MediaEngine Official FAQ

phat_bastard · 09-03-2004, 01:52 PM

Since it seems I'm never going to have time to implement this on mediaengine.org, I thought I would start this thread out in hopes of reducing the number of times a week I have to answer the first FAQ entry alone.

This thread used to be open to submissions, but I was forced to close it due to the number of off-topic subjects being posted. Aside from that, no-one save CarComp and myself were contributing, so I guess it's comes out a push.

phat_bastard · 09-03-2004, 02:00 PM

Yes. If you're using Win2k or WinXP and have your media drives formatted with NTFS, you can use either of the following methods to allow you multiple folders for media.

1) Use the Disk Management applet inside Computer Manager, and mount your drives inside an empty folder on another drive. Using this method you can have a single drive dedicated to one folder, and mount it inside a folder on a third drive, or your boot drive.

2) Find and download a program called junction.exe from http://www.sysinternals.com and create hard links of folders (or files if you want).

Those of you using Windows 98 / ME... for Pete's sake, upgrade!

phat_bastard · 09-03-2004, 02:18 PM

Because we didn't feel it would be worth the effort when:

a) MediaEngine can run external applications
b) There are hundreds, if not thousands of CD ripping applications available for free

We decided it was not worthwhile to put a pretty face on a function that other apps can do better and more efficiently than we can in VB.

phat_bastard · 09-10-2004, 10:00 AM

In the default skin there is a close button in the top right hand corner of the main menu. If you're using the clean menu mode, just clicking in the top right corner will close M/E. Also, if your database is being rebuilt, you'll have to either wait until it completes, or click three (or maybe four) times quickly to force the program to unload.

If you're using a custom skin it depends on where the button was placed by the skin's designer, and if there was a graphic assigned to it or not.

phat_bastard · 09-14-2004, 01:00 PM

Try adding the file extension to the Supported File Types section in settings. You may also need to install the associated input plugin for Winamp. Usually that is as simple as copying the plugin dll into the plugins folder in your m/e program folder, but it may require other steps depending on the plugin.

CarComp · 09-15-2004, 10:38 AM

When we first started writing MediaEngine, you could do this, but we found that people were specifying C:\ as the media folder, and that was causing MediaEngine to search through EVERYTHING (windows, temporary internet files, etc) for media files. This would cause MediaEngine to slow to a crawl and become unusable. Thus, we force the user to choose a directory that is at least one sub directory down from the root of any drive to avoid this issue.

CarComp · 09-15-2004, 10:40 AM

Because you have automatic dimming turned on. If its past the specified night-time "time" in settings, it will keep the application dimmed no matter what. To disable this, un-check automatic dimming.

CarComp · 09-15-2004, 10:49 AM

MediaEngine uses the OLD Windows Media Player (not 9.0) that comes default with Windows 2000 and WindowsXP. This player relies on codecs to work correctly. You must be sure to install the correct codecs to play media files such as DivX, MPEG4, VCD etc. To make your DVDs play, you have to install a 3rd party DVD player such as WinDVD so that the WinDVD codecs can be used by msdvdweb.dll in MediaEngine.

phat_bastard · 04-07-2005, 10:21 AM

There are two basic causes for errors like this:

1) You have used nLite, XPLite, or some other utility to strip down windows, and have removed some components of ADO (microsoft's ActiveX Data Objects) or MDAC (Microsoft Data Access Components).

2) Your jet (access database / .mdb) drivers are broken or missing. Consult the Microsoft Knowlege Base for a possible resolution.

MediaEngine relies on these components to store a database of your media library.

phat_bastard · 05-11-2005, 11:40 AM

If you're using FAT32, windows feeds us the directory listings sorted by last modified date. To get your lists to sort by file / folder names enable the option 'Sort Directory Based Lists by Filename' in the 'Actions' tab in settings. In a future version I hope to be able to detect the filesystem in question to set this option automatically, but that's way down on the TODO list.

phat_bastard · 06-17-2005, 11:33 AM

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.

phat_bastard · 08-01-2005, 10:10 AM

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.

phat_bastard · 09-22-2005, 09:59 AM

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.

phat_bastard · 09-22-2005, 10:11 AM

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.

phat_bastard · 09-26-2005, 12:26 PM

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.

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