If your browser cannot connect to the application check the command window (or craigworks.log) and see if the following line appears. If you do not see this entry most likely the port (default is 80) is already in use by another application.

16:26:41,260 WARN main Webserver:421 - [Sun Apr 24 16:26:41 PDT 2010] TJWS httpd 0.0.0.0 - SimpleAcceptor ServerSocket[addr=0.0.0.0/0.0.0.0,port=0,localport=80] is listening.

To change Movies by CraigWorks to use a different port, modify the config\craigworks.properties file.  Set property "cw.port" to the port you want to use.  Remember any port setting besides 80 will have to be specified in the URL. For example if the port is set to 8080 then the URL becomes http://localhost:/CraigWorks/movies:8080.

If you are running Vista or Windows 7 you will need to install "Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 runtime components" in order to get the image scaling program to run correctly.   Otherwise the error below occurs every time the application tries to rescale an image.  If you don't want to install the 2008 runtime components you can always turn off image rescaling in the settings page.

java.io.IOException: Cannot run program "..\bin\convert.exe": CreateProcess error=14001, The application has failed to start because its side-by-side configuration is incorrect. Please see the application event log or use the command-line sxstrace.exe tool for more detail
at java.lang.ProcessBuilder.start(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Runtime.exec(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.Runtime.exec(Unknown Source)
at com.craigworks.common.ImageUtility.createAndScaleImage(ImageUtility.java:84)
at com.craigworks.common.ImageUtility.getImageWebUrl(ImageUtility.java:243)

The application can only run in 32-bit mode as a Window's service.  If you are running a 64-bit OS, make sure you have a 32-bit JRE installed (see download page).  The 32-bit JRE is usually installed in the "c:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre" directory. 

If a remote computer cannot bring up the webpage then most likely it's a firewall issue.  Make sure that the application (java.exe or cwservice.exe(installed as service)) have inbound and outbound access.

Also, prior to version 0.1.4a, the application did not handle caching of IPv6 addresses and thus resulted in very slow access to the remote web pages.  So best to upgrade to 0.1.4a or higher to resolve this issue.

If this occurs it is usually because your computer is not fast enough.  PowerDVD and other video players uses hardware acceleration while VLC 1.0.6 and below does not.  Therefore, a faster CPU is required to compensate.  Play a movie and monitor your CPU usage by using the Windows Resource Monitor or the Windows Task Manager's performance tab. Look at the individual CPU usage history and see if any CPU is nearing 100%. If so then most likely it's a CPU issue. The number of cores does not matter much since VLC is single threaded.  So I would recommend at least an Intel i5 or i7 running at 2.8Ghz or above. I'm currently using an i7-930 in my system.

Also, check your VLC Blu-ray options to see if they are correct.  There was a bug prior to release 0.1.6 that prevented the default vlc options from being loaded.  Here are the correct defaults (do not include the quotes):

Blu-ray Options:  ":ffmpeg-fast=1 :ffmpeg-skiploopfilter=4 :demux=avformat :vout-event=3"
DVD Options:  ":demux=avformat :vout-event=3"

The ":vout=event=3" option only required if you have my version of VLC installed and want to process keystokes (e.g. home key) when playing a movie in fullscreen mode. Otherwise this option can be removed.

":ffmpeg-fast=1" and ":ffmpeg-skiploopfilter=4" are there to optimize h264 playback. If your computer is fast enough you may be able to remove these options and get a slightly better picture.

":demux=avformat" is require to demux blu-ray rips for me. You can try removing it.

If your movie stutters while playing and you think your CPU is fast enough, try increasing the VLC DVD or Blu-Ray Cache in the settings page. This increases the amount of movie data VLC pre-loads and may prevent stuttering when the problem is i/o bandwidth.

Another thing you can try is to play the movie using the VLC native application. If the movie does not stutter when playing from VLC, look and see what VLC is using for it's video out or demuxer and force Movies by CraigWorks to use those. To find out what VLC is using play your movie and choose Tools->Messages and click on the Module tree tab. VLC list all the modules that are being used. Some key ones to look for are "demux" and "video_output." You can force these values by adding them into to the VLC option area of the movies. For example, :demux=ts or :vout=opengl.

If this occurs for a specific movie, you can try adjusting the crop ratios in VLC.  For IE8, you can adjust this in the media player.  For other browsers, you will have to set a VLC setting (e.g. ":crop=16:9"), either at the movie level or display level.

This occurs when the application could not find a DVD release that matched the title and year you've entered at allmovie.com.  To find the url with the cover you want, browse to www.allrovi.com.   Search for your movie. When you've found the correct movie page click on "Releases".  Find a DVD/Blu-Ray release that has the cover you are interested in. [NOTE: The site was upgraded recently and now contains the same cover art for all the releases (bummer!). Hopefully this is just a transition period:( ] Paste that url into the "Import AllMovie URL" field in the Modify Movie Page and click the "Import" button to reload data from that site.

If the cover art you want is not at allrovi.com then find the image elsewhere and add it manually as the first position on the image tab in the Modify Movie Page.

To uninstall Movies by CraigWorks:

1. Stop running process. If you are running the application as a service, run the "craigworks/movies/bin/uninstallService.bat" script. If you are running in a command window, close that window.
2. Delete the "craigworks" directory.