Windows Media Center 2005 Software (1 Viewer)

Figured I start a new topic on this. Anyone have it and what are your thoughts?

Can't believe no one is using this software and has an opinion on it.

Steve,

I am building and AMD64 HTPC in the next day or 2 and will be installing MCE 2005.

Of course, after that I will be better informed and hopefully will have great things to say about it.

Hi all

I have built and AMD64 HTPC with a AIW 9600 video card and a hauppauge 150mce tv card and a Fusion3 gold HD card. I'm still working out the bugs so to speak so if any of you have questions please feel free to ask. I'm trying to figuer out how to use the HD card with MCE2005.

Having fun!

JonE, do you know if you can rip movies with say dvdshrink (My home movies of course) to you hard drive and then view via an Media Center extender? I have seen mixed statements on whether this is possible or not.

I think WMCE 2005 is very nice and has some very cool features.

Have it. Love it.

I'm using this configuration (which I've posted in many places)

AMD 3000+ CPU
1GB RAM
160G SATA
eVGA Dual Tuner PCI Capture Card
ATI HDTV Wonder Capture Card
Nvidia 6600GT AGP (for Pureview)
External 56k Modem (Caller ID)
Silverstone Lascala

(I'll post some links to pictures if anyone wants)

I go out to my Sony HDTV normally @ 720P or 1080i via DVI. I use NVDVD for the DVD decoder with the new version + new version of Nvidia drivers to get Pureview video support.

So far, I am incredibly impressed. I get pure, over the air recordings of ABC, NBC, UPN, etc. here in KC at beautiful 1080i/720p. I get analog recordings that look very good, thanks to the Nvidia tuner.

So far, I'm incredibly happy with the box, and it's ability to connect with my home network.. Using a few tweaks, I've managed to get some pretty cool stuff working with it, and it's my pride and joy for a TiVO, beating out by far most anything else I have.. including new cool add-ons that you can get that will archive programs in DiVX for permanent storage

No. Not at all, there are people who've posted tweaks, but they generally don't work worth a darn. You can check the forums at http://www.xpmce.com/

Most of the extenders (like Linksys, etc.) also won't do DiVX.. one trick.. install the latest version of Nero and you can do MP4.. with a small registry tweak.. beautiful! I've archived tons of totally unavailable TV that way..

Is there software that will take my movies and put them on my hardrive that I can then use Media center to watch. i have tried DVD Shrink but Media center is not seeing the movies in my folders.

MCE 2005 uses a propitiatory file extension that nothing as far as I know recognizes. That’s why we can’t record them to DVD.

I basically want to take home movies and rip them to my hard drive and then use "My Video" on WMCE 2005 to pull these up on my T.V to watch. There has to be a way to do this or why would WMCE 2005 have a My Video Category?

I'm not using an extender just straight PC to TV.

Yes. Any file format playable in WMP10 is playable in MCE, and you can capture however you want.. I have tons of "my videos" in various MPEG, WMV, DiVX, MP4 formats.. anyway, you can capture those however you want..

VOB, however, is a specifically non-supported format; it is so because MS's agreement with DRM (Digital Rights Management) built into MCE2004/2005, which prevents you from reading VOBs (DVD format) from a hard disc, in order to prevent piracy..

So, if you capture it in any other format, that's fine.. but VOBs (what things like DVD-Shrink generate) it's a no go.

You can, however, use Dr. DiVX or Nero Recode to capture them into MP4 or DiVX format and then it's playable on MCE2005.

Chris, can you give me a link link on info on how to do this? Transfer VOB to MP4 and Divx? And how is the Video and Audio Quality on these formats?

Thanks

Depends. See: http://www.nerodigital.com/ for all the details on MP4, to get ideas on how to transfer from one to the other go to http://www.dvdrhelp.com/

Which format has better video quality and will be able to play back Dolby Digital and DTS?

Thanks

Great sites

You can include a Dolby Digital stream in MP4 (NeroDigital) why would you need a DTS stream in your home films? No home camcorder I'm aware of has DTS, and any other use of copying for storage is not legal in the US, and can't be discussed in this forum

There are camcorders that have DTS capability.

I have taken one of my home movies and copied into Nero Digital, when I go into Media Center it sees the Video but says it is unable to play. Any ideas?

where?

I thought the Hi-Def camcorders from JVC had the capability. I might be wrong. My Sony I have now has Dolby Digital capability which is really nice.

I ripped my DVD home movie from my Sony Camcorder Mini DVD via Nero Digital onto my hard drive and then burned it onto another DVD and it plays fine in Media Center but that copy of my home video that is on my hard drive in Nero Digital won't play in Media Center.

Any ideas why not? Its the same copy that I burned onto another DVD that is on my hard drive. They are both in Nero Digital.

Throwing in a monkey wrench here: Isn't the next release of Sonic Solution's MyDVD supposed to be the one official way to transfer Media Center recordings to DVD? I know Nero has hacked it, but my impression was Sonic was the one company that was doing it with Microsoft's help.

No. The software just has to have MCE hooks, which Nero after version 6.6 officially does, and is supported by MS, straight through the UI.