Hands on Hardware: Update Windows XP Media Center

In past Hardware columns, we've explained how to build your own Media PC running Microsoft’s Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 software.

MCE 2005, as we’ll refer to it from here on, was never designed to be installed by end users, but if you bought the compatible hardware and followed our instructions, you could get it running at home.

I’ve been running my own home-made MCE 2005 system now for over a year, and so far it’s behaved pretty well. Judging by the emails we’ve received at the Hardware HQ, many of you have also taken the plunge.

Over the past year, MCE 2005 has received several official updates and patches.

Some fix minor TV channel issues while others implement a whole batch of enhancements, and we'll go over the best and most important ones so far, along with any specific issues related to each.

Official updates

During the summer of 2005, Channel 4 switched E4 from being a subscription channel to one which any terrestrial digital TV owner could enjoy free of charge. But while a quick rescan subsequently revealed E4 to almost any Freeview set-top box, MCE 2005 systems just refused to see it.

The reason MCE 2005 systems refused to list E4 even after its change of status was because Microsoft had previously excluded it in a Registry entry – so even when Channel 4 made it free-to-air, MCE 2005 wouldn’t show it. Luckily a quick edit of the appropriate Registry entry will sort it out.

Open the Registry Editor by typing regedit in the Run menu, then navigate to My Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Service\GLID.

Next, double-click on the ExclusionList value, delete E4 from the Value Data area then click OK.

Before you get too carried away though, deleting the references to the other channels listed won’t allow MCE to view them – unless they also become free-to-view in the future.

After restarting the system you’ll need to rescan for services in the Setup TV Signal section of MCE’s Settings, before then adding E4 to the channel line-up in the Edit Channels section of the Guide settings.

This process is fully documented in article 902761 .

Another small but handy update concerns MCE 2005’s ability to create standard video DVDs of TV recordings.

This feature first requires the Sonicencoders.msi file to be installed on the system. This comes on the third disc of the MCE OEM triple-pack, and is normally installed by most system integrators as standard. If it has been installed, you’ll see the option to Create Video DVD in MCE.

If you installed MCE 2005 yourself, you probably have the two-disc OEM pack supplied by companies such as Ebuyer.

This does not come with the required Sonicencoders.msi file, thereby preventing MCE from making standard video DVDs of TV recordings – the best it can do is simply copy the dvr-ms file onto a data DVD for playback on other PCs only.

If your system does have the Sonicencoders.msi file installed though, you may have found the process of creating a video DVD either took forever, or didn’t work at all.

You can download a patch from Microsoft's site that greatly improves the process, especially on UK Pal systems, although it has to be said, it’s still far from perfect.

If you want to create video DVDs but don’t have (or can’t find) the Sonicencoders.msi file, all is not lost. You can create video DVDs of recorded TV shows using Sonic’s MyDVD Studio Deluxe package (outside the 10-foot MCE interface).

MCE Rollup 2: page 2