Mark's MCE Blog - Media Center 2002

Sampling Windows Sounds

Tue, 22 Mar 2005 21:16:15 GMT

Corey sent me this link today http://www.cothrun.com/gallery/albums/Misc/windows_mix.swf , I can’t help but remember ‘Press The Green Button’ from the Media Center 2002 launch time. Wonders what you can do with the new mail alert ;-) http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=8122d9fa-e21e-4765-ae08-03ae7305e922&DisplayLang=en

Windows XP Video Decoder Checkup Utility Released

Wed, 15 Sep 2004 17:04:50 GMT

Yesterday Microsoft released a small utility for Media Center Edition to warn users of potential issues with, or switch their preferred MPEG2 Codec (DVD Decoder) if more than one is installed on their systems. The MPEG 2 codec is used by Media Center for viewing Live TV and DVD's, the playback of DVR-MS, MPEG and some AVI videos. The utility warns users about potential compatibility problems for their MPEG2 codec such as, is it Media Center compatible? Is there likely to be an issue playing DVD content? or issues surrounding synchronizing TV content from the Media Center PC to a portable Media Center device.

This utility:
• Lists all the MPEG-2 video decoders that appear in your Windows registry (a database that contains information about the hardware and software installed in your computer).
• Indicates whether each decoder listed in the registry is marked as compatible with Windows XP Media Center Edition and whether any decoder listed in the registry is marked as the preferred video decoder.
• Indicates whether each decoder listed in the registry is marked as compatible with the synchronization feature of Windows Media Player 10.
• Lets you designate which installed decoder that you want Windows Media Player 10 to use when synchronizing DVR-MS files to a portable device. This is known as the preferred video decoder.
• Lets you undo any changes the utility makes to your Windows registry.

Download the Windows XP Video Decoder Checkup Utility (163Kb):
http://download.microsoft.com/download/9/b/2/9b276571-80d5-43ca-806f-d68fca4b4e89/DECCHECKSetup.EXE

Microsoft Download Center Refrence:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=de1491ac-0ab6-4990-943d-627e6ade9fcb&DisplayLang=en

Creating DVD Install Media and Slipstreaming SP2 Media Center

Tue, 10 Aug 2004 12:53:07 GMT

So Windows XP SP2 is out and for every other edition of Windows XP apart from Media Center slipstreaming this update is a pretty simple thing. The Media Center components do not appear to get updated when you intergrate SP2 into an image, there is a way to slipstream sp2 but I’m pretty sure this isn’t a supported method so use this at your own risk, should you encounter issues after installation you will not be able to get any support from your OEM or Microsoft.

1) Create a folder on your hard disk called XPMCESP2 and copy the contents of your Windows XP CD 1 and 2 into this folder. This must be a full version of the Media Center install software, not a manufacturer recovery disc; a suitable disc will have an i386, DOTNETFX, support and tools folders on CD1, and then CMPNENTS folder on CD2.

I am using MSDN DVD 2428.1 using

CD1 - \ENGLISH\WINXP\PRO_SP1A

CD2 - \ENGLISH\WINXP\TABLETPC\CD2

If you wish to create a DVD for Media Center 2002 you can now skip to burn the bootable disc to CD/DVD using Nero 6, else follow the steps below to integrate SP2.

2) Download the 266MB network installer for Windows XP Service Pack 2 from

http://microsoft.com/windowsxp/sp2

3) Once downloaded run DRIVELETTER:\xpsp2.exe /integrate:driveletter:\xpmcesp2

You should now see a window titled ‘extracting files’ on screen, this will update the Professional CD1 components present on the CD and may take a few moments to complete.

Once ‘Integrated install has completed successfully’ appears on screen move to step 4

4) Open mediactr.cab in the XPMCESP2\CMPNENTS\MEDIACTR\I386 folder

Copy the 6 JPEG files, custsat.dll, mcintro.wmv and doa3.dvr temporary folder

Arch.jpg
BigWave.jpg
custsat.dll
doa3.dvr
Fish.jpg
Freestyl.jpg
mcintro.wmv
Rio.jpg
winxpfs.jpg

Now deleted mediactr.cab from this folder and move your files from their temporary directory to XPMCESP2\CMPNENTS\MEDIACTR\I386

5) Media Center 2004 uses some video files which are not included in the service pack or the original components. These can be downloaded from

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/displaycalibration.mspx

or taken from a current Media Center 2004 install. However unless your planning to burn the CMPNENTS folder as a separate CD, or use DVD Media I’d recommend creating some text files and rename them so a 0byte file exists with each video name. If you put all the videos as a whole in the image will be around 875Mb.

The additional files are

AspectRatio4x3.wmv
AspectRatio16x9.wmv
Brightness.wmv
ColorTint.wmv
Contrast.wmv
intro.wmv
Positioning4x3.wmv
Positioning16x9.wmv
RGBBalance.wmv
Sharpness.wmv

Once these files or a 0byte file with that name exists in your CMPNENTS folder rename intro.wmv to ehintro.wmv

When doing this I found I was able to get everything onto a single 700Mb CD with doa3 and the intro videos as 0 byte files. This maintains the functionality should you want to setup your display using the wizard.

Now at present your \CMPNENTS\MEDIACTR\I386 folder should contain

Arch.jpg
BigWave.jpg
custsat.dll
doa3.dvr
Fish.jpg
Freestyl.jpg
mcintro.wmv
Rio.jpg
winxpfs.jpg
AspectRatio4x3.wmv
AspectRatio16x9.wmv
Brightness.wmv
ColorTint.wmv
Contrast.wmv
ehintro.wmv
Positioning4x3.wmv
Positioning16x9.wmv
RGBBalance.wmv
Sharpness.wmv

6) It is now time to add the updated files from Service Pack 2. Download winrar from www.rarlabs.com, after installation right click on xpsp2.exe and select open with winrar. Browse to i386 > root > cmpnents and extract the Mediactr and netfx folders to a temporary directory. Now in the mediactr folder you just extracted go into the i386 sub folder, select all the files in this directory and copy them to your CD image folder XPMCESP2\CMPNENTS\MEDIACTR\I386.

7) We must also upgrade the .net framework patch which exists in CMPNENTS\NETFX\I386. To do this delete the cab file which exists in this folder and repeat the previous operation for the extracted netfx folder moving the files to \CMPNENTS\NETFX\I386.

8) Create a 0Kb file called MEDIACTR.CAB in your \CMPNENTS\MEDIACTR\I386 folder and NETFX.CAB in your \CMPNENTS\NETFX\I386

Integrating SP2 may also have created or recreated a TABLETPC folder in \CMPNENTS; this can be deleted to save space on the disc. Your image should now be complete you are ready to burn.

To burn the bootable disc to CD/DVD using Nero 6:

1) Download the Windows XP Boot image file xpboot.bin from www.dougknox.com/xp/xpboot.zip and extract it from the ZIP file. It does not need to be in the same folder as the files from the ISO's.

2) Open Nero 6 and create a new CD or DVD-ROM (Boot) compilation depending on what you’re burning.

a) On the Boot tab, select the Image File radio button and point it to the xpboot.bin file you downloaded earlier.

b) Check the box Enable expert settings.

c) For Kind of emulation, select No Emulation.

d) On the boot tab, leave the Load segment of sectors at 07C0.

e) On the boot tab, change the number of loaded sectors to 4.

f) On the Label tab, in the ISO 9660 box enter WB2PFRE_EN
g) On the ISO tab set the following options

File Name Length: Max of 11 = 8+3 chars (ISO Level 1)

Format: Mode 1

Character Set: DOS
Joliet – Enabled
Allow path depth of more than 8 directories – Enabled
Allow more than 255 characters in path – Enabled
Do not add the ';1' ISO file version extension - Enabled
Allow more than 64 characters for Joliet names - Enabled

No other changes should be necessary in the New Compilation dialog.

3) Click the New button on the compilation dialog.

4) Drag the all the files from your XPMCESP2 folder into the Nero window so that you have the folders such as i386 at the root of the disc.

5) Burn the compilation to CD/DVD and you're all done.

Windows XP Service Pack 2 Final now Available!

Mon, 09 Aug 2004 00:12:31 GMT

The big day has finally arrived; the final version of Windows XP Service Pack 2 (Build 2180) is now available for download from http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sp2 after many months of testing and over 1 million downloads by beta testers through Technical Previews, External Beta programs and MSDN customers. This package can also be ordered free on CD-Rom (See bottom of entry for details).

Microsoft continually works to improve its software. As part of this effort, they develop updates and fixes to recognized issues and release them for use by customers. On a regular basis, they combine many of these fixes into a single package and make the package available for customers to install on their computers. These packages are called Service Packs. SP2 will bring users the latest security updates and innovations from Microsoft to help protect your machine with increased network protection, memory protection, email handling, and enhanced browser security. It will establish stronger security settings that help defend against viruses, hackers, and worms and will provide unique new security features designed to make it easier for you to protect your PC.

In terms of Media Center this will update any previous version of Windows XP Media Center 2002 or 2004 (including beta versions of SP2 v2096 & 2138-2179) to Media Center 2004 build 5.1.2600.2180. This is handy if your OEM is no longer providing the upgrade to Media Center 2004; however this release is mainly a bug fix/performance update rather than adding new features (unless you’re upgrading from Media Center 2002 of course). All updates made available so far for MCE2004 such as the Critical Update Q830786 (http://www.salloway.org.uk/mceblog/default.aspx?date=2004-06-01#a17812051-53c0-4ec9-ad9d-2d75ef489e58) are included in SP2. In addition to this SP2 fixes issues with elevated processor usage when viewing TV after installing Q830786, and updates for DVB-T channel scan reliability.

Service Pack 2 is a release everyone running XP should install, particularly those who use it on the internet open to the kind of attack prevented by SP2. People that use Wireless networking will also be pleased to see that that connecting to a network and distributing network keys is much simpler under SP2. Service Pack 2 also includes updated versions of Windows Media Player 9, DirectX 9.0c, Windows Installer 3.0, Windows Messenger (4.7), Windows Movie Maker 2.1 and Internet Explorer 6.0/Outlook Express SP2.

The release schedule will go like this

8/6 Release to manufacturing
8/9 Release to Microsoft Download Center (network installation package)

Network installer download :
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=049C9DBE-3B8E-4F30-8245-9E368D3CDB5A&displaylang=en

8/9 Release to MSDN subscription site (CD ISO image)
8/10 Release to Automatic Updates (for machines running pre-release versions of Windows XP Service Pack 2 only)
8/16 Release to Automatic Updates (for machines NOT running pre-releases versions of Windows XP Service Pack 2)
8/16 Release to Software Update Services
Later in August Release to Windows Update for interactive user installations

Microsoft have also taken the decision not to block any more product keys beyond those already black listed by service pack 1.

‘We expect that nearly all Windows XP users, running genuine or pirated
Windows, will have access to the security technologies in SP2. The same
users that were blocked from installing SP1 - those that have used a small
set of legacy pirated product keys - will be blocked from installing
SP2. We
believe that there are very few systems in use today that use these keys
--
in other words, the pirates have moved on to other keys which we are not
blocking.

So how do we characterize our policy?

We want to make sure that the broadest number of people can install SP2.
The nature of malicious attacks on computer users is constantly changing
and we will continue to evaluate how we deal with security updates for pirated
versions of Windows to best protect our genuine Windows customers.’

Links:

Order your copy of Service Pack 2 on CD

Changes to Functionality in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2

The New Wireless Network Setup Wizard in Windows XP Service Pack 2

Manually Configuring Windows Firewall in Windows XP SP2

New Networking Features in Windows XP SP2

The New Wireless Network Setup Wizard in Windows XP Service Pack 2

Windows XP General Newsgroup

Additional Information on release schedule sourced from msdn.com

DVR 2 WMV RC 3.5

Tue, 15 Jun 2004 22:22:50 GMT

A great little utility that I’ve been using for the last few days is one called DVR 2 WMV. As the name suggests it converts DVR-MS Media Center recordings into Windows Media 9 videos. Various beta versions have been around for a while but I was unable to get it to work with my PAL DVB-T recordings correctly. The RC 3.5 version however has been working very nicely, using the PRX encoding profiles supplied with the application allowed me to get a 30 min recording (1.10Gb) down to 380Mb in CBR mode. But if you fancy building your own custom PRX profiles you can take more control over the conversion. Really the result you end up with is quite impressive. MPEG2 isn’t really the best format to be holding your media around in if you have a lot of it that you wish to keep. Performance isn’t too shabby either which is always nice.

The application has 2 major modes, a regular desktop standalone application, a Media Center application (ala Primetime). There is in addition a command line edition which is pretty nice as with one command you can tell it for example to convert every recorded instance of shows which share a common title.

To any Media Center owner, it’s really worth checking out.

http://www.nacontap.com/dvr2wmvrc35.cfm

Conversion By: Alex Seigler

CC Extraction By: José Peña

Command Line By: James Edelen

UI By: Jeff Griffin

Media Center Update (Windows XP SP2 Release Candidate 2)

Tue, 15 Jun 2004 21:57:19 GMT

NOTE: Release Candidate 2 of Service Pack 2 is still Beta software, and may cause unforeseen problems on your system. This shouldn't be installed on a system which you cannot afford to reinstall. The final version should be with us Summer 2004.

In terms of Media Center this will update any previous non beta version of Windows XP Media Center 2002 or 2004 to build 5.1.2600.2149. This is mainly a bug fix/performance update rather than adding new features.

Windows XP Service Pack 2 Release Candidate 2 (Full Network Installer):
http://download.microsoft.com/download/C/1/6/C169BA60-E2D6-4C5F-B4F2-23DA024C9FA8/xpSP2.exe

Service Pack 2 RC2 Release Notes:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/deploy/relsprc2.mspx

Media Center Update (Windows XP Service Pack 2 RC1)

Tue, 11 May 2004 01:11:36 GMT

Windows XP Service Pack 2 offers users many changes which greatly enhance the security of their systems. What it also does is install the Service Pack 2 build of Media Center on to any existing (Non Beta) version of Windows XP Media Center 2002 or 2004 installation. So if you've not yet been able to obtain a Media Center 2004 upgrade from your OEM, SP2 can help here. This update doesn't provide any new features that were not included in the last release (MCE 2004 with Q830786 installed), this is mainly a bug fix. The current build number for this build is 5.1.2600.2096

NOTE: The current version of Service Pack 2 is a Release Candidate. It is still Beta software, and may cause unforeseen problems on your system. The final version should be with us Summer 2004.

Download:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/winxppro/sp2preview.mspx