Quick Fastforward and Rewind in Windows 7 Media Center

Am I the last one to figure out that you can quickly skip through a video in Windows 7 Media Center by doing the following:

1. Press Pause
2. Type in the number in seconds that you want to skip
3. Press >> to jump forward or << to skip back

That’s it.  I stumbled across this feature and it’s something I’ve been trying to find for a while.  When I have a 3 hour long recording that I know I want to start watching 2 hours in, I used to press the  >| button to do 30-second jumps a couple hundred times.

I’m not sure if this feature is new to Windows 7 Media Center, but that was the first version I discovered it in.

Now that you know this, do you know home many seconds is in 2 hours?  Neither do I without thinking about it for a little while.  It is easy to think about 10 minutes (600) so I usually just start with that value.  And then when I need to do larger jumps, I may spend a few seconds to multiply more minutes in my head… 10 * 6 * 2… 600 –> 3600 –> 7200.  Now I can watch that clip again!

MCE Flaws

This may need to be a living blog entry.

I’ve been using Vista Media Center for a couple months now and it has numerous annoyances and usability flaws.  It’s one thing to have a flaw that you only run into once in a long while.  But, these are flaws I see daily (maybe, I watch too much TV). 

 

My viewing habits are as follows…

• I rarely watch live content; I will wait until a show has been recording at least 30 minutes in before I begin watching it.
• I record 1-2 TV shows over the course of a night.
• I also have queued up downloaded content I watch occasionally.

 

Annoyance #1:

After I finish watching a video from a sub-folder in one of my watch folders, I am presented with the final menu options.  When I delete the show, the menu doesn’t go away.  It stays on the current video, as if I have more options with it.  In the root folder, when you delete a video, it will then load up the next video in the list, why can’t it do the same in a sub-folder?  Any UI that is designed to be navigated with an IR remote should be smart about guessing what your next action will be so I don’t have to click another button to get somewhere obvious.

 

Annoyance #2:

After I finish watching the last video from a sub-folder in one of my watch folders, when I back out of the folder, my focus is taken to an apparently random folder in tile screen of sub-folders.  It may be using the folder name to decide which folder to select next (I haven’t been paying attention), but that isn’t how I have my folders sorted.  It should return to the main tile screen and jump to the next folder in whatever method it was chosen to be sorted as (in my case, by date).

 

Annoyance #3:

After I launch Media Center for the first time, it takes upwards of 1-3 minutes from the moment I select an Xvid encoded video to watch, to when it actually starts playing.  A WMV or DVR-MS encoded file will start within a few seconds.

 

Annoyance #4:

Xvid videos can not be fast forwarded or resumed.  I can use other video players (VLC and GOM) and they have that ability.  Every DVR needs this ability.

I’ll give in to the fact that fast-forward/rewind don’t work in Windows Media Player with Xvids, so ok, I’ll accept grudgingly that MCE won’t either.  But, I can jump to any point in time in that same video, so bookmarking/resuming should be perfectly able to do.  I should be able to resume any video I am watching on a DVR.  TiVo did this wonderfully and I took that feature for granted.

 

Annoyance #5:

Occasionally when I go into the Video Library, none of my custom folders appear.  This isn’t reproducible all the time, but it is frustrating when it happens since all I have to do is go out and go back in for them to reappear.  Why does Media Center forget about these?

 

Annoyance #6 (added 4/26/09):

After pausing live TV, I’ll start to watch the next show on the same channel.  If it looks interesting, I may decide I want to record it.  So I click on Record.  What then happens is that the show will start recording at the current point in time, instead of from the beginning of the show.

It only makes sense that you wanted to record the show from the beginning, when you click record in the middle of watching queued TV.

I could accept that it will start recording at the beginning of the current moment in time, but at the moment you click record, it also throws away all the queued up live TV content.  I typically forget about this flaw and so I end losing the current TV I planned on watching.

 

Annoyance #7 (added 4/26/09):

If I am in the middle of watching a show that is recording and there is another show that will be recorded on a different channel following this one, my viewing experience is interrupted.  Yet again, MCE does not know how to allow the viewer to continue viewing the video they currently are in the middle of.

What happens is I get a warning that the channel will change when the next scheduled recording begins.  I click Ok (seems obvious).  Then at the moment the next scheduled recording begins, my screen blinks, and I am still watching my existing recorded show.  However, I am unable to FastFoward/Rewind/etc.  As soon as I touch one of those buttons, MCE jumps into the new show being recorded.

And to make matters even worse, when I go back to my recorded TV, I don’t get a Resume option.  I have to start playing the show I was watching from the beginning, and fast foward to where I was interrupted.

 

Wish #1:

I wish I could create shortcuts of my video watch folder onto the main menu.  When I start Media Center, I have to navigate to the “Pictures + Videos” bar –> arrow over to Video Library –> click on it –> arrow over to my custom watch folder –> click on it.  The ability to add my watch folder to the Pictures + Videos options would be useful.

 

Wish #2:

Ability to FastForward, Rewind, and Bookmark all playable video formats.  If this application is supposed to sit on my living room TV, it needs to have this as a core feature.

Linksys DMA2200

 

I was on Slickdeals.net a number of weeks ago and they linked to a deal on Newegg.com for the Linksys DMA2200.  As you may know, I’ve been trying to enjoy Vista Media Center for a while now.  When I saw this deal for $94.99, I immediately Googled for any reviews that I could find.

 

I found a number of them.  Many complained about the price.  Others complained about the performance.  Some complained about the lack of ability to play XVid and other codecs not built-in to Media Center.  So, then I hunted for reasons to rule out those complaints.

 

	Price:	The list price for this was originally $349.99.  Ok.  That is pricey.  So, I double-checked what these went for on eBay.com.  You couldn’t get it for less than $100… even used devices went for a starting price of $75.  Therefore, this price was right.
	Performance:	Screen navigation was slow.  Other than that, people did not complain about the speed of the streamed data.  Seemed like a minor issue.  I ignored it.
	Playback:	There was inconsistent reviews about being able to play a variety of video formats.  I applied my rule of thumb for this type of complaint.  Anytime I come across an issue that seems fixable with a little technical know-how and some people claim it can work, I rule out the naysayers (unless they provide compelling evidence).

 

After that research, I was convinced that the unit was worth it and didn’t have any deal breaker reasons to not purchase it.  Did I need it?  That’s always a tough one to answer.  I knew that I wanted to stay committed to Media Center.  And, I watch TV on weekend mornings and weekday nights while in bed.  This device would increase my available content and add a DVD player in my bedroom.  ‘Nough said.

Another bonus is that this device is capable of better video and network than when compared to my current setup.  The best input my bedroom TV can take is component video and analog stereo audio.  This device has those outputs, but also has digital audio and an HDMI port sitting unused on the back.  That means I need to save up some cash and keep my eyes peeled for a replacement TV. 

Also, I only have a wireless-G network at home.  I didn’t care about my bandwidth in the past.  The DMA-2200 supports dual-band draft-N.  That sounds like another fun home project.  I did try out the wireless video streaming on the G network, and the stream was choppy and inconsistent, probably due to everything else going on over my network.  Since my bedroom is near my network switch, I just ran a cable between the rooms for now.

After unboxing it, I found it very easy to setup.  As stated above, I initially configured it on my wireless network, but switched it to a wired network with a simple settings change.  Connecting it to my host Media Center PC was also wizard driven and I didn’t run into any snags.  I did have to copy down a key value and type that into my host Media Center PC.  After doing this, a menu option suggested running a network tuning process.   I tried this both on my wireless and wired connections… but neither attempts worked.  I assume this may have to do with either my Vista firewall or my router blocking ports.  I need to revisit this issue at some time.

The performance issues mentioned in reviews were evident immediately.  The Extender menuing feels like it is a slow Remote Desktop connection to the host PC.  But once you start up a video, the stream looks as expected on my TV.  I don’t understand why the menu couldn’t look crisper and be more fluid.  That would add some polish onto Extender hardware devices that are nothing more than just dumb terminals that can stream video.

Also, I haven’t come across a video format that the Extender wouldn’t at least wouldn’t start playing.  However, my experience video playback results is my biggest complaint.

 

Here are my thoughts after using the unit for a number of weeks…

The Problems:

• The remote control is useless as a “universal” remote.  It is supposed to have the ability to learn your current remote.  But it only learns 4 commands… power, volume up/down, and mute.  I could only get it to learn power from my old remote.  The other commands it wouldn’t learn.  And even worse, when it replays the power command, it takes about 3-5 seconds before it allows me to send another command.

• I’m also upset the remote won’t learn other commands.  Since I use this extender on my bedroom TV, I would like it to learn the Sleep command so I don’t have to maintain two remotes.  But these remote issues can be resolved with the purchase of a Logitech Harmony remote (mentally add another one of those to my wish list).

• Crashing.  All of my Media Center recorded TV content locks up.  And that’s the content I would’ve thought would work the smoothest with an Extender.  I’ve had the least trouble with XVid and other videos downloaded from the internet.  I have read some articles online that claim that this could be due to a bad install of codecs and/or FFDShow on my HTPC.  This could be… but I don’t get the same problems on my main HTPC.  I did try uninstalling my Vista codecs on my main VMC PC, but I had the same problem with DVR-MS format videos.

The Cool Stuff:

• There is a DVD player built in.  It’s not Blu-ray, but it still is a DVD drive which every TV should have.

• I have full access to all videos on my main Media Center PC.  This is my HTPC and it records TV over the airwaves.  It also consolidates all my other media content.  To have full access to all of this content on two TVs without much setup or ongoing maintenance is intense.  I can also use the MCE add-ins, like SecondRunTV, and access LiveTV so I only need a high quality antenna on my main HTPC.

• Media Center remembers where I left off on my recorded shows so I can resume it on my extender.  Most nights, I start watching the 10 o’clock news on my living room TV and then go to bed and resume where I paused it.  Unfortunately, as I mentioned above, playback is not flawless with recorded content.  Most of the time, it will lock up after playing back for a few minutes.

 

Other Stuff:

Just a couple of things I ran into using Media Center in general.  I’ve been creating extra folders to keep different sets of videos together.  Recently I downloaded all of the MIX09 sessions for offline viewing.  I dropped these all in their own folder.  I could see all of these on my main Media Center PC, but my extender did not display them.  I sensed that it had something to do with permissions.  Sure enough, setting the correct permissions gave me access to adding these on my Extender.  I followed the steps on an XBox website:  http://support.xbox.com/support/en/us/xbox360/kb.aspx?id=932306&lcid=1033&category=gamesandmedia

 

Also I have to wonder if my video playback issues are due to my Vista 64-bit VMC.  I am starting to dislike my choice of Vista 64, since it seems like everything I want to do with my HTPC requires extra steps.

Preview of blog entries to come…

My initial concept of this blog was to post about stuff I know.  But, I’ve been hitting a lot of road blocks when I’ve tried to come up with answers and solutions to problems I’ve been having.

 

Instead of postponing blog entries until I have the answers, I think it serves a better purpose to post stuff that I don’t know as well.  I generally will do my due diligence to figure out a solution to a problem; so when I can’t find a solution, either the solution doesn’t exist, or my Google searching techniques need some tuning.

 

Also, posting this content to the web exposes it to millions of potential viewers.  Therefore, I may be able to find answers from the global web community.

 

That being said, here are some topics I plan on writing about in my next entries:

• Using Live Writer
• Setup a DNS-323 NAS to do offline bit torrent downloading
• Fighting with my HTPC setup.  ATI Radeon HDMI output is not consumer ready!
• Jailbroke my iPhone
• Try to disable IR on my HP laptop
• Began using Linksys DMA2200 Media Center Extender
• Thouroughly enjoyed watching the Paper or Plastic Movie at the WI Film Festival

Windows Media Center First Impressions

Here's a quick list of the experiences I had with Media Center on Vista.  These are all based on never using it before and just playing around with it in less than 24 hours.

• The UI is ok.  But there are a lot of options/selections I'd just like to turn off, and I don't see a setting to turn them off.  It still takes me a lot of up-down-sideways movements to get to where I'm going.

• When I start watching something and then jump into settings, the only way I can find to get back to the show I was watching is to jump to the main screen and choose "Now Playing".  This takes time and I wish the remote control would have a button to do this automatically: the "Now Playing" button.  Maybe this is a feature in Media Center that just isn't on my remote.  I need to explore this issue more.

• Watching a show does not allow enough granular fast forwarding and rewinding.  Maybe this is a side-effect of the xvid codec, but I've had much better experiences in other video players.

• Shows don't seem to have a way to keep track of a bookmark of where I leave of.  Maybe there is a plugin for this.

• I am using audio over my graphics card HDMI and when I pause a show and unpause it, I lose a couple seconds of audio.  I assume this is because of the encryption that needs to happen over HDMI.  It's annoying since I have to rewind my show a bit every time I unpause it.  It could be an issue with my receiver, this may be a difficult one to debug.  I'll have to try audio in other applications.

• Everytime I start up Media Center, the first time I select a video, it will not start playing for upwards of 3 minutes.  I haven't been able to narrow down what is happening at the same time.  Possibly, it is when files are being copied to a "watch" directory.  Just another point of frustration right now.  I may need to dig into event logs and/or Media Center logs (do they exist?)

• If you delete the last video in a sub-folder of your Video folders, the interface does not jump you to the next available show.  Instead, it keeps showing you that last video.  Unlike when you delete a video in the main video folder directory, you're immediately updated with the next video to watch.  It would be nice to configure it, so that it jumps you back to a folder with more videos in, since that is the next thing I end up having to do manually now.  Maybe I can write a plugin to do this.  Sounds relatively simple, I wonder if the API allows me to do it though.  More research...
  

My new HTPC (Home Theater PC)

I purchased a new computer to use as my HTPC two weeks ago.  The price was right and it had every component I was looking for.

Ever since Christmas, I've been keeping an eye on prices of Blu-ray players.  I saw an Amazon Daily Deal and one other Amazon bundle package that had a Blu-ray player priced under $150.  Otherwise, they are priced at least $199.  Instead of dropping that much on an early generation blu-ray player, I figured my best options came down to a Sony PS3 or a blu-ray drive in a computer.

On top of my blu-ray ambitions, I've also been a little disappointed with my current PC setup:

• No IR support when computer was "sleeping".  I had to physically turn it on and off (sure that sounds lazy, but I am seeking full automation).
  
• Sporadic power-offs (most likely a power-supply issue since I had to unplug it from the wall outlet for it to power back on, but the ultimate cause is still undetermined)
  
• Slow HDD (IDE.  Just something else that could be better...)
  
• Not enough processor to decode .MKV files (choppy playback and spiked processor utilization)
  
• No support for audio over my DVI-to-HDMI cable (an extra unnecessary cable since I was already connecting to my receiver over HDMI)

I saw a deal on HP's website that would answer all of these problems and give me a new setup for less than I was able to spec. out the parts individually.  My total cost was $599.

New computer

• HP Pavilion a6750t PC
  
• Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (64-bit)
  
• Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Quad processor Q8300 [2.5GHz]
  
• 3GB DDR2-800MHz SDRAM
  
• 512MB ATI Radeon HD 4650 [DVI, VGA, HDMI]
  
• 640GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s
  
• Blu-ray player & SuperMulti DVD burner
  
• TV tuner, dual format ATSC-NTSC with PVR, remote
  
• Integrated 7.1 channel sound with front audio ports

After unboxing, I was stoked to get this thing running.  I knew I had to transfer my leftover digital media files over from my old HTPC.  I decided I would do that over my local network.  And that began the list of minor issues I still had to face during setup.

None of my old USB wireless G network adapters had drivers for Vista 64
This was an unforeseen consequence of choosing 64-bit windows.  Oh well, now I just have to keep my eyes open for wireless NIC deals.  I currently have a long network cable running across my house.  I just need to remember it is there when the lights are off.

No sound through my HDMI output

I plugged everything in and I got no sound.  I saw the sound bar indicating that sound should be coming out of my cable, but nothing came out.  Then I realized that I actually had to select HDMI as my default sound output device.

Still no sound.  :(

To the internet now... and sure enough, I hit upon a series of posts/links of people having the same problem of getting sound from HDMI out of their computers.  Many theories abound as to what was causing it:

• Total HDMI cable run > 15 feet
• Corrupt EDID
• No support from the av receiver

Well, I can only rule out the HDMI cable run, since mine is 9 feet total from TV to PC (by way of AVR).  I was able to finally get the sound to work by following an idea in this thread about only using HDMI input 1 on my Onkyo TX-SR606 receiver.  That worked.  Since that is my only HDMI device plugged into my receiver, I am not missing out.  It is possible that I will need to run Video/Audio separate on my other HDMI inputs, but I'll deal with that when I need to.

Videos not playing; only audio in Media Center

A little more searching on the internet and I find out that the Windows Media Center does not yet ship with codecs for Xvid and other common video formats.  I found many different codec packs on the interet to fix this, but I had to be careful again.  I had to find a 64-bit version of the pack.  Here is the site I used:  http://www.majorgeeks.com/download5535.html

Conclusions

Overall, the install went well.  I had couple of times when the PC locked up during Windows Update.  I attributed it to me trying to update too much at the same time.  Only one hard reboot and a little patience and I was able to sit back and spend some time re-programming my Harmony remote to connect to my new HTPC.