Thursday, February 25, 2010

The builds 148-151

14.0.151 (02/24/2010)

1. Fixed: During television playback, the J. River audio renderer would not be used.
2. Fixed: A timeout when reading from an internet resource could cause a crash.
3. Optimized: When using the J. River Audio Renderer for video playback, the DSP Studio is managed by the renderer instead of inserting a discrete DSP Studio transform filter in the playback graph.
4. Changed: Revised how clocking in J. River Audio Renderer works so that it nicely supports tempo and rate changes in DSP Studio (or other similar VST, etc. plugins).
5. Fixed: J. River audio renderer caused some videos to repeat the last sound byte forever.

14.0.150 (02/23/2010)

1. Fixed: Some WAV tags could cause the program to hang.
2. Fixed: Switching between a Directshow audio filter and a Media Center plugin for audio decoding would unnecessarily do a full-stop transition, making cross-fading, gapless, etc. impossible.
3. Changed: Improved lip-sync when using J. River audio renderer (may require one seek before lip-sync is correct).
4. Changed: Theater View's Playing Now looks and works better when playback is stopped.
5. Changed: Improved support of mu-law encoded AU files.
6. Fixed: Slim view would incorrectly do Windows 7-like edge snapping. (still snaps to edges, just doesn't fill half the screen)
7. Changed: Playing a physical DVD when connected to a library server that had also played that DVD would not work.
8. Changed: J. River audio renderer can be used for DVD, TV, and video playback.
9. Fixed: The more sophisticated resampling options from build 148 were not being honored during video playback.

14.0.149 (02/19/2010)

1. Fixed: Theater View list selection wouldn't properly reset to the beginning of a list when navigating into an item.
2. Optimized: Improved program shutdown performance.
3. Fixed: The new Playing Now in Theater View could hide the first file in the list view.
4. Internal: Revised how output plugins are loaded (should be internal change only, please report any issues).
5. Changed: Scheduled television recording will stop a low priority recording if a higher priority recording is scheduled.

14.0.148 (02/18/2010)

1. Fixed: Loading a DLNA library from some NAS drives would not support FLAC files.
2. Changed: Tightened up item spacing at bottom of Theater View's Playing Now.
3. Changed: Updated German language file (thanks Bytestar).
4. Chef's Recommendation NEW: Added ASIO 'Volume' option to allow customization of the system volume device controlled during ASIO playback (since ASIO device names do not always match Windows device names).
5. Changed: Improved volume matching mode during ASIO playback when the volume option is set to 'Automatically try to choose at playback time'.
6. Changed: When replacing Microsoft DTV-DVD audio decoder with another decoder during video, DVD, and television playback that involves AC3 audio decoding, a prominent message is displayed to show user of progress.
7. Fixed: MC could repeatedly download and install FLV splitter filter on Windows 7 due to failure to access registry.
8. Chef's Recommendation NEW: Output Format in DSP Studio allows more sophisticated resampling settings, making it easier to leave sample rates supported by your hardware untouched while resampling unsupported formats.
9. Changed: Updated copyright years on about and splash images.
10. Fixed: When playing a video, incorrect values could show in DSP Studio > Volume Leveling (replay gain not available for videos).

Thursday, February 18, 2010

The builds 145-147

14.0.147 (02/17/2010)

1. NEW: Theater View's Playing Now has functional position, volume, and star ratings (all items have left, right, enter functionality -- currently requires a remote or keyboard for functionality)
2. Fixed: The new Theater View Playing Now 'Info' panel was not tied to the correct file.
3. Changed: When Theater View jumps to Playing Now, it does it relative to the current view so "Back" will return to the previous view.
4. Changed: Theater View will jump to Playing Now when starting audio playback, a single
click will return. (can still be customized in Options > Theater View)

14.0.146 (02/16/2010)

1. NEW: Theater View has a new and improved Playing Now. (still a work in progress)
2. Changed: Pressing [Delete] at the end of an edit control no longer acts like pressing [Backspace].
3. Fixed: Windows 7 taskbar playback buttons would not be visible after restarting Media Center with Media Server already running.
4. Changed: By default, DLNA servers use relative URLs in their descriptions instead of full URLs. (can be changed in Options > DLNA > Server > Advanced > Use full URLs instead of relative URLs)

14.0.145 (02/15/2010)

1. NEW: Added Windows 7 snap-like functionality to the main application. (snaps to sides of displays, snaps to internal edges of multi-monitor systems, maximizes when snapping to top, works on any operating system)
2. Fixed: The mode 'Always active' vs 'Active when visible' displayed in Plug-in Manager for an interface plugin could be incorrect.
3. Changed: Dutch language translation updated. (thanks bennyd!)
4. Fixed: When using the search box in 'Wizard' mode, the 'Wizard' link in the middle of the search box and clear button was not correctly clickable.
5. Fixed: The volume slider would not reliably connect to the correct sound card for a zone during DVD playback with analog sound output.
6. Changed: When being externally controlled by a DLNA controller, Media Center will disable continuous without permanently changing the continuous setting.
7. Changed: When rendering a disabled version of a button with no disabled art, a faded version of the normal image will be used instead of a faded version of the pressed image.
8. Optimized: Improved startup performance.
9. Fixed: Fixed a case where loading a corrupt JPEG could cause a program crash.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

The builds 141-144

14.0.144 (02/12/2010)

1. NEW: Added support for Windows 7 taskbar buttons. Hover over MC on the taskbar to see playback control buttons on the application thumbnail.
2. Fixed: WASAPI exclusive pause could be unreliable after synchronizing multiple zones.
3. Changed: WASAPI option "Present 24-bit data in a 32-bit package" works more intelligently so less cards should need to change the option.
(option off by default but will use 32-bit packages if 24-bit packages fail to open; only force 32-bit packages if your hardware is failing to play 24-bit content)
4. Fixed: last.fm did not persist its running state properly when running under UAC.
5. Changed: Revised how DLNA renderer exposes metadata so that it works even with no DLNA server running.
6. Changed: When controlling DLNA devices, a shorter timeout is used for control functions to better handle spotty / disconnected devices.
7. Optimized: When using TRemote or DLNA control zones, the volume gets queried from the server less often.
8. Changed: Image tooltips will show the same information whether the large preview is in the tooltip or not. (things like camera, focal length, etc.)
9. Changed: Image tooltips wouldn't nicely format volume names in the filename, so a CD drive would show the hex volume ID.

14.0.143 (02/11/2010)

1. Changed: MC will attempt to use a known good decoder if automatic graph-building fails for DVD playback.
2. Fixed: Possible resource leak when stopping video playback.
3. Fixed: Drop panes would not properly filter the items in the list based on a view's search criteria.
4. Fixed: When using an Aero Glass enabled skin, views that did not support transparency (like Start) did not work properly with tabs.
5. Fixed: DSP Studio 'Output Format' subwoofer controls would be incorrectly enabled when 'No mixing' was selected for 5.1 and 7.1 output.
6. NEW: Added 12, 16, 24, and 32 channel output modes to DSP Studio > Output Format. (requires hardware capable of these modes; only 'no mixing' available for surround mixing)
7. NEW: DSP Studio 'Output Format' accepts any number of input and output channels when using 'No mixing' surround mixing. This makes it possible to play 12, 16, 24, 32, etc. channel WAV files with lesser hardware.
8. NEW: More Netflix metadata (synopsis, actors, director, etc.). [requires Options > Theater View > Customize file info panel... > Manage... > Reset All Templates To Default)
9. NEW: Added WASAPI option: Flush device buffers on startup (use if you hear a tick or miss part of the start).
10. Fixed: Possible race condition on fast multiple core machines that could cause WASAPI pause to be unreliable.

14.0.142 (02/10/2010)

1. Changed: MC will quietly deal with Microsoft DTV-DVD Audio Decoder's AC3 decoding issue by trying to substitute a known working decoder.
2. Fixed: Mouse capture was not working correctly in the player window, so grabbing the volume slider and moving the mouse out of the window wouldn't allow movement of the slider.
3. Changed: Clicking 'Configure...' in Zone Manager will show the audio, image, and video configuration pages (instead of just audio).
4. Fixed: During DLNA Server / Library Server conversion, temporary files could be left on disk until the program was restarted.
5. Fixed: Sorting specified in DLNA Server views using "Customize Views.." would not be honored.
6. Fixed: Scheduled television recording would not work if recording folder was specified in UNC.
7. Fixed: DLNA could advertise a bye-bye on shutdown for found devices (instead of just renderers / servers we were running).
8. Optimized: DLNA discovery broadcasts are handled more efficiently.
9. NEW: More DLNA metadata is supported like album artist, composer, track number, etc. (also includes Twonky extensions like rating, number plays, etc.)
10. Fixed: When syncing a portable device with library server files which needed conversion, the filenames on the device got truncated (e.g. ".mp3", "(2).mp3", etc.)
11. Changed: When calling SetAVTransportURI(...) on the DLNA renderer, it will start playing the new file right away if it was playing the old file.

14.0.141 (02/09/2010)

1. Changed: VST visualizers will receive data in smaller, smoother increments improving visualization quality. (requires low-latency playback like ASIO or WASAPI with the "Output mode settings..." buffering slider set to a small value)
2. Changed: Made Television options its own page in Options.
3. Changed: Reworked television options dialog to better fit in the Options dialog.
4. Changed: Moved image playback settings to its own Options page instead of using a popup.
5. Changed: Moved video playback settings to its own Options page, and reworked considerably.
6. Fixed: Configuring Options > File Types for a zone that wasn't active would not work properly.
7. Changed: Slight increase in vertical spacing of options dialog items.
8. Changed: During video playback, an option 'Color Controls...' is now available in the right-click menu which shows a popup with color controls.
9. Changed: The right-click video playback option 'Select Filters...' shows the same options dialog as 'Video playback settings...' since the newer options dialog supports all settings.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

The builds 138-140

14.0.140 (02/05/2010)

1. Fixed: WASAPI playback could fail to resume from a paused state in some cases with build 139 only.
2. Fixed: DSP Studio for video could result in the wrong renderer being used if the decoder output a format the renderer didn't support (even though the DSP could have converted it).
3. Changed: When doing a manual 'Recheck Sync' on a device, errors with transfer rights will be displayed instead of silently handled.
4. Fixed: Netflix and Hulu playback were broken.

14.0.139 (02/04/2010)

1. NEW: In "Theater View/Connected" there is a Netflix entry which will display and play the instant viewing queue for Netflix subscribers. More to come... (if Netflix doesn't appear for you, you can add it in Options > Theater View > Items To Show)
2. Fixed: ASIO playback with cards that used huge hardware buffers could pause periodically.
3. Changed: ASIO playback option 'Use large hardware buffers' caps the buffer size at a reasonable amount for better support of cards like the Asus Xonar that support huge hardware buffer sizes.
4. Changed: When using ASIO output, hardware latency is accounted for so that visualization data is more perfectly synchronized.
5. Fixed: When an output has a large hardware latency, visualizations could show data not yet heard during the buffering stage.
6. Fixed: DSP Studio during video playback didn't nicely handle a format switch from 32-bit integer to 32-bit floating point.
7. Fixed: DLNA function responses could use the wrong namespace (only applies to build 138).
8. Fixed: DLNA was not working nicely with devices on the non-primary network interface in a configuration with multiple network interfaces.
9. Changed: Revised the DLNA broadcasting of alive notifications to every 5 minutes instead of every minute. (please report if PS3 seems sluggish to find servers)
10. Fixed: Wasapi support was not showing up on XP systems.
11. Fixed: Saving television EPG programs to database took too long in the last few builds.
12. Fixed: madVR video renderer was not used even though the user chose to use it.
13. Fixed: Television playback was not using the correct video renderer selected by the user.
14. Fixed: With some audio hardware, in rare cases WASAPI playback could become garbled.
15. Fixed: Transparency of skinned controls in the search wizard would not work properly.
16. Fixed: The button and background of a combobox were not always drawn in step with regards to mouse-over and mouse-down states.
17. Fixed: In rare cases the position slider could draw outside its bounds when seeking to the end of a track.
18. Fixed: Some wait messages like 'Analyzing devices...' could appear even if Media Center was minimized.
19. Changed: [DLNA] server provides a more explicit list of supported content, enabling Sony Blu-ray player support and possibly others.
20. Changed: The mouse wheel on some horizontal sliders could move the handle in the opposite direction expected.

14.0.138 (02/02/2010)

1. Changed: Improved device description of X_MS_MediaReceiverRegistrar DLNA service for better XBox360 compliance.
2. Changed: DLNA service function responses will always return information in the same order as specified by the service description, aiding compatibility with some controllers.
3. Changed: Revised internals of DLNA server content directory to aid with standards compliance.
4. Changed: Improved DLNA renderer eventing so that it events more variables, making it work better with controllers that depend on this.
5. Fixed: DSP Studio did not work if the audio format from the decoder was 32-bit integer PCM.
6. Changed: If initial graph-building failed to connect user selected audio renderer, the renderer is removed from the graph and reloaded before MC attempts to connect it with DSP Studio filter.
7. Changed: Streamlined graph-building for "AF9015 BDA Filter" television tuner.
8. Fixed: Resampling from very high sample rates to lower sample rates could cause the output to loop on itself. (Affected Hrx content)

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

The build 137

14.0.137 (02/01/2010)

1. Changed: DLNA 'Renderer' option no longer takes a program restart to take effect.
2. Changed: DLNA does a better job of sending bye-bye messages when shutting down servers.
3. Changed: MC will reattempt using the user-selected audio renderer during DSP Studio filter insertion if initial graph-building fails to connect the selected renderer.
4. Fixed: DSP Studio filter was not applied to analog televison that is not in time-shifting mode.
5. Changed: DLNA renderer supports the function SetNextAVTransportURI for controllers that can use it, enabling gapless, cross-fading, etc.
6. NEW: If installed, madVR is made available in MC
7. Fixed: Clipboard could be overwritten with debugging data. (only applies to last couple builds)
8. Changed: Improved DLNA renderer volume and mute support to work with more DLNA controllers.
9. Fixed: Video renderer selection list was not available on the filter selections popup window.
10. Fixed: Adding a new library could show an incorrect error that a library already existed at the selected location.