Introducing WMC mini-mods

[IT Troll]

A new mod suggestion. It is possible to set a default time pad value for scheduled recordings, however the only options available are for “x minutes after, when possible”. When setting the options for a specific recording it is possible to select “10 minutes after”, which forces a fixed time pad. It would be great if the default setting included the “10 minutes after” fixed length option. Further recent discussion on this and why the setting is useful, can be found here:
viewtopic.php?t=14558

This is a long standing issue.
viewtopic.php?t=14100
viewtopic.php?t=12192

[Kevin Chalet]

A new mod suggestion. It is possible to set a default time pad value for scheduled recordings, however the only options available are for “x minutes after, when possible”. When setting the options for a specific recording it is possible to select “10 minutes after”, which forces a fixed time pad. It would be great if the default setting included the “10 minutes after” fixed length option. Further recent discussion on this and why the setting is useful, can be found here

I took a look at that a while ago and it should be easy to mod. I'll take a look tomorrow

[The Mac]

awesome...look forward to the results.

[Kevin Chalet]

New 2.3.0 release:

ehshell.dll patches:

Option to configure the default hard pre-padding and post-padding for TV recordings:

Windows Media Center supports two types of pre and post-paddings for TV recordings:

• A soft padding, that will cause the recording to be extended beyond the original start/end time unless a program is scheduled before (for a pre-padding) or after (for a post-padding) the current recording.
• A hard padding, that works the same way but ignores the fact a program is scheduled before (for a pre-padding) or after (for a post-padding). Said differently, the current recording is always extended even if a program is scheduled immediately before or after the current recording.

WMC supports setting both types of paddings per program or per series - i.e "x minutes after, when possible" for a soft padding or "x minutes after" for a hard padding - but it's not possible to set a hard padding as the default value (I guess the eHome devs assumed most WMC machines would have a limited number of tuners and that allowing to configure a hard padding would seriously degrade the user experience).

To allow users to configure a hard pre or post-padding, WMC mini-mods 2.3.0 patches RecordHelper.DefaultHardPrePadding and RecordHelper.DefaultHardPostPadding:

Code: Select all

using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.IO;
using System.Text;
using ehiProxy;
using Microsoft.MediaCenter.Debug;
using Microsoft.MediaCenter.Guide;
using Microsoft.MediaCenter.Playback;
using Microsoft.MediaCenter.Pvr;
using Microsoft.MediaCenter.TV.Tuners;
using Microsoft.Win32;

namespace MediaCenter.Video
{
    // Token: 0x02000D71 RID: 3441
    internal sealed partial class RecordHelper : IDisposable
    {
        // Token: 0x17001E9E RID: 7838
        // (get) Token: 0x06007972 RID: 31090 RVA: 0x0002A28D File Offset: 0x0002848D
        public TimeSpan DefaultHardPrePadding
        {
            get
            {
                using var key = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey("SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Media Center\\MiniMods");
                if (key is not null && key.GetValue("RecordingHardPrePadding") is int value)
                {
                    return TimeSpan.FromSeconds(-value);
                }

                return TimeSpan.Zero;
            }
        }
    }
}

Code: Select all

using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.IO;
using System.Text;
using ehiProxy;
using Microsoft.MediaCenter.Debug;
using Microsoft.MediaCenter.Guide;
using Microsoft.MediaCenter.Playback;
using Microsoft.MediaCenter.Pvr;
using Microsoft.MediaCenter.TV.Tuners;
using Microsoft.Win32;

namespace MediaCenter.Video
{
    // Token: 0x02000D71 RID: 3441
    internal sealed partial class RecordHelper : IDisposable
    {
        // Token: 0x17001E9F RID: 7839
        // (get) Token: 0x06007973 RID: 31091 RVA: 0x0002A28D File Offset: 0x0002848D
        public TimeSpan DefaultHardPostPadding
        {
            get
            {
                using var key = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey("SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Media Center\\MiniMods");
                if (key is not null && key.GetValue("RecordingHardPostPadding") is int value)
                {
                    return TimeSpan.FromSeconds(value);
                }

                return TimeSpan.Zero;
            }
        }
    }
}

For consistency with the existing/built-in RecordingSoftPrePadding and RecordingSoftPostPadding settings, I named the new hooks RecordingHardPrePadding and RecordingHardPostPadding and decided to use the same value format... even if it's not super user-friendly:
- For RecordingHardPostPadding, it's easy, the value stored in the registry is the number of seconds that will be added to the recording. E.g for a 10-minute post-padding: 600 (in decimal).
- For RecordingHardPrePadding, it's a bit more complicated, as the formula "4294967295 - [number of seconds to add] + 1" must be used to compute the final registry value. E.g for a 10-minute pre-padding: 4294966696 (in decimal).

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\MiniMods]
"RecordingHardPrePadding"=dword:fffffda8
"RecordingHardPostPadding"=dword:00000258

You should be able to configure both a soft and a hard (pre or post) padding, but in this case, the hard padding must always be less than the soft one.

Edit: for those interested, here's the logic used by WMC for one-time recording requests:

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request = Scheduler.CreateOneTimeRequest(scheduleEntry, channel);
request.UpdateAndSchedule(delegate
{
    request.KeepLength = keepUntil;
    request.Quality = quality;
    request.PrePaddingRequested = DefaultSoftPrePadding - hardPrePadding;
    request.PrePaddingRequired = hardPrePadding;
    request.PostPaddingRequested = softPostPadding - hardPostPadding;
    request.PostPaddingRequired = hardPostPadding;
    request.AnyLanguage = DefaultAnyLanguage;
}, Scheduler);

And here's the logic used to compute the actual start/end times:

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internal void GetTimes(ScheduleEntry scheduleEntry, out DateTime contentStartTime, out DateTime contentEndTime, out DateTime requiredStartTime, out DateTime requiredEndTime, out DateTime requestedStartTime, out DateTime requestedEndTime)
{
    if (scheduleEntry == null)
    {
        throw new ArgumentNullException("scheduleEntry");
    }
    contentStartTime = scheduleEntry.StartTime;
    contentEndTime = scheduleEntry.EndTime;
    requiredStartTime = contentStartTime - PrePaddingRequired;
    requiredEndTime = contentEndTime + PostPaddingRequired;
    requestedStartTime = requiredStartTime - PrePaddingRequested;
    if (requestedStartTime > requiredStartTime)
    {
        requestedStartTime = requiredStartTime;
    }
    requestedEndTime = requiredEndTime + PostPaddingRequested;
    if (requestedEndTime < requiredEndTime)
    {
        requestedEndTime = requiredEndTime;
    }
    TimeSpan timeSpan = TimeSpan.FromSeconds((requiredEndTime - requiredStartTime).TotalSeconds * OverlapAllowanceRatio);
    if (timeSpan > OverlapAllowanceDuration)
    {
        timeSpan = OverlapAllowanceDuration;
    }
    DateTime dateTime = Min(requiredStartTime + Max(timeSpan, TimeSpan.FromSeconds(100.0)), requiredEndTime - TimeSpan.FromSeconds(60.0));
    if (PrototypicalScheduleEntry != null && scheduleEntry != null && PrototypicalScheduleEntry.Id == scheduleEntry.Id && dateTime < CreationTime)
    {
        dateTime = CreationTime;
    }
    requiredStartTime = dateTime;
}

Note: configuring a default hard pre or post-padding doesn't override the paddings used for existing recording requests if you specified a non-default value.

Thanks IT Troll for the idea

[The Mac]

...

[Kevin Chalet]

...

?

[The Mac]

...

?

I had written something that was out of context...lol

[Kevin Chalet]

Ah!

When you have a moment, please give the 2.3.0 version a try and see if the new mod does what you want

[IT Troll]

Option to configure the default hard pre-padding and post-padding for TV recordings:

Ooh, I shall give this a try this weekend. I'm sure others will find it useful too.

(note: as usual with the WMC mini-mods project, configuration is only made via the registry, the GUI hasn't been updated to support that)

I had hoped that it would be possible to patch (unlock) more options into the dropdown of default settings, but can appreciate that would be more difficult.

So to be clear. If I have a default GUI setting of "10 minutes after, when possible" and set RecordingHardPostPadding to 600 this should give the 10 minutes of hard padding. But does this mean that when looking at the recording options for a given recording/series it will still state "10 minutes after, when possible"? In which case does that mean it is then impossible to override the 10 mins hard padding on a specific recording to revert to 10 mins soft padding?

[The Mac]

is there anyway to patch that into the GUI?

[Kevin Chalet]

Note: I re-versioned 2.2.2 as 2.3.0 (as there was no fix in that release)

I had hoped that it would be possible to patch (unlock) more options into the dropdown of default settings, but can appreciate that would be more difficult.

Nothing is impossible, but updating the GUI is not trivial. And in this case, tweaking these settings via the registry is a lot more flexible, as you can combine both a soft and a hard padding (something you couldn't do with the single dropdown offered by the GUI).

So to be clear. If I have a default GUI setting of "10 minutes after, when possible" and set RecordingHardPostPadding to 600 this should give the 10 minutes of hard padding. But does this mean that when looking at the recording options for a given recording/series it will still state "10 minutes after, when possible"? In which case does that mean it is then impossible to override the 10 mins hard padding on a specific recording to revert to 10 mins soft padding?

No, WMC will list "10 minutes after" as the selected option and will offer "10 minutes after, when possible" (i.e a soft 10-minute post-padding) as an alternative option:

What's crazy is that it's even able to list non-standard values. Here's an example with a hard 7-minute post-padding configured via the registry:

[IT Troll]

No, WMC will list "10 minutes after" as the selected option and will offer "10 minutes after, when possible" (i.e a soft 10-minute post-padding) as an alternative option:

Ah, that's excellent then. I was worried it would be confusing for my partner.

[The Mac]

not trying to make more work for you, but how about a stand alone gui front end, like EPG123 that combines all the tweaks?

[Kevin Chalet]

not trying to make more work for you, but how about a stand alone gui front end, like EPG123 that combines all the tweaks?

Why not. That said, it's not something I'd use myself - I have too many WMC machines to make that efficient (I use PowerShell remoting to tweak all the machines at once) - so there would need to be a strong demand from the community

[The Mac]

I would guess most of the people left here are just the hard core people who are tech savy.

I only manage 2 WMC machines, but constant poking around in the registry doesn't really blow my skirt up.

It requires remembering what i did last time.

I can barely remember what i had for lunch yesterday, let alone what i changed in the registry 2 months ago.

[Kevin Chalet]

I would guess most of the people left here are just the hard core people who are tech savy.

Well, WMC is no longer the super-easy plug-and-play solution it used to be (tho' in many cases, you still had to tweak a few things manually, even when it still was officially supported software): "mettre les mains dans le cambouis" as we say here is pretty much required to keep using WMC in 2024

That said, using PowerShell to tweak the registry is definitely not reserved to specialists since even a PowerShell noob like me can use it

I only manage 2 WMC machines, but constant poking around in the registry doesn't really blow my skirt up.

It requires remembering what i did last time.

I can barely remember what i had for lunch yesterday, let alone what i changed in the registry 2 months ago.

To simplify things a bit, I decided in 2.0 to regroup all the mini-mods-related hooks under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\MiniMods.

To configure WMC mini-mods with PowerShell, you only need 3 commands:

• To create the registry key (required only once, after running the installation script):
  

  Code: Select all

  New-Item 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\MiniMods'

• To configure a specific mod (e.g the hard post-padding):
  

  Code: Select all

  Set-ItemProperty 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\MiniMods' -Name RecordingHardPostPadding -Value 1200

• To display all the configured values:
  

  Code: Select all

  Get-Item 'HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\MiniMods'

As you can see, nothing terribly complicated

[The Mac]

No, not complicated at all. Very simple in fact.

I have no issues "Getting my hands dirty." (2 years of high school french there...lol..i did have to look up cambouis, i initially thought it was something else...)

[Kevin Chalet]

I have no issues "Getting my hands dirty." (2 years of high school french there...lol..i did have to look up cambouis, i initially thought it was something else...)

Haha, did you think it was something... spicy?

New 2.4.0 release:

ehshell.dll patches:

Option to extend the content size correction workaround introduced in KB974324 to support 4K UHD displays:

(this one took me a while... )

In 2009, Microsoft released a fix/workaround to remove the flickering pixels that could appear on the right side of 1080p screens on certain configurations (Intel HD platforms were particularly affected at the time): http://web.archive.org/web/201503290047 ... /kb/974324

Sadly, that fix only works for 1920x1080 displays, excluding 4K UHD. This was no big deal in 2009 but 4K UHD monitors/TV sets are now much common and multiple users reported that fix doesn't, indeed, work with 4K displays: viewtopic.php?t=9622. A workaround was eventually found - setting LogicalWidth to 3839 in the registry - but it unfortunately doesn't work when disabling the exclusive fullscreen mode via WMC mini-mods (something users of recent Intel or AMD platforms have to do since these platforms exhibit major issues with WMC's traditional fullscreen mode).

WMC mini-mods 2.4.0 addresses that by introducing a new EnableExtendedContentSizeCorrection hook that allows applying the same exact workaround Microsoft added 15 years ago to 4K displays. Unlike the LogicalWidth trick, it works whether WMC uses the exclusive or the non-exclusive fullscreen mode:

Code: Select all

using System;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Collections.Specialized;
using System.ComponentModel.Design;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.Threading;
using ehiExtCOM;
using EHMedia;
using MediaCenter.Extensibility;
using MediaCenter.ListMaker;
using Microsoft.MediaCenter.Debug;
using Microsoft.MediaCenter.Hosting.Infrastructure;
using Microsoft.MediaCenter.Interop;
using Microsoft.MediaCenter.Playback;
using Microsoft.MediaCenter.Shell;
using Microsoft.MediaCenter.UI;
using Microsoft.MediaCenter.UI.Drawing;
using Microsoft.MediaCenter.UI.VideoPlayback;
using Microsoft.MediaCenter.Utility;
using Microsoft.Win32;

namespace ServiceBus.UIFramework
{
    // Token: 0x02000B4F RID: 2895
    internal sealed partial class PageBasedUCPService : UCPService, IUsageLogger, IUIVideoStreamBroker
    {
        // Token: 0x060067BE RID: 26558 RVA: 0x001A7F98 File Offset: 0x001A6198
        private void UpdateContentSize(Size logicalSize, Size physicalSize)
        {
            if (this._rootGadget != null)
            {
                Rectangle rectangle = new Rectangle(0, 0, logicalSize.Width, logicalSize.Height);
                SizeF sizeF;
                if (this.ComputeUsableArea(ref rectangle, out sizeF, this.Form.WindowState, false))
                {
                    float num = Math.Min(sizeF.Width, sizeF.Height);
                    Vector3 vector = new Vector3(num, num, num);
                    this.NotificationPanel.IdealLeft = rectangle.Left;
                    this.NotificationPanel.IdealTop = rectangle.Top;
                    Size size = rectangle.Size;
                    Size size2 = new Size((int)Math.Round((double)((float)size.Width / vector.X)), (int)Math.Round((double)((float)size.Height / vector.Y)));

                    if (this.Form.WindowState == FormWindowState.Maximized && size2.Width == 1365 && size2.Height == 768)
                    {
                        if (size.Width == 1920 && size.Height == 1080)
                        {
                            size2.Width = 1366;
                        }

                        else
                        {
                            using var key = Registry.LocalMachine.OpenSubKey("SOFTWARE\\Microsoft\\Windows\\CurrentVersion\\Media Center\\MiniMods");
                            if (key is not null && key.GetValue("EnableExtendedContentSizeCorrection") is 1)
                            {
                                if (size.Width is 3840 && size.Height is 2160)
                                {
                                    size2.Width = 1366;
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }

                    bool flag = this.IsWidescreen();
                    this.NotificationPanel.IdealWidth = size2.Width;
                    this.NotificationPanel.IdealHeight = size2.Height;
                    if (ListMakerUtility.ProgressBar != null)
                    {
                        ListMakerUtility.ProgressBar.Apply16X9();
                    }
                    bool flag2 = this.IsWidescreen();
                    if (flag != flag2)
                    {
                        Microsoft.MediaCenter.UI.Environment environment = Microsoft.MediaCenter.UI.Environment.Get(this._session);
                        if (environment != null)
                        {
                            environment.SetWidescreen(flag2);
                        }
                        if (this.IsWidescreenChangedHandler != null)
                        {
                            this.IsWidescreenChangedHandler(flag2);
                        }
                    }
                    if (!logicalSize.IsEmpty)
                    {
                        if (physicalSize != logicalSize)
                        {
                            vector.X *= (float)physicalSize.Width / (float)logicalSize.Width;
                            vector.Y *= (float)physicalSize.Height / (float)logicalSize.Height;
                        }
                        this._session.OutputDevice.FlushFontCache();
                        this._sizefContentScale = new SizeF(vector.X, vector.Y);
                        this.NotificationPanel.Scale = vector;
                        if (this.Form.WindowState == FormWindowState.Maximized)
                        {
                            this.RootGadget.ToolbarRoot.IdealWidth = size2.Width;
                            this.RootGadget.ToolbarRoot.IdealHeight = size2.Height;
                            this.RootGadget.ToolbarRoot.Margin = this.UserConfig.OverscanMargins;
                            this.RootGadget.ToolbarRoot.Scale = vector;
                            this.Toolbars.TwoFootToolBar.ToolBarData.EnableMiniTransportToolbar = false;
                            this.Toolbars.TwoFootToolBar.ToolBarData.AllowItvToolbar = true;
                        }
                        else
                        {
                            float num2 = 0.85f;
                            Vector3 vector2;
                            if (vector.X >= num2)
                            {
                                vector2 = vector;
                            }
                            else
                            {
                                vector2 = new Vector3(num2, num2, num2);
                            }
                            this.RootGadget.ToolbarRoot.IdealWidth = (int)Math.Round((double)((float)physicalSize.Width / vector2.X));
                            this.RootGadget.ToolbarRoot.IdealHeight = (int)Math.Round((double)((float)physicalSize.Height / vector2.Y));
                            this.RootGadget.ToolbarRoot.Margin = Inset.Empty;
                            this.RootGadget.ToolbarRoot.Scale = vector2;
                            if (physicalSize.Width < 790)
                            {
                                this.Toolbars.TwoFootToolBar.ToolBarData.EnableMiniTransportToolbar = true;
                            }
                            else
                            {
                                this.Toolbars.TwoFootToolBar.ToolBarData.EnableMiniTransportToolbar = false;
                            }
                            if (physicalSize.Width < 850)
                            {
                                this.Toolbars.TwoFootToolBar.ToolBarData.AllowItvToolbar = false;
                            }
                            else
                            {
                                this.Toolbars.TwoFootToolBar.ToolBarData.AllowItvToolbar = true;
                            }
                        }
                        if (this.IdealSizeChangedHandler != null)
                        {
                            this.IdealSizeChangedHandler(this.NotificationPanel.IdealWidth.Value, this.NotificationPanel.IdealHeight.Value);
                        }
                    }
                }
                this._rcUsableContent = rectangle;
            }
        }
    }
}

Code: Select all

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\MiniMods]
"EnableExtendedContentSizeCorrection"=dword:00000001

In 2.4.0, the workaround only applies to both 1920x1080 and 3840x2160, but if there are folks who are experiencing the same issue on other resolutions (e.g 8K UHD? ), I don't mind adding them at all.

Note: if you decide to enable this mod, I'd recommend reverting LogicalWidth to the original value.

[IT Troll]

I installed the mod today and all seems to be working fine; with RecordingHardPostPadding set to 10 minutes, I get "10 minutes after" (hard padding) for new recordings.
I then realised that my recording default was set to "5 minutes after, when possible", which is perhaps not a good idea:

You should be able to configure both a soft and a hard (pre or post) padding, but in this case, the hard padding must always be less than the soft one.

I can see that this would potentially create a negative value, which might not calculate correctly. But even if this results in a null value (which I guess is the likely outcome), the logic still seems to work.

padding.png (9.84 KiB) Viewed 328 times

Or am I missing something?

[Kevin Chalet]

Or am I missing something?

Nope, you got it right: WMC includes built-in logic to avoid the case you describe (I included it in the post you quoted).

When I said the hard padding must always be less than the soft one, it's not because it'll lead to incorrect results but simply because it makes no sense in practice: the soft padding value will never be used

On the other hand, the opposite scenario - i.e a hard padding that is less than the soft one - can be quite useful: it guarantees that the recording will be extended for at least the configured hard padding (if another program before or after the current one is going to be recorded). When no other program is scheduled, the recording will be extended for the configured soft padding.