Charlie Owen - Handy Tip: Run Media Center in Widescreen (16:9) Mode

Thursday, July 21, 2005

Handy Tip: Run Media Center in Widescreen (16:9) Mode

Do you want to test your extensibility application for widescreen compatibility without a widescreen monitor?

If yes, then...

Click Start --> Run.
Type 'C:\windows\eHome\ehshell.exe /widescreen'.
Click the OK button.
Using the mouse, click the 'Restore Down' button to run Media Center in a window rather than full screen.

Voila, a 16:9 implementation of Media Center.

Categories: Media Center | Media Center Application Design | Media Center SDK Code Sample | Comments [9] |

| Posted on Thursday, July 21, 2005 9:30:41 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Thursday, July 21, 2005 11:26:16 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

hey how do you change it back to full screen?!

Mitch

Thursday, July 21, 2005 11:47:35 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Why would this not just be a simple option? Command line is far from a consumer friendly way to go ...

Jonathan Greene

Friday, July 22, 2005 7:03:01 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Great tip, Jonathan I guess its not a simple option as you would only realy want to do it to test out your apps, an average consumer does not realy want to mess about with these settings.

Ian

Friday, July 22, 2005 12:04:17 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

What do you think the percentage of people using widescreen systems with media centers might be? I'd be willing to bet it's close to 100... Aside from the all-in-one units, anyone willing to shell out for an MCE PC is looking for more in their consumption of entertainment and I'd bet already has or will soon want a widescreen - if not an HDTV.

Jonathan Greene

Friday, July 22, 2005 1:34:15 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Good tip. I was wondering how I was going to test to make sure my stuff works on a widescreen!

Gyuri

Friday, July 22, 2005 8:25:19 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Jonathan, I thought this tip was simulating widescreen on non wide screen kit for testing.
You don't need to do this if you have widescreen

Ian Dixon

Saturday, July 23, 2005 3:35:35 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Ian is correct -- Media Center automatically adjusts to the native aspect ratio of your display device when run fullscreen.

Charlie Owen

Saturday, July 23, 2005 3:39:18 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

--> How do you change it back to full screen?

With Media Center in a windowed mode use the mouse to click the Maximize button (which is in the same position as the Restore Down button when Media Center is full screen).

Charlie Owen

Tuesday, February 07, 2006 5:47:55 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)

Is there anyway to open at other non-standard aspect ratios? Many MCE laptops have weird aspect ratios that don't conform to 4:3 or 16:9. It would be handy to simply open at any size you input to the command line.

Tim

Comments are closed.