I use MCE in my living room as my main window to TV, music, pictures etc.  I also have 2 young kids, and their grandparents live in a different county.  We communicate by webcam over live messenger, but at the moment to do this I have to quit MCE, sign in, chat, then when I am done sign out and load MCE again.

With live messenger support in MCE with a view to start a chat/video call, and notification to receive a call this would not be necessary.

I am not precious about using live messenger, I will swith to skype or whatever, just so long as there is something that integrates and saves the messing around to have a video chat - I just wrongly assumed that with the MS messenger it would be more straightforward, and am sure that in xp mce it worked ok (i didnt try with video calls back in those days though!)

We are working to integrate video calls in mcePhone for Skype (see www.scendix.com/mcephone) in version 3.
A beta can be downloaded from here: http://www.pamnews.com/2008/12/22/mcephone-30-beta-2-available/

-scendix

I can't seem to get the plugin to work with Vista MCE + TV Pack.  Whenever I open the MCEPhone index page, it simply tells me "Required registry access is not allowed."  Opening the allowed applications list in Skype doesn't show ehShell.exe as an application that has attempted to access the Skype API.  If however I run ehShell.exe as an Administrator, I can add ehShell.exe to the Skype allow list and MCEPhone then appears to work correctly.  Running exShell.exe again normally results in MCEPhone presenting me with the "Required registry access is not allowed." message again. 

Any ideas?

I also have this problem.  MCEphone works under admin account, but with stantard account there is no option to add ehexthost.exe to the allowed skype applications.

Please help.

Try the latest Beta 5 from http://www.scendix.de/mcephone/mcePhone30beta.exe
It was updated yesterday and should have this issue fixed.

-scendix

I installed the new beta and it still did not work.  I performed a workaround by changing the standard user to an administrator temporarily in order to add the ehexthost.exe application to the list in skype.  This took care of the regisrty access problem, but the background listener is still not working (even as administrator).  Here is the error:

MediaCenter.Extensibility. InvalidAddlnException: Unable to load invalid add-in MediaCenter.mceSkypeListener.Addln.mceSkypeListenerAddln, mceSkypeListener, version=3.0.0.4, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=e37ee69d5be57552, Custom=null --> System.ArgumentException: Unable to load add-in assembly: mceSkypeListener, version=3.0.0.4, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=e37ee69d5be57552, Custom=null
Parameter name: fullName --> System.lO.FileNotFoundException: Could not load file or assembly mceSkypeListener, Version=3.0.0.4, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=e37ee69d5be57552' or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.
File name: 'mceSkypeListener, Version=3.0.0.4, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=e37ee69d5be57552'
at System.Reflection.Assembly._nLoad(AssemblyName fileName, String codeBase, Evidence assemblySecurity, Assembly locationHint, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean throwOnFileNotFound, Boolean forintrospection)
at System.Reflection.Assembly.nLoad(AssemblyName fileName, String codeBase, Evidence assemblySecurity, Assembly locationHint, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean throwOnFileNotFound, Boolean forintrospection)
at System.Reflection.Assembly. IntemalLoad(AssemblyName assemblyRef, Evidence assemblySecurity, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean forintrospection) at System.Reflection.Assembly.InternalLoad(String assemblyString, Evidence assemblySecurity, StackCrawlMark& stackMark, Boolean forintrospection) at System.Reflection.Assembly.Load(String assemblyString)
at MediaCenter.Extensibility.AddlnLoader.LoadAssembly(String assemblyName, Exception& loadException)
WRN: Assembly binding logging is turned OFF.
To enable assembly bind failure logging, set the registry value [HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog] (DWORD) to 1. Note: There is some performance penalty associated with assembly bind failure logging.
To turn this feature off, remove the registry value [HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Fusion!EnableLog].
— End of inner exception stack trace —
Server stack trace:
at MediaCenter.Extensibility.AddlnLoader.Createlnstance(String fuliName)
at System.Runtime.Remoting.Messaging. Message.Dispatch(Object target, Boolean fExecutelnContext)
at System.Runtime.Remoting.Messaging.StackBuilderSink.SyncProcessMessage(IMessage msg, Int32 methodPtr, Boolean fExecutelnContext)
Exception rethrown at [0]:
at System. Runtime. Remoting. Proxies. RealProxy. HandleReturnMessage( IMessage reqMsg, IMessage retMsg)
at System. Runtime. Remoting. Proxies. Real Proxy. Privatelnvoke(MessageData& msgData, Int32 type)
at MediaCenter.Extensibility.AddlnLoader.Createlnstance(String fuliName)
at System. Runtime. Remoting. Messaging. StackBuilderSink.—PrivateProcessMessage(IntPtr md, Object[] args, Object server, Int32 methodPtr, Boolean fExecutelnContext, Object[]& outArgs)
at System.Runtime.Remoting.Messaging.StackBuilderSink.PrivateProcessMessage(RuntimeMethodHandle md, Object[] args, Object server, Int32 methodPtr, Boolean fExecutelnContext, Object[]& outArgs)
at System.Runtime.Remoting.Messaging.StackBuilderSink.SyncProcessMessage(IMessage msg, Int32 methodPtr, Boolean fExecutelnContext)

Exception rethrown at [1]:
at System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies.RealProxy.HandleRetumMessage(IMessage reqMsg, IMessage retMsg) at System.Runtime.Remoting.Proxies. Real Proxy.Privatelnvoke(MessageData& msgData, Int32 type) at Microsoft.MediaCenter.Hosting.Infrastructure.IAddlnLoader.Createlnstance(String fuliName) at MediaCenter.Extensibility. ExtensibilityPluglnEntryPointlnfo.ExtensibilityPluglnLaunchlnfo.LoadAddln() — End of inner exception stack trace -?
at MediaCenter.Extensibility. ExtensibilityPluglnEntryPointlnfo.ExtensibilityPluglnLaunchlnfo.LoadAddlnO at MediaCenter.Extensibility.ExtensibilityPluglnEntryPointlnfo.Launch(Object objState)
at MediaCenter.Extensibility.ExtensibilityEntryPoint.Launch(PageBasedUCPService ucp, Object objMediaContext, Object[] entryPointParameters)

Any ideas?

thanks

I am receiving this exact same error.

Interestingly I noticed that it is failing with "Could not load file or assembly mceSkypeListener, Version=3.0.0.4"  the actual version number on the DLL in my mcephone directory is 3.0.0.5 

Could this be a problem with the current beta build?

 

scendix:

Try the latest Beta 5 from http://www.scendix.de/mcephone/mcePhone30beta.exe
It was updated yesterday and should have this issue fixed.

-scendix

I've just installed ita an I simply get a "MCEPhone 2.1 is now available" message.  Is this because I tried a previous beta more than 30 days ago and now it has timed out?  I really want to like this application but I'm running into a lot of issues just evaluating it.

I installed the beta 5 and later the 2.1 version.  The recent 2.1 version did not give me the background listener error, but still did not initialize correctly.  Now the ringer does not work and there is still no pop-up window when a call comes in.  Really hoping this gets fixed.  My evaluation runs out soon and I can't pay for something that doesn't work.  This is on a Vista Ultimate machine.

Thanks

jgollad:

I am receiving this exact same error.

Interestingly I noticed that it is failing with "Could not load file or assembly mceSkypeListener, Version=3.0.0.4"  the actual version number on the DLL in my mcephone directory is 3.0.0.5 

Could this be a problem with the current beta build?

 

Yes, and it's simple to fix. Do a search in the registry for mceSkypeListener and you'll find the entry for it in the Media Center section of the registry (I don't have the key in front of me, unfortunately, but it's not hard to find). You'll see the entry that defines the addin and if you edit that string value, you'll see where it's calling 3.0.0.4 ... just change that to 3.0.0.5 and the restart media center. The background processor will start up with no problems.

If someone can find the key and post it, great. If not, when I get a chance I'll find it and reply again with it.

Everything works great for me now EXCEPT I cannot get it to show the video of the caller. I press Show Video or whatever that button is and it doesn't do anything. Tried it with both Skype 4 and 3.8, no joy with either.

Would love some help from the author on getting that working. I know it can be done because I saw the YouTube video. :) If that was working this plugin would be awesome. As it is, it's not very useful for me because I want to use it to video chat with my kids when I'm on business trips, at the office, etc.

the string was in the AddIn key was here:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Extensibility\Entry Points\{35626bc1-ed6b-42dc-951d-2b3ccd9d3251}]
"AddIn"=hex(2):4d,00,65,00,64,00,69,00,61,00,43,00,65,00,6e,00,74,00,65,00,72,\
  00,2e,00,6d,00,63,00,65,00,53,00,6b,00,79,00,70,00,65,00,4c,00,69,00,73,00,\
  74,00,65,00,6e,00,65,00,72,00,2e,00,41,00,64,00,64,00,49,00,6e,00,2e,00,6d,\
  00,63,00,65,00,53,00,6b,00,79,00,70,00,65,00,4c,00,69,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,\
  6e,00,65,00,72,00,41,00,64,00,64,00,49,00,6e,00,2c,00,20,00,6d,00,63,00,65,\
  00,53,00,6b,00,79,00,70,00,65,00,4c,00,69,00,73,00,74,00,65,00,6e,00,65,00,\
  72,00,2c,00,20,00,76,00,65,00,72,00,73,00,69,00,6f,00,6e,00,3d,00,33,00,2e,\
  00,30,00,2e,00,30,00,2e,00,35,00,2c,00,20,00,43,00,75,00,6c,00,74,00,75,00,\
  72,00,65,00,3d,00,6e,00,65,00,75,00,74,00,72,00,61,00,6c,00,2c,00,20,00,50,\
  00,75,00,62,00,6c,00,69,00,63,00,4b,00,65,00,79,00,54,00,6f,00,6b,00,65,00,\
  6e,00,3d,00,65,00,33,00,37,00,65,00,65,00,36,00,39,00,64,00,35,00,62,00,65,\
  00,35,00,37,00,35,00,35,00,32,00,2c,00,20,00,43,00,75,00,73,00,74,00,6f,00,\
  6d,00,3d,00,6e,00,75,00,6c,00,6c,00,00,00

when you export it, it shows as HEX, not String so better to browse to it in the registry first, i think.

 

I updated this on my Win7 box, got past the errors but then got "Trial Expired" message so no idea if it worked or not...

Wonder if this is another product that has died-a-death.  There has been no feedback from the developer for months (which I think is a bit poor).

Rich

 Workaround: right-click on MCE, select "Run as Administrator".