I wish the last coding languages I worked with wasn't Fortran and Pascal so I could take charge and create my own add-ins, but without that ability I was wondering if anyone had created a Media Center server wakeup add-in?

Here is what I have:

1. 6 Media Center PCs, all accessing Recorded TV, Music, Videos and Photographs that is stored on one of the Media Center PCs.  This works very well, except right now I keep the serving Media Center on 24/7.
2. I have fiddled a little with what is needed to wake up the serving MC and found I can use a Wake On Lan utility to wake it up from any client PC on the network.
3. Unfortunately, Media Center itself doesn't have the ability to send this WOL packet, so right now I have created a desktop icon on the client MC systems that will wake the server (but this isn't a workable solution since some of our MC systems don't use a mouse or keyboard; just a remote).

What I'd like is:

1. Allow all of the Media Center PCs to take advantage of S3 sleep and Away Mode to save electricity (right now all, except the server already do).
2. Have an add-in that will automatically send a WOL packet to the serving MC whenever Media Center is started on any client.
3. Have that same add-in send additional WOL packets to the serving MC whenever the green button is pressed as well as whenever any module is started that might need the server to be away (Recorded TV, Music, Video, Pictures, etc.).  This is "in case" the server goes back to sleep after a period of inactivity on the client.

Does such an add-in exist somewhere (my searches have come up empty)?

Deleted by me

netscan02:

A batch file with should do the trick.

How can I use a batch file to do this?

I already have a batch file on the desktop I can use a mouse to double click on to wake up my Media Center server, but this doesn't work on my Media Center PC downstairs in the rec room (it doesn't have a mouse or keyboard and it automatically starts Media Center when booted).

I'm surprised someone hasn't written a simple add-in to do this.  There must be others sharing Recorded TV between Media Center PCs, that want their systems to sleep when not in use.

Can't you use MC Menu Mender to create a new entry point to show your WOL command program in the Media Center Tasks area? You could then use the remote to initiate the command to wake the serving VMC PC from within the Media Center UI on the client.

I don't know much about using MC Menu Mender but I've just tried it on my machine and it seems to work. I put a pause line in to my WOL command so you could see it on the screen shot.

I am getting a strange message however about being connected to the Internet after I click on the "Wake Main VMC" icon. Not sure what that's all about, maybe something I did wrong when creating the entry point in MC Menu Mender?

Or could you not just have all your clients run the WOL command at their startup to wake the serving VMC PC ?

Just a thought.

Another way of doing this rather than the way I suggested above, is to register an application to appear in the Program Library area of VMC. I am no programmer by any means but I was able to do it using this method.

Create a new text file called WOL.txt and paste the code below in to it:

<application title="Wake On LAN"
    id="{25e1993f-a9d8-4251-871c-0bf84c6d6e29}">
<entrypoint id="{58267566-672b-4b1d-812a-fc46d728d073}"
    title="Wake On LAN"
    description="Wakes main VMC PC"
    run="%ProgramFiles%\WOL CMD\Wake Up MCE01.cmd"
    imageUrl="C:\Windows\ehome\WOL.jpg">
      <category category="More Programs"/>
    </entrypoint>
</application>

You will need to change the path and file name to your WOL command in the run= section of the code.

Save and then rename the WOL.txt file to WOL.xml and put it in to the C:\Windows\ehome\ directory along with a WOL.jpg of your choosing for the program icon.

Then from an elevated command prompt get to the directory below:

C:\Windows\ehome\

Then type registermceapp /allusers WOL.xml

You should see Success.

Now open VMC and go to Online Media - Program Library

To un-register the application use this command line:

registermceapp /u /allusers WOL.xml

That's it. I am still getting that message shown below however, but it doesn't stop the WOL command from being run. I need to try and sort this message out. Can anyone help with that?

 

 

Double post

Looks good. Can you post a sample WOL command? I don't know how to write it.

Once the PC is waked up, will it go to S3 after the specified time again or will it stay awake until you don't use any of its recources anymore?

slimshady

slimshady:

Looks good. Can you post a sample WOL command? I don't know how to write it.

Once the PC is waked up, will it go to S3 after the specified time again or will it stay awake until you don't use any of its recources anymore?

slimshady

It should go to sleep again if nothing is happening. If you are pulling media off it, it should stay awake. You might need to change a setting in your Power Plan settings in Control Panel:

Off the top of my head its in Advanced Settings: Scroll down to MultiMedia Settings - When Sharing Media: Allow the computer to sleep.

I think you set it to Allow the computer to sleep or is it Prevent Idling to Sleep I can't remember now but I had to change this setting to stop the main VMC PC going to sleep when my XBOX 360 extender was connected to it. Search on the forums for the correct setting.

I am using the WolCmd.exe from this site:

http://www.depicus.com/wake-on-lan/wake-on-lan-cmd.aspx

Which I put in to a directory called: C:\Program Files\WOL CMD

Below is my WOL code in a .cmd file called "Wake Up MCE01.cmd" which is in the same C:\Program Files\WOL CMD directory. MCE01 is my main VMC PC

cd "C:\Program Files\WOL CMD"
WolCmd.exe 0013d4bd671b 192.168.1.2 255.255.255.0 7

Explanation:

WolCmd.exe - MAC Address of NIC you want to wake - IP Address of machine to wake - Network Broadcast Subnet Address - Port Number

Port Number 7 is usually used for WOL but you can use any port number you like really.

cw-kid, thanks for the great suggestions.

Your work around would work well enough that I wanted to give it a go.

Unfortunately I'm now struggling with how to get S3 sleep and away mode to properly work on the primary Media Center server PC.

I have come across some fundamental issues:

1. By allowing the server to sleep, I have found it ignores the fact that other systems are accessing files remotely and it still goes to sleep in the middle of watching a show on a client PC.  If I turn on "media sharing" and specifically access content shared through Media Player it does work (stays in away mode instead of going into S3), but I can't find a way to make this work for Recorded TV (and that is the most important content I want to share).
2. WOL seems to wake the server into a fully "on" mode, not away mode.  This breaks the on/off synchronization with the Harmony remote control (the remote thinks the system is off, but it turns on due to a WOL).
3. If the server wakes up (using away mode) to record a show, it goes back to sleep the instant the recording is finished.  I use FireSTB to record HD channels and it needs to transcode the .ts file into a .dvr-ms file.  What happens is the server is working away, trying to produce the HD recording (CPU at 100%) and then it suddenly goes to sleep.
4. #3 wouldn't be an enormous issue if the system was able to resume from where it left off, but for some reason when the CPU is running at 100% and the hard drives are being worked very hard, the server sometimes fails to resume from S3 sleep properly (it hangs upon awakening with a non-responsive black screen).  This hanging issue has only shown up when FireSTB is running at full tilt when it goes to sleep, but it might show up at other times also (could be a fluke that it only happened when processing a show).
5. I've tried changing the server so away mode is always used, instead of powering down upon a power toggle (from the remote, etc.), but now when it automatically goes to sleep the remote control ends up out of sync again.  Another VERY annoying glitch is at the very end of each and every TV show, the system instantly goes to sleep (when automatic sleep is enabled after 20 minutes of inactivity).  For some reason Microsoft has not included playing media as being considered an "activity".  Clicking buttons on the remote control does reset the inactivity timer, but this is a very annoying work around also.
6. I've tried changing the server so automatic sleep never occurs, but now the WOL messes up the remote control on/off sync.  It seems no matter what I can't get around the remote control's "known on/off state" for the PC.

It really is too bad Microsoft didn't feel it worth while to create a separate power on and power off remote control command.  If this existed, the Harmony remote could take direct control, instead of relying on a "known" previous power state.  As it stands now I had to add a separate "custom" button to provide an EXTRA power toggle so the user could manually re-sync the power states between the PC and the remote control.

Due to all of these issues, for now at least, I've decided to resort to simply leaving the server on 24/7 again.  It still bugs me that this is going to cost at least $100 per year in wasted electricity, but at the same time it "might" save some wear and tear on the hardware due to regular power cycles (several times per day, every day turning on and off).

I'll probably revisit this again once I have every single other issue sorted out (like PowerDVD integration that actually works without having to pull out the keyboard and mouse...).

I think really it is Microsoft that needs to put an effort into sorting out the issues with S3 sleep and away mode with Media Center (it mostly works with Media Player, so why not Media Center when serving Recorded TV to other PCs - I know... serving Recorded TV to other Media Center PCs is not "officially" supported).  Until that happens this will always be a hack that suffers from annoying glitches.

Hi HT Slider,

im seeing some of the same probs. if i need to record, im just ensuring its powered on and left in away state. I really kills me that im killing the planet to record something on TV.. i guess this the standby/sleep state is a lesser remembered killer feature of any system that can record from TV. Strange most ppl forget to mention this when they rant..

Hope MS do put this forward on the roadmap not only for the planet, but also cos im so forgetful and keep forgetting to to press the metal buttom in the morning. Would make for a much greener green button ;-)

Deleted by me

HT Slider:

cw-kid, thanks for the great suggestions.

Your work around would work well enough that I wanted to give it a go.

Unfortunately I'm now struggling with how to get S3 sleep and away mode to properly work on the primary Media Center server PC.

I have come across some fundamental issues:

1. By allowing the server to sleep, I have found it ignores the fact that other systems are accessing files remotely and it still goes to sleep in the middle of watching a show on a client PC.  If I turn on "media sharing" and specifically access content shared through Media Player it does work (stays in away mode instead of going into S3), but I can't find a way to make this work for Recorded TV (and that is the most important content I want to share).
2. WOL seems to wake the server into a fully "on" mode, not away mode.  This breaks the on/off synchronization with the Harmony remote control (the remote thinks the system is off, but it turns on due to a WOL).
3. If the server wakes up (using away mode) to record a show, it goes back to sleep the instant the recording is finished.  I use FireSTB to record HD channels and it needs to transcode the .ts file into a .dvr-ms file.  What happens is the server is working away, trying to produce the HD recording (CPU at 100%) and then it suddenly goes to sleep.
4. #3 wouldn't be an enormous issue if the system was able to resume from where it left off, but for some reason when the CPU is running at 100% and the hard drives are being worked very hard, the server sometimes fails to resume from S3 sleep properly (it hangs upon awakening with a non-responsive black screen).  This hanging issue has only shown up when FireSTB is running at full tilt when it goes to sleep, but it might show up at other times also (could be a fluke that it only happened when processing a show).
5. I've tried changing the server so away mode is always used, instead of powering down upon a power toggle (from the remote, etc.), but now when it automatically goes to sleep the remote control ends up out of sync again.  Another VERY annoying glitch is at the very end of each and every TV show, the system instantly goes to sleep (when automatic sleep is enabled after 20 minutes of inactivity).  For some reason Microsoft has not included playing media as being considered an "activity".  Clicking buttons on the remote control does reset the inactivity timer, but this is a very annoying work around also.
6. I've tried changing the server so automatic sleep never occurs, but now the WOL messes up the remote control on/off sync.  It seems no matter what I can't get around the remote control's "known on/off state" for the PC.

It really is too bad Microsoft didn't feel it worth while to create a separate power on and power off remote control command.  If this existed, the Harmony remote could take direct control, instead of relying on a "known" previous power state.  As it stands now I had to add a separate "custom" button to provide an EXTRA power toggle so the user could manually re-sync the power states between the PC and the remote control.

Due to all of these issues, for now at least, I've decided to resort to simply leaving the server on 24/7 again.  It still bugs me that this is going to cost at least $100 per year in wasted electricity, but at the same time it "might" save some wear and tear on the hardware due to regular power cycles (several times per day, every day turning on and off).

I'll probably revisit this again once I have every single other issue sorted out (like PowerDVD integration that actually works without having to pull out the keyboard and mouse...).

I think really it is Microsoft that needs to put an effort into sorting out the issues with S3 sleep and away mode with Media Center (it mostly works with Media Player, so why not Media Center when serving Recorded TV to other PCs - I know... serving Recorded TV to other Media Center PCs is not "officially" supported).  Until that happens this will always be a hack that suffers from annoying glitches.

Have you looked at the Media Center Standby Tool ? http://slicksolutions.eu/

That may resolve some of your issues with Sleep.

 

cw-kid:

Have you looked at the Media Center Standby Tool ? http://slicksolutions.eu/

That may resolve some of your issues with Sleep.

I have used that with some of my other PCs, but haven't tried it with the main Media Center system (since it seemed to fully support S3 and away mode out of the box).  I'll have another look at it.

I did discover the answer to my initial question this morning.  It turns out that DVRMSToolbox, at least since version 1.2.1.0 has included the ability to send a WOL packet to a server the instant that Media Center is started.

All you (I) need to do is install DVRMSToolbox and configure the add-in to send a WOL packet to the MAC address for the server.  Note I haven't tested it yet, but I suspect this would resolve this problem.

I might have another go at getting S3 to work again.  Looking through the options within the MST tool combined with DVRMSToolbox, I think there might just be enough to get everything working seemlessly.

My biggest concern right now is not having the server wake up properly.  None of my 5 other Media Center PCs have ever locked up with a black screen upon waking from S3; except this Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4 (relatively high end) motherboard seems to have issues.  Gigabyte just released a new BIOS that was supposed to fix the failure to POST issue when resuming from S3 and it does seem to do that.  Unfortunately now I am seeing a black screen and a locked up system once in a while when trying to resume.  Maybe MST can work around these issues, but it looks like Gigabyte probably needs to do a little more BIOS work before it will really work properly.

netscan02:

Why not just use extenders instead of full fledged PC's?

Hi netscan02,

not sure if i understand your point here.. can you elaborate please?

tigerstylus:

netscan02:

Why not just use extenders instead of full fledged PC's?

Hi netscan02,

not sure if i understand your point here.. can you elaborate please?

He is suggesting I should be using extenders instead of PCs for the client locations.

I much prefer to use PCs since they can both do much more and I have them already.  My children each have a PC in their bedroom, I have a PC in the study, our laptop doubles as the 4th client, and in the basement I have an old Dell (very old - 10+ years) that I originally picked up for $20 years ago.  The old Dell was originally my youngest daughter's PC, but after a while I upgraded her to a $100 PC and moved the $20 Dell into the basement rec room so we could access all of our on-line media there.  To make the Dell work as a Media Center PC I had to add a $40 Nvidia 5500 PCI card (the 6200 PCI also supports Media Center) and install an old license of MCE2005 I had (as well as enable the TV module and tell Recorded TV to watch the folder from the server PC).  I had actually already done this when it was being used by my daughter.  Although I wasn't expecting this, that old Dell will play back absolutely all of our Recorded TV, including HD content (720p and 1080i) without any stuttering (note this only started to work with some of the more recent video drivers and using the Nvidia mpeg-2 decoder in hardware mode).

Keep in mind that when using a Media Center PC (most of mine are running MCE2005), you can access everything from Recorded TV (SD and HD right from within the TV module), on-line DVDs, Music, Pictures, physical DVDs, divx, xvid, quicktime, etc., etc.  The one and only thing you can't access is Live TV, but it is extremely rare for anyone in this house to actually watch Live TV (95% of what we use Media Center for is Recorded TV and almost all the rest is music and pictures).

Every single PC can also be upgraded to Vista if I wanted to, plus if I decide to switch to Sage TV, all I need is to pick up the software (no new hardware).

Personally I don't understand why some people prefer extenders when they can't even play back on-line DVDs and are severely limited when it comes to codecs, HD content and Media Center addins.  If you are willing to configure a PC properly, it will work very well as a Media Center client.