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Author Topic: Menus flicker and disappear  (Read 2848 times)

parrot

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Menus flicker and disappear
« on: January 21, 2008, 01:07:58 am »


When I try to access the menus at the top- I just see them for a split second- just a flicker.

I believe Haali Media Splitter is the issue- beings I've never even heard of it before and it keeps popping up in multiples at the bottom of my screen. It also freezes up Netscape Navigator as well. I also got an error message #30- whatever that means, tried to do an uninstall/reinstall, but it won't uninstall (MediaCenter). I can't believe I paid $40.00 for this headache and waste of hours of my time. I've shown/told countless people about media center because I thought it was so cool (the 30 day free trial), and now I'm seriously hoping nobody will make the same mistake I made to purchase the program.

When searching the forums for a possible answer I just ran into threads where people posted problems with nobody even bothering to reply. Discouraging.

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koivu_11

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Re: Menus flicker and disappear
« Reply #1 on: January 21, 2008, 01:15:35 am »

I just downloaded the trial version and have similar issues, but not exactly.

The top menu for me if I click on it, it will disappear after like 2 seconds (which is really annoying), but it only does this sometimes, I can't figure out why... like i'll click on the top menu and as i'm reading it will just disappear, or I'll move the mouse to click on a menu item and just before I click the menu disappears...

but again this only happens sometimes, i'm not sure why, sometimes the menu is fine.
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modelmaker

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Re: Menus flicker and disappear
« Reply #2 on: January 21, 2008, 03:59:46 am »

More information?  Evidently the trial version worked for you as you were talking it up to your friends and you decided to purchase MC. the only thing that changes when you purchase MC is that the key unlocks the time-out. So what changed? Did you change versions? Did you install any other apps at that time? Did you change anything on your computer?

Please goto MC Help>System Info and paste your system info here.

And lastly, in addition to the MC staff, (they get to work in the morning), there many very experienced and advanced users in this community to help you, if you have a little patience.
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Jay.

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gappie

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Re: Menus flicker and disappear
« Reply #3 on: January 21, 2008, 04:37:40 am »

first, the haali splitter is not installed with mc12, but with for instance cccp (which is more or less recommended). mc can use the haali splitter for video playback. or ,i believe, for building the thumbnails. when you just installed and imported a huge amount of video files, then it can take some time to build all those thumbnails. there is no difference between the trail version and the full version, as modelmaker already said.

to get help you need to give more info.

welcome to the forum  :)

gab
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modelmaker

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Re: Menus flicker and disappear
« Reply #4 on: January 21, 2008, 04:52:23 am »

Oh yeah, welcome to the forum! :)
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Jay.

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johnnyboy

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Re: Menus flicker and disappear
« Reply #5 on: January 21, 2008, 06:02:25 am »

Do you have window blinds or anthing like that? Window blinds often causes apps it cant skin properly to flicker.
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Alex B

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Re: Menu flickers and disappears
« Reply #6 on: January 21, 2008, 06:44:28 am »

When I try to access the menus at the top- I just see them for a split second- just a flicker.

I believe Haali Media Splitter is the issue- beings I've never even heard of it before and it keeps popping up in multiples at the bottom of my screen. It also freezes up Netscape Navigator as well.

The problem is most likely related to the initial importing and thumbnail creation. When a new video file is imported MC reads the file details and creates a small thumbnail automatically by playing a short passage of the file. MC needs to run the standard playback system to make this work. Some playback filters can steal the focus momentarily. I don't know if Haali or some other filter is causing this on your system (you see the Haali icons because you have Haali installed and a splitter filter is needed when a container type video file is played). In general, Haali is very good splitter filter that works fine.

You could try to:
-- start the import process manually and let it run e.g. over-night. (Tools > Run Auto-Import Now)
or
-- disable the "create thumbnails" Auto-Import option. In this case the thumbnails will be created when you browse the video files, but at least you know why it is happening. You can use the "build missing thumbnails" feature for creating the thumbnails when you don't need your PC for other tasks (Options > Tree & View > Thumbnails > Build missing thumbnails...)

Quote
I also got an error message #30- whatever that means,

I think it means that the main program .exe file doesn't have the correct size. Often this is caused by a virus. Here are some threads about it:
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=18518.0
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=22999.msg160831#msg160831
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=29812.0
http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=36902.0

Quote
tried to do an uninstall/reinstall, but it won't uninstall (MediaCenter).

Normally the uninstaller works fine. I have never had problems with it. Maybe you really have a virus on your PC.

Quote
When searching the forums for a possible answer I just ran into threads where people posted problems with nobody even bothering to reply. Discouraging.

I am just a long-time user, but I have tried my best and reply when I know the answer or have something to add. Sometimes the questions are not clear or no one knows the answers. From time to time a question may remain unanswered, but the percentage of unreplied threads is not big. In general, I would advice to rephrase the question and try again.

Quote
I can't believe I paid $40.00 for this headache and waste of hours of my time. I've shown/told countless people about media center because I thought it was so cool (the 30 day free trial)

The registration process does (or at least should) not change functionality anyhow. The code that maintains the license(s) is not connected to the media database, user interface, playback etc features.

As already mentioned by others, I wonder if anything else has changed besides that you bought the license. Have you installed new DirectShow filters or other OS updates/components outside MC?

Also, are you running the latest MC12 build? What is your OS? Please post your system info from the Help menu.


Edit: I edited my reply slightly because also the original post was moderated a bit.
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John Gateley

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Re: Menus flicker and disappear
« Reply #7 on: January 21, 2008, 09:49:25 am »

And lastly, in addition to the MC staff, (they get to work in the morning)...

We're actually off today: Martin Luther King day, though most of us monitor the forum.

As someone else said: the splitter is not part of MC, it's part of CCCP. We'll try to help figure out what's going on though...

j

parrot

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Re: Menus flicker and disappear
« Reply #8 on: January 23, 2008, 12:59:46 pm »

Sorry for the impatience,

I was just really dissapointed that I ran into issues. I didn't realize how much help was available and totally jumped the gun after I ran into my first problem and couldn't resolve it. My bad

Here's my system info:

Media Center Registered 12.0.240 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center 12\

Microsoft Windows XP  Workstation 5.1 Service Pack 2 (Build 2600)
Intel Pentium 4 3391 MHz MMX / Memory: Total - 1015 MB, Free - 456 MB

Internet Explorer: 7.0.5730.11 / ComCtl32.dll: 5.82.2900 / Shlwapi.dll: 6.0.2900 / Shell32.dll: 6.0.2900 / wnaspi32.dll: 4.71 (0002) , ASPI for Win32         DLL, Copyright © 1989-2002 Adaptec, Inc. / Aspi32.sys: 4.71 (0002)

Ripping /   Drive D:   Mode:Normal  Type:Auto  Speed:Max
  Drive E:   Mode:Normal  Type:Auto  Speed:Max
  Drive G:   Mode:Normal  Type:Auto  Speed:Max
  Digital playback: Yes /  Use YADB: Yes /  Get cover art: No /  Calc replay gain: Yes /  Copy volume: 32767
  Eject after ripping: Yes /  Play sound after ripping: No 

Burning /  Drive E: LITE-ON  DVDRW SOHW-1693S   Addr: 1:1:0  Speed:48  MaxSpeed:48  BurnProof:Yes
  Test mode: No /  Eject after writing: Yes /  Direct decoding: Yes /  Write CD-Text: Yes
  Use playback settings: No /

Portable Device Info
  Removed devices:


Interface Plugins:
  last.fm (Active)
  Library Server (Active)
  TiVo Server (Active)
  UPnP Server (Active)




Here are some other things that might help:


When I select Auto Import Options, I get this message before the options appear.

System plug-in 'FLAC Encoder' may not be completely installed. Please re-install Media Center.



When it freezes- it also locks up navigation in whatever web browser I happen to be using.

Haali Media Splitter icons appear in multiples and then disappear and then re-appear again.

Media Center doesn't build thumbails for my videos like it used to do automatically.

I haven't gotten the error #30 message in the past two days and I've run and re-ran Media Center dozens of times. Spybot search+destroy doesn't detect anything and neither does AVG Anti-virus.

Images and Audio seem to work flawlessy it's only the Video library that is the problem- as far as I can tell.

I'm running Windows XP with SP2
Zonealarm firewall
AVG Anti-virus
 

Thanks for all the replies and help.
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JimH

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Re: Menus flicker and disappear
« Reply #9 on: January 23, 2008, 01:03:18 pm »

Sorry for the impatience,
Thanks for saying so.  Not a problem. 
Quote
Media Center Registered 12.0.240 -- C:\Program Files\J River\Media Center 12\
Please update.  12.0.404 is on the download page.
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eba

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Re: Menus flicker and disappear
« Reply #10 on: January 23, 2008, 04:21:08 pm »

Media Center doesn't build thumbails for my videos like it used to do automatically.

I've had this problem with the latest build (410) too.  Not sure how long it'd have been there as only recently had cause to notice it, although I presumed it was a recent problem rather than going back to build 240...
I then got carried away with doing screen grabs for all of my videos (errr...only 25 of them, and the alternative was getting on with what I was meant to be doing), and forgot about it...

Ben

benn600

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Re: Menus flicker and disappear
« Reply #11 on: January 23, 2008, 04:47:06 pm »

Quote
Quote
I also got an error message #30- whatever that means,

I think it means that the main program .exe file doesn't have the correct size. Often this is caused by a virus. Here are some threads about it:

I really think this is a big contributor to the issues.  It seems so strange because I have been using Media Center for around 18 months and in general, the latest versions have been incredibly stable and solid.  Others report problems and I don't seem to have a single issue.  Although my computers are freshly formatted often with only the finest free & commercial software available...literally next to no junk or crud.
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gappie

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Re: Menus flicker and disappear
« Reply #12 on: January 23, 2008, 05:24:56 pm »

how many video files are you importing? when it are a lot the building of the thumbs can take a long time. not that it should stop everything, but it explains the haali filter jumping up so often.
about the flac encoder. not so long ago the flac encoder got included in mc, before it was available as a plugin. updating to the newst version is a good first step.
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