First of all, I have been having this problem lately whereby the recorded show has the bottom cut off. I get a full screen picture, but you can tell that some of the picture at the bottom is missing because things like subtitles and small print on adverts can't be seen. It hasn't done it all of the time I've used Media Center, as I recorded a foreign language film from December last year and all the subtitles can be read. I am using Haupprauge NOVA-T tuner if that helps. It might also be worth saying that when watching live TV, there seems to be no issue with the picture being cut off. Only once it has been recorded does it occur.
Also, I record a lot of programs like Family Guy, that are being transmitted in 4:3 format. Most TV's force it to be 16:9, but the recordings seem to keep it as 4:3, and I can't work out how to make it widescreen again (I use GOM player to watch my recordings).
Finally, my last problem is that Media Center is setting films I have previously recorded (and kept) to be recorded again. This has started getting worse since I moved all of my recorded films to a new hard drive and into a different named folder. I changed all of the file names as well, to just the film name, without all of the channel number and date info. I set this folder to be watched by Media Center, thinking it would work out what it had already recorded, but it doesn't seem to have worked.
JBond007Also, I record a lot of programs like Family Guy, that are being transmitted in 4:3 format. Most TV's force it to be 16:9, but the recordings seem to keep it as 4:3, and I can't work out how to make it widescreen again (I use GOM player to watch my recordings).
In Vista Media Center, you press the "I (Info)" button on the remote control, and then select the "Zoom" option. That allows you to cycle the screen through different ways of making the picture fit the screen. I have no idea how you would do this in GOM Player.
JBond007Finally, my last problem is that Media Center is setting films I have previously recorded (and kept) to be recorded again. This has started getting worse since I moved all of my recorded films to a new hard drive and into a different named folder. I changed all of the file names as well, to just the film name, without all of the channel number and date info. I set this folder to be watched by Media Center, thinking it would work out what it had already recorded, but it doesn't seem to have worked.
This happens because you deleted the files from "Recorded TV" using the command line or Windows Explorer. Media Center thinks that the recordings were deleted by mistake, and so schedules them for re-recording the next time that they are broadcast (which might be later the same week, or only after many months have passed). In the future you need to go into the Media Center "Recorded TV" panel and laboriously delete the relevant recordings one by one using the remote control. But it's too late for the recordings that you have already deleted; for those, simply mark them as "Do not record" when they appear in the recording schedule.
-- from CyberSimian in the UK