Windows Media Center and H264

Auraomega · 14 Mar 2010 at 22:49

I'm looking for a free decoder/codec for playback of H264 under Windows Media Center (so I assume Windows Media Player). Something efficient would be great. I've tried ffdshow but to no avail which may possibly be my encoder.

So my second question is, what software is good for converting ripped DVDs into H264? Currently using XMedia Recode but I'm not certain if this is causing my above issues.

feriso · 14 Mar 2010 at 22:52

MPC-HC for DVXA on h264

Handbrake for the second

Django x2 · 14 Mar 2010 at 23:33

I use shark 007 codecs which works pretty well. I also use, MakeMKV which is a beta and allows you to rip to, well, err, mkv

wolvers · 15 Mar 2010 at 16:31

If you're using Win7, it already has a decoder for h264. Also, media center and media player are not the same program.

Auraomega · 15 Mar 2010 at 16:48

Thanks for those suggestions, turns out my encoder was causing the issues and I'm now using Handbrake as I can write a batch file to convert a couple of films and then shutdown at night

Have been having a play around with the options, I think I've got a setup I'm happy with but any suggestions on optimal settings? I'm using a 5.1 setup and a full HD monitor so can't have the picture compressed too much.

@wolvers69:
I'm pretty sure Media Center is actually just a shell for Media Player based on the fact all settings and all plugins for WMP work in WMC and I'm sure Microsoft aren't going to reinvent the wheel for WMC when they already have software that can do everything for it already

Shilz · 15 Mar 2010 at 19:15

Hey I managed to sort out my Media Center yesterday and spent most of the evening adding covers lol.

Its works so well im just using MC as my main media player and movie store. Ordered a 2TB WD RE4 for all my other movies so cant wait to fill that one up.

Now to spend some more time adding movies and covers.

NathanE · 15 Mar 2010 at 19:34

How do you add covers?

Wossi · 15 Mar 2010 at 19:40

You could make life easier and install media browser, it does it all for you. Don't know how I've lived without tbh.

Shilz · 15 Mar 2010 at 19:55

NathanE said:
How do you add covers?

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11232-media-center-setup-movie-library.html

I did just step 1 and 2. You can also add synopsis etc using a program called yamm... check it out.

Auraomega · 15 Mar 2010 at 20:12

Shilz said:
You can also add synopsis etc using a program called yamm...

I've been wondering how to do this! For my covers I've been doing a Folder.jpg for each one... not annoyed me yet but I've only ripped 5 of my DVDs, I'm sure it'd get more tedious if I did my entire collection

Pho · 15 Mar 2010 at 20:16

Alternatively you could use XBMC and set it to download covers and movie/TV show information automatically (it uses online databases like tvDB) - it looks miles better too

.

Shame their site is down right now mind

.

Kezmo · 15 Mar 2010 at 20:19

Looks much better imo
Media browser , vanilla skin (coverflow view)
Meta browser (Grabs covers & backgrounds + all movie data from Imdb)

Auraomega · 15 Mar 2010 at 23:35

Hmm, is there any format other than using the plain DVD files to allow me chapter and menu support for movies? I hadn't realised how much I liked the scene selection

Can someone also let me know the average size of a Blu-ray/HD movie? Can you also add age rating, year and so on to any format?

Django x2 · 16 Mar 2010 at 10:38

wolvers69 said:
If you're using Win7, it already has a decoder for h264. Also, media center and media player are not the same program.

Actually, in W7 they are the same program. Same Library is used and when you open a media file in WMC, it opens WMP in the background. Therefore, if you specify WMP x64 as the default play, WMC will also use WMP x64 to play files through.

wolvers · 17 Mar 2010 at 13:23

Yeah, sorry. I was getting mediaplayer mixed up with mediabrowser..........how embarrassing!

Back to what I was saying about decoder though, the best option for WMC in Win7 seems to be just register the matroskasplitter.ax, from the MPC-HC standalone pack, and then use the latest build of ffdshow which now supports bitstreaming all audio codecs, stream switching and DXVA with subtitles (which has never been possible before in WMC). You need to use the Win7 Filter Tweaking tool to get the video decoder working though.