Help with Windows XP Media Edition

[tangman99]

Ok PC gurus. See if you can figure this one out. I have a laptop that is running Windows XP Media Edition. It has a TV tuner that allows you to watch TV and record. I am trying to use the TV tuner with Nero 6 because Media Edition does not do what I want. Whenever I lauch Nero and try to watch TV through the tuner, it immediately says that the Tuner is currently being used by another device and to close it and try again.
There is nothing else running at all so I'm guessing that the Media Edition being part of XP is using the TV tuner by default. Does anyone know how I can confirm this and free it up so I can use it in Nero? Nothing is running under task manager and I can't pinpoint any processes that may be using it.

 

[wamp]

Hey, I am looking into your problem. Don't know if I will have an answer, but I too am curious...
Seems to me that Media IS grasping control of it.. Perhaps it can be turned off ina setting but I don't know where.. If Media holds the drivers, well you may have some issues...
Look under your task manager under processes... Look for any that may be releated to Windows Media.. You may have to google them to find it.. Try ending that process and see what happens.. Might make the OS unstable though...

 

[tangman99]

Hi Wamp,
Any help would be great. I've posted on few XP Media Center boards and some of the things I've found is that Media Center does indeed grab the card, but it is rumored that it releases it 30 seconds after you shut it down. WRONG!
They also suggest stopping the Media Center Scheduler Service and stopping all processes that start with "eh".
I've tried all this and none of it worked.

 

[brandons]

Never used Media Edition, but the services sound like they would work. Stop related services.

 

[tangman99]

Originally posted by BrandonS
Never used Media Edition, but the services sound like they would work. Stop related services.
That's the problem. I have no idea which services to stop other than what I've been told.

 

[wamp]

A few quesitions,
1- Was the laptop preloaded with Media Center?
2- Which NERO version are you running?
3- What would you like done with NERO that can not be done with the Media Player?
I am still looking for answers.. The answers to the above will help my quest.
I have a funny suspision that XP Media is built to work within itself and once booted, it takes control of all releated periphals... There "should" be a service to start and stop, but the problem is finding out which one and also how many there are.. There can be multiple services controling one action...

 

[tangman99]

Originally posted by wamp
A few quesitions,
1- Was the laptop preloaded with Media Center?
2- Which NERO version are you running?
3- What would you like done with NERO that can not be done with the Media Player?
I am still looking for answers.. The answers to the above will help my quest.
I have a funny suspision that XP Media is built to work within itself and once booted, it takes control of all releated periphals... There "should" be a service to start and stop, but the problem is finding out which one and also how many there are.. There can be multiple services controling one action...
Thanks Wamp for trying to help me with this. I have not gotten any further.
1. Yes
2. Version 6.3 Trial edition which is full version with date limit.
3. Media Player does not work with my component inputs for some reason and the coax input makes for bad quality. I have tried several other capture programs that also have problems but don't specify that the Tuner is being used. They just give me setup errors. I guess the problem with media center is I can setup the TV inputs to see the component video, but it will not keep the setting. When I go back and try to use it, it defaults to a channel input like 3 or 4 which is snow. I've heard if I setup the IR transmitter and configure all the other settings, it will work, but my only input is a VCR and I'm not using Satellite or Cable as my source. It just seems like a piece of crap like Windows 95 ME.
I'm pretty sure there is a process or service that I still do not know about, but I don't want to just start shutting things down.

 

[wamp]

You know, Media center is a Mystery to everyone. Not much out there on it.. Still looking though.. Coming up with blanks so far.
I have given the question to Microsoft though. We have an EA with them and also have a staff member who is our Microsoft Compatibility programer and he too is curious about it. He will also look into when he gets some time..

 

[tangman99]

It's definitely a mystery. I've searched and posted on several boards with no luck.
It looks like they just created a TIVO that can record TV for you. The funny thing is it took me goofing around with it 2 hours trying to get it just to show a vcr movie. It would show the picture for about 1 second and then all sound the picture would disappear. It turned out that I was using a purchased VCR tape to set it up and it would not play it because it has copy protection. When I put in a home movie, it played it fine but won't hold the component settings. It looks like another Mellenium Edition piece of garbage to me. How useless is something that won't play anything with copy protection?