Hi, First off, i love this app, or the possibilties of this app. I downloaded the lite version and it worked flawlessly, so on that i purchased the full app. It worked great for a few hours and now i am getting the: "I cant fix this error its microsofts probem" now playing error. (Im paraphrasing of course :D). I have followed the steps as outlined (run un-install as admin, reboot, then run install as admin) several times and it does not work, i get the same problem. Are there any other things i can try? Like i said i was using the Lite version perfectly for a few days and was impressed. One other side bug i can cope with but is strange...if i click a song in the library, i get the play, enqueue, add to playlist, cancel buttons.  The cancel button only seems to work on a certain part of the button, on the far left.  Pressing any other part of the button doesnt work.  Its almost as if the touch overlay is in the wrong place or something (i dont know, im not a developer :-).

 Apart from these issues, it was working great! I would also like to recommend that you place volume controls on the now playing screen like the ipod, it is a royal pain having to switch to the remote control.  TBH i have no need for the scan bar, but would definately like the volume controls (even better if you could get the hard buttons on the side to work but im sure that is a lot more difficult / impossible.

 Please get back to me about the now playing issue.  FYI this is Win 7 32-Bit / iPhone 3GS

 Thanks,

Cork.

 Hi, this app looks like just the thing I need...only I've got 64 bit windows.

Any idea when support for 64 bit will be included? 

 First of all, sorry that it took me so long to reply. I do not find much time at the moment.

@johnmorton: I have no intention to support ZuneHD.

@nyoung: The point about the Show Compilation Artists is very interesting. I have to look into that. Especially, as I would have expected it the other way around.

@madlan: Please note that 64 Bit is not supported. It has been reported to me that it does not work. Reason seems to be the third party dll I am using to get hold of the nowplaying queue. But I have no reason to complain about it, as it was the only way to get the information out of the WMP.

@rgunther: To 1: Probably yes. But it would mean a big responsiveness issue. There is already the option to lower the cover resolution in server settings file. This could help.
To 2: Yeah, that is possible, although, the space there is already pretty limited. I did not payed much attention to volume control as I am not using the Media Center Volume at all, the receiver is responsible for this in my home theater setup.
To 3: Perhaps I am to tired, but I do not get what you mean?
To 4: This would be possible, but means a lot of work (sync methods, methods to match the playlists to the client database, ...) I do not have the time to do this at the moment, sorry.
To 5: Rating should be possible. Perhaps in the future.
Thanks for your critics, despite that I am probably not able to fulfill all of your dreams ;-) By the way, next update will be simple radio stream selection support. But give me some time.

@thecork: Make sure that Media Center as well as WMP are not running when you de-register the dll. You could also try to de-register it in safe-mode (is this still available in Win7 ???).
Furthermore, make sure that the dll and the server are at a place were the user that is executing Media Center has write access. Try to put the files into a folder that is not system controlled (not under the standard programs folder). I am not sure that this plays a role, but it does not harm to try it. You see that I am guessing a bit, as I never had the problem that the repair method does not worked.
By the way, the lite and full versions are completely the same regarding the communication to the server. So your problem is not related to the client change to the full version.
I know about the cancel button problem. I suspect it is an SDK problem, but perhaps it is also a problem in my code. I will have a look at it again.

@active: See my reply to madlan. 64 Bit support is not possible at the moment.

@Everybody with not working sync (stopping after 1/3): There has been a report that missing write rights for media center in the vmcMote server folder prevent proper syncing. This is logic, as the server is not able to write its local db for the client if the process has no write rights.

Greetings, Thomas

hi dimbo i am facing the same problem as you.please let me know the solution if you were able to find one.thanks

There have been reports via email that the repair method for the wmpuice.dll unavailable error (not able to fetch the now playing queue) is not working under windows 7 RTM. I have spent a whole day investigating this issue.

I can confirm that the "unregister - reboot - register again" fix that vmcMote is proposing in the error message is not working. Unfortunately, I was not able to find a solution. The procedure in safe mode did not worked. Several regsrv calls to different dlls did not resolved it either.

 

The problem is actuall the following (pretty technical, but perhaps somebody can help me out):

Programs register their COM+ interfaces to the so called "running object table" (ROT table). This table can be made visible by a small tool. For thous of you, who want to try this out, i uploaded the c# source code I used under http://freenet-homepage.de/thm82/files/rot_viewer.cs .

All machines (I tried it on 2 virtual machine windows installations) where wmpuice.dll was working showed the following line in the rot table: clsid:91778246-9BE4-4713-A651-E833B853CC30:!session:1clsid:91778246-9BE4-4713-A651-E833B853CC30:!session:1

I verified in the registry that the  91778246-9BE4-4713-A651-E833B853CC30 clsid belongs to the wmp. Well, my windows 7 RTM system with broken wmp remoting does not show this line. I can only conclude that the wmp is not properly registering its remote COM object in the running objects table on broken machines. This prevents the proper funtioning of wmpuice.dll and therefore also of vmcMote.

I found no way to fix the wmp. Therfore, that it registers itself again. If somebody knows a solution, please tell me. I am actually not a super expert in windows COM.

 

Otherwise, there were hints that the new media center sdk for windows 7 provides a method to get hold of the now playing queue. I also spent a few hours to try this. It is actually still not possible to access it from inside the SDK. Therfore, remoting the wmp is still the only method to access the now playing queue and sync it with the IPhone.

Because of all this, windows 7 support is still to be considered as BETA! Sorry that I can not provide a solution at the moment. So be aware that showing the now playing information may be breake if you use vmcMote on windows 7 RTM. All other functionality of vmcMote, like sync, browsing the library, enqueing tracks, creating playlists, remoting and so on do work though!

 

Greetings, Thomas

 

I just bought vmcmote.  It is exactly what I have been looking for - a program similar to Remote in the App Store, but to access my Vista Media Centre since I have a lot of DRM wma tracks.  Being able to browse my 10000+ music track collection easily is vital to me.

 I set it up without any problems except for one very annoying bug.

 In the remote function, the UP volume button does not increase the volume, whereas the DOWN button works.  The volume control on other remote programs I have installed on my iPhone work fine.

What could be the problem, and how can I fix it ?

 I would also agree with an earlier post, that a slider volume control like in the iPod application would be much better than up/down buttons.

Also, on the iPhone, I can't seem to add songs from the Library to a different playlist other than the default "Playlist".  It should let me choose which playlist to add it to.

 If you can fix these problems, I would highly recommend the app.

Hi, will there be an update for this software soon not that Windows7 has been released for some time.

Since an upgrade to windows 7 i can no long use vmcMote as the application crashes on each VMC start.

Cheers 

@Riker88: Volume Up is working fine on my machines. Do you probably have any application installed that redirects the Media Center shortcut (F10 key) for volume up?
Regarding the playlist: Just create a new playlist (in the "browse" view). The principle is that tracks are always added to the playlist that is just edited (in edit mode).

 @Colincliff: Did you downloaded the latest version of the vmcmote server after you upgraded from Vista to Windows 7? Just because the latest server (out a few month now) should have fixed the crash on startup issue on windows 7 systems that was present in earlier versions.

Or did I missunderstood you and there was an update to windows 7 lately that broke vmcMoteServer again? However, I am not aware of an update, at least my system performed no update, but this could probalby be different in other regions in the world.

 

@all: I am working on a new server version that is able to show at least the currently played track on windows 7 RTM systems with broken WMP remoting (wmpuice.dll error). However, I still do not see a way to restore the beeing remoteable ability of WMP (restore the COM interface). Therefore, getting access to the complete now playing queue on windows 7 RTM systems seems to be out of scope until MS fixes WMP or provides access to the queue it in the MediaCenter SDK (I would not count on the second option however :-(  ). 

 

Greetings, Thomas

 

 

 

 Is there any updates to this app..

 Have the same issue using a win7 32bit machine... 

does not sync the database.. shows MusicDatabase.getNextTrack() - error in duration conversion, string is, in the log file.. 

If i sync my db like 20 times sometimes it completes but when i go into the library it only shows like 5 artists out of  450

 

@CaMs: Can you please sent me your logfile.  I would really like to see what the problem with the duration conversation is. And are you running the Lite or the Full Version? Be aware that the Lite version is limited to 100 Tracks, that would explain only 5 artists. That the sync is not always completing is strange however. Its running fine on all my various test machines here. Perhaps the log can help me to find your problem.

 

@All: I submitted version 1.1.0 to Apple today. Its in the review process. It will provide several fixes (like a WMP remoting not working circumvention under windows 7) and also some new features (like Radio Stream support, volume control via slider, playing video info and scrolling under windows 7). Stay tuned 

 

Greetings, Thomas

 

 

This remote with 2-way communication for controlling Media Center Music looks fantastic, just what I was looking for.

 Unfortunately I have Windows 7 64-bit, so no go at the moment, apparantly.

I would gladly pay USD 20 for a 64-bit version, if it should become available.

Still hoping...

Respect, Allan

This is EXACTLY the app I've been looking for, as far as the screenshots go. I'd buy it in a snap, if only I could install the server... It fails everytime with a dialog roughly saying (translated from french) "The module C:\.....\wmpuice.dll was loaded but the call to DllRegisterServer failed with the error code 0x80070005"

@prioxy: Looks to me as if your are not executing the install.bat as administrator (right klick -> run as admin). If you do this, it should work. Read the README.txt for more information on installation or consult the help section on the project website.

@amolldk: I just submitted version 1.1.1 to apple. Besides quite a few bugfixes, the server is now compatible with 64 Bit. Support for 64 Bit is still considered as BETA, but I tested it with Windows 7 64 Bit and everything seemed to work as expected. Stay tuned as long as it is in the review process ;-)

Greetings, Thomas

Woops, it looks like I didn't read the 4 lines instructions carefully enough... It is installed now. Thanks for the tip. That said, you should consider open source installers which gives users a much more streamlined experience. Anyways, I'll be back with a feedback tonight.

 Ok, now I'm ready for the first feedback.

First of all, congrats on the great app. This is exactly what I've been looking for, namely a "Remote" equivalent for MCE  (Remote is an Apple application to control an iTunes. If you have an iPhone, try it out it is like magic)

Now there are a few things that could be smoothed out, such as:

1. The install process on the server (although it was completely my fault ;-)

2. The music synchronization. Do we really have to go through the "Clear and retrieve database" every time a song is added to the library? It'd be great to have something smoother (Remote is a good example of that)

3. When hitting the "search" button, can the keyboard pop out automatically?

 4. A coverflow ;-) Ok, that one is a gizmo, but it is still nice especially for music where the list of artists is cluttered by singles and compilations when the coverflow (at least the iPod's one) is displaying an entry for each album, by artist, not by album title. Turning off the "Show compilation artists" flag is nice in this regard.

 

And of course the list of required features (mandatory ;-)

1. Can we have the same thing for videos? (namely, an ability to browse the videos folders and click on a video to launch it)

2. Ditto for the recorded TV (with search)

3. A great thing to add would be a fully controllable TV guide. That way I could schedule a show from anywhere in the house.

 

That's it for today ;-)

Again, kuddos  for the great app. The playlists thing looks very promising, although I didn't get a chance to play with it yet.