Monday, October 25, 2004
Windows Media Center 2005 Installation Fun...
Posted by Jason Dunn in "THOUGHT" @ 07:00 AM
A couple of weeks ago I purchased a new laptop, the hp zd7820us. It came with Windows Media Center 2004, which is a particular flavour of Windows XP with a 10-foot interface slapped on. Now it just so happens that the same week I bought the laptop, MCE 2005 was released. And as an MVP, I happen to get an MSDN subscription which gives me access to almost every piece of software that Microsoft has released, including MCE 2005.
My goal was clear: get the new laptop working with MCE 2005. A bit easier said than done! :roll: My first install was buggered up because the install routine is poorly written and when it was asking for "Windows XP Professional SP2 Disc 1" it really meant the first MCE 2005 disc. My next install went better, until I tried to install the HP Intervideo MPEG2 decoder. This is what HP uses on their machines, so I figured it would be compatible. It's not - at least, not with MCE 2005. When I put in a DVD and tried to watch it via MCE, it would crash the whole interface. Great. :roll: I thought that perhaps when I had installed several other components and drivers I might have caused a conflict, so I wiped out the OS and tried again. This time, I only loaded the OS, the base graphics drivers, and the Intervideo MPEG2 codec. No dice! Same problem as before - complete crash of MCE when playing a DVD.
I wiped everything out and tried again - this time, I installed the base OS and left out the MPEG2 decoder. I decided to do some investigating, and I also happened to change my MSN Messenger sign-in name to "Jason Dunn - Fighting with MCE 2005!" or something similar. My fellow MVP, Paul from MoDaCo, happened to see my name and offered me some advice. Paul is running MCE 2005 on a Shuttle XPC, and he happened to know quite a bit about MPEG2 decoders. It turns out that I wasn't using the right one, and MCE 2005 makes it very difficult to even discover which encoder the system is using (I have a tip on that later). After switching to the nVidia MPEG2 decoder, my system was working perfectly! I could play DVDs from withing the MCE interface, watch TV, and do everything else. I then proceeded to install a whack of video and audio editing software (Pinnacle Studio 9, Vegas Video 5, etc.)...and then MCE broke again. AUGH! :evil: Exactly the same problem. The good news is that it didn't stay broken for long. How did I fix it? Stay tuned!
My goal was clear: get the new laptop working with MCE 2005. A bit easier said than done! :roll: My first install was buggered up because the install routine is poorly written and when it was asking for "Windows XP Professional SP2 Disc 1" it really meant the first MCE 2005 disc. My next install went better, until I tried to install the HP Intervideo MPEG2 decoder. This is what HP uses on their machines, so I figured it would be compatible. It's not - at least, not with MCE 2005. When I put in a DVD and tried to watch it via MCE, it would crash the whole interface. Great. :roll: I thought that perhaps when I had installed several other components and drivers I might have caused a conflict, so I wiped out the OS and tried again. This time, I only loaded the OS, the base graphics drivers, and the Intervideo MPEG2 codec. No dice! Same problem as before - complete crash of MCE when playing a DVD.
I wiped everything out and tried again - this time, I installed the base OS and left out the MPEG2 decoder. I decided to do some investigating, and I also happened to change my MSN Messenger sign-in name to "Jason Dunn - Fighting with MCE 2005!" or something similar. My fellow MVP, Paul from MoDaCo, happened to see my name and offered me some advice. Paul is running MCE 2005 on a Shuttle XPC, and he happened to know quite a bit about MPEG2 decoders. It turns out that I wasn't using the right one, and MCE 2005 makes it very difficult to even discover which encoder the system is using (I have a tip on that later). After switching to the nVidia MPEG2 decoder, my system was working perfectly! I could play DVDs from withing the MCE interface, watch TV, and do everything else. I then proceeded to install a whack of video and audio editing software (Pinnacle Studio 9, Vegas Video 5, etc.)...and then MCE broke again. AUGH! :evil: Exactly the same problem. The good news is that it didn't stay broken for long. How did I fix it? Stay tuned!
