Pictures are not showing in MCE 2005

I have a new computer with MCE 2005 (Dell 8400), and when I am in My
Pictures, I get the folders and the correct names of the folders, but when I
click them, I get a "Folder Empty" error message (which it is not).

I have read about some work arounds by changing .jpg to .jpeg, but this did
not work.

The album cover also does not display in My Music. (My music files are all
up to date with the cover art).

Does anyone have a "real" solution or answers to this problem? Why is MCE
not picking up the .jpg pictures?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Bill

What happens in Windows XP when you double-click on the jpg file? I'm
wondering if they're associated with some other program that might be
interfering.

Other leading questions:
1. Are you logged in as an administrator?
2. I assume you're talkning about MCE on your PC, not via an Extender?
3. Does it help at all if you move a couple files to "Shared Pictures"
instead of "My Pictures"?

Pete

Pete,

Thanks for helping me out!

When opening the raw .jpg picture within it's folder, it opens in Microsoft
Photo Editor.

1. I am logged on as the administrator.

2. I am talking about MCE on the computer NOT a MCE Extender (That is later
after I get this working).

3. The pictures are in my "Shared Folder". They are in folders within the
shared folder. The MCE is reading the names of the folders and it shows
those, but when I click on the folder to open it in MCE, I get an error
saying the folder is empty (they are not empty).

Thanks!

Bill

I seem to recall seeing this discussed by one of the other MVPs, and
sure enough Michel Bordeleau did some detailed research on the topric.

In his case, the problem was TIFF but seems eerily similar to yours.

Office 2003 seems to change some things in the registry that messes up
the file associations for imgages.

I'll see what details I can get from him to help you out (if indeed it's
related).

Petee

Peter,

Just to give you some additional information:

I have Word 2002 (this came with the computer) and Office 2000 Professional,
which I have installed all of its components. Microsoft Works is on the
machine as well (this is where I got Word 2002). I have also updated
everything (service packs,criticals, etc...) through Microsoft's Office
Updates, so everything is current.

Thanks again!

Hmmm, not Office 2003 eh?

No promises, but I'll keep digging.

Pete

Thank You!

Peter,

I have been messing around with this a little and .bmp items show up in "My
Pictures" in the MCE Mode. I do not know if this helps, but it is something.

Peter,

.tif files work as well.

Peter,

As I also mentioned the Media Center Interface is unable to read Album
Covers, I am using WMP 10 as my music manager. But MCE Interface is reading
the album art that I had to put in the file. This is a .bmp. MCE is not
reading .jpg files.

I hope this narrows things a little bit.

Odd that it's only jpg, and that TIF files are working. I might be
going down the wrong path here...

Can you ensure that you have patched your machine against the JPG exploit?

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/MS04-028.mspx

Pete

fwiw, i have exactly the same problem since I installed MCE2005 and have been
unable to find a solution. I've tried all the upgrades to Office,
unfortunately nothing seems to work for me.
I will be very interested in any solution....
thanks,
MartinW

Please take a look at this web site and let me know if the summary page
shows up in Windows for JPG images. Also, if you are able to, please
review your registry for the perceivedtype=image setting and see if it
is in there or not.

http://www.jsiinc.com/SUBL/tip5500/rh5549.htm

Thanks
Pete

Hi Peter,
The link you provided did not show any images ... just text.

As for checking Registry, i'm not a hi-tech user and don't know how to do
this. Can you provide step-wise instructions? Then I'll check and let you
know.

Start, Run, Regedit...
Edit... Find...

At the top of the tree that appears on the left-hand side, locate the
branch called "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT". Click on the plus sign to expand
that tree. Scroll down, looking for the .jpg entry. Click once on the
.jpg entry.

Now, on the right hand side you should see some new text. One of the
lines should say "PerceivedType", and on the right-hand side of that
line it should say "Image".

It's altogether possible that this line doesn't exist, which may be the
root cause of your issues.

Please do not change anything in your registry, as that can be
dangerous. Just look and tell me what you see, then we'll continue
troubleshooting from there.

Pete

Thanks for the instructions,
for JPG it says:

PerceivedType - Photshop.jpegfile

it also lists:
PreviousPerceivedType - image

does this mean anything??
fyi I have Photoshop v7.0 installed and jpg files run fine in it.
tia,
MartinW

> ..jpg entry.

Out of curiosity, did this error start after you installed photoshop or
some photoshop update?

Let's give this a try.

First, please review the article located here for some background on
backing up the registry. I recommend that you review the section
particularly on System Restore, and use that information to create a
restore point. It's actually quite easy and will serve as a good
backout plan if you accidentally change something important in the registry.

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/expert/honeycutt_03march17.mspx

Next, go back to that point of the registry where we found perceivedtype
= Photoshop.jpegfile. Double-click on the word "perceivedtype", which
should bring up a popup window. Change the entry from
"Photoshop.jpegfile" to "image".

Restart the computer and try out "My Pictures" to see if that helped.
If yes, go back into the registry and do the same thing to all similar
extensions (.jpeg, .jpe).

If not, change it back to "Photoshop.jpegfile" and we'll try something else.

Pete

Hi Pete................yeeehaaaaaaaaaa!
your solution worked! looking back, yes this problem did begin about the
time I installed Photoshop.

Many many thanks,
MartinW

(now if I could only gey the Extender to connect in less than 10-15 minutes
....)

I'm confident we can fix the extender issue too...

Glad to hear that we got the jpg issue fixed.

Cheers,
Pete

Bill:

See a potential solution later in this thread.

Pete

Peter,

I have been away for a couple of days. So I just ran through your latest
suggestions in the thread.

First, the security issue that you refrenced has already been installed.

Second, I looked in the Registry as you suggested to MartinW and all I have
under the .jpg folder is: (default) REG_SZ jpegfile. There is no
PerceivedType (or Contact Type either).

I checked the .bmp and the .tif registry folders and those have
PerceivedType and Content Type lines (both referring to images).

If you can tell me how to add those lines (if you think it might work) I
will do it.

Thanks!

Bill

PS. That is great for MartinW!

Peter,

The .jpeg folder in the Regisrty looks the same as the .jpg folder (missing
Content Type and PerceivedType lines).

Bill

Peter,

I got to messing around with the two Regisrty Folders (.jpg and .jpeg).

I was able to add Content Type and PerceivedType string values both of the
folders.

It worked!!!!

Please let me know if I need to do anything else.

Thank you for all of your help. There is no way I could have ever figured
this out, and I can not thank you enough.

Bill

No problem. FYI, I captured this as a reusable article on my blog.

http://www.thenears.com/index.php?p=85

Pete

Hello Pete; I read this thread and like MartinW and wafjr, I had the same
problem opening files in MCE:. These files some how got reassociated to
Roxio/Photoshop.jpeg files and I was sure that had something to do with not
being able to view them in MCE. In checking the registry, I find the
following 4 items under both .jpg and .jpeg: 1>(Default),REG_SZ, MGIP5.jpg
2>ContentType, REG_SZ, image/jpeg 3>PerceivedType, REG_SZ, MGIPS5DOC
4>PerceivedType_old, REG_SZ, image. It seems like I should only have two
entries there: Content Type and Perceived Type. Do you know why I have the
other items, and like the others, how do I get back to viewing Pics in Mce,
given these extra entries? Thanks for any help.

Thank you, thank you! I have been following this thread because I too had
empty picture folders in MC. Discovered that I needed to add the
"perceivedtype image" line to my regedit and now I'm good to go. The only
thing that is still puzzling me is that some of the folders - when not opened
- are not displaying any thumbnails of the contents. Any ideas?
But, thanks again for the solution to the empty folders - I was getting
ready to pull my hair out over that one!

gheghe

I think that this thread is relevant to a problem I have with tif image files
in Media Center. I have no probelms with images in the standard XP
functions, but when I switch to Media Center, I am unable to display tif
images and get an error message "No pictures were found. Either there are no
pictures, or you are viewing an empty folder". I can view jpg, gif,png, bmp,
etc., but not tif!
When I installed MS Office 2003, I recall that the tif file type became "MS
Office Document Imaging file" and "open With" became MS Office. I altered
"Open With" back to Photoshop Elements 4.

When I look at the registry keys for .jpg and .tif, there are significant
differences.
In particular, there is no entry for percieved type in tif. This is a text
version of the .tif key:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.tif]
"Content Type"="image/tiff"
@="MSPaper.Document"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.tif\MSPaper.Document]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.tif\MSPaper.Document\ShellNew]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.tif\OpenWithList]

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.tif\OpenWithList\ois.exe]
@=""

I am afraid my registry skills do not extend to sorting this out. I have
tried adding the entry for PercievedType, but this did not help.

I have now solved this propblem - it was the missing PerceivedType key - I
mis-spelt this at my first attempt!

In the end I discovered that the alternative file extension .tiff was OK, so
simply altered the .tif key to be identical to its key.

It is regretable that Microsoft support are their usual unhelpful selves
over this. I am aware of other people who have the same problem, reported on
other forums. As the problem is clearly caused by MS Office 2003, there
should be an accessible support document about this matter.