Thread: 2003 Boxster S... I'm at it again!!!

Everything is back to working order now.

Revision3 HD Nation Episode 30

Jump to 21:31 of the episode

I have the MCE plug-in for M4A. What I didn't know was there are different types of M4A (AAC, AACPlus, Apple Lossless). Some of my files played and others didn't. I used Easy CD-DA Extractor Pro to convert my m4a's to mp3's. I had to delete the database for music which MS needs to make easier. Once that was done, I rebooted the PC it took about 4hrs for my PC it find everything. The reason for that was I was in and out all day of the car. So it only had a limited time to search for music. I think I'm done with the music now. Everything else still works... but sometimes Win7u has problems coming out of hibernation, lets say about 15% of the time I might experience this. The solution to this is kill power to it, then give it power. After this is done it will work 98% of the time. the last 2% is when the hibernation is a fail. It will do a cold boot into the OS.

Nice work, Ive been thinking of WMC especially with W7 being freaking awesome OS.

Could this be the new path for RR & CF alike.

Thanks for sharing Big774

Originally Posted by ZX1Cruizer

Thats looks kind of cool..... So does it all actually all open inside of MCE, or is it just opening on top of MCE. I see you like Dexter, my parents are obsessed with that show.

seasons 1 and 2 are pretty much amazing. its like reading a fantastic crime-thriller novel but you dont have to read, you just watch. just make sure you start with episode 1 and watch in order.

this thread makes me think i might setup my media center for the heck of it... i have win7 and right now wmc just sits idle most of the time. at least it could be a nice backup frontend...

I almost bought CF, but I forced myself to play with WMC, iTunes, CF, and RR for a week on my laptop.
I think while each has pros, it was the cons that made me decide which was best for me.
My list looked like this:
4 iTunes
3 RR
2 CF
1 WMC

My Reason
iTunes- aka the hog. The larger the library the more the memory it used. Don't let iTunes download podcast and play videos’ or music. The amount of memory it used look like it was playing Mass Effect or something. The UI needs a update in my opinion. I tried this software after WMC and UI just felt old. If I had gone the Apple route I would've been stuck to the Apple way or the highway. I have too much content to convert. Last thing that turned me from iTunes is the lack of plug-ins. I couldn't add external apps to the software.

RideRunnner- I has a ton of plug-ins but UI and file search killed it for me.

CF- I said this a hundred times about this software, I almost bought it. I really like ver3 it’s easy customizable with big buttons easy readable screen and also lite. The thing that annoyed me the most was trying to add external apps. In the end price stopped me from buying it.

WMC- is Microsoft answer to Mac’s Frontrow. It’s free with Premium and Ultimate. Seeing that I have Ultimate I had to try the software. I was surprised to see how much I liked it. I did run into some cons. First was I needed an mkv plug-in. then it was M4A plug-in. This plug-in gave me so many problems. There are several M4A plug-ins. At the end of the day some worked, most didn’t. I converted all my M4A down to MP3s. the other problem I encountered with WMC was after I added some new rows to the UI. There was a 50/50 chance if I tapped the screen two or more times the rows would just spin uncontrollably. I truncated the rows, only keeping what was important to me. Now I have 4 (from the 8 I started with) rows that reads Extra, External Apps, TV and Movies, and Music last. There is a 5th ghost row that will appear s only when media is playing and its labeled “Now Playing.”

Restorator 2007 Full
MatroskaSplitter x64
Media Center Studio
Photoshop
Media Browser
HeatWave
mcShoutcast
*One Voice

* One Voice stopped working on my setup on Saturday (2-13-10) and I sent a lot of emails to the company. I paid to much for this software. I like it but it almost seems like the comanpy is going down I got one email back and it wasn't helpful. I called every number I could find. None of them work. I will update if/ when something happens with this. For now I can't recommend this software if its dead.
***update One Voice had to resend me a new key. The company is still on its feet but it just really slow on responding.

*For M4A I used several plug-ins. In the end it was more a plain and converted all M4A back to Mp3.

I read some post about how to use Media Center Studio to edit the reg files of WMC. I found out that this wouldn’t work on x64. I used the full version of Restorator 2007 to edit the reg for me.
Locate the folder “ehome.” It will be here ”C:\Windows\ehome”
BACK THIS FOLDER UP!!!!
BACK THIS FOLDER UP!!!!
BACK THIS FOLDER UP!!!!
There will be a file named “ehres.dll’’
BACK THIS FILE UP!!!!
BACK THIS FILE UP!!!!
BACK THIS FILE UP!!!!

Open Restorator 2007. Drag and drop “ehres.dll” into the Resource Tree.
Click to expand the folders. Click on RCData. All the pictures are saved as “.png”
Here is where you can change the look of WMC. But if you still haven’t back up the “ehres.dll” file you will to. If you miss up the file there’s no turning back.
The main Files I focused on to edit were:
AUDIO.NOWPLAYING.BACKGROUND.PNG
COMMON.ANIMATED.BACKGROUND.PNG
COMMON.BACKGROUND.PNG
MEDIACENTERLOGO.PNG
STARTMENU.LOGO.SMALL.PNG

*Here is where I used Photoshop to crop, clean up, and fix an image that I was to use.

Pay attention to the size of image you will replace. Crop your image down to the same size. (I read that common.animated.background.png” can be replaced with a much larger image. Seeing that I was using this in my car the default size worked for me.)
Once you have your replacement pictures ready. Go to the image that will be replaced.
Right click on it.
Click on “Assign”
Click on “Assign to”
Select the picture you will replace it with.
The new picture will be assigned in its place.
Repeat till done with pictures.