• Install and configure QuickGuide for MCE 2005

  I get a lot of people asking for help on how to install and configure QuickGuide for MCE 2005. QuickGuide enables you to use the MCE 2005 Electronic Programme Guide in unsupported countries, where there is no native EPG support.The guide you see below is assembled from a host of sources on the internet. Most of what you see below comes straight out of the installation guide that comes with QuickGuide. I have just simplified it slightly and added some more explanations. First things first. Obviously you will need a fully operational MCE PC.  If you are performing this on a freshly installed MCE machine then please start MCE and run through the setup wizard. Make sure you get a TV signal. This will initialize the Media Center application and prepare it for what we are about to do.  All your settings will be deleted when you follow the installation instructions below, so don't spend too much time customizing the setup. Download the QuickGuide for MCE 2005 zip file here in the files section of this site and extract the zip file somewhere.  The download contains QuickGuide and a number of other files and utilities that are required to get all of this working. Download the latest copy of your ZAXMLTV file from the file gallery or wherever your preferred XMLTV is. From the download, copy the contents of the QuickGuide directory into the C:\WINDOWS\eHome directory. Copy the XMLTV directory from the download onto the root of your C:\ Copy your XMLTV.xml file into the C:\XMLTV folder. Run the C:\WINDOWS\eHome\MCE2005_EPG_Enable.reg to merge its contents in the registry. This fools Media Center into thinking that you accepted the terms of service for the guide and enables it to be used. There are 2 options to this step.  Either use one of the South African ChannelInfo.xml files available in the download or create your own.  The download has ChannelInfo.xml files for both the DSTV set of channels and the SABC, MNET and E-TV channels.  Just copy the relevant file from the download into the C:\WINDOWS\eHome\ folder. The DSTV file is in the DSTV Files folder and the other one is in the MNET Files folder.  If you want to create your own ChannelInfo.xml file run C:\WINDOWS\eHome\Dumper.exe. This program will dump a sample DerivedChannelInfo.xml file based on your current channels defined in MCE, assuming you have your channels all setup within MCE at all.  The file will be created in the directory that you run Dumper.exe from.  Rename the channelID, virtualchannel and name fields in this file to those in your XMLTV file.  Rename DerivedChannelInfo.xml to ChannelInfo.xml and copy it to the C:\WINDOWS\eHome folder. Run C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322\CasPol.exe -s off in a command prompt window. Kill all eh* processes using Task Manager.  Another way of doing this is running taskkill /im eh* /f in a command window. Delete everything under C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\eHome\ (including all the subfolders). Warning: This will delete anything configured in MCE including Scheduled Recordings, Channels Setup etc. Open using regedit.exe and navigate your way to the  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Tuning Spaces\# where # is number of the TV setup you use. "1″ is for local analogue cable, "2″ is for local analogue antenna.  Change the value of the MinChannel key to 1. This will make channel 1 available as preset channel. Open regedit and delete all the registry keys under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\TV System Services\TVAutoTune. This will clear all existing channels and only use the ones which will be configured after using QuickGuide. We will not use the data found in the MCE 2005 service scan.  Do not delete all the keys if you have already added your own frequency data here for South Africa.  If you need more information regarding  finding out how to create this registry key, read the Finding analogue TV broadcast frequencies for MCE 2005 article on this site.  Open the C:\WINDOWS\eHome\QuickGuide.exe.config file using notepad. On line 5, make sure the XMLTVFile value points to your XMLTV file. If you are using the scripts and directory settings from the QuickGuide download available on this site, the value should be set to C:\XMLTV\xmltv.xml and you should not have to change anything. Go through the rest of the C:\WINDOWS\eHome\QuickGuide.exe.config file and set any other settings that you need to set.  The default values should work fine in most cases. Save and close the config file. If you have DSTV or a set top box TV source in any other country then you don't need to run the next few steps as it only applies to analogue antenna TV sources.  You can move onto step 21.  We need to make some changes to our XMLTV file to work with the ChannelInfo.xml file and so that the channels are numbered as 1,2,3,4 and 5 and not 3, 46, 47, 48 and 49.  To do this run Alter XMLTV File.Bat from the download. You will find it in the MNET sub folder. This will use a cool little utility written by Rob Flor to find and replace the relevant data within the XMLTV file. The Alter XMLTV File.bat contains the following commands.  C:\XMLTV\alter.exe c:\XMLTV\xmltv.xml "49.dstv.com" "5" C:\XMLTV\alter.exe c:\XMLTV\xmltv.xml "48.dstv.com" "3" C:\XMLTV\alter.exe c:\XMLTV\xmltv.xml "47.dstv.com" "2" C:\XMLTV\alter.exe c:\XMLTV\xmltv.xml "46.dstv.com" "1" C:\XMLTV\alter.exe c:\XMLTV\xmltv.xml "3.dstv.com" "4" If you live outside South Africa and need to do the same, you can just adapt the code above. Edit C:\XMLTV\Update EPG using QuickGuide.bat and remove the rem commands from lines 8 - 12 so that it looks like the above block of code. If you need more information regarding this step or need help in finding out how to create this registry key, read the Finding analogue TV broadcast frequencies for MCE 2005 article on this site.  Open regedit.exe and navigate to the  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\TV System Services\TVAutoTune key. Within this registry key, you will see that there are a number of sub keys with the following format:  TSXX-0 or TSXX-1.  TS stands for Tuning Space.  XX is the country code based on the international dialling code prefix.  0 or 1 indicates the signal type, 0 is for analogue antenna and 1 cable or satellite. Find the relevant sub key that applies to your country. Simply export this key by right clicking the TS27-0 key or the relevant key for your country, choosing Export and save the file as frequencies.reg in the C:\XMLTV folder.  In the end, you should have something that looks along the lines of this: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\TV System Services\TVAutoTune\TS27-0] "1"=dword:0aec2c50 "2"=dword:0c5a6250 "3"=dword:2fa39650 "4"=dword:21557a50 "5"=dword:2dbb4e50 Edit C:\XMLTV\Update EPG using QuickGuide.bat and remove the rem command from line 21 so that it says regedit /s C:\XMLTV\frequencies.reg. Either run C:\WINDOWS\eHome\QuickGuide.exe or run the C:\XMLTV\Update EPG using QuickGuide.bat file. Note: Always execute QuickGuide.exe when your command prompt is in the C:\WINDOWS\eHome directory as it does not work properly if you run it from another location.  If there is an error, you'll get a stack trace, and this is likely to point to the problem. Start MCE and confirm that you can watch TV and have Guide data and all the right channels in the right order (the same order as in WebGuide2). QuickGuide supports adding the data from the categories tag in the XMLTV files into the Media Center 2005 EPG. QuickGuide does this by using a file called categories.txt file to map these categories from your XMLTV file into categories that MCE 2005 can understand.  The download contains a categories.txt file with all the categories that are within the ZAXMLTV files.  Please be aware that some TV programs do not have a category assigned to it by DSTV so they will not have category data in the XMLTV files or the MCE 2005 EPG.  To use this updated categories.txt file save the file and copy it to the C:\Windows\Ehome\EPGXMLWriterParts folder. Next time you do a guide update, QuickGuide will use this file to create and map the programs to categories in the EPG. Optionally, open the C:\XMLTV\Update EPG using QuickGuide.bat file and edit lines 25 and 26.  To automatically reboot the machine after the guide update remove the rem command from line 25 so that it says shutdown -r -t 5 -f and add a rem command on line 26 so that it says rem start C:\WINDOWS\eHome\ehshell.exe.  From now on it is only necessary to run C:\XMLTV\Update EPG using QuickGuide.bat after you have copied a new XMLTV file to C:\XMLTV to update the guide.C:\XMLTV\Update EPG using QuickGuide.bat simply does the following: Kills all the MCE processes. Makes a backup of your XMLTV file. Alters the file using alter.exe (depending on your configuration.) Turns .Net security off. Runs QuickGuide to update the EPG Imports the frequencies.reg file (depending on your configuration.) Turns .Net security on again. Starts MCE or reboots the machine (depending on your configuration.) I have done this many, many times and have never really struggled to get it to work.  If something does go wrong and the guide has no data, reboot your machine and repeat each step above to check what the problem could be. If for some reason you have no luck with QuickGuide, you could always try using SmartGuide to get data into the MCE EPG. If you need help with any of this, drop us a note on the forums. Good luck! Posted May 07 2006, 06:07 PM by Chris Filed under: Articles, Hacks & Mods, EPG, QuickGuide

• Finding analogue TV broadcast frequencies for MCE 2005

  For those of you need to setup MCE 2005 using an antenna, this is for you. We are going to step through the options you have to get the all important frequency data and registry keys that MCE requires to view the TV signal for your area. Remember, no matter what you do, if you have a bad signal coming into your MCE or TV, there is not much either can do about it.  Have a look at this article, Analogue TV signal issues here on this site regarding a bad TV picture and what you can do about it. First, some background with regards to how MCE, and most other PVR software, works all this out.  DirectX handles all the internal frequency setup for most applications that need a TV signal.  Your video card driver will interact with DirectX to find the frequency for your area using pre-defined tables.  These DirectX tables have frequency data for a number of countries. The correct country code, the same as the international dialling code prefix, is determined via the country settings you PC is set to.  This can be setup in the Control Panel under the Regional Settings icon.  South Africa uses the same frequency table as the United Kingdom.  You can find the table here on the MSDN site. When scanning for channels, the TV tuner filter in DirectX will use this frequency table to look for channels instead of scanning the whole frequency spectrum as this is a lot quicker.  When the TV Tuner filter tunes to a channel, it scans for the most precise signal.  In other words, once a channel is found, it auto tunes by itself to get the correct lock. Although these frequencies are generally expected to be exact, broadcast frequencies may be adjusted up or down several Hz (Hertz) by the broadcast station to reduce potential interference with neighbouring channels. DirectX supports that if no channels are found, you can specify frequency overrides yourself, which take precedent over those stored internally within DirectX. A significant amount of effort was spent to ensure that the broadcast frequencies and colour standard assignments are correct for each country or region. Even so, there will be situations when the frequency tables are not sufficient, contain errors, or become obsolete. To address this problem, the frequencies listed in the TV Tuner filter's frequency tables may be selectively overridden by using the registry.  These are known as frequency overrides and are grouped into application-defined "tuning spaces," which are identified by number. You specify these overrides in a registry key.  The key can be found at: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\TV System Services\TVAutoTune. Within this registry key, you will see that there are a number of sub keys with the following format:  TSXX-0 or TSXX-1.  TS stands for Tuning Space.  XX is the country code based on the international dialling code prefix.  0 or 1 indicates the signal type, 0 is for analogue antenna and 1 cable or satellite. Within those keys there are a number of DWORD sub keys and values.  The DWORD key name is the channel number and the value is a hexadecimal number equating to the frequency in Hz that you require.  You are looking at an 8 digit number, e.g. 243250000 equates to 243.25MHz. The following example shows an example override, the one I use for my MCE setup: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\TV System Services\TVAutoTune\TS27-0] "1"=dword:0aec2c50 "2"=dword:0c5a6250 "3"=dword:2fa39650 "4"=dword:21557a50 "5"=dword:2dbb4e50 Note the "TS27-0" key name. 27 for South Africa and 0 for analogue antenna. In the above example the DWORD sub key named 5 overrides the frequency value for the frequency at index 5 in the internal frequency table. Although overriding the base frequencies is supported the TV Tuner filter will still auto tune the last bit to get the best picture.  You cannot manually do an adjustment up and down the frequency spectrum to try improve things.  It will either lock onto the signal and therefore have the best possible picture or it won't be able to and you will have a snowy image.  In other words, if you have a snowy picture now, and do an override to move up or down .25mhz, you will have the same snowy picture, as the TV tuner will still find the signal and still auto tune to the horizontal lock that it had found before. There is a chance the local frequencies differ from that given by the DirectX table, hence no amount of tuning or scanning will find any stations. As mentioned above, it doesn't scan every part of the frequency spectrum looking for a signal as that will take too long.  It only scans where it expects to find a signal so, you can do a scan and miss everything if your local broadcast frequencies differ to those that Windows knows about.  By putting in the registry overrides the TV Tuner will find channels, but you haven’t achieved an auto tune, what you have done is told the card where to expect to find channels, the card has then auto tuned given those base frequencies to start with. OK, so now we have got that sometimes confusing lot out of the way, we can discuss ways to scan for frequencies.  Both of the steps outlined below only ever need to be performed once for your MCE.  Once you have this data store it somewhere safe or just save the registry key and if you ever rebuild the machine, you can just import it again.  You only need to perform 1 of the 2 options listed below. The output of this exercise will give you the information that you need when using this article to get EPG data in Media Center using SmartGuide 2005 or this article using QuickGuide as well as a registry file that you can use in any way that you want.   Option 1: Use MCE Before we begin, I have read a number of reports that MCE machines running MCE Rollup 2 or later have issues finding channels whilst performing a scan.  I have tested this and from what I saw, it appears those reports are partially correct.  After Rollup 2 was installed, I found that MCE defiantly picked up less channels but it did pick up all the channels that it did before MCE Rollup 2 was installed.  I might just be lucky that it did find all my channels though. Just bear this in mind, if you are struggling to get this to work.  You may need to do this process on a machine that does not have Rollup 2 installed. Build your media center PC as per usual.  Run MCE for the first time.  Click through the first couple of screens, choosing the options you want until you get to the screen called Optional Setup.  Select Configure tuners, TV signal, and Guide and click Next. On the confirm your region page, ensure the current region is set to South Africa or whatever country you live in.  If it isn't, close MCE and chnage this under regional settings and start again.  If everything is correct, select Yes, use this region to configure TV services and click Next. Choose Antenna as your input and click Next. On the Guide Privacy screen, click No under Do you want to use the Guide? and click Next. On the Scan for Services screen ,click Start Scan.  Once the scan is complete, click Next. Run through the rest of the setup until it is finished, configuring any relevant options along the way. To get the actual frequency in Hz for each channel, navigate your way to Settings > TV > Guide > Edit Channels from within the MCE UI. You should then be presented with a list of channel numbers and frequencies.  Unfortunately, this list can get compromised by the fact that if MCE detects teletext on a channel, it will not display that channels frequency in the list.  Also, for some reason does not like some frequencies and won't display them at all.  All you have to do is write down the frequency for each TV channel.  In the case of there being 2 channels listed for the same TV channel, just choose the one with the best picture.  If you are happy with your results, move on down to the section of this artcle that explains how to use the frequencies. If all your channels are not present or you are not happy with the image quality you can always run scan again.  To do this navigate your way to Settings > TV > Scan for More Services and click the Start Scan button.  This will run the scan again and it might find more to append to your list. If for some reason you don't have any luck gathering your frequency data using MCE, try it using the other method below. Option 2: Use MediaPortal MediaPortal is an awesome open source HTPC application that is an alternative to MCE 2005.  It has some great features and some really talented and dedicated developers work on it.  You can read more about it on their website. One of the great features of this product is the nice configuration tools that they have written.  We will use these tools to get the information that we need. Download and install MediaPortal. Run the Setup MediaPortal icon on the Desktop or in the Start Menu. Once the window opens select Television and then Capture Cards in the left tree. Your TV capture card should be listed in the right pane of the window.  Select your card and click the Edit button.  If it is not in the list, click the Add button. Once the window opens, select the Auto tune tab. Ensure the country is set to South Africa or whatever country you are looking for and that your input source is set to Antenna.  Once you are happy click the Scan button. Once the scan is complete, you should see a window similar to this one: If all your channels are not present or you are not happy with the image quality you can always click the Scan button again. Once all the channels have been found go to this page on MSDN and map the channel numbers in the Ch column to the ones in the table to find the frequency.  In the case of there being 2 channels listed for the same TV channel, just choose the one with the best picture.  For example, in the screenshot you'll see that the scan picked up channel 8.  I identified this as SABC 2 using the preview window.  Going to the page on the MSDN site, I can now see that the frequency for SABC 2 in my area is 207250000 Hz or 207.25 MHz.   Perform this method for each channel you want to use.  The table below, lists all the relevant frequencies I found. 1 - SABC 1 = 183250000 Hz 2 - SABC 2 = 207250000 Hz 3 - SABC 3 = 799250000 Hz 4 - MNET = 559250000 Hz 5 - E-TV = 767250000 Hz Use the frequencies So what do you do with these frequencies now that you have them?  Well, both SmartGuide 2005 and QuickGuide need these frequencies when a guide update is run.  SmartGuide allows you to enter these channels into the application and will apply them automatically if the correct switches are used.  Have a look at this article on this site for more information regarding setting up SmartGuide or this one regarding setting up QuickGuide. QuickGuide does not support this feature and you need to import registry key manually after each guide update to accomplish the same thing SmartGuide does.  See steps 19 and 20 in this article for more information regarding this. To create a registry key based on the above data that can be used to import the frequencies after a guide update perform the following steps: Open regedit.exe and navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\TV System Services\TVAutoTune. Delete all the keys with the name TS27-0. Create a new key called TS27-0 by right clicking the TVAutoTune key and selecting New > Key. Create a new DWORD value by right clicking the TS27-0 key and selecting New > DWORD value.  Name the value 1. Set the value data for the newly created key by double clicking on it.  When the box opens, select Decimal and type 183250000 in the Value data field.  Click OK.  The value should then be converted to the Hexadecimal value when you do so. Repeat steps 4 and 5 for each of the channels in the order that you want the channels to be listed. Once you have done this all your channels will be listed in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\TV System Services\TVAutoTune key.  Simply export this key by right clicking the TS27-0 key or the relevant key for your country, choosing Export, save the file and you are done. In the end, you should have something that looks along the lines of this: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\TV System Services\TVAutoTune\TS27-0] "1"=dword:0aec2c50 "2"=dword:0c5a6250 "3"=dword:2fa39650 "4"=dword:21557a50 "5"=dword:2dbb4e50 One final option: If you have a Hauppauge TV card, have a look at FreqCopy which is a tool that takes channel and frequency information from tables constructed by Hauppauge's WinTV software and automatically builds the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\TV System Services\TVAutoTune\ for you.  I have had varying degrees of success with this little application, mainly due to the WinTV application not being the best around.   Last resort: If all of this fails and you simply cannot get an antenna input to work with MCE, you can get around using an antenna as a TV source in MCE by using a video machine to capture the TV signal.  You then output from the video machine to the MCE TV card using RCA or S-Video cables and setup MCE to use satellite as a TV signal source and configure it to use the IR blaster to change channels on the video machine.  By setting MCE up in this way, you basically fool MCE into thinking you have a set top box like a DSTV decoder. Good luck! Posted May 04 2006, 04:48 PM by Chris Filed under: Articles

• Install MCE 2005 on Windows XP Home or Windows XP Professional

  I have installed MCE 2005 on my PC at home that is running a standard copy of Windows XP Professional. This is not my main MCE machine as I have a dedicated MCE machine that resides in my lounge and is used to watch TV, record TV, watch DVD's, videos, listen to music, play picture slideshows etc.etc.. Basically all the good things that MCE can do. My other PC resides in my study and this is the one used in this little experiment.I came across a few posts on several other forums regarding running MCE on Windows XP Home or Professional and Windows Server 2003 and I thought I would like to give it a crack. The goal is to get MCE 2005 fully operational and be able to apply any MCE 2005 update. This works on Windows XP Home and Professional . It might work on Windows Server 2003. It will not work on a corporate licence (generally does not require activation) of XP as you will not be able to change the SystemPrefix so ehshell.exe and a number of other MCE files think they are running on a 'real' MCE PC. Changing this on that version of Windows will return an error message upon reboot indicating the PID is invalid for the media type and you will not be able to login to Windows. I have not gone into that here as modifying these files is a breach of your licence agreement, even if you have a valid licence. What I can tell you is that it can be done. All you have to do is scratch around the internet a little.What is listed below has been compiled from a number of posts on other forums. Credit goes to Cactus and Turge for most of this. All I have done is taken little bits and improved them as well as added some other information.  Also, just a warning regarding the piracy implications of this. I have valid licences for both Windows XP and Windows Media Center 2005. I do not condone piracy. MCE 2005 is a great product. Go and buy it if you want to use it.What you need: Windows XP Home or Professional CD Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 CD's XPLite or WfpAdmin Microsoft .Net Framework 1.1 and Microsoft .Net Framework 1.1 SP1 Microsoft .Net Framework SDK 1.1 Bart's Preinstalled Environment (BartPE) Media Player 10 and a DVD decoder such as WinDVD or Nvidia PureVideo decoder. All the updates for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2, unless you have a slipstreamed copy of Windows XP with SP2 The Install MCE 2005 on Windows XP Home or Professional Script Pack, available in the downloads section of this site. If you already have a working MCE 2005 machine and wish to perform this on another PC that you own, you can skip step 1 and perform steps 2, 3 and 4 on your current MCE rather. Below is the process I followed: 1) Do a normal installation of Windows XP Media Center Edition. Format your drive and do a fresh install. Check if everything is working. Do not proceed if your MCE is not in working order. 2) Extract the Install MCE 2005 on Windows XP Home or Professional Script Pack to a folder and execute 1 - Make Directories.bat 3) Copy the following files from the respective locations in C:\Windows to the locations created by the batch file as listed below:C:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\inf\plusoc.inf C:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\inf\sonic.inf C:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\inf\sysoc.inf C:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\inf\medctroc.infC:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\system32\ehOCGen.dll C:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\system32\encdec.dll C:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\system32\medctroc.dll C:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\system32\mpeg2data.ax C:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\system32\msvidctl.dll C:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\system32\plusoc.dll C:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\system32\quartz.dll C:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\system32\sbe.dll C:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\system32\sbeio.dll C:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\system32\vbicodec.ax C:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\system32\wstpager.ax C:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\system32\wstrenderer.axC:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\system32\CatRoot\{F750E6C3-38EE-11D1-85E5-00C04FC295EE}\plus.cat C:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\system32\CatRoot\{F750E6C3-38EE-11D1-85E5-00C04FC295EE}\sonic.cat C:\MCE2K5 Install\Copy Files\Windows\system32\CatRoot\{F750E6C3-38EE-11D1-85E5-00C04FC295EE}\mediactr.cat4) Save the entire C:\MCE 2005 Install folder to another drive or somewhere else.5) Install your copy of Windows XP. Format your drive and do a fresh install. Include all your drivers and everything else you would do to get your PC working 100%. 6) Install XP SP2. If you are using a slipstreamed version of XP with SP2 you can skip this step. 7) Install Media Player 10 and a DVD decoder. 8) Install the .Net Framework 1.1 and then the .Net Framework 1.1 SP1.9) Install the .Net Framework SDK 1.1.10) Run XPLite or WfpAdmin and disable Windows File Protection.11) Copy the entire C:\MCE 2005 Install folder from the location that you saved it.12) Ensure that the C:\MCE 2005 Install\ 2 - Bart PE Copy Files.bat exists in the C:\MCE 2005 Install folder. Do not execute it just yet. If it is not there you can extract it from the Install MCE 2005 on Windows XP Home or Professional Script Pack again.13) Create your BartPE disk and boot up with it.14) Run C:\MCE 2005 Install\ 2 - Bart PE Copy Files.bat.15) Run regedit.exe.16) Load the system hive from C:\windows\system32\config\system. See this page on the Microsoft website for instructions on loading and unloading hives. Use test as your keyname for the hive.17) Modify the following registry entries in the loaded system hive. This changes the SystemPrefix so ehshell.exe and a number of other MCE files think they are running on a 'real' MCE PC.HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\WPA\MediaCenter "Installed"=dword:00000001 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup "SystemPrefix"=hex:ce,13,00,00,00,00,3e,c818) Unload the system hive and reboot your PC back into Windows.19) Check your system properties. It should say Media Center Edition. This means the registry change worked. 20) Ensure that the C:\MCE 2005 Install\ 3 - Install MCE.bat exists in the C:\MCE 2005 Install folder. Do not execute it just yet. If it is not there you can extract it from the Install MCE 2005 on Windows XP Home or Professional Script Pack again. 21) Ensure that the C:\MCE 2005 Install\ MCE.reg exists in the C:\MCE 2005 Install folder. Do not merge this file. It gets merged by the batch file in the next script. If it is not there you can extract it from the Install MCE 2005 on Windows XP Home or Professional Script Pack again. 22) Run C:\MCE 2005 Install\ 3 - Install MCE.bat. When prompted for mediactr.cab point it to the file mediactr.cab on your MCE 2005 CD2 CD. 23) You should now have a working Media Center 2005 PC. All that remains to do is install the various updates for MCE in order of release. I usually install one at time with a reboot in between as I have had issues in the past when I installed them all in one go with a reboot at the end. That's it. You are done. Good luck! Posted Apr 21 2006, 09:22 AM by Chris Filed under: Articles, Hacks & Mods

• Analogue TV signal issues

  South Africa is blessed to have public to air broadcasts. We have free channels that we have to pay for (it’s the right thing to do) and we have more ads per half hour show than actual content.  On top of that we generally have poor broadcast coverage.  Large parts of the country for example only receive SACB 2! There are a number of things you can do to get acceptable signal though.  The basics are listed below: Aerial No matter what you do to the signal after this point, if you have bad signal in your will have poor picture out.  Invest in a high quality aerial.  Things to check for:  The “big grid” part of most aerials are the reflectors the bounce  the signal onto the receiver.  The receiver is connected to your cables that carry the signal.  The bigger the grid the more signal it reflects but it can also reflect more interference.  If you pick up interference like ghosting you might have to switch to a directional aerial. The more directional the aerial is the less interference you will pick up but the more accurately you have to point it.  To top it off you might then exclude a channel.  So go through a process of trial and error until you find what works.  Most areas you can get away with using a UHF aerial but some, especially more rural areas, like Pinelands may require a VHF aerial as well.  You would then need to combine the signals. UHF stands for Ultra High Frequency and is generally a better signal that VHF.  Mainly used by MNET, SABC 3, SABC 1 and E-TV. VHF stands for Very High Frequency and is generally a worse signal that UHF. Mainly used by SABC 2. The channels can be different for your area. Aerial placement You will really have to experiment and see what works best but here are some tips. Aerials should be mounted as high as possible, pointing to the broadcast tower closest to you.  Putting the aerial inside your roof will protect it (cables / booster) from the elements but you might lose some signal strength, rumored to be more when your roof is wet.  It might also pick up more interference – from your geyser/ fridge  for example.  Try to have your aerial closer to your receiver so there is less cable, this penalty can be minimized by using good quality cable. Signal boosters These should only be used if you have good signal but your have long cable segments or you are splitting the cable.  If you amplify a bad signal it will only make it worse. Cables and connectors Use only top quality cable and connectors.  The loss of signal due to cable resistance is called attenuation.  Better cables and connectors have lower rates of attenuation so more of the signal makes it to your receiver.   You will also have better shielding so external magnetic fields would have less of an impact. Types of interference that is common Ghosting:  A second image appears slightly offset to the main image.  This is caused by the signal being reflected and arriving at your aerial slightly later.  It could be cause by big buildings or geographical features.  Directional aerials can help here but moving your aerial around can also help you find a better spot. Slanting Streams:  Multicolored interference streams slowly scroll across your screen.  This is weak signal and interference from a constant source like your fridge, PC, Hard drives etc.  You might have to move your aerial, but the interference could also be jumping on to your cables as they go past something electronic. Most other issues are caused by weak signal and can be rectified by using a proper aerials, cables and connectors. Remember the weather.  Signal is normally better at night when it’s clear, worst on a rainy day with lots of wind. MNET Decoders These boxes are amazing.  There are no moving parts to them, but they give more hassles than any other device.  The MNET decoder is a receiver so you need to have good signal coming in to it.  It then also outputs a signal onto the cable.  You need to set your decoder not to clash with any of your other channels. This could be a problem if you are getting a decoder that used to be set up for another area.  I have seen decoders give all sorts of funny problems.  Best bet here is to get a new decoder and keep the exchange warranty going. Signal strength is important here since the box needs to have enough clear signal to be able to decode it.  Interestingly and annoyingly you can see effects of the encoding.  Since your MCE shows all of the broadcast and not just what TVs are set to display you may notice a white line on the left of your MNET channel.  See the images below comparing the picture during open time and during normal MNET broadcast. Open Time       Not Open Time       For this reason I adjust my TV out display to cut of the far left of my screen so I don’t see the annoying white line. Thanks to Etienne for submitting this article. Posted Mar 28 2006, 10:24 AM by Chris Filed under: Articles, Tips & Tricks

• Keyboard shortcuts for MCE 2005

  Below is a list of keyboard shortcuts for use withing MCE 2005.  You won't need most of these if you have the remote keyboard but they are good to keep handy anyway.   To: Turn up volume Press: F10 To: Turn down volume Press: F9 To: Mute volume Press: F8 To: Open Messenger in Media Center Press: CTRL+N To: Display the Help window Press: F1 To: Display an additional menu of actions for a page or item that is selected Press: CTRL+D To: Go in and go out of windowed mode Press: ALT+ENTER To: Move left, right, up, or down Press: ARROW KEYS To: Go to the previous page Press: PAGE UP To: Go to the next page Press: PAGE DOWN To: Go to the last item in a list Press: END To: Go to the first item in a list Press: HOME To: Go back to the previous screen Press: BACKSPACE To: Accept the selection Press: ENTER To: Close Media Center Press: ALT+F4 To: Open Media Center or return to the Media Center Start menu Press: Windows Key+ALT+ENTER To: Go to the previous channel Press: PAGE DOWN To: Go to the next channel Press: PAGE UP To: Skip forward 30 second while watching TV Press: CTRL+F To: Skip back 7 seconds while watching TV Press: CTRL+B To: Fast forward live TV or recorded TV Press: CTRL+SHIFT+F To: Rewind live TV or recorded TV Press: CTRL+SHIFT+B To: Play live TV or recorded TV Press: CTRL+SHIFT+P To: Stop recording or stop playing a TV show Press: CTRL+SHIFT+S To: Pause or resume live TV or recorded TV Press: CTRL+P To: Record a TV show Press: CTRL+R To: Go to live TV Press: CTRL+T To: Go to the Guide Press: CTRL+G To: Go to Recorded TV Press: CTRL+O To: Go to My TV Press: CTRL+SHIFT+T To: Copy a CD Press: CTRL+R To: Fast forward a song Press: CTRL+SHIFT+F To: Skip to the next song Press: CTRL+F To: Replay an audio file or song Press: CTRL+B To: Stop an audio file or song Press: CTRL+SHIFT+S To: Pause an audio file or song Press: CTRL+P To: Play an audio file or song Press: CTRL+SHIFT+P To: Go to My Music Press: CTRL+M To: Skip forward Press: CTRL+F To: Skip back Press: CTRL+B To: Resume playing radio Press: CTRL+SHIFT+P To: Stop live radio Press: CTRL+SHIFT+S To: Pause or resume playing live radio Press: CTRL+P To: Go to Radio Press: CTRL+A To: Zoom a picture in full-screen mode Press: ENTER To: Skip forward to the next picture Press: RIGHT ARROW To: Skip back to the previous picture Press: LEFT ARROW To: Pause a slide show Press: CTRL+P To: Stop a slide show Press: CTRL+SHIFT+S To: Play a slide show Press: CTRL+SHIFT+P To: Go to My Pictures Press: CTRL+I To: Skip forward 30 seconds in a video Press: CTRL+F To: Skip back 7 seconds in a video Press: CTRL+B To: Fast forward a video Press: CTRL+SHIFT+F To: Rewind a video Press: CTRL+SHIFT+B To: Stop playing a video Press: CTRL+SHIFT+S To: Pause or resume a video Press: CTRL+P To: Play a video Press: CTRL+SHIFT+P To: Go to My Videos Press: CTRL+E To: Change the DVD subtitles selection Press: CTRL+U To: Change the DVD audio selection Press: CTRL+SHIFT+A To: Change the DVD angle Press: ARROW KEYS To: Skip forward or go to the next chapter Press: CTRL+F To: Skip back or go to the previous chapter Press: CTRL+B To: Fast forward Press: CTRL+SHIFT+F To: Rewind Press: CTRL+SHIFT+B To: Stop a DVD Press: CTRL+SHIFT+S To: Pause or resume playing a DVD Press: CTRL+P To: Play a DVD Press: CTRL+SHIFT+P To: Go to the DVD menu Press: CTRL+SHIFT+M To: Turn closed captioning on or off Press: CTRL+SHIFT+C Enjoy! Posted Mar 26 2006, 04:49 PM by Chris Filed under: Articles, Tips & Tricks

• How to program the buttons on your MCE remote

  The newer versions of the official MCE remotes have the ability to control other hardware in addition to Media Center. You can program the TV button and the Volume buttons. Most likely you would want to control the On/Off function on your TV and the volume on your amplifier.  By default, the VOL + and VOL - buttons on the remote control the system volume on your computer, and the TV button has no command assigned to it until it “learns” one. Do not perform this procedure in bright natural or artificial light. Place the remote control for Media Center PC head to head (4 to 4 cms apart) with the remote control from which it is learning. This is how you do it you would go about programming the remote: On the remote control for Media Center PC, press and hold the DVD MENU and OK buttons at the same time until the remote control lights turn off (2 seconds). The remote is now in learning setup mode. On the remote control for Media Center PC, press and release the TV, VOL +, or VOL – button, depending on which command you want it to learn. The remote control for Media Center PC lights blink once to confirm the selection. On the remote control that is teaching the command, press and hold the button that you want the corresponding button on the remote control for Media Center PC to learn. The remote control for Media Center PC lights blink twice to confirm the selection. If the remote did not learn the command, the lights blink quickly four times. To try again, repeat steps 1 through 4. Repeat steps 1 through 4 for the other buttons that can learn commands. To restore the default remote control settings: Press and hold the DVD MENU button and LEFT navigation button at the same time until the remote control for Media Center PC lights turn off. Press the OK button. The remote control for Media Center PC lights blink twice to confirm that the buttons have been reset. The TV button will have no command assigned to it and the VOL + and VOL – buttons will adjust the Media Center PC system volume. If the default settings were not restored, the lights blink quickly four times. To try again, repeat steps 1 and 2. Enjoy! Posted Mar 22 2006, 06:13 AM by Chris Filed under: Articles, Tips & Tricks

• MCE 2005 shutdown menu options

  In MCE 2005 Microsoft introduced more options when the power icon (on the main window) is pressed. Unfortunately, the power icon is a bit of a pain to navigate to. You have to go to the main window by pressing the green button on the MCE remote, press the left arrow, press the up arrow and press OK. This changes depending on whether something is playing within MCE or not. You can do away with that whole navigation exercise by changing some power settings within Windows. Now when I press the power button on my remote from anywhere within MCE, the menu is displayed. All you have to do is set the system to ask you what to do when you press the sleep button. To set the system to ask you what to do when you press the sleep button do as follows: Go to Control Panel and then Display Settings. Click the Screen Saver tab. Click the Power… button. Click the Advanced tab and under Power buttons and select Ask me what to do in the When I press the sleep button on my computer list. That’s it. Now when you press the power button on your MCE remote from anywhere within the MCE interface, the menu is displayed and allows you to close MCE, lock the machine, shut down the machine, hibernate the machine or place the system into standby. Enjoy! Posted Mar 22 2006, 04:23 AM by Chris Filed under: Articles, Tips & Tricks

• Archiving your recorded TV shows into other formats

  One of the BIG problems with MCE is that it is limited to only using the DVR-MS file format to save recorded TV shows.  This is not yet a widely recognized and supported format and means you’re stuck to only using MCE or Windows Media Player 10 to view these files.  Another problem is that the recordings can be huge.  So what to do if you want to keep or share your recordings with other people? Formats: There are plenty of options available to you if you want to convert from DVR-MS to something a bit more widely supported.  Realistically there would only be 3 you would use.  MPEG-2, DivX, WMV. MPEG2 - This is the same standard that is used for DVD video, and is what your Hardware encoding card records to.  Converting to this format allows you to share with all DVD player devices, and PC with Mpeg2 / DVD decoder software.  It is also the first step in editing. DivX - This is an increasingly popular format because of the high quality and small file size.  There are also more and more hardware playback devices on the market  - most notably DVD players that now support DivX.  This format is ideal for playback on supported hardware, PC, Pocket PC, Xbox etc. WMV - Windows Media Video is also starting to come along – has some of the advantages of DivX but it real strength is in being able to be streamed.  Not a personal favorite of mine though.   DVR-MS conversion tools: DVR-MS Toolbox:  This amazing piece of freeware allows you to convert your dvr-ms files to Mpeg2. Womble MPEG Video Wizard:  This or any other video editing software allows you to manipulate you video – apply filters, take out ads, crop the recording before and after. DivX Encoder / Converter: This allows you to encode your edited video into the DivX format. Practical Example of how to use all this: Depending on what you are going for you would use different formats, and post processing.  I use this all the time for the following.  I record music videos, cut out all the junk, and then share with different people. Steps 1 Convert DVR-MS file to MPEG with DVR-MS Toolbox 2 Edit MPEG file with Mpeg Video Wizzard and export to MPEG 3 Use DivX Converter to create the completed video file. File Size: Original Hour long Recoding (Better): 2,675,048,448 bytes Converted to MPEG2 with DVR-MS Toolbox: 2,229,764,096 bytes Selected video out to MPEG 2: 170,022,916 bytes Selected video converted to DivX : 38,570,162 bytes Tools to have a look at: AutoDVRConvert DVR-2-WMV Tsunami MPEG Xpress dCut PowerCompress GraphRenderer CyberLink PowerDirector PQ DVD to iPod Video Converter VideoReDo DVR-MS Toolbox Thanks to Etienne for submitting this article. Posted Mar 16 2006, 04:08 AM by Chris Filed under: Articles, Tips & Tricks

• Install and configure SmartGuide for MCE 2005

  I get a lot of people asking for help on how to install and configure SmartGuide for MCE 2005. SmartGuide, together with WebGuide2 enables you to use the MCE 2005 Electronic Programme Guide in unsupported countries, where there is no native EPG support.The guide you see below is assembled from a host of sources on the internet. Most of what you see below comes straight out of the installation guide that comes with SmartGuide. I have just simplified it slightly and added some more explanations. First things first. Obviously you will need a fully operational MCE PC. For SmartGuide to work you will need a working WebGuide2 which uses XMLTV files to populate the database. I came up with a way to use your own XMLTV files with WebGuide2 which can be found at the Getting WebGuide2 to work with your own XMLTV files article post on this site.If you are performing this on a freshly installed MCE machine then please start MCE and run through the setup wizard. Make sure you get a TV signal. This will initialize the Media Center application and prepare it for what we are about to do.All your settings will be deleted when you follow the installation instructions below, so don't spend too much time customizing the setup. Download the SmartGuide for MCE 2005 zip file here in the downloads section of this site and extract the zip file somewhere.  The download contains SmartGuide 2005 and a number of other files and utilities that are required to get all of this working. Download the latest copy of your ZAXMLTV file from the file gallery or wherever your preferred XMLTV is. From the download, copy the contents of the SmartGuide directory into the C:\WINDOWS\eHome directory. Copy the XMLTV directory from the download onto the root of your C:\ Copy your XMLTV.xml file into the C:\XMLTV folder. Run the C:\WINDOWS\eHome\MCE2005_EPG_Enable.reg to merge its contents in the registry. This fools Media Center into thinking the you accepted the terms of service for the guide and enables it to be used. Run C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322\CasPol.exe -s off in a command prompt window. Kill all eh* processes using Task Manager.  Another way of doing this is running taskkill /im eh* /f in a command window. Delete everything under C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\eHome\ (including all the subfolders). Warning: This will delete anything configured in MCE including Scheduled Recordings, Channels Setup etc.  This is a hidden folder. Open using regedit.exe and navigate your way to the  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Tuning Spaces\# where # is number of the TV setup you use. "1″ is for local analogue cable, "2″ is for local analogue antenna.  Change the value of the MinChannel key to 1. This will make channel 1 available as preset channel. Open regedit and delete all the registry keys under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\TV System Services\TVAutoTune. This will clear all existing channels and only use the one which will be configured after using QuickGuide. We will not use the data found in the MCE 2005 service scan. Open the C:\WINDOWS\eHome\SmartGuide.exe.config file using notepad. On line 5, make sure the WebGuide2DSN value points to your WebGuide2 Access database. The default should be OK for most systems. On line 16 set the TuningSpaceCountryCode value to you own country code. This usually the same as your international phone number prefix. For example, mine is set to 27 for South Africa. On line 19, set the TuningSpaceSignal value if you need to. Use the value 1 for cable\satellite or 0 for analogue antenna depending on how you have setup your TV signal in MCE. Go through the rest of the C:\WINDOWS\eHome\SmartGuide.exe.config file and set any other settings that you need to set.  The default values should work fine in most cases. Save and close the config file. Start C:\WINDOWS\eHome\SmartGuide.exe /i. Note the /i switch. This runs SmartGuide with a GUI interface and not as a command line application, which is the default. Note: Always execute SmartGuide.exe when your command prompt is in the C:\WINDOWS\eHome directory as it does not work properly if you run it from another location. First click the Channel Editor... button and click Load to load all the channels configuration from WebGuide2. If you are using a set top box, such as a DSTV decoder, you can just click Save and close the Channel Editor. You can skip the next few steps and move onto step 23 of this guide.  If you are using analogue antenna as a TV source you need to fill in all the frequencies for each of your channels.  If you don't know what your frequencies are, read the article Finding analogue TV broadcast frequencies for MCE 2005 here on this site.  Remember, if your frequency is 125,25 Hz the value you must enter is 125250000. I use the exact same number for the number, virtual channel and preset columns. That is… I use the defaults that I configured when setting up WebGuide2.  Make sure that you that you fill out all columns. Click Save. This will create a C:\WINDOWS\eHome\output\frequencies.reg file and also add an extra table called channel_extra to the database used by WebGuide2. This table contains your frequencies, so you might want to back this file up when ever re-installing WebGuide2. Close the Channel Editor. Open C:\WINDOWS\eHome\output\frequencies.reg with notepad and verify that the information in the registry file looks correct. Mine looks as follows: REGEDIT4 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\TV System Services\TVAutoTune\TS27-0] "1"=dword:0aec2c50 "2"=dword:0c5a6250 "3"=dword:2fa39650 "4"=dword:21557a50 "5"=dword:2dbb4e50 Note the "TS27-0″ key name. 27 for South Africa and 0 for analogue antenna. Click 1. WebGuide2MCE! This should produce a message saying there is an encrypted EPG file at C:\WINDOWS\Ehome\output\...  Click OK to close this message. Click 2. LoadGuide from XML. This should produce a "Congratulations. It worked…" message. Click OK to close this message.  If for some reason you get an error message with 2. LoadGuide from XML, try clicking 2b. Alternative LoadGuide from XML. Close SmartGuide. If you use analogue antenna as a TV source you need to double click the C:\WINDOWS\eHome\output\frequencies.reg to import you own channel frequencies into the registry. It appears some people do not have to do this but I have to do this every time I use SmartGuide to update my EPG. Start MCE and confirm that you can watch TV and have Guide data and all the right channels are in the right order. (the same order as in WebGuide2). From now on it is only necessary to start SmartGuide and click 1. WebGuide2MCE! and then 2. LoadGuide from XML, or you could setup a batch job by adding the following line to a batch file for importing new guide updates.C:\WINDOWS\eHome\SmartGuide.exe /fThe /f switch imports the frequencies.reg file after every update. Included in the download is a file called C:\XMLTV\Update EPG using SmartGuide.bat that has everything setup for you.  From now on it is only necessary to run C:\XMLTV\Update EPG using SmartGuide.bat after you have copied a new XMLTV file to C:\XMLTV to update the guide.C:\XMLTV\Update EPG using SmartGuide.bat simply does the following: Kills all the MCE processes. Makes a backup of your XMLTV file. Alters the file using alter.exe (depending on your configuration.) Turns .Net security off. Copies your XMLTV.xml files to the correct location for WebGuide2 Refreshes WebGuide2 with the new XMLTV data Runs SmartGuide to update the EPG Imports the frequencies.reg file (depending on your configuration.) Turns .Net security on again. Starts MCE or reboots the machine (depending on your configuration.) I have done this many, many times and have never really struggled to get it to work.  If something does go wrong and the guide has no data, reboot your machine and repeat each step above to check what the problem could be.If for some reason you have no luck with SmartGuide, you could always try using QuickGuide to get data into the MCE EPG. Good luck! Posted Mar 11 2006, 11:09 AM by Chris Filed under: Articles, Hacks & Mods

• Getting WebGuide2 to work with your own XMLTV files

  I have seen a few people on various other MCE and PVR related forums asking how to use WebGuide2 with your own XMLTV files, mainly as SmartGuide uses WebGuide2 as a data source to update the MCE 2005 Electronic Programme Guide. Well, here is a process I came up with to do just that.  We do not get EPG or XMLTV data for South African TV channels. Luckily some really smart developers have provided solutions that take care of it all and the South African XMLTV (ZAXMLTV) files are available here on this site.  OK, here goes: If you already have WebGuide2 installed then I would recommend you uninstall it and delete the WebGuide folder in C:\inetpub\wwwroot if it still exits. Download your XMLTV file from your provider and save it somewhere. Download the latest WebGuide 2 build (b13) from the files section of this site if you don't already have it and install it as per normal. Close the WebGuide2 configuration application when it pops up. We need to change some settings that only get applied when you reopen the application.  Once setup is complete, go to the C:\inetpub\wwwroot\WebGuide2\MCE_Wizard folder and open settings.xml using notepad. Add a line to the XML file within the <wizard> </wizard> tags for your own country. It does not matter what you call it, just make sure you choose a command that is not a valid XMLTV grabber list. I added: <xmltv_grabber label="South Africa" command="tv_grab_sa" /> tv_grab_sa does not exist as one of the XMLTV grabbers but I do this so that whatever happens, the XML download will fail in XMLTV which is what we want. We don't want our XMLTV files to be overwritten. Copy your XMLTV file to the C:\inetpub\wwwroot\WebGuide2\guide_data directory.  Rename the file you just copied to guide.xml. Copy your XMLTV file to the C:\inetpub\wwwroot\WebGuide2\guide_data directory.  Rename the file you just copied to schema.xml. Open the WebGuide2 configuration application by clicking Start > All Programs > MCE WebGuide > MCE WebGuide 2 Configuration or running C:\inetpub\wwwroot\WebGuide2\MCE_Wizard\MCE_Wizard.exe. Click the Grabber tab. Under Step 1 choose the country you have added in the settings.xml file. Don't bother about clicking Configure, it is not required. Under Step 2 click the Download Data button. A command window will open and close. This is the download of the XMLTV files failing because we have chosen an invalid XMLTV grabber. The wizard application may appear to freeze up at this point while it is processing your files into the access database. This may take a while depending on the number of channels and data that you have. Your guide.mdb file in the guide_data folder will have grown in size. Once this process has finished, the wizard application will become responsive again. You can now go to the Channels tab to see if it worked. Edit your channels if you want. Setup any other settings you may need and close the application. You should now see guide data when you open the WebGuide2 web page. If you are using MCE 2005, then WebGuide2 does not work "out of the box". To fix it download the WebGuide2 MCE 2005 fix in the files section of this site. Delete or rename C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\WebGuide2\bin\WebGuide2.dll and copy the WebGuide2.dll included in that file you just downloaded to the C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\WebGuide2\bin folder. Note: if you decide to rename the original dll, do not let it have a .dll file extension anymore. I suggest renaming it to .old or something. If your leave it a .dll the ASP.NET runtime will still see it as a proper .NET assembly and load it, which will give errors because of duplicate types. MCE 2005 has XP Service Pack 2 installed which changes some security settings to increase security for your system. One of these increased settings interacts with the way WebGuide2 works in a way that it prevents a COM component from being activated. To resolve this you need to apply the following changes: Open Component Services from Control Panel > Administrative Tools. Drill down to My Computer, right click and select Properties. On the COM security tab, select Edit Default… for Launch and Activation permissions. Give the ASP.NET account (the username is ASPNET) Launch and Local Activation permissions. Up to now we have focused on the initial download of your XML data into WebGuide2. How do you then update WebGuide2 with new XML files from time to time? Easy? Yes! Copy your new XMLTV file to the guide_data directory within the WebGuide2 directory. This is the file you download with fresh data once a day/week/month or whatever. The default path is C:\inetpub\wwwroot\WebGuide2\guide_data. Rename your XMLTV file to new_guide.xml. Copy it again and rename it to new_schema.xml. Run C:\inetpub\wwwroot\WebGuide2\MCE_wizard\MCE_Wizard.exe refresh. This will process your new_guide.xml and new_schema.xml and place the relevant data into the guide.mdb database. Once the process is complete your new_guide.xml and new_schema.xml files will be renamed to guide.xml and schema.xml respectively. That's it.  You are done and should have updated guide data in WebGuide2. There is one thing to be mindful of. In my case, I used to have to open the freshly downloaded XMLTV file and do a 'find and replace' on the time data before I copied the file anywhere. WebGuide2 expects the time in GMT format. E.g. +02:00 for my time zone. My XMLTV file had the time in SAST (South African Standard Time) and I noticed that all the dates and times in the WebGuide2 database where the same if the incorrect time zone was used.  This has since been resolved and I no longer have to do this but I thought it was worth mentioning. As long as the file you pass to WebGuide2 is a valid XMLTV file, there should be no problems.Also, in South Africa our ZAXMLTV files are generated from our satellite broadcaster.  They include all the free to air channels in their service but the channel numbers are quite high in their list.  So, to change the XMLTV file so that the channels are numbered as 1,2,3,4 and 5 and not 3, 46, 47, 48 and 49.  To do this I use a cool little utility written by Rob Flor to find and replace the relevant data within the XMLTV file. Alter.exe as well as the batch file I use to update MCE can be found within the XMLTV folder in the download package of either SmartGuide for MCE 2005 or QuickGuide for MCE 2005 in our file gallery. If you live outside South Africa and need to do the same, you can just adapt the code below. I have automated this process somewhat but cannot automate it fully. Once a week I download my XMLTV file manually and put it in my C:\XMLTV folder. I then run batch file that does the find and replace, copies the xml file to the correct locations and runs the refresh command. It then goes on to update the EPG in MCE 2005 using SmartGuide. Below is the excerpt of the batch file: rem c:\xmltv\alter.exe c:\xmltv\zaxmltv.xml "SAST" "+02:00"copy "c:\xmltv\zaxmltv.xml" "c:\inetpub\wwwroot\webguide2\guide_data\new_guide.xml"copy "c:\xmltv\zaxmltv.xml" "c:\inetpub\wwwroot\webguide2\guide_data\new_schema.xml"c:\inetpub\wwwroot\webguide2\mce_wizard\mce_wizard.exe refresh That's it. You are done! Enjoy! Posted Mar 11 2006, 11:03 AM by Chris Filed under: Articles, Hacks & Mods

• Stream DivX and Xvid to a MCE extender with Transcode 360

  The one major let down of the XBOX 360’s media capabilities is the lack of DivX / Xvid support.  I’ve read articles explaining the reasons for it, copyright materials, unlicensed codecs etc etc, but the fact is that the 360 just cannot be an all in one device without this ability. Enter Runtime’s Transcode 360.  Runtime is a hero as far as XBOX and media goes.  He is one of the original founders of the XBOX Media Center project, which is probably the best application ever made for XBOX, even better than all the games! But, this article is about the XBOX 360.  Transcode 360 is a very simple little program, that just seems to work.  It must be installed on your Media Center machine.  Upon installation, you will be prompted to download and install Windows Media Encoder 9 if it isn’t already installed.  Install this and Transcode 360 installs without issue.  You need to specify streaming ports, but I left mine at default.  You also need to create an account on the machine to run the service, or just use the local administrator account like I did.  That is all there is to it. The next step is to fire up your XBOX 360 Media Center Extender, browse in My Videos and find your files.  If you click OK, or Play on the videos, you will get an error.  You need to click More Info, then choose Transcode.  You may have to select More, then Transcode.  Wait a second or two, and your video will start playing. Transcode 360 uses Windows Media Encoder to encode your DivX or Xvid file to Windows Media Video format, then stream it to your Extender.  It does put a bit of load on your Media Center machine, but everything else still has plenty of CPU cycles to do whatever it needs.  Because it transcodes, the file obviously needs to be playable by your MCE machine.  If your MCE can’t play it, it won’t be able to transcode it either.  I have found the best codec to be the DivX 6.1 Play bundle (obviously without all the other Google Toolbar rubbish!).  You will also need to run the DivX Toolbar Toggle tool (attached to this post) to stop the DivX toolbar from popping up on your MCE machine everytime you want to play a DivX file. The good news, is that it actually works on any extender, not just the XBOX 360 version.  It works just as well on the original Xbox version too.  I don’t have a standard extender for testing, but I assume it will work in the same way. The only down side (and this is not a problem with Transcode 360) is that because it is streaming the video live to your extender, you can’t rewind and fast forward.  You can pause, but that is as much as you get. All in all, this is a GREAT program from one of the legends of XBOX Media and is highly recommended if you find yourself in a position with an XBOX 360 and loads of DivX files.  The FAR better solution for DivX playback is still an original XBOX with the latest version of XBOX Media Center. Enjoy! Thanks to Duncan for submitting this article. Posted Mar 11 2006, 11:00 AM by Duncan Filed under: Articles, Tips & Tricks

• Enable automatic logon to Windows from within MCE 2005

  It seems very few people know how to enable an automatic logon to their Media Center 2005 PC from within the Media Center application. If you have a password set for the username that you use to login to your MCE then you can use the following steps to enable Automatic Logon from within the application. Within Media Center 2005 go to Settings > General > Media Center Setup > Setup Remote Desktop. Click Next and choose Yes or No depending if you want to use the Remote Desktop feature of Windows XP. Click Next until you get to the Automatic Logon page and choose Yes. Click Next and enter your password in the box provided. I find it better to use a keyboard for this as entering a decent password with the MCE remote can be a pain in the ass. Click Next and Finish. You are now done. Pretty easy! Enjoy. Posted Mar 08 2006, 10:20 AM by Chris Filed under: Articles, Tips & Tricks

• Share recorded TV between 2 MCE 2005 machines

  I have 2 MCE machines at home. The main one in the lounge, which is our 'media hub' and another in my study, which is also my PC to do the normal stuff anyone else does with these lovely little things. I have MCE 2005 installed on both machines and I wanted to be able to view the Recorded TV from the machine in the lounge on the machine in my study. I tried to use a program such as "Share Recorded TV" but I could not get it to work. I think that it is due to the new security settings in Windows XP SP2 that it would not work so I had to come up with another way. I used the following process to share recorded TV between 2 MCE 2005 machines. From now on in this post, I will refer to the MCE machine as the 'server' and the normal PC with MCE installed as the 'client'. Share your Recorded TV folder on the server. You can name the share the default, "Recorded TV" if you want. I called mine Recorded_TV$. Grant 'Everyone' full control on both the share level and security level. You may only see the Security tab if you disable simple file sharing. You can do that by opening Windows Explorer, click Tools > Options, click View, scroll to bottom of list and uncheck Use simple file sharing (Recommended). When you grant Everyone full control make sure you apply the settings to the child objects. Create a user on your server that has the exact same name, username and password as the one on your client.  I use the same username to logon to both but use an autologon on the main MCE machine so I don't have to type it everytime. Open Local Security Policy (Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Local Security Policy.) and go to Security Settings\Local Policies\Security Options. Find Network access: Let Everyone permissions apply to anonymous users. Open that up, and change the setting to Enabled. This only needs to be done on the server machine. Find Network access: Shares that can be accessed anonymously. Open that up, and add the name of the share that you created earlier. This only needs to be done on the server machine. Mine looks as follows: COMCFG DFS$ Recorded_TV$ Find Network access: Sharing and security model for accounts. Open that up, and change the setting to Classic - local users authenticate as themselves. This only needs to be done on the server machine, although I do this on all my XP machines so that I do not get prompted for a username and password when I connect to the default shares. On the client machine open regedit, and go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Service\Recording.  Find the key WatchedFolders and open it up. Add a new line to this entry at the bottom, pointing to the servers Recorded TV share.  Mine looks as follows: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\Recorded TV\othermachinename\Recorded_TV$  If you are not compfortable editing the registry this setting, as well as loads more, can also be set using the TweakMCE utility from Microsoft. Check that the Windows firewall is either turned off (I would not recommend this) or is set to allow file sharing through. Reboot your server and client. Check your Recorded TV on your client. Within a few seconds recorded shows from the server MCE should show up on the client MCE. That's it.  You are done. Enjoy! Posted Mar 07 2006, 05:15 PM by Chris Filed under: Articles, Tips & Tricks

• Enable the TV menu on a MCE 2005 PC without a TV tuner card

  Use this registry file to enable the TV menu in MCE 2005 if you don't have a TV tuner card installed. This is useful if you, like me, installed MCE on another PC and want to watch and delete the Recorded TV on your main MCE machine. Save the attached registry file and merge it into your registry or you could copy the below text into a new file, save it as EnableTVMenu.reg and double click it to merge it into your registry.  It might be a good idea to close MCE 2005 before you merge the file. REGEDIT4 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Settings\TVConfig] "iVideoSource"=dword:00000002 "iBroadcastStandard"=dword:00000001 "fHasSTB"=dword:00000000 "fHasDVB"=dword:00000000 "Version"="65537" Open the Media Center application and you should see the My TV menu in the list. That's it.  Simple! Enjoy! Posted Mar 07 2006, 05:13 PM by Chris Filed under: Articles, Tips & Tricks

• How to access network content from a MCE extender

  I have a PC running Windows XP Media Center 2005. I recently purchased a Media Center Extender for the XBOX and played around with it this weekend. So far I am impressed with it and everthing works 100% except for one thing: I found it immposible to get the extender to find the other PC's on my network with content such as music, movies, pictures etc. Whenever I asked it to add folders on another machine, it only found the shares on the MCE 2005 machine. After a bit of thought, I came up with using a login script to map drives under that users profile apon logon. After a bit of looking around I realised that the extender runs under a user MCX1 on your MCE 2005 machine and all the nessesary information stored under that users profile. Seeing as the password for this user is unknown you cannot login to the MCE 2005 machine with this account to set everything up as you can with other users. There are two ways to execute a login script when a user logs on. One is via a local policy which will apply to all users logging onto the MCE machine either locally or via a remote desktop session, which is exactly what the extender does each time you connect to the MCE 2005 machine. The other is to create a share and point each user to a login script in that share which is what I am going to explain here. Create a folder called netlogon on your hard drive somewhere and share it making sure the share name is netlogon. Create a logon script called login.bat and place it in that share. In this file you're going to map the files and since most MCE machines are stand alone and not in a domain you need to pass credentials to the remote machine in order to map the drive. Here is an example: net use x: /delete /yes net use x: "\\server\sharename" /user:domain\accountname password If the machines are not joined to a domain then use the remote machines name as the domain in the above example. Also note the double quotes around the \\server\sharename. You only need those if your shares have a space in the name. You can map any number of shares in the script if you want. Go to Computer Management on the MCE 2005 machine. Go to Local Users and Groups and then Users. Find the MCX1 user account (you may have more than one MCX account if you have multiple extenders). Click on the Profile tab, in here you should see a path entry for a logon script. Specify just the file name in the logon script (login.bat) under the profile tab for the account. The operating system assumes that the script will be in the netlogon share and then executes the script when the account logs on. If your extender is connected, restart it. When you start up the extender you should now be able to browse content in the shared folders on the remote machines other than your MCE 2005 machine. Obviously you can use this same method with the normal user that you use on your MCE machine. Enjoy! Posted Mar 07 2006, 05:12 PM by Chris Filed under: Articles, Tips & Tricks

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