WMC Themes: VMCthemepack to MCT

[DavidinCT]

Hey all,

I have a good collection of themes that I used in Media Center studio. As this no longer works on Windows 8.1 or 10, I need to say good bye to my beloved program and find a stanadard that works well on other OS's than just 7...Even with Modded files in WMC 7, MCS no longer works.

I know some people are big into changing WMC around so I wanted to see if there was a process to convert some of my really liked themes over to the MCT standard (that can be imported into Patchou's Media Center Themer).

Using this...
http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... ols#p13767

Allows you just to select a theme and it pops it in, Nice little GUI that works but, it does not work with my themes

Most of the themes I have are in VMCThemepack format not MCT, and importing them into Patchou's Media Center themer fails

My favorte them is Dim... You can download it here...

http://chomikuj.pl/piotr310/Programy/Wi ... CThemepack

Any fairly easy way to convert these over to MCT ? Anyone know ?

[3rob3]

Doesn't MCE Reset Toolbox work with Media Center Studio themes? It is still available, and claims in works in 8/8.1
http://www.acs-digital-media.com/mce-rtb.html

[DavidinCT]

Doesn't MCE Reset Toolbox work with Media Center Studio themes? It is still available, and claims in works in 8/8.1
http://www.acs-digital-media.com/mce-rtb.html

MCE reset toolbox will take MCT files but, will not take VMCThemepack files... I tried to import one and it failed..

[DavidinCT]

Ok, Played with this for a little bit, Maybe someone who has created custom themes can help here, as I never hand. When it comes down to it, they are all just ZIP files (VMCThemepack and MCT)

Both VMCThemepack was a made for MediaCenterFX (back in 2007) and Media Center studio adapted the standard, one of the orginal ones. It just dumps all the files into the root of the folder of the zip and uses a Theme.XML with all the settings for the theme.

MCT uses a file folder structure. "Resources\ehres\images" the theme.xml only gives information on the theme (who it was made by, etc, no real settings on the theme).

I guess I could rebuild the VMCThemepack to be in the same file folder setup as MCT, re-create a XML with basics on the theme (copy template from a MCT and edit it) and give it a shot...Manual but, if it works....

The WMCThemepack has audio files (does MCT have audio files and how is it formatted ?)

[DavidinCT]

After trial and error and Trial and error, My poor fav theme (Dim.VMCThemepack) was thinking I have to give up... BUT, I found another Media Center themer on a site called "Nuke Media Center" (never heard of it before). so I assembled the files just like a MCT file. I imported it and it worked ! SO I Exported it from that program and Imported it into Media Center Themer using MCT Tools and it works (looks like I got all the graphics on the theme so awesome) !

I lost the sound but, I am ok with it... Here is a screen shot of the theme...

http://1drv.ms/1LFfLlI

I guess I can finally give up on MCS....all this hassle over 1 theme...

[IT Troll]

The beauty of Patchou's Media Center Themer is that it can change much more than any of the other themers and it does this without altering any system files.

It basically works by substituting files and settings in memory whilst Media Center is running. Everything is configured from the XML file including sounds and text formatting.

Often the theme converters only carry over basic customisations like the wallpaper. Editing the XML file kind be a little off putting, but the documentation for Media Center Themer is very good:
http://www.patchou.com/projects/media-c ... hemer/doc/

I would suggest you take a look at the Modern8 theme which changes just about everything. Then you can start customising it a little with a simple change like your preferred wallpaper.

[DavidinCT]

The beauty of Patchou's Media Center Themer is that it can change much more than any of the other themers and it does this without altering any system files.

It basically works by substituting files and settings in memory whilst Media Center is running. Everything is configured from the XML file including sounds and text formatting.

Often the theme converters only carry over basic customisations like the wallpaper. Editing the XML file kind be a little off putting, but the documentation for Media Center Themer is very good:
http://www.patchou.com/projects/media-c ... hemer/doc/

I would suggest you take a look at the Modern8 theme which changes just about everything. Then you can start customising it a little with a simple change like your preferred wallpaper.

Can it do audio ? Do you know of a theme that takes advanage of audio ?

VMCthemepack files are formatted completely different, so the ONLY way to get one of those themes over to Patchou's Media Center Themer, is to re-name it to a Zip, Extract it, follow the format of a MCT (folder stucture) and re-create a XML, then import it into Media Center Themer. That is the case on this one theme that for some reason I really like.

As I can get rid of MCS (most other themes are available as MCT), now to see if I am going to go to 8.1 over 7...that is another discussion.

thanks for the info you provded me, Might be an custom epic theme for me

[RyC]

The modern8 theme replaces the sounds with Xbox One sounds

[DavidinCT]

The modern8 theme replaces the sounds with Xbox One sounds

Thanks, This will help me add the sounds from my theme, Look over the code and see where the sound is imputted...

Moved over to Media Center themer, gave up on Media Center studio now (too bad, it was one of the first WMC themer progrmas and after 5-6 came out, it still WAS the best one)

[jachin99]

bump. I might be trying this soon

[DavidinCT]

bump. I might be trying this soon

What kind of theme are you trying to import ? What is the name of it ? or are you doing a bunch of them ?

[jachin99]

If someone figured out how all of these theme packs are formatted, maybe we could write a script to convert them to formats compatible with MCTRSTB & Patchou's MCT. I might start looking at MCT here soon also to see how it differs from things like MCS, MCERSTB, etc.

[DavidinCT]

If someone figured out how all of these theme packs are formatted, maybe we could write a script to convert them to formats compatible with MCTRSTB & Patchou's MCT. I might start looking at MCT here soon also to see how it differs from things like MCS, MCERSTB, etc.

Take the theme in question....Change the ext to zip and extract the folder... Then you can see how that one is formatted. Then take a MCT, do the same, then do one from Patchou's and do the same. Patchou's is just a folder with a XML file.

You can compare the folders and where things are laid out. This is how I had to do it. It takes a little time but, it worked for me. My theme "Dim" as I listed above, only thing I could not get working was sounds (stayed default sounds) but, I didn't investigate it much as the files on the theme were just vista sounds (the VMCThemepack files stand for Vista Media Center).

If you get lucky and get them working, please share, if you want my DIM theme done in Patchou's, let me know I'll share it up...

[jachin99]

If its possible, can you send me every theme you have in every format? i'm trying to learn scripting languages and I would like to work on projects that are more useful than things like hello world, and a calculator Thanks

[DavidinCT]

If its possible, can you send me every theme you have in every format? i'm trying to learn scripting languages and I would like to work on projects that are more useful than things like hello world, and a calculator Thanks

There is not a lot of programing or scripting involved, I found it more to be moving files to different folders and minor changes to a XML (comparing formatting between 2 so you get it right).

As for theme's your on a Windows Media Center forum, there is themes all over the place, like I included links here for a VMCThemepack (above, still works, I looked), then you can use any theme you used in MCE toolbox(MCT), and Patchou's ? A Modern Windows 10 theme, it's a few threads down from this one..

All the VMCthemepack and MCT are is zip files renamed, just rename them to Zip and extract..

[jachin99]

With MCT Tools you can import media center studio files, and it will convert them to work with Media Center Themer. This give you a ONE WAY upgrade path where theoretically someone could convert every theme to MCT formats.

[DavidinCT]

With MCT Tools you can import media center studio files, and it will convert them to work with Media Center Themer. This give you a ONE WAY upgrade path where theoretically someone could convert every theme to MCT formats.

RIght, this is known. This thread was about a "VMCThemepack" to MCT converter. The early MCS theme files ended with VMCThemepack for example my favorite theme for WMC is DIM... and it's dim.VMCThemepack (linked above).

Internally they are different files. The folder layout is different than a MCT file. This is why, if you have a VMCThemepack that you wanted to use, there is no way besides converting it in some way. No conversion programs out there that I can find.

[jachin99]

Oh, ok. The link above for DIM is in a foreign language, and even when I translate the page it asks me to sign up for an account, which is why I haven't tried to do anything with it yet.

[DavidinCT]

Oh, ok. The link above for DIM is in a foreign language, and even when I translate the page it asks me to sign up for an account, which is why I haven't tried to do anything with it yet.

I need to get some things for you, if I get the window to do this...I'll zip up a few of these themes so you can see the formatting but, it's all older stuff (some good themes though)