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Davor

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  1. I use VB 2.2.4 on XP I can concur with the following: The Adaptec ASPI drivers that I used were from ghost 8.3 generated startup floppy. Also: sometimes VB will only show the first line of the dos-commands, and will overwrite them continuously. This happens when I send the “crtl+ald+del” and the system reboots but doesn’t show the “bios bitmap”. Not to mention a bug which locks the crtl-key and makes it impossible to unlock. To unlock it, I need to enter the virtual machine, “right-crtl” out of it. Then it suddenly locks up again while VB works on the background. Imagine typing and crtl suddenly locks up!! This issue I had once and I had to reboot the system to fix it. My first virtual installation of XP also froze some 17 minutes prior to the estimated end. The second installation worked flawlessly. Cause? No idea. Support of vhd-files is ridiculous. If you make two snapshots, and discard the last, the VB just crashes!! Why make vhd’s loadable if their support isn’t stable?! Also, one time the virtual machine just wouldn’t load up. It happened when trying to start a second virtual machine, while the other was working on lower priority. The little msgbox saying that the virtual machine is starting stayed on 0% and didn’t go away. Virtualbox.exe process was taking 100% CPUtime. I couldn’t even kill the process; I had to reset my PC, something which I do once a year! All these issues I had in ONE day. Imagine how far I got with what I planned to do… I use Virtual PC already for some 2-3 years, and never had problems with it. Because of lack of USB support and VRDP, I thought to give VB a try. On various sites it is depicted as the best, or at least on of the best free open source virtualization alternatives. But most of the time I try to switch to some open source software I first get overthrown by the features and then disappointed by the buggieness.
  2. Summary: When capturing from TV to dvr-ms-file via Win XP MCE, the header of the dvr-ms file signifies that the stream’s resolution is 720x480, while the real stream resolution is 720x576, MCE configured for PAL country and Hauppauge 150 MCE a PAL version. This can have complications for playback. For example, when playing back in WMP (directly or through avisynth) with ffdshow as MPEG2 decoder, the lowest part of the picture (I assume some 576-480 = 96 lines) is missing. When I consult the ffdshow info and/or avisynth’s info()-function it says the resolution is 720x480. When I switch back to my old nvidia decoder, the picture is displayed correctly in WMP and in file-preferences the correct 720x576 resolution is displayed. This led me to investigate the real resolution of the stream. After consulting various websites and making sure my Hauppauge MCE150 was configured correctly (i.e. to capture in PAL format), I went on to investigate the file itself. Gspot said it was an asf container, so I downloaded asfviewer (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/forpros/format/ASFViewer.aspx) and opened the dvr-ms file. Under Header object “Stream Properties” one finds the following data: Stream Properties Object [1] (297 bytes) Property Value File Position 9005 ( 0x232D ) Object ID B7DC0791-A9B7-11CF-8EE6-00C00C205365 Object Size 297 ( 0x129 ) Stream Number 1 Version 1 Offset 0 Encrypted False Security ID 18873916 ( 0x11FFE3C ) Stream Type Specific Stream Type Video Media Window Width 720 Window Height 480 Flags 2 Bitmap Info Header biSize 208 Width 720 Height 480 Planes 1 Bits 0 Compression TEXT: DVR 0000: 44 56 52 20 DVR Image Size 0 X Pels / Meter 0 Y Pels / Meter 0 Colors Used 0 Colors Important 0 Extra Data Size 168 Extra Data 0000: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-63 17 05 00 00 00 00 00 c 0030: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-04 00 00 00 03 00 00 00 0040: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-28 00 00 00 D0 02 00 00 ( 0050: E0 01 00 00 01 00 00 00-4D 50 45 47 00 00 00 00 MPEG 0060: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 0070: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-02 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 0080: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00-D0 C4 C4 C4 49 00 2B 4E I +N 0090: 98 FB 95 37 F6 CE 51 6D-D1 C4 C4 C4 49 00 2B 4E 7 Qm I +N 00A0: 98 FB 95 37 F6 CE 51 6D 7 Qm This led me to try to change the headerdata (all instances of 480 to 576) and see whether this is causing the playback problems. After I changed the 3 values (those emphasized), the ffdshow codec stated displaying the dvr-ms file correctly (with lower part of the picture displayed and acknowledging it as a 720x576 stream) Further testing showed that changing only the binary data under “extra data”-property from “E0 01” to “40 02” was enough to make the dvr-ms file play correctly with ffdshow in WMP and MCE. So, the question is: am I the only one or is everyone having this issue AND IF SO, how can one force MCE to write down the header of dvr-ms-files correctly? Help would be appreciated.
  3. Now... it happened again, but only after the second auto update. The first auto update, as written in my second post, went with no problems. Grrr!!! Really annoying
  4. I solved it apparently by deleting the EPG folder in eHome map… The guide seems to be downloaded correctly this time, without crashing the PC. Still I find it very strange that an application can hang a system in such a way. Anyone has an explanation for this? Also, I see that in the deleted EPG folder, prior to crash, a .sdf file was created everytime (184320KB). The new .sdf file is about 24MB
  5. This is really strange. This PC is some 3 years old MCE box and almost never crashed, until the last few days. I always leave it 24/24 7/7 running. But the last 3 days, I always find it unresponsive when I wake up. I have to restart it manually, and when it boots up, it’s like nothing ever happened... no error report, and event log shows nothing. The second time it crashed, it did make a notice in the log: Event ID: 19 Event Source: recording Event Type: Error Event Description: Media Center: The recording schedule has been corrupted and was automatically deleted on xx/xx/xxxx xx:xx:xx PM. You may need to reschedule your recordings. But I thought this was because of the crash. I also checked the hard drive because I thought it could be a bad cluster causing the hang. I also found in the logfile an event saying that it wil download the guide next day at 01:21:11h … so I made a performance counter and sent it to the server. Last data I got was at 2007-08-26 01:21:47.546, showing a bit CPU usage from ehSched, ehtray, explorer, svchost, system and 38% for ehRec. After that it’s hung completely. I can’t even ping the machine from the server. So the question is, has anyone any suggestions about why this could be happening so ‘suddenly’? I searched the internet, and found nothing. The last automatic update was a few days ago, and it seemed to work fine after that, so I don’t think it’s an update bug. The only solution I see for the future is to shut down the service, but that not an option for a long term.
  6. Has anyone figured out how tu use the IE engine to render HTML e-mail in Outlook? Or any other (unconventional?) way, because the HTML mails (archived and new) seem broken now. If it's not possible, i'll have to go back to the previous outlook version. Greets Davor
  7. Thanks for the reply jftuga. I don't see any other option as you are the only one who replied Anyway, I'll see first what I can do with scripting, then I'll check your recommendations. Greets Davor
  8. You made me enough curious to do a bit of search: Application partitions are useful if you need to replicate data to a subset of locations where you have domain controllers. Instead of replicating the application data to all domain controllers in a domain, you can use an application partition to only replicate the data to the domain controllers of your choosing. (ref: http://safari.peachpit.com/0596004648/acti...-CHP-17-SECT-1) When you create an application partition, that partition has its own name space, similar to the way that a domain is given its own name space within the Active Directory. An application partition is actually very similar structurally to a domain. The biggest difference is that an application partition can not contain security principles (users, groups, computers, etc.). (ref: http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_...artitions.html) Greets Davor
  9. I want to monitor my event log for specific errors and run some batch commands/files if the specified string (error) is found. Suggestions from those who are familiar with this would be nice as I don’t know whether I should use scripting or some build in windows functionality (like some executable from support/resource tools) or ‘whatever you suggest’. PS: no 3rd party software Greets Davor
  10. hmm... I have had nothing but trouble with it. I use it on 2 'media' pc's because of lack of other software with same features here are a few things that really p*** me off: 1. I wanted to compress some DV movies to the much acclaimed nero’s MPEG4. Result was a 700KB file with resolution that would be bad even on a PDA, and no matter what I selected in the properties, I always had this very small resolution… that was probably a bug that has been fixed in their latest versions. Fresh windows install problems: 2. I wanted to make a quick DVD, and what’s the best way to do so: NERO as I already have it. The user interface and simplicity is excellent .. and when my DVD project was finished and previewed I only had to press the encode and burn button. The resultant DVD, after 5h, was with zooming sound. (also the previous 2 encoding tries ended in an error after a few hours). Not to mention the quality of MPEG2 encoding on best quality settings … (for comparisons with best quality settings: TMPGEnc at 4Mbps produces better video quality than Nero MPEG2 encoder at 8Mbps, but it also takes a more time to encode) 3. The software installs stuff that you don’t want it to in stall: so many codecs, and ho know what other junk like the scout software. When you install Nero, you get an generic MPEG4 codec and much more .. but what’s the point for me to have one if it doesn’t work with VSfilter for subs (you get a black screen)? Also it installs a MPEG2 decoder which shows white lines below the screen on one of my computers. 4. When I had to put together a media PC for someone I chose for Nero because of the rich features: MPEG2 + other decoders, ‘best’ software for compilation burning of ANY kind .. and so on. In other words you get a lot of bang for the bucks... but when you compare the bang with the problems you get, the bang is no bang anymore: after updating Nero (Duthc), many media files lost correspondences with the particular software. (nero just deleted many extension associations for no reason) and not to mention the scout software that, even if you disable it, uses system resources while ‘nero burning rom’ is active. (Also, the updater, on the first update try, crashed constantly, so we had to download the full version from the net in hope it would be fixed is the updated version, which was so) Also, the Dutch translation is full of grammar errors. 5. Boy, that thing crashes whenever you need it. Just before I wrote this article I wanted to burn a cue/bin CD image. Guess what: exception .. blabla. That’s what made me go this forum, In search for an alternative for this incredibly buggy software. (Even the Logitech setpoint software is less buggy) 6. There are a few other minor things that I think of now, but I think I made my point. 7. Not to mention the almost 1GB large installation folder (full version) that it leaves in your temp folder and when you update, it makes another one lol… The software I use and could (?) be the cause of any of those problems: Divx 5.2.1 decoder (free) Adobe acrobat + photoshop Ms XP SP2 + office academic + VS for academic use + encoder + live messenger & toolbar & desktop search Nvidia drivers (VGA) Maple academic Emule Java VSfilter (that’s most of it, as this software list provided to be very stable) And nero ... but surely not for long anymore. Greets Davor
  11. Sorry, it's IE6 i am talking about (it's corrected now). I wasn't aware of the export/import capability of IE6, thank you for that tip. Still, my main concern is preserving the history. Think it's strange this issue isn't so common. I expected an immediate answer I'll also try the MS newsgroups... Greets Davor
  12. My rule is when you have a problem, and you know the exact cause, you do everything to solve the cause and NOTHING else. Here is how I would try to sole it: -->Go to the recovery console. (Win install cd) -->Login -->Type 'listsvc' in command line ... you will see all services and drivers that are installed in your system. I hope you know the driver of your VGA card. It should be disabled. When you find the correct driver: -->Type enable "drivername" Service_demands_Start (if the manual start doesn't work, try auto, then system, then boot.) This should work. Greets Davor
  13. I am going to reinstall windows on one machine and have to preserve the history of IE6 of some user account. What's the best way to do so? (It's not possible to just copy the history folder from the previous installation to the new one, as I already have tried that. Seems it's more complicated.) I also looked for info on internet without success. Please reply only if you certainly know what you are talking about or you have already tested 'your procedure'. And please no why questions ...
  14. Davor

    Aspect ratio

    Thank you for the replies but they are not what i asked... This post is about a file which i can't upload, so you can't see it yourself. (i described it in my first post) It's about how you MAKE such file. In other words, a wmv encoded stream, in an avi container, that is encoded in same resolution as the DVD anamorphic source, but that is displayed correctly. Which means that somewhere in the header of the avi there has to be a something that let the player know it has to strech the image. The email notofication system isn't working well as i haven't got any mails on this subject, and the notification is enabled. Greets Davor Edit: File Upload ERROR: The total filespace required to upload all the attached files is greater than your per post or global limit. Please reduce the number of attachments or the size of the attachments. File is 1.68MB and Global Space Left: 4.8mb ... don't understand
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