DisabledTrucker

Try downloading the file at the beginning of the article, I believe your questions are answered in it. Either that or use the search feature which is at the top of the page.

Install TweakUI and look in the section for logon.

Though I am not ready for DRM'd WMP-10 and don't use it, (thus I cannot verify this but,) you should be able to use the "/integrate" switch with it and integrate it prior to using the patches, which should then work as RyanVM mentioned above.

As HP is well known for modifying drivers to suit them, it may be impossible for you to obtain new drivers which will cure your problem. All you can do is hope that you can get ahold of someone besides the flunkies that HP puts on the phones to answer your calls and get them to fix the issue and release a newer driver. Might I suggest you ask to speak to a level 1 tech and once you get one ask for their supervisor if they can't help you. Firing emails to their VP would also tend to get a few questions answered if that fails. Otherwise, IF at all possible, I suggest either not purchasing an HP or returning the one you have if still possible.

To find out what most places use, might I reccomend picking up a copy of MaximumPC at your local book store. They also have a video card tester on their site: MaximumPC

Return the video card and get something with at least Radeon or GeForce chipset as that card is for a laptop and the mobo you got is not. Try getting at least an NForce FX-5700 or an ATI-9600 for compatibility with directx 9. Even if your not using it for gaming/videos, some of your buisness needs in the future may require the directx 9 compatibility, which Windows XP SP-2 uses. I also reccomend increasing your memory at least another 256MB, you'll notice a great improvement in overall speed.

I would listen to him if I were you. I'm usually an ATI fan but when it comes to these kind of cards I would recommend NVIDIA. Try to stay away from ATI AIW cards. Assuming that is what he actually needs is an AIW type of card, then yes, I too would reccomend the NVidia over the ATI's even though the web reviews show otherwise. Having used ATI's AIW's since they were first released some 10+ years ago, I have always disliked one thing or another with them. Their compatibility problems with NVidia based motherboards being the most despisable of them them all. Not to mention NVidia's better, (IMHO,) looking grapics, being they are brighter and sharper, without needing adjustments. If he has space, I would reccomend a seperate card though, and the cards to beat are the Hauppauge's, assuming of course that is what he actually needs. Otherwise a card which only does video capture would suffice, which is why I mentioned the Pinnacle, though there are other cards, the Pinnacle is just an example. From what I gathered from his first posting, all he needs is a card which will grab input from a vcr which any device capable of svideo/composite input would do best for him. His VCR should have those outputs which would be able to give a much better quality picture than any RF input would. For that matter an MSI video card with VIVO such as the 5700 would suffice for what he is looking to do. All he would need then is just software, which I mentioned above as well.

Might I reccomend using the new Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-USB2 which should be sufficient to do what your looking for. Otherwise any of the Hauppauge's would work sufficiently, as should any of the "Personal Cinema" line from NVidia, and for that matter any of the ATI AIW's should work fine as well. As I don't have a Dell, I cannot confirm this, but I do know that they partner with ATI for their AIW cards for use with the Dell Media Centers so there are drivers for the AIW cards from Dell, which should work, if not try using the ones from ATI themselves. Contacting ATI and Dell should help you with that matter. On a final note, you should have SVideo or at least composite outs on your VCR which would make for much better connections to your system for quality than the RF out you're speaking of. I would highly reccomend using them instead, which therefore you could get by with a card without a tv-tuner built in so long as you have a video card with VIVO, which would suffice. Then all you would need is the software which can easily be obtained from 3rd parties, such as Cyberlink Power Producer 3, as well as built into Windows XP SP-2 such as Windows Movie Maker, or downloadable such as Windows Media Encoder. Of course you'll lose the tv tuning capability but unless your planning on using the computer as a TV and output to the VCR so as to record the shows, which you would need to use the SVideo/composite outputs from the computer for, you really wouldn't need a tuner card for what you are attempting to connect to it, thus a device such as Pinnacle Dazzle Fusion should suffice. HTH.

All I did was add them to my $OEM$\$$\Cursors folder and then call them with my .theme file. Works every time.

Or might I reccomend that you just install Ryan's Update pack which includes the calc plus with it, (in the full version of his pack)?

Though I don't disagree that the APC models are top of line UPS's the Belkins cant be disreguarded either for thier price to performance ratio's. Check out these reviews: Belkin Universal 800VA review Belkin Universal 1000VA review Both are PCStats recommended products.

Ok, from a lot of exhaustive research, I have found most of my answers. Here is what I have found out so far: The WinTV-PVR-350 will work with the MCE 2005, the problem is that under MCE 2005 you wont have the support of the video out and hardware decoding. Basically whatever M$ doesn't support that the card does, wont work, unless you use the software which comes with the card, and you cant use both at the same time in MCE 2005. When using the WinTV-PVR-350, Happauge recommends you go to their site and download the updated drivers and use them with MCE instead of what is on their disks, what they told me when I called them. The Happauge Digital products are discontinued, (and have been for over a year,) though in Q1-2 2005 (March-April timeframe,) they are going to release a newer version which will be 1000% better than the WinTV-HDTV and WinTV-D. They wouldn't infer if it will have CableCard technology or not, but one could assume that would be part of the "secret, new, and improved features" they wouldn't discuss in detail but mentioned in my conversation. That in of itself may be worth the wait to upgrade, for some who are interested. The only decent card which will work with the MCE 2005 as a digital tuner is the DVICO Fusion-HDTV3-T, (better known from DVico's site as the DVICO Fusion-HDTV3-ATSC (For U.S.). There are some problems with it's drivers, but it does work and works well, though you cannot get all the channels from say Comcast on it, only the non-scrambled channels. Also, you have to have an analog tuner installed before your digital card will work, (within MCE 2005,) and they cannot be the same card, as M$ doesn't support it in MCE. On the other hand, in MCE you don't have to use the MC interface, so it will work with the software which comes with the card. As far as using a DirectX9 video card goes, if you wanted to use the ATI AIW's your S.O.L. untill ATI fixes their busted drivers. NVidia Personal Cinema 5700 will work just fine, but ATI's cards are better by a small marjin. When it comes down to using a non-AIW type card, either the NVidia FX5700 and newer or the ATI AIW 9600 and newer cards are going to work just fine. The problems you will see people reporting about are with cards without full DirectX9c compatiblity as it's required with MCE 2005, not as much as with cards which do DirectX9c as an option. People have been able to get ATI 9000&9200's, and earlier versions of NVidia's GeForce FX series, but to work with it but they upgraded from MCE 2004, and/or had to either obtain newer drivers from the web, or had to use hacked drivers to do it. Then support and stability wasn't nearly 100% favorable. Any of the PCI-Express cards will work just fine, as will the newer AGP versions from either ATI or NVidia, such as the FX-6000 series and the XT series. The XT series having already passed M$ hardware tests, but keep in mind M$ built the MCE with help from NVidia, so all NVidia cards with DirectX9c compatibility should have passed the tests and work. I have yet to see an NVTV card released yet, so I can't find anything about their cards to this point, and I don't expect to untill closer to christmas here in the U.S. (For those who don't celebrate the season in other parts of the world, the season starts the day after thanksgiving here in the U.S., which this year is on, November 25th, I believe. And Christmas day is December 25th. So it would have to be sometime around that.) As I tried to explain earlier, ATSC refers to the digital format, (here in the U.S. anyways,) and NTSC and QAM is a method of delivery of the digital format. HDTV on the other hand is a format of the digital signal it can reside on the ATSC or other signal and has to do with the way it's processed to produce a higher quality picture. So for my use, right now, it would behoove me to wait until next year still, to gain digital tuner capability, and go with the WinTV-PVR-350, though doing so will force me to have to purchase a card which wont allow for digital recording, which MCE 2005 wont do anyways. I'd have to do it from within the included software of the digital card, if I purchase one now, as later that wont even be possible. Hopefully soon they will overwrite that part of the legislation and allow it for PVR use, but untill we can get the blessed MPAA/RIAA out of the houses of Congress here, that's not likely going to happen in the U.S., or possibly anywhere else for that matter.

Not sure about the nLite part, but Windows Media Center 2005 is Windows XP Professional with an interface for use with a tv tuner. There are some minor differences between the two though, such as the ability to connect to a server as a client wont work like it does in Professional among other minor things. Yes, it does already come with SP-2 included in it as it's built on SP-2. The new media center also includes WMP-10 and PLUS! for XP & PLUS! DME as part of it. There are a few other things as well, best way to learn more is to go to Media Centers Website

Thanks Ryan, I was looking for the exact entries for that. Here is the one to make it default for everyone: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\AdvancedOptions\BROWSE\FTPPASV] "DefaultValue"="yes" Though I am not sure when to apply it, I apply it during RunOnceEx.

Some ISP's, (Comcast in particular,) will tell you you need to have the passive FTP transfer option checked when attempting any FTP downloads, so I fully reccomend making that part of your new setup by either a registry edit or other means. It will keep you from having to do it later every time. There could be other reasons as well, especially if your behind a firewall, (or router,) of any sort you will want this option checked. All it does is force the issue of FTP's so they will work, no matter if they are on non-standard ports, through firewalls, routers, etc. On another note, I can verify if you have an SP-1a disk and not a "GOLD" disk, when you slipstream SP-2, it will work without any problems. Also, if you have a key from an SP-1a disk and use a "GOLD" version to make your SP-2, the same key will work with the new SP-2 disk. I now have both a "GOLD" and SP-1a hologramed version of XP Professional, so I can confirm this myself, as I have personally done it both ways. Though home would be another story, I can almost say there shouldn't be any differences other than what they contain. I can also confirm that nLite will work with an SP-1a disk when slipstreaming to SP-2. If you need assistance in this feel free to PM me about it.

Nevermind, I'll just go elsewhere and look for my answers. Thanks anyways.

Removed reread first post...

Of course I have modified my HP case and removed the hidden covers for my opticle drives, and pushed them forwards but I am able to house a PC Power and Cooling 510 ATC power supply in there, though it is a tight fit. The only thing left of this unit is just a case as everything else which was in it has been replaced down to the power cables. You may want to check with PC P&C to see what they have, they may actually have a 300W unit which will work for your needs. The only reason I am using the PC P&C in here is because I originally replaced an Antec 550 turbo cool with it when it failed due to over power strains, then I redid the system I had it in after I had sent it back for replacement, and when the power supply in the HP box I am using gave its ghost up, I attempted to use the Antech in it, but it wouldn't fit, the PC P&C being the 1/2 inch smaller was all which was needed for the fit, so I put the Antech back into the original case it was in and put the PC P&C in this one. Like I said though I had to push the opticle drives forward and resecure them but I had to remove the stupid plastic doors which one broke anyways when the drive opened one day so removing the other one just seemed like a good idea anyways. Now I have a HDD cooler in my top slot and a DVD+/-RW drive in the lower one, so they're no chance of it over heating in there. It stays a constant 37 degress celcius so I would say it does just fine in there like it is. Yes I have two hard drives in that case as well, they have been doing just fine in there for about 6 months now. Then again I would think being WD JB HDD's they would do fine. It says it's keeping the top HDD at a constant 45 degrees celcius so I don't think it's hurting anything that way. My AMD 1700+ in there stays a constant 35 degrees celcius with only the green fan on it without any over clocking and its not produced any problems for over a year and a half. Of course I still have the 120mm fan in the rear of the case and an additional 60cm fan I attached to the front of the case circulating air in it as well. Though I did ditch the stupid plastic cover over the 120cm in the back. One day I hope to replace the case with an A-Top X-Blade, but until then this ones doing just fine.

I have a Belkin Universal 800 which is under the requirements of what I have hooked to it, but it's never missed a beat when my powers gone out. I have used my PC before while it was on the battery for almost an hour before the power returned and it started recharging again. When I looked at the guage for it in my tray it said I had about 10 mins of power left before it would have shut down Windows on me. I have heard and read some differing opinions in the past about the APC's but for the money you cant really beat the Belkins. I gave only $50 for mine, though I wish I had spent the extra $50 and got the 1000W, the 800W is doing fine as it is. When the power went out that I mentioned above I unplugged everything but the PC and monitor from it to have enough power to push them otherwise it would have run out much sooner. They say when buying a UPS you want at least one with 2x the amount of power that your pc's power supply is rated at. So if your power supply is rated at 500W you will want at least a 1000W rated UPS. Though the best way to figure it out is to determine what the wattage is for everything that will be connected to it to determine which to get. It should be able to maintain that wattage at least 30 minutes. Mine being rated at 800W for 30 minutes was more than sufficient to keep right on recording the movie I was watching on my AIW 9000 Pro while the power went out during a storm. Of course results will vary, but I am highly pleased with mine, just wish I had one for each of my systems. I use APC power strips for the other three computers I have, and an APC power protector for my laptop as well. Though I have no preferences one way or another as far as UPS's go, I would recommend if you don't have one to at least minimally get an excellent power strip, such as the ones from APC, don't skimp on them as I have had three systems go poof like puff the majic dragon when they have recieved spikes through lesser power strips. Having to replace a $2000 system is never any fun especially when a $50 device could have kept you from it. (Yes I did catch the belkin's on sale at that price, I wish I had the money to had gotten three of them at the time, instead of only one.) I can't remember anymore who I previously used their strips but they didn't even honor my $2000 claim when I filed them against their stupid strips, even though they supposedly had a $100,000 US warranty, so it was all out of my pocket, I finally went with APC and haven't had any more problems since.

I dont see much in this catagory about actual Media Center type questions so here is mine: As far as getting an ATSC tuner for Comcast in the U.S. which would be my best option to go with? I have seen WinTV-HD and WinTV-D though they are hard to come by currently, I have also heard of others, but which will actually do a decent job of replacing my illegal monstrocity that Comcast calls a tuner while still giving me both encoding and decoding capabilities such as with the WinTV-PVR-350? While I am on asking questions about a media center, and although I will have my copy of MCE 2005 soon, I cant seem to find this answered anywhere: Will it be compatible with a hardware decoder such as the 350? I know it supports the 250, but that is only hardware encoding, I want decoding as well. Unfortunately M$ site is of no help as the only place I can even find anything of the sort is on the developers portion of the site where they mention that the small list of compenants which are currently listed as having passed the driver compatibility checks thus far. Since I have upgrade my video card anyways, (MCE 2005 requires a DirectX 9 video card and the original I got was only a DirectX 8 card,) I was going to go ahead and replace the Maui tuner as well and need to know before I make a purchase if a hardware decoder will work with 2005 or not before I make the plunge. I've always only used either a NVidia Personal Cinema or an ATI AIW so I am clueless as to which of the seperated tuners will be the best to use, other than the vast majority seem to be using a Hauppage I haven't been able to find much in way of a head to head tv tuner review to see what the best for my needs would be. Hopefully before thanksgiving someone will do one which includes ATSC capable tuners, if there are even such a creature available as of yet. *edit and clairifications* I have since found out that the ATSC tuner, WinTV-D is a hardware encoder/decoder, which is what I am looking for, my new question about it would be if it was compatible with Comcast digital cable or not and is it compatible with MCE 2005? I would have to stress now since people are hard set on what is cheap, to me a tv tuner which costs between $100-$200 U.S. IS cheap! Anything cheaper than that isn't worth my looking into, unless there is something spetacular about it such as it does ATSC with dual tuners and/or has the quality and capabilities of the WinTV-PVR-350. Although I would happily pay only $50 U.S. for a tv tuner instead of $200 U.S., I am more interested in thier being supported by Windows MCE 2005 and the U.S. Comcast Market, than what it costs! Don't get me wrong, I am not willing to even consider a card which costs as much as the best gaming cards, but as I said, a card which is less than $250 U.S. is about what I would consider for a tv tuner card. If your not in the U.S., then feel free to post comments but remember I am looking for information for the U.S. market when making your post. I am not looking for information from the peanut gallery about what they think about the MCE 2005, nor do I care about 3rd. party utilities to do the duties of the MCE 2005 and their problems, all I care about is what will work with the MCE 2005 as far as passing it's quality control requirements. Yes, I have looked into several models, and I know that the majority use the Hauppage or Avermedia cards, for analog, but my main concern is what are the ones which do ATSC that are compatible with both Comcast Digital Cable and MCE 2005. If there aren't any that are compatible, then I guess I will have my answer, but please if you have a problem with the hardware or software of 3rd party utilities, don't use this thread to vent your flames, I am not looking for that sort of information. I already have what I want besides the tuner, which was why I asked my questions to begin with. I am more interested in compatibility with it, than I am in what is cheap or what your impressions of some other software, which I will not even be using, are. Please start your own thread or website to express your flames, as I have no need for that information here. I already know what the quality of the major cards are, I have seen them in action already, my questions are about the compatibility with MCE 2005. I wont even consider a card which doesn't do hardware decoding on board, unless I have to for compatibility with MCE 2005, then I already know which one I will go with. If the MCE 2005 works with the WinTV-PVR-350 then I know I will go with that if I cannot find a compatible ATSC tuner for it and Comcast. I should also mention I am looking for ATSC tuners in specific, not HDTV tuners, as I'm not really interested in HDTV at the moment, but Digital signals specifically. HDTV is a format of a digital signal, it's the digital stations in particular that I am interested in pulling in, not the HDTV format of them. I am paying for the digital signals so I have no problems with the ability of getting them, I just want to be able to recieve them on my computer, instead of that illegal monstrocity that comcast calls a tuner, which I shouldn't need with my computer. I am also paying for the HDTV cable as well, but I don't care about being able to use that with the computer as long as I can pull in the rest of my channels, since there is only about 5 HDTV channels compared to about 150 channels of digital service which is what I'm more interested in receiving. TIA - DT.

If you didn't want to make something everyone would use, you shouldn't have come up with such a great pack! Can't wait for the next release! Hopefully, soon I'll have my servers back up and running and will be able to help alieviate some of your bandwidth. Fixing to test my DVD now...will get back when I see how it does. Previous attempt produced excellent results from your pack, too bad my drivers/other software didn't do as good.

NM, I reread the original post...

While looking for something totally unrelated, I run across this: Enterprise Deployment Pack for Windows Media Player 9 Series. Though in SP-2 you have the WMP9 installed automatically, it does give instructions on how to set up group policies to control what can be done in WMP while installing. I am not so sure how they will work since it is being installed as part of the O/S at this point, but it should be of interesting read for someone who has to do this on a Corporate scale. Also, somewhat related, I found this: Plug-in for Adobe Premiere 6.5 (Beta), as well.

So for a CD I am supposed to be using MSDOSINITIATED=1 instead of 0, while using WinNT.sif? As far as sysprep goes, I did try it once, a while back but was confused by it, because it kept trying to seal my working computer and that didn't do me any good because it's not the working computer I needed sealed. It could be as well that I don't have such a grasp of how to use it correctly.

FWIW, If your worried about bandwidth, you can always grab Sharaza for free then post just the sha1 and edonkey links. Place the files into your shared files folder and point the links to them thus alieviating your bandwidth problems as once one person downloads it, others will be able to grab it from them and so on, much like using bit torrent but without having to grab yet another client. Though Sharaza does bit torrents as well, most P2P apps wont, plus they will create the links for you inside the app. Most will either have Sharaza or eDonkey on their systems already. With Sharaza, you can also download from eDonkey as well, though I am unsure what capabilities eDonkey has, I do know that Sharaza is the most secure of the P2P apps I have ever used, including Kazaa, Gnutella, WinMX, etc.