Mark's MCE Blog - Other

Converting DVB-T Radio to MP3

Sun, 20 Nov 2005 21:33:29 GMT

Now that we have DVB-T Radio and recording support in Media Center 2005 UR2 wouldn’t it be good to have it on your MP3 player or Portable Media Center ?

Unfortunately the radio stations are recorded as audio only DVR-MS files, a format which fails to play on a Portable Media Center (after being synced to the My TV folder), and will not sync to a player such as a Creative Muvo because it is not a device that supports video formats (Media Player is set up to expect that this kind of file is TV).

If you want to extract the audio a ‘simple’ way to do it is to use an application called graphedit. This exists as part of the DirectX programmers SDK and can be used to create a graph which opens the dvr-ms file and writes it as an MP3. To do this

1. If you don’t have GraphEdit download a copy here (The latest version from the DirectX 9 SDK is not absolutely required for this)

2. Extract the files to a sensible location (i.e. c:\graphedit rather than your desktop) and register dump.ax by going to Start > Run and entering regsvr32 <path>\dump.ax

3. Run GraphEdit and go to File > Render Media File

4. Navigate to the Recorded TV, for types of file select ‘All Files’ and select the radio DVR-MS file.

5. This will automatically create a graph, since we only care about the Audio select ‘Decrypt/Tag0002, your video decoder (e.g. ‘NVIDIA Video Decoder’), Video Renderer and press delete. Also Select the ‘Default DirectSound Device’ filter and press delete.

6. Select Graph from the menu and select Insert Filter.
7. Expand Audio Compressors and select ‘MPEG Layer-3’ followed by Insert Filter.

8. Move down the filter list and expand ‘DirectShow Filters’, from this group insert ‘Dump’ into the graph (will not exist unless dump.ax is registered). Upon doing this a dialog window will be shown saying ‘select an output file for this filter to use’, select a folder and then call your file Something.mp3, close the filter insert window.

9. Two new filters will now have appeared on your graph called ‘MPEG Layer-3’ and ‘Something.mp3’. Drag from the ‘Audio Output’ pin of your MPEG Audio Decoder (e.g. ‘NVIDIA Audio Decoder’) and connect it to the Input of ‘MPEG Layer-3’.

10. Next connect the output of ‘MPEG Layer-3’ to the Input of ‘Something.mp3’

11. Hit the play button below the options menu to start, depending how large the file is this may take some time.

Now unfortunately the MPEG Layer-3 filter we’ve just used is limited to producing MP3s at a maximum of 56kbit/sec, which unless you are listening to speech isn't really good enough. What we could do is swap out the MPEG Layer-3 filter for something a little less restrictive, such as a version of the LAME MP3 encoder that has a DirectShow interface. Alternatively you can choose another codec entirely provided you have suitable DirectShow filters.

sample.mp3 (75.86 KB)

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)

The Media Center Keyboard

Wed, 13 Jul 2005 20:01:42 GMT

Now this does look kind of cool. Coming in September Microsoft are planning to release a 3-in-1 keyboard for Windows XP Media Center 2005. It combines a 116 key keyboard, with the functions of the Media Center remote and a thumb mouse. In addition to this it is also able to control the volume and power of a TV Set.

> >

As expected you also have the short cut keys for Media Center functions which appear on the remotes such a My Music, Live TV and More Information. The Media Center ‘remote keys’ on the left and right side of the keyboard will also light up when one is pressed to provided easy access in low light conditions. A key lock is also included to prevent inadvertent keystrokes when it is not in use (which helps to avoid draining the 4 AA batteries needed to power it). The Media Center Keyboard works at a distance of up to 30ft over IR, using the existing* Media Center Infrared Receivers used today for the remote controls.

The expected retail price around $105 USD (equivalent to £60GBP/87 EUR), although BestBuy are currently listing it at $99.99 upon release.

* To use this keyboard you will need a PC running Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 and a Media Center Infrared Receiver which has been updated with KB888795. This keyboard cannot be used with a Media Center Extender, which is a bit of a shame really as the intended usage areas for these products do overlap.

Microsoft Hardware Homepage:

http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/mouseandkeyboard/productdetails.aspx?pid=040

Large Image:

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/images/gallery/hardware/RemoteKeyboard_lg.jpg

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

Dasblog v1.7 Upgrade

Wed, 09 Feb 2005 20:39:22 GMT

Well, the upgrade to v1.7 of dasblog was a bit more fun than I expected it to be, and ended up with all of the content being non accessible today. But luckily thanks to Karl on the server side it all seems to be up running nicely again. The new version of dasblog looks quite promising, particularly in the area of blog spam and actually having a decent log viewer.

I’m off to have a play :-)

I'm Back

Wed, 06 Oct 2004 00:39:27 GMT

Things are finally starting to settle down here, it’s been an interesting few weeks but I think probably one of the best choices I’ve made (as Dominic said it would be many months ago). Luckily for me I managed to get accommodation which had Internet, Sadly coupled with the world’s harshest non UPnP firewall (which prevented me sending email for the first week). Everything seems to be going well, I even like my flat mates which is great. October 1^st also marked my 3^rd year as being a member of the Microsoft MVP program. This year I have switched from Windows Shell/User to Windows Media Center as my primary area. Over the past year Media Center is a product I’ve become much more interested in, so thanks to Microsoft for recognizing me in this area.

Away for a few days

Thu, 16 Sep 2004 21:09:27 GMT

Hey Guys

I’m getting ready to leave for University on Saturday so this may be my last blog entry for a week or so as I need to get everything boxed up, get myself setup at the other end, and I’m sure there will be things to keep me busy next week. One last thing before I go, if you are an MSDN subscriber its not that long until you will be able to get the next version of Windows XP Media Center

Expected Ship Date to MSDN: November 2004
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 (English)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/new/default.aspx

Cya soon

Mark