My Movies Wiki

Using TheaterTek as DVD Player

Modified: 2009/03/10 09:59 by admin - Uncategorized
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Installing and configuring “TheaterTek”

Install "TheaterTek 2.1.1" or latest version available at http://www.theatertek.com.

After installation, start TheaterTek, where you will be asked to activate – you will need to activate right away, to be sure no boxes will pop up when using TheaterTek from within Media Center. After activation, if TheaterTek asks to become default player, please click “OK”, to make it will not pop up with this question again.

When TheaterTek starts, left click, and choose “Configuration”, on the “General” tab in the “DVD Drive” section, set “Auto Play” to “Both” and press “Apply” – this will make sure that TheaterTek will start playing the title that “My Movies” ask it to.

Close TheaterTek, and in the process bar, locate TheaterTek auto killer – left click it, and uncheck the “Enabled” setting – this will make sure that TheaterTek won’t start automatically, which we do not want it to when using Media Center. In Media Center, “My Movies” will now handle playback upon disc insertion, given that auto play is enabled on your computer.

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Installing and configuring “My Movies”

Install latest version of "My Movies".

Open Microsoft Media Center and from there open "My Movies". "My Movies" will be located in either the start menu, or in "More programs" depending on weather you have chosen to add "My Movies" to the start page while installing it.

In "My Movies", go to "Settings", "DVD - Playback and Copying", and check "Use TheaterTek DVD for playback", and press "Save". Notice that the exact names of these sections and texts will be different if either Media Center is another language than “English”, or “My Movies” is configured for another language than “English”.

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Expected behavior of DVD playback

After following the descriptions in section 1 and 2, playback of DVD/Movies should work like the following:

  • When inserting a DVD, SVCD or VCD disc into your DVD drive, Media Center should detect the inserted disc, and ask which player you whish to use for playback of the options “Media Center” and “My Movies External Player” – if you select “Media Player”, the DVD will be played back with the internal Media Center player as normally within Media Center, however if you choose “My Movies External Player”, “My Movies” will start, and right away launch “TheaterTek DVD” on top of the Media Center screen, and automatically start to play the inserted title. When exiting TheaterTek, the screen can flicker for a few seconds, while “My Movies” returns to the main Media Center screen.

  • When selecting “Watch” (or pressing play on your remote while a movie cover is focused) for a movie title from within “My Movies”, “My Movies” will launch “TheaterTek DVD” on top of the Media Center screen, and automatically start to play the selected title. When exiting TheaterTek, you should be returned to the previous screen within Media Center. If TheaterTek starts, but does not start playing the title, this is most likely because does not support the file or title you are trying to play.

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Configuring other startup options for “TheaterTek”

Some users may wish to configure other startup parameters for TheaterTek, to support resolution changes, trailer playback or similar. My Movies specifies the parameters sent to TheaterTek in a registry setting - notice that editing registry is for advanced users only. Type "regedit" in your start menu's run area, and navigate to "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\My Movies" and locate the string value "ExternalPlayerParms". By changing the value of this string, you can include the requested parameters in TheaterTek - the string "{0}" may not be removed, as this is replaced with the path of the requested movie to play.

If TheaterTek does not play your movies after changing the startup parameters, you can try to manually start TheaterTek with the parameters, and manually replace {0} with the file or path you expect is the one to be played from a command line – if the movie does not play, there is a problem with your parameters.

For questions on TheaterTek startup parameter options, please refer to http://www.theatertek.com.

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Configuring “My Movies” to use other external player than “TheaterTek”

Some users may also wish to use other external players than “TheaterTek DVD”. Although this is not officially supported, advanced users can do this if the know the path and parameters for the player.

The player path and parameters is stored in registry - notice that editing registry is for advanced users only. Type "regedit" in your start menu's run area, and navigate to "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\My Movies" and locate the string values "ExternalPlayerPath" and "ExternalPlayerParms", and by changing the value of these, the player and startup parameters can be changed to whatever wanted. The “{0}” should be included in the parameters, and should be supported by the player as the movie to play, as “My Movies” will replace this with the file or path to be played before sending the parameters to the player.

The users configuring other players are themselves responsible for problems regarding startup and parameters, and also controlling the player with the Media Center remote. We can unfortunately not give support on other players than TheaterTek.