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[Rizlaw]

As an alternative to running MC12 under WINE in Linux, I purchased VMware Workstation 6 (an excellent, though not free Virtual Machine program. For free you can use VMware Server or Virtual Box). With Ubuntu 7.04 AMD64 as the HOST OS, I created a WinXP Pro x32 Guest OS VM and installed MC12.0.251. Most of the things I initially tried in MC12 worked well on the VM, except for "Theater View" which continually crashes. The crash error states that "media center 12.exe" is the problem module. I then used the "snapshot" feature (the VM version of a true "restore" point) in VMware and returned the WinXP Guest OS to its state before I installed MC12. I then reinstalled MC12 with a newer build (259). The same problem occurred - "Theater View" crashes MC12 with the same error. The only additional plugin added to either build of MC12 was the FLAC codec.

I should note, that running MC12.0.259 on WinXP Pro x32 as a regular primary OS works just fine, so this problem seems peculiar to WinXP Pro x32 as a VM Guest OS and also, on WinXP Pro x64.

Has anyone experienced this problem?

[JimH]

Theater View uses 3D drawing.  That may be the issue.

[Rizlaw]

Theater View uses 3D drawing.  That may be the issue.

Jim,

You could be correct. I believe VMware Workstation 6 has an "experimental" 3D video driver. This could be the reason for the problem. As soon as I get a chance I will have to post a similar thread on VMware's Help Forum to see what they have to say about this.

[ThoBar]

Isnt the experimental 3d only supported under a windows host?
C.

[JimH]

Please let them know that we'd be happy to cooperate or provide them a license.

[Rizlaw]

Please let them know that we'd be happy to cooperate or provide them a license.

JimH,

I received a reply from VMware to my post on their forum: http://www.vmware.com/community/thread.jspa?threadID=89865&tstart=0. There is good news and bad. The good news is that I didn't have the accelerated experimental 3D enabled on my VM or WinXP Guest OS. The VMware manual which is over 400 pages, explains how to do this at pp.321-323. After enabling accelerated experimental 3D I was able to get "Theater View" to open, BUT (the bad news part) the mouse is totally erratic and unusable and processor utilization is between 75%-100%. Seems there is still a "mouse" problem. Keyboard control is also near impossible.

A thought, perhaps you guys can download the 30 day free trial of VMWare Workstation 6 and see if you can get it to work. Here's the link: http://www.vmware.com/download/ws/eval.html

[JimH]

Try reducing the frame rate (Theater View options).

If you have any mouse software installed, uninstall it.

Thanks for the report.

[Rizlaw]

Try reducing the frame rate (Theater View options).

Reduced frame rate to 5 with very very slight improvement. Mouse selection still very iffy and keyboard selection not functioning. Menu Selections seem to randomly pick themselves. Simultaneous periodic freezing of music playback and mouse (also affects linux Host OS). CPU utilization much improved , about 20%, down from near 100%.

If you have any mouse software installed, uninstall it.

None installed in Linux host or windows guest OSs.

[JimH]

Are you running a virus checker?  If so, disable or uninstall (to test).

Take a look in task manager to see what else is running that could be stopped.

[Rizlaw]

Are you running a virus checker?  If so, disable or uninstall (to test).

Yes, NOD32. I disabled it and no change.

Take a look in task manager to see what else is running that could be stopped.

I have a very basic WinXP Guest OS installation. Apart from MC12, NOD32 and all relevant Microsoft security updates, nothing else has been added to WinXP SP2 Guest OS.

[JimH]

It may not work then.

I would uninstall the virus checker.  Disabling them sometimes is not enough.

I suppose you could try a different mouse.

Set frame rate to 1 to test.

Try a smaller background image for Theater View.  See Matt's recent posts for how to do this.  Last 3 days?

[ThoBar]

FWIW, I just tried this too:

   Host: Vista (Enterprise)
   Guest: XPsp2

It works surprisingly well, except when the 'pop-up' boxes are displayed: the display sort of corrupts, and slows right down.

The pop-up boxes I mean are Audio --> Views   or   News --> Set Source   or similar.

I havent actually tried to play anything, just reporting on the 3d state of Theater View itself.

C.