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[sapnho]

I am using the latest MC under Parallels on a MacMini (Windows XP). However when I try to use Theatre View, MC crashes. As simple as that. Repeatedly. Does anybody else have this problem?

[JimH]

Someone reported success with a Mac yesterday or the day before, using MC with some other software.

Theater View uses 3D graphics.  Try a search here for parallels in the last week.

[glynor]

I can't get MC to work at all in Coherance mode on my MacBook Pro, but someone did report success with the new build of Parallel's and a Mac Mini.  I think my issues might have to do with the ATI video card in the MacBook Pro.  I might actually test it out on my friend's non-pro Macbook when she visits next week...

Either way, the new build of Parallel's includes 3D support.  You need to turn it on though: there's a checkbox in the video section of the Edit VM dialog to enable DirectX support.  It's flaky on my system, but apparently someone has gotten it to work with MC on a mini.

[dons]

I have the parallels 3 running on my mac mini now.  I have gotten the Theater view to work in full screen mode, although it has crashed a couple of times.  It seems to crash if I use the escape key to exit instead of navigating to the 'exit' button on screen and hitting enter.

I have not tried, nor am I sure it it is supported, theater view in cohernece mode.  I will try that tonight to see what happens.

[dons]

Ok, just got home and tried running theater mode in coherence on parallels on the mac mini.  Wow!, It worked!  I was thinking it would only work in fullscreen mode, but it works in all modes.
It is very cool to see all of my album art in theater mode, while at the same time seeing my osx terminals running my home automation!

[JimH]

Thanks for reporting what you found.  Good news.

[dons]

I am having a problem about 50% of the time of theater view crashing either media center or the whole virtual machine.  Sometimes theater view just seems to go crwaling and then will not respond and then crashes.
I was another thread going on talking about this. I think I will post there as well.  I do not have any problems in any of my other views.  I will go to my big native xp pc and see if it has a similar problem as well.

[JimH]

I am having a problem about 50% of the time of theater view crashing either media center or the whole virtual machine.  Sometimes theater view just seems to go crwaling and then will not respond and then crashes.
I was another thread going on talking about this. I think I will post there as well.  I do not have any problems in any of my other views.  I will go to my big native xp pc and see if it has a similar problem as well.

Theater View requires 3D drawing capability.  It may not be perfect under Parallels on the Mac.

[Mr ChriZ]

I'd really like to know more about Parralels.
Is it running Windows in the background?
Presumably if thats the case you need an XP license key still?

[glynor]

I'd really like to know more about Parralels.
Is it running Windows in the background?
Presumably if thats the case you need an XP license key still?

Not in the background.  It's a virtual machine, so it runs Windows XP (or Vista or Linux if you want) in a window inside OSX.  In addition to running Windows in a window inside OSX, the Parallel's VM software has a few other "modes" it can work in:

1. Full Screen -- you can "maximize" the Windows VM window to the full screen, and then it works mostly like a regular windows box.
2. Coherence - this is the fancy feature on Parallels.  It allows you to run Windows Apps separately from the VM window, so they integrate right into the OSX operating environment.  This is hard to explain in text, but easy to understand if you see it.  Check out this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rN9jNNeEd98

Yes, you still need a valid license, but it CAN share the same license that you use for "Boot Camp" (which is when you run Windows in a dual-boot configuration on a Mac).  I would say my experience with Parallel's has not been perfect on a MacBook Pro.  I've had quite a few incompatibilities.  It seems that they support the Intel Integrated graphics machines much better than the higher-end ATI cards, or something...  ?

[Mr ChriZ]

ah ok that clears things up a bit.

[stuart_tetley]

I tried Parallels as well, but I had all sorts of problems - I couldn't even get XP to install - it kept locking up at some late-ish point in the in the setup routine.  So I put temporarily Win2K on the Parallels trial, then put MC12 on that.  I saw (possibly) the same issues with Coherence that Glynor described.  MC12 initially opened up fine in the Mac OS desktop, but if I attempted to move or resize MC12, I started to see issues. For example, if I dragged MC to the right, the right side started clipping off.  Same thing with resizing. It was as though Parallels had created a 'viewport' positioned and sized where MC initially was, but it remained locked in place from there on. 

I also tried the VMWare Fusion beta, which essentially does much the same thing as Parallels.  It seemed to like XP more.  Its 'Unity' mode (which is like Parallels 'Coherence' mode) works fine with MC12 - even with a 3rd party skin that makes it look more iTunes like.  But it too can't use Theater View.  VMWare has 'experimental' 3D support, but not for the Intel GMA 950 in my Mac Mini. It let me trying activating it, but suggested with the 950, it probably wouldn't work.  I just got messages about not being able to start Direct3D - MC didn't crash or anything.

Hope this helps.

Just for fun, I fired up both virtualization systems, MC12 in each, plus iTunes in Mac OS.  Then set all 3 media programs playing different tracks.  I was rather amazed do find the Mac Mini took all this in stride (though the resulting cacophony did send my cats running for cover.../)

Stuart

[glynor]

I tried Parallels as well, but I had all sorts of problems - I couldn't even get XP to install - it kept locking up at some late-ish point in the in the setup routine.  So I put temporarily Win2K on the Parallels trial, then put MC12 on that.  I saw (possibly) the same issues with Coherence that Glynor described.  MC12 initially opened up fine in the Mac OS desktop, but if I attempted to move or resize MC12, I started to see issues. For example, if I dragged MC to the right, the right side started clipping off.  Same thing with resizing. It was as though Parallels had created a 'viewport' positioned and sized where MC initially was, but it remained locked in place from there on. 

I also tried the VMWare Fusion beta, which essentially does much the same thing as Parallels.  It seemed to like XP more.  Its 'Unity' mode (which is like Parallels 'Coherence' mode) works fine with MC12 - even with a 3rd party skin that makes it look more iTunes like. 

Interesting.  I've been hesitant to install VMWare after my little Parallel's uninstall nightmare.

Be warned:  If you install the Parallel's Trial, and are using a BootCamp Partition as your VM, make sure to uninstall Parallel's Tools out of the "Windows side" before the trial ends.  The only way to uninstall Parallels Tools (which is the set of runtimes and accessories that run inside Windows that helps Parallel's work properly) using Add/Remove Programs is to do it from inside the VM.  If you boot to the "real" Windows Partition, it won't let you uninstall!!  I had to resort to manually hacking the registry to get rid of it, and it hides things everywhere and makes it very difficult to do (and don't expect to get any help on their forums other than "why don't you just reinstall Windows?").   

Since you got MC working in Unity mode (I want MC to work more than anything else) and with everything else I've heard about VMWare (mostly good), I'm considering more fully giving it a try.  Maybe I'll try it on my Mac Pro first, since I won't mind blowing away it's BootCamp partition if needed....

[Fred1]

I tried Parallels as well, but I had all sorts of problems - I couldn't even get XP to install - it kept locking up at some late-ish point in the in the setup routine.

I had the same problem with WinXP.
Only XP-Servicepack 2 solved my problem.
From now on the install on Parallels was no problem at all.

MC 12 runs on an iMac even in Theater View.