[Daveybryce]

My Hardware

Case - Silverstone Lascala LC-17
PSU - Corsair TX650
Mobo - Gigabyte 780G HD3200
CPU - AMD Athlon X2 5050e 2.6Ghz 45W Energy Efficient
RAM - 2x2Gb Corsair XMS2 DDR2 PC-6400 800Mhz
GFX - Sapphire Ati Radeon HD 5850 - A beast of a card
TV Card - Technisat SkyStar 2 HD PCI - DVB-S2 for Freesat HD
Remote - Logitech Harmony One (Marriage saving remote control )
Keyboard - Logitech Dinovo Edge

AV Receiver - Onkyo TX-SR606

Speakers - Monitor Audio R225's L&R Front, Monitor Audio R250 Centre, Bose Twin cubes for Rears.

Please click on the links below to take you to the related post. Thanks

If you have any questions regarding Windows 7, mediabrowser or anything general, please feel free to post in here.

Contents

1. This Post - Introduction (using DVB-T at my old house)

2. Using Third party codecs and Windows 7 - not straight forward

3. Useful plugins and Software to use with 7MC

4. Screenshots of my setup

5. Getting nice Movie Cover Overlays in 7MC using Mediabrowser plugin

6. Apps to customize Start Strips in 7MC

7. Registering an MP4/M4V (Quicktime) Splitter for use with FFDShow in 7MC & WMP12 using this batchfile. Download Link

8. Want to change the boring blue 7MC Theme.... Go to Theme7MC

9. New PSU and Case arrived - Pictures

10. New PSU and Case arrived - Pictures continued

11. Adding Applications to Start Menu using MC Studio

12. Streaming Light - A 7MC Theme I've created for all to use

13. Adding my HD 5850 GFX card and Noctua U9 HSF to my media arsenal

My Hardware

Case - Silverstone Lascala LC-17
PSU - Corsair TX650
Mobo - Gigabyte 780G HD3200
CPU - AMD Athlon X2 5050e 2.6Ghz 45W Energy Efficient
RAM - 2x2Gb Corsair XMS2 DDR2 PC-6400 800Mhz
GFX - Sapphire Ati Radeon HD 5850 - A beast of a card
TV Card - Technisat SkyStar 2 HD PCI - DVB-S2 for Freesat HD
Remote - Logitech Harmony One (Marriage saving remote control )
Keyboard - Logitech Dinovo Edge

AV Receiver - Onkyo TX-SR606

Speakers - Bose Acoustimass 15's - Twin cubes

Background Info

Decided to start getting used to Windows7 and 7MC

The user interface with 7MC is pretty much the same as for all the other versions with a few visual enhancements such as the mini guide when watching TV shows 2 lines of the TV guide rather than just a 1 box channel synopsis.

I'm still messing around with the codecs side and in my beta version (7068) I'm having difficulty with setting the codecs up.

I'm using MCDU (media center decoder utility) to override the forced M$ DTV-DVD decoders in order to allow 3rd party codecs such as FFDshow and CoreAVC to work with all types of video files and also to allow for Microsoft decoders to handle the TV side of things.

I will keep posting up findings and links to Hack7.com where they have helped me solve my issues.

Anyways so far I've started changing the 7MC theme using Restorator and will hopefully have some full themes for anyone to download in the not too distant future.

I've added mcshoutcast plugin which is awesome for internet radio stations such as Digitally Imported for the dance heads amongst us but it caters for all music styles. It costs US$10 for a subscription and is worth it if you like your tunes.

I've got the mediabrowser plugin on it's own strip now and is set up exactly as in VMC.

I've also added channel logos to the TV Guide which are a nice touch and simple to do.

All the information to do all of these modifications are available on Hacking Windows 7 Media Center and Extenders - Hack7MC.com

Here are some screen shots of where I'm at

My first background change

TV Channel logos

New Mini Guide

My Second Background Change

Shoutcast - It is also possible to record you station's airing direct from 7MC

[Daveybryce]

Third Party Video and Audio Decoders

Audio Decoders

Basically I've been having a lot of issues with FFDShow and getting it to show up in graph edit.

Firstly, the only version of FFDshow I can get to work on W7 for both WMP and 7MC is build 2792, anything previous to this version for video is redundant and does not register if you drop a file in Graphedit to show codecs used. If I use the MCDU and select FFDShow Audio instead of the standard Microsoft DVT-DVD audio codec, none of my files play in WMP and 7MC and show errors.

As FFDShow seems to crash both WMP & 7MC when it is selected in the MCDU as the default audio codec or even in the registry I've chosen AC3Filter (Link below) as my audio decoder weapon of choice.

About MCDU and what it does for the audio side. It will rename msmpeg2adec.dll in the system32 folder of windows to msmpeg2adec.dll.mcdu.bak in order to disable the windows media foundation for both LiveTV and movie files. It also changes the default decoder in the registry to the selected decoder's CLSID, located here: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Media Center\Decoder.

Use MCDU if you want to use AC3Filter for all audio decoder handling including live TV, this is what I've chosen and it works great as you can set your gains right on speaker channels or just increase the set volume if you have low sound coming out of your speakers. You won't see AC3Filter straight away in the MCDU from the audio decoder drop down box because you need to tick the box that says "Show decoders not specifically named Audio or Video". Once ticked you can scroll through the Audio options and select AC3Filter.

If you still want to use FFDShow's Video decoder then when installing ensure that you have uncheck/deselected all audio file associations during the setup or alternatively launch FFDShow's audio configuration and deselect all audio codecs.

Video Decoders

Warning, using MCDU for Video decoders will generally break live TV, so you have to manually select your decoders for video either using radlight filter manager or by trusting me and using the CLSID's listed below.

To change the video decoders for any file container/file type to something other than the MS ones, we need to change some registry entries, however if this is the first time you will need to take ownership of the "Preferred" folder located here: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DirectShow\P referred.

For FFDShow Video decoder to work over the MS ones for avi/divx/xvid/m4v we need to locate this entry in the Preferred folder (HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DirectShow\ P referred) in the registry
{e06d8026-db46-11cf-b4d1-00805f6cbbea} and change this existing entry {212690FB-83E5-4526-8FD7-74478B7939CD} to {04FE9017-F873-410E-871E-AB91661A4EF7}

To change the h264 decoder to CoreAVC then locate this entry {31435641-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71} and change existing entry {212690FB-83E5-4526-8FD7-74478B7939CD} to {09571A4B-F1FE-4C60-9760-DE6D310C7C31}

Alternatively if you want to use FFDshow for H264 multithread decoding, first you need to go into the FFDShow Video decoder configurations, and under the sub-heading "Codecs" you need to ensure the H264 decoder is using ffmpeg-mt codec by selecting from the drop down menu. Then simply go into the registry and change:
{31435641-0000-0010-8000-00AA00389B71} to {04FE9017-F873-410E-871E-AB91661A4EF7}

Please Note: Haali is required to split an .mkv container, however it is not an issue at all for W7, it installs and does it's job straight out of the box.

I found I had to register a 3rd Party MP4 splitter to play .m4v containers as the M$ one didn't function at all. I used this one MP4 Splitter 1.0.0.4.

To register the MP4Splitter, Unzip the folder you downloaded and there is a file in there called MP4Splitter.ax you have to register this so I copied an existing batch file (one from starkscovers) into the splitter folder, renamed it to reg_MP4Splitter, right clicked on it and clicked Edit. A text document opens so I deleted all the text in it and added the line - regsvr32.exe MP4Splitter.ax close the text and save it. Run the batch file and a Cmd window should open and a dialog box to say that the registration was successful. I've attached a zip folder with the splitter and batch file to run.

So here is how my decoder config is set up on my Win 7 Ultimate x86 HTPC

FFDShow - avi/divx/xvid/m4v movies using registry update, all FFDShow audio codecs disabled.
AC3Filter - All audio goes through this decoder using MCDU
CoreAVC with haali - H264/mkv decoding for movies only using registry.
LiveTV - Using built in MS DTV-DVD Video Decoder as it doesn't break live TV.


Download Links

FFDshow Latest Version
CoreAVC - Multithread and NVidia Cuda Hardware acceleration codec for h264/x264
AC3Filter - Download the full version for Windows7
Haali - Required to play MKV
MCDU- Required to Take ownership of M$ codecs and disable them.
Graphedit - To see which direct show filters a movie file is using
Radlight Filter Manager - Changing Codec Merits and also a useful tool to find out Directshow filter CLSID's to change registry entries.

[Daveybryce]

Good Plugins & Software to use with Win 7 Media Centre

Mediabrowser 2.1.3.0 - Plugin for movies, boxsets, and TV series with nice fanart for each film
metabrowser - meta scraper to get the info for movies and TV Series, such as synopsis, MPAA ratings, Aspect ratios, covers and backdrops.
TunerFreeMCE - For all your available on Demand Channels, iplayer, 4oD, demandFive, Hulu, etc
My Channel Logos - Good app for auto assigning channel logos for your EPG - can also add your own logos to channels.
Media Center Studio - Re-arrange your menu, add custom strips to start menu, create your own 7MC theme, add applications and browsers, add games... All to customise the look and feel of 7MC. Please donate to this one.
Arcsoft TotalMediaTheatre 3 - Bluray,HDDVD, DVD player with SimHD(upscales SD DVDs)
StarksCovers - To be used with Mediabrowser ideally, it produces overlays for your folder.jpg's to produce a more effective cover than the standard.
Cyberlink PowerDVD 9 Ultra - Another Bluray, DVD player however this supports HD audio bitstreaming from the ATI HD5xxx range of graphics cards.

[Daveybryce]

Ok So now I've got it all working and since someone posted up a query bout launching Mediabrowser from the remote which I've managed to do.

I thought I'd post up some updated pictures of how my 7MC is looking

Home Screen

EPG

BBC HD

MediaBrowser

Media Browser Folders

TV Series View

TV Season View

TV Episode View

DVD Movie Covers

Bluray Movie Covers

Movie Information/Synopsis

Movie Trailers button (between play & refresh on left side) + Trailer Window

And Where it all sits in my lounge

[Daveybryce]

Adding Applications to Start Menu in 7MC

Firstly you'll need Media Centre Studio - Download here

Once you've download it create a shortcut of your download on your desktop, as it always connects to the internet at every launch to ensure you have the most upto date version running as it's still very much in beta. Launch it!

You will notice that there are no themes in there but ignore that as it will use the default theme. You will also see the UI layout with various tabs, We need to click on both the Start Menu Tabs to be able to add an application

After that you should be face with a screen that looks similar to this. Then we want to click the Application Icon

And you will get another lower tab open with application name. In the title you can enter anything you like to name your new app. I've gone for Google Chrome.

Next, select the path of your app, generally you can find this by clicking the windows orb, going into your program files and right clicking on the app and selecting properties.

Once the properties window is open, locate the "Target" Field and highlight the all the text and copy (ctrl+C). Then Paste this into the Path field in Media Centre studio.

You can then select an image (IE has a very large and good built in image) as Google chrome's is a little on the small side for MCE (256x256 PNG images work good - it needs to be in PNG format). You also might want to tell MCE what to do when the new app is launched (you can decide, coz if you are listening to music then you might want it to carry on playing, but if you are watching a movie, then you'll probably want it to pause) Do this via the drop down menu

We need a command to close our new app - this will close the app and re-instate MCE. I've chosen the ESC key and all you need to do is click on the green + icon below the "Close the program when these button are pressed" - It then asks you to press a button. You can keep pressing the green + icon to add combinations if you like. Then save your app by pressing the save button at the top.

Finally we have to pop our new app in the start menu. So Click on the Lower Start Menu Tab and at the bottom left you should see a little down arrow with the text "entry points"

Clicking on the entry point arrow will reveal a whole load of entry points including your newly made one.

All you have to do is drag and drop your new app entry onto the start menu. Be warned you can only place it where large green + signs appear.

Save it all and wait for it to finish saving (takes a little while), close MCStudio, launch 7MC and you are away

[gvers]

Looking good . Are you running 32bit or 64bit?

[Daveybryce]

Originally Posted by gvers

Looking good . Are you running 32bit or 64bit?

Running 32bit.

I think these issues are here because of it being a beta release rather than a RC or full version, however the RC is released on the 30th April 2009, so it will be interesting to see what that is like.

I've sorted my codec issues but I'm still testing at the moment and once I'm happy I will post up my set up

[Theydon Bois]

Another project mate?

You have moved from Media Portal to VMC MediaBrowser to 7MC... Not found anything you like yet then?

[Daveybryce]

Originally Posted by Theydon Bois

Another project mate?

You have moved from Media Portal to VMC MediaBrowser to 7MC... Not found anything you like yet then?

Yep another one.

I've tried meediOS and didn't get on with it, also XBMC with similar results.

As I have mentioned before, I loved mediaportal until i tried to integrate TV into it, which is where it fell over for me, so I turned to VMC, which, compared to Windows7 is just full of bugs, flaws and instability. VMC did give great TV results and mediabrowser was a very welcome plugin.

I'm a bit of a tinkerer and 7MC is proving enjoyable learning about XML notepad and the html files hidden within the ehres.dll (basically the GUI file) in the ehome folder. I feel that with alot more reading and learning I may actually be able to start fully customising 7MC the way I want it, similar to XBMC used to be on the XBOX and Mediaportal is becoming.

Thumbsup to M$ with windows7 so far and I'm only using a beta at the moment. Looking forward to the RC release on the 30th April.

The guy over at hack7mc is a very clever chap and actually helps you out with questions you need answering.

All in all 7MC is proving a challenge for me, which is why I like it and possibly a chance to help out other forum members when and if they make the switch.

[Biffa001]

looking good, I'm thihnking of a switch to 7MC as I love a tinker too! Maybe on a seperate partition for now.

In the screen shot below it looks like you have FFDShow setup for Live TV - how do you find this works? And the quality?

Also, are there as many issues in getting FFDShow to work with DVD's inside 7MC as there are in VMC (still not working for me....)?

[maddogb]

Strange, i found Media portal to be as stable as a sky+ box for tv, yet had problems with windows media center
just make sure you
a. use the tv server version and
b use a seperate hdd for timeshifting
c follow the guides as too dvb fixes etc.
have been using it this way for 12 months now and very impressed.

[Biffa001]

I never got on with MP either, and it was always the TV section that was a pain in the butt....having gone via (and tweaked along the way) Xbox Media Center, various Linux installs and every version of windows since it's creation Ii was loathed to let it beat me....

...but in the end the WAF took over and VMC was set up and running mostly ok with a couple of hours, with some tweaking fun still to be had

Roll on 7MC

[Razor]

Nice pictures, keep them coming.

[Daveybryce]

Originally Posted by Biffa001

looking good, I'm thihnking of a switch to 7MC as I love a tinker too! Maybe on a seperate partition for now.

In the screen shot below it looks like you have FFDShow setup for Live TV - how do you find this works? And the quality?

Also, are there as many issues in getting FFDShow to work with DVD's inside 7MC as there are in VMC (still not working for me....)?

I am using FFDshow for TV and prefer it to Cyberlinks decoders. I tinkered with the various ones including Microsofts ones and found that for my DVB-T signal FFDshow gave the best results. I have not got post processing turned on as this ramped my CPU usage upto 100% on my meager 2.6 X2 processor, but I'm using it for resizing to 1280 horizontal only, that way i can keep the aspect ratio and I always get a full screen regardless of the age of the show (i.e old shows were filmed in 4:3 ratio when we all had square TV's and leave black bars at the left and right side of the picture unless you zoom in)

Cyberlinks decoders seemed to show quite a bit of blocking.

You can download the MCDU Utility here and if you read the comments at the bottom there is also another link from Michael which allows you to just use FFDshow purely for all video other than LiveTV, if you prefer to use M$ TV decoding.

[Daveybryce]

Originally Posted by maddogb

Strange, i found Media portal to be as stable as a sky+ box for tv, yet had problems with windows media center
just make sure you
a. use the tv server version and
b use a seperate hdd for timeshifting
c follow the guides as too dvb fixes etc.
have been using it this way for 12 months now and very impressed.

It may well have been because when I was using my old Be2350 2.1Ghz x2 processor that it didn't have enough power for the TV element - don't know how much resource it wants to use. I may well be okay with MP now, but I have a challenge with 7MC which I'm enjoying.

[Biffa001]

sounds like you have pretty much the same setup as me, although I still have my BE-2350 which is running great. Do you use that CPU with 7MC?

[Daveybryce]

Originally Posted by Biffa001

sounds like you have pretty much the same setup as me, although I still have my BE-2350 which is running great. Do you use that CPU with 7MC?

I'm not using that processor at the moment as I upgraded to the 5050e 2.6 X2 due to Vista's need for resource. I have heard and read that Windows7 is running very smoothly on users old laptops (as a test platform) running 1.6Ghz intel celeron with 1gb ram. M$ seem to have sorted the resource hungriness out and it would appear to run more like XP now.

However I'm in the process of building a computer for the kitchen (missus) where I will be using Window7 as it is fully touchscreen compatible and I plan to use the Be2350 in that one.

[Biffa001]

be interested to hear how that turns out

[wolvers]

Originally Posted by Daveybryce

However I'm in the process of building a computer for the kitchen (missus) where I will be using Window7 as it is fully touchscreen compatible and I plan to use the Be2350 in that one.

Excellent, that's my plan too! I'm going to use the mini-itx form and Win7. I've just got to find a PCI-E DVB-S card that's low profile.

I'd thought about using a touch screen interface in the kitchen but the only one I could find was the Origen one and that's too expensive. Besides, I've got a spare 26" LCD that can go on the wall so I'm going to use that. Mrs Wolvers would just get a touch screen all messy anyways!!

I've been playing around with Win7 (64-bit) on my main HTPC for a few months now and I think it's the way to go. The TV stuff is much better and things like Media Browser and TunerfreeMCE seem to be working too. I did that channel logo thing the other day and it looks great!

Do you know of a way to integrate iTunes into 7MC as I just know that I'm going to be asked about that?!

[r4merlin]

Will be watching with interest, I am currently doing similar build

Quick question what do you use to play DVD?

I have no TV requirement , any recommendation on Codecs I should install?

[katana6434]

Do you know if it is possible to get flac working properly in 7mc?

[Iccz]

Smashing!

Will be keeping my eye on this thread, look forward to your updates!

[Daveybryce]

I've been a little busy and not had chance to update anything yet as I move house this friday.

Got some new bits today.

Logitech Harmony One Remote
Logitech Dinovo Edge Keyboard
Another 1TB WD Green power HDD

And my RMA arrived today for a replacement LG Bluray/HDDVD Drive

About FLAC I've not really tried it personally, however have a read of this, it should point you in the right direction to get it playing thru WMP and 7MC

[katana6434]

Thanks for that info on flac. I will give it a read.

[sjparker]

So is Windows 7MC really going to be that good?

Does it support full HD-DVD and bluray discs?
any ideas if to if it supports softcams plus DVB-C without having to hack the registry to make it look like DVB-T?

[moz414]

Just got the 32 bit 7MC RC and thinking about using it on my HTPC (got a new motherboard). If I can't find any W7 specific drivers etc, will the vista ones work? I don't use my HTPC to record (got sky+ for that) so it's only playback of movies & music. Got a couple of days off this week so plan on doing it then.

Or am I better off sticking with VMC until the RTM comes out?

[Daveybryce]

Originally Posted by moz414

Just got the 32 bit 7MC RC and thinking about using it on my HTPC (got a new motherboard). If I can't find any W7 specific drivers etc, will the vista ones work? I don't use my HTPC to record (got sky+ for that) so it's only playback of movies & music. Got a couple of days off this week so plan on doing it then.

Or am I better off sticking with VMC until the RTM comes out?

Vista ones should work automatically, if not then you can right click on the setup file and go to compatibility mode to install on previous versions of windows.

[Daveybryce]

Originally Posted by simeonipicker

So is Windows 7MC really going to be that good?

Does it support full HD-DVD and bluray discs?
any ideas if to if it supports softcams plus DVB-C without having to hack the registry to make it look like DVB-T?

The support of HDDVD's/BD will be down to your playback software package such as TMT or PowerDVD. However Windows7 does now come natively with h264/divx codecs so no requirement for TV Packs to play freesat thru 7MC.

As for DVB-C I would imagine that it would pick up this TV card as the ole vista TV Pack is built into 7MC.

Hope this helps

[Daveybryce]

Sorry there hasn't been much updating but I've just moved house and have finally finished sorting out stuff and decorated a room.

I have no internet at home... yet but should do within the next week or so.

Once i'm up and running I will be updating very frequently. and hopefully get the RC release of Windows 7.

Thanks for your patience

Dave

[Daveybryce]

I've updated Post 2 regarding my findings with codecs and Windows7. This applies to both builds I've tried now 7068 and RC1 build 7100.