As a reminder (see here), I am user a “public” Windows Account (i.e.: with a blank password) to grant my kids access to Windows MediaCenter. Windows MediaCenter is replacing the Windows Shell to improve the user experience; it’s indeed much easier for the kids to start a cartoon if they don’t have to go through Windows Explorer to start MediaBrowser (embedded into Windows Media Center).

To upgrade from MediaBrowser 2 to MediaBrowser 3:

1. Log on Windows with a local administrator Windows Account
2. Uninstall Media Browser 2
3. Install Media Browser 3’s server part
4. Complete the server configuration wizard to define your libraries, etc…
   1. http://<your server>:8096/mediabrowser/dashboard/wizardstart.html
5. I suggest to configure (*):
   1. One user profile without password to grant guests and kids access to public content.
   2. Another user profile with a password to protect accessed to private/adult content.
6. Edit the “Custom User Interface” of the Windows Account without password to run Media Browser 3:  %windir%\ehome\ehshell.exe /mediamode /nostartupanimation /entrypoint:{CE32C570-4BEC-4aeb-AD1D-CF47B91DE0B2}\{FC9ABCCC-36CB-47ac-8BAB-03E8EF5F6F22}
7. Check that you didn’t tick the option “Run server at Startup” in the “Advanced” tab as this is not compatible with MediaBrowser running as a Service.
8. Stop the “Media Browser” Service via the Windows Services Management console
9. Check that this Media Browser Service is configured to start ‘automatically’ and not ‘manually’
10. Set the Windows account of a local administrator – with adequate rights to access your media (e.g.: on your NAS) – as a “log on” account on the Media Browser Service.
11. Back to MediaBrowser’s configuration UI, rescan the media libraries via the “Scheduled Tasks” tab.
12. Install MediaBrowser 3’s client part
13. Possibly wait until the “rescan” task is completed and run Media Browser to check that you can access your media.
14. Log-off.
15. Log-on with your “public” Windows Account and check that you can access your media.

(*) The user profiles defined in MediaBrowser are not related to any specific Windows account. E.g.: the username and password set for those users is not used to access network resources, etc… There are only used to define various “profiles” within MediaBrowser. It’s also (among other) a replacement for the “pin code” that used to protect access to libraries depending on the “rating”.

I recently tried to upgrade Media Browser from version 2 to version 3 on my HTPC. It was not a success because Media Browser 3 comes with a client part and a server part. If the server part is not running (locally on on the LAN), the client part can’t run either. And the server part might not run on my HTPC because it may only start if the windows shell starts (it’s not a Windows Service but a Startup Program instead) – shell that is not running on my HTPC as it has been replaced with Windows Media Center.

After this trial, I did re-install Media Browser 2. Although I would be quite surprised if that would be true, this is maybe why the configuration of the speakers went back to “stereo” instead 5.1 ?!

To check what was wrong, I had to close Windows Media Center using F4 (as not only it replaces the Windows shell, but it is also run without any “close” feature thanks to the option /mediamode).

I did call the Task Manager (CTRL-Shift-Del) and run a new Task: Explorer, to get a Windows Shell. I was next able to check the Sound System Properties.

1. Right-Click the “Speakers” icon in the systray.
2. Select “Open Volume Mixer”.
3. Click the “Speakers” icon in the “Device” column of the “Volume Mixer” window. This is going to open the “Speakers Properties” window

The Speakers where configured in stereo. I did reconfigured them as 5.1.

Next, in the “Enhancement” tab of the “Speakers Properties” window, I did re-enable the “Loudness Equalization” and “Speaker Fill”.

I did next log-off and restart a session. The issue was solved.

First, I did install Windows 8 pro x86.

Notice that during the installation, I did check the option to automatically activate Windows.

Next, for the Software part: I did install the Media Center feature Pack:

• On this page, request a free licence for this pack (Offer limited until 31 jan 2013).
• On the Start Screen, type “add features” to select “Add Features to Windows 8”.
• In the “Add Features to Windows 8” window, select “I already have a product key” and enter the free key got previously for the MCE pack.
• Notice that once MCE installed, the “Add Features” is not available anymore in Windows…
• Configure MCE

After that, I didn’t experience the same issue (licence not valid for activation) as I did when testing Windows 8 x64. I means that I most probably skipped a step during the first time ? Possibly I did install the MCE pack before the activation of Windows ?!

• Start a Windows Update and install Microsoft .Net 3.5 (required for the next step)
• Install and configure the latest version of Media Browser (.Net 3.5 is a prerequisite)

• Drivers for the GeForce Go 7600 compatible with Vista or Windows 7 should theoretically run fine on Windows 8. But unfortunately, the setup usually refuses to install those drivers because they don’t officially target this OS. It’s only due to information configured in the .inf file used by windows to install the drivers. It means that we can reconfigure those settings to become “compatible” with Windows 8.
  • Download the drivers (self-extracting exe named “18070_vista.exe”) and the adapted .inf file (named “nv_disp.inf”) separately from the bottom of this  page http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/drivers/vista/180.70/disclaimer/
  • Those are unofficial drivers and not WHQL certified.
  • Audio via HDMI is not supported by these version of the drivers. You need an older version (See replies bellow this post).
  • Once the drivers and the .inf file downloaded, extract the self-extracting package (exe file) and move nv_disp.inf into the extracted folder (“180.70_vista”).
  • Run the setup.exe and don’t be afraid if you see that it’s for Vista.
  • Once installed, reboot the system. You will clearly see the difference (the resolution will be much higher – 1920×1080 instead of 1024×768 – and MCE   runs now much faster).

• The issue mentioned above does not exist anymore with Windows 8.1. For that version of Windows, a version 307.68 of the NVIDIA Drivers is downloaded automatically when updating the drivers. It works fine except that there is no sound via HDMI (although there is an option “Set up Digital Audio” in the NVIDIA control panel to enable it !). If you don’t have an optical connection and need the sound to go through HDMI, you will need to downgrade the drivers to 173.90. But that one comes with other issues, much more annoying… (See in the replies)

• Install K-Lite codecs to be able to play HD movies (mkv)
• Configure the codes to play French audio by default
  • Go to C:\Program Files\K-Lite Codec Pack\Tools and run CodecTweakTool.exe
  • Under configuration, select DirectShow Filter
    • Click Haali Media Splitter > Options tab > Languages > Audio Language Priority > enter “fre” (the three letters of French). Click Ok.
    • Click LAV Splitter > enter “fre” in both “Audio” and “Subtitle” and select “Only forced Subtitle”. Click Ok.
    • Click LAV Video Decoder. In Hardware Acceleration, select XDVA2 and check the two options H.264 and MPEG-2.
• Disable UAC (reboot required to become effective)
• Disable Firewall for private network
• Enable Remote Desktop:
  • On the Start Screen type “system”, click on “Settings” and select “System” in the results.
  • Click on “Remote Settings”
  • Enable “Allow remote connections to this computer”
• Configure the Speakers 5.1
  • Right click the speaker in the sys-tray and select “Playback Device”
  • At the bottom of the tab “Payback”, click on “Configure”
  • Select the second 5.1 in the list of “Audio Channels” (with 2 speakers on the back).

• Create a new user with MCE instead of the windows shell
  • Create a new standard user “Media Center” without password
    • On the start screen, type “Create User” and select Settings
    • In the list of results, click on “Create Standard User Account”
    • Select “Add a new user in PC settings”
    • Under “Other Users”, click on “Add a User”
    • At the bottom of the page, click on “Sign in without a Microsoft Account”
    • At the bottom of the page, click on “Local Account”
    • Enter the name “Media Center”, nothing else (no password) and click Next.
  • Change the picture of the user “MediaCenter”
    • Go back to the Start Screen (Ctrl + Esc)
    • Click on your account in the top-right corner and select “MediaCenter”
    • Wait while Windows prepare the PC for this user.
    • Once on MediaCenter’s Start Screen, open IE and find a nice picture, right click on it and save it in the picture library.
    • Go back to the Start Screen and click on MediaCenter’s account in the top-right corner to select “Change Account Picture”
    • In “PC Settings/Personalize/Account Picture”, select Browse and pick the picture from the libraby
  • Possibly: enable Room Correction in the Speakers Properties\Enhancement… (microphone required )
  • Configure MCE Media Library and the Screen Saver
    • Run MCE
    • Go to the Tasks > Settings
    • Select Media Libraries and configure them
      • E.g.: Add the “Pictures” folder of the NAS. This one must be either public or the user “MediaCenter” must be granted access via the NAS user management UI.
    • Go back to Tasks > Settings
    • Select Pictures
    • Select Slide Show Screen Saver
      • Check that the option “Play my favorite pictures …” is enabled
      • Set the delay before starting the Screen Saver
      • Save
    • Select Favorite Pictures
      • Select Use All Pictures (Or anything more relevant)
  • Sign-out (Via the Start Screen, right click the account in the top-right corner, …)
  • Replace the Shell Explorer (explorer.exe) of MediaCenter with MCE (ehshell.exe)
    • Log in as an administrator
    • On the Start Screen of the administrator, type mmc and select mmc.exe in the list of results
    • Type Ctrl+M to Add a Snap-in
    • Select “Group Policy Object”
    • Click Add.
    • In the new window, click Browse
    • in the new window, open the “User” tab and select “MediaCenter”.
    • Then click Ok, Finish and Ok.
    • Back into mmc, select in the left pane: Console Root > Local Computer\MediaCenter Policy > User configuration > Administrative Templates > System
    • In the right pane, double-click on “Custom User Interface”
    • In the new window, check “enable”
    • Under the Options, type in the field “Interface file name”: %windir%\ehome\ehshell.exe /mediamode
    •  Switch to the user MediaCenter for testing purpose!

Finally, from the hardware point of view, notice that:

• The remote control is working fine
• WiFi and Ethernet connection are working fine
• Ethernet NIC is configure to allow WOL
• The front Digital Display is  recognized by Windows 8 but not displaying anything else that “Welcome To Aspire IDEA.
  • I did try to install the drivers from Acer web site (named “VFD Transcoder Driver 1.01.01.zip”) successfully, but it didn’t fix anything. I am not surprised as this display was already not working with Windows 7
• Drivers are missing for the 2 Multimedia Video Controllers devices (See previous try with Windows 8 x64)
  • I did install the drivers from Acer web site (named “MPC718_install_V6_13_32_1026_Oscar.msi”) and those devices were recognized without any issue.
• Standby mode works out of the box (nothing to fine tune in Windows) with the remote control.
  • I didn’t change the BIOS settings since my first try with Windows 8 x64.
• Wake-up on Lan works out of the box (nothing to fine tune in Windows) if the shutdown was initiated from MCE (or XBMC – see here after). If the shutdown is done from the Start Screen, WOL does not work!!!
  • I didn’t change the BIOS settings since my first try with Windows 8 x64.
  • The difference in support for WOL or not depending on where the shutdown is initiated is explained here: In Windows 8, the default shutdown behavior puts the system into hybrid shutdown (S4) and all devices are put into D3. Remote Wake-On-LAN from hybrid shutdown (S4) or classic shutdown (S5) is unsupported.
  • Indeed, a boot after a default shutdown is fast. On the opposite, a boot after MCE/XBMC’s shutdown is clearly much slower.
  • As I don’t car about slow boot on this PC (which is usually in sleep mode anyway), I did disable the hybrid shutdown (S4) a.k.a “Fast Startup” :
    1. On the Start Scren type “Power” and select “Settings”.
    2. Click on “Change what the power buttons do” in the list of results.
    3. Click on “Change settings that are currently unavailable” if UAC is not disabled
    4. Uncheck “Turn on fast startup (recommended)”
    5. Select “Save Settings” and test a shutdown/WOL. It works !

• Download Linux Live USB Creator, a.k.a. Lili, to create a bootable USB Key with a linux (Could also try Unetbootin USB Creator ?…).
• Download an ISO of XBMCbuntu from here.
  • Version 12 RC 3 of XMBCbuntu is not yet supported by Lili. In addition this version does not include DXVA support yet…
  • To boot another linux, for any purpose, download an ISO for i386 compatible with Lili (When using UNetbootin downloads itself the selected Linux image).
• Create the bootable USB Key following the how-to.
  1. Choose a USB flash drive in the dropdown list.
  2. Select the ISO of XBMCbuntu downloaded previously.
  3. Choose the size of persistent data (usually between 250 MB and 2 GB).
  4. Check all the options.
  5. Click the lightning button to start the creation.

Tested on an HTPC Acer iDea 510:

• First try failed. It stops with “load fallback graphics devices [Fail]”
• Fix:
  1. Open the file syslinux\txt.cfg
  2. Search and Replace “quiet splash” with “quiet splash vmalloc=256M”
• Second try: great !!! There is much less “lag” than in Windows 8 Pro + Media Center Pack

• The remote control works fine so far. Including Shutdown (power-off).
• Configuring the System to use Suspend instead of Shutdown works fine only once.
  • Suspend is really immediate (less than 1 sec).
  • However, I didn’t find yet how to configure the remote to wake-up the HTPC.
  • Pressing the power button on the HTPC wakes up XBMC is less than 2 sec
  • Trying again to Suspend the HTPC will result in a black screen with the cursor blinking… A hard reboot is required
• During the use of XBMC, I was able to play HD movies from a SMB Shared Folder of my Synology.
• Sound plays in 2.0 (stereo), also for movies in 5.1 (with downmix), but default volume is really low compared to the default volume in Windows 8. Within XBMC, I have to boost the Volume Amplification. So it’s not the best possible sound.
• Sound doesn’t play correctly at all in 5.1 (although I have a 5.1 system and the movie is in DTS 5.1) ?!
• I didn’t succeed yet to view any movie using UPnP. I can configure such a source, but don’t see any list of movies in that source ? (To be investigated)
• During the shutdown, I noticed an error “Killing all remaining process [Fail]”. When shutdown is initiated from the remote control, XMBCbuntu asks to press enter to power-off after the error message here above.

First, I did install Windows 8 pro x64. Most probably a double mistake as I guess I won’t find all required drivers for this Acer iDea under Windows 8 and even less for a x64 platform…

Notice that during the installation, I did check the option to automatically activate Windows.

Next, for the Software part: I did install the Media Center feature Pack:

• On this page, request a free licence for this pack (Offer limited until 31 jan 2013).
• On the Start Screen, type “add features” to select “Add Features to Windows 8”.
• In the “Add Features to Windows 8” window, select “I already have a product key” and enter the free key got previously for the MCE pack.
• Notice that once MCE installed, the “Add Features” is not available anymore in Windows…
• Configure MCE

After that, the first issue arrived: Windows 8 started to pretend its licence was not valid for an activation. I did try to retype my key without success (That was yesterday). However, today, after a reboot, it appeared that Windows 8 was again activated ?!

• Start a Windows Update and install Microsoft .Net 3.5 (required for the next step)
• Install and configure the latest version of Media Browser (which is the best free add-in I found to manage a video library (.Net 3.5 is a prerequisite)

• Install Win8Codecs for x64. (Usually, I don’t use a pack but will give a try to this one today).
• Disable UAC (and reboot)
• Disable Firewall for private network
• Enable Remote Desktop:
  • On the Start Screen type “system”, click on “Settings” and select “System” in the results.
  • Click on “Remote Settings”
  • Enable “Allow remote connections to this computer”

One day later,  MCE is still  very slowly and not fluent at all… I may only presume that the problem is with the display drivers… When I try to navigate to play a movie, I can clearly ear the fan speed going crazy ?! The PC appears not capable of playing HD movies… it’s tooooo slow within MCE. The sound is ok but the display not at all… Also Media Player Home Cinema is not succeeding the play correctly HD movies… I think I will have to look for codecs with support for hardware acceleration and adhoc display drivers…

Finally, from the hardware point of view:

• The remote control is working fine
• WiFi and Ethernet connection are working fine
• Ethernet NIC is configure to allow WOL
• The front Digital Display is  recognized by Windows 8 but not displaying anything else that “Welcome To Aspire IDEA).
• Drivers are missing for 3 devices (PCI devices database available here – how to here – and Microsoft catalog to search drivers is available here).
  • 2 Multimedia Video Controllers with Device Instance Path “PCI VEN_14F1 DEV_5B7A SUBSYS_5B7914F1 REV_00\4 197A8245 0 08F0” and “PCI VEN_14F1 DEV_5B7A SUBSYS_071812AB REV_00\4 197A8245 0 00F0”. Those are the “TV Tuner Yuan MPC718 Hybrid HW encoder with FM”
    • I don’t care about those for now as they are most probably for TV input and I may not used them anyway. The signal is encoded by my TV provider which does not provide any decoding software)
  • Another one not identified but related to ACPI with a device path “ACPI\AWY0001\2 DABA3FF 1” and a hardware ID “ACPI\AWY0001”, I found it was used for the “Away Mode System” and required “Intel QRT Driver” (Quick Resume Technology).
    • the Intel QRT Driver 1.6 for Vista to be found on Acer Support site works fine. Once unzip in a folder of the PC, go to the Start Screen, type “Device Manager” and start this manager. Select the “Unknow Device” and update the driver selecting the folder above.
    • Wierd, on some sites, it’s said that this is an “NVidia Away mode” ? The setup for nForce should then deploy the required drivers… (To be validated)
    • Note for later purpose: Intel Driver Update Wizard available here.
• The graphic card chipset Nvidia GeForce Go 7600 is recognize but the drivers installed are from Microsoft (Basic Display Adapter) and not specific ones… ?! The auto-detection wizard from NVIdia is here. It doesn’t find anything specific more appropriate than the MS Basic Display Driver… I did select myself GeForce, GeForce Go Serie 7 (notebook), GeForce 7600, Windows 8 64 bits; no result.
  • I did download manually the latest Vista drivers (03/09/2012) for GeForce Go 7600 from the Microsoft catalog, did unpack the cab, and did try to update the drivers with the option “Browse my computer” > “Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer” > “Have Disk” > pick the .inf from the cab. I found the drivers in the list but the setup failed because it was not for my OS :(. I tried with other drivers for Win7x64 (179.48). Bad luck too. I did try next to add the Hardware Device id of my card in the nvac.inf file (found in C:\NVIdiaWinVista64\179.48\IS\Display) and to pick this one… Or to use it via the Device Manager > Action > Add Legacy hardward > Add the hardware that I manually select > Display Adapter > Have Disk… Hopeless
  • I found a guy who forced drivers for Win7x64 on Win8x64 with signing disabled. I will possibly also try later his method for disabling driver signing at boot (to be tested… but the issue does not seem to be the signature):
    1. Windows Key + R
    2. Enter shutdown.exe /r /o /f /t 00
    3. Click the “OK” button
    4. System will restart to a “Choose an option” screen
    5. Select “Troubleshoot” from “Choose an option” screen
    6. Select “Advanced options” from “Troubleshoot” screen
    7. Select “Windows Startup Settings” from “Advanced options” screen
    8. Click “Restart” button
    9. System will restart to “Advanced Boot Options” screen
    10. Select “Disable Driver Signature Enforcement”
• Sleep state was not enabled.
  • The command “Powercfg /a” reported that the Graphic card (drivers) where disabling the stand by state. I was expecting this as the drivers are not specific to the card and do not know how to manage its power state…
  • The command “Powercfg /a” also reported that “Hybrid Sleep” was not enabled because S3 was not available (to be checked in the BIOS).
  • To enable sleep state:
    • Restart and enter the Bios setup
      • Press Del at boot to enter the Bios setup
      • Go to the “Power Management Setup” tab
      • “ACPI Function” must be enabled
      • ACPI Suspend Type must be S1&S3
      • “Resume by PCI PME” must be enabled (wake up with remote control)
      • “Wake Up On Lan” must be enabled (for my purpose)
    • Back to Windows,
      • On the Start Screen, type “Power Plan”, click on “Settings” and select “Edit Power Plan” in the results.
      • Click “Change Advanced Power Settings”
      • Click “Change settings that are currently unavailable”
      • I don’t use WiFi, so I set “Power Saving Mode” = “Low Power Saving” under “Wireless Adapter Settings”
      • Under Sleep, I only see “Hibernate After”. I set 60 minutes
        • I should find how to configure the PC to see “Sleep after” and even possible “Allow Hybrid Sleep”. I will here after try to investigate this issue in details.

• To be continued…