Pretty cool... I wonder just how much of that functionality will be available in other countries (Germany for example). And I fear that the answer will be "not a lot."

With iTunes movies and shows only for Americans (and thus the total uselessness of the Apple TV on this side of the pond) too, I feel a little disappointed in both Apple and Microsoft to be honest.

Now I could talk about how maybe this influences the European downloaders like the Pirate Bay, but I'm beginning to ramble, I'm afraid, so I'll stop now.

Have you ever tried MythTV? If so, what's your opinion compared to Vista?

I tried using Vista Media Center and didn't really get very far...I pointed it at my music and film collection (on another server via 100meg connection) and it just stalled; in the end I just end tasked it. Also when looking at xvids I get an annoying crash in something called COM Surrogate. Very Annoying.

Regards
Lee

It's unfortunate that Windows (and Media Center) still don't support clear QAM256--unencrypted digital cable channels. Most providers don't encrypt the local network affiliates, and some leave even more channels open. Cards like the A180 and the Kworld ATSC-110 support QAM, but Windows doesn't have the driver framework necessary. They work great on Linux with MythTV though. Shipping a product with such crippled HD capabilities, especially since most Media Centers are running on high-resolution displays, just doesn't make any sense.

I know this isn't Microsoft's fault but by not being able to build my own HTPC with CableCard I have zero interest in Media Center. I've been happy with my buggy Motorola box which records HD -- once I can add cable card to my HTPC and move the content around my house as I like, I'll look at a Media Center again; until then, no thanks....

It also does not support DVB Texting which is used all over the world for subtitling DVB-T broadcasts.

But, yes, it's still the best mediacenter out there, the open source alternatives all have their own issues, mostly stability.

I don't use any mediacenter software anymore on my HTPC, I simple have icons on the desktop to the programs I use such as DVB Viewer and PowerDVD and start them when I need to.

Yeah Vista Media Center is great -- except for these two caveats:

-- v1 extenders are now paperweights. The only supported extender is the Xbox 360. Which sucks 2x since my extender was silent and the 360 is LOUD.

-- CableCARD will _ONLY_ be supplied for OEM "certified" Vista Media Center HTPCs. That means us DIY'ers are S.O.L.

From what I've heard, both these issues stem from DRM. Grr...

I have a living room PC which runs both Windows XP Media Center Edition (or whatever it's called) and MythTV. MythTV was way harder to set up (took me the better part of a week), but at least it eventually worked. Media Center... not so much. Probably some kind of driver issue. Anyway, MythTV is awesome, but they do need to fix the setup stuff. All the stuff involved in getting it to run is totally ridiculous.

Now if only they'd show some more non-crappy shows on TV. I only ever watch the Daily Show, the Colbert Report, Simpsons, South Park, 24 and Prison Break.

Digital cable seems to be the poor cousin of Media Center. I wonder why that is ...

I live in Germany (cable provider KabelBW) and use a TechnoTrend TT-budget C 1500 with both Vista and MCE2005.

The trick to get it running is to install the BDA drivers and a mapper that mocks a DVB-T card using frequency mappings (all available from TechnoTrend).

However, as has been said before, QAM 256 modulation is not well supported, even more when the in-house cabling quality is sub-standard.

Personally, I stopped using MCE because there seems to be no way to easily sort and weed out my 400+ TV and radio channels, QAM 256 reception is poor and the TechnoTrend budget Remote Control is useless.

I'm using Technotrend's network (non-BDA) driver and TV app, where most things work (except certain HD channels). I hope a better BDA driver will arrive shortly and I can somehow find time to write an MCE app for the channel sorting.

Add an MCE supported remote control and I'm again spending too much time watching TV ....

BTW, The Daily Show is available on comedycentral.DE for one day from 1500 CET after the original screening. The advantage over comedycentral.COM/motherload is that it's in fewer pieces and (currently) without ads.

What can ya do; she's powder blue.

This is a shame, I waited for Vista in hopes that they would add QAM support and although the speed increases sound nice, I am not sure I will be making the move to Vista just yet. MC2005 works great with my setup. I have remove all of the cable boxes in the house and now have 3 Xbox 360's to control TV and DVR capabilities throughout the house. With IPTV coming by the end of the year to the 360 and Windows Media Home Server, I am going to pass on Vista until they add QAM support.

Thanks for the blog, you are the first person to specifically answer the question I have been looking for.

Do you happen to know if the MCE support for DISH Network is any better than it is for MCE for XP? The problem I've had (and yes, I've looked at all of the great MCE "hack" sites and other sites to no avail) and that others have had is that we can't force MCE to send a "select" button to the set top box and are forced to have workarounds because the screen saver on certain models will ALWAYS come on.

That's been my only significant complaint about the MCE is that with my DISH it's kludgy at best.

I have to agree with you Jeff - MCE for Vista is the single reason I upgraded my box. What's even nicer - while my Vista MCE sits in the closet, aero turned off for perf reasons (Im running it on a 2.1celeron), it works beautifully with the 360 in extender mode (in fact, its faster via extender than when running on the box itself).

I've been running SageTv (www.sage.tv) for years now and am very happy with it. No monthly fee as well, and they come out with periodic updates on a regular basis. Like MythTV, there are also third party add ons that are available, and a complete development environment to create your own add ons. I've written a couple of Sage utilities myself in .Net, though the core server and client is all Java based. It also fully supports the MVP Media Extender so you can hook up as many TVs as you like to one server for around $80. Oh, but unlike MythTV, setup is a snap.

I have been a big fan as well of the XP version and recently switched to the Vista version. Although generally it looks prettier I don't think I can wholeheartedly recommend everyone to upgrade as there are some stability issues.

I recently wrote a blog entry about my experiences, see: http://jritmeijer.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!8A48A27460FB898A!788.entry

BTW, I use it in the UK and it works fine with digital television, including my dual channel receiver.

Maybe you will know this. We recently got Windows XP Media Center (OEM), and we noticed when we pop in a dvd that the subtitles are really, really small. We can only see them properly (frictionless) from about a meter away.

Not all members of my family are fluent in English, so if you know how to change them (it isn't in the settings, trust me, I've checked everywhere), I would be in your depth!

Thank you,

MLeo Daalder (Netherlands)

PS.

MLeo is a contraction of 2 names.

--The Biggest MCP Improvement that No One is Talking About--

Great blog post, Jeff!

As many of you know, the Windows desktop doesn't display nicely on most lcd/plasma TVs due to resolution incompatabilities. For those of you who don't know what I am talking about; the resolution that works correctly for TV veiwing and DVDs, does not work for your Windows desktop. The desktop is too big and important edges are lost (like the min/max/close buttons on the top of a maximized window, and 3/4 of the start bar).

The best explanation I have heard has to do with the way HD TVs adjust for analog pixel sizes and that the outer edges of the TV image are considered throw-away (like the "bleed" areas in print media). Regardless, to fix it I had to use soemthing called Underscan Compresion in my Forceware CP. This compressed my desktop to the actual size of the screen. However, it screweed up my TV veiwing. So, Nvidia allows the creation of customized desktops that can be switched via a right click on the desktop. This allwed me to have my hi-res tv veiwing and desktop as well.

Enter Vista. As of this date, Nvidia does not support overscan/underscan or multiple user defined desktops on Vista (or custom scanning for those of you living on the edge). I've been all over the web in all the forums. Nvidia appears to not be ready for Vista.

Then I discovered something cool. When I set the TV resolution inside Media Center, it does not effect my desktop resolution and vice versa. I was now able to do what I wanted to do form the start; have one resolution for TV veiwing and one for computer use. This also makes my PC games work great.

The thing about this great feature is that I cannot find anyone talking about it. Let your friends know.

I'm disappointed on the digital cable thing. We've got an unused, unplugged cable box (SA Explorer 2100) that's got hundreds of channels covered in our plan, but it won't work with MCE.

Apparently Microsoft, CableLabs, and the cable companies are "just following orders":
http://www.engadget.com/2006/11/25/vista-unable-to-stream-convert-cablecard-media/comments/2790769/

I've read about using Firewire (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=403695&page=1&pp=30), but I don't think my STB is supported.

Duuuude... Is that Brittany Spears in your music collection, top left? Whoda thunk it? Jeff is a teenybob fan. ;)

@haacked - Two things I know for certain:
1) Jeff will blame the Brittany Spears on his wife
2) This will be a lie

> ...I pointed it at my music and film collection (on another server via 100meg connection) and it just stalled; in the end I just end tasked it

When it comes to accessing video and film collections over the network, you want a gigabit connection. Gigabit is cheap these days and it's 3x faster in real-world use than 100 mbit (fast ethernet).

> When I set the TV resolution inside Media Center, it does not affect my desktop resolution and vice versa. I am now able to do what I wanted to do from the start; have one resolution for TV veiwing and one for computer use.

Yep, that's a nice new feature too.

> by not being able to build my own HTPC with CableCard I have zero interest in Media Center

I'm not sure that's written in stone at this point.. it remains to be seen what will happen with CableCard. I know Tivo struggled with the same issues.

http://www.tivo.com/series3hdDvr.faqs.asp

http://news.com.com/FAQ+CableCard+Whats+that/2100-1041_3-5542400.html

Pretty cool,

I especially enjoyed seeing Ween - 12 Golden Country Hits in the screen shot. :D

It proves you have taste I can agree with.

Uncommon Thread?!

Well, my wife watches television, too.. and yes that is her Britney Spears as well. Although I don't mind classic pre-skank Britney.

been using mce for quite some time. i like it. one of the few ms products that i actually like..

cheers

I just hooked up my Vista desktop computer to my Xbox 360 yesterday, and I was blown away. I'm running wired from desktop to access point and 802.11a wireless from access point to Xbox, and the signal is fantastic. There is no lag to speak of with the interface now (MCE 2005 on XP was laggy for me) Flipping channels from the cable being streamed from desktop to Xbox is as quick as flipping channels via a cable box, and the interface puts my cable provider's interface to shame.

I'm surprised no one mentioned Remote Record. Being able to go to MSN's TV listings on a separate computer and setting up my Media Center PC to record a show is one of my favorite features of MCE. I haven't tried it yet in Vista, but I'm hoping the feature's still in tact.

There is another alternative for those who do not wish to go to Vista. I am currently using GBPVR on a Windows XP Pro box, along with a Hauppage PVR-150 card, a USB-IRT, and an automation program called HIP.

While I cannot watch one show and record another, it is simply because I have a single TV card. Unlike Windows Media Center, GBPVR supports as many cards as you can put in your system. The USB-IRT allows me to control all of the different hardware connected to my system (using HIP) without having to have separate IR blasters installed.

Check them out, it took a real novice like me about a week to figure out the setup.

Jeff, you have possibly uncovered a reason to use Vista.

Like said previously it needs to support DVB text, it's useless otherwise outside of the US, not sure why mediacenter still doesn't support that when every little app that comes with the cards support it.

But I guess thats just another proof of how little the rest of the world matters for MS, still waiting for the Ultimate Extras they promised when I purchased vista ultimate edition :(

macbook pro laptop + egalto eyetv hybred..

well it works, the screen size is a tad small, but thats cus I'm too cheap to get an external display, this would work well with a mac-mini from what I hear.

digital tv in & to screen with full recording, export to iDVD or quicktime files (among others), will handle HD (assuming you can find any free to air), 'it just works' install & setup, works with apple remote during playback, can export files in a form itunes likes, or just playback from within app.

tv guide, either from over the air broadcast or a website...

I'm happy.

flip side. the mac to run it on is not cheap and the box itself was 100ukp. but if you have the mac 100ukp for a pvr thats basically idoit proof is not too bad.

oh and it will handle old fashioned analog as well.

i dare say the hardware works under windows as well, and the software is probably just as good, but i've not tried it.

I can understand the reluctance of cable/sat compaines over computers handling the content, especially HD. but since it will happen anyway they may as well try to make a buck on the hardware and a subscription.

so you love vista huh ? how much is ms paying you to say that ? ..... do a google search on vista sucks and it comes up with over a million eight hundred thousand results of people pissed off because vista is the biggest piece of crap that ms has ever come out with

Since I don't care about watching TV/MOvies/etc on my PC (or at all), how well does this stack up for just sound?

I have a large collection (and growing) of audio books and kids CD's. I'd like to put them into a PC so the kids don't have to be swapping CD's all day long.

Anything in particular I should look into when setting up an Audio-Only Media PC?

Big Star and Matthew Sweet? Good work fella.

"do a google search on vista sucks and it comes up with over a million eight hundred thousand results of people pissed off because vista is the biggest piece of crap that ms has ever come out with "

I take it you've never Googled for "Linux sucks" have you? Give it a try and report back to us. ;)

You're right, remote record is a great feature, and I should have mentioned it. Scheduling shows to record via the web is definitely convenient.

Here's the remote record FAQ:

http://tv.msn.com/help/tv/rrfaq

It's a "phone home" service, so you have to configure it in Media Center first. And it is compatible with Vista.

Erm, Windows Media Center makes you watch movies with Windows Media Player, right? The worst media player ever known to mankind? Sorry, I'll pass. I like the idea of WMC, but there's no way I'm going to be able to view all my videos coded in all possible codecs display properly (with subtitles) with WMP.

"Duuuude... Is that Brittany Spears in your music collection, top left?"

I almost went there, but figured that either he would blame his wife or it would be "Hipster Ironic" that he had her in his collection. Props for the Matthew Sweet though.

What I dislike about Vista Media Center is the need for what is essentially a developer power box to watch TV. How powerful are the Tivo and Apple TV boxes again?

That and having Media Center on a laptop or desktop is dumb. Does anyone use Media Center in non-DVR hooked up to a TV situations? when you want to browse your photos or music on your desktop or laptop do you say, "Ah, gotta start up Media Center so I can see the photos glide past" instead of using Picassa or the Vista iPhoto?

You have an error in your costs. The monthly fees can add up, but are optional. You can, at your option, choose to pay once ($250, I think) and not pay any more monthly fees. This means that I can but the machine for about $200, plus another $250 for the permanent subscription, and be done.

You have neglected to include the cost of the dedicated PC in your costs. If you can but a PC with all of the stuff you need to do this (hardware MPEG encoder, TV tuner, etc) and the software and still come in under $500, then I am impressed.

Then again, look at the time to upgrade, and then look at Tivo, you can get it for about $20 with no upfront, and that includes all hardware and software.

Most people who complain about Tivo being expensive compared to media center or MythTV fail to include the cost of the hardware.

> You can, at your option, choose to pay once ($250, I think) and not pay any more monthly fees

No you can't. Not any more.

http://news.com.com/2100-1041_3-6047709.html

I'll gladly take a one-time fixed fee over monthly recurring fees any day. At $50+ a month, I'd pay $600 a year for the privilege of using my "free" cell phone. At $13 a month-- the minimum cost "three year commitment plan" from Tivo-- that's $468.

I like some of the things Vista is supposed to do with MCE. But my XP MCE is "finally" stable now and I don't want to mess with it. As far as the SAF (spouse approval factor) is concerned MCE's just great, and that's all that matters - one box that does it all.

By the way, I don't use cable. Only digital free-to-air TV. My unit has a single DVB-T card.

There are two things I need fixed with XP MCE. The first is that I cannot rip DVDs (I timeshift the DVDs I rent). I use AnyDVD but it means I need to get out of the MCE interface. The MCE add-in "My Movies" allows movies to be timeshifted onto the hard disk drive, but only if it is a Region 1 disk - being in Australia, all my rentals are Region 4. Note to the unwise, I do NOT burn these movies onto DVD or share them. Lucky for me I don't have the wish to watch movies more than once; if I do - which is very rare, I go out and buy the DVD (with the original box and promo material).

Re the second issue with MCE, the Microsoft's audio players (whether straight-XP or via MCE) does not support "Real Gain". While audio levels are not an issue when you play a full album from start to finish, it becomes a huge problem when in Shuffle play mode. I use Media Monkey software, and the difference between the RMS level of the highest and lowest MP3s I have is some 25db. Imagine the loudest song playing immediately after the softest one! I've invested too much in my hi-fi system and value my hearing to risk that.

Can anyone confirm if DVD timeshifting and Real Gain audio is now supported in Vista MCE?

Kris

Hi Kris, I also timeshift my Netflix subscription. I rip DVDs to the drive as .ISO images and then I simply mount them when I want to watch the movie. I have a shell extension set up so I just double-click the file to "insert" it into the virtual drive.

As for automatic volume levelling, I think this is something that has to be done at the time of rip, or across your entire music collection. I'm not aware of any new features in Vista to accommodate this.

Personally I am not a fan of levelling. I view it as interfering with the original intent of the artist. I think if the CD was mastered loud, then it should play loud; if it was mastered soft, it should play soft.

Remote Record is excellent! There are times when I'm at work, and I hear someone say so-and-so is on such-and-such program this afternoon. I would go to http://tv.msn.com and find the show, and hit record, and voila, I get to watch it at home in the evening. How wonderful! Oh yes, they have one that works with Vista: http://tv.msn.com/tv/rr/rrsetup.aspx

I love my Vista Media Center!

On Media Center – How to Edit Album information?

I am a new user of Media Center. All things look so nice.
Since I’ve stalled 50GB+ music in my computer, I really appreciate the way Media Center displays my music. However, some of album art of them were mis-displayed. I intended to modify them, but I do not know how to.

Unencrypted QAM is supported in Vista Media Center. CableCard receivers w/o a CableCard can receive UQAM and are required to do so by CableLabs.

Some HD tuner vendors are currently working on adding UQAM support to their drivers.

> I intended to modify [the mis-displayed album art], but I do not know how to.

Hi Vincenzo, I recommend Media Monkey for this purpose:

http://www.mediamonkey.com/

I have a desktop PC with Windows XP Professional and an Intel based Apple Mac Mini with Front Row -- my PC has a TV Tuner capture card that I installed from ATI -- and I have an older Apple PowerBook G4 at home and I use all three to work with multimedia files.

While most of my music on my iPod is DRM free I have many videos from the iTunes Store in my iTunes Library that I transferred over to my video iPod the 80 GB model. I am now saving up to buy an Apple TV as soon as I get an HDTV.

There was a time when I might have been interested in Media Center -- but I use Front Row on my Mac and have a TV Tuner as I said in my PC which I use with a program called VirtualDub that usually enables me to record video in great quality -- but sometimes the picture does not come out as good as it could but is still watchable -- just not the best quality possible.

Most of the time though I don't have problems and it comes out great. I use a video codec for encoding the video called Huffyuv and to decode the video after recording so it appears I use Divx or XviD.

Screw Windows Vista Media Center and Vista's DRM -- sure iTunes also has DRM but OS X does not have it yet in its core like Vista does.

Also FairPlay encoded music can be easily cracked -- while videos from iTunes are still more challenging the music is easier and iTunes was originally built on music -- FairPlay is better than any DRM in BluRay Disc or HD DVD.

Anyone who has XP Media Center Edition 2005 I'd advise them to just stick with that if they want to continue running Windows with Media Center software and not upgrade.

I just installed Vista Premium and transferred my movies and hooked up the TV. One problem - when I window MCE to view the video or TV in a sizeable window, it stutters really bad...stops for 10 secs starts for 1 then stops for ten...when I maximize the screen its fine. This only happens when put it in resize mode??? System specs:

Intel DC 3.7 extreme
2 GB RAM
500 GB HDD SATA
Geforce 8800 GTS w/680MB ram

Any ideas? Reading some other posts it sounds like some have changed the MCE default decoder to Nvidia - but not sure what they values are for Nvidia??

Any help would be great - thanks!! Steve

Hi Steve, NVIDIA's Vista drivers for the 8800 are very poor right now. I would suspect that first.

You can try the MS Media Center decoder check utility, which will let you select which MPEG2 decoder is in use. It works fine in Vista.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=DE1491AC-0AB6-4990-943D-627E6ADE9FCB&displaylang=en

HI, Jeff Atwood
Thanks a lot!
Grazie mille!

Hey guys thought I would pass along the solution to my problem...I donwloaded the Nvidia PureVideo Decoder ($19.99) and installed it. I had to change the registry (regedit) as there is not easy easy way change the decoder in MCE. The place the change it is in:

HKLM\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\Media center\decoder
PreferredMPEG2AudioDecoderCLSID {E1F1A0B8-BEEE-490D-BA7C-066C40B5E2B9}
PreferredMPEG2VideoDecoderCLSID {212690FB-83E5-4526-8FD7-74478B7939CD}

You need to find the code of the Nvidia decoder which can be found in:

...\Media center\service\VIDEO
PreferredMPEG2AudioDecoder {6C0BDF86-C36A-4D83-8BDB-312D2EAF409E}
PreferredMPEG2VideoDecoder {71E4616A-DB5E-452B-8CA5-71D9CC7805E9}

Just copy the \VIDEO keys and paste into the \DECODER keys. I suggest you export the registry before you make any changes in case you need to import them if there are any problems.

Thanks...Steve.

I finally got around to installing Vista Ultimate on my media center box and I've been completely blown away. I don't watch too much TV, mainly Adult swim and so forth, so I've never been big on the whole media center thing, but wow.

The movie-gallery thing is pretty amazing, looking up cover art and so forth dynamically. The same goes for the sports section. Being able to track sports/individual people with real time statistics is pretty awesome. My roommate plays fantasy football/baseball/basketball, and he's got all his players set up. The music browsing is pretty quick, though slower then I'd like. I'd preferably like more image and AVI caching, but I'm running over a network. It's gigabit, but there's still a performance hit I'd like to avoid.

I've just been simply blown away by everything the Media Center has to offer. And it's runs pretty well on inexpensive hardware.

Case/Powersupply (250W) - $30 (cheap cheap cheap case)
Processer - 2600+ Sempron - $50
Board - BioStar something - $50
Card - 9800 Pro AGP 8x 128mb - $50-$75
Cheap 512 RAM - $30-$50
HD - 320GB SATA - $100
Hauppauge WinPVR 250 - $130
Ultimate - $200 (gotta go OEM; could go Home Premium, but I run an AD)

Runs amazingly well, for a little over $600. Going with Home Premium OEM knocks it down to around $530.

I think what gets me more is that it provides inbox everything that snapstream's BeyondTV has except commercial skipping. Commercial skipping is important, but the extras in Vista (Such as the Music and Sports and Movies section) far outweigh this small downside. Especially when you consider BeyondTV's $60 price tag. This is by far the best reason to upgrade to Vista. I was moderately impressed by Business Edition, but Home Premium and Ultimate just blow me away. If you have a media center PC, not moving to the newest version is a crime against media-lovers everywhere.

The only complaint I have now is that it doesn't ship with more tuner support out of the box. I think that Hauppauge cards are used by most enthusiasts, I wish it would have installed out of the box.

I got Media Center XP with my HP Laptop and bundled TV Tuner, and I haven't had a single problem. It's so useful that I've left my conventional TV gathering dust in the corner.

I have MCE 2005 now and am mulling a switch to Vista for one reason: MCE will *NOT* view all terrestrial digital channels by default. Maybe I can find a fix for this in MCE, but I can't see any digital channel that doesn't have an NTSC equivalent. For example: 2-2 is PBS-HD over ATSC, and there's no such thing broadcast in NTSC, so the guide in MCE won't show 2-2 as a legit channel.

Hopefully Vista is better at this game?

I'm running Vista Media Center too, but I cannot find any info on auto logon. I need that when my HTPC returns from hibernation.

I have tried "control userpassword2" as in XP. It dosent work.

Best,
Peter

I've tried using Vista's Windows Media Center to burn TV shows to DVD and have had absolutely no success!!! It just gets to the point where it's about to start burning & the program crashes!!!

Once (and only once, I haven't been able to see it again) there was a toast pop-up in the corner of my screen from Norton. It disappeared too quickly so I didn't get a chance to read the whole thing, but I think it said something about Norton's firewall preventing the program from working. But even disabling the firewall didn't change a thing!

Needless to say, I'm "this close" to giving up on burning permanently. God, can ANYONE make a program that works?!?!?!

Hi Peter,

I use auto-logon for my Vista Media Center as well. I used the following MS knowledge base entry to enable automatic login:

How to turn on automatic logon in Windows XP (and Vista)
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315231

I absolutely LOVE the look of Windows Media Center on Vista! I actually just installed Vista, and was previously using Beyond TV 4 on XP. Now, there is ONE problem I am having. When I run SET UP for the TV, it does not recognize any IR HARDWARE. Can anyone help with this? I installed the USB-UIRT, but im not sure if the "IR Hrdware" is something else. Thanks guy!

Well I have had Vista since day 1. All is good if you use 3 party apps. Why? Glad you asked. Media Player 11 won't play ANY MPG's, everything is all garbled. Play the same video on DivX, perfect. MCE, well, installed my ATI 650, got the channels done, went to watch TV, and GREEN SCREEN, but the sound was there. Tried to watch the MCE included videos for setup, same crap as on Media Player, garbled mess (but the sound was there). On XP, Media Player 11 worked just fine with videos. It is since I've gone to Vista. Any explanations? And don't give me links to all the damn codecs sites cuz I've installed damn near every one. Media Player Classic is the only WINDOWS prg that plays any form of video.

My only glitch is watching xvid/mpeg/avi vidoes - worked fine with Media Center on XP, but has some quality issues with Vista version - the clear whites of the video blink pixelate - is watchable but anoying. I can watch them using Media Player 11, etc but would prefer seemless playback using Media Center. Any suggestions appreciated.

Cheers,
Blake

My only issue is the quality of the picture for television viewing. I have a decent video card and a 22 in lcd monitor, but my picture on live tv is grainy. It is not a signal problem, I have tested the same connection to an actual television and get a perfect pic. I suspect it is related to the monitor resolution?

Blake, I recommend installing ffdshow for playback of xvid/divx and other alternative formats. Works great in Vista Media Center:

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/FFDShow.htm

The advantage of ffdshow is it decodes (almost) everything, so there's no need to spam your system with a dozen different codec packs from questionable sources.

I am by no means a MS fanboy. I do know that by far my setup (Vista/Xbox 360) allows me to stream HD to my 46 inch Hitachi. Something Apple has yet to grasp. To each his own.

Has anyone managed to get vista MCE to run component video at 50Hz? Like most people in this world I live in a country that broadcasts TV at 50 fields per second, however my XP MCE with Nvida forceware 93.71 only gives me the option to run at 60fps. I'm hoping MS will have discovered there is a world outside the US by now.

Can anyone shed any light?

Hey guys,

Am playing with MCE software for 1st time on Vista U., and need help with setup planning. I want to keep my pc in my office and DirecTV in the other room (just 1 TV). Do I HAVE to buy an extender (XBox for now) to do this, or can I simply install long runs (60 ft one way) for the audio/video and USB IR functionality between the STB and PC? I've been searching the net for info on this, but no cigar. I'm not a gamer and don't want the fan/drive noise from the extender.

Thanks much, Ben

Hi Blake,

The black pixel on white issue is a videO card problem. You probably have an ATI video card. Best option is to go to device manager, right click on your display adapter and choose to upgrade driver. Follow the options to check for the driver online. Microsoft has the new drivers which will fix your problem in their Vista driver database. Once you restart all should be well.

Cheers.

-----------------
Original message:

My only glitch is watching xvid/mpeg/avi vidoes - worked fine with Media Center on XP, but has some quality issues with Vista version - the clear whites of the video blink pixelate - is watchable but anoying. I can watch them using Media Player 11, etc but would prefer seemless playback using Media Center. Any suggestions appreciated.

Cheers,
Blake

Blake on March 17, 2007 06:49 AM

Hi, Armando:

I have the same problem with ir hardware recognition. My ir on Hauppauge HR 1600 is working. The remote even controls windows media center functions, yet in tv setup, it's not found. Did you (or anyone)ever solve this?

A few details I know about which are for certain in MCE.

You can enable a registry key and get the DVD Library feature to find and view all local or network shares where you have DVD VOB files. So time-shifted netflix is sweet. This even goes over the internet and pulls down the movie poster art for each so that the gallery view is rich. XVid movies can play also from the Videos Gallery if you install a good quality codec.

MCE on a laptop, a must in my opinion... best way to pass the time on a plane or catch up on favorite shows/movies/music... laptops with IR support are nice (HP laptops) as you can use your laptop as a TV with a remote, great for the hotel room business traveller scenario. When I travel, I copy shows from my main MCE to my laptop for viewing.

Most of the DVR-MS files can be converted easily to portable devices such as the Toshiba Gigabeat and even an IPOD such that you can watch all your favorites on the go with portable devices. I don't understand the ITunes model of paying for "The Office" when I can record it and take it with me for free with my MCE.

DVB-T has always been supported in Harmony and later releases of MCE. More countries were added in the Emerald release (more tuning frequency maps). Guide listing data is provided for the major services in countries like UK, France, Germany, Italy, Spain. Teletext is supported in PAL/SECAM tuner scenarios, digital TV support for DVB-Teletext and interactive TV (MHEG/MHP) is being worked on. Digital Satellite TV (DVB-S) is on the road map for future releases, and there are some clever mapper solutions to get some support in place now.

Clear QAM (US FTA Digital Cable support) - the ability to support this is quite possible with a simple powertoy. MCE support for US Digital Cable TV with CableCard added all the features that allow Clear QAM to be possible. Tuner driver vendors can update their drivers to expose QAM as a tuning space that Windows BDA will support, thus MCE will see it.

I'm new to media center, I'm running it on Vista Ultimate and I've been very impressed so far. Except I'm having some sound issues on the music player. My library is running from a USB2 7200 rpm external drive and at the end of the each track the sound distorts every time. No other music player has the same problem using the same source. Could this be a bug?

If you're having problems with Vista Media Center, I highly recommend visiting the Green Button forums. That's the best community on the 'net for all things Vista Media Center.

You'll get much better help there than you will here:

http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/default.aspx?GroupID=17

Anybody get Vista to work with a media extender other than the xbox360? I have a Hauppauge Media MVP and would like to get that working with Mediacenter in Vista Home Premium.

Robert-
I just picked up a Linksys Media Center Extender to use with Vista and methinks we're both phucked. I chatted online with a dude from Linksys and he said their product wasn't certified to work with Vista. Swell. Do they make any extenders that work with Vista? I ask. Nope. Swell again.

According to a post above, the XBox 360 is the only thing that works as an extender with Vista. I don't need nor do I want a friggin' XBox. Confirmation of this would be appreciated.

I've never used MCE before (have used Media Portal) and I just upgraded my htpc from XP Pro to Vista. I'm trying to see if I want to switch to WMC. What I don't like, and maybe it's just that I don't know how to do it?, but Media Portal was so customizable and WMC is not. Specifically, in Media Portal I had set up my mp3's by genre, and I created the genre's. I don't catagorize my mp3's by album. I do it by artist, and then I place the artist into a genre that I decide. So Vista scanned my music and broke everything up and put various songs into genre's that it decided. If I view my music by genre rather than album, it lists a jillion genre's of which I have no music (like "acid jazz"). Any idea how I can delete the genre's I don't want listed (In Media Portal I broke my music down into just 15 genre's) and can I force WMC to display certain artists in certain genre's? Do I have to be a programmer to figure this stuff out? Any good websites on how to customize WMC in Vista? Any help ya'll can provide will be appreciated!

Patrick and Robert: the only extender that works with Vista Media CEnter at the moment is the Xbox 360.

As always, for the best info, use the Green Button Forums:
http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/default.aspx?GroupID=17

Bob, I use Media Monkey for stuff like this-- Vista doesn't set anything itself, it's all determined by the the Genre tags in your music files. The basic version is free:
http://www.mediamonkey.com/

Thanks Jeff. I'll check out Media Monkey. I wonder if there is a way to configure vista media center as I do Media Portal. Where I can tell Vista to display my music library as the 15 genre's that I have specified, and then when I open a genre it displays the X number of artists that I have configured for that specific genre. All my mp3's are tagged, but I have tagged them only with artist-song title tags. I don't enter album, track number, or genre data. Hmm... There must be a way around this without have to re-tag everything. Besides, even if I do re-tag everything, I still don't want the acid jazz genre to appear in my music library. Vista should not display any genre's for which I have zero mp3's. There's got to be a way...

Never mind Jeff. I figured it out. I didn't understand fully what you said until now. WMC creates it's genres after scanning my mp3's. It creates however many genres my mp3's say I have. wce had an acid jazz genre because one of my mp3's says it's genre is acid jazz. Looks like I do need to re-tag everything. Still, it would be nice if WMC was more customizable.

On a side note, does anyone know if the 360 controller has the same functionality as the MCE remote? I'd like to get a remote for WMC, but since I plan to get a 360, I'd just use the controller if it could navigate WCE as well as a remote could...

Can someone answer this?

If I use Vista Media Center to record a TV show, then burn it to DVD, can I use this DVD in a regular DVD player, one hooked up to a TV, not hooked up to a computer?

Thanks
Mike

Mike, yes. Windows Vista Media center has the ability to burn DVDs built in (unlike previous versions of Media Center). Any DVDs you burn from Vista Media Center *will* be playable on standalone DVD players.

This is a very well done write up for VMC...

Just wanted to point out a few things.. There are 2 non-OTA digital tuners that VMC and XMC05 can use.

HD HomeRun. Dual Digital Network Tuner. It will tune to both ATSC OTA and clear cable QAM. Some citys have all their QAM clear (tho I suspect this will change), but for the most part the locals and weather chs are clear (both SD and HD versions in most areas).. Another exciting thing about this tuner, is it is a DUAL tuner (like the Hauppauge 500) and its a network tuner. meaning, ANY computer attached to the network can use the tuner.. Using this tuner along with an analog tuner will allow you to recieve most of the cable channels (I dont get 7 HD channels in HD, my cable box passes them thru composite so I can capture them in 480i SD - FireWire is also an option fod HD depending if ur STB is able to stream across it)

ATI OCUR. USB CableCard Tuner. YES this tuner is avail (tho only thru OEMs at this point)... Why would you really want to use this tho??? A tuner that will make ALL your recordings protected!! But this is an option (if its the only computer ur using as an HTPC w/o an extender)

Hi Jeff,

excellent work you did. I completely agree with you, WMC is great, mainly in the graphics capabilities. But I Have a serious question to you: HOW did you add the music library and HOW MUCH TIME did it take?? I used to do it very simply and fastly in MCE2005 even using the "add to library" function in WMPlayer but ..I'm honestly tired and desperated about this issue because I simply CAN'T make it work. HELP!

I have about 7000 songs in WMA Lossless that I've been classifying for years. Correct covers, years, composers, the original album in which every song appeared...etc, etc. And I've tried using the WMP or from the WMC itself, but it's been WEEKS and NO ALBUM has appeared on the library!!!!!!! really HEEELP!

Thanks
Carl

From Mike K.'s entry:
"Then I discovered something cool. When I set the TV resolution inside Media Center, it does not effect my desktop resolution and vice versa. I was now able to do what I wanted to do form the start; have one resolution for TV veiwing and one for computer use. This also makes my PC games work great."

Mike- This is a great feature of Vista Media Center, however, it's not happening for me. If I set my desktop 1024x768, then my TV viewing is fullscreen and nice. However, if I go to a higher desktop resolution, the TV picture is smaller, and boxed up. I have found no way to correct this within Media Center. Can you tell everyone where you changed this setting?

Jeff -
If ur using the x64 version of MediaCenter, you might want to use the x64 version of Media Player (the x64 ver of Vista has both the x32 and x64 Media Player).. That way what you see in Media Player matches what you see in Media Center..
For album art, Media Center uses a file called folder.jpg that is located in the folder with the music files. Media Player creates this file (usually a hidden/system file). If this file is missing or if you want to use a diff pic just put a new file in that dir with the folder.jpg name

Kurt -
To change the display settings for Media Center
Green Button - Tasks/Settings - TV - Configure Your TV or Monitor
I have Media Center using a darker brightness and you can see the change when Media Center becomes the Maximised/Current Full Screen App

Hi,
I too think that Vista MCE is great however I have one major problem, Whenever I try to burn TV programme to DVD (Video Mode), my MCE crashees and restarts. Once it came up iwtht he error of the extensibility host is not working so I don't know what that is about. Any ideas of how to get around this problem I have a Hauppauge Nova T500 installed and apart from the recording, works fine.

Help PLEEAASSEEEE

Ok, I'm new to ALL this. Just a couple questions :) Currently I have a home PC, Nvidia 8600gts card. Vista Ultimate. Wired/wireless network. I am -considering- a Xbox360, I guess to use as a media extender. I have 2 tv's in the house, and have DirectTV satellite. Can someone give me the basics for interacting them? I keep hearing about a TV tuner card, I have none. Is it -mandatory-, with the previous hardware? Will I be able to import TV from DirectTV to the PC via an Xbox? Maybe an idiot's guide to the basics (not the MS website please) would be great.
Thanks!

Warren -

You would need a tuner card or a video capture card with svideo and/or composite video inputs. you can get the media center remote and reciever which also includes an ir blaster to control your directv/dish/cable box. media center handles changing channels etc. --you would set this up through the configuration wizard. for the extender you can use a xbox360 or one of the recently announced extenders from d-link and others.

Check this out:

http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/Products/Consumer+Products/PCTV+Tuners/PCTV+Digital+PVR+%28DVB-S_DVB-T%29/PCTV+HD+Card.htm

Only $79!!!

I bought it tonight at Best Buy. I'm hoping it works with MCE. I think it has a good chance after reading this:

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/aa79e7b4-e423-4459-ad22-1c240a8ffcd51033.mspx

Make sure you expand the bottom section titled:

"To set up a digital cable TV signal with a Digital Cable Tuner (United States only)"

Good luck to any of you that can try this. Let us know your results!!!
My best,
Josh

any idea on using a 360 controller in media center? (without xbox 360)

Can anyone tell me how I add music to the media centre library. I first added my music a couple of months agho but it took to long so I carried on with other opterations and it only copied some of my music. Meida centre says it is watchin my music folder but doesnt seem to want ot show all the music in the folder. I have deslected the folder to view and then tried to reslect it but it doesnt seem to want ot deselct the folder in the first place!!! This is riving me up the wall! I dont want ot reinstall vista for the sake of stupid meida centre so I wont use it but if there si an easier wyh I would be very appreciative.

Does anyone knows how to play .avi files on Vista MCE???

It only plays .mpg videos, everytime I trie it sais "There is no codecs to play this video" but I can play the videos with Windows Media Player.

I've tried with thousands of codecs but it's useless. Any idea???

From what I have read is that Vista MCE is totaly not stable and crashes often. You failed to mention any details about stability. Which is a very important factor when considering a Microsoft based DVR system which may be left on for very long periods of time. How long did you run Vista MCE it before posting this article?

As Mike K Said in February:

>>As many of you know, the Windows desktop doesn't display nicely on most lcd/plasma TVs due to resolution incompatabilities. For those of you who don't know what I am talking about; the resolution that works correctly for TV veiwing and DVDs, does not work for your Windows desktop. The desktop is too big and important edges are lost (like the min/max/close buttons on the top of a maximized window, and 3/4 of the start bar).
_____________________end quote

I am having this same problem and can not find a way to fix this-- I cant find the res. settings within media center (the button on the remote I have works on DVDs but not the computer screen) and the real problem is that even when I reboot the resolution is still messed up- *I* dont change the res- when I watch a DVD it gets changed and then I cant find a way to get the edge of my screen back at all.

Any help? I am new to media centre and am not very happy yet....

Oh and stability wise... if I put a DVD in before I open Media centre it freezes and has to be closed via task manager (three finger salute).

If I pause for too long.. only thing that will get me back to my movie is to stand up and push the open button ON the computer- not the remote not the keyboard... then I restart usually...

Granted I am a new user but this seems buggy to me.

I think vista mce is a huge improvement. Running it for 8 months now. I had some issues but mainly because my self build originae X15 htpc was not working properly and Nvidia's drivers were not very well at the beginning. Now these problems are solved. Vista MCE is great. Don't forget to add the newest MyMovies for your DVD's. Vista is very stable. Only one big issue (if you use MCE), my pc doesn't want to go into sleepmode. So I have to leav it on all the time if I want to record tv programs when I am not at home.

ANSWER ON THIS:
am having this same problem and can not find a way to fix this-- I cant find the res. settings within media center (the button on the remote I have works on DVDs but not the computer screen) and the real problem is that even when I reboot the resolution is still messed up- *I* dont change the res- when I watch a DVD it gets changed and then I cant find a way to get the edge of my screen back at all.

Any help? I am new to media centre and am not very happy yet....

IF you use a NVIDIA graphic card just download the newest driver. It has a special option to solve this issue very easily. You can set you resolution setting bij dragging to huge arrows. A child can work with this. My tv resolution is 1076 by 634 or something like that and that was easy t set. Good luck

Hi

I have WMC 2005 on a Philips MC and a Toshiba WLT66 32" LCD. On XP I can't get the native reslution of the panel 1366xwhatever closest I can get to it is 1024x768. It's intel onboard vid and a Nvidia DualTV card which I believe is supported in Vista.

I've upgraded the memory in the Phillips, installed a bigger h/d and ready to move to Vista Home Premium will I get the 1366x??? native screen resolution?

Thanks for the review btw

forgot to add:

I'm a linux nut have been for over five years, so my media PC is the only windows box in the house, was considering not going for Vista and swapping the NVidia DualTV card out for a PVR card with strong linux support and use MythTV instead. Or are linux drivers available for the DualTV?

I don't know mucha about wmc, actually nothing. I'm trying to set up a tv card I have in my gateway computer. I keep running into a wall when using the wizard. I can't get my wmc to learn the calbe box remote code. Without the abiltiy for the remote to work, Windows won't let me use the tv card.

Is there away around this?

Franc

For Derk:
you said on Jan8...
"So I have to leav it on all the time if I want to record tv programs when I am not at home."
I'm still using MCE of XP2005 and found the solution was to "enable hibernation" in "power options' of control panel, and then when shutting down, use the shift key while starting to press the standby option key and it will turn into a key for hibernation.....then the computer will keep track and come out of hibernation about 5 minutes before the recording is to start. That is the way standby also used to work.

I watch this closely, because while I have 3 media center PCs one has such a loud CPU fan that I can't stand to have it on, even to watch shows. I watch them from another room over the network. I also wear "professional hearing pretection" just to walk around my home because of one lousy CPU fan. That is why is is so important for me to be able to make it stay OFF for as long as possible, just until it needs to record.

I have tried having someone change the CPU fan for a super low noise one, but that is still an ongoing nightmare.

For some reason at the beginning, 3 years ago, my HP went into sleep mode on it's own, but now it won't...it comes immediately back on, so I supect you have that problem.

I'm still figuring out how to make it go into hibernation mode on it's own. So far, I have to do it manually when ever I notice it is not recording anything.

I have tried a few Media Centers and I find MEZZMO is pretty cool :)
My Xbox360 and my Playsation 3 actually pick up the broadcast from Mezzmo server and I can play files.

In reponse to everyone who has complained about the stability of Vista MCE:

It's down to your hardware.

I live in the UK and have used XP MCE 2005 since December 2004, and upgraded to Vista Home Premium MCE in January 2007. Admitedly Vista was buggy initially, but since a hardware upgrade in May 2007, and a sequence of Microsoft fixes and 3rd party driver fixes, it is now one of the most stable things Microsoft has produced. Knocks the spots off XP MCE 2005.

My Vista machine is the main home entertainment centre having scrapped our HiFi, and we do not use a standard TV at all. An SPDIF connection is used to an external Pioneer amp for surround sound. All CDs are ripped in WMA Lossless. Sound quality is spot on. I have a Black Gold dual DVB-T tuner. The machine is left on ALL the time. S3 sleep and resume from S3 sleep works perfectly every time. (Wakes to record a program, goes back to sleep after). The PC is also used to stream music to various WiFi devices around the house at the same time as watching one TV channel and recoding another. All seamlessly. DVD playback is excellent with no judders.

The machine is only ever rebooted to install Windows updates and driver updates. Here's my setup:

ASUS M2A-VM (Not HDMI) Motherboard. DVI-HDMI cable used. My own SPDIF connector. AMD Sempron LE-1250 low power CPU. On board ATI X1250 graphics. (ATI are better than nVidia when it comes to Vista compatibility / stability). Silverstone case. Silverstone fanless power supply. LG DVD/RW (v. quiet). SilenX fans (v.quiet). 1Gb RAM. Western Digital 500Gb driver. AcoustiPak acousting padding. Latest manufacturer's drivers always.

Beats Sky + and all PVRs hands down, and is actually quieter than most. I just wish Microsoft and/or manufacturers marketed it better as a consumer home entertainment system, and not as a piece of software stuck on laptop, which misses the point completely.

Hope this helps. I've been through lots of hardware and software configurations, and Microsoft versions. This current setup is absolutely perfect, and more stable than my old Panasonic set-top box.

Hello

Anybody know how to make media center full screen, I have a 42 lcd and the picture looks crap, tried setup within media and can't find anything.
happauge 1100 tv card
vista 32
2gb
500 gb drive
quad core 2.6
asus motherboard
ati radeon hdmi video card

Tv is linked by hdmi lead, work's great apart from the picture size HELP

I was checking to see if anyone using Windows Media Center has or had issues locating all of your music. I'm using my XBOX 360 as an extender and I'm missing approx. 25% of my music from what I have in I Tunes. I'm seeing a couple of issues.
1. I see the music in my My Music folder but when I go to Windows Media Center it is not there. Some music pulls up in WMC and other music does not.
2. I'm also seeing some music in my My Music Folder and when played in WMC it only locates 1 or 2 songs of an entire album.
3. I'm also not seeing some music completely in either my My Music folder or WMC but is on I Tunes.
It is random and cant figure out how to get all my music on Windows Media Center.

Any ideas......

forgot to add:

I'm using Vista Ultimate

If you want to tune Clear QAM check out gbpvr. There's a few different cards that do support Clear QAM right now.

Just bought the HP Media Center with the Intel quad processor. I was stunned at how bad Windows Media Center is. Seems like the designers got so wrapped up in the bells and whistles they forgot that simplicity is the first thing that should be addressed. Even HP doesn't know how it works.

Push the record button and it doesn't record, it just brings up a programing screen. Push the stop button and it doesn't really stop the recording. It only looks like it did. I finally figured it out, but believe me, it ain't simple! I was so PO'd I wouldn't tell the HP techs how I did it! They actually told me it could not be done! Then they blamed it on Microsoft! (Hey HP, if its so bad, why did you incorporate it into your machine? Surely a company of your size can find a better interface than this! Shame on you!)

Want to change inputs? This should be a button on the remote! In Media Center you need to completely reconfigure the video card, which begs the joke, how many screens does it take to change an input? Answer, about 12! What's the point of having all those inputs if it takes a week to get to them?

Does anyone know of a software package that will give me back control of the n-vidia board? I tried the n-vidia site and that was useless. They seem more interested in investors than customers. With a product like this, that's probably a wise decision! This Media Center thing is an abomination!

While I can't deny that Media Center is far more flexible and "prettier" in Vista, other solutions such as TiVo are arguably better for the masses. Is the UI really easier to navigate this time around, or is it just shinier? What's with optical output only automatically working in this latest release?

And how long before we see dual ATSC tuners on a single card? I'm also fond of the PVR-500 MCE card.

Lack of Clear QAM support is utterly inexcusable.

With cable providers tripping all over themselves to release more and more digital/HD channels as fast as possible, I can't believe they won't allow access to unencrypted channels out of the box.

It's just another example of Big Media whining and getting their way, not allowing the consumer to use the products that they pay for in the manner they wish to use them.

I've got MythTV and Windows XP MCE both installed, one on either side of my TV.

MythTV is free, but costs $20 a year for program guide information from a non-profit provider. It was relatively easy to install (mythbuntu.org), supports my Hauppage PVR-150 cards with ease, supports S/PDIF output on my Soundblaster LIVE (yes, 5.1 digital surround), and plays DVD's out of the box.

MythTV has supported HD/ClearQAM tuning mechanisms and hardware. (pcHDTV, and others).

What MythTV doesn't do: HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. It probably never will, due to DRM restrictions.

Windows XP MCE: Costs a lot more, but the guide is free. It evens out after 6 years of paying for guide info for MythTV, if you pay $120 for MCE.

Doesn't do DVD out of the box. I assume it won't do HD-DVD or Blu-Ray either. I hear that Vista MCE can do it but only with 3rd part apps (though it does have DVD built in).

Doesn't support Clear QAM.

I'd say the clear winner is MythTV. It's cheaper (even paying for the guide info), and actually supports clearQAM if you buy the right hardware.

hi,
I use Windows media center and FFdshow (all-in-one codec pack). If I play a movie from the harddrive and use .srt the subtitles will show perfectly in the beginning, no problem.... but when I maximize WMC to start watching the movie the subs disappears! (sub works fine with media player and vlc player when maximized). Any suggestions as to why the sub disappears in WMC ?

btw I have Vista Premium

I found one major flaw with Vista (Ultimate) MCE: I doesn't playback properly HD video files (.AVI) created off my HDV Camcorder (Sony HDR-FX1)with Adobe Premiere Pro (with HD plug-in). The picture is erratic with frequent freezes. Yet the same file plays perfectly with Windows Media Player or even with a freebie like Media Player Classic.

And interestingly enough, the same file plays back OK with XP MCE!

My windows media center pops-up indiscriminately while working anhthing....It's extremely annoying..How do I stop this from happening?
Any advice will be appreciated.

For all MCE Vista and Windows7 users, I would recommend the Media Control plugin:

http://damienbt.free.fr/

This really solved a number of issues for me.