Netflix on Windows 7 Media Center

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

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

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
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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

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

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

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

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.