Sick of Media Center/Media Player

[Faren]

I can't understand why media center and media player have such issues. I have had problems with windows media players since I built my machine. I've been troubleshooting for about a year now and nothing works. The only real reason I have tried so hard to find an answer is I would like to use a remote to control my player since I use my system for everything including entertainment. at this point, in my opinion, windows should be on Fail Blog with the rest of the meat heads. "Watch me try and play an MP3..." FAIL!! what a joke...

Yes VLC will play almost everything, but there has to be a way to use a remote with another piece of software. Any suggestions?

Windows 7 x64, x58-Pro MOBO, i7 920, 6GB 1333 DDR3, Ati 4870 512MB, 2 SSD raid 0 (OS), 2 HDD raid 0.

 

[DMHolt57]

You mean one of these? remotes for windows media center - Bing

 

[Faren]

this is the one I picked up Newegg.com - Rosewill Windows Vista Certified Media center Infrared Remote Control RRC-126

the remote works but media center/player crashes and cannot find video and some video files (I have the codecs)

 

[DMHolt57]

check this out... Vectir - IR, WiFi and Bluetooth Remote Control, Mobile Phone PC Media Player Controller

 

[Vertex]

I personally think that Windows Media Player and Media Center aren't that bad and I have learned how to cope with them and I still use those programs and I don't use third party players but there is something in your system that make them go bad cause they don't behave like that for no reason so I wouldn't immediately put the blame on Micro$oft. Do you remember installing anything that has anything to do with your media programs? Third party stuff, codecs?

 

[whs]

It must be your particular system configuration. I never had any trouble with those.

 

[Faren]

Vertex - "Do you remember installing anything that has anything to do with your media programs? Third party stuff, codecs?"
Yes, I always install shark007 for windows 7. Already tried a reinstall of shark007. VLC has no trouble playing any of my library, the trouble being I cannot control vlc with the ir remote. DMHolt57 - that's a cool piece of software, I just have no need for that kind of phone.

I like windows media center's interface with streaming movies, tv, and my own library from one place when I want to sit back and use my system like a Theater. SFC /scannow found corrupt files and cannot repair them. Since WMC and WMP are the only parts of the system that seem to be affected I'm not too worried since this happens (corrupted files found with sfc) every install. Unless windows has trouble functioning in a raid, none of my tweaks have any affect on media so there shouldn't be a configuration issue. I'm still scratching my head. I read somewhere that my ati video drivers won't function so well in a windows system and nvidia does. So this fall I'm upgrading my video anyways so I'll get a 1G nvidia card instead.

 

[Vertex]

Well, there is this small utility called FixWin. It has a few tools that can fix some issues with Windows Media Player and also a utility to flush, sort of reset Windows Media Center's database, maybe that can fix some issues. Its also has a link to launch SFC but as you said it detected errors but were not able to fix them.

http://www.thewindowsclub.com/repair-fix-windows-7-vista-problems-with-fixwin-utility

Also try to do a malware scan. There's a possibility that these problems are related to malware and people on this forum would recommend you to try a fully updated Malwarebytes. Good Luck.

 

[Faren]

Gave it a shot, but no dice. windows media Center still will not add anything to the movie library. what about microsoft EMET. is there a security setting that cannot be used with media player such as sehop, aslr, dep, and what not? I've been looking but haven't found any comments on whether or not certain settings work.

 

[Vertex]

How about Windows Media Player, did it go any better now? Were you able to add movies in the movie library on Media Center before this problem occurred? Another option I would try is to disable then re-enable Windows Media Center.

Go to Start Menu, type Programs and Features, look at the left hand side panel and Turn Windows Features on or Off, there you see a list of Windows Features, one of which is Windows Media Center which is under Media Features. Uncheck Windows Media Center (you might do the same for Windows Media Player since you have issues with that as well), reboot the computer, re-enable it, reboot again and see if it does any better next time. If not, then it may be a damaged system file, Registry error or malware.

 

[Andy 01]

I use Media Portal for all my HTPC stuff. looks great, works well, and uses my Windows remote with no concerns.

 

[Faren]

Media Player has worked well except for .vob files, which oddly enough, Media Center would find and add them to it's library along with everything else. I've tried disabling and re-enabling too. Now I'm having a screwy issue with Flash Player. While streaming video on hulu the whole system shuts down and reboots with the inevitable black screen - "windows was not shut down properly, start normally". I've disabled hardware acceleration in Flash and it still happens but only when streaming video. I'm on my way to make sure it's up to date now and maybe mess with the global settings.

 

[Vertex]

So, is Windows Media Center working well now and Flash player is currently the one that worries you?

 

[Faren]

Alright, I had to reinstall. The whole thing started crashing and couldn't even run in safe mode. I'm doing a very systematic install and leaving out some software in the process. It's solid and I have everything running swimmingly. Just waiting for that other shoe... is there some open-source sandboxing software out there?

 

[logicearth]

You are installing a codec pack arn't you?

 

[Faren]

Shark007 for windows 7, All is well in the media department and I am now looking for some way to prevent these corrupted file issues. How about the tea timer option in spybot sd. I havn't used that option because tea timer was always in my face about something and I got tired of it.

 

[seekermeister]

I can't help with the remote, because I'm still looking for the one that I want. However, you could do as I did and drop Media Center and WMP altogether, and use XBMC instead. I'm still getting used to it, but as far as what it does, it beats Media Center all to pieces. Remotes are fairly subjective, and there isn't one that fits everyone, at least as far as I have found. I can't exactly recommend it, but the EZ Commander may suit you.

EDIT: Since I have just ordered it, obviously I can't recommend it, but here is a remote to consider:

http://cgi.ebay.com/HTPC-MCE-Back-L...359?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item35aba8ba47

It's main selling points are that it is cheap, it is partially backlit and it is RC 6 protocol.

 

[Faren]

That's close to the one I bought Newegg.com - Rosewill Windows Vista Certified Media center Infrared Remote Control RRC-126

I believe there is a tweak in the registry to use these remotes in xbmc, I'd have to look it up.

 

[seekermeister]

That's close to the one I bought Newegg.com - Rosewill Windows Vista Certified Media center Infrared Remote Control RRC-126

I believe there is a tweak in the registry to use these remotes in xbmc, I'd have to look it up.

If you could find the tweak, that would be better, but failing that, I found a program that appears to detour the hurdle:

Intelliremote - Take back control of your PC!

Your Rosewill link doesn't work, it just opens the main menu of this forum.

EDIT: Here is a brief tutorial on Intelliremote, but apparently the web designer doesn't know how to write the page properly, because it is cutoff on the right, regardless of using Opera, FF or IE.

http://htpcguide.info/index.php?opt...ely-kill-xbmc&catid=38:xbmc-how-tos&Itemid=62

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
For Audio and Video media streaming why don't you use something like SQUEEZEBOX (Audio) and SLINGBOX (Video). These will transmit multimedia streams to all sorts of devices including smart phones - you don't even need a Sound card on the host computer.

Windows Media centre is OK if you are actually watching using a Laptop / desktop but IMO these days you are better off streaming remotely to nice large screen TV's / speaker systems.

Both systems I've mentioned here can be remotely controlled as well.



Squeezebox : LOGITECH SQUEEZEBOX DUET WIRELESS MEDIA RECEIVER - available from Superfi UK Visit http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/moreinfo.cfm/product_id/3876 for details


Slingbox

Sling Media - Hardware


These sorts of solutions IMO are far better than hacking around with Windows Media Centre which wasn't really designed for this sort of stuff.


Cheers
jimbo