CustWiz1000_en_US.exe

reoccuring hour glass or spinning circle (windows 7)

2010-12-20T14:37:00.003-05:00

At some point in time something got installed on my pc that caused the spinning circle (the Windows 7 equivalent of the hourglass) to appear over and over and over. The frequency was about every 10 seconds. I watched the processes and could see the culprit was SkypeNames2.exe. This is remedied by uninstalling the Skype toolbar.

How to open documents from Sharepoint in edit mode

2010-12-16T14:31:00.005-05:00

At my work we have a Sharepoint server. Whenever I would open a document (.docx, .xlsx) it would always open in Read Only mode. This drove me crazy because in most cases my intent was to update the document and I couldn't (without an annoying work around). I found a fix for this that worked for me (Windows 7 x64 and Office 2007).

First we need to open the registry editor. Go to Start>Run and type in: regedit and click OK. If you are on Windows 7 and do not have a Run box do this:
Start>All Programs>Accessories>right click on Command Prompt and choose 'Run as Administrator'. This will bring up a command prompt window. At the prompt type: regedit and hit the Enter key. This should open the registry editor.

Now expand to the following registry key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\Internet
With Internet highlighted right click in the white space of the right side window pane and choose 'New>Dword value'. Name the new value OpenDocumentsReadWriteWhileBrowsing
Now right click on the new name and choose Modify. Put 1 in the Value data box (hexidecimal should be selected). Click Ok.

You should now have something that looks like this:

Once this setting is complete retry opening a document or spreadsheet from the sharepoint server and see if now it opens in an non-read only mode. This worked for me, I hope it works for you.

Outlook Error This operation was cancelled due to restrictions in effect on this computer

2010-11-09T07:48:00.003-05:00

This error may occur if a browser was installed and then uninstalled. The associations with IE get broken. This can be fixed by running the batch file located here. Extract the zip and run the batch file inside. Close IE, and any MS Office apps before running.

See this page for more info (the author of the batch file).

Media Center Studio

2010-11-03T13:43:00.001-04:00

Media Center Studio is an excellent tool for editing and configuring the Media Center Start Menu. It's a very handy tool.

How to delete Outlook Calendar appointment with invalid date (Jan 01, 1601)

2010-09-23T11:05:00.005-04:00

Select Calendar
Go to View>Set the view to By Category
Find the appointment in the list
Highlight it and click the X on the Outlook menu bar (to delete the appointment)
The appointment should disappear from the list.
Change the view back to what you had originally.

File not found error playing MKV files on Media Center

2010-09-05T15:52:00.001-04:00

I tried the Shark007 codec pack and that didn't work. Then I tried the instructions here and they worked. I thought I would pass this along. Good, easy, instructions for getting .mkv and other filetypes to play on Media Centers x86 and x64.

Media Browser Pearl Theme Skins Manager

2010-08-27T08:04:00.003-04:00

This tool allows you to view different skins the community has made, and choose the skin you would like to use when using Pearl Theme. More information and download available here:

Here's a direct link to the download

Tiny Tools Collection

2010-08-18T15:52:00.002-04:00

Blog post for tiny tools. This post is so people can leave comments on the tiny tools. For access to the tiny tools go here:
http://community.mediabrowser.tv/permalinks/r/2119/14527/kb-useful-utilities-and-scripts-feedback-discussion#14527

Tool for lite movie management when not using MyMovies

2010-08-14T20:18:00.003-04:00

I use MediaBrowser and I have movies spread over 6 partitions. When I want to delete one, or browse to one, I have to search for it. I made a tool that will show you all your movies in a list, allow you to open the folder containg the movie, delete the movie, view the images in the movie folder, delete images, and even preview the movie. Each movie clicked on will show the description and the cover image.

I call this tool Where Are My Movies At? wamma for short.

Get it here.

Cannot delete folder because of thumbs.db on Windows 7

2010-08-14T19:53:00.003-04:00

I run into this problem a lot when trying to delete network folders. Here is a way to prevent the problem.

Go to Control Panel>Folder >Options>View>Checkmark 'always show icons, never thumbnails'. Click Ok.
You should be able to delete those folders now.

On Windows XP go to the same location and deselect 'Do not cache thumbnails'.

Media Browser and Media Center cannot open file error playing movies

2010-07-18T18:54:00.004-04:00

What fixed this for me was going into the Media Browser configuration tool and clicking advanced, and then cache. Clearing the items cache fixed the problem.

Also, depending on the types of files you are attempting to play it could be a codec issue. A good solution to this is the Shark007 codec pack. Here's a link for Windows 7. Scroll to the bottom and you will see the download link to 'Major Geeks'.

Media Browser - file cannot be found error when trying to play MKV files

2010-07-17T15:39:00.001-04:00

Here is the solution to the problem I found:
1) Install this Divx Codec Plus pack
2) Install AC3Filter

Now my MKV files play and I can hear them. Without the AC3Filter I had no audio. I am getting choppy playback though so I don't know where to point the finger for that problem. Is it my network or is it a codec issue?

Movie Backdrops cleanup tool (for use with Media Browser)

2010-07-13T20:14:00.001-04:00

I made a tool with the help of BAS Concepts that allows one to view all their backdrops, delete the one's they do not want, and have them auto renamed so they cycle properly in Media Browser. Check it out if you have been looking for a tool like this. It can be downloaded here.

Reset Internet Explorer windows when opening a new window

2010-05-18T12:36:00.002-04:00

It's an annoying problem. IE gets set to open in a tiny window or something and you cannot seem to get it to stop. Here are some instructions that might help:
1) close all IE windows except one.
2) right click a link on the webpage and select 'open in new window'.
3) close the first IE window you had open.
4) resize the existing window to a size you like
5) hold down the control key and click the X in the upper right corner to close

Now open a IE session and the window should be the new size

FL Studio - Recording MIDI to piano roll

2010-05-17T18:28:00.001-04:00

I was able to record to the step sequencer but I could not record while in song mode to the piano roll. I read over guides and thought I was doing everything right. I found the problem. On the Options>Midi menu I had the box at the bottom 'record to step sequencer' selected. Once I deselected that, I could record to the piano roll while in song mode.

VBScript tips - Recursive file search write results to file

2010-04-21T11:47:00.004-04:00

This is much like the previous example, except in this script instead of echoing out the file names, we are going to write the files (and their paths) to a results file.

strFolder = "C:\dell"

Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

GetFiles strFolder

Sub GetFiles(byval strDirectory)

Set objFolder = objFSO.GetFolder(strDirectory)
For Each objFile in objFolder.Files
'Here specify the output file location and name ex: "C:\Dell Files.txt"
WriteToFile "C:\Dell Files.txt",objFile.Path
Next
For Each objFolder in objFolder.SubFolders
GetFiles objFolder.Path
Next
End Sub

Sub WriteToFile(strFilePath, strValue)

Const ForReading = 1
Const ForWriting = 2
Const ForAppending = 8

Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objTextFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile _
(strFilePath, ForAppending, True)
objTextFile.WriteLine strValue

End Sub

VBScript tips - Recursive file search

2010-04-21T11:27:00.003-04:00

'Create the FileSystemObject
Set objFSO = Createobject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

'Specify the folder that will be the root
strFolder = "C:\dell" 'using dell directory is just example

'This script is designed to run from the command line and will write out all files
'Here we call the subroutine
GetFiles strFolder

'Here is the sub
Sub GetFiles(ByVal strDirectory)
Set objFolder = objFSO.GetFolder(strDirectory)
'This gets the files from the root directory
For Each objFile in objFolder.Files
Wscript.Echo objFile.Path
Next
'This is the recursion - it gets all subfolders and files within
For Each objFolder in objFolder.SubFolders
GetFiles objFolder.Path
Next
End Sub

FL Studio 9 Manual printable PDF version

2010-04-06T08:19:00.007-04:00

I converted the help file that comes with FL Studio 9 into a PDF document. If you would like a copy download it here. It is a large file ~40MB. Right click the link and choose 'save target as' to directly save it. If you click the link to open it, be patient.

Some people reported this needing a password. It does not need a password. I think the problem may have been my download source. So I changed that. If you had a problem with it please try downloading it again.

Genre changing GUI tool

2010-03-09T19:01:00.007-05:00

Download the tool here

It is a .zip file. Extract it somewhere. This is a newer version than what I had posted previously. Some features are added to this tool. The stuff on the TV Series tab does not work. The movies part does work. I stopped developing this tool but I am publishing the latest version I have developed.

My apologies for putting up a tool that is not really finished (the tv part). But I became frustrated with the tv part and quit working on it...

Symantec Endpoint Protection will not install because it says Pending system changes that require a reboot have been detected

2010-03-04T16:42:00.003-05:00

Delete the key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\PendingFileRenameOperations

You may also need to check for the key at these locations:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSetXXX\Control\SessionManager\PendingFileRenameOperations
Where XXX is a number. Again, delete the PendingFileRenameOperations.

Do not reboot, just try the install again.

New SID tool

2010-02-22T07:56:00.004-05:00

Sysinternals has removed the download for newsid.exe. This tool is still valuable and we recently had to use it (and it did the job). I had a hard time finding it so I wanted to put it up in case someone else needs it.
New_SID.exe (zip)

Pairing a Motorola HS810 bluetooth headset with Motorola Droid

2010-02-21T19:52:00.003-05:00

On the Droid, go to Settings>Wireless & networks>Make sure bluetooth is turned on (green checkmark)>tap Bluetooth Settings

Now, with you HS810 headset closed, hold in the call button until the blue light comes on. Hit the Scan for Devices on the Droid. Open the arm on the headset. The Droid should discover the headset and prompt you to add it. Once it is added, it is paired and should be usable.

Motorola Droid Visual Voicemail too quiet

2010-02-12T20:38:00.001-05:00

For me, this one was easy. Just hit the menu button to bring up the menu and toggle the speaker. My speaker was turned off. Once I did that, messages were louder and easy to hear.

Nvidia Video Driver for Toshiba x505-860

2010-01-27T21:07:00.002-05:00

This is for the GTS 360M. I know it is not available yet through Nvidia. Here is a copy of the drivers. This is for 64-bit OS (Windows 7).

Download

I don't know how much the installer is tied to Toshiba. If you try to use these on something other than Toshiba, pay attention to where they extract to and maybe you can just point your video card driver update to the folder.

Vista hangs (reboot loop) installing update 3 of 3

2009-10-20T07:50:00.002-04:00

I had this happen recently (10/20/09). I could not tell what the problem was, nor could I tell what update was failing. I tried safemode boot, last known good config, and repair, none worked.

To resolve this I booted off the Vista installation media, and selected repair. It tried to automatically repair startup configuration, and then came back saying it could not. One of the options was to go into advanced repair options. Chose that. Then chose command prompt. At command prompt:
>cd c:
>cd windows
>cd winsxs
>del pending.xml

Once the file was deleted, rebooted system. System went back to installing update 3 of 3 but this time it worked.

Clicking Citrix link bring up open or save dialog

2009-09-25T16:10:00.000-04:00

With the user logged open a command prompt and change directory to C:\program files\Citrix\ICA Client

Run this command from that directory: wfica32 /setup

Momentarily after running the command there should be a citrix setup completed message.

When clicking to launch citrix apps it should now work.

Cannot play my DVR-MS movies on Zune HD

2009-09-19T10:04:00.003-04:00

It's confusing that microsoft does not support their own proprietary file type on the Zune HD. I know you can play some dvr-ms files, like SD tv shows recorded on Media Center, but not movies that have been coverted to dvr-ms. I converted my whole collection to dvr-ms to get away from transcoding, to have better support on the extenders. It would have been nice for these movies to work on the Zune HD.

From reading it seems like the Cucusoft product is good for converting dvr-ms for Zune. Anybody else got any recommendations? I did do one by using VideoRedo to convert it from dvr-ms to mpg using QSF (so only took a couple of minutes) then I converted it to wmv using Windows Media Encoder. It took a long time and came out looking crappy.

Preparing your movies with VideoRedo TVSuite

2009-09-15T10:18:00.005-04:00

As you may have noticed in my other post, I've pretty much had it with Transcode 360. The last straw for me was its tendency to end a movie we were watching before the movie is over. It usually seemed to happen about 20-30 minutes from the end. Have that happen a few times and your are ready to through a brick through the tv.

Another point of interest is the new My Movies will no longer support Transcode 360. According to Binnerup, he does not want to include support because of the large number of problems people have related to it. So there's another sign to abandon this.

For a while there is was sorta nice but I've personally had it. I'm tired of supporting it. I'm tired of it flaking out on me. I'm going to leave all my blog stuff up for those of you who want to venture down that path but my new solution is just converting my movies, and with VideoRedo, the conversion process is very quick and very easy.

I've been asked to describe how to do it. I will present to methods.

A) The Batch Method
This is how I've been doing it lately. Since I have about 300 movies to convert I don't want to sit there and do them one by one. So I have been setting up batches of about 10 or 20 to do. Here's how to do it.
1) Open VideoRedo
2) Go to File>Open Title from a DVD
3) Browse to the folder containg you movie. You don't have to go all the way to the Video_TS folder, the parent folder is fine. So say, go to C:\Movies\Happy Gilmore. Highlight the folder and click OK.
4) The next screen will show you the various titles on the DVD. You want to pick the big one, the one that is the actual movie. So highlight it. At the bottom you will see 'audio stream'. Pick the audio stream you want. Click Ok.
5)VideoRedo will now open a window with a timeline. That is fine. You don't need to do anything with that. Just go to File>Save Project As>pick a place you will remember and save the project.

Ok, you now have one movie ready to go. Repeat the process until you get a number of projects. I usually do 10 or 20.

Now that I've got some projects setup I'm ready to do the conversion.

With VideoRedo up, go to Tools>Start Batch Manager
In the first box "Source Project/File: click the elipses (...) and browse to where you saved all your projects. Select all the project files and click Open.

Next is the destination folder, this is where it will place all of your converted movies. Just pick a folder you will remember.

Leave destination modifier blank. Destination type: set this to what you want. I like dvr-ms because it has nice FF and RW features but if you prefer MPG select that.

Everything else you can leave the same.

Now click the Add Entry button at the bottom. All over you movies should show up in the big box. You will see the converted names, and the new extensions.

Click Save and Execute. It will ask you to save a batch file. Just say yes.

The conversion process will start.

If it has any trouble with any of the movies it should tell you. Mark them done and you can come back to the later.

B) Non-Batch Method
Say you just want to do one movie. Open VideoRedo. Go to Tools>Quick Stream Fix. In the first box browse to the folder containing the .vob files for your move. Select all of the vob files can click open. Notice the select stream button. If you have a movie with multiple languague track, you can click that button and chooose the language track you want.

Now for the Output stream. Again, click the elipsis and choose a location to store the resultant converted file. Give the file a name, and do the pulldown and choose the file type you want (ie: dvr-ms, mpg). Click Save.

Now just click Start Quick Fix. Once it is done test out your new movie.

VideoRedo is awesome because it does not re-encode the movies. Therefore, you can accomplish these conversions in a matter of minutes. I have done a couple hundred movies so far and had fantastic results with very little problems.

The VideoRedo folks did caution me on movies that use 3:2 pulldown. They will not turn our right. So if you do a movie that uses 3:2 pulldown your resultant movies will probably have a flicker to it.

If you have questions, comments, or suggestions let me know. Also, feel free to have a look at the VideoRedo forums. Good questions and answers on there. And, I've written their support with questions and they have responded quickly with helpful information. Good to see a product that does more than just take your money. These folks really want to listen to the community and make things better. Also, I don't remember if I mentioned this above but they also have a set of COM interfaces so if you are into scripting or programming, you can take advantage of the COM objects they have made available.

There are some scripts over at the MyMovies forum you can get and set them loose on your entire movie collection. I was not real pleased with how they were handling issues so I chose the batch method. Yeah it takes a bit longer, but I get to see what movies have issues, and I can usually fix them but skipping them with the batch method and using the quick stream fix method.

Why I like DVR-MS. When you are watching on the extender you can fast forward and rewind. On the xbox controller the right bumper starts fast forward. There are four speeds. Same goes for rewinding with the left bumper. And the the triggers still do the short jumps.
By the way, VideoRedo does a free trial of their product.

Transcode 360 - I will sorta miss you

2009-09-09T12:48:00.003-04:00

I've had it with Transcode 360. 50% of the time when watching a transcoded movie it just ends about 20 minutes before the actual ending of the movie. This is very frustrating. I've been dealing with this app a long time now, trying to make it work for myself, and others. I've had it though. I'm tired of all the problems, I'm tried of movies stopping pre-maturely.

My new approach is to use VideoRedo TV-Suite.
http://www.videoredo.com/en/index.htm
With this application I can convert my ripped DVDs to dvr-ms format in about 7 minutes. The movie is NOT re-encoded. No quality is lost in the process. The .vobs are joined. The timestamps are fixed. The movies work beautifully on our extenders.

Other bonuses to going with dvr-ms format is you can actually fastforward and rewind! Using the bumpers on the xbox 360 remotes allows for up to 4 speeds for FF and RW. The triggers allow for 30 seconds jumps. Movies can be paused and resumed. The only thing missing are subtitles.

If people are interested I can write a guide for batch conversion of movies using VideoRedo. If you want to check out VideoRedo, there is a free demo available. VideoRedo supports more than what I am using it for. Movies can be converted to different formats, TV shows can have the commercials removed, and there is a COM interface for those of you who would like to program or script your VideoRedo tasks.

I'm going to leave up all of my Transcode 360 blog stuff, but I just wanted to let you know I've had it with t360 and I am giving up on it. The new MyMovies 3 won't even support t360. t360 has not been actively developed for years. The problems and issues are getting old and tiresome.

Some stuff to check out

2009-08-26T18:10:00.002-04:00

1) Open Media Library - Another movie interface for Media Center that supports transcoding to extenders. It's free and under development. It appears to use a different transcoder than transcode 360 so those of you with transcoding issues might want to check it out.

2) PlayOn - PlayOn lets you watch Netflix, Hulu, CBS, YouTube, CNN, ESPN and more on your TV (using extenders). PlayOn supports Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, and I assume other extenders like Linksys. PlayOn has a 14-day free trial. The product costs 39.99.

3) vmcPlayIt - Let's you use PlayOn on your Media Center. I was looking for something like this so I could watch Hulu and such without having to use the extender. The developer takes donations.

4) Super - a GUI for mencoder and ffmpeg that is very tweakable and has preset profiles too. Free, but donations are accepted.

5) VideoRedo - Want to quickly turn your ripped .vob files into an .mpg or .dvrms file (other filetypes are spported too). This tool will merge the .vobs and fix the time indexing and finish a movie in about 5 minutes. It does not re-encode. I'm not really doing the product justice in my description. For example, you can use it to remove commericals from a recording. Free trial is available.

Want to use the Super encoder tool but cannot find the download link?

2009-08-26T18:08:00.002-04:00

The download link is here:
http://www.erightsoft.biz/GetFile.php?SUPERsetup.exe

On this page:
http://www.erightsoft.com/S6Kg1.html
down near the bottom.

I don't know why...that website is difficult to navigate and the actual download seems to be obscured.

Good instructions for encoding a movie for the zune

2009-08-26T18:05:00.002-04:00

Good instructions here and they don't tell you to buy something, instead it has you using Windows Media Encoder:
http://www.zunethoughts.com/news/show/625/convert-your-videos-for-the-zune-with-windows-media-encoder.html

Extender Account Login Script Tool Results screenshot on Windows 7 RTM

2009-08-16T20:02:00.002-04:00

If the UAC is on, remember to always run this tool by right clicking it and choosing 'run as administrator' or else it will not work right.

Click the image to see it larger.

Proposal for a new tool, requesting your input

2009-08-08T20:02:00.002-04:00

I've been using transcode 360 to stream movies to my extenders for a while now. For the most part it works pretty good. But here lately my girlfriend says the last 4 movies she watched on the extender just stopped around 20 minutes before the movie was over.

So I've been considering eliminating t360 and converting my movies to an extender supported format, like .mpg or .dvrms. I've been looking at ways to do this. I've also been contemplating the best way to do this.

The first thing I did was make a VB application where you pointed it to your movies root folder. It then looked through all the subfolders and built a list of all your movies. It only looks at VTS_01_01.vob and higher. VTS_01_00.vob is ignored (that's the menu). Also, when I rip I only take the movie, none of the other stuff is included. I also only take one audio track. So once the app built a list of your movies, you then selected a movie to process and first it ran copy /b on the .vob files in order to concatenate the files into one file. Next, I used mencoder to re-index the movies and output a single .mpg file. It worked ok, but it was way too time consuming. The concatenation takes a good while, and then the indexing takes a long time.

Next I started looking at just encoding them. I looked at Windows Media Encoder, Expression Encoder, mencoder, and ffmpeg. All take a long time.

My goal was to use software that is free. But, a blog reader pointed me to Videoredo. Videoredo does a great job with this, and it is impressively fast.

I've talked with Videoredo about licensing and they have no problem with me making a Media Center tool, or something else that utilizes their program as long as the person owns the program.

Now I am trying to figure out how to do this. Should I try to make is something you do throug Media Center? Like go through and pick and movie and have it joined and output as say a dvrms file? Or how about a program you can point to your movies folder, and it just runs through them movie after movie and converts them? What about the original files? Delete the .vobs or keep them? Or keep them for a while, and then have them deleted? It would really suck if you ran this tool and went to watch a movie only to find out it didn't work, or didn't work right, and your source files were gone. On the other hand, do this to a bunch of movies and your disk space will be wasted if we don't get rid of the original files.

I really don't know what would be the best way to make a tool like this. I could make something that I would want to use, but if I am going to spend the time doing this, I might as well make something that others could use too. And therefore, I'd like to hear what you think. Or, maybe I am reinventing the wheel and you can just point me to something that already does this.

I'm hoping that by doing this, we can watch movies on the extender and not have issues like the movie stopping before it is over. It would also be nice to be able to fast forward and rewind.

Want to test your bandwidth for free?

2009-08-08T19:56:00.001-04:00

Here's a great site for bandwidth testing:
http://www.speedtest.net/

It's slick, it lets you choose a node (you can test someplace close, or far), it gives your latency, up, and down bandwidth.

Netflix on Windows 7 Media Center

2009-07-26T20:51:00.004-04:00

With Windows 7 you can still access your Netflix instant queue and watch movies and shows. The two applications I have tested on Windows 7 are MyNetflix and vmcNetFlix (the download link is towards the bottom, right above the release notes for vmcNetFlix). Both worked. With MyNetflix I never figured out how to make the playback go fullscreen without using a mouse. I don't like to have to use a mouse (I don't even have one connected). With vmcNetFlix you can make it go fullscreen once it starts playing by hitting the Play button on your remote. There may be a way to make it go fullscreen without a mouse when using MyNetflix but I have not found it.

Once you install the app you will find it in the Extras section on your Media Center.

You'll have to switch to the SilverLight player to watch Netflix content on your Win7 Media Center computer. To do this perform the opt-in at the Netflix site:
http://www.netflix.com/silverlightoptin

You can read about it here:
http://blog.netflix.com/2008/10/opt-in-for-new-netflix-movie-player.html

How certain characters in your movie path will cause transcode 360 to fail

2009-07-26T17:48:00.004-04:00

Often it seems when people use MyMovies to rip a new movie, MM will put () characters in the path. For Example: \\MC-Machine/Movies/IronMan (Widescreen Edition)
might be the path MM creates for your movie. Transcode 360 seems to have issues with the () characters. There may be other characters to watch out for. The () is what I hear about most often. If you get an error like what is posted below (from the log file) try changing the path to eliminate the non-alpha characters. In this case change IronMan (Widescreen Edition) to just IronMan.

Example:
When you go to play it you get an error and see something like this in the T360 log file:

7/26/2009 4:21:42 PM Starting Transcode360 service (1.6.3.0)7/26/2009 4:21:42 PM Loaded configuration settings7/26/2009 4:21:42 PM Service is ready to accept requests7/26/2009 4:25:07 PM Transcode360 SAO (1.6.3.0) created7/26/2009 4:25:07 PM Transcoding from beginning7/26/2009 4:25:07 PM Starting transcoding process7/26/2009 4:25:08 PM *VRB* Retrieving source stats: -v -oac copy -ovc copy -o "" dvd://1 -dvd-device "\\MC-Machine\Movies\IronMan ‑ (Widescreen Collection)\VIDEO_TS"7/26/2009 4:25:08 PM *VRB* Output: 'MEncoder Sherpya-SVN-r29355-4.5.0 (C) 2000-2009 MPlayer Team113 audio & 234 video codecsConfiguration: --extra-cflags=-I/c/Work/mplayer/live --prefix=/usr --enable-static --enable-md5sum --enable-menu --disable-vdpau --disable-vidix --disable-sdl --enable-caca --enable-gl --enable-matrixview --enable-freetype --enable-png --enable-mng --enable-jpeg --enable-gif --enable-tga --enable-mad --enable-tv --enable-theora --disable-dvb --disable-dvbhead --enable-libamr_nb --enable-libamr_wb --enable-runtime-cpudetectioninit_freetypeget_path('font/font.desc') -> 'C:/Program Files/Transcode360/Wrappers/MEncoderTranscoder/mplayer/font/font.desc'Bitmap font C:/Program Files/Transcode360/Wrappers/MEncoderTranscoder/mplayer/font/font.desc loaded successfully! (206 chars)Using MMX (with tiny bit MMX2) Optimized OnScreenDisplayget_path('fonts') -> 'C:/Program Files/Transcode360/Wrappers/MEncoderTranscoder/mplayer/fonts'WINSOCK2 init: 0URL: dvd://1
Exiting...'7/26/2009 4:25:08 PM *VRB* MEncoderTranscoder loaded7/26/2009 4:25:08 PM *VRB* VLCTranscoder loaded7/26/2009 4:25:08 PM *VRB* Using optimal resolutions7/26/2009 4:25:08 PM Spawning: "C:\Program Files\Transcode360\Wrappers\MEncoderTranscoder\mencoder.exe" -quiet -delay 0.2 -oac lavc -srate 48000 -af lavcresample=48000 -of mpeg -mpegopts format=dvd -o "C:\Users\Public\Transcode360\TranscodeBuffer\How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days ‑ (Widescreen Collection).360" -ovc copy dvd://1 -dvd-device "\\MC-Machine\Movies\IronMan ‑ (Widescreen Collection)\VIDEO_TS"7/26/2009 4:25:23 PM *ERR* Transcoding error:7/26/2009 4:25:23 PM *ERR* Cannot get Console handle of stdout
WARNING: OUTPUT FILE FORMAT IS _MPEG_. See -of help.No such file or directorylibdvdread: Using libdvdcss version 1.2.10 for DVD accesslibdvdread: Can't stat \\MC-Machine\Movies\IronMan - (Widescreen Collection)\VIDEO_TSlibdvdread: Could not open \\MC-Machine\Movies\IronMan - (Widescreen Collection)\VIDEO_TSCouldn't open DVD device: \\MC-Machine\Movies\IronMan - (Widescreen Collection)\VIDEO_TS (Bad file descriptor)No stream found to handle url dvd://1Cannot open file/device.

Using Transcode 360 with a 64-bit Media Center

2009-07-21T18:22:00.007-04:00

Here's a post with instructions on making it work with x64 Operating Systems. The solution is better than mine because it will work with My Movies and Media Browser.
http://www.hack7mc.com/2009/05/transcoding-in-windows-seven-x64-with-media-browser-and-transcode-360.html
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This guide is assuming you've already properly setup Transcode 360 1.6.3 on your 64-bit Media Center system. If you need help with that please see this posts:
Using Transcode 360 with My Movies and Media Extenders like Xbox or Linksys
or
Transcode 360 Installer Tool

If you are using a 64 bit operating system, with something like MyMovies, and you choose to Watch Stream, you will most likely get an error. There is a way to transcode movies with a 64 bit operating system.

Put the movies your Videos folder on the Media Center. It needs to be a videos folder your Media Center Library is set to monitor. On your Extender, bring up the Media Center. Browse to the Video Library on the Pictures + Videos section . Choose a movie. Right click the movie (depending on your extender and controller, you'll have to determine what button does this - for example, with an xbox 360 extender you hit the X button) to bring up the More... menu. Choose More... Choose the Transcode option. After you click to transcode, it may seem like nothing is happening. There is a delay. Eventually you should see the blue spinning ring. After another waiting period (while it builds the buffer) the movie should start playing.

I hope this helps some of you with 64-bit Media Centers. You can always use MyMovies or Media Browser to figure out what you want to watch, and then use the method described above to start the playback.

Linksys extender stops playback prematurely on transcoded movies

2009-07-17T19:14:00.001-04:00

I hear about this problem a lot. I've done some extensive troubleshooting and I have never found the solution. I am wondering if anyone knows how to prevent this issue? If you do please email me at aamjohns@yahoo.com so I can put it up on the blog. Thanks.

Transcode 360 unable to transcode certain files

2009-07-06T14:27:00.007-04:00

I am often asked why certain movies will not work with Transcode 360. These are usually wrapper filetypes like .mkv and .avi. I suspect the issue is with the format (compression used) of the movie in the container.

I know if you use the version of mencoder that comes with Transcode 360, many movies will not work. That's why one of the steps in my setup guide is to update the version of mencoder. Without it, transcoding does not work well at all.

The version of mencoder I posted is not nearly as current as it could be. I did some research and found a build of mencoder that should have much better support for different codecs, including h264.

If you have experienced issues with some movies working, and other's not (but they will work if you play them in Media Center), try updating these two files below.

If you want a tool to do this for you download my installer tool. Install the tool, and then run it. Don't worry about the other buttons, just click the Update button in the Mencoder and ffmpeg section.

Or to do this manually...

1) Mencoder.exe - Replace the mencoder.exe with the one in this zip. The default location for the mencoder.exe is C:\Program Files\Transcode360\Wrappers\MEncoderTranscoder C:\Program Files\Transcode360

2) ffmpeg.exe - Replace the ffmpeg.exe with the one in this zip. The default location for ffmpeg.exe is

Now test one of the movies. Make sure the movie will play in Media Center. It is not really a valid test if Media Center itself will not play the movie (maybe it is a bad file?). But, if Media Center will play it, but not the extender, try it now and see if it works. If this works for you I'd like to hear back.

Older version of Transcode 360 download

2009-06-23T20:02:00.007-04:00

This is an older version of transcode 360. Even though it is called 4.6, it is an earlier version than 1.6.3. You should be using 1.6.3. I'm only putting this file up for people that may want it for some reason.

This is the first .Net 2 port by James. I am making it available in case anyone needs it. This is version 4.6. This is an earlier version than 1.6.3.

Download

Script to change or remove genres in movie xml files

2009-06-21T13:52:00.007-04:00

Download

Download Scripts

Version change 09/08/2009 - Now removes duplicate genres from an xml file. For example, if it has the genre 'comedy' three times, it will automatically remove the extra two 'comedy' genres.

Intro

There may be a better way to do this, but this is how I've been doing it and I wanted to make it available to others. If you are using Media Browser and go to sort by Genre, there may be genres you don't want. Or there may be genres that you want renamed. The scripts I am posting will allow you to do both, genre substitutions and genre removals from .xml files (ie: mymovies.xml).

I know it's not fun to read a ton of instructions so I will try to make this short, but I recommend you read this so you know how to use the scripts. If you have questions you can post in the comments or email me.

Overview of the scripts

Below is a list of the scripts and what they do. Before you run any of them, you need to edit the settings in the _Settings.txt file.

BuildGenreList.vbs script

I recommend you run this script first. It will look through all of the movie xml files and will build a list of each unique genre. You will use the results of the script (Genres.txt) to tell the next script what to do.

ChangeGenres.vbs script

This script takes your desired changes and implements them by modifying the xml files that need the specified changes.

RestoreFromBackup.vbs script

This script restores the original .xml files before changes were applied. MakeBackup must be =True in the settings file before running ChangeGenres.vbs if you want to make backup copies.

Using the scripts

Start off by extracting the .zip file into a folder. You want all the scripts and related text files to be in the same folder.

Open the _Settings.txt file. There are some instructions inside but basically here's what you will do.

1) Folders line. Here you set the folder or folders you want to run the scripts against. I have 3 folders that have movies, so for me this line reads Folders=E:\Movies,F:\Movies,G:\Movies. If you only have one movie folder (ex: C:\My Movies\Movies) then your's will read Folders=C:\My Movies\Movies. Separate more than one path with a comma (like my example above).

2) File line. This tells the script the name of the .xml file you want to process. For most people this will be mymovies.xml. So it would read File=mymovies.xml
If your setup uses a different .xml file just set it to be the name of your xml file. Ex: File=yourfile.xml

3) ShowCompletedBox line. If you want to know when the script is finished use ShowCompletedLine=True. If you are running the scripts as a schedule task and you don't want interaction, set it to False. If you have a lot of movies, the script will take a little bit. It's not too bad though. In testing it was about 3 minutes to process 100 movies.

4) MakeBackup line. If you want a backup copy of the .xml file before it gets changed, set this to True. Ex: MakeBackup=True. This will create a file called mymovies.xml.bak (or whatever your file is) and will be the .xml file before changes were made to it.

These settings are used by all scripts. So the first thing you want to do is open _Settings.txt file and edit the settings.

Building a list of genres

Now you can run the BuildGenreList.vbs script. While it is running (same goes for the other script) there will be a file in the folder called _StatusLog.txt. Open this file and you can see how far along the script is. While it is open you will not see the new data being written. After you close it you can re-open it and get refreshed progress. Running this script is optional. If you want to skip it, just create a text file called Genres and in it put the stuff you want changed. Something=Something Else to change, or Something=- to remove.

When it completes, and you will get an annoucement if you set ShowCompletedBox=True, you will have a Genres.txt file in the folder. Open it and you should see each genre in your collection.

Making Genre Changes

You will set how you want things changed using the Genres.txt file.

1) To substite a genre use this syntax: something=something else. So if I want Feel Good changed to Comedy I would find Feel Good in the text file and follow it with =Comedy. So, Feel Good=Comedy. That will change any genre called Feel Good to be Comedy.
Example: Suspense/Thriller=Thriller

2) To remove a genre, find it in the text file and follow it with =-. That's an equals sign and then a minus sign. This will completely remove the genre from the xml files.
Example: Monster Movies=-

Now run the ChangeGenres.vbs script. Again, you can check on it's progress by opening the _StatusLog.txt file. This will tell you what movies have been changed and any actions performed. If, in the _Settings.txt file you have MakeBackup=True, when this runs it will make a copy of the xml file before changes with a .bak extension. When the script finishes the _StatusLog.txt file will have a "Done" line

Doing a Restore

Provided you had MakeBackup=True set in the settings file before you ran the ChangedGenres.vbs script, you will have the ability to restore your original .xml files. The RestoreFromBackup.vbs script also uses the settings in the _Settings.txt file to know what directories to run against. You can also have it tell you when done. And, the progress, and changes, are recorded in the _StatusLog.txt file.

Use the scripts at your own risk. During my testing they are working as designed.

Troubleshooting

I have not tested this with Vista's UAC (User Account Control) enabled. If you have the UAC on then you may need to right click the script and choose 'Run as Administrator' before running them.

When you start the Genres.txt file is empty. You need to either run the BuildGenreList.vbs script, or manually edit the file to have your desired changes.

If you specified an invalid folder it will tell you in the _StatusLog.txt file. If you made a syntax error in the Genres.txt file either no changes will occur where the syntax error is, or you will get incorrect results. If something gets blundered, and you had MakeBackup=True, you can run the RestoreFromBackup.vbs script and it will restore you original .xml files.

I do not have On Error Resume Next enabled in the scripts. That way, if an error occurs the script will stop. If that happens, you can write down the error, or take a screenshot and send it to me.

Graphical User Interface (GUI) for Tyborg's StarkCovers program

2009-06-18T14:47:00.013-04:00

Hold up! As of the StarkCovers 6.30.2009 release my gui is once again broke. I'm not doing this anymore. Sorry.

This tool should only be used with StarkCovers version 6.23.2009 or earlier.

Requirements:
1) StarkCovers by Tyborg
2) .Net Framework 2 installed
3) Download my StarkCoversGUI tool and extract it into the same folder as your StarkCovers.exe

Update:
If you already have my tool and you updated your version of starkcovers.exe, you will need to redownload my tool and replace the one you already have. Something was changed in the starkcovers 6.23.2009 version that broke my tool. I have fixed my tool in response to this change. Also, when you click preview you may see this:

Uncheck 'Always ask before opening this file' and click Run. This is part of the problem that occurred with the updated StarkCovers.exe. Windows see's the executable as a program 'from another computer' and does not trust it. This prompt is for you to give permission for starkcovers.exe to be run.

What's it for:
I've been using Media Browser on my new Windows 7 MCE machine. Media Browser is a free media aggregator plugin for Media Center. On the Media Browser forum I saw Tyborg's tutorial for StarkCovers in Media Browser. Tyborg's tool is very cool! After you download it, and extra the files, you run a batch file to modify your movie covers. Being new to all this, I didn't really know what the different options would look like (ex: clearcase, sidelogo, banner, etc). So I spent a good amount of time editing the command line, modifying a single movie cover, and then viewing it in Media Browser. I had to do this to see what I liked and how it looked in Media Browser.

I decided to make a GUI form for Tyborg's program. This GUI offers a couple of conveniences. You can select options, and then do a Preview to get an idea of what the cover will look like. Next, you can run it against a movie folder, or all your movies, by selecting the options, selecting the movie folder, and clicking run. This should be easier to deal with for people not familiar with command lines and such.

This is what the tool looks like:

Using:
After you have downloaded the GUI tool and put it in the same folder as your StarkCovers.exe, run the StarkCoversGUI.exe. This tool expects a "Sample" folder in the same directory it runs from. The first time you click Preview, if the Sample folder is not there, it will prompt you about it, and give you the option of automatically creating the folder.

Next, this tool expects there to be at least a folder.jpg file in the Sample folder. This is what the tool will use to generate previews. Copy the folder.jpg file from one of your movies and put it in the Sample folder, or, the tool will offer to download one into the folder for you (it's a 10,000 BC cover). Also, if you want to test with the mymovies.xml functionality, put one of the xml files in the Sample folder also, or, when you let it download the samples I posted, it will get a mymovies.xml for you.

Now the tool should be ready to go. Choose options and click Preview Cover button to get an idea of what the cover will look like. This just gives you an idea. The image has been shrunk and it may not look as good as it will in Media Browser. But, it give you an idea. Also, if you want to see a better image, click the Preview image and an unshrunk copy of the image will be shown.

If you want to use arguments I have not precreated checkboxes for, you can type them in the Arguements box. Both Preview and Run will use what is in the Arguments box.

If you want to change your sample cover, copy a new folder.jpg to the Sample folder. Whatever you want to use as your sample for previewing is obtained from the Sample folder.

When you are ready to apply the StarkCovers look to your movie covers, choose a Movie Folder. The path can be typed or browsed to using the Browse button. Choose the root folder of all your movies to have the StarkCovers look applied to all movies contained within. If you just want to modify one movie, choose its folder.

Once the options are selected, and the movie folder is selected, click the Run button and StarkCovers will run using the selected settings.

To undo, select the Revert back to folder.jpg options and run again.

To export settings to a .bat file, click the Make .BAT button.

Just a heads up, the conversion process can take a while. While it is running, the Run button will remain greyed out. When it is finished, you will see "Job complete" in the box at the bottom and the Run button will become available again.

Troubleshooting:
If you get the error "The application failed to Initialize properly (0xc0000135)" it means most likely you need to install .Net Framework 2 or update your .Net Framework 2 (service packs or updates).

File displayed in PictureBox control became locked

2009-06-16T14:21:00.002-04:00

I came across this issue and found this MS KB document very helpful:

Image file is locked when you set the PictureBox Image property to a file (Article ID: 309482 )

I was displaying an image in a picturebox control and then I was trying to overwrite the file, and display a new image. I could not overwrite the file. I could not rename it or delete it either.

Using a Filestream instead of FromFile resolved the issue.

If you run into this problem check out the MS KB document linked above.

Tring out Media Browser on Windows 7

2009-06-10T20:50:00.004-04:00

I just set it up. I brought up my extender and clicked Media Browser on the ribbon (or whatever it's called). I got this error: Access to the path C:/ProgramData/media browser/Styles_DoNotEdit.mcml is denied.

I figured the extender account probably need access to the directory. So on Windows 7 I right clicked Computer>Manage>Expanded Users and Groups, Clicked User, got the name of the extender account (the account with mcx in the name) and then went back to the C:/Programdata/media browser directory, right clicked, chose security, edit, clicked Add, and added the extender account. I gave it modify (I tried read and execute but that was not enough, it needs modify). If you add another extender to your Media Center, you need to repeat this process for the new MCX account on your Media Center.

Transcode 360 Installer Tool

2009-06-09T17:26:00.015-04:00

New get you up and running quickly Transcode 360 installer tool download

New Version Available
There was an issue with the previous version. In the ServerAddress Reg Edit portion, it was filling in the box with IPv6 addresses in some cases. IPv6 addresses will produce an error like "A port was expected because of there is a colon present but the port could not be parsed". I wrote instructions below how to fix this, or you can uninstall the existing copy of the tool, download and install the new one, and just run the ServerAddress Reg Edit part again.

There was also an issue with one of the builds where it was not replacing the ffmpeg.exe properly. That has been fixed.

I also took out the .Net 1.1 checker and the files from the download. The tool is much smaller download now.

The latest build of the tool is 1.05

Introduction
There is more to getting Transcode 360 installed and working than just running that actual installer. This blog post outlines many of the steps required to get T360 up and running.

It's a bit tedious. Also, it's the number one reason people come to my blog - instructions on how to install T360.

I've made an installer tool that will take care of getting T360 setup for you. Basically, you should be able to run this tool and accomplish the same thing you would by reading the instructions and performing the different steps as you go.

You need .Net 2 Framework install to use this tool. If you don't have it you can get it here. I'm not sure, you may need to run Windows Update after the install and apply the .Net 2 service pack also.

The link to download the tool installer is at the top of this post.

When you open the tool, there is a link to instructions on the right. Have a look. The PDF version is much nicer on the eyes.

This tool is designed to get you up and running is you 1) are using Media Center 32-bit, 2) Have your movies stored on your Media Center. If you are using 64-bit, Transcode 360 probably will not work. If you are storing your movies on a NAS or another computer, you can still use this tool to get things setup, but you will need to go back and make some more adjustments for your enviroment. I have blog posts with instructions (and another tool).

Troubleshooting

When you try to watch a movie from your extender, and you get the error:
"A port was expected because of there is a colon present but the port could not be parsed."
It is probably that on the ServerAddress part, it used your systems IPv6 address, rather than the required IPv4 address. IPv6 addresses look like this xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx. To fix this you need to run the tool again, but only the ServerAddress Reg Edit part. In the box put your Media Center's IPv4 address in the box and click Run button. Reboot the Media Center and try your extender again. If you do not know you Media Center's IPv4 address do this:

Go to Start>All Programs>Accessories>Command Prompt
At the prompt type: ipconfig and then hit Enter key
You should get some lines of information back. One will say IPv4 Address. Write down the address.
Go back and run the installer tool. Type the address you wrote down into the box, and click the Run button to the right.
Reboot the Media Center and try your extender again.

One of the builds of the tool did not replace the ffmpeg.exe correctly. If you download the posted version, you can click the button in the mencoder/ffmpeg part and it will fix the missing ffmpeg.exe file.

Will WebGuide work with Windows 7

2009-06-08T11:33:00.002-04:00

No. I asked the developer and he said no.

System specs of my iRacing machine

2009-06-08T11:15:00.004-04:00

Computer:
Computer Type ACPI x64-based PC
Operating System Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate
OS Service Pack Service Pack 1
Internet Explorer 7.0.6001.18000
DirectX DirectX 10.0

CPU: Type DualCore Intel Core 2 Duo E8500, 3800 MHz (9.5 x 400)

Motherboard : Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3R (2 PCI, 3 PCI-E x1, 2 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR2 DIMM, Audio, Dual Gigabit LAN, IEEE-1394)

Motherboard Chipset Intel Eaglelake P45

System Memory:
4096 MB (DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM)

DIMM1: Corsair XMS2 DHX CM2X2048-6400C4DHX 2 GB DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM (5-5-5-18 @ 400 MHz) (4-4-4-13 @ 270 MHz)

DIMM3: Corsair XMS2 DHX CM2X2048-6400C4DHX 2 GB DDR2-800 DDR2 SDRAM (5-5-5-18 @ 400 MHz) (4-4-4-13 @ 270 MHz)

BIOS Type: Award Modular (09/22/08)

Display:
Video Adapter ATI Radeon HD 3600 Series (512 MB)
Video Adapter ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series (512 MB)
3D Accelerator ATI Radeon HD 3650 (RV635)
3D Accelerator ATI Radeon HD 4870 (RV770)
Monitor Acer AL2216W [22" LCD] (LA10C0414030)
Monitor Generic PnP Monitor [NoDB] (H9NQ700481)

Multimedia:
Audio Adapter ATI Radeon HDMI @ ATI RV635 - High Definition Audio Controller
Audio Adapter ATI Radeon HDMI @ ATI RV770 - High Definition Audio Controller
Audio Adapter Creative SB X-Fi XtremeGamer Sound Card

Storage:
IDE Controller Intel(R) ICH10 Family 2 port Serial ATA Storage Controller 2 - 3A26
IDE Controller Intel(R) ICH10 Family 4 port Serial ATA Storage Controller 1 - 3A20

IDE Controller Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller
Disk Drive LaCie Group SA LaCie FW800 Disk drive LUN 0 IEEE 1394 SBP2 Device (232 GB)
Disk Drive ST3300622AS ATA Device (300 GB, 7200 RPM, SATA-II)
Disk Drive WDC WD3200AAKS-00B3A0 ATA Device (298 GB, IDE)
Optical Drive _NEC DVD_RW ND-3550A ATA Device (DVD+R9:8x, DVD-R9:6x, DVD+RW:16x/8x, DVD-RW:16x/6x, DVD-ROM:16x, CD:48x/32x/48x DVD+RW/DVD-RW)
Optical Drive LITE-ON DVDRW LH-20A1H ATA Device (DVD+R9:8x, DVD-R9:8x, DVD+RW:20x/8x, DVD-RW:20x/6x, DVD-RAM:12x, DVD-ROM:16x, CD:48x/32x/48x DVD+RW/DVD-RW/DVD-RAM)

Network:
Network Adapter Realtek RTL8168C(P)/8111C(P) Family PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet NIC (NDIS 6.0)

Peripherals:
FireWire Controller Texas Instruments TSB43AB23 1394A-2000 OHCI PHY/Link-Layer
USB1 Controller Intel 82801JB ICH10 - USB Universal Host Controller
USB Device Logitech Driving Force GT USB

DMI:
DMI BIOS Vendor Award Software International, Inc.
DMI BIOS Version F10
DMI System Manufacturer Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
DMI System Product EP45-DS3R
DMI Motherboard Manufacturer Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
DMI Motherboard Product EP45-DS3R
DMI Chassis Manufacturer Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
DMI Total / Free Memory Sockets 4 / 2

Transcode 360 and Windows 7

2009-06-08T11:03:00.003-04:00

I got an email from someone who gets this error when trying to use Transcode 360 1.6.3 with Windows 7 Windows 7 RC (build 7100):

MceUiAddIn.Launch
System.Exception: Unable to queue video file for transcoding and streaming. At
Transcode360.AddIn.NewModule.TranscodeAndPlayMedia(String filePath, Int64 timestamp)
at Transcode360.AddIn.NewModule.Launch(AddInHost host)

I downloaded and installed Windows 7 RC (Build 7100). First I installed MyMovies 2.54. I then set the folders for MyMovies to watch and let it build the database. I followed my own instructions for setting up Transcode 360.

I'm running t360 as a service, and because I am not trying to access movies stored on other machines I let the service run as the Local System account. I did the Network registry update, and I updated the mencoder.exe.

I tested from my Xbox 360 and from MyMovies choosing Watch Stream, t360 fired up and transcoded the movie. In other words, it worked fine.

I have seen on other blogs and forum where other people are having problems with Windows 7 and T360. I thought I would be able to replicate the problem and troubleshoot it.

So I am posting this in hopes of discovering what is different between my setup, and that of others, that is causing issues for others. The only difference I see between my setup and the person that emailed me is our extenders. Mine being an xbox, and his being a Linksys.

If you have any thoughts or suggestions feel free to post them in the comments section.

Playing FLV files on Vista Media Center

2009-05-02T09:30:00.011-04:00

I have been informed the instructions below no longer work. It seems most people these days just install the Shark Codec Pack for Windows 7 and flv playback is supported (supposed to be...I personally do not use this codec pack).
http://shark007.net/win7codecs.html

Old instructions...

Here's what I did to be able to play .flv (Flash) files on Vista Media Center.

1) Install FFDShow. In my case, I just installed Vista Codec Package 5.2.2 Final
Whichever you choose should be fine. I got the Vista Codec Package from here:
http://majorgeeks.com/Vista_Codec_Package_d5326.html

Caution - Once I did this, I noticed I lost audio from streamed movies. The codec package may have installed something that disrupted my AC3Filter. After reinstalling AC3Filter I got my audio back in movies. Always be careful when installing codecs. Installing over existing codecs can cause problems.

2)Edited the registry to add this:
Under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.flv create a new registry string REG_SZ called "PerceivedType" and name it "video"
If you want to run a file to do this download this zip, extract it, run the .reg file (when prompted to merge in registry choose yes).

3) Next I copied a test .flv file to Public\Videos folder. I right clicked the file and chose 'open with' and set it to 'always open' with windows media player. When you open the file, WMP may say 'do you really want to open this extension' click OK, and the vid should start in WMP.

4) Next, I went into Media Center, Video Library, found my sample file, clicked it and it played.

Making subtitles work with Transcode 360

2009-04-19T23:23:00.003-04:00

Transcode 360 appears to have the ability to display subtitles. These are enabled through the t360 configuration utility. But, as far as I know, it has never worked. One of the visitors to this blog took the matter into his own hands and fixed the transcode360 executable and now subtitles work. Here is what he says:

Hi,Me again, I was a bit busy doing other things, but I finally managed to get
subtitles and the right audiostream while transcoding.I've put a replacement
Transcode360.exe on
http://cid-bdb369ad69a0b096.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Openbaar?uc=1
Assembling a tray app and setup, with all forms etc. is too much work for me at
the moment. Just stop the Transcode360 service, replace the .exe and start the
service again.I'm currently using the modified t360 with mencoder svn rev 28311
and ffmpeg svn rev 16596, both downloaded from http://oss.netfarm.it/mplayer-win32.php

The discussion took place on this thread's comment section:
http://tobias-tobin.blogspot.com/2008/12/reauthoring-ripping-with-changes-dvd.html

If you have transcode360 setup and working, just stop the service (this can be done through the config utility) and replace the transcode360.exe with his copy. Re-start the service. Also remember to enable subtitles in the config utility.

Any requests?

2009-04-12T12:51:00.003-04:00

I am wondering if anybody has any computer issues I might be able to help with? I am open to requests. Email me if you have an question and think having a solution might help yourself and others. I've been doing Windows based IT support for about 10 years. These days my work revolves around Active Directory, scripting (wsh, vbscript, wmi, adsi), Group Policy, WSUS, imaging (Ghost), some VB.NET, and then about anything Windows related. Lately I have not had much to write about...

Installing drivers on a Panasonic CF-50 after clean XP with SP2 install

2009-03-31T20:23:00.003-04:00

I had to rebuild a Panasonic CF-50. I didn't have drivers on disk to reinstall and my only option of OS was XP with SP2 already installed. I downloaded the missing drivers from the Panasonic site. But, I couldn't install any of them. When I tried to run their .exe I would get the message 'this does NOT support'. Yeah that's all it said.

So I used WinRAR to extract the files from the .exes. Once I had the files extracted I could run the setup, or just point to the driver file. I still could not get the video drivers to install. I ended up using Mobility Modder http://www.driverheaven.net/modtool.php.

I followed the instructions on the website (msxml update, and .Net install) and pointed the modder to the drivers I had extracted. It fixed them and I was able to install the video drivers.

Enabling Firewall Logging in Vista for troubleshooting purposes

2009-02-20T10:02:00.004-05:00

The idea here is if you are having some kind of issue on your home network and you want to see if you are having a firewall issue, enabling the firewall logging of dropped packets can help with troubleshooting. Here is how to enable logging for dropped packets.

Enabling firewall logging in Windows Vista

With Control Panel in Classic View

Go To Start>Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Windows Firewall with Advanced Security

On the right click Properties

Click Private Profile Tab

Under Logging Click Customize button

Next to ‘Log dropped packets:’ do the pulldown and select Yes.

Click OK

If you want to log for Domain (not necessary unless your system is in a domain) or if you want to log for Public, click the tabs and repeat the steps above to enable logging for dropped packets.

Click OK

Close the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security window.

Now if your firewall blocks something on your home network you should be able to see it in the log.

To check the log open this file:
C:\Windows\system32\LogFiles\Firewall\pfirewall.log

Dealing with 'invalid' filenames in Windows ("Cannot read from the source file or disk")

2009-02-05T16:53:00.003-05:00

Occassionaly I run into this issue. A person has copied over a file created by a Mac onto a Windows system, due to illegal or invalid naming, the file cannot be deleted or read.

Another issue might be someone saved something and the path was too deep. Now the data is problematic - it cannot be copied from the system, deleted, renamed, whatever.

I learned something really cool today thanks to another blogger (http://blog.dotsmart.net).

Please read this post:
http://blog.dotsmart.net/2008/06/12/solved-cannot-read-from-the-source-file-or-disk/

I don't want to copy his work but I will say that you can get Windows to ignore the invalid elements by prefixing paths with \\?
For example: "\\?\C:\Documents and Settings\user\filewithdotatend."

This allows commands like C:\>ren "\\?\C:\Documents and Settings\user\filewithdotatend." "filenamewithoutdot"
Now the file is usable, deletable, whatever.

This is so cool. I had no idea. Thanks to Duncan Smart’s Weblog !

Transcode 360 choppy playback - stutters and pauses

2009-01-18T14:35:00.003-05:00

I recently went watch a movie on my xbox 360 using MyMovies and Watch Stream, which utilizes Transcode 360 to encode the movie. The movie kept pausing and stuttering. It was not a CPU issue. I stopped the transcode service on the Media Center (a reboot of the machine will accomplish the same, getting it to stop transcoding), opened the Transcode 360 Configuration Utility and on the left click on Advanced. On the right, at the bottom I checkmarked 'Downmix multi-channel AC3 to stereo MPEG audio' (I had it unchecked from some previous testing I was doing). I then started the Transcode 360 service (if you rebooted you don't need to do this). I then tried that same movie and it played very nicely. No stuttering or pausing.

Using Symantec Endpoint Protection in Safe Mode - Dealing with service not running error

2009-01-08T12:18:00.003-05:00

Sometimes it is necessary to do an Antivirus scan while in safemode. I have noticed an issue with Symantec Endpoint Protection. After booting into safemode and attempting to launch Symantec Endpoint Protection, an error appears which says "It appears that the Symantec Management Client service is not running. You will not be able to manage network protection settings through the main user interface until it is running. Do you want to start the service now?"

It seems you would want to say Yes, but that will not work. You must choose No. Then the user interface will load and you can scan. You may receive a notice about realtime protection being disabled. For this purpose, that can be ignored.

Reauthoring (ripping with changes) a DVD with DVDShrink (preguide for use with Transcode 360)

2008-12-31T16:39:00.007-05:00

DVDShrink is a great free tool. Download it here:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/CD-DVD-Tools/CD-DVD-Rip-Other-Tools/DVD-Shrink.shtml

DVDs are encrypted. I use AnyDVD to decrypt the disks. AnyDVD is not expensive, runs in the background, and saves you the work of first decrypting the disk. If you do not want to buy AnyDVD (from slysoft) you can use DVDDecrypter:
http://www.dvddecrypter.org.uk/

Before you begin decrypt the dvd, or have AnyDVD installed and running (you will have a little fox head on the systray to know it is running)

After installing, open DVDShrink.
Insert a DVD into your DVD drive.
Give it a moment to read the disk.
Click the Open Disc button.
You should see your drive and movie listed, choose it.
DVDShrink will analyze the disc.
When it is done you will see something like this:

Because I watch movies using Transcode 360 and MyMovies, there are certain things I do to ensure the audio is correct and to not have to sit through all of the trailers. My guide will encorporate this:

Next, click the Reauthor button.
You will see something like this. The main movie is almost always title 1.

Drag and drop title 1 from the right to the left pane. We've now told DVDShrink we only want the movie itself. If you want to make sure you are getting the right thing, highlight the title and click the play button in the little preview pane and you will see what it is. If it is the type of disc that has both widescreen and normal this will help you determine which is the widescreen and which is the 4:3 version.
Now that you have the movie, click the Compression settings tab. Deselect all of the audio tracks except the one you want. If you are English, you'll want the English 5.1. Since we cannot use subtitles on a transcoded movie, you can deselect all of the subtitles. This will make the final file smaller.

Let me add here, if you want the disc, in it's entirety, you do not need to reauthor just click Full Disk.

Now we have what we want click the backup button. Choose how you want it outputted. If you want .vob files and such, choose Hard Disk. If you want an .ISO, choose .ISO image file. Below that, choose where to write the file(s) to. Click OK.

DVDShrink will now create your movie.

Firewall exceptions for Transcode 360

2008-12-31T16:29:00.010-05:00

If you need to manually set your firewall exceptions for Transcode 360 here are the settings:
1) Open port 1401 (TCP).

This is using Control Panel with Classic View under Vista-32 bit

Go to Start>Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Windows Firewall with Advanced Security

On the left highlight Inbound Rules

On the right click click New Rule

Choose Port, Click Next

Dot next to TCP, dot next to Specific local ports. In the box type 1401. Click Next

Dot next to Allow the connection. Click Next

On the ‘When does this rule apply’ you can leave all selected if you want but technically you should only need ‘Private’ if when you set up your media center’s network connection you selected home which is private. Leaving the other boxes selected will not hurt anything.

In the Name box put something like T360

Click Finish.

Now under your inbound rules you will see one with the name you specified above (T360). Double click the rule.

Click the Scope tab.

In the Remote IP Address section put a dot next to ‘These IP Addresses:”.

Click the Add button

Put a dot next to ‘Predefined set of computers:’.

Use the pull down and select ‘Local subnet’.

Click Ok.

Click Ok.

That firewall rule is done. We’ve opened the port 1401 on the Media Center for all local traffic (your house).

2) Add Transcode360.exe and Transcode360Tray.exe to the allowed applications

Actually, I don't know that you need to add the exceptions specified in 2). I noticed that I did not add these to my firewall. I am not at home right now to test, but it may be that just port 1401 is all that is required. If you want to add exceptions for the Trascode processes you can. You can use my instructions above but near the beginning instead of choosing port, choose a program, and then browse to the program (C:\Program Files\Transcode360\Transcode360.exe). The rest of the setting will match the instructions above.

Vista users - if you need help with this have a look at this document:
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/4da18300-9044-47b6-9038-595c78db81ab1033.mspx

If you still need help you can email me aamjohns@[nospam]yahoo.com (remove the [nospam] part.

If you want to enable firewall logging to help troubleshoot have a look at this blog post:
http://tobias-tobin.blogspot.com/2009/02/enabling-firewall-logging-in-vista-for.html

Unable to Trancode error with Transcode 360

2008-12-27T16:26:00.002-05:00

Although there can be more than one cause of this error I want to document one reason that I've been seeing lately. Specifically, this error is caused by certain characters in the folder path that Transcode 360 cannot handle.

Here is an example T360 log highlighting the area of interest:
27/12/2008 9:30:12 AM *VRB* MEncoderTranscoder loaded
27/12/2008 9:30:12 AM *VRB* VLCTranscoder loaded
27/12/2008 9:30:12 AM *VRB* Using optimal resolutions
27/12/2008 9:30:12 AM Spawning: "C:\Program Files\Transcode360\Wrappers\MEncoderTranscoder\mencoder.exe" -quiet -delay 0.2 -oac lavc -srate 48000 -af lavcresample=48000 -of mpeg -mpegopts format=dvd -o "C:\Users\Public\Transcode360\TranscodeBuffer\Iron Man ‑ (Ultimate 2‑Disc Edition).360" -ovc copy dvd://1 -dvd-device "F:\Movies\Iron Man ‑ (Ultimate 2‑Disc Edition)\Iron Man ‑ (Ultimate 2‑Disc Edition).ISO"
27/12/2008 9:30:27 AM *ERR* Transcoding error:
27/12/2008 9:30:27 AM *ERR*
WARNING: OUTPUT FILE FORMAT IS _MPEG_. See -of help.
Couldn't open DVD device: F:\Movies\Iron Man - (Ultimate 2-Disc Edition)\Iron Man - (Ultimate 2-Disc Edition).ISO
No stream found to handle url dvd://1
Cannot open file/device.

Notice the last line 'Cannot open file/device'. This is due to certain characters in the path. Most likely the "(" and ")". Try removing the movie from the Collection Manager. Change the folder path to eliminate the charaters. In the above example rename the Iron Man folder name to just be Iron_Man. Now re-add it to Collection Manger. This time it should work.

Rundll32 has stopped working error on Vista

2008-11-20T14:15:00.002-05:00

I've seen this problem on two different systems. Both were HP laptops running vista. Some brief time after logon the error comes up the Rundll32 has stopped working. Looking in the event logs I see that the associated module is User32.dll (in both cases). I think I may have found the problem. At least this system to work. I had installed Nvidia drivers for the video from the Nvidia website. This installs a Nvidia Driver Helper Service. I think this service had something to do with the problem. What I ended up doing was uninstalling the Nvidia video drivers through the control panel. Rebooting. Then right clicking my computer, choosing properties, clicking Device Manager, expanding Display, right clicking the standard VGA and choosing update driver (and having it automatically do it from the web). It installs the drivers without the helper service. After doing this, the rundll32 has stopped working errors went away.

USB flash drive annoying launch pad software

2008-10-20T10:23:00.001-04:00

Do you want to get rid of the launch pad software on your U3 USB flash drive? I did. I don't use it, and I don't need it. I just want a plain USB flash storage device. The launch pad can be removed. The removal tool is here. Make sure you backup and data stored on the device before you run this tool.

http://www.u3.com/uninstall/

Tool for find paths that are too long on computers or servers

2008-10-13T21:03:00.005-04:00

Occasionaly I run into a situation that quickly becomes very frustrating. Let's say I am backing up a user's data to move to a new system. I'm copying their My Documents to a server, or usb drive and the copy bombs out because it encounters a path that is too long. Another scenario is I am setting someone up to synchronize documents stored on a server with their local computer. Again, the sync bombs because it encounters a path that is too long. This can become frustrating because sometimes you have to dig and search to find the offending file. Or, maybe this person has 100 items that are too long. So again you repeat the process of the copy bombing out and having to go search for the offending files.

I made a tool that can search a system on find all the long paths and record them. The offenders and be exported to a .csv file for the record. This way these can be addressed ahead of time before the backup or sync is run.

This is a very simple tool. It is small and quick. If you think this might be of use to you download it here. This is an installer it copies the exe to a folder under program files and creates a start menu shortcut and a desktop shortcut. If you prefer to just get the exe it is here.

This tool will scan local drives, or UNC paths.

Citrix connection hangs on 'Negotiating Capabilities'

2008-10-12T17:04:00.003-04:00

This is an annoying issue that occurs in an inconsistent manner. Fortunately the fix is easy.

The fix involves deleting some keys from the registry.

Run regedit (Start>Run>type regedit in the open box and click OK)

Expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MSLicensing

Delete the subkeys HardwareID and Store

Try this Citrix connection again. This time it should pass Negotiating Capabilities and work.

You might also want to change the permissions on the MSLicensing key. Users and Power Users should have Full Control permissions to it and all subkeys.

Adding movies to My Movies so they can be accessed from extenders or other media centers

2008-10-12T16:22:00.010-04:00

This is covered in the MyMovies Mulitzone documentation. I will also describe how to properly add the movies to the collection so the path is usable by extenders and other comptuers.

You perform this procedure even if the computer you are adding is the same computer the movie is stored on (ie: your media center).

Add a title to MyMovies through the Collection Manager.

Click the Add Online button.

The Browse for Folder dialog comes up.

Find the node called Network. Click to expand it. Find the computer where the movie is stored (ie: your media center computer).

Expand to the location of the folder containing the movie (there needs to be a Video_TS folder inside)

With the movie folder highlighted click Ok.

Click 'Add owned for keeps' in MyMovies and now the movie is added with the proper path.

This puts the movie into the database with a path like file://vista-mce/F/Movies/BekindRewind rather than F:\Movies\BekindRewind. The latter path will not work when network devices try to access the movie.

If you have already added movies using the local path format, ie: F:\Movies\BekindRewind you can fix them through the Collection Mananger.

With the Collection Manager open browse and select a title on the left.

Under the Edit Title tab click the discs button:

This dialog will come up. Notice the movie has a local path:

Click the little button the red arrow is pointing to in the image above.

That bring up the Folder Browse Dialog.

Again, scroll to Network, expand, find the computer with the movies, expand it, find the movie folder, highlight it, and click OK:

Notice (in the image below) we now have a network path which is what we need.

Click Ok.

Now we are back on the Edit Title tab. Towards the bottom left is the Save Title button. Click it so the changes we just made get save.

The edited movie should now be accessible to media centers and extenders.

Why do you have to do this? A remote device will not understand F:\Movies\movie. A path like that says 'the movie is on myself'. But the movie is not, it is on another computer. So the network path tells the device, go look here on this other computer.

Cooling the ATI Radeon 4870 - how to manually adjust the fan speed

2008-09-15T18:24:00.014-04:00

*****The procedure outlined below is no longer required with drivers and Catalyst Control Center version 8.10 and later. Now you can manually adjust the fans under the ATI Overdrive section.*****

Although this information is obtainable in forums and other websites, I thought I would post it myself. After getting a new ATI 4870 I noticed it was running hot. Even idle, the temperature was 80c. This is not hard to adjust.

1) You need the catalyst control center installed. This comes bundled with the drivers. If you chose not to install it, you can get it from the http://www.ati.com/ (amd) site.

2) Run the ATI Catalyst Control Center and choose advanced mode when prompted

3) Under the Graphics Settings tab, click on ATI Overdrive.

4) Most likely, the Enable ATI Overdrive box will be checked, but the buttons and settings will be greyed out. To enabled this click on the lock icon.

5) Now at the top click the Profiles Menu and choose Profile Manager

6) In the edit or select a profile name type in something like: fanSpeed in profile description you can make yourself a note like 'used to adjust the fan'

7) Below you'll see a Composition tab. All you need (and I believe it is the default) is ATI Overdrive selected

8) Click the Save button. Click the Close button.

9) You can leave the CCC up while you do this part. Go to Start>Control Panel>Folder Options (may need to choose Classic View on the left). Click the View tab and uncheck the box next to show hidden files and folders.

10) Click Ok and close the Control Panel

11) Vista Users -> Now go to Start>Computer> and browse to C:\Users\your username\AppData\Local\ATI\ACE\Profiles.

XP Users -> C:\Documents and Settings\your username\Local Settings\Application Data\ATI\ACE\Profiles

In the profiles folder you will see a file for the fan profile we created. Right click on it and choose edit (or you can open it with notepad). Change the following in the file:

Automatic to Manual and the number to a higher value (ex: replace 23 with 45 or whatever you want). Since this number is a percent the max would be 100 (and it is pretty loud).

For now I am running at 45% and my temps dropped 30 degrees. It is a little louder but not any louder than the other fans in my computer and it had a major effect on the GPU temperature.

12) Now to implement the new setting go back to the CCC (Catalyst Control Center). Click the Profiles Menu, Activate Profile>click the profile name you created. You should hear the fan louder now. You should also notice your GPU temperature dropping.

If you want to make any more changes to the fan speed just go back to the profiles folder, edit the file for the profile, change the number and save. Then go back to the CCC and activate the profile again.

mHome Power Management Module

2008-08-24T13:46:00.001-04:00

This looks interesting.
http://msmvps.com/blogs/chrisl/archive/2008/08/21/1645360.aspx

Thanks Chris.

Xbox 360 controller controls for use with MyMovies

2008-08-19T19:15:00.003-04:00

While the movie is playing (I tested this while watching a transcoded movie on my Xbox 360)

Jump Forward - Right Trigger pull and release jumps the movie about 30 seconds forward. Pull and release repeatedly, quickly, and the movie will jump i guess 30 seconds for each pull. Hold the right trigger and the movie will end and return to 0:00 minutes (and will say done).

Jump Back - Left Trigger pull and release and the movie will briefly rewind (very briefly, not even thirty seconds). Pull and release repeatedly to move back more, but it still seems to be about 5 seconds jumps.

Pause & Play - Right Thumb Stick: click it like a button and it pauses the movie. Click it again and the movie will start playing again.

Show Progress Bar - Right or Left Bumper brings up the progress bar for the movie.

Move Back Through Menus - Back (<) button movies you backwards through the menus

Return to Main Menu - Start (>) button brings up the main media center menu

Show Movie Catalog - (B) button brings up the movie catalog

Show Keyboard - (Y) button brings up the keyboard interface

Details Menu - (X) button brings up Video Details, More..., Zoom, and Settings menu

(A) is used to make selections but doesn't seem to do anything while the movie is playing.

Direction Pad doesn't seem to do anything while the movie is playing

If I am missing something please let me know.

Big Surprise...Transcode 360 is still alive and sounds like it's going to be improved!

2008-08-15T22:30:00.005-04:00

James Botham has re-emerged from a long disappearance. He's back coding on Transcode 360. Have a look here:
http://www.runtime360.com/forums/read.php?3,5513

It looks like he is encorporating some new methods for encoding and will no longer rely on mencoder. Not that there is anything wrong with mencoder :)

Well, in the time I had on T360 I wrote a new wrapper which allows it to use Microsoft Expression Encoder (or Express which is free) through its SDK. This transcodes video using Expressions SDK using any available codec on the PC/Server, so if your media centre plays the file it should transcode it. (posted July 26, 2008)

I'm really glad to have stumbled on that post. I have been trying to find him and what happened to T360 and the codecreators.co.uk site. Wow. Great news!

Vista Media Center TV Pack

2008-08-15T18:56:00.003-04:00

Have you read about this yet? It is REALLY disappointing in my opinion. There are places to read about it online (here for example) so I won't rehash that. But I will mention what I see as a major letdown.

no H.264 support or DirecTV support
No more commercial skipping using plug-ins like DVRMSToolbox (it is suggested MS broke this on purpose)
New WTV file format - no more DVRMS files
Update restricted to OEMs and only availabe on new computer purchases

This just sucks. The future just keeps getting worse.

Thanks Microsoft. I'll keep looking for a better solution to HTPC in my home.

Citrix - Wfcrun32 Error Failed to set Event Logging and Open or Save .ica file prompts

2008-08-15T14:51:00.008-04:00

Wfcrun32 Error Failed to set Event Logging

This error occurs after updating versions of the Citrix software. To fix this error delete the appsrv.ini file located under the user's profile. On XP the location is:
C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Application Data\ICAClient
The file will be recreated automatically on the next connection. This should clear up that error message.
Here is a script you can run on a XP machine that will automatically remove the file from each profile. Extract the file and run it on each machine you want cleaned. Appsrv_Cleaner

Open or Save .ica file prompts

Also with Citrix, if when clicking web links that are supposed to initiate a citrix connection you get prompted to open or save the .ica file there are two things you can try. One, with the user logged on run this command from the directory where wfica32.exee is installed wfica32 /setup or from a command prompt run:
"C:\program files\Citrix\ICA Client\wfica32" /setup

Another thing to try is go to Control Panel>Internet Options>Advanced>Under Security check the box for 'do not save encrypted pages to disk'. After checking the box and clicking ok, close out all of your IE windows and try again.

If that doesn't work, try uninstalling citrix and installing the latest software. Or try installing Firefox and see if it will work through Firefox.

Giving a Media Center Extender access to files on another device (NAS, WHS, Computer) through the Media Center using custom username and password

2008-08-11T10:31:00.019-04:00

*****When you go to run this on Vista, right click the exe and choose Run As Administrator (unless you have disabled the UAC.*****

*****Only run this tool on the Media Center computer. Do not run this on any other computers. It will not work. Only the Media Center can utilize this tool.*****

Quick access: Downloads (MSI-Installer ) or (Executable File) and (Instruction Manual PDF)

I started creating instructions similar to:

But I decided to try a different route. This time I wrote a program to do the work.

This tool needs to be run on your Media Center PC. Note - You only need to run it once to get everything setup. If at a later time you add another share or device, you can run it again to updated the login scripts. It can allow your Media Extenders to access other network devices that are sharing files. This includes NAS, Windows Home Server, or another PC (XP or Vista). It works by created login scripts for Media Center Extender accounts on the Media Center that connect to the devices using a different account - one that you specify. Create the account on the other device(s), add it to the shares and then run this tool. This tool works differently than the 2 links above in that it uses a separate account with password to gain access to the shares. The above 2 links describe giving access based on 'all access permissions' like Guest and passwordless public sharing. With this tool, the above two link are somewhat obsolete. Why not just use an account for sharing instead of opening up shares to Guest or Anonymous? This has been tested with MyMovies and Transcode 360.

Downloads (MSI-Installer ) or (Executable File) and (Instruction Manual PDF)

If you want a actual installer that will create a Start Programs menu folder and shortcut, as well as a desktop shortcut, download and run the .msi installer.

If you want just the .exe file and documentation, and no installation at all download the .zip file.

The program comes with instructions. Here's a copy of them. When you run the program you will see a Help link in the upper right. Click that. Or, open the included documentation folder and view them in .pdf or .html format. The instructions might be a little long and wordy. Don't let them fool you, it is a quick and easy tool.

This tool requires you have .NET Framework version 2 installed for it to work.

Finally, use the tool at your own risk. It is a simple tool. It does not delete anything. It shouldn't mess anything up. But, I don't make any guarantees about this tool.

Disconnect VPN hangs

2008-08-09T14:37:00.003-04:00

I started noticing problems disconnecting a VPN connection on my Vista SP1 machine. When I choose to disconnect, the disconnecting dialog would not go away. Trying to end task did not work. The system would hang when trying to shutdown. Something clearly had gone wrong with this...

It appears the problem is related to Symantec Endpoint Protection. I had SEP MR2 installed when I noticed this problem. After doing a little reading I confirmed others are having this same problem. It seems the problem is not limited to Vista. I saw reports of users with XP having issues.

Uninstalling SEP resolves the disconnecting VPN problem. So far I am not really liking the new Symantec Endpoint Protection. I am switching over to NOD32.

Using .ISO files with Media Extenders, Transcode 360, and MyMovies

2008-08-06T20:33:00.005-04:00

MyMovies supports watching movies in .iso format. This requires an image mounting software be installed. I used the free software Virtual CloneDrive - http://www.slysoft.com/en/virtual-clonedrive.html

Install the VCD software on the Media Center computer that runs MyMovies.
Open MyMovies Collection Manager
Go to Configure>Image Mounter> it should detect that you have VCD installed. Click Ok.
In Collection Manager the Title should be added just like you are adding a ripped movie. Browse to the folder using Network and select the folder that contains the .ISO file.
If the movie is on the Media Center that is all you do. When watching through My Movies choose Watch Stream. MyMovies will mount the .ISO file and Transcode 360 should transcode it for viewing. If the .ISO is store on a computer other than the Media Center (NAS, WHS, another windows computer), check my instructions below for proper configuration of sharing.

Accessing media stored on a Windows Home Server from an extender, with MyMovies and Transcode 360 running on a separate Media Center

2008-08-06T19:13:00.006-04:00

I don't have a WHS so I cannot test what I am writing. Hopefully I will be able to confirm the instructions through feedback.

Setup a share on the WHS to share the movies

The MCE (Media Center Extender) will be connecting to the WHS through a Media Center computer running MyMovies. The easiest way to set this up is using the Guest account.

Share the folder that contains all of your movie folders

1. From WHS Console add a share folder call "Movies" (doesn't have to be called Movies, call it whatever you want) to WHS default shared folders. The folder you share should be the root folder of all of your movie folders.

Enabled the Guest account on WHS

1. Open the Windows Home Server Console.
2. Click the User Accounts tab.
3. Right-click Guest, and then select Enable Guest Account
4. Click Next.
5. Select No Guest Password, and then click Next.
6. Click Read for any shared folder that you would like to have accessed and viewed using Windows Media Center.
7. Click Finish.

So sum this up, you have created a share, called "Movies" that is the folder that contains all of the movie folders. You enabled the Guest account with no password. You added the Guest account to the shared folder with Read access.

I am not sure whether WHS will automatically open the firewall for shared folders. That will need to be done. I'll have to leave that up to you to figure out.

Here is a nice guide to media sharing on WHS. It touches on what we are doing here with the Guest account and sharing. Windows Home Server Media Sharing

The above instructions are nearly identical to what I described the Using Transcode 360 with My Movies and Vista MCE post. It is the same concept. And this will work on more than a WHS box. You can share off another computer in your house. As long as you add the path to the movie properly in MyMovies Collection Manager and the sharing is setup properly, the Extender will be able to play movies off other computers (other than the Media Center computer).

Adding movies shared off other computers (WHS for example) in MyMovies

When adding the title, choose 'Add Online' button. Browse the Network for the Computer and Share containing the movie folder you are adding. For example:

Click Ok

And click 'Add to owned, for keeps'

This adds the movie using a UNC path. The path in the example above would be \\vista-mce\f\movies\8MM2Uncut
The path has to be added in this manner, so networked devices can find it. A local path C:\Movies\8MM2Uncut would not work.

Transcode 360 expects there to be a folder that is the name of your movie. Within that folder there needs to be a Video_TS folder, and within that, the actual movie files (.vob, .ifo, etc). If you do not use that folder structure, watching movies with extenders, MyMovies, and Transcode 360 will not work *unless the movie is an .ISO, in which case the Video_TS folder is not necessary).

If you extender was connected to the Media Center while you set all of this up, close its connection to the media center and reopen it.

Internet Explorer - Out of Memory Error at line 56

2008-08-04T11:13:00.002-04:00

If you get this error go to http://www.adobe.com and update your Adobe Flash player. After updating close out your browser and web browsing again. It should be fixed. I believe this is an adobe flash player problem.

Allowing Media Center extenders to access movies stored on a NAS (public access no password version)

2008-07-28T20:44:00.011-04:00

Before digging into this I've also created a tool that will help you setup getting extenders access to other devices (NAS, etc) where you can use an account that you created on the NAS or whatever. Personally I think it is a better solution:

Giving a Media Center Extender access to files on another device (NAS, WHS, Computer) through the Media Center using custom username and password

The intent of this procedure is to permit your media extender(s) to play ripped movies stored on a NAS. This assumes you are using My Movies and Transcode 360 on the Media Extender. Please use your own judgement if you choose to follow them. Also, you can google search for 'mcx account drive mapping' or 'media extender NAS' stuff like that, for other opinions or approaches. Finally, the zip I included (at the bottom) is not click and go. You will need to edit the files to match what you need. Don't use the files if you are not comfortable. Bottom line is I hope this helps...

The NAS should be configured to allow access to all accounts. We will not know the password the media centers are using so we need them to be allowed to connect without supplying a password.
First find out what media extender accounts will be needing access to the NAS. To do this, on the Media Center PC (Vista), go to Control Panel>System>Advanced System Settings>Advanced Tab>Under 'User Profiles' click the Settings button. Write down each Mcx account. Example, Mcx1, Mcx2, Mcx3. The example indicates three extenders have been added to the Media Center.

The directory you will be saving this to probably will not exist yet so create it. To create, go to Start>Computer>click the drive letter Vista is installed on. By default this will be C:. Click Windows, click System32. In the right pane, right click in the white space and choose 'New>Folder'. Name the folder Repl. Now click Repl. Right click again, New>Folder and name it Import. Click Import, right click, New>Folder and name is Scripts.

Next, create the drive mapping script. To do this open Notepad (Start>All Programs>Accessories>Notepad

The drive letter to use in the script should be the same as what you use when you work on the NAS from your Media Center. If you make a mapping called 'z:' then use 'z:' in the script. The script should look like this.

net use z: /delete /y
net use z: "\\your_NAS_server\the_folder_to_map_to" /persistent:no

Quotes are not required around the path unless the path has spaces in it, then you do have to use the quotes. Safe bet is just to quote it. If you have additional drive you want mapped just type the same thing on the next line for each one. The first line is to delete any existing mapping, the second line establishes the mapping. The first line is not required but, like the quotes, it is a good practice and will not hurt.

In Notepad go to File>Save As>change 'save as type' to all files. Name the file whatever you want (ie: mcx1_mapping.cmd). When you save it make sure you type the .cmd (the extension). You will need this script name later so write it down if you easily forget. Save the file to the folder we created above. If Vista is on C: you will save it to C:\Windows\System32\Repl\Import\Scripts

Now go to Start>All Programs>Accessories>right click on Command Prompt and choose 'Run as Administrator'. If you have the UAC disabled, you don't have to choose to run it as administrator. At the command prompt type:

net user mcx1 /scriptpath:mcx1_mapping.cmd

and hit Enter. If you are doing this for another account, say Mcx2, then it would be net user mcx2 rather than mcx1. Also, obviously, the script name you specify should match the name you used.

Now test this with the media center extender. If you have media cente open on the extender close it. Open media center on the extender. Now if you have movies on your NAS that were added to MyMovies, you should be able to watch them rather than getting the 'path not found' error.

I don't have a NAS. I was instructed on this by another (Andy K.). Thanks Andy. I would appreciate any trial and error feedback on this so I can make sure these instructions are correct. If you get a chance to test this I would appreciate your comments. Email me or leave comments on here. By the way, I don't run the UAC on my Vista machine. It seems more of a problem than it is worth. Andy confirmed he does run it and this method worked for him.

Here is a sample you can use to help...Download this zip file. Extract it somewhere, like your desktop. Open the folder. Right click the mcx.mapping cmd file. Choose Edit. Alter the text to match the mcx account you want, the path to your NAS share, and the drive letter. After making your changes, go to File>Save. Now right click the setup.cmd file and choose edit. On the net user line, alter the mcx account to match the one you are mapping for. Also, if Vista is not installed on C:, change the letter on the first line. Now go to File>Save. Right click the setup file again and choose 'Run as Administrator'. This will make the folders, copy the mcx_mapping.cmd to the folder, and then set the net user logon script.

More information:
http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/260952.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/mpoulson/archive/2005/01/17/354999.aspx
http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/2/206983/ShowThread.aspx
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb490718.aspx