Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with windows and media

What's a good simple and cheap media or file server setup?

wastelands — Fri, 29 May 2009 08:15:38 -0800

Advice for a server newb who needs help getting started with a simple media/backup/torrent server? I've got a 438 GB movie collection an on external 500 GB USB hard drive right now, so I need to upgrade. I was thinking of buying two 1 TB external drives and using rsync for a poor man's RAID 1 setup. But for good drives plus shipping, that's nearly $250, and I thought, why not just setup a real file server? And maybe get a Bit Torrent thingy going too, so I could turn off my main computer at night and keep transfers going? Heck, I'd probably come up with other useful things for the server to do too.

But I don't know where to start. For hardware, looking at, say, a Dell Inspiron 530 ($379), it's too powerful and too expensive for what I'd use it for.

And for the OS... Windows Home Server? Ubuntu? I don't know what'd be easiest.

Ideas? Thanks!

Medica Center, give me access.

baggers — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 09:41:54 -0800

I have an XP Windows Media Center PC that accesses two network drives called M: and N:. The problem is that media center can't access the drives unless I go into windows explorer and open the drives manually. How can I set it up so the drives are accessible immediately? The PC works purely as a media center, which is why this is annoying; I don't want to have a mouse and keyboard connected to it, and I don't want to have to . But for whatever reason, Windows does not properly reconnect network drives until the user actually accesses the drive. Any suggestions?

Help me listen to my music ... please?

chairish — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 01:38:15 -0800

Tossing an idea around here ... I'd like to use my old Powerbook as a media server for my Windows network. 1. Me - Vista Business notebook, brand new. I also use an eeePC when I go away.
2. Beloved - almost new XP Pro notebook
3. Son - teenager at home - aging XP Pro desktop, aging Pocket PC, Windows compatible phone
4. Daughter - comes and goes - aging XP Pro notebook

And I have a spare G4 Powerbook that, although three and a half years old, is running nicely.

What I want to do is somehow turn the Powerbook into a media server for our Windows machines. We are a wireless household and we all love our music and movies (currently over 100GB of each on an external hard drive - NTFS). I'd love to be able to use the Powerbook as some sort of server for our media. Ideas?

FLAC play back

Sitegeist — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 02:00:11 -0800

Playback of FLAC on Windows in 2008? I'm not on Windows. My friend is. Requesting recommendations for a good player on Windows that supports FLAC please. Not really wanting to mess around with plugins, it should support it in the main application.

In keeping with the 'F' in FLAC I would prefer it to be Free Software (GPL license). I did a bit of a search and came across Songbird which sounds an interesting project, but still in development.

"I'm tired of using technology, why don't you sit down on top of me?"

damnjezebel — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 18:18:35 -0800

When I updated to Windows Media Player 11, why did I lose my sound? How do I get it back? I can get sound, that's not the problem. HELP! (yes, I googled... but i've tried everything on the first few pages and it's still not working.)

how to re-enable wmp11 combining artists/albums/etc?

lrodman — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 11:32:05 -0800

I checked "Don't ask me again" when dragging one artist into another in WMP11 on vista in order to change all the names from one to another (to combine "the beatles" and "beatles" into one, in this case), expecting it to just do it without asking in the future, but now I've lost this functionality altogether. How can I re-enable it?

How can repair my video codecs?

cheero — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 17:20:42 -0800

How can repair my video codecs? Out of nowhere, I cannot see any video in my AVI files but I can hear the audio just fine. Windows Media Player 11 simply does not load when I click to open an AVI. It is fully installed and everything but when I try to click on an AVI to open it -- nothing happens. I've installed the VLC player in hopes that plays it, no dice. Same goes for Windows Media Classic.

I've installed the k-lite codecs pack which worked for me for years but for some odd reason, things crapped out on me.

I've also used GSPOT to see what codecs were needed for certain movies but each time it said that everything was fully installed.

How can I rectify this extremely annoying problem? Is there some kind of tool I can use that will repair this?

The specs I am running are: OS: WinXP Professional 5.1 Service Pack 2 (Build #2600) CPU: Intel Pentium D , 2.99 GHz Video: Plug and Play Monitor on nVidia GeForce 7800 GTX Sound: SB Audigy 2 ZS Audio

Thanks in advance

Is there a way that I can use Windows Media Player 11 as my podcast aggregator?

enriquem — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 11:56:43 -0800

Is there a way that I can use Windows Media Player 11 as my podcast aggregator? I use Juice Receiver, but would like an all in one solution that will help sync up with my MP3 player.

I just want a more classic Vista.

phaded — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 23:08:19 -0800

How can I make Media Player Classic my default video player in Windows Vista with the least effort possible? I recently upgraded to Windows Vista, and while I definitely like it more than I liked XP, one thing has been aggravating me. I had always used Media Player Classic to play my video files, as it's lightweight and can handle anything thrown at it. However, with Vista, I can't go into the program's options and set it as the default player for all video files; when I close the program and open it again, those options are unchecked. I can't choose MPC by going to Default Programs > Set Default Programs, either; it's not one of the choices I'm presented with, and there's not an option to choose a program not in the list. Short of going into the list of filetypes and manually setting each format to open in MPC, is there a one-shot setting I can change that'll let me do it? My Google-fu has failed me.

WMP 11 annoyance

dash_slot- — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 13:23:13 -0800

Last week I downloaded Windows Media Player 11, to complement Real Alternative and all the other MPs on my system. Now, every time it finishes playing a movie clip, it wants to go online. I could block it with Zone Alarm, but I want to stop the behaviour in options. Anyone know which option stimulates the player to do this, and where to switch it off?

What else can I do with Windows Vista Media Center?

Servo5678 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 09:16:13 -0800

I just got a new PC with Windows Vista and have been exposed to Windows Media Center for the first time. What neat things can I do with it? Can I add channels to the online media library? It comes preset with Comedy Central and MSN and so forth, but can I add to that list (something like, say, AOL's in2TV?) Are there any must-have plug-ins or hacks I should explore?

Basically I want to know what else the software can do. Searching for raw information on Media Center only brings back lots of marketing and PR talk about how great it is which gets tiresome quickly. I should add that I did get the remote control for the PC but did not opt for the TV tuner card, although I plan to pick one up later on down the road. I also didn't get a media extender since I didn't see the need for one at the moment.

Scanning XBox disc for bad sectors

Aanidaani — Sat, 20 Jan 2007 14:37:26 -0800

Is there any software (preferably for OSX) that I can use to scan a used XBox disc for bad sectors? The format is DVD, so I suppose a normal DVD scanning program could do the job. I just want to be sure that the whole game works before my guarantee expires and I'm unable to return it.

Solution comparable to Windows Media Center

Scottk — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 14:12:53 -0800

Are there any standalone apps similiar to Windows Media Center for Windows 2000? I've got my Windows 2000 equipped computer hooked up to my TV and home theater system, and I'd really like to be able to centralize all of my media (music, movies, etc.) the way Windows Media Center seems to do.

Any suggestions?

Windows Media Encoder

lemonfridge — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 05:46:00 -0800

I'm trying to broadcast video using Windows Media Encoder, which works fine over the LAN, but not over the internet. It'll generate a LAN address, but when it tries to generate an internet address it simply says: (could not be detected). Im using a netgear dg834g firewall, and have opened the port that its trying to use (1283) for both incoming and outgoing connections. Ive also tried port 8080 as it seems pretty standard.

I've also tried connecting to my external ip manually even though WME couldnt detect it. but that didnt work either.

What am i missing?

Can't play divx files in powerpoint

allthewhile — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 21:42:40 -0800

Whenever I embed divx or xvid files into my powerpoint presentations they speed way up and there isn't any sound. I have all the proper codecs installed as they play correctly through windows media player.

MacBook: How do I listen to the old ballgame now?

DandyRandy — Tue, 16 May 2006 19:43:11 -0800

Got a sparkly new MacBook today, and I want to listen to my Gameday Audio subscription on mlb.com. but Windows Media is blocking my way. They use Windows Media to deliver the audio through the browser, but the only plugin for WM for Mac (Flip4Macs) is not a Universal binary. Any advice gratefully accepted.

XP Media Center & DirecTV DVR connection/set-up

Mrs. Smith — Tue, 18 Apr 2006 08:37:17 -0800

Need help connecting my DirecTV DVR and my new laptop with Windows XP Media Center. I would like to make this a wireless connection, if possible, so I don't have to be near the TV to watch a program. (It seems pointless to me to have to plug in my laptop to my TV to watch my TV.)

The computers are networked, running on an SBC/Yahoo! DSL connected router...all XP computers.

I would like to be able to watch and record TV on my laptop. (I'm not as interested in using the laptop as a giant remote control.)

I would also like to be able to burn a DVD on my laptop of programs that I've recorded on my DVR.

Any help and/or advice you can give would be greatly appreciated.

I don't know much at all about Media Center Edition at this point, so any tips or tricks that you would like to pass along would also be appreciated.

Thanks!

Why does my Media Center CPU spike?

benjh — Sat, 25 Mar 2006 09:52:11 -0800

What upgrades do I need for my Media Center PC? I just recently purchased a new Windows Media Center PC. It has an Athlon 64 3500+ processor, 1 GB memory, 256MB Shared Video Memory (Radeon Xpress 200), and a 200GB HD. I added on a PVR-500 Hauppauge TV Tuner.

The CPU usage keeps spiking, and I can't identify what is actually causing it to spike. It will just shoot the CPU up to 100%. It seems completely random. For example, when recording TV shows last night, while playing Counterstrike on the same machine, it wasn't hitting too high. But this morning, when I pulled the machine up, it was at 100% and hasn't gone down.

When I go into task manager, I get the listing of SYSTEM as what is taking 99% of my system resources.

I was considering adding memory, or maybe a new video card to eliminate the usage of shared video memory, to resolve the issue. But I'm curious if you all think this will help, or can offer other suggestions to help remedy this situation.

Why won't WMP tell me the CD track names?

luneray — Thu, 23 Mar 2006 13:38:07 -0800

Windows Media Player: How do I get CD track names? I just got a new work computer yesterday and have spent most of these past two days getting used to XP (we were using Windows 2000). Included in the upgrade is Windows Media Player 9.00.00.3344. For the life of me, I can not figure out how to get the CD track names from the internet. The older version I was using did it automatically.

The help section isn't very helpful. It says to set this option from the Media Library tab, but this seems only to work for music actually copied onto my computer. I don't want to copy the CD, which it won't let me do anyway. I don't know if this feature has been disabled by the IT staff or WMP won't allow it because this is a CD that I actually purchased (gasp!), and I need some sort of license to copy it.

My employer blocks any "entertainment" type websites, which includes the official Microsoft WMP help site. So, if you know how I can set this program to automatically get CD track names, please let me know. Be specific...e.g. "Tools...Options...Player...click this".

Thanks.

Windows Media Center + iTunes Library + OCD = suck.

robbie01 — Sun, 19 Mar 2006 21:51:50 -0800

Windows Media Center + iTunes Library + OCD = suck. I have a highly organized MP3 library with thorough ID3 tags (thanks OCD) managed via iTunes on a Mac. The library itself is stored on a NAS device (LinkStation), but that doesn't really matter.

I keep iTunes open on my Mac and set to Share so my Windows PC can access the library via Windows iTunes. No problem.

My PC is running Media Center Edition 2005 (with all updates) and I want it to be able to use the MP3 library in both iTunes AND the Media Center app.

If I point MCE's "My Music" to the NAS device containing my library, it seems to find/add the music okay -- but it does a piss-poor job of reading all my carefully defined tags in the music files -- namely things like Album art, the artist, and sometimes other basic info on a few random (but thoroughly tagged) tracks.

Out of about 350 albums, MCE automatically imported art for maybe 8 albums, and every single solitary MP3 under iTunes/Mac has album art embedded in it--guaranteed.

I know that the Media Center app pulls all of its actual media data from Windows Media Player's Library, and I've figured out that you can "automanually" add things like album art by having WMP attempt to look up your album.

But this process would be tedious to do by hand for every track on every album, and what's worse is that I created some custom album art for non-commercial tracks, AND when WMP DOES find your album/art, the art it inserts is really crappy low-quality JPGs, which look terrible when viewed in large size in the Media Center interface.

So, long set up, but: why won't Media Center just use the ID3 tags in my MP3s, including album art? I don't want Windows going in and overwriting my tag data with what IT thinks the genre/artist/album name is just so it can add its own version of low-quality album art to the file.

And it's not just album art, either. On a few CDs, it will take half the tracks and put them under the correct album name, and then the other half it will create a new album name that has maybe the last 7 characters cut off. And there are about 10 tracks that it just completely blows, not reading even the most basic ID3 info, even though it's definitely there.

One of the reasons I want this work via MCE2005 is that I want to have access to my MP3 library on my Xbox 360 as a Media Center Extender, with full art, etc. So forgetting about the Windows platform altogether is not an option.

So, any way to achieve this ideal set up:

* Single MP3 library on NAS device, thorough ID3 tags and album art associated with every track

* iTunes on Mac plays and shares Library to Windows iTunes (so far no problem)

* Windows Media Center Edition PC(s) look to NAS device for same library, but imports it cleanly with all album art/tags, etc. intact.

* WMC PC shares this clean/thorough library to Xbox 360 as WMC Extender

Why does Windows Media Player hork up all my CPU?

sidereal — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 20:18:49 -0800

Why does Windows Media Player hork up all my CPU these days? When it didn't used to? Windows Media Player, Version 9.00.00.3075 on XP home box horks up all my CPU now. Every time I try and play more than one MP3 it goes through this big laggy session and plays the music files, but wow, it eats CPU like Bobbi Bliss. I don't remember it ever being so bad. In fact, a while back, I gave up trying to wrangle other MP3 players and moderate their operating system fights, and just gave in and let WMP handle all sound files, because I just got tired of all the stupid OS fights. It went well for a long time, but lately, this crazy app, well, I said, it horks up all my CPU now when I use it.

I'm surprised, because I sorta assumed it's tightly integrated with my XP Home OS. I'm using the term "tightly integrated" regarding Windows without irony for once.

So I Guess My Question Is, how can I find out why this integrated Windows app is acting like some 3rd-party app that billg hates? I don't get it. What sort of analysis can I do to find out what the hell is so CPU-intensive now? When it didn't used to before?

Converting a DVD to high-quality WMV?

robbie01 — Sun, 12 Feb 2006 12:28:48 -0800

Converting a DVD to high-quality WMV? I want to experiment with the idea of having digital copies of my (original, legal) DVDs transferred onto my network for playback via Windows Media Center Edition (mostly with Extenders througout my home.)

I'm a stickler for audio/video quality, so I will likely want the video uncompressed from its original source and full surround sound, which I understand will result in huge, multi-gigabyte files. If I can find an acceptable process, I'd consider investing in a multi-terabyte network hard drive to store my 200+ DVD collection. I also understand this would entail a significant commitment in time, but I'm willing to do it if it works.

I've looked online and easily found a number of commercial (and a couple of shareware) DVD rippers and converters, but the choices are just too overwhelming.

Is there a defacto standard process that those "in the know" use to convert DVDs to WMV with essentially lossless compression? (I used the combo of Exact Audio Copy and RazorLAME when I converted my CD collection to MP3.)

I need a system for ripping a DVD (either the entire disc with menus or just the movie itself) and converting it into a WMV file (non-negotiable, since this is one of the few formats that will actually play back on Windows Media Center Extenders, an Xbox 360 and Xbox Classic with Extender software in this case. So unfortunately I can't consider formats like xVid or DiVX) Just to be clear, the final WMV file will live on a network hard drive, and will not ever be re-burned onto a DVD-R, so I have no need to make the file size arbitrarily smaller.

I'll assume a PC solution is the preferred method given the final output file, but Mac software can also be considered if there's something amazing available.

Alternatively, I've also been considering a physical DVD changer such as the Niveus DVD Changer that interfaces with Windows Media Center, but my ulterior motive is to begin phasing out the DVD as a physical medium for eventual conversion of my entire library to HD-DVD and/or Blu-ray. I'd like to keep access available to all my DVD titles until an HD version is available, at which time I would sell the standard definition version.

I mention this because although it would be easier and less time-intensive to make my DVD collection available over a network with a changer, I don't like the idea of investing several thousand dollars in a piece of hardware that is designed for standard-definition DVDs, whereas at least I know a multi-terabyte hard drive could be re-used for something else.

Problems with Windows Media Player

TorontoSandy — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 18:22:56 -0800

Help me play an .avi file. Everytime I try to load a particular .avi movie, I get a warning from Windows Media Player saying it cannot be played as a codec is missing. The Windows site says if you know the codec you can search for and download it. But, I don't know what codec I need. Is there a way to tell, or is there some popular codecs I should download? My frustration level is mounting.

Windows Media Player and my TV

kc0dxh — Sat, 09 Jul 2005 07:57:13 -0800

How can I make WMP default it's full-screen video to a given monitor on a dual monitor system? I have a Jaton 3DForce 5200LE that runs my CRT and is connected to my television. I would like WMP to start and run on my CRT while defaulting it's full-screen to my TV. Can this be done?

Stereo to mono?

LordSludge — Wed, 06 Jul 2005 12:47:57 -0800

Seeking a freeware MS Windows Media Player plug-in to play stereo mp3s as mono. I very often listen to mp3s using only one ear-bud headphone, but I only get one channel, left or right. Is there a free plug-in that will play my stereo mp3s as mono? If I can't find a software solution, I'll just get hardware 1/8" plug adapter, just curious...