Mark's MCE Blog - Media Center General

Welcome FilmFour

Sun, 23 Jul 2006 12:12:13 GMT

At 9PM tonight FilmFour will join the Freeview line-up over DVB-T as a Free to Air on channel 31. Last night I was looking through my guide and noticed that my guide data was showing as not available, to my surprise there was actually guide data for it! However because the service name being broadcast on DVB-T and the name in the BDS guide feed don’t match (FilmFour vs. Film4) the connection wasn’t made. I don't think there is much blame to place for this one, the official FilmFour site can't decided which one it is :)

If you need to manually add the guide listings start Media Center

1) Select Settings > TV > Guide > Add Listings to Channel

2) Select ‘FilmFour’ (Channel 31)

3) Select ‘Film4’

4) Select Save

Official Site

Preparing For TV Beyond Windows Vista

Fri, 23 Jun 2006 21:41:26 GMT

Some interesting information has come to light through a PowerPoint presentation that was posted on the Microsoft download site called ‘Preparing For TV Beyond Windows Vista’. It was presented at WinHEC 2006 (Windows Hardware Engineering Conference) by Bernhard Kotzenberg who is a Lead Program Manager in the Windows eHome Division.

Features highlighted as a possibility for the future included

DVB-T and DVB-S/S2 free-to-air and DVB-CI
Hybrid tuners
Merged program guide (PAL/DVB-T/DVB-S)
DVB-T subtitling and DVB Teletext
In-band EPG for DVB services
Interactive TV with MHEG5
Improved service scanning
FM radio station naming and analog TV channel renaming

And a number of similar features for the Japanese ISDB-T and ISDB-S standards (see slides for further details).

As a note DVB-CI is the ‘Common Interface’ standard for Premium TV smartcards rather than support for DVB-C (Digital Cable). In the presentation this was listed in the ‘Europe’ section, although I think the consequences have further reaches than Europe because the DVB standards is what a vast majority of the world has either implemented, is currently trialing or recommended. DVB-T alone is used in over 100 countries worldwide. The following images show this point rather well.

DVB-T Map
DVB-S Map

It is good to see these points being raised, when Media Center 2004 was released I never felt that the DVB-T implementation was complete. Sure it may have been at a technical document level, but compared to what the public might expect after using Freeview it missed a few features (particularly subtitles and interactive).

Microsoft and CableLabs Announce Agreement to Enable High-Definition Digital Cable Programming on Windows-Based PCs

Wed, 16 Nov 2005 20:44:53 GMT

'REDMOND, Wash., and LOUISVILLE, Colo. — Nov. 16, 2005 — Microsoft Corp. and Cable Television Laboratories Inc. (CableLabs^®) today announced they have reached an agreement that will allow Microsoft and PC manufacturers to bring to market digital-cable-ready Windows^®Media Center-based PCs in the holiday 2006 time frame.

These Media Center PCs, capable of supporting a CableCARD™ module, will allow consumers to enjoy one-way cable programming, including premium high-definition cable content, on their personal computer and throughout the home on compliant network-connected devices, such as Xbox 360™, while protecting cable operators’ investments in high-value content in a digital environment. Microsoft is working closely with CableLabs to document final approval of Windows Media^® Digital Rights Management (DRM) as a content protection technology for OpenCable™ products that receive one-way cable content under the terms of this agreement.

“This agreement is an important milestone for our customers who want access to high-definition digital cable content on their PCs and a major step toward enabling a solution for the delivery of that content,” said Joe Belfiore, corporate vice president of the Windows eHome Division at Microsoft.

“The cable industry is very interested in having the PC serve as another means to allow consumers to enjoy cable programming,” said Richard R. Green, president and CEO of CableLabs. “By working with Microsoft and the IT industry, we have come up with a solution to enable consumers to enjoy the wide range of entertainment options they want.”

“This agreement carefully balances the need to preserve the flexibility of the personal computer for consumers with the need for cable operators to be confident that the hardware and software shipped with compliant Media Center PCs will function like a CableCARD-enabled digital television,” said Glenn Britt, chairman of CableLabs and chairman and CEO of Time Warner Cable.

The agreement is the culmination of more than two years of extensive evaluation and technical reviews performed by the two entities under the CableLabs OpenCable process to develop specifications and test suites for the new solution.

The specified OpenCable architecture allows for multiple DRM systems to be used in the device and ensures content providers of protected delivery of content to the PC. Microsoft^® Windows Media Digital Rights Management is the first major DRM system to complete the due diligence necessary for approval by CableLabs.

The OpenCable project will continue to play an important role as the new agreement moves forward, allowing the cable industry to work closely with the consumer electronics and IT industries to innovate rapidly on the new specifications developed by Microsoft and CableLabs.

CableLabs will host interoperability events to enable vendors working on products based on these specifications to test products in CableLabs facilities and conduct more formalized certification testing. More information about the OpenCable project is available at http://www.opencable.com.

Media Center PCs deliver advanced computing and easy-to-use integrated digital entertainment experiences. To date, Microsoft has sold more than 4 million Windows XP Media Center Edition licenses, and more than 130 PC manufacturers are offering Media Center PCs around the world. The cable industry supports more than 370 models of digital televisions manufactured by 22 companies that display one-way cable content via CableCARDs.'

Source: www.microsoft.com/presspass

An open letter to Media Center users from Joe Belfiore

Fri, 14 Oct 2005 14:54:56 GMT

Happy Third Birthday, Windows XP Media Center Edition!

An open letter to Media Center users, customers and partners

Joe Belfiore, General Manager, Windows XP Media Center

'My son just turned two years old. For his entire life, the TV set in our family room has been a magic box that constantly offers him reminders of his childhood — a photo slide show of his cousin Serena visiting from Florida; “The Hoppity Song,” perfect for jumping and dancing at a button-press; videos that Dad took of him first walking, or swimming, or even being a goofball and kissing his own reflection in the bathroom mirror. Sometimes in the middle of the night when he wakes up, my wife or I sleepily bring him into our bedroom and let him watch a video to calm him down — he long ago learned which icon next to the My Videos folder on the screen he should point to so that we would cue up the right one, completely on demand.

Alexander will never know a world without being completely surrounded by digital images of his life, or where every TV set in the house doesn’t instantly give him access to the music he wants to listen to — any song in the world — or the TV show he wants to watch, someday even any show in the world. And thanks to all of you who have worked with our team at Microsoft to make this vision a reality, there are 4 million households right now around the world that will enjoy the same “digital life” that my family does every day.

This month, Windows^® XP Media Center Edition turns three years old. It was just three short years ago that the first PCs became available in the U.S., Canada and Korea with Media Center Edition and since then a HUGE amount of terrific stuff has happened with Media Center — and I am writing this letter to say an enormous, resounding THANK YOU to all the enthusiastic users and highly engaged partners who have been part of the community which is making this happen. (Shoot, in some parts of Europe and Asia, Media Center isn’t even two yet!)

2005 has been a giant year for Media Center:

· 130 PC manufacturers and more than 7,000 system builders around the world are shipping PCs with Windows XP Media Center Edition, with prices that range from more than $5,000 to under $500, in form factors that you can carry, that you can put next to your TV or that you might keep in a closet. These PCs have a huge range of features, from a terabyte or more of storage to learning remote controls, DVD changers, “instant-on” capability and support for voice control. The innovation is staggering.

· Media Center Extender has hit its stride and is about to explode. Linksys and HP have both successfully introduced the concept of an inexpensive and quiet device that gets you all the value of Media Center in every room of your house, and on Nov. 22 Xbox 360™ will be launched around the world to enable the world’s first integrated, high-fidelity, high-definition extender experience to end up in the hands of literally MILLIONS and MILLIONS of consumers. Undoubtedly, we will look back at this as the “Year of Media Center and Xbox 360.”

· More than 40 companies are offering hundreds of hardware products designed for Windows XP Media Center Edition. These include TV tuners, wireless networking equipment, keyboards, remote controls, portable video players and much more. All these things are designed to work specifically with Media Center Edition and to let people upgrade and add on to their experience.

· More than 75 companies around the world are offering terrific on-demand content, services and applications for Media Center through Online Spotlight, written to the world’s best platform for “10- foot” experiences designed to be displayed on TV and navigated with a remote control. These services deliver engaging scenarios ranging from MTV Overdrive’s new music videos on demand to Discovery Channel’s previews of upcoming shows. Other services providers in the U.S. include America Online Inc., Discovery Channel, Fox Sports, Movielink LLC, MSN^®, Napster LLC and more. And Online Spotlight is now available in many countries around the world where Media Center is shipping. Did you realize that in 2004, ABC Enhanced TV won an Emmy Award (for Advanced Media Technology) for the Media Center version of its hit show “Celebrity Mole: Yucatan ”? Interactive TV is actually happening today on the Media Center platform — not bad for a platform that is just three years old.

And, besides these large companies, a thriving community of individual developers is also creating cool add-ons, such as support for eBay auctions, Netflix rentals and Skype phone calls all on your TV set; remote-control software that runs on your cell phone which allows you to control Media Center Edition, contacts, e-mail, weather, traffic, lottery results and much, much more. (Check out http://www.windowsmarketplace.com/mediacenter or search for “Media Center” on Download.com to explore the possibilities.) It’s amazing to all of us working on the software how far these folks have taken it, and you can bet we’ll keep working to make this platform better and better so that the innovation continues to grow.

· We’ve had terrific collaboration with broadcasters and other folks in the TV industry, and some of the results from these collaborations have already started to become visible. In Europe just a few weeks ago, we announced an alliance with Nagra, one of the world’s leading producers of conditional access technology that’s used by cable and satellite operators to protect premium digital TV broadcasts. Together with Nagra and Canal+ Group (a French satellite service), we demonstrated a tuner device that enables Media Center to deliver protected digital content not just on the Media Center PC but also to extender devices around the home network. This technology isn’t yet ready to be shipped in products you can buy, but the prototype device gives you a glimpse of a near-future where Media Center works with these types of services. In the here and now, of course, this fall’s update to Media Center Edition includes support for high-definition (HD) over-the-air broadcast in the U.S. (with dual-HD tuners), and can enable you to watch that HDTV on your Xbox 360!

It’s very exciting for me to look around at all the enthusiasm out there for Media Center, and once again I say thank you. There’s something special about the PC industry and the fact that it openly encourages partners of all kinds to innovate and ship creative solutions — it’s hard to keep up with! There’s definitely a buzz within the development team at Microsoft as, every day, posts from blogs are forwarded around our group — maybe something about the next cool new Media Center PC, or the latest speculation or wishes about features in the next year’s upcoming release. (I’m personally a fan of Thomas Hawk and Ian Dixon — thanks for your ideas and suggestions!) We love hearing from all of you and are doing our best to listen and keep the right new features coming.

It’s not very often that a “professional job” gets to be as exciting as mine has been — I know that I’m very fortunate to be at the center of an incredibly exciting time in history, working on a product and technology that I’m very proud of, and — in particular — surrounded by the support of a wide array of talented and capable partners and users here in our Media Center community. It blows my mind that we’ve seen Media Center go from 0 to 4 million in just three short years. (Consider this: According to Strategy Analytics, in the first three years, only 2 million stand-alone DVRs were sold worldwide!)

As I look forward to the future, I can’t help but be excited about the terrific stuff we have in mind and in store for all of you. Our team is already hard at work on the Media Center software that will be part of Windows Vista™, and I’m certain you’re going to love it. It won’t be TOO long until you’ll get to see screenshots, demos and beta releases — so sit tight, and once again I’ll say THANK YOU for all the work and support in these years.

Happy Birthday, MEDIA CENTER EDITION!

Joe Belfiore
General Manager, Windows XP Media Center'

DVR-MS Playback on Windows Server 2003

Sat, 30 Jul 2005 21:55:27 GMT

This is the fruit of an IM conversation between Jonathan Maltz, myself and Corey Gouker late last week. Jon uses Server 2003 as his main desktop and until now had been forced to watch his files in a Virtual PC of Windows XP. When you ask people about playing back dvr-ms files on Server 2003 most of the time you get an answer that its just not going to work, or that something needed to support it is missing in the kernel which isn't true. All you need is 3 DLL files and a direct show MPEG2 video decoder.

Due to licensing issues I do not include the required DLL files, you must collect sbe.dll, sbeio.dll and encdec.dll from your own XP SP2/Media Center system. These can be found in C:\windows\system32. Copy these into the servers system32 folder and register sbe.dll and encdec.dll with regsvr32 or copy them all to the same folder as the dvr.bat file and run it, you should then see messages sucessfully registering 2 files.

Notes to remember:
This is not endorsed by Microsoft, use at own risk, may not work
The Windows Audio Service is disabled by default on 2003 Enterprise Edition
You should set the hardware acceleration of your display adapter to Full.

mcesrv.JPG (65.24 KB)
dvr1.zip (.18 KB)

Media Center chat moves to a new time

Wed, 29 Jun 2005 04:38:11 GMT

The monthly Expertzone Media Center Chat hosted on the third Thursday of every month by members of Microsoft’s ehome team and the Media Center MVPs, is moving to a new time slot of 11am pacific time (7PM UK). If you have a question we’d be honored to have you join us for the next chat on July 21^st. Hopefully this makes it a bit more accessible to people who are outside of the United States as previously due to the time difference the chat began at midnight in most parts of Europe.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/chats/chatroom.aspx

Time in other locations:

http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?year=2005&month=7&day=21&hour=11&min=0&sec=0&p1=234

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

Join the live chat with the MCE Team and MVP’s

Tue, 15 Feb 2005 22:13:01 GMT

On the third Thursday of every month at 3PM Pacific Time, the Windows Media Center MVP’s and members of the Media Center team from Microsoft host a live chat session with users of Media Center. If you’d like to put some questions to us live remember to come along to the chat session this Thursday at

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/chats/chatroom.aspx

Photo Story 3 for Windows now Available

Wed, 27 Oct 2004 21:54:57 GMT

For users of genuine Windows XP, Photostory 3 has been placed for free download on Microsoft.com. If you’ve never used Photostory before it essentially allows you to take you’re digital photographs, fix them (remove red-eye, correct lighting, colour imperfections, rotate, crop and more.> ). Then place them into a Windows Media movie with pan options and transitions between each picture. This can be set to music of your choice (or constructed in PS3) or narrated over. Certainly worth checking out.

http://www.microsoft.com/genuine/offers/Default.aspx?displaylang=en

NVIDIA DVD Decoder for MCE 2005 Released

Wed, 27 Oct 2004 21:47:35 GMT

‘Millions of end users are harnessing the power of the PC to bring photos, videos, music, multimedia and DVDs to life in their living room, on their desktop and on the road. The NVIDIA® DVD Decoder combines the industry’s highest quality DVD and MPEG-2 playback with rich surround sound audio and provides the best experience with Microsoft® Windows® Media Player and Windows Media Center Edition.

Featuring Dolby® Digital surround sound audio and hardware-accelerated video on all Microsoft DirectX® compatible graphics processors, the NVIDIA DVD Decoder delivers unmatched color fidelity and smooth DVD, video, and TV viewing.

The NVIDIA DVD decoder is the first software decoder to receive the “Designed for Media Center Edition” certification, ensuring that it will deliver premium video quality and unmatched performance for Media Center PCs. In addition, the NVIDIA DVD Decoder is designed to work with Portable Media Centers allowing users to take their recorded TV shows with them on the road.’

Features

Enables DVD viewing with Microsoft® Windows Media® Player or Microsoft Windows® Media Center Edition*
High quality MPEG-2 decoder supports any third party software application based upon Microsoft DirectShow®
Dolby® Digital** surround sound decoding
Minimizes CPU utilization by offloading the MPEG-2 decoding onto the graphics processor
Enables advanced de-interlacing
Decodes high-definition MPEG-2 streams for ATSC tuners
Supports Windows Mobile-based Portable Media Centers allowing end users to transcode MPEG-2 content into Windows Media Video 9
S/PDIF pass through for external decoding of Dolby Digital and DTS (compatible hardware required)

Technical Specifications

Fully compliant ISO MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video and audio decoder
MPEG-2 acceleration for inverse quantization (IQ), inverse discrete cosine transform (IDCT), and motion compensation (mo comp)
Microsoft DirectShow support
Microsoft DirectX video acceleration support
Microsoft Video Mixing Renderer 7 and 9
Overlay support
Sub-picture support

System Requirements

Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional, or Windows XP Home Edition
DirectX 9.0 or higher
Windows Media Center or Windows Media® Player 9.0 or higher for DVD Playback
DirectShow compatible software for MPEG-2 file playback
DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA) compatible graphics processor supports, such as NVIDIA GeForce4™ Series, GeForce FX Series, or GeForce 6 Series.
DVD-ROM drive required for DVD viewing

Currently only CyberLink Power DVD 5.0.2027C and this are the only DVD Codecs which have the ‘Designed for Windows XP Media Center Edition’ logo.

If you’ve been waiting to sell OEM systems based on Media Center 2005 this is a good codec to go with, at $19.95 it’s not a bad deal. https://www.dvd.nvidiaproducts.com/cgi-bin/index.cgi

The ‘Designed for Windows XP Media Center Edition’ logo is particularly handy when searching for Media Center Compatible hardware as a product with this symbol has passed Microsoft's testing to attain it.

A list of certified products can be found at:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/mediacenter/partners/dfw/partnerlisting.mspx

Hauppauge announces new Tuners for Media Center 2005

Sat, 09 Oct 2004 12:54:18 GMT

As Media Center 2005 rolls into view, the hardware vendors are preparing their latest offerings, Hauppauge specifically have 2 new cards and another 2 revamped ‘MCE’ editions.

‘The WinTV-NOVA-T-MCE is a digital TV receiver which receives television on the DVB-T format, and can be used to watch and record digital TV shows under Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005.’

What this offers you essentially (providing you have a good quality signal) is up to DVD quality TV pictures and higher quality sound than analog TV (as there is no analog to digital conversion when the signal gets to your MCE PC). Several cards have offered this functionality since last year, such as the GDI Black Gold and several OEM only cards such as Emuzed. The vanilla Nova-T has been used with Media Center 2004 for DVB-T, but it did involve some work to obtain drivers compatible with the particular chipset used by the different versions of the card (from 3^rd parties). This –MCE edition should simplify this as it will be shipped with drivers for both Windows XP and Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. The downside with digital TV is that you do need a good percentage of the signal or you will see nothing on screen, so if you do invest in some DVB-T hardware its always worth borrowing a set top box from a friend to checkout how well you're antenna is doing.

Hauppauge also have three new analogue tuners, the PVR150MCE, PVRUSB2-MCE and PVR500MCE. The 150 is a new lower cost version of the PVR250MCE (same video quality, but lacking hardware Video CD encoding). The PVR500MCE is an interesting beast; it offers the same features as the current 250MCE but has two TV tuners and two hardware video encoders on a single card which could be handy in small systems with limited PCI slots. However Media Center 2002/2004 does not support dual tuner functionality, and no announcement has yet been made regarding that feature in Media Center 2005. Though reading the Hauppauge page for the card it does infer that 2005 will support this.

To compare the WinTV PVR Products see http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/compare_pvr.html

(Digital Video Broadcasting – Terrestrial (DVB-T) is digital TV format used in the U.K (‘Freeview’), parts of Germany , Australia and Taiwan . This format is not used in the United States , which currently uses ATSC for higher definition digital broadcasts.)

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

DVR 2 WMV v1.0 Released

Thu, 26 Aug 2004 03:35:24 GMT

If you’ve not used DVR 2 WMV before it is an application which allows you to covert Recorded TV files from the DVR-MS wrapped MPEG2 format created by Media Center into Windows Media 9, potentially saving a great deal of space per recording and allowing the files to be editing with applications supporting WMV9. The final version of DVR 2 WMV 1.0 contains a command line version, desktop version and an interface suitable for interaction through Media Center . This version seems to be a great improvement over the last one I tried (RC3.5), the conversion time seems less and on a 3 min 45 second DVB-T clip on the default settings I’m seeing around a 50% size reduction with fairly similar end quality.

DVR 2 WMV by: Alex Seigler, José Peña, James Edelen and Jeff Griffin

Download now at TheGreenButton:
http://www.thegreenbutton.com/downloads.aspx

Creative Zen Portable Media Center Review (Part 1)

Wed, 25 Aug 2004 04:56:25 GMT

A good friend of mine Corey Gouker who is an MVP for Windows Media Center has been able to obtain a Creative Zen Portable Media Center device to review. He has recently published his verdict along with a large number of pictures and a few videos of the device in action.

If you’re interested in getting a PMC or just curious in them I’d really recommend checking this out. It’s nice to see an option on the model for both NTSC and PAL output.

PMC Review:

http://blogs.coreygouker.com/CommentView.aspx?guid=64fabf6f-8bac-4f2b-90c1-98e162520182

Details on this model:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0002J6GLG/ref=dp_ln_ed_1/103-7457464-6883818?v=glance&s=electronics&n=172630&vi=reviews&me=standard

If I could operate my world by remote control…

Wed, 25 Aug 2004 03:22:28 GMT

An interesting one, Home Automation, Inc. (HAI) who makes the Omni family of home automation and security product will be releasing a remote control interface for their products to be used with Windows XP Media Center Edition. This will allow Media Center to control lighting, security, temperature control, macros, event log, and more. Just need to automate my house now :)

http://www.homeauto.com/Products/HAIAccessories/MCE/WME_trifold.pdf

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

Where have I been?

Tue, 01 Jun 2004 22:38:25 GMT

Hi Guys
Not had a chance to do some updates for a while, last few weeks have been a particularly busy point in my life finishing off college. Still lots of things have been going on.

At the start of May I had my first submission published in the Microsoft Knowledgebase which was pretty cool. It details how Media Center is dependant on the Systems Location setting in order to correctly configure itself for a country. It was a subject briefly touched on as a vague one liner in another Media Center KB article so I decided to revisit it. However it really targets MSDN users who don't have the machine setup for them by an OEM.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;555113

I also had some feedback asking for a bit more detail about the Ident values for the key which exists at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center

Idents:
MCE 2002 Updated v1142 (Q815487) = ident 1.5
MCE 2004 Release To Manufacturer v1217 = ident 2.0
MCE 2004 Updated v1321 (Q830786) = ident 2.7
MCE 2004 WinXP Service Pack 2 = ident 2.8

On a system that is Ident 2.8 (5.1.2600.2082) or higher this information will also be visible in the systems HTTP header. e.g. 'Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; Media Center PC 2.8; .NET CLR 1.0.3705)'.

Media Center Edition To Expand Throughout Europe and Australia

Tue, 11 May 2004 01:22:23 GMT

Microsoft today released a press statement in which it announced the extension of the Media Center line into new countries by the end of 2004. As a result of the possitive response from Customers in the current supported countries, and interest from those which arn't Microsoft will be working with OEM's to deliver Media Center in four new countries.

Australia: Acer Inc., HP and Toshiba Corp.

Austria: chiliGREEN Computer GmbH and GERICOM AG

Italy: Acer, ASEM SpA, Brain Technology SpA, CDC Point SpA., Comex SpA, Datamatic SpA, Elettrodata SpA, Frael SpA, H.I.I. SpA, HP, Intercomp SpA, Olidata SpA, Packard Bell, Toshiba and Winner SpA

Netherlands : Dynabyte, Fujitsu Siemens, HP, MegaSellers, MyCom Computers, Norrod Computers, Packard Bell, Paradigit Computers, Qmotion Computers and Sky Computers

Based on: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2004/may04/05-10EAAvailabilityPR.asp

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

Media Center Weblog

Tue, 11 May 2004 00:49:15 GMT

I’ve decided to start this one to discus a product that I personally have a great deal of interest in. What I’d like to do here is a few things that I’ve been finding it a bit difficult to do with my current Media Center page. When I originally started work on the word document which became my Introduction to MCE 2004 UK ‘site’ in summer 2003 I never did envisage it would be that. Today harmony.php is coming fairly close to the kind of traffic I see on the front page of my XP site.

What I’d like to achieve in here is to provide public information about updated versions of and patches for Windows Media Center . Also have an area of my site which can follow Media Center News, and most importantly of all, get some feedback from the people who actually visit this site. These are things I believe its not truely possible to achieve with the current setup. If there’s anything that’s not covered by NDA which you would like me to talk about, drop me a line fatherjack@mvps.org

Mark Salloway

Windows XP Shell/User MVP