MCEBuddy

MCEBuddy Forums - Code of Conduct

Phredeaux — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 00:10:00 GMT

MCEBuddy Forums - Code of Conduct

Your use of the MCEBuddy Forums constitutes acceptance and agreement to our Forum Code of Conduct, these rules set the posting standards applicable to all members. If you violate the Code of Conduct, we reserve the right to terminate your account without prior notice. We prefer to advise users of inappropriate behaviour, however, flagrant and repeated violations will result in an immediate ban. Our failure to enforce this policy, for whatever reason, shall not be construed as a waiver of our right to do so at any time.

We created this Code of Conduct to provide a basic understanding of what's allowed and not allowed in our forums. The following are guidelines for the establishment and enforcement of our code.

* Ensure a friendly atmosphere to forum members and our visitors.
* Ensure the privacy of our members and that of others
* Comply with existing laws
* Encourage responsible use of our forums and discourage activities which disrupt our community and reduce the value of our services to our members and our visitors.
* Encourage freedom of expression and exchange of information in a mature and responsible manner.
* Avoid turning our forums into an advertising billboard whereby important and sought after content cannot be easily located due to members involved in commercial ventures seeking only to post in order to place advertisements and referrals without making any attempt to provide tangible support or to advance the needs of our community.

Whilst we are committed to the principles of free speech, certain activities may be damaging to the resources of the MCEBuddy Community and cannot be permitted under the guise of free speech. The resources of MCEBuddy Community are limited, and abuse of these resources by any user has a negative impact on the entire community.

As a member of our community, you must participate responsibly. If you have any questions regarding our code, please contact the administrator via email.

The following activities constitute violations of our Code of Conduct.

1. Forum Security

The following actions are strictly prohibited:

* Accessing, or attempting to access, the accounts of other users
* Exploiting, or attempting to exploit, bugs, vulnerabilities, or loopholes; whether they are disclosed or undisclosed
* Penetrating, or attempting to penetrate, security measures of MCEBuddy Community's software or hardware, or electronic communications system

Any intrusion will subject your forum account to immediate termination, regardless of whether or not the intrusion results in the corruption, loss, or theft of data

2. Spamming

There are specific areas of the forum designated as an advertising areas, as a result, you may not spam or engage in commercial advertising in any other area of the forums. Spam includes, but is not limited to the following:

* Excessive off-topic threads
* Posting nonsensical messages
* "Flooding" the forum with similar meaning messages
* Post-Count farming
* Unsolicited advertising via private message or email
* Messages without content
* Repeated posting with constant referrals to other website(s) with no purpose other than the promotion of that website.
* Fraudulent activity (Pyramid schemes, chain letters, etc.)

2.1 Advertising

a) Commercial entities who attempt to advertise their products, prices or services within post content will have their post edited, the commercial content removed and be asked to avoid the activity, a second breach will result in the poster's account being suspended for thirty (30) days and continued disregard of this rule will result in termination of the user's account.

b) Advertising is defined as direct or indirect reference(s) to commercial products or services within the body of a post or by private message/email by the owner of, or any person associated with the product or service, and where such reference is in the form of unsolicited information or in response to a question about a product or service or by reference to a vendor's commercial website through the use of hyperlink(s).

c) Members not associated with a commercial product are free to point to, refer to, recommend or warn against a product's use on the basis that they are or have been a legitimate consumer of that product or are able to point to reference material in support of their assertions. Any member who tries to appear un-associated with a commercial product but who is found, through the use of duplicate IP referencing or other means as required, or who is deemed by management to be repeatedly referring to and/or promoting said product, service or website, will be considered as being involved in commercial advertising, as a result, post content and applicable disciplinary action will be subject to the conditions detailed in 2.1 (a)

3. Piracy, Copyright Material, Cracks and Product Keys

"Copyright Material" is any material protected by legally recognised copyright; "Piracy" is the illegal copying of software or any material subject to copyright; "Cracks" are programs that disable copy-protection technology; a "Key" is a combination of numbers and letters that is required for software installation.

You may not request, distribute, encourage, discuss, link to, or post in support of activities involving pirated software, cracks or product keys or the supply, exchange or distribution of any copyright material including TV recordings. Doing so may result in the termination of your account without notice. In addition, the following are grounds for moderator action on your post and/or account:

* Seeking help to create cracks.
* Seeking missing files that are supplied with installation CD(s)
* Admitting to being in possession of pirated software.
* Admitting to being involved in the distribution of pirated software, cracks and product keys.
* Requesting or discussing the trade, sale, exchange or supply of any copyrighted material including (but not limited) to TV recordings, DVDs, movies, music, software etc.
* Promote the identification of torrents sources, torrent content or torrent exchange.
* Provide or request login details for restricted websites.

Exceptions may be made on a case-by-case basis at the discretion of our forum administration.

4. Forgery or impersonation

Attempting to impersonate any person, including staff, using forged headers, instant messenger names, similar usernames in an effort to deceive or mislead is prohibited.

5. Profanities

You may not use profanity or bypass the software-based censor. In addition to words included in the censor list, sexual remarks may be considered profane when used in certain contexts.

Note: To clarify what is considered to be bypassing the software-based censor: Anything done to avoid the default *'s provided by the censor is considered to be a bypass of the censor. For example, if the word "angle" was in the censor (it isn't), then all of the following are considered a bypass of the censor and thus in violation of this code:

A****
ang1e, angl3
anglë, añgle
a n g l e
Angle
angle

The list of words automatically censored by our filter is available upon request.

6. Harassment

We do not tolerate personal attacks whether public or private on anybody (the definition of a personal attack will be determined on a case by case basis by forum moderators in consultation with the administrator).

You may not use terms or audio/visual materials referring to ethnic/national origin, ideological/religious beliefs, gender, or sexual preference in a demeaning context.

7. Pornography/Sexually Offensive Materials

You may not post or link to pornography or what would normally be considered sexually offensive materials.

8. Illegal Use

You may not use our forums for illegal purposes, or in support of illegal activities, as determined by the laws of Australia in the Australian Capital Territory. Such activities will guarantee an immediate ban. We reserve the right to cooperate with legal authorities and/or injured third parties in the investigation of any suspected crime or civil wrongdoing.

9. Non-Disclosure Agreements

We will delete posts containing materials in breach of an active Non-Disclosure Agreement. We reserve the right to cooperate with any company who are conducting an investigation into a breach of a current and enforceable NDA.

10. Privacy

* You may not post any form of real life information of any user (except yourself) unless the user has first given permission by express written consent to the forum administrator. Examples of real life information include name, address, and phone numbers.
* You may not distribute any form of electronic information, email address, private/email Messages, IP addresses, and Instant Messenger messages ("Chatlogs") with intent to harass or be demeaning in any way as determined by a forum management, regardless of consent.
* You may not disclose a user's unpublicised email address unless the user has first given permission by express written consent to the forum administrator or has previously releasing said information themselves.
* You may not at any time post any form of real life information if you are 13 years old or under!
* You may not at any time use private messaging or email for unsolicited contact with community members for the purpose of advertising or selling goods or services!

11. Signatures

Signatures, whether facilitated by the forum software or by the user, may not exceed the following restrictions:

* The maximum font size allowed in signature lines is 2.
* The maximum number of lines in a signature is 2 - (unless used to display MCE hardware specs).
* No images allowed in signatures (* see hyperlinks below).
* Signature text should comply with our regular posting rules. No all-caps, no alternating caps, etc.
* Signature text or content that is too long, obtrusive or serves no purpose will be removed. This includes overly creative use of punctuation, color, font size etc.
* Signatures with just your username will be removed since usernames are on the top of every post.
* Signatures must also follow the same content rules that we have for posting. This means they must not contain include: profanity, pornography, racism, baiting and/or flaming.

Hyperlinks in signatures are allowed but must comply with the following:

* Links (and associated images) are permitted to Xbox Live profiles, server uptime & project stats (e.g. SETI)
* Links to external commercial sites are not permitted for any reason.
* Linked sites may only be personal pages or blogs.
* Links to other forums or sites considered to be in competition with this website (thereby reducing our ability to attract advertising revenue) are not permitted.
* No affiliate links are permitted.

If your signature contravenes any of these rules, it will be removed without notice. For any questions or feedback about specific signature content not covered here, please PM a Staff Member.

12. Official Language

English is the official language of our forums because it is the common language between our moderators and users. Because we cannot moderate conversations in a foreign language, you may not hold a conversation in the forums in language other than English. Foreign languages are allowed in forum signatures as long as:

a.) it is not in violation of this Code of Conduct,
b.) not in a different character set, i.e. áíúúíá éáéä, and
c.) a correct translation of the signature be provided upon request.

13. Email Addresses

* You may not harvest email addresses from our forums for any purpose.
* You are required to keep your forum account's email address up-to-date. If a warning sent to the email address on record bounces, your account will be suspended and you will have to contact forum administration to have your account restored

14. Moderation & Bans

* You may not evade a ban. Doing so will drastically lengthen your ban. If you have a problem with a ban or feel it was inappropriate, please contact an administrator and wait for a response.
* You may not publicly complain about or demand a reason for another user's ban, the deletion of a message, or the deletion/closure of a thread. Any discussion about warnings, bans, message deletion, thread deletion and thread closure should be done over private email/message between the person concerned and the moderators.
* You may not re-edit a message that has been edited by a moderator

15. Miscellaneous

* Do not post negative posts and discussions that are repeated over and over and over with no other purpose than to disrupt conversation. If you feel the need to say something, say it once and then move on. Do not disrupt multiple threads in order to get your view out.
* You may not bait or harass other users. Baiting & harassment is defined as posting with a clear intent to belittle, provoke anger or cause irritation resulting in another user violating this code. Within the same context, you may not bait, insult, flame, harass, provoke or otherwise abuse a staff member.
* You may not abuse your ability to post in HTML in HTML-enabled forums.
* You may not post graphically-disturbing images as inline images (such that the images are displayed when users view your post). You may not link to images which are graphically disturbing.
* You may not post in a manner that is harmful to the MCEBuddy Community or any of its members. If you do, the post will be deleted and you will be permanently banned.
* You may not register multiple accounts for any reason and specifically with the intent to violate any part of this Code of conduct.

Other Questionable Actions and Content

This Code of Conduct cannot cover every circumstance. We reserve the right to act appropriately if a user's actions, including the content of a user's posts, are deemed counterproductive to the peaceful enjoyment or security of our forum community.

A Note About Your Privacy

We respect your privacy and we undertake to safeguard the privacy of your personal data. We realise that the growth of the Internet and online services raises questions concerning the nature, use and confidentiality of information collected about consumers. MCEBuddy assures you of our commitment to safeguarding your privacy during your Internet activities on this site.

MCEBuddy Forum Terms of Service

Phredeaux — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 23:53:00 GMT

TERMS OF SERVICE - WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM

WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM (the "Site") was created for your personal entertainment, information, education and communication. Please feel free to browse the Site; however, your access and use of the Site is subject to the following terms of service ("Terms of Service") and all applicable laws. By accessing and browsing the Site, you accept, without limitation or qualification, the Terms of Service. If you do not agree with all of the following Terms of Service, please do not use this Site. WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to change, modify or otherwise alter these terms and conditions at any time. Changes and/or modifications shall become effective immediately upon the posting. Please review these Terms of Service periodically. Your continued use of the Site following the posting of changes and/or modifications will constitute your acceptance of these Terms of Service.

USE OF MATERIALS CONTAINED ON THIS SITE

The Site contains material that is derived in whole or in part from material supplied by WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM and other sources, and may be protected by Australian and international copyright and trademark laws. No material (including but not limited to the text, images, audio and/or video) and no software (including but not limited to any images or files incorporated in or generated by the software or data accompanying such software) (individually and collectively the "Materials") may be decompiled, reverse engineered or disassembled, except that you may download one copy of the Materials on any single computer for your personal, non-commercial home use only, provided you keep intact all copyright and other proprietary notices. Modification of the Materials or use of the Materials for any other purpose is a violation of WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM's or such other sources' copyright, trademark and other proprietary rights.

CREATIVE SUBMISSIONS/COMMUNICATIONS

If you do send us any creative materials, including creative suggestions, ideas, notes, drawings, concepts, software or other information or if you transmit to the Site by electronic mail or otherwise, communications including any data, questions, comments, suggestions, or the like (collectively, the "Information"), the Information shall be deemed, and shall remain, the property of WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM. None of the Information shall be subject to any obligation of confidence on the part of WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM and WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM shall not be liable for any use or disclosure of any Information. WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM shall exclusively own any now known or hereafter existing rights to the Information of every kind and nature throughout the universe and shall be entitled to unrestricted use of the Information for any purpose whatsoever, commercial or otherwise, without compensation to the provider of the Information.

BULLETIN BOARDS, CHAT ROOMS, POSTINGS

The Site may include forums, chat rooms and other areas where users can post and/or exchange information, ideas, opinions, photographs, images, videos, creative works or any other materials (collectively "Bulletin Boards"). WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM does not control the material delivered to Bulletin Boards, and WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM has no obligation to monitor such Bulletin Boards. The messages do not necessarily reflect the views of WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM. In no event shall WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM assume or have any responsibility or liability for any materials posted on Bulletin Boards or for any claims, damages or losses resulting from their use and/or appearance on this Site. WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM reserves the right at all times to disclose any information (including the identity of the persons providing information or materials on its Bulletin Boards) as necessary to satisfy any law, regulation or governmental request. In addition, WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM reserves the right to edit, refuse to post or to remove any information or materials, in whole or in part, that in WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM's sole discretion are objectionable or in violation of these Terms of Service.

FORUM CODE OF CONDUCT

It is a condition of your use of the Forums (Bulletin Boards) and this Site in general that you observe and respect at all times the Forum Code Of Conduct as published here.

HYPERLINKS TO THIRD PARTY SITES

The appearance of external hyperlinks does not constitute endorsement by WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM, its subsidiaries and affiliates of the opinions or views expressed by these linked websites and WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM does not verify, endorse, or take responsibility for the accuracy, currency, completeness or quality of the content contained in these sites. Furthermore, WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM is not responsible for the quality or delivery of the products or services offered, accessed, obtained by or advertised by such sites. As such, neither WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM nor any of its subsidiaries and affiliates will be responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of such information contained in these sites.

To the extent that these sites collect personal information or postings from the end user, be advised that in no event shall WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM assume or have any responsibility or liability for the manner in which such information or postings are exploited or for any claims, damages, or losses resulting from their use and/or appearance on these sites. Finally, WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM will under no circumstances be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental or special loss or other damage, whether arising from negligence, breach of contract, defamation, infringement of copyright or other intellectual property rights, caused by the exhibition, distribution or exploitation of any information or content contained within these sites.

TERMINATION OF THE SERVICES

WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM may terminate the Site or any services included on or through the Site at any time with or without cause or notice. WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM shall not be liable to any party for such termination. If you object to any of the Terms of Service contained herein, you may discontinue use of the Site or services. You may cancel any your subscriptions to WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM newsletters by following the directions provided in each newsletter to which you have subscribed.

INDEMNIFICATION

You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless, WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM, its affiliates, and their respective officers, directors, employees, agents, licensors, representatives, and third party providers to the Site from and against all losses, expenses, damages and costs, including reasonable attorneys' fees, resulting from any violation of these Terms of Service by you. WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM reserves the right to assume, at its sole expense, the exclusive defence and control of any matter subject to indemnification by you, in which event you will fully cooperate with WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM in asserting any available defences.

LIMITATION OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER

Your use and browsing of the Site is at your risk. If you are dissatisfied with any of the Materials contained in the Site, or with any of these Terms of Service, your sole and exclusive remedy is to discontinue accessing and using the Site.

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMISSIBLE PURSUANT TO APPLICABLE LAW, NEITHER WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM NOR ANY OTHER PARTY INVOLVED IN CREATING, PRODUCING OR DELIVERING THE SITE IS LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, INDIRECT OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF YOUR ACCESS TO, OR USE OF, THE SITE. WITHOUT LIMITING THE FOREGOING, EVERYTHING ON THE SITE IS PROVIDED TO YOU "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT.

You specifically acknowledge and agree that WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM is not liable for any defamatory, offensive or illegal conduct of any user.

WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM also assumes no responsibility, and shall not be liable for any damages to, or viruses that may infect, your computer equipment or other property on account of your access to, use of, or browsing in the Site (including any Bulletin Board) or your downloading of any Materials from the Site.

WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM does not warrant or make any representations of any kind or nature with respect to the Materials. Therefore, you are responsible for compliance with local laws, if and to the extent local laws are applicable.

MISCELLANEOUS

WWW.MCEBUDDY.COM makes no representation that materials on this Site are appropriate or available for use in any particular location. Those who choose to access this Site do so on their own initiative and are responsible for compliance with local laws, if and to the extent local laws are applicable.
These Terms of Service contain the entire understanding and supersede all prior understanding of the parties hereto relating to the subject matter hereof, and cannot be changed or terminated orally. If any provision of these Terms of Service are found to be illegal or unenforceable, these Terms of Service will be deemed curtailed to the extent necessary to make it legal and enforceable and will remain, as modified, in full force and effect.

Any comments or questions concerning the above Terms of Service should be directed to mcebuddy@tyrell.com.au

MCEBuddy 1.0.6-1.0.8 Configuration Guide

Phredeaux — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 12:39:00 GMT

Getting Started

Once you have installed MCEBuddy, start the configuration tool from Start-All Programs-Tyrell-MCEBuddy-MCEBuddy Taskbar Monitor

The monitor should appear in your taskbar:

MCEBuddy runs as a system service, so this monitor does not need to be running in order for conversions to take place. It simply lets you configure MCEBuddy and monitor its progress.

Double-clicking on the icon brings up the configuration window. Initially the conversion service is not started (it will start automatically each time the system starts). First thing you should do is configure MCEbuddy to perform the conversions you want the way you want them to occur. Then you start the service. Stopping the service allows you to change MCEBudddy's behaviour and also cancels any conversion currently in progress.

Default Behaviour

MCEBuddy works without configuration, however you can configure its behaviour. There are two configuration modes, Basic and Advanced.

MCEBuddy Basic Configuration Panel with Default Options

By default MCBuddy:

Converts the recording to WMV
Uses the standard Media Center recorded television paths and video library paths
Will not remove ads
Will not delete the original recording once it has been converted
Will categorise the destination by directory

Configuration Options

With advanced mode, all MCBuddy configuration options are available.

MCEBuddy Advanced Configuration Panel

MCEBuddy can perform two different conversions of Media Center recordings . For example one conversion may be to H.264 for high quality playback on the local Media Center PC and one could be for playback on an iPod video player. The most common formats and media players are provided for.

The first Convert To list box determines what format the first conversion will be to.
With Delete Original checked, the original recording will be deleted once a successful conversion has been performed
Commercial Skipping turns on the commercial removal feature.
Sort by Series sorts the converted recordings into different folders in the destination video folder based upon the series name (extracted from the file name in 1.0.6)

Advanced options control how and when a conversion will take place.

Convert Between allows control of when the conversion occurs. MCEBuddy will start conversions between the times specified if this option is chosen. Once a conversion has started it will continue until completed or cancelled. If your system has a low specification or you are performing H.264 conversions it is strongly recommended you schedule your conversions for when you are not using your Media Center PC.
The Video Age defines how old a recording needs to be (in days) before it is converted.
The file mask specified in File Selection allows for files with extensions other than the default .dvr-ms to be converted.

The default video paths for picking up the recording and where the converted file is placed can be overridden.

Source specifies where MCEBuddy should pick up video recordings from.
Destination specifies where the converted files for the first conversion are placed

Second conversion allows a second conversion to be made of the original recording.

The first Convert To list box determines what format the second conversion will be to.
Destination specifies where the converted files for the second conversion are placed

Conversion Format Options

MCEBuddy supports three video formats: WMV, DivX and H.264.

WMV provides the best Microsoft compatibility and is useful if you don't want to install a codec pack or want playback on an XBox 360. It's the best Microsoft-centric option and works with Media Center and MCEBuddy out of the box. MCEbuddy converts to the WMV2 format and not WMV9. You can fast forward, rewind and skip using this format under Media Center.
DivX is the most universal format provided as so many devices support it ranging from most PCs with DivX installed, a lot of home theatre equipment and most portable video player devices. The files produced are small and the quality fairly good. It's the best overall, general purpose encode, especially if you want to share your recording with others. If you don't mind almost doubling the conversion time, then the 2 pass conversion ("Slow Conversion" option) is the way to go as the quality is better. You can skip forward and back but not fast forward with this format under Media Center using ffdshow.
H.264. The quality of conversion with H.264 under MCEBuddy is excellent. Almost no visible difference from the source recording. If you are intending to play back only on the Media Center PC, another PC or an Apple device this is definitely the way to go. The catch is this is a relatively new codec and as such has not matured as much as the others. This means playback under other codec packs and on other devices can be a little hit and miss. You can skip forward and back but not fast forward with this format under Media Center using ffdshow. This is my favourite encode, I love it.

Conversion speed and CPU usage:

WMV uses a moderate amount of CPU, takes the shortest time to convert and scales adequately to 2 CPUs/cores but tapers off after that.
DivX uses a moderate amount of CPU, takes the longest time to convert and scales adequately to 2 CPUs/cores but tapers off after that.
H.264 uses a heavy amount of CPU, takes an average time to convert and scales well to the number of CPUs/cores available

The following table provides an indication of expected conversion times.

Conversion	1 Core	2 Core	4 Core
WMV	1	0.625	0.625
H.264	3.1	1.5	0.75
DivX	2.8	1.5	1.375
DivX Alternate*	1.5	0.7	0.625

H.264 High Quality (2 pass)	6.1	3.5	1.75
DivX High Quality (2 pass)	4.3	2.75	2.25
H.264 Light CPU	3.5	2.9	2.75
H.264 Apple Compatible	3.1	1.5	0.75

Blackberry	0.9	0.6	0.5
iPod 5th Generation	1.5	1.0	0.5
iPod 6th Generation and iPhone	1.6	1.1	0.625
iRiver	0.7	0.425	0.375
Playstation Portable	0.7	0.425	0.375
Zen Vision	0.7	0.425	0.375
Zune	0.7	0.425	0.375

Figures are on conversion time minutes relative to original recording time. eg. a 30 minute recording converted to H.264 on a dual core system should take around 45 minutes to convert.
System testing utilised a quad core Opteron server, which performs particularly well in the number crunching role, desktop processors may not perform as well.
The test recording was at standard television dimensions (720 wide). For conversions to (not from) 720HDTV resolution multiply conversion times by 1.8. For conversions to 1080HDTV resolution multiply conversion times by up to 4 times.
The type of show also affects conversion time. Rapidly changing scenes and quick movement such as sports and action shows will often increase conversion time.

Size:

On average, a converted file will be 20% of the size of the original recording without ad removal. Obviously ad removal and the type of program will have a significant effect on these results.

2-Pass: For the transcoding people amongst us, the "Slow Conversion" options provided are the higher quality 2-pass transcodes.

Power Management

MCEBuddy will respond to power management events such as suspend/resume. This will cancel the current video conversion and leave the conversion at the state it was up to at the time of suspension. It will not continue where it left off before being suspended.

Copy Protection

Some broadcasts use copy protection with CGMS-A or D (eg. HBO, AMC and MoviePlex). MCEBuddy does not strip copy protection and these conversions will produce junk vdeo, often taking a long time to convert.

Known bugs

Phredeaux — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 10:36:00 GMT

Known bugs for MCEBuddy 1.0.8

Some High Definition Television (HDTV) recordings convert with audio out of sync
Some recordings will not have their commercials cut (particularly large recordings)
H.264/AVI conversions can have audio desync issues
Some conversions crash midway

What is Phredeaux's Setup

Phredeaux — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 09:41:00 GMT

Phredeaux's setup is a Pioneer Dreamvision VIIV MCE Mini PC. MCEBuddy processing is performed on a Quad Opteron, 32GB SpinServer running Windows 2003 64 Bit.

Why the mini pc? Well, it's tiny, makes no noise and doesn't look like a PC. Downsides are the video card can't drive 1920x1080 and it uses a notebook hard drive. Intel Core Duo, 1GB RAM, 120GB Notebook HDD, 128MB shared memory video.

MCEBuddy runs on the server and converts from the MCE box to a shared location on the server itself, this means there is never a heavy CPU load on the MCEBuddy system. I use Comskip for commercial removal of AFL games and ShowAnalyzer for everything else.

Links to Other MCEBuddy Related Sites

Phredeaux — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 12:59:00 GMT

MCEBuddy Media Center Discussion Forums

Australian Media Center Community - Intro
Australian Media Center Community - Vista Plugins
Australian Media Center Community - XP Plugins
The Green Button - Vista 3rd Party Applications

MCEBuddy Components

babgvant's Tools & Blog
Mencoder manual
Doom9 Encode Forums

MCEBuddy 1.0.x FAQ

Phredeaux — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 12:08:00 GMT

Q. Which conversion formats are the best?

That's a difficult question to answer. The three provided by MCEBuddy are WMV, DivX and H.264.

WMV provides the best Microsoft compatibility and is useful if you don't want to install a codec pack or you want playback on an XBox 360. Its quality is fairly good, is the best option for Microsoft only environments and works with Media Center and MCEBuddy out of the box.
DivX is the most universal format provided as so many devices support it ranging from most PC operating systems with DivX installed, a lot of home theatre equipment and most portable video player devices. The files produced are small and the quality fairly good. It's the best overall, general purpose encode, especially if you want to share your recording with others. If you don't mind almost doubling the conversion time, then the 2 pass conversion (1.0.6 and later) is the way to go as the quality is better.
H.264. The quality of conversion with H.264 under MCEBuddy is excellent. Almost no visible difference from the source recording, sometimes better. If you are intending to play back only on the Media Center PC, another PC or an Apple device this is definitely the way to go. The catch is this is a relatively new codec and as such has not matured as much as the others. This means playback under other codec packs and on other devices can be a little hit and miss. This is my favorite encode, I love it.

Q. My Media Center television or playback is really choppy after installing MCEBuddy, what's wrong?

MCEBuddy is probably converting a show in the background and your system does not have enough CPU to perform both actions at once, especially if you are using H.264 which is very CPU intensive. Set the conversion hours (under Advanced in versions 1.06 or later) to a time when you are not going to use the system and MCEBuddy will convert them then. If you are using version 1.0.6 or later and H.264 use the CPU Light conversion profile.

Q. Some/all conversions are not working, they are producing random video junk and taking ages, what's wrong?

The most likely reason is your recording is Copy Protected. MCEBuddy cannot convert copy protected recordings. You can check this by looking at the properties of the DVR-MS file in recordings. Another way is trying to play the original file outside of Media Center using just media player. If it won't play outside of media center it's probably copy protected. Cinemax, HBO, Showtime and Starz are examples of copy protected (CGMS-A) channels.

Q. My conversions are taking a long time / producing large files, what's wrong?

The most likely reason is you are retaining HDTV resolutions, which means a LOT of pixels to push through the encode. As most shows broadcast on HDTV are actually normal TV scaled up, its often difficult/impossible to tell the difference between a 720 or 640 recording and a 1920 recording, especially if you are using H.264. Choose 640 wide conversion (1.0.6) or NORMAL quality (1.0.5) and work up from there.

Q. My TV Guide is not updating after installing MCEBuddy, what's wrong?

Most likely your TV guide is trying to update when a CPU intensive conversion (such as H.264) is being performed. Either set MCEBuddy to convert at a time when the TV guide is not updating or schedule your TV guide to updated when conversions are not occurring.

Q. If I move or delete the files that have been converted, MCEBuddy starts to convert them again. Is this a bug?

No, this is not a bug. MCEBuddy 1.x does not keep track of what it converts. It works out if a video is converted by looking in the converted video folder and the destination folders and if there is a converted version of the original. So if you keep the original and move the converted files, it will re-convert assuming the original conversion failed. The reason for this is there is no Media Center interface in MCEBuddy 1.x to allow you to re-select a file to encode. This will change in version 2.x as there will be a Media Center interface to allow you to control it. For 1.x you either delete the original or don't move the converted file.

Q. Does MCEBuddy support Vista64?

MCEBuddy 1.05 supported Vista64 experimentally using a 32bit build with issues. Versions 1.06 and later support Vista 64 natively.

Q. Every time I start Vista I get a message asking me whether I will allow MCEBuddyConfig to start. Why? Can I get rid of it?

This is called User Account Control and is a feature of Vista. As MCEBuddy runs as a service in the background, the MCEBuddyConfig application needs to have higher privileges to start and stop it. However, the MCEBuddy taskbar application does not need to be running for conversions to happen. You just need it to start and stop conversions, see how conversions are going and change MCEBuddy settings. So you can just delete it from the startup (Start Button-All Programs-Startup) if you like and everything will still keep on working. You can always access the configuration tool from Start-All Programs-Tyrell-MCEBuddy-MCEBuddy Taskbar Monitor.

Q. Commercial removal doesn't seem to be working, what's wrong?

MCEBuddy uses the Comskip (default) and ShowAnalyzer (optional) commercial skipping applications to provide this function. These applications often need to be optimised for your local broadcasting areas as different TV broadcasters inject commercials in different ways using different technology. The best methods are to either try tuning them yourself (comskip.ini for Comskip or Schoolhouse for ShowAnalyzer), use one posted to the Forums or Downloads on this site or search the web to find a .ini file for either that someone else has developed for your region.

Secondly, if you are using ShowAnalyzer, you must purchase a license key and register it using the Configuration tool. Only the licensed version ("normal mode") will read DVR-MS files. It'll work for a while during the trial period ("free mode") and then stop if you haven't entered a key.

Q. I've told MCEBuddy to convert between 12AM and 7AM. It's 8AM now and it's still converting. What's wrong?

The conversion times in MCEBuddy specify the time a conversion can start. Once started a conversion will continue until its finished unless canceled by stopping the service or the system going into suspend mode. If you want to reduce the chance of MCEBuddy performing a conversion during a certain time, you need to make the end time earlier by the length of time your typical conversion takes.

Q. Does MCEBuddy support system hibernation?

Yes (1.0.6 and later), but if a system goes into hibernation it will start any conversion it was performing when it went into hibernation from the beginning. It will not continue where it was from when the hibernation occurred. 1.0.5 does not support hibernation.

Q. Can I get MCEBuddy to put the converted files on another system?

Yes (1.0.6) just browse to the path and provide the connection credentials (if required).

Under 1.0.5 it's a little trickier. You will need to ensure the service can access that location. If the network location has public access (ie. there is no username/password required to access that location) then you need to make no changes. If the destination requires a logon there are two options:

If the MCE system is part of a domain, you need to create a domain account which has Administrative permissions on the local MCE system and full control to the destination path. Then you need to change the service account using the Administrative Tools-Services MMC. A screenshot is here. If you install a new version of MCEBuddy you'll need to set the service account again.
If not part of a domain you need to create a local user account for MCEBuddy with the same username and password that is required to connect to the network location. Then you need to change the service account using the Administrative Tools-Services MMC. A screenshot is here. If you install a new version of MCEBuddy you'll need to set the service account again.

Q. I think my MCEBuddy installation is having problems, where can I get information as to what is going on? Also, how can I find out how long a conversion took?

Look in the Windows Event Log under the Application log. MCEBuddy puts errors and logs its activity in there.

Q. What affects the performance of the conversion and what can I do to improve it?

A faster CPU, with 2 or more cores. If you know your CPU model this graph gives an indication as to how capable it is for transcoding. Disk I/O has some impact but nothing compared to the impact of CPU. System use matters a lot as MCEBuddy encodes in the background at a very low priority. If you are using your Media Center PC for anything at the time, those activities will always take priority and as such will seriously slow down any conversion taking place.

Q. I have a quad core Media Center system, will this help?

A qualified yes. The encodes have been optimised for 1 to 4 processors. However you get diminishing returns for just the conversion after two processors, so best bang for buck is a dual core system. However, if you want to watch and convert at the same time, especially with a CPU heavy encode such as H.264 then a quad core system really pays off in this scenario.

Q. Will MCEBuddy run on Microsoft Home Server?

Yep. Its a good place for it too if you have one and its got a decent CPU. Just share out the recording location and use the network connection credentials (1.06 or later).

Q. Can feature X or conversion Y be added to MCEBuddy?

New features and conversions are added with each version, though they do take significant testing which is helped by MCEBuddy beta testers. First check the releases page to see if your feature is already planned. If not, then head to the feature request or conversion request forums.

Q. Why did you make MCEBuddy?

Windows Media Center storing recorded video in DVR-MS format in 2007 is, in my and many other opinions a design flaw if only for the huge disk space wastage. There needed to be the option to use another more efficient codec for systems capable of performing the task (probably H.264 or at least WMV). As DVR-MS is still used in Vista Windows Media Center, this isn't going to change in a real hurry, so the community needed to come up with something itself.

After using some good existing tools (notably DVRMSToolbox and Crunchie) I found they were quite capable for my own use, but did require some technical savvy. As such, they were not install and you're away applications for the average user. In addition the black art of video conversion is well beyond most people. So I thought I should put something back into the community and build an install-and-it-works application that was as bulletproof as I could make it then distribute it free under GPL.

Thanks/Credits

Special thanks go to Jelwood and babgvant's Tools & Blog for mencoder that works and a huge supply of actually useful information.
MCEBuddy uses the Jelwood mencoder and ffmpeg build libraries.

MCEBuddy Future Releases

Phredeaux — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 11:54:00 GMT

Version 2.0 (Beta in progress)

- Recording meta data (eg. episode names, series, thumbnail picture, etc.) written to converted file
- Smart power management, will wake up for conversions won't sleep/hibernate while converting
- Cooler, simpler interface
- Conversion history and re-submit
- Intelligent, automatic resizing and auto-cropping
- Intelligent, automatic bitrate control with bitrate multiplier option
- Most video types accepted by default
- Skip copy protected files
- Thread priority control
- More robust conversion process and better failed conversion detection
- Permit individual file selection and queuing
- Non administrative user control of MCEBuddy (no Vista UAC prompt , allows MCE plug in to work properly)
- Shutdown control/warning and shutdown when converted (might get bumped to 2.1)
- MP3 conversion for audio only recordings
- TVLibrary XML/Sam's Video Browser integration (might get bumped to 2.1)
- Codec pack (validated with MCEBuddy) included as optional part of MCEBuddy setup
- WTV support
- Automatic TheTVDB and IMDB lookups
- Command line execution option

Version 2.1

- Selecting, sorting, file renaming and other activities by meta data (eg. Episode names, series, etc.)
- Media Center plug in interface
- MCEBuddy version update notification
- Simple SDK to allow plug ins for other systems (Sage, Media Portal, etc.)
- Locale specific comskip profiles (improving effectiveness by country/region)

Version 2.2
- iTunes integration
- Automatic conversion video library management (sync delete, etc.)
- Localised interface (German, Chinese, etc. though I'll need lots of help with this one)

Wish List (things which are borderline or we don't know how to do yet)
- Conversions to include closed captions and subtitles

MCEBuddy Version History

Phredeaux — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 11:53:00 GMT

Version 1.0.8
- Updated and improved encodes
- Misc bug fixes

Version 1.0.7
- Updated and improved encodes
- Updated comskip and less aggressive ad removal profile
- Misc bug fixes

Version 1.0.6
- Simpler configuration UI with basic and advanced modes
- Improved conversions (size options, better compatibility, more portable device support, better quality and faster speed)
- Default conversions to retain existing recording dimensions (no resizing)
- Option to perform an additional conversion as well as normal conversion. eg. One for Media Center, one for iPod.
- Conversion progress indicator
- Support for two pass encoding
- Mencoder .conf file support
- File wildcard selection
- Resized configuration panel for smaller displays, supports large fonts
- Improved network connections
- Misc bug fixes

Version 1.0.5
- Experimental Vista 64 support (not a 64 bit build, 32bit under WoW - 64 bit native slated for 1.06)
- Vista UAC is no longer required to be disabled
- Updated Comskip and ShowAnalyzer integration

Version 1.0.4
- Corrected MCE recording/ShowAnalyzer simultaneous access issue
- ShowAnalyzer defaults are now set - MCEBuddy profile used

Version 1.0.3
- Added automatic ShowAnalyzer configuration. NOTE! ShowAnalyzer will now be configured for MCEBuddy use by default. Specifically, the status window will be invisible and EDL output enabled.

Version 1.0.2
- Changed video quality types - note default is now NORMAL
- Added sort by series for output videos
- Added support for iPod and Zune portable video players
- Added optimised encoding from Jelwood
- Some performance tweaks

Version 1.0.1
- Corrected destination path selection bug (didn't write selection)
- Exposed source path setting in configuration UI

Version 1.0.0
- Initial Release
- Woo-Hoo!

MCEBuddy 1.05 Configuration Guide

derekthoms — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 07:54:00 GMT

Configuration:

MCEBuddy works without configuration, however you can configure its behaviour.

Source Path

The location of MCE recorded video. Defaults to the MCE location. if you perform encoding on another system set this path to the source location, otherwise leave it as is.

Destination Path

The destination path is the location for converted video. The default is the location for the video library for MCE XP or Vista depending on platform.

This path can be a network location. If this is the case you will need to ensure the service can access that location. If the network location has public access (ie. there is no username/password required to access that location) then you need to make no changes. If the destination requires a logon there are two options:

If the MCE system is part of a domain, you need to create a domain account which has Administrative permissions on the local MCE system and full control to the destination path. Then you need to change the service account using the Administrative Tools-Services MMC. A screenshot is here. If you install a new version of MCEBuddy you'll need to set the service account again.
If not part of a domain you need to create a local user account for MCEBuddy with the same username and password that is required to connect to the network location. Then you need to change the service account using the Administrative Tools-Services MMC. A screenshot is here. If you install a new version of MCEBuddy you'll need to set the service account again.

Video Format

MCEBuddy supports three video formats: H.264, WMV and XVid.

WMV is an OK format and Media Center can play it without requiring additional codecs such as FFDSHow. However it is not nearly as good as Xvid or H.264 and produces much larger files.
Xvid has wide support and is good across platforms.
H.264 is the best format of the three for picture quality and size (you lose FWD,RWD under MCE, skip still works)

Recommendation: Use H.264

If you are technically minded and you really want fast forward and rewind not just skip forward and rewind, have a look at the Media Control Plugin for Windows Vista Media Center.

Display Format

Ensure you select the correct display format for your location. If you live in the following countries you probably use NTSC:

Antigua El Salvador Philippines Bahamas Ecuador Puerto Rico Barbados Guam Saipan Barbuda Guatemala Samoa Belize Haiti South Korea Bermuda Honduras Saint Kitts Bolivia Jamaica Saint Lucia Burma Japan Saint Vincent Cambodia Mexico Surinam Canada Midway Islands Taiwan Cayman Islands Netherland Antilles Tobago Chile Nicaragua Trinidad Colombia North Mariana Island United States Costa Rica Panama Venezuela Cuba Peru Virgin Islands.

If you live in the following countries you probably use PAL:

Afghanistan Holland Portugal Albania Hong Kong Qutar Algeria Iceland Romania Angola India Singapore Argentina Indonesia Somalia Australia Ireland South Africa Austria Israel S.W. Africa Azores Italy Spain Baharain Jordan Sri Lanka Bangladesh Kenya Sudan Belgium Kuwait Swaziland Botswana Laos Sweden Brazil Liberia Switzerland Brunei Madeire Tanzania Cameroon Malaysia Thailand Canary Islands Malta Turkey Cyprus Mozambique Uganda Denmark Nepal United Arab Emirates Dubai New Guinea United Kingdom England New Zealand Uruguay Ethiopia Nigeria West Germany Faeroe Islands North Korea Yemen Finland Norway Yugoslavia Ghana Oman Zambia Gibraltar Pakistan Zimbabwe Guinea Paraguay

If you're not sure and you are not an American, choose PAL. I haven't done anything for SECAM. If its needed, drop me a lineski.

Video Quality

In reality, this sets the size of the converted video. Lower quality = smaller resolution = smaller file size.

Very high provides 1920 wide (HDTV 1080)
High provides 1280 wide (HDTV 720)
Normal provides 720 wide (DVD - default)
Low provides 640 wide (Default analogue TV)
Very low provides 320 wide
iPod/Zune provides 320x240 cropped - NOTE: iPod, PSP and Zune support are greatly improved in version 1.0.6 (currently in beta).

Only use High or Very High if you are already recording in High Definition Television and you want to retain this resolution and quality as the files can get pretty big (by comparison).

Recommendation: If unsure, use Normal.

Conversion Hours Restriction

MCEBuddy by default will automatically convert a TV recording file a little while after it is has been recorded. If you wish to restrict when this can happen (eg. overnight) then select the valid hours of operation.

It is worth noting that the conversion threads operate at a very low priority, and as such can operate in conjunction with Media Center operation (including recordings) on reasonably equipped systems. If you're not sure, try it at the same time and if there is choppiness in the display or recording or response issues with Media Center itself, then schedule the operation. Vista Media Center has been found to be better in this regard than the XP version.

Also note the hours of operation are for the start of the conversion process. The conversion of a recording will not stop or pause if it was initiated during these hours and the time exceeds the operating time. Any subsequent files will be delayed until the next operating period.

General Configuration

Delete original video file selects whether the original file (pre-conversion DVR-MS file) should be deleted. Once you are comfortable conversion is occurring reliably, this should be set unless you have a ton of disk space or want to keep the original for some other reason.

Commercial skipping turns on or off the commercial skipper. The commercial skipper will remove identified commercials during the conversion process. Commercial skipping is not 100% and some commercials will not get picked up. Comskip gets a lot of them, ShowAnalyzer gets even more.

ShowAnalyzer notes: If you have ShowAnalyzer installed and commercial skipping enabled ShowAnalyzer will be used automatically instead of Comskip. NOTE! ShowAnalyzer will now be configured for MCEBuddy use by default. Specifically, the status window will be invisible and EDL output enabled. ShowAnalyzer has two modes, normal and free. If you are using it as a trial it will work in normal mode for 14 days and revert to free mode after that period. The free version will not process DVR-MS files and as such will not strip ads. The net result is if you want the more effective ad removal, you'll need to buy a copy ($10).

Sort by series groups recordings of a series (eg. AFL Season 2007 Football) into separate directories under the destination directory instead of putting the converted files all into one single directory.

Video age before conversion allows you to specify how many days old a recording needs to be before it is converted.

Debugging/Troubleshooting

If you have issues, first check the Windows Event Log, where most MCEBuddy problems are logged.

If you find a bug, drop me a line at mcebuddy@tyrell.com.au.

Background

MCE storing recorded video in DVR-MS format in 2007 is, in my and many other opinions a design flaw. There should have at least been the option to use another more efficient codec for systems capable of performing the task (probably H.264). As DVR-MS is still used in MCE Vista, this isn't going to change in a real hurry, so the community members needed to come up with something themselves.

As its a multi-threaded service later I'll start to add features to cover some other MCE annoyances I've found, or others have sent in.

I hope this helps the more tech or time challenged amongst us. If there are enhancements you can recommend, email them to be at mcebuddy@tyrell.com.au.