Mark's MCE Blog

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)

Microsoft has released an update for Media Center 2005 machines running Update Rollup 2 to prevent Windows Media Player 10 setup from overwriting digital rights management (DRM) files installed by Update Rollup 2.  After the launch of UR2 this led to some users experiencing problems trying to use protected content.

At the time of writing the KB article for this update is not yet live

Download Link   KB Article

'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

Tweak MCE was a PowerToy released for Media Center 2005 which allowed access to certain settings which are not exposed in the Media Center UI, and otherwise would require manual registry editing to modify. When Update Rollup 2 came out the existing version of Tweak MCE did not recognise it as a supported version of Media Center since the version number changed from v3.0/v3.1 (Update Rollup 1) to v4.0. In addition to supporting Rollup 2 there are a few extra options included in this version for some of the new features such as My DVDs and overscan.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=3400190a-511a-4a3a-9b89-524511a76f58&displaylang=en

There have been a number of reports of the Creative Portable Media Centers removable battery expanding, becoming lodged within or damaging the player.

Continued at source