All about: Dell MediaDirect

I'm sure there are a few people out there, including me, that aren't completely sure about Dell MediaDirect. I started this thread as a place where we can ask questions about it. Let me start by asking a few myself.

Firstly, what exactly is Dell MediaDirect? From what I know, it's a program that enables you to watch movies or listen to music from you CD/DVD drive without having to boot your operating system. This can be very useful if you want to conserve battery power without compensating your desire for multimedia. If I failed to mention something else about Dell MediaDirect or if I am just completely wrong so far, please feel free to correct me.

Secondly, Dell MediaDirect is included on a separate partition. I plan to perform a clean installation of Windows Vista Home Premium when my Inspiron 1520 arrives tomorrow by reformatting my main partition. If I don't touch the Dell MediaDirect partition, will it work as it normally should? Or will I have to install Dell MediaDirect as a program on my main partition? I would appreciate it if someone were to enlighten me on this topic.

Thank you very much.

 

Yes its exactly as you described....read my thread on Clean install and follow it step by step and you will be ecstatic!!

 

Okay, so I will have to install Dell MediaDirect as a program after re-installing Vista? What exactly does this do, though? How does it work after I install it? Will Dell MediaDirect still work if I don't install it? If so, how?

Remember, I'm not touching the Dell MediaDirect partition. I'm leaving that at its factory-state.

 

First you need to trust... Do exactly as I described. Its step by step and many people have already give me kudos over this. It is a good program. You have to see it to understand it. You can even use it within windows.

 

Well now you answered my question! You can use it within Windows. So this is also a program just like any other in the sense that you can use it to play audio/video files, correct? Therefore, by installing it, I will be installing a new program to play audio/video files.

But if I don't install it yet I keep the partition, will I only be able to use it to bypass booting Windows everytime I pop in a audio CD or DVD? Or will I not be able to use it at all?

Here's another question: Is Dell MediaDirect partition just a back-up or does it do something? I'm under the impression it lets you bypass booting Windows when you want to play a CD/DVD. Am I right?

P.S. Mr. Flamenko: I'm adding to your reputation. Think of it as thanks for the help you've given me so far and the help you have yet to give me.

 

I don't really like MediaDirect. I don't like that you can't drag to any part of a video file and it only has 2x fast forward. I'm also usually on the internet while listening to music or watching videos/dvds and you can't do that in MediaDirect. I installed MediaDirect 3.3 on my XPS M1210 yesterday and hacked it to include the divx codecs. It was amusing for a day before I uninstalled it. At least I figured out how to hack my mediadirect button to open Vista Media Center in the process.

 

And this is why Im saying to do a complete boot if you trust yourself. There is another partition for your system backup...Its a safety net but a waste of space if you re-installing windows.

You can use MediaDirect within windows or turn it on itself which saves battery life.

Take a chance; I promise Ill be here to walk you through it if need be.

 

Okay, just answer these simple questions. Based on your TRUE / FALSE answers, I will be confident in my knowledge about Dell MediaDirect.

1. Dell MediaDirect has two aspects to it; one plays audio/video files in Windows while the other plays CD/DVD from drive without having to boot Windows.

2. The Dell MediaDirect partition is used for playing from CD/DVD in drive without booting Windows.

3. Installing Dell MediaDirect in Windows has nothing to do with being able to play CD/DVD from drive without booting Windows.

 

True, true and true. You can use mediadirect in two scenarios:

1. when your system is off, press the MediaDirect button for access to DVD, songs and photographs...and contacts.

2. When its on and within windows its a bit different interface with the exact smae functions.. I like it because all the songs and photos are right there for me.

 

THANK YOU VERY MUCH! That's all I needed to know. And now I know. And I know for sure. Thank you. I'd give you more reputation but I'm required to spread some around before giving some more to you again. I'm sorry.

 

And isnt the DELL MediaDirect partition actually a Ubuntu Linux partition ?

 

Nope, it's Windows XP. You can actually hack the partition to put the Task Manager in there so that you can CTRL+ALT+DEL and install your own codecs.

 

DELL media direct is nothing but a full screen CyberLink Home Theater application running on Windows XP. It is a cut down version of XP so it might not require as much battery power as regular Windows (however I have not yet seen any battery benchmarks proving this). Only reasons for any battery saving (if any) should be due to inactive Wi-fi, Bluetooth (and perhaps network card) and maybe due to running the PC under some sort of an extreme power saver mode. but still, I don't think it will give you any significant battery savings over running regular windows with no wi-fi, slower DVD-ROM speed and without any resource consuming background apps.

While you are installing MediaDirect you’ll see a new driver letter (usually X:) appearing in explorer; if you go inside, you can see a Windows folder and a Program Files folder. Normally when I install MD, I copy taskmgr.exe in to Windows\System32 folder so I can invoke it later by pressing Ctrl+Shift+Esc from MediaDirect to launch an Explorer window. Its will allow me to install 3rd party codecs like DivX, XVid, Ogg etc..

EDIT : Oops, I didnt see LNahid2000's post ....

 

I've mentioned this before in this forum, but ...

If you have deleted all your partitions and manually laid out XP or Ubuntu or whatever without MD installed, MediaDirect really messes with your partitions if you hit the button while the system is off.

In my case, MediaDirect deleted my first partition (NTFS with XP), and created a FAT32 partition on top of a different size, tried to load the MD software and failed ... rebooted in an endless loop.

Luckily you can just boot off a linux recovery cd, delete the partition, and create an NTFS on top of the original size and your XP partition is recovered with no data loss.

(There are also reports that you can just press the MD button again to revert back to the original state, but I haven't tried this).

 

while watching a dvd on media direct is there any way of using the basic controls such as fastforward, rewind, stop, etc. other then having to move the cursor and pressing on the mouse?

On my old laptop i had InterVideo WinDVD and i could control the fastforward with the F key and rewind with the R key.
I know it might sound like case of laziness but watever you want to call it i just see it as a hassle to have to move the cursor and click on the FF or RW.

 

Yes...all the controls are available and, on remote on the m1330.

With respect to the dual boot troubles the above author had, it took me a while to get it just right but, I ran a XP/Vista dual boot with Media direct for about 4 months with not a problem ever...

 

My Inspiron 1520 should be arrive in a few minutes!

About Dell MediaDirect, I will keep the partition no matter what.

As for the program itself, I will try it out before re-installing Windows Vista. If I like it and feel I might decide to use it once in awhile, I will install it.