Windows Media Center Expert Zone Chat (October 16, 2008)
Chat Topic: Windows Media Center Expert Zone Chat
Date: Thursday, October 16, 2008
Please note: Portions of this transcript have been edited for clarity.
Introductions:
Nick [MSFT] (Moderator):
Hey, everyone, I'm Nick, I'm a developer on Media Center Extender technologies.
Tim Schreck [MS] (Expert):
Hi Everyone! I'm Tim Schreck, the Media Center SE PM.
Sidd [Microsoft] (Expert):
Hi everyone, this is Sidd, I'm a Program Managr working on Media Center Extenders
Bob Gaines [MSFT] (Expert):
Hi, Bob Gaines here. Program Manager for Media Center. I'm primarily involved with release management.
Start of chat:
Tim Schreck [MS] (Expert):
Q: I am having an issue playing music off of my hard drive that is attached to my Linksys WRT350N. The issue is only with my Vista Ultimate SP1 machine, my 4 other XP Home and Pro machines are fine. Any ideas?
A: Hey Ricky - can you provide some additional information on the configuration and what type of issue you're seeing?
Tim Schreck [MS] (Expert):
Q: Only on my Vista Ultimate machine, Media Center will not find the drive and WMP can't play the files and gives an error as if the file location was disconnected...
A: Media Center relies on WMP, so if WMP cannot see the drive, Media Center won't. Can you access the drive in My Computer?
Bob Gaines [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Is there any documentation on the best way to manage the WMP databases for the MCX users? If you try to remove duplicates, it does not give you the option of removing the reference, the only default is to delete the content.
A: I know you're likely asking about US manufacturers/distributors, but the only one I can point you to immediately is Fujitsu (see http://bcnranking.jp/category/subcategory_0011.html). And recall, one of the primary pillars of Fiji was support of ISDB-T in Japan. I don't read Japanese, so I'm not sure if the site specifically states this, but I was told at one time this was the number one desktop PC in Japan.
Bob Gaines [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Has any major brand computers released with TV Pack 2008 yet?
A: I know you're likely asking about US manufacturers/distributors, but the only one I can point you to immediately is Fujitsu (see http://bcnranking.jp/category/subcategory_0011.html). And recall, one of the primary pillars of Fiji was support of ISDB-T in Japan. I don't read Japanese, so I'm not sure if the site specifically states this, but I was told at one time this was the number one desktop PC in Japan.
Sidd [Microsoft] (Expert):
Q: Is there a way to enable simultaneous audio outputs for 5.1/7.1 to a home theater setup and stereo audio for Multi Room Audio? We know the OS does not prevent it nor do the audio drivers, so it would seem that Windows Media Center has the ability to do it
A: DrFlick are you saying you have tried doing this and were unable to do it?
Tim Schreck [MS] (Expert):
Q: I can map the drive and copy files to and from it with no issue. All XP boxes find and play the files normally.
A: Ricky - I did some quick checking around and have found some additional posts online about this issue but no resolution mentioned. I think this is going to relate to components Media Center relies on (WMP, USB, etc).
Tim Schreck [MS] (Expert):
Q: Is there any documentation on the best way to manage the WMP databases for the MCX users? If you try to remove duplicates, it does not give you the option of removing the reference, the only default is to delete the content.
A: In Windows Vista, management of WMP libraries through extender is very limited. There has been a lot of customer feedback to improve this, and this is being considered for future versions. For Windows Vista, recommended avenue is to manage libraries on the PC itself.
Tim Schreck [MS] (Expert):
Q: Hi I´ve got to restore the OS factory settings and I wonder whether there will be any issues reactivating my Windows XP MCE. My current version has been corrupted by a virus and I do not want to lose the Windows update features
A: There should not be any issue reactivating. Windows XP allows for a number of activations per PID. If you have exceeded this limit, there will be a screen with a phone number that you can call into.
Sidd [Microsoft] (Expert):
Q: Do you know if any of the vendors delivering HDMI-based video cards have provided any drivers that enable CEC support (outbound a must, but inbound would be awesome, too)?
A: We dont know of any vendors providing HDMI CEC support on drivers for video cards so far. Another thing to note is CEC standards dont necessarily guarantee interop between different vendors
Nick [MSFT] (Moderator):
Q: Tim- Our understanding is that the .db for the MCX users is created for that MCX user and is not carried across from any of the "standard" users. What I think I hear you saying is to manually clean it up at the file level and let MCX recreate it?
A: Effectively, yes, though as Tim says, we're looking at better ways to handle this for the future. One thing to note is that the library shouldn't end up with multiple links to the same file - it's also possible that you've got two copies of the same file in different paths that is causing the duplicate to show up.
Bob Gaines [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Hi I´ve got to restore the OS factory settings and I wonder whether there will be any issues reactivating my Windows XP MCE. My current version has been corrupted by a virus and I do not want to lose the Windows update features
A: You should not have a problem reactivating Windows XP MCE if you are installing on the same hardware that you first installed on (Motherboard, CPU) and assuming you have the 25 digit Product ID. However, after installing the factory image you WILL need to re-install the Windows Updates. Additionally, it's highly recommended you back-up any data you want to keep from you disk before you restore a factory image. Depending on how the image was created in may wipe your operating system partition.
Sidd [Microsoft] (Expert):
Q: Sidd - We would be happy if someone delivered anything for the standardized commands that are part of the CEC specs :) .
A: Feedback duly noted.
Sidd [Microsoft] (Expert):
Q: Sidd - We would be happy if someone delivered anything for the standardized commands that are part of the CEC specs :) .
A: CEC seems to be getting more traction on CE devices such as TVs for now and some of our partners are considering leveraging this technology.
Tim Schreck [MS] (Expert):
Q: Sidd, that is correct. The Control Panel/Sound/Playback applet only allows you to set a single default even though there are multiple out devices available. It used to work in XP, but not with Windows Vista.
A: I know that you can do this on XP and remember having a discussion several months ago with someone that this was different on Vista. I don't recall the reasons and so far have not been able to find additional info
Nick [MSFT] (Moderator):
Q: Is there a way to disable the power button on the MS remote for the Extenders? If they are mounted in another room, we do not want the user to be able to power them off accidently.
A: The way the power button is handled is up to each specific Extender device, so you'd have to check the settings for the Extender that you have to see if there is an appropriate option.
Nick [MSFT] (Moderator):
Q: Nick - Good point. We were looking at the Xbox 360 implementation.
A: In that case, it depends on what you want to do. The Xbox 360 has the option in its local settings to only listen to the Xbox 360 remote as opposed to any Media Center remote - this option might be of help if your only goal is to make it ignore stray commands from a Media Center remote.
Tim Schreck [MS] (Expert):
Q: Is there an update I need prior to installation?
A: Hi Rita - can you provide more context?
Sidd [Microsoft] (Expert):
Q: Is there an update I need prior to installation?
A: Rita - Unfortunately, this chat is focused on Media Center. Please look up an ExpertZone chat for Media Player and someone will be able to answer the question for you.
Nick [MSFT] (Moderator):
Q: Nick - Good idea. However, the problem with that is that the Xbox remote is non-learning so we cannot configure any way to control the volume through another device since the 360 does not support that.
A: If you're looking to work with learning remotes, something that you can try is to remap the power button on the learning remote to some different functionality that doesn't affect your Xbox or Media Center.
Tim Schreck [MS] (Expert):
Q: Do the 10/14 updates clean up the recorded TV and associated file public APIs that were broken when the Feature Pack first got released?
A: Can you be a bit more specific? I believe you're refering to KB956147. This list of fixes are provided in the KB article itself
Bob Gaines [MSFT] (Expert):
Q: Is there a way to backup and erstore just the scheduled TV recordings from a system running the WMC Feature Pack 2008? Also, is there a way to backup and restore the modified EPG data once we have edited it?
A: Unfortunately not. With the TV Feature Pack, we moved from an xml based recodings file to a SQL database. So this is not possible manually. However, there is a "Click to Record" API to access this information. You will find additional information on this API here (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb189386.aspx). There is work yet to be done on this API. It's currently not flexible enough to do many things developers would expect. We're working on it. Lastly, directly accessing the EPG is unsupported.
Tim Schreck [MS] (Expert):
Q: Sidd, that is correct. The Control Panel/Sound/Playback applet only allows you to set a single default even though there are multiple out devices available. It used to work in XP, but not with Windows Vista.
A: DrFlick - I think what you're referring to is known as broadcast mode. XP had a different audio stack and some vendors implemented their own proprietary implementation to support this. Vista has a different audio stack that does not support broadcast mode
Nick [MSFT] (Moderator):
Note for anyone who's asked questions that we haven't answered yet - some of these are pretty technical and outside the expertise of the experts we have today. We're trying to track down answers to them, but for any we don't get to before the chat ends, please post them to our newsgroup at http://www.microsoft.com/communities/newsgroups/en-us/default.aspx?dg=microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter and somebody will try and help you there. Thanks!
Sidd [Microsoft] (Expert):
Q:A: Our understanding is that neither the OS nor the audio stack itself prevents this feature (which is how PolyTune can do it). Please add that capability to our wish list since it requires WMC to enable it.A: Feedback noted :-)
Daniel (Moderator):
Well we're out of time for today's chat. Thank you very much to all of our guests who joined us today as well as to our Experts for answering so many great questions-- have a great evening everyone!
Tim Schreck [MS] (Expert):
Thanks everyone - enjoyed the chat!
Nick [MSFT] (Moderator):
Thanks for coming, see you next month!
