ZProcess: Windows Services

[KiddBludd]

I was messing with my pc, trying to get it to start up quicker, and disabled a bunch of Windows Services.
I should have been more careful, but I figured it would be simple enough to re-enable the services if there were problems.

Well, now my MediaMVP is not working properly and I can't figure out what services it relies on. If I enable and start GBPVR Recording service and any service that says DCOM or COM, I can get my MVP to start up with GBPVR, but it won't play any videos with the .avi extension anymore. Rather, it won't transcode. I watched my PC as I chose a video from the MVP directory, and what I saw was ZProcess and Hunter flash for a bit and disappear. Then the MVP crashes and restarts.

Though, strangely, it plays most (not all) .avi videos from one of my harddrives but none at all from the other harddrive (I have 3 and only 2 contain the media files I watch on MVP). ZProcess runs fine in those instances.

As far as I know, I made no changes to ZProcess except for tinkering with the aspect ratio for a couple videos (speaking of which, why doesn't ZProcess adjust the aspect ratio automatically anymore, I never had to do it manually before upgrading GBPVR), so I assume it's got something to do with the Windows Services. I got it working fully a few days ago, but I have no idea what I did besides starting up the services I mentioned above.

I appreciate the help

[zehd]

I was messing with my pc, trying to get it to start up quicker, and disabled a bunch of Windows Services.
I should have been more careful, but I figured it would be simple enough to re-enable the services if there were problems.

Well, now my MediaMVP is not working properly and I can't figure out what services it relies on. If I enable and start GBPVR Recording service and any service that says DCOM or COM, I can get my MVP to start up with GBPVR, but it won't play any videos with the .avi extension anymore. Rather, it won't transcode. I watched my PC as I chose a video from the MVP directory, and what I saw was ZProcess and Hunter flash for a bit and disappear. Then the MVP crashes and restarts.

Though, strangely, it plays most (not all) .avi videos from one of my harddrives but none at all from the other harddrive (I have 3 and only 2 contain the media files I watch on MVP). ZProcess runs fine in those instances.

As far as I know, I made no changes to ZProcess except for tinkering with the aspect ratio for a couple videos (speaking of which, why doesn't ZProcess adjust the aspect ratio automatically anymore, I never had to do it manually before upgrading GBPVR), so I assume it's got something to do with the Windows Services. I got it working fully a few days ago, but I have no idea what I did besides starting up the services I mentioned above.

I appreciate the help

Well that's a kettle of fish...

First of all if ZProcess will transcode files from one drive but not others, then it's not ZProcess. (ZProcess does not interact with any services) I would suspect that there might be something like a windows service that allows for networking or drive management that is not making the drives accessible.

I have no idea why ZProcess is not auto aspect ratio calculating.

I believe too much has happened at this point to track down what services should be and shouldn't be on. I have my system tweaked to turn off several services I don't think I need, but I have no idea what services are required for the rest of your computer configuration.

As much as you don't want to hear this, it may be time for a OS rebuild. That would get you to the defaults. ZProcess and GB-PVR love defaults. And then you tweak with baby steps, documenting what you do each time. (I'll bet that doesn't look like an attractive suggestion!)

Once you have the system to defaults (or research to find what would be the default configuration for Windows and bring it back) I can help you select some services that *I* think would not be necessary. (They would only be suggestions, and undoubtedly bring about heated debate)

Feel free to throw out other questions. I'd like to know what type of drive / network configuration you have, (removable, etc)

[KiddBludd]

Well that's a kettle of fish...

First of all if ZProcess will transcode files from one drive but not others, then it's not ZProcess. (ZProcess does not interact with any services) I would suspect that there might be something like a windows service that allows for networking or drive management that is not making the drives accessible.

I have no idea why ZProcess is not auto aspect ratio calculating.

I believe too much has happened at this point to track down what services should be and shouldn't be on. I have my system tweaked to turn off several services I don't think I need, but I have no idea what services are required for the rest of your computer configuration.

As much as you don't want to hear this, it may be time for a OS rebuild. That would get you to the defaults. ZProcess and GB-PVR love defaults. And then you tweak with baby steps, documenting what you do each time. (I'll bet that doesn't look like an attractive suggestion!)

Once you have the system to defaults (or research to find what would be the default configuration for Windows and bring it back) I can help you select some services that *I* think would not be necessary. (They would only be suggestions, and undoubtedly bring about heated debate)

Feel free to throw out other questions. I'd like to know what type of drive / network configuration you have, (removable, etc)

Thanks for replying.
Ok, I thought I understood the Service descriptions enough to figure out which might have been related to the MVP functioning. But I went ahead and just tried troubleshooting again and this time did it the "right" way by changing the settings one at a time and keeping a log. Luckily, I figured it out within an hour and it didn't take me all night.

I think the service I was missing was "Network DDE (Dynamic Data Exchange)." It got everything back to normal, so I set it to automatic. Now I can get back to watching Catherine Tate.

I noticed something about ZProcess, though. Even when I got things working again, some files would still crash the MVP when I tried to play/transcode them. Somehow I thought that resizing the aspect ratio would help, and it did, I made it less wide so it had a bit of a border. I think if a video's aspect ratio is set too far beyond...(I'm not sure what, the tv's capabilities? ZProcess' capabilities?)...then it doesn't process the file properly, ZProcess and Hunter close before it's even begun.
I'm a complete novice, so go ahead and tell me I'm wrong (that or "duh, everyone knows that but you"), but this was the correlation I noticed from troubleshooting.

I've been through a few websites (including one I found in these forums when I was trying to find a solution to this problem) that tell you what services are unnecessary, but I like to get as many suggestions as possible to at least get those most people agree on. So, feel free to let me know which services you disable.

Again, a novice here, so not sure how to explain my drive/network configuration. Just have a wireless Netgear connecting anything that needs wifi to my humble pc. Have 3 internal HDD's (150GB, 10000RPM, my main C Drive; 200GB 7500RPM, my media drive; & 500GB IDE, my...just cuz drive). Don't have any RAID configs or anything fancy, just like having a lot of drive space. That's about it. Feel free to ask me for more info.

[zehd]

I noticed something about ZProcess, though. Even when I got things working again, some files would still crash the MVP when I tried to play/transcode them. Somehow I thought that resizing the aspect ratio would help, and it did, I made it less wide so it had a bit of a border. I think if a video's aspect ratio is set too far beyond...(I'm not sure what, the tv's capabilities? ZProcess' capabilities?)...then it doesn't process the file properly, ZProcess and Hunter close before it's even begun.
I'm a complete novice, so go ahead and tell me I'm wrong (that or "duh, everyone knows that but you"), but this was the correlation I noticed from troubleshooting.
.

When ZProcess (1 or 2) calculates a resizing it should always output the file (the one that actually plays on the MVP) as the final Output size that is saved in the transcode profile. That means that it should not have affected anything when you resized the video. I don't know what your settings are at the moment, but if you are interested in trying to speed up transcode you might try these ideas...

First of all, transcodes will be faster just changing the output dimensions from 720x480 to 640x480. I believe some people have noticed that 640x480 don't display properly on some 4x3 TV sets, and so I have have had great success setting the MVP to 16:9 mode IN SPITE of the true aspect of the TV. That means I have my 4x3 TV with the MVP set to 16:9

(You change that setting using the Hauppauge software)
http://gbpvr.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Utili...cess1#toc6

If you have some time, would you mind telling me why you are still using version1 as opposed to the newer version 2. Are there features you use that aren't in the new version?

[KiddBludd]

When ZProcess (1 or 2) calculates a resizing it should always output the file (the one that actually plays on the MVP) as the final Output size that is saved in the transcode profile. That means that it should not have affected anything when you resized the video.

I had the video completely stretched out to appear as 16x9, i think i might have moved the topmost slider all the way to the left. All I know is that the one video I did that to was the one video that would crash the MVP UNTIL I changed the dimensions to a more reasonable size. Every other video that I didn't touch worked fine...

Now that I thnk about it, the only reason I was messing with the video size in the first place was because in 16x9 there was some cutoff at the edges. So, I think I know what you mean about ZProcess displaying the given size no matter what. Given my settings, ZProcess should have just displayed the video even if my tv cuts off some bits...so I guess the video crashing due to the dispaly size was a fluke or something.

I don't know what your settings are at the moment, but if you are interested in trying to speed up transcode you might try these ideas...

Actually, I'm fine with the speed of the transcodes. I wasn't trying to increase the speed, I'm just irked by the video getting cut off at the edges or my video being displayed in a box smaller than my tv. Also, some videos that were encoded in widescreen were being displayed in full screen with obvious effects on the images.

First of all, transcodes will be faster just changing the output dimensions from 720x480 to 640x480. I believe some people have noticed that 640x480 don't display properly on some 4x3 TV sets, and so I have have had great success setting the MVP to 16:9 mode IN SPITE of the true aspect of the TV. That means I have my 4x3 TV with the MVP set to 16:9

(You change that setting using the Hauppauge software)
http://gbpvr.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Utili...cess1#toc6

I did what you suggested only to realize that my MVP had already been set to 16x9, I now remember doing this when I first installed ZProcess. However, GBPVR was set to 4:3. Changing that to 16:9 made a difference. The videos that were displaying in a square box with my tv went back to automatically displaying in 16x9, perfectly so.

Also, 640x480 has always been my default until I started tinkering. I'll set it back and see what happens. Thanks.

If you have some time, would you mind telling me why you are still using version1 as opposed to the newer version 2. Are there features you use that aren't in the new version?

Pretty much just the queue, but honestly, I haven't been using that so much lately. I guess I'm just afraid to upgrade to something new after investing so much time figuring out the one I already have. I also want to see other people's experiences with it first, or what kinds of bugs come up.

Oh, and I like to do manual transcodes every now and then as well, your wiki says ZP2 is not really designed for that.