New util: MC Menu Mender

[Advent]

I noticed that by default, we can't change the location of certain items, like the "video library" under pictures and videos. This was pretty annoying to me, but I still had enough functionally to make some nice menu changes.

Could you be a bit more specific about "can't change the location of certain items"? Do you mean that Menu Mender wouldn't let you drag them? Did MC crash when you moved them to other strips? Did you move them in Menu Mender but they didn't change in MC? The only restriction on where you can move "video library" should be that it must be below the pictures and video strip in the list.

Then, today I swapped my Media Center Theme, to what I had during the last setup. The fish background (ehres.dll swap), and it turns out I'm now able to make those changes that I couldn't before. I'm not sure of how much more can be changed exactly (being careful not to break it again =p) but I will test it further and let you know.

Sorry if this has been discussed before.

No, it hasn't - i'll be interested to hear what you observe!

Hello.
i have made a custom menu for My Games, and because of an error mc asked me if i wanted to disable the Advent custom strip.. or something like that.
so i said yes and now i cant bring it back

on MC Menu Mender it appears normally...

can anyone help me? thanks.

Strange that reverting ehres.dll helped you here, because this relates to a registry setting that Menu Mender doesn't support (until the next upcoming release). You can fix it by going into Settings->General->Program Library Options->Edit Start Menu in MC and ticking the box next to the strip that has been disabled.

[Astrotoy7]

I was tooling around with this for a while yesterday trying to get the "NBC Olympics" to act as it should. Unfortunately, after around 2 hours, I had to give up..

Can you offer me some sort of advice on how to get this set up?

Are you in the US? If No, what proxy are you using to validate that service. It will only work with a US IP. I only got it to work setting up a proxy using a legit US IP from a friend.

astro

[swears]

Could you be a bit more specific about "can't change the location of certain items"? Do you mean that Menu Mender wouldn't let you drag them? Did MC crash when you moved them to other strips? Did you move them in Menu Mender but they didn't change in MC? The only restriction on where you can move "video library" should be that it must be below the pictures and video strip in the list.


No, it hasn't - i'll be interested to hear what you observe!

Advent, sorry for not being specific enough. Menu Mender DOES allow the change, however when opening Media Center back up, I get an error and It will not open.

Here's the ehres.dll file I'm using so you can check it out. http://www.yousendit.com/download/Q0...WkI4NVh2Wmc9PQ

Just rename your current one so you have it as a backup.

Yes, that was the restriction I was talking about. With this file, you can move it to any strip.

[Advent]

Version 0.4 of MC Menu Mender is now available from:

http://rapidshare.com/files/13792914...Mender_0.4.msi

New features for this release:

TV Support Pack 2008 (Fiji) support
There are a few differences between the normal version of MC and Fiji with regards to menus:

• It is now possible to move any built in menu item to any built in strip, regardless of where it is in the list. Also, pressing back to return to the main menu will now return you to the correct strip.
• There is no longer a limit on the number of custom strips you can have.
• It is not possible to disable built in menu items. Hopefully i'll have a fix for this soon.

Changes for default Vista (non-Fiji)

• It is now not possible to configure the menu in such a way that it will crash (by moving a built in item to a strip above the original strip for the item). When hovering over an item that has been moved from its original menu an arrow will appear showing the original strip for the item.
• Fix for crash when a 3rd party application has no title.
• Fix for certain cases where multiple 3rd party links are assigned to the same built in strip.

Other new features
When configuring entry points, you can now specify keys that will close or kill the application. This will allow you to launch any application and close it again using the remote. To enable this, open the properties page for an entry point, make sure "Use wrapper" is checked, then check either "Close the program..." or "Kill the program..." (close asks the application nicely to close, kill will just make it die). You add/remove keys that will close/kill the app - if it's not working, click the add button and press the button on your remote that you want to kill the app - the corresponding key will be added to the list. You can also select both close and kill, so that you have a backup if the close key doesn't work.

You should be able to use this feature to set up applications like PowerDVD or other Blu-ray players to integrate nicely with MC, although I haven't actually tested with any of these applications.

Hope it works for you all.

[saxnix]

Nice job on beta 4. The arrows showing where you have moved a tile is a great addition.

[reycom]

Thank you very very much!!!

[swears]

Version 0.4 of MC Menu Mender is now available from:

http://rapidshare.com/files/13792914...Mender_0.4.msi

New features for this release:

TV Support Pack 2008 (Fiji) support
There are a few differences between the normal version of MC and Fiji with regards to menus:

• It is now possible to move any built in menu item to any built in strip, regardless of where it is in the list. Also, pressing back to return to the main menu will now return you to the correct strip.
• There is no longer a limit on the number of custom strips you can have.
• It is not possible to disable built in menu items. Hopefully i'll have a fix for this soon.

Changes for default Vista (non-Fiji)

• It is now not possible to configure the menu in such a way that it will crash (by moving a built in item to a strip above the original strip for the item). When hovering over an item that has been moved from its original menu an arrow will appear showing the original strip for the item.
• Fix for crash when a 3rd party application has no title.
• Fix for certain cases where multiple 3rd party links are assigned to the same built in strip.

Other new features
When configuring entry points, you can now specify keys that will close or kill the application. This will allow you to launch any application and close it again using the remote. To enable this, open the properties page for an entry point, make sure "Use wrapper" is checked, then check either "Close the program..." or "Kill the program..." (close asks the application nicely to close, kill will just make it die). You add/remove keys that will close/kill the app - if it's not working, click the add button and press the button on your remote that you want to kill the app - the corresponding key will be added to the list. You can also select both close and kill, so that you have a backup if the close key doesn't work.

You should be able to use this feature to set up applications like PowerDVD or other Blu-ray players to integrate nicely with MC, although I haven't actually tested with any of these applications.

Hope it works for you all.

Just installed TV Pack 2008 on clean install x64 (again) after thinking it didn't work on my existing setup. Turns out I'm running into issues here as well .

First off, when I open Menu Mender, I see 3 TV + Movie Strips!! I tried disabling all 3 of them and creating my own separate "TV" strip but ended up crashing Menu Mender. Also, when I try moving built in items to custom strips, media center refuses to open up and gives an error.

To me it seems, TV Pack makes the menu's much less customizable. For now, it looks like I'll be reinstalling Vista w/o the TV Pack to get my nice menus back.

On a side note - has anyone been able to see the "Tune Network" icon in the Tasks strip? It only shows up in MM for me and never in MC.

[Advent]

Just installed TV Pack 2008 on clean install x64 (again) after thinking it didn't work on my existing setup. Turns out I'm running into issues here as well .

First off, when I open Menu Mender, I see 3 TV + Movie Strips!!

Yeh, that's expected - MC must decide at run-time which one to show.

I tried disabling all 3 of them and creating my own separate "TV" strip but ended up crashing Menu Mender.

How exactly did you crash MM? Can you send me a support package?

Also, when I try moving built in items to custom strips, media center refuses to open up and gives an error.

You should never be able to move built in items to custom strips - if MM is letting you do this then it is a mistake and i'll have to fix it.

[aanda6]

Advent, I have just tired this build and does not seem to be working the way it use to. cannot remove/add to tv strip. if I remove moretv it crashes mc. adding new items also seemed to crash a lot of things.

Was this based on the OEM version of media pack, or the pre-release(supposed time bomb). perhaps something changed?

[Advent]

Advent, I have just tired this build and does not seem to be working the way it use to. cannot remove/add to tv strip. if I remove moretv it crashes mc. adding new items also seemed to crash a lot of things.

Was this based on the OEM version of media pack, or the pre-release(supposed time bomb). perhaps something changed?

What do you mean "cannot remove/add to tv strip"? what exactly are you trying to do, and what exactly happens when you do it? How are you removing moretv? Disabling items isn't supported yet for TV Pack 2008. Can you send me a support package when it is in a state that crashes MC?

[aanda6]

well that explains it then. However the option is there to disable more tv, it is the only item on the tv strip that has the option to remove, but crashes when you do. My appolagies, I should have read the release notes first. I am sure that you will get this working great as you normally do.

[Advent]

Version 0.4.1 is now available from:

http://rapidshare.com/files/13900219...nder_0.4.1.msi

Changes are:

• Full support for TV Support Pack 2008. This includes enabling/disabling all items/strips.
• Added strips to represent auto play items for blu-ray and HD DVD. These strips can contain a single 3rd party item, and will be executed when a disc of the appropriate type is entered. I haven't been able to test these, so if someone could confirm if they work that would be great.
• Several UI tweaks and bug fixes.

P.S. aanda6 - that was an oversight on my part, allowing you to disable the more tv item. Sorry!