PS3 controller on Windows 8.1 via bluetooth

A PS3 Sixaxis controller can be used as an input device on Windows 8.1.

For this to work the free Motion In Joy (MiJ) application needs to be installed: http://www.motioninjoy.com/download. At the time of writing, for Windows 8.1 x64, select v0.7.1000 (testing).

Using the controller via a wired USB connection almost always works, but using a wireless Bluetooth connection can be a problem.

Possible error: "Wait for bluetooth adabter to be connected" (Yes, there is a typo in adabter)

The causes for this are:

1. MiJ installs its own non-signed bluetooth driver, which is not allowed on Windows 8 unless the system is started with "driver signature enforcement" disabled
2. The bluetooth device's hardware id is not in the INF file of the MiJ bluetooth driver

The following instructions are from WingedT on:
http://forums.motioninjoy.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3764&start=10

I revised them and put them on my blog in case that post is deleted from the Motion In Joy forum.

Instructions for bluetooth support:

1. Before starting, make sure bluetooth works by clicking the Bluetooth icon in the tray in right-bottom corner and selecting "Show bluetooth devices". If there are none, try "Add a bluetooth device" and try to pair e.g. a mobile phone. If this works, continue
2. Install and start MiJ's DS3 Tool
3. Select "Driver Manager" and click "install all"
   It might be that MiJ drivers for both devices (USB and bluetooth) are installed correctly. In that case they both have a green checkmark at the end in the MotionInJoy column. If one has a red cross, then most probably that is the bluetooth driver and that has not been installed
4. Take the Hardware ID of that device and strip the revision part, i.e. for a Lenovo Y510P this might be that USB\VID_8087&PID_07DA&REV_7869 becomes USB\VID_8087&PID_07DA
5. Open C:\Program Files\MotioninJoy\ds3\drivers\MijXinput.inf in a text editor. 
1. Find and replace:
   ;BLUETOOTH DONGLE
   with
   ;BLUETOOTH DONGLE
   %MIJ.DeviceName%=CC_Install, USB\VID_8087&PID_07DA
2. Delete the following line:
   catalog=MijXinput.cat
3. Save and exit
6. Restart Windows 8 with Advanced Options so Driver Signature Enforcement can be disabled. Open a command prompt (Win + X, command prompt) and type:
   shutdown /r o
7. In the Advanced Options screen, select Advanced Options -> Windows Startup Settings -> Restart
8. In the next screen with the Advanced Option to enable, choose: 7. Disable Driver Signature Enforcement. A reboot will follow
9. Select "Driver Manager" and click "install all". Now both devices should have a green check mark:
   
   
10. Exit and restart DS3 tool and once again click "Load driver". Now the bluetooth driver should be selectable in the BluetoothPair tab:
    
    

Silverlight not working because of font issue

If Silverlight is installed correctly, but still not working, check for Windows Fonts with an ampersand in the name and remove them:

http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/details/719317/silverlight-5-error-1001-font-filename-issue

Flash 11.4 in SRWare IronPortable v22

To get Flash support in the portable version of Iron v22:

• Start IronPortable and type "about:plugins" in the URL bar
• Scroll to the section titled "Flash"
• If there is one enabled item within that section, then Flash should already work. Test it here: http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/
• If the section does not exist or there are no items in it, then 
• Create a folder called "iron\plugins" in the IronPortable folder
• Download the file NPSWF32_11_4_402_278.dll from the internet or copy it from the system Flash installation folder and put it in the previously created folder.
  Example system Flash installation folder: C:\Windows\SysWOW64\Macromed\Flash\NPSWF32_11_4_402_287.dll
• If there are more items, then 
• Disable all items but one for Flash v11.4
• Restart iron and type "about:plugins"
• If all Flash items are disabled, then enable one Flash item

Note: putting file gcswf32.dll in the root of the IronPortable folder does no longer work!

Combine two DVD's into one

When you want to combine two DVD's onto one disc, but keep the chapters, then try the following steps. I assume the video_ts folders of both DVD's are already available on your harddrive.

In most cases there is no vob file per chapter, but each vob file is filled to its maximum (1GB) and then a new one is created. Sometimes, however, there is a vob file per chapter. In this case, you only need to follow the steps following DVDStyler:

• Download and install DVDShrink (freeware)
• Start DVDShrink and click "Reauthor"
• In the right pane under "dvd browser", navigate to the video_ts folder of the first DVD
• Drag the desired chapters to the left
• In the right pane under "dvd browser", navigate to the video_ts folder of the second DVD
• Drag the desired chapters to the left
• Under File, click "Backup" and save to folder c:\shrink. This set automagically creates a vob file per chapter!
• Download and install DVDStyler (freeware)
• Start DVDStyler and add all .vob files from c:\shrink to the current project. The DVD main- and chapter menu's are created automatically 
• Optionally: add the names of the chapters to the chapter menus
• Burn the project to an iso file or directly to disc

Ofcourse, you can only do this with homemade DVD's or to DVD's you own legally and when local law permits it.