TVedia FAQ and troubleshooting guide
Installation
Q: What installer does TVedia use?
A: Windows installer 2.0. You need to have the installer installed before you can install
TVedia. Windows installer comes with Windows XP. If you are using
Windows 2000,
you may need to download the latest version of Windows installer. If you are installing directly from TVedia’s web
installation page, installer will be downloaded automatically if necessary.
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Q: Why does the installer erase older files?
A: To make sure the correct files get installed. Before each install, you need to uninstall an already installed
version of TVedia. This process may erase some of your modified files that contain your customization if you have modified
the files under C:\Program Files\8Dim\TVedia4 directly. TVedia uses a mechanism to save all customizations under
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\8Dim\TVedia, which are not erased during uninstall.
General
Q: How to mount and unmount CD images?
A: Use "Mount Virtual CD" and "Unmount Virtual CD" editboxes on the options dialog's General tab to provide external commands
to mount/unmount a virtual CD. For example
"c:\program files\D-tools\daemon.exe" -mount 0,"%s" "c:\program files\D-tools\daemon.exe" -unmount 0
Where %s is the filename to mount. It will be substituted by TVedia with the proper filename when a cue file is selected. Make sure you include all quotes like above. By default only .cue files can be mounted. You can modify the suffixes.xml file to include other types, and label them as "cdimg".
Q: How to display different languages in the on screen UI?
A: Almost all the strings in the on screen user interface are defined in the string table xml files under Strings directory.
You can copy over the English.xml, rename it to your own language, and translate the strings in the file. The download section at
8dim.com also provides a number of already translated language files from our loyal users.
Q: Can I make a feature suggestion?
A: Sure. Please email suggestions to support@8dim.com.
Media Collection
Q: How large can my media collection be?
A: TVedia can handle very large collections. TVedia uses sqlite database, and can serve XML formatted
UPnP query results very fast. The response is almost instantaneous even for very large dataset across the home network.
Results are always streamed from the server to the client, so the items are shown as they arrive across the network.
Q: I have two albums with the same title but from different artists; how do I show different album art for them?
A: TVedia uses the album title as the index for cover art; as a result two albums with the same title have to share
the same cover art. The workaround is to rename the albums (possibly by adding artist's name at the end) to disambiguate.
Media playback
Q: I cannot playback some media files. What do I do?
A: You probably don't have the right codec installed. If you are using Xcard, you don't need to install codec for
MPEG1, MPEG2, DVD or standard MPEG4 video (no GMC or QPel), but you still need codec for other type of videos,
e.g. WMV, RealMedia, some flavor of DIVX files. For PC graphics card based playback, in addition, you need to install
DVD decoder, and some type of MPEG4 decoder for popular AVI files, for example, FFDSHOW filter, or DIVX decoder.
If it still fails for you, TVedia's logging tool can be used to figure out what codec is missing. Run TVediaLogOn.reg,
and a C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\8Dim\TVedia\TVedia.log file is created to record any errors
during playback. If you cannot figure out the problem, email the log to support@8dim.com and describe briefly what
you are trying to do
Q: How can I play video/audio from the web?
A: You can either drag and drop the URL to the OnNow area in TVedia, or use TVedia’s context menu to enter a URL to play.
Q: Can I display visualization when playing audio only files (e.g. MP3)?
A: Not yet. However, you can play picture slideshow while playing back audio only files. There is also a FlickrShow
function that you can use to display pictures related to the artist on Flickr. A random slideshow is generated from Flickr
search results using artist’s name as the search keyword.
Q: How can I playback DTS and AC3 audio files?
A: You need to install DTS and AC3 decoder filters, for example FFDSHOW audio filter. For Xcard, DTS audio can only be
played if it's a part of the DVD when Xcard is used. AC3 audio can also be played if it's embedded in an AVI file.
Q: How to output digital audio via SPDIF (e.g. when playing DVDs)?
A: Outputting digital audio via SPDIF in its raw format through a PC sound card can be a tricky process.
The key is to allow the original digital audio signal pass to your receiver/amplifier unaltered. There are two major
components in the audio path that need to be configured properly to do so. First, your sound card needs to support SPDIF
output in raw format. When configuring the sound card, make sure digital output is used (on Windows XP, you can do so
from system volume control panel, check the Advanced Control item under Options, and press the Advanced
button to the lower left corner, then check Digital Output Only. You may also need to use sound card’s native configuration
application to allow Bass to be redirected, and disable sound card based AC3/DTS decoding. Second, your software decoder
needs to allow SPDIF to pass through. Most audio decoders have per application settings. So you need to start playback;
use the context menu to bring up the property page for the audio decoder filter, then configure the output to be SPDIF.
Q: How to use bookmarks?
A: During playback, you can add bookmarks by going to the NowPlaying page, and select the Bookmarks menu item.
This can be done to both file and DVD playbacks. You can then jump to a bookmark by selecting a bookmark in the list, or
press PREV or NEXT remote buttons to jump to the previous or next bookmark. A bookmark selector is also
available when pausing the video then pressing TITLE button. The bookmarks can be more quickly accessed from the selector.
Q: FF and REW position is not accurate. What's going on?
A: FF and REW have to jump to a key frame. MPEG4 encoding method has sparse key frames, which means FF and REW is less accurate then
MPEG1 or MPEG2 encoded files.
Q: How to use wide screen TV with TVedia?
A: Go to Settings/Display Settings/Full Screen Properties page, and select Wide Screen.
This selection tells
TVedia that the whole screen is projected onto a 16:9 TV screen, which means
objects displayed need to be scaled to display in the correct aspect ratio.
Some media file has black bars on top and bottom encoded in the video to make
the output appear to be wide screen, but in wide TV aspect ratio mode, not
knowing there are black bars in the video, TVedia will add black bars to the
left and right sides to adjust for aspect ratio. This results in video being
displayed only at the center of the screen. You can press SELECT button
to zoom in the video and remove black bars on all 4 sides.
Q: Can I playback media files in slow motion and frame step in TVedia?
A: Yes. Press PAUSE to pause the video and then SLOW or FF to frame step.
Q: While viewing slide show, can I play background music?
A: Yes. Simply queue up some audio only files, and go slideshow. Enjoy the picture and music at the same time.
Q: How to display subtitle when playing back video?
A: DVD subtitle is available by default. Press SUBTITLE button to switch between different subtitle tracks.
To display subtitle with a media file playback, you need to have VSFilter installed, and a subtitle file available
to be displayed. Use SUBTITLE
button to switch between subtitle tracks. Subtitle also works for OGM and MKV containers.
Q: The information shown when playback is paused is useful, but I really like a clean screen. How do I disable it?
A: Check the Do not show OSD on pause box on Settings/On Screen Display page.
Q: I can playback video in Windowed mode fine, but when in full screen, it always fails, what is going on?
A: Make sure you have DirectX9(c) installed, and the latest service pack for your Windows OS installed (SP2 for Windows XP).
If you are running TVedia on Windows 2000, you may have to upgrade to Windows XP.