ModernMedia UI - Advanced Tweaking Utility

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W10MC

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ModernMedia UI - Advanced Tweaking Utility

#1

Post by W10MC » Sat Nov 11, 2017 4:15 am

ModernMedia UI is the first of many applications to be released as part of Windows 10 Media Center Community, a project dedicated to the development of media applications for Windows. It offers Windows Media Center users an easy way to access advanced, hidden settings without performing manual registry edits. More than 20 options are available to configure. Additional information about the app is available here.

Try it out on your Media Center setup today!
ui.screen.png
-Mike

Windows 10 Media Center Community
An independent project for media application development.

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StinkyImp

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#2

Post by StinkyImp » Sat Nov 11, 2017 1:03 pm

Hi Mike!

When opening ModernMedia UI, does it pull the existing (old school manual) configuration changes from the system or does it start with "recommended" default settings? Over the years I've made changes but I don't remember exactly what.

When I first opened your utility I immediately noticed that one of the first two items didn't agree with my actual settings. My current setup has the startup animation, but not the startup sound. Your utility opened with "Startup Sound" selected.

Image

Where do these settings come from and will they undo any changes I "may have" made previously?

Thanks for all your efforts in extending the life of WMC.

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W10MC

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#3

Post by W10MC » Sun Nov 12, 2017 4:40 am

Version 1.0.1 resolves a potential issue with the tab order of the controls and provides more precise handling of blank values for settings with hidden keys. This may help with the issue you are experiencing.
StinkyImp wrote:Where do these settings come from and will they undo any changes I "may have" made previously?
The values for all of the settings are retrieved directly from the registry when the application opens. Some of the keys do not exist by default as they were originally used only by Microsoft developers and were later either discovered by users or posted by some of the original WMC engineers. For these settings, the values will be blank unless you have manually added them at an earlier time, in which case the existing values will be used. This should ensure that no settings are changed on your system unless you explicitly change them.
StinkyImp wrote:Thanks for all your efforts in extending the life of WMC.
Glad to have your support!
-Mike

Windows 10 Media Center Community
An independent project for media application development.

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#4

Post by Space » Sun Nov 12, 2017 7:25 am

So why did the tool not recognize that the "Startup Sound" was already disabled on StinkyImp's system?

Perhaps it is not ignoring case when looking at the registry key name?

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W10MC

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#5

Post by W10MC » Sun Nov 12, 2017 1:35 pm

Version 1.0.2 has been uploaded. It correctly stores the value of Print Screen in Full Screen as a dword. This setting had previously been stored as a string.
Space wrote:Perhaps it is not ignoring case when looking at the registry key name?
Unfortunately, I was unable to reproduce the issue on three test machines, including Windows 7, 8.1 and 10. However, I have verified that the case is not sensitive.
-Mike

Windows 10 Media Center Community
An independent project for media application development.

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#6

Post by StinkyImp » Sun Nov 12, 2017 5:33 pm

W10MC wrote:Version 1.0.2 has been uploaded. It correctly stores the value of Print Screen in Full Screen as a dword. This setting had previously been stored as a string.
Hi Mike!

Thanks for all your work! I installed this version and have a couple of questions...

1. The closed captioning settings don't appear to be sticking and I was pretty stoked about the transparent background.

2. The "High Resolution Support" and "Low Bit Depth Support" (settings to ON) are not persistent through a reboot.

NOTE: I ran ModernMedia UI normally and "As Administrator" with reboots between them.

Thanks again!

Image

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W10MC

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#7

Post by W10MC » Mon Nov 13, 2017 4:30 pm

StinkyImp wrote:The "High Resolution Support" and "Low Bit Depth Support" (settings to ON) are not persistent through a reboot.
Version 1.0.3 now sets permissions to read-only for High Resolution Support and Low Bit Depth Support, preventing the values from being reset when WMC is opened or closed.
StinkyImp wrote:The closed captioning settings don't appear to be sticking and I was pretty stoked about the transparent background.
This could be due to WMC or a related process running in the background or possibly if an extender is connected. Feedback from other users would be helpful. As of now I have not been made aware of any issues.
-Mike

Windows 10 Media Center Community
An independent project for media application development.

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#8

Post by StinkyImp » Mon Nov 13, 2017 7:44 pm

W10MC wrote:Version 1.0.3 now sets permissions to read-only for High Resolution Support and Low Bit Depth Support, preventing the values from being reset when WMC is opened or closed.
These two settings appear to be persistent through reboot as well as opening and closing WMC!

W10MC wrote:
StinkyImp wrote:The closed captioning settings don't appear to be sticking and I was pretty stoked about the transparent background.
This could be due to WMC or a related process running in the background or possibly if an extender is connected. Feedback from other users would be helpful. As of now I have not been made aware of any issues.
I have a recently built Win 7 Pro 64 machine that was put together as a vanilla/minimalist system (based on my previous 10 years of WMC experiences) therefore it's pretty basic. I only have six tiles running in the UI and I use EPG123 and Schedules Direct to populate my guide.

Its only purpose in life is to:

1. Record Live TV OTA with an antenna.
2. Playback Recorded TV using RecordedTVHD as the library.
3. Play ripped movies (mkv) using Media Browser 2.6.2.0R as the library.
4. Stream (mainly YouTube) content and surf a few websites.

That's it... No music, no Netflix (or any subscription service), no photos, simply a minimalist video entertainment system.

UI Tiles -> https://imgur.com/a/BinjN

It's a stand-alone system with no extenders.

Here's a list of processes in its normal run state.

Code: Select all

Process Hacker 2.39.124
Windows NT 6.1 Service Pack 1 (64-bit)
11/13/2017 11:03

Name
System Idle Process
  System
    smss.exe
  Interrupts
csrss.exe
wininit.exe
  services.exe
    svchost.exe
      WmiPrvSE.exe
      mcGlidHost.exe
    svchost.exe
    MsMpEng.exe
    svchost.exe
      audiodg.exe
    svchost.exe
      dwm.exe
    svchost.exe
    svchost.exe
      taskeng.exe
        pia_manager.exe
          rubyw.exe
            pia_manager.exe
              rubyw.exe
                pia_nw.exe
                  pia_nw.exe
                  pia_nw.exe
                openvpn.exe
    CTAudSvc.exe
    svchost.exe
    igfxCUIService.exe
    svchost.exe
    spoolsv.exe
    taskhost.exe
    svchost.exe
    DbxSvc.exe
    svchost.exe
    dsetime.exe
    Agent.exe
      TodoBackupService.exe
    NitroPDFDriverService9x64.exe
    NLSSRV32.EXE
    RecordedTVHDService.exe
    svchost.exe
    TeamViewer_Service.exe
      TeamViewer.exe
      tv_w32.exe
      tv_x64.exe
    vds.exe
    PresentationFontCache.exe
    SearchIndexer.exe
      SearchProtocolHost.exe
      SearchFilterHost.exe
    NisSrv.exe
    svchost.exe
    svchost.exe
    wmpnetwk.exe
    svchost.exe
    ehrecvr.exe
  lsass.exe
  lsm.exe
csrss.exe
winlogon.exe
explorer.exe
  msseces.exe
  dsclock.exe
  MediaBrowserService.exe
  firefox.exe
  Dropbox.exe
SBAdgyFx.exe
GoogleCrashHandler.exe
GoogleCrashHandler64.exe
igfxEM.exe
igfxHK.exe
igfxTray.exe
I hope this helps until you get more users and more feedback!

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#9

Post by Space » Mon Nov 13, 2017 11:39 pm

StinkyImp wrote:...
1. The closed captioning settings don't appear to be sticking and I was pretty stoked about the transparent background.
Just as an FYI...

You can set the CC setting within WMC itself.

I have been running with yellow, black-bordered text with a transparent background almost since day one of using WMC.

It makes the CC look like subtitles on a DVD (no black background). WMC is the only system I've tried that does this type of thing reliably. I've tried to set up this type of settings on cable company set top boxes and some TVs without success. I don't know why CC is implemented so poorly on most devices.

So while this tool appears to attempt to make these settings easier to configure, it is not tweaking anything that can't be set directly thorough the WMC GUI.

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#10

Post by W10MC » Tue Nov 14, 2017 2:35 am

StinkyImp wrote:
W10MC wrote:Version 1.0.3 now sets permissions to read-only for High Resolution Support and Low Bit Depth Support, preventing the values from being reset when WMC is opened or closed.
These two settings appear to be persistent through reboot as well as opening and closing WMC!
Thanks for the update. Glad to hear it's working for you!
W10MC wrote:
StinkyImp wrote:The closed captioning settings don't appear to be sticking and I was pretty stoked about the transparent background.
This could be due to WMC or a related process running in the background or possibly if an extender is connected. Feedback from other users would be helpful. As of now I have not been made aware of any issues.
There are two processes that could potentially cause a problem: mcGlidHost.exe and ehrecvr.exe. To terminate these processes, go to Task Manager > Services, find ehRecvr, right-click and stop the service. Then open ModernMedia UI, select your options for CC settings and save.

When you open WMC again, the ehRecvr service will be restarted automatically and hopefully your changes will stick.
Space wrote:You can set the CC setting within WMC itself.
Only the following settings can be changed in WMC:
Text size
Text style
Text color
Edge type
Window color
Window opacity
Background color

Note that window opacity is not the same as background opacity. The only reason CC Edge Color, CC Text Opacity and CC Background Opacity are included in ModernMedia UI is because they are not accessible from the Media Center GUI.
-Mike

Windows 10 Media Center Community
An independent project for media application development.

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#11

Post by Space » Tue Nov 14, 2017 2:43 am

W10MC wrote:...
Space wrote:You can set the CC setting within WMC itself.
Only the following settings can be changed in WMC:
Text size
Text style
Text color
Edge type
Window color
Window opacity
Background color

Note that window opacity is not the same as background opacity. The only reason CC Edge Color, CC Text Opacity and CC Background Opacity are included in ModernMedia UI is because they are not accessible from the Media Center GUI.
I see. What is the difference between "Window Opacity" and "Background Opacity"?
As for the other options, I wouldn't want to change them anyway, as the default is what I want, but it is always good to have more options.

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#12

Post by W10MC » Tue Nov 14, 2017 6:25 am

Space wrote:What is the difference between "Window Opacity" and "Background Opacity"?
The window is a predefined box or rectangular area behind the entire captions section, whereas the background is only displayed behind the actual text. Making the background opacity transparent will make the captions look like subtitles, but changing the window opacity in WMC will have no effect on this.
Space wrote:As for the other options, I wouldn't want to change them anyway, as the default is what I want, but it is always good to have more options.
I agree that the default settings are best for the other options.
-Mike

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An independent project for media application development.

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#13

Post by Space » Tue Nov 14, 2017 8:07 am

I think I've seen that window thing on other TV sets, I believe it is another mode for the CC (like CC1, CC2, etc.)
I don't think I've ever seen it used for anything (at least I've never used it).

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#14

Post by StinkyImp » Tue Nov 14, 2017 10:46 am

Hi Mike,

Between the information you and Space provided, it appears that the subtitles are showing up the way I envisioned. I'm not sure what happened but now the closed captioning places itself vertically centered and on the left side of the screen.

Is there any way to force them centered on the bottom like they were previously?

Thanks again for your help!

Image

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#15

Post by W10MC » Tue Nov 14, 2017 11:25 am

StinkyImp wrote:Is there any way to force them centered on the bottom like they were previously?
From the screenshot, it looks like the text size is set to "Small" in the Media Center CC settings, and there is a known issue with this size that causes the captions to be out of place depending on the content being played.

To work around this problem, go to Settings > TV > Closed Captioning > Advanced, select "Use my custom settings:" and change the text size to "Standard."
-Mike

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An independent project for media application development.

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#16

Post by StinkyImp » Tue Nov 14, 2017 11:36 am

W10MC wrote:From the screenshot, it looks like the text size is set to "Small" in the Media Center CC settings, and there is a known issue with this size that causes the captions to be out of place depending on the content being played.
That was it!

Thanks again for all the work you put into this tweaker!

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#17

Post by W10MC » Tue Nov 14, 2017 11:50 am

StinkyImp wrote:Thanks again for all the work you put into this tweaker!
No problem. Enjoy!
-Mike

Windows 10 Media Center Community
An independent project for media application development.

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#18

Post by DavidinCT » Tue Nov 14, 2017 2:06 pm

Thanks for this. I personally know 99% of this is registry settings (that with some searching you can find on this site) but, I am not trying to down it in anyway. It's nice to have all these settings in one app vs 10-15 reg files (like I have now !)

I downgraded due to an App for WMC so my "high res" error came back (I was HEX editing system files to remove this message completely), I'll give your app a shot to see how well it works on this error.

Thank you for putting a little excitement back into WMC... I am someone who is still very passionate about WMC and love to see anything to wake up the interest again.
-Dave
Twitter @TheCoolDave

Windows Media Center certified and WMC MVP 2010 - 2012

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#19

Post by W10MC » Wed Nov 15, 2017 4:15 am

DavidinCT wrote:my "high res" error came back (I was HEX editing system files to remove this message completely), I'll give your app a shot to see how well it works on this error.
I believe the hex edit only suppresses the message, but the High Resolution Support option actually keeps the value locked at 3840x2160, which prevents WMC from triggering the error. Hope it works for you!
-Mike

Windows 10 Media Center Community
An independent project for media application development.

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#20

Post by StinkyImp » Wed Nov 15, 2017 2:29 pm

DavidinCT wrote:Thank you for putting a little excitement back into WMC... I am someone who is still very passionate about WMC and love to see anything to wake up the interest again.
+1 Thanks W10MC!

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