MediaEngine Official FAQ

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by shred444

what in the world does the second icon do? it looks like a branched network splitting off into different nodes.

---

It builds a playlist by recursing the folder (it's content including all subfolders) that you click after enabling this button.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Psychobiker

Why doesn't ME recognise ID tags of ripped WMAs?
I have loads and loads of "'unknown artist' - Her Ghost in the Fog" for instance.
Track name, but no artist? Works in Winamp

---

Because ME doesn't read tags from WMA files. All Microsoft media formats are evil. Find something better to rip your music with.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Karmak

Hi guys,
just wanted to know if it's possible to display album covers in the mp3 player section of ME.

---

MediaEngine displays album art in the following order:

1) If the ID3V2 tag contains an image tag, when that particular track is queued the image will be displayed.

2) Failing that, MediaEngine looks for *.jpg, *.gif, *.png, and *.bmp in the folder where the currently playing media file lives. If there is only one, the image is displayed. If there are multiple file matches, MediaEngine plays a slide show of these images, rotating about every 15 seconds.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Karmak

Also, how do you equalize the sound?

---

Currently there are no plans for equalizer support in MediaEngine. There are several reasons why we decided this was not a worthwhile endeavor, but the foremost reason is that both of us (the authors of the software) are avid audiophiles, and prefer our equalization on high-end component equalizers. It is possible to set winamp's equalizer section to your likings, however this will only apply equalization to audio played through winamp. Other external sources, and video playback will not be effected, because they use different input 'pins'. Even the highest-end paragraphic software equalizers will only effect the wave audio device pins of your sound card. Furthermore, the quality of DSP equalization is something we're both leary of. Personally I've listened to a lot of very high end systems and I've always been able to hear things I didn't like when turning on DSP on a pc based audio source. To this end, we decided that the work it would take to write our own DSP control to do equalization the way it should be done (if it were even possible inside the limits of windows audio devices), was outside of the scope of practicality for a freeware project.

This topic has been brought up numerous times, so I felt it deserved a place in the FAQ.

(Excerpted from another thread)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by phat_bastard

...At the same time, we've never been opposed to adding native support for more devices but we've invested a lot of money in hardware for this project and the reward for us has been slim or none. With that said, if anyone has a device they want supported my suggestion to you would be to first run it past myself and CarComp so we can make sure the drivers and SDK are there. Next, organize a group of supporters (you're welcome to do so in the M/E forum here) and purchase two of whatever it is you want supported, under the premis that we (the developers) get to keep the hardware so we can test against it during revisional progress. We'll do what we can to accomodate your requests in a timely manner, and if for some reason we can't we'll return the hardware to you.

---

One other topic that is relevant here - we have considered at times adding support for winLirc and Radiator, which would vastly increase the hardware support. Unfortunately we've never been able to make time for this. These items are still in our goals, however it's unlikely you'll see this happen in 2005.

This happened when the function value to tell M/E to shut down was used for GPS (remind me later to slap CarComp upside the head on this one). The fix is to open the .skn file of the skin you're trying to use, and edit the function value of your shutdown button from 6 to 7.

Conversely, if you're trying to add a GPS button to a custom skin, you'll need to assign two buttons to the shutdown function and manually edit the one you want to use for shutdown to 7. The .skn file entry will look like:

[MenuIcon6]
<removed for brevity>
Function=6
IconPictureSel=GPSsel.jpg
IconPictureUnSel=GPS.jpg
<...>
[MenuIcon7]
<removed for brevity>
Function=7
IconPictureSel=shutdownsel.jpg
IconPictureUnSel=shutdown.jpg
<...>

I'll try to remember to fix the skinning program after I get done with the 2.3.4 release.

EDIT: This issue has been fixed with the release of the 1.4.1 skinmaker app. Unfortunately you will still need to fix any .skn files created with the older versions.

You need to have a third party DVD player application or a valid MPEG-2 codec installed in order to play DVD video. PowerDVD is my preferred solution, but others work equally well.

Quote:

---

Where can I find a manual / user guide for MediaEngine?

---

http://mediaengine.org/download/MediaEngineManual.doc

It's not really complete, but it may help get you started.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by a-ten

I'm part way through making a skin for ME but I want to get rid of and reorder some of the icons on the menu bars in the mp3 and video screens.

How can I do this?

---

The skinning system currently does not allow users to move / remove the buttons on most of the button bars. The only exception might be the GPS window, but don't quote me on that.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by stasik-a4

How do i make mediaengine to play by track numbers and not in alphabetical order...? It plays albums in wrong way rather than how they on album cover..?

---

There are two ways to get your albums to sort by track number.

1) go to 'browse database>browse by artist>[album]>list albums' - this will honor the track numbers used in the id3 tags if present

or my preferred method:

2) rename your files with the track number formatted as two or three digits (i.e. 01, 02, 03, etc.) in the filename and turn on 'sort directory based lists by filename' on the 'Actions' tab in settings