Restart movie Button for Movies in RC1

[gmemore]

this is pertaining to the RC build 7100...
In the Beta 7000, when I select a Movie in the Movies Library there were 2 options for playback, "Watch" and "Restart".
In the RC there is only "Play"... and if I stop that movie and do any other function (start another movie, exit and restart Media Center, shutdown and restart) then bring that movie back up, it continues from exactly where I stopped. The only way to restart from the beginning is to restart the Box where my movies are stored (FreeNas server, wired network). I had no issues in the Beta with this setup - it all seems to stem from the restart function being left out of the RC version. I am running 2 clean installs of the RC, 1 on a P4 box in my office and 1 on my HTPC in the living room. Both behave the same way.

I have searched the web for a post anywhere about this and found nothing. What am I missing? Is there a reg tweak or some way to get that option back (I hope this isn't a permanent change...)?

Is anyone else experiencing this?

Any workarounds or suggestions greatly appreciated

 

[gmemore]

Am I the only one with this problem?

 

[gmemore]

(crickets)



Let me ask another way...

Part one - Has anyone played a ripped DVD in RC (7100) Media Center, stopped playback, then been able to restart the ripped DVD from the very beginning, or from anywhere other than where they previously left off without rebooting the the machine and/or the file storage machine?

Part two - Has anyone played a DVD disc in RC (7100) Media Center, stopped playback, then been able to restart the DVD disc from the very beginning, or from anywhere other than where they previously left off without ejecting the disc?

If so, was it that way out of the box or did you have to change something to get there?

I wouldn't think that the "restart" option would have been removed from the movies library (from the beta to the RC) unless there was another property somewhere or reg file that could be changed to allow me this function. The only other way to get back to the beginning has been to paddle back thru however many chapters to the beginning... This is a HUGE step backward from the beta for the HTPC gang...

Any feedback would be appreciated - even if it is just to commiserate

Thanks

 

[Digger]

well, the problem i had in 7000, WAS the ability to resume from pause or resume from stop. Would crash the extender and drop connections alot of the times. With 7100, atleast after only just 1 test of it (without the need for resume yet) atleast the playback seems to be smoother. I think this is due to some new work on the transcode and transport of the media file that i have recently read about. Tho sorry, i havent gave you much insight to your problem, but i will keep this in mind now, and see what the future holds. If i find anything i will report back.

 

[gmemore]

Thanks for the response and info, Digger. I'm not using extenders (yet) so was unaware. It's funny, my issue with 7000 was that there was not a "Resume" function for Videos, like there was in Movies - so they've reversed it now.

Further testing in the Movies section...

For ripped DVDs - I have found that I can at least get to the title menu and get to the first chapter. This still returns you to the place you left off. You can use the "skip chapters" function and end up at the beginning. The issue here is that the skip backward function will not return to the beginning of chapter 1 (from within ch1). I can skip ahead to chapter 2 then back to 1 and it will go back to the beginning (It truly "skips" chapters, rather than moving back to the beginning of the current chapter, then back a chapter, etc). This is not a "Debounce" issue, it is how the skip function works.
Also, going to the "root" Menu takes me back to the Title Menu only so no fix there...

after only just 1 test of it (without the need for resume yet) atleast the playback seems to be smoother. I think this is due to some new work on the transcode and transport of the media file that i have recently read about.

I would be interested in any links to that info you may recall.

I am "Happy" that there is a way to reach the beginning of the movie if necessary -doing it this way does not make for a good WAF (wife acceptance factor) though.

So we're still looking for insight...and a solution...

Thank you

 

[Digger]

Like i said, i havent really had enough playtime with it all just yet, only a few times.


I believe i read this over the weekend, i want to say the win7 engineering blog site, or one of MS's blogs. I will rummage thru the history and see what i can find tonight.

 

[electr0n]

gmemore, have you found any solution for this? I just ran into it with Win7 7100 myself. I have the delete and restart options in my Video Library but not in my Movie Library. Like you, that's not good for the WAF.

 

[johngalt]

I have - it is not evident, but if you have the remote and use the i (information) key you can navigate back to the root menu and restart the movie. I have only thus far verified that this works on DVDs, I'll check and see if it works with regular encoded files.

 

[electr0n]

johngalt, thanks for the reply but I'm not sure your post helps me. First I use a Harmony 880 remote with a USBUIRT, I never got the MCE remote if that's what you are referring to. Would you happen to know the keyboard shortcut for the information key? I could program whatever that is into my Harmony.

Going to the root menu, do you mean the root dvd menu? If so most of my movies I have ripped to just the movie itself, I have removed the menu structure so I don't think that would help me either.

I have found a workaround for now until they fix this issue (hopefully in the RTM) - I have programmed a key on my Harmony to send cntrl+home which will restart the movie at the beginning. This will work ok for now, it's just slightly inconvenient to hit play and start in the middle of the movie, then hit the cntrl+home button, but at least it's just a one click fix.

Like I mentioned the delete and restart options are in my Video Library and they work fine - I even deleted a video from my media server just to check. But the delete and restart options have completely disappeared from the Movie Library. Again I have seen this on two different machines (on Win7 7100) at my house.

 

[gmemore]

I have been out of town for a few weeks. My apologies for resurrecting this thread yet again. It is still a problem, though I have kinda learned to live with it.

The issue seems to be only with .vob files (Video TS). I have a couple of .avi movies stored in the "Movies" Library and the "Restart" function displays for them...

So, it is not a Movies Library problem but rather how Media Center handles the file type.

Thank you John for getting in on this.Thank you electr0n for bringing it back up.

I am still looking for the magic workaround. Remember - the function was there in the Beta 7000. I don't use any extenders. It would be a great find for anyone using a similar setup to mine

 

[Zidane24]

Did you try to hold shift and right click on the movie?

 

[electr0n]

Did you try to hold shift and right click on the movie?

No but I'll give it a try - does that reset something? I'm using a harmony remote so that isn't something I would normally have access to. Although I could program it to do so.

 

[electr0n]

I tried shift + right click on a movie and got a menu but it still showed only "play" at the top. Even when I was in the middle of watching a movie there is still no option to restart or resume play (it just automatically resumes). And all of my movies are in VOB format so that makes sense that I can see that option in the video library as they are all mpg or avi files in there.

No luck so far, other than this I love WMC7.

 

[gmemore]

Did you try to hold shift and right click on the movie?

Thank you for jumping in there Zidane. Unfortunately, that list only leads to resuming the movie as well. During Playback, this is another way to get to the title menu, etc
This combination of keys, and John's suggestion to use the Info Button both work to get back to the title menu during Playback This can also be achieved by pressing the right navigation arrow/button on the remote.

Electr0n, this may be the option for you as well with the harmony, if it has the navigation arrows in the middle. The right navigation button gives you access to the zoom control, info, and menus for the movie, same as the info button. Note, the Root menu and the Title menu take you back to the title menu only. And using this function to get back to the disc's title menu and pressing play... sigh, resumes the movie. You can use the channel down button to paddle backward thru the chapters(read my earlier posts above)

And this is as far back as you can get until the machine storing the movie (vob) files is rebooted. So really, unless the previews or anti-piracy warnings are your favorite part of the DVD, it is workable for the Geek in the family to get back to the start of ch 1... but, wha.. excuse me, "what honey? yeah, I know the $49.00 DVD player could restart the movie... I'm workin' on it... I know, I know, it's better, you'll see..."
On the brighter side, I do get to keep control of the remote.

This is the only thing I don't like about 7 as well. I love it.

And all of my movies are in VOB format so that makes sense that I can see that option in the video library as they are all mpg or avi files in there.

As I said earlier though, if you stored your mpegs and avi movies so that they showed up in the "Movie Library", the restart or resume function will appear there for them as well - it is only the way WMC treats vob files that is different now from the Beta 7000 version of WMC . It doesn't matter which library...

I'm really not sure which question to ask myself or any of you?

What would cause WMC to "index" or "remember" only where you left off? What releases that index when you reboot? What is it in the properties of a vob file that is not present in another format which prevents the "restart" from appearing? This happens on a DVD disc also. What was in the Beta that didn't make it to the RC and can it be put back in on a per user basis?

Thanks in advance for any more thoughts or suggestions.