Hello just a quick update, there are two new custom intro templates available on VIPID, one is a Warner Brothers one and the other is a Lucas Film one.
Click HERE to see a sample Warner Brothers custom intro clip
Please let me know if you have been using the VIPID service and what you think about it?
I saw an interesting post on The Green Button here that linked to another interesting post on the Logitech Harmony forums here. What was being discussed was two additional Microsoft Media Center devices that are listed in the Logitech Harmony device database, one is called “Special Edition” Windows Media Center which is a Media Center PC device that has an extended command set, the other device is an MCE Keyboard which maps all the keyboard keys and commands.
I wasn’t aware these two additional devices existed and when program Logitech Harmony remote controls for use with Windows Media Center PC’s in the past I’d used the standard Windows Media Center device from the Harmony database.
I recently purchased a second hand Logitech Harmony 555 as I really like this particular discontinued model and I’d used the 550 USA version of the same remote before in the past. The newer Windows Media Center SE device in the Harmony database has support for mouse cursor!
The new device can be added as follows:
Device type: Computer -> Media Center PC
Manufacturer: Microsoft
Model: Windows Media Center SE (Copy and paste in this device name in the Model field)
Add the new Windows Media Center SE device to your device list in the Harmony software
The below instructions are from the Logitech Harmony forum post, I will go through each number below and add a few things as well.
Below you will find the instructions to create a mouse control activity.
1: Create a Generic activity only using the Windows Media Center device.
Answer Title: Adding an Activity that does not fit into any category in the Logitech Harmony Remote Software
Answer Link:
For the input select the following option
I don't need to set the input on my Microsoft Media Center PC
2: Program the activity to leave on the unused device.
Answer Title: Setting a Harmony remote to not power off devices when switching between Activities
Answer Link:
3: Rename the activity to Mouse Control
Answer Title: Renaming Devices and Activities on a Harmony remote
Answer Link:
4: Change the button mapping
Use the Map the Mouse Up,Down,Left<Right to the direction buttons.
Map the Mouse Left Up and Mouse Left Down to the Volume Up and down buttons.
Map the Mouse Right Up and Mouse Right Down to the Channel Up and down buttons.
Stuart’s instructions -
1. Add custom Activity
In the Harmony software go to the Activities tab and add a new Activity.
Select No - manually add an Activity to my setup and click on the Next button
Select the Activity category Utility and click on the Next button
Select Generic Activity and click on the Next button
Confirm that you would like to add a Generic Activity by clicking on the Next button
Choose the device(s) you would like to add by clicking on the Add button. When you have finished adding all of the devices, click on Save
I just added the Media Center PC device at this stage.
If you would like to have the Harmony remote set the device to an input when you select the Generic Activity, then choose the input for the device, otherwise select I don't need to set the input and click on the Next button.
Here I selected I don’t need to set the input on my Microsoft Media Center PC
Review the settings for the activity. If the settings are correct select Yes, these settings are correct and click the Next button
Complete the setup of the activity by clicking on Done
After adding a Generic Activity, when you select the Activity on your Harmony remote, none of the buttons will be programmed. You will need to customize the buttons in your Generic Activity. For more information on customizing the buttons on your Harmony remote, please search our knowledge base with the term "Customize buttons in an Activity"
Once completed, you will need to update your remote. Click on the Update Remote button and follow the onscreen steps
On this screen click Next and then Done
Your new Generic Activity will now be listed under the Activities tab in the Harmony Software, click the Settings button.
Select Rename Generic Activity and call it Mouse Cursor and save this change.
Go back to the Generic Activity settings and then select Change Options and select Leave On, save this change and click Done.
From here click Customize Buttons
In here you need to assign the mouse cursor commands to the various buttons as shown below.
Change the button mapping
Use the Map the Mouse Up,Down,Left<Right to the direction buttons.
Map the Mouse Left Up and Mouse Left Down to the Volume Up and down buttons.
Map the Mouse Right Up and Mouse Right Down to the Channel Up and down buttons.
Logitech’s instructions mention nothing about left and right mouse buttons! So on my 555 remote I assigned the Mute button as LeftClick and the Prev button as RightClick
That’s it your done!
Now you can select the Activity called Mouse Cursor and use the Harmony remote controls directional / volume / channels buttons to move the mouse cursor around the screen and if you also added left and right mouse buttons as I did you can select items and right click.
I am sure there is much more scope for other new customisations with these Windows Media Center SE and MCE Keyboard extended command sets.
Brian Binnerup of My Movies has released a new YouTube video of My Movies for iPad in action controlling Windows Media Center.
I have to say the remote control looks very impressive indeed! You can control multiple Windows Media Center PC’s and 5 Windows Media Center Extenders per PC.
Watch the demo video:
Learn more about My Movies for iPad on the My Movies website here.
I added a Denon CD Receiver (AMP) to one of my 7MC PC’s today to power some in-room speakers. I used the analogue stereo 3.5mm port on the back of the motherboard to the phono line in Left / Right ports on the back of the Denon amp.
I then needed a way to be able to change the default windows audio device from within the Media Center user interface, (Speakers) audio device for the Denon amp and (HDMI) audio device for the HDTV.
I tried to do this in the past using Vista Audio Changer but found it didn’t work 100% as it would minimize Media Center and then using a macro open the Playback audio devices dialog box and change the default audio device, it was hit and miss to say the least.
I then found a Windows Media Center add-in called Audio Renderer Updater on this page here. I installed it today on one of my 7MC PC’s and it works great, no minimizing of Media Center or any of that malarkey, it just switches the default windows audio device perfectly every time!
You can download the English version from here and the French version from here.
You have probably heard by now that some bright sparks at Microsoft have decided that removing Drive Extender from Windows Home Server Version 2 (Codename Vail) is a good idea! Well its not and it will probably kill off the WHS platform in my opinion.
I was reading this post on the subject at http://usingwindowshomeserver.com and in the comments I noticed a link to a thread on the Microsoft Connect (Beta) website.
You will need a Connect account to access this page or you will get an error, but I highly suggest if you want to vote and express your comments to Microsoft this is probably the best place to do it. So please take the time to register and get on Connect if you can. You can find the thread on Connect here.
There are currently 2852 Votes in favour of keeping Drive Extender in Vail and 37 against. There are currently 775 comments that have been posted by users.
The comment I posted on the Microsoft Connect thread can be seen below and clearly expresses my disbelief in this announcement.
I am totally shocked and amazed that Microsoft would think that removing Drive Extender from WHS V2 would be a good idea. Duh which idiots make these decisions?
I just got the link to this Connect thread from this blog post here:
http://usingwindowshomeserver.com/2010/11/23/microsoft-announces-the-removal-of-drive-extender-from-windows-home-server-code-name-vail/
Microsoft please read the user comments on the above blog post and the many other blog posts on the Internet, where this news about Drive Extender being removed has been announced.
The comments left on this Microsoft Connect thread are only a tiny minority of users who have a Connect login account, there must be 1000's of others who also want to see that Drive Extender does remain in the WHS product, who can't post here.
I certainly won't be upgrading to WHS V2 if Drive Extender is removed and neither will our Media Center customers.
Sort it out Microsoft and get your act together !
Stuart aka CW-KID
Microsoft Windows Entertainment and Connected Home MVP
I previously wrote about a new beta website from VipID I was testing, which enabled you to easily create your own custom Home Theatre Into Videos, if you missed that post check it out here.
The news today is that the VipID beta website is now open for user registration, so if you fancy checking it out, head over to here and create yourself an account.
The VipID website addresses: www.vipid.me or www.vipidme.com
In part two I took a look at the Amulet Media Center add-in screens and eventually established that the voice commands not only work in these new areas, but also in the native parts of Media Center, for example I was also able to go in to the regular Windows 7 Media Center Music library and use voice commands like Play Artists (artist name) and Play Some (genre name). Being able to use most of the voice commands in the native parts of Media Center really makes this remote control more appealing.
I have also been using the Amulet voice remote control recently for my Media Center Live TV and it works very well, you can simply say: Go To TV Guide to launch the guide, then use commands like Watch Channel BBC1 or Watch Channel ITV1 etc to change channels which is pretty cool. You can also navigate around the TV guide using commands like Show Guide at (time) on (date) or Show Channel (channel name) at (time) on (date) etc. So for example you can use a voice command like: Show Channel BBC1 Tomorrow at 13:00
I have scanned the voice commands quick reference cards that came with the remote control in the box, so you can see a full list of voice commands that can be used with the Amulet remote control. This should give you a much better idea of what can be done using voice commands alone!
Amulet Quick Reference Cards (Voice Commands)
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You can also edit the Amulet .ini file and add in custom voice commands for launching 3rd party Media Center add-ins like My Movies and TunerFree MCE. I tested adding custom commands for all my 3rd party add-ins and this works very well, so now for example I can say Go To My Movies and then My Movies is launched. You also get onscreen text feedback after you say a voice command and the computer voice speaks your command back to you e.g. it says “Launching My Movies” after I have used the Go To My Movies voice command. I believe you can also add custom commands to launch external programs and .cmd files etc which could be very handy.
This is all well and good but in order to say commands like Show Artists or Genres XYZ, Play Artist or Album XYZ, Play Song XYZ, Watch Channel XYZ, Play Movie XYZ etc Amulet needed to develop their own user interface within Media Center. After installing Amulet you will see a new Media Center menu strip. On here are the following icons:
Music / TV + Movies / Photos / Settings / Help Videos
To go to the special Amulet Music UI for example, you say the voice command: Go To Music, instead of Go To My Music which would take you to the native music library.
Music UI:
The Amulet Music UI is better than I had imagined, when I first saw videos of this remote in action at CES I wasn’t keen on the whole idea of replacing use of parts of the native 7MC UI with their own. However doing just that was probably the only way a voice system like this would work I think. On the screenshot below, the covers you can see on the top left are just random covers that are animated in a cover flow like style and move about. The middle pane is where the details are, e.g. you can see the artists / genres / albums. You can say Show Artists and it then lists all artists in a list in the middle of the screen. Or Show Genres etc, You can then use voice commands like Play Artist {artist name} Play Album {album name} Play Some {genre name} etc. I did find that my artists list was long 350 odd artists and scrolling up and down the list either using the directional buttons on the remote control or using navigation voice commands like Page Down was quiet slow going. It’s OK if you know which artist you want to play as you just say it, but if you want to browse the list and look at what’s available I found this a little more difficult.
If you say Show Artists Snow Patrol for example their albums are shown on the right hand side, these kind of sweep up from the bottom right of the screen when they appear, again sometimes I found the amount of time for the artist to appear after I had spoken my voice command to be quiet slow but then other times it would only take a few seconds to appear, this maybe an isolated issue with my setup however, as Amulet say artists are normally displayed within a few seconds.
I won’t say it detected the right artist name every time because it didn’t, some times I would say one name and it would come up with something completely different, was probably my Yorkshire accent it didn’t like, maybe you could improve this by training your PC more using the native speech recognition learning in Windows 7. But on the whole Amulet was fairly accurate.
You can use voice commands like Pause Song, Continue, Next / Previous Song, Fast Forward Song. One feature I really like is Info, this works in other areas as well but in music you can say stuff like: Name That Song, Who Sings That, What Song Is This? and the Amulet voice speaks and tells you, very cool indeed! You can also control the Media Center volume levels with commands like Quiet (mute), Medium Volume, Full Volume etc.
TV + Movies UI:
You can use voice commands such as: Show Movies, Show Videos, Show TV Shows, Show Home Movies then you can use commands like Play Video XYZ, Play Movie XYZ etc. Amulet has its own background file scanner that index’s your media files. I haven’t fully figured out how it does this and how it knows to put a certain video file in to the correct category, they are using http://www.themoviedb.org/ for some of their metadata. I’ve had mixed results, it picked up all my Recorded TV correctly, some things were classed as Movies which I thought should not have been, it seemed to detect all my home videos off my camcorder / digital camera correctly and group them together. Initially only some of my downloaded TV shows were appearing in the TV Shows area, You can run the scanner manually from the start menu after doing this a few times more missing items started to appear.
The TV + Movies area of the Amulet UI is still the part I know the least about and I am still in the process of working stuff out, so I will not cover this anymore today, I may recover this area again in a future post when I have got to grips with it better.
Photos UI:
The Photos area is very nicely animated and easy to use, You just say Play SlideShow (name of folder) So for example I could say Play Slide Show Abigale’s 2nd Birthday and the folder of photos would start in a slideshow. I’ve also noticed you don’t always have to say the full name of an item you want to play, some times saying just the first or second word is enough for it to pick up the right thing, this is handy if you have something with a long name like a movie title you can just say the first part of it. There is a command to play all your photos in a Slideshow this is GO TO SlideShow, by default it looks in the C:\Users\Public\Pictures folder I had to edit the Amulet.ini file to point it to my main photos folder on my WHS. I like the photo functionality of Amulet its simple and easy to use and looks good!
Settings:
There are various settings you can change in the Amulet settings area, you can add a welcome message, so now every time Media Center is opened after a short wait it says “"Welcome Harrison Family”' I found this helpful as after I hear this I know Amulet is ready for voice commands, as it seems a little slow after you have launched Media Center until its ready to accept any commands. You can also change the voice from some bloke called Paul to Microsoft Anna, change volume settings and other Listener / Talker settings.
Help Videos:
The Help Videos are useful and I was glad they were there!
Well I think that’s enough for part two, overall I am still very impressed with the Amulet voice remote control, there are some issues and kinks I need to iron out with how some of my video files are being indexed hopefully I can sort this out and talk in more detail about the Movies / Videos area of the Amulet UI.
I’m not sure yet what I will cover in Part 3, maybe more about the Movies / Videos area, or maybe I can talk about some of the custom configuration and editing this Amulet.ini file, I believe Amulet have plans to make adding custom commands and other things you need to edit in this .ini file, easier with a GUI maybe in Media Center itself.
The other thing I’ve not really looked at yet is how you can control Live TV with the remote, so I may look at this in part 3, so stay tuned, if anyone has any questions about it please feel free to leave a comment.
I’m going to be taking an in depth look at the Amulet voice remote control for Windows Media Center. Amulet contacted me and asked if I would like to look at an evaluation unit. As I always like to try new gadgets I said yes I would, thank you very much!
The concept is you can control and navigate around Windows Media Center using your voice, sound cool? well it is!
Firstly their website can be found here and I recommend you view the demo video here before reading my series of blog posts about this remote control! I believe you can purchase these remote controls already in the US and they will be launched in the UK soon, I don’t have any details of when and how much yet.
What’s in the box:
Well you get the remote control, a rechargeable battery for the remote, a USB lead to charge up the remote, software installation disk, a well written and easy to follow quick start guide and two cards that have the various voice commands you can use and the USB dongle that plugs in to the PC. A charging cradle for the remote to sit in might have been a nice option, but I guess that would push up the overall cost of the unit.
First impression of the remote control itself, is that it feels well made and a quality product, it looks good as well! The button layout is very similar to your standard MCE remote control. Most of the buttons are back-lit in white, except the number and teletext buttons at the bottom, as soon as you pick up the remote control it lights up automatically. The big circle thing at the top lights up red when you tilt the remote control upwards towards yourself, this means Amulet is listening to you and ready for your voice command.
One negative thing I have to say about the hardware is when you press any of the buttons they click, you hear a clicking sound. I would prefer them to be silent especially the directional arrows and OK button that get pressed allot, the clicking got to me after a while.
Whilst this remote control is not an advanced universal remote control like Harmony and the Pronto range it does have some universal remote control features, for example I was able to quickly and easily program it to control my HDTV’s volume up and down and TV power toggle. The four coloured teletext type buttons at the bottom can also be programmed to control other devices.
Eddy Carroll from Amulet explained this feature to me so I’ve quoted what he said about it below:
‘'The four coloured teletext keys at the bottom of the remote double as device keymap selection buttons. The default keymap is Media Center itself. You can train any of the keys in the other four keymaps by entering learning mode, then pressing a coloured key followed by the key you want to learn (e.g. press and release Red, then press Play, to learn the Play function on the red keymap). In normal use, you press Red to select the red keymap, and all remote buttons then follow the red keymap until you return to Media Center mode by pressing the green Start button.
So for example, you could program Red with the full set of TV buttons, blue with a DVD player or set-top box, yellow with your amplifier codes, etc. Memory for learnt commands is somewhat limited, so you won't be able to fully populate every keymap, but there is certainly enough for the basic functions.”
I certainly wasn’t expecting this level of support for controlling other devices so this appears to be very good!
Setup was easy, insert the already pre-charged battery in to the remote control, plug the USB dongle into the back of the PC, no drivers were required from me, it just installed itself as an audio device. I then inserted the software CD which auto runs and starts the setup.
Setup process:
After setup Amulet starts to scan your media files in the background behind the Media Center window it launches.
Amulet have their own scanning software that indexes your media content. By default Amulet only looks in the Windows 7 / WMP12 / Media Center library folders i.e. Music, Pictures, Videos etc. So if your like me and do not use the native 7MC movie library for your DVD’s etc, then Amulet won’t find these movies, you have to edit an .ini file to add in additional locations of your media content, for example that might be located on your WHS or NAS.
In part two we will be looking at what gets installed in to Media Center and how the Amulet add-in user interface looks and works.
My Movies for iPad has been released. Unfortunately I haven’t got an iPad to test this out with, but it sounds pretty good!
The below is from the My Movies newsletter.
“It is with great pleasure that I can send out this newsletter and let you know that "My Movies for iPad" is now available on the App Store. You can see the application on the iTunes website here.
Many of you are already familiar with or users of My Movies for iPhone Light or My Movies for iPhone Pro - My Movies for iPad is designed to work either as a standalone product, or along with the iPhone, Android or Windows Desktop software which means that you simply log on to your user account, and let the iPad application synchronize your full collection automatically.
Users of My Movies for Windows Media Center will find the iPad application even more interesting, due to the fact that it can connect to your My Movies for Windows Media Center and allow you to start playback of titles on the media center directly from the iPad. The current version allows for use with one Media Center and only on the host machine, which means it will not operate on extenders - we are however already working on the next update for this functionality, and the next version will support multiple hosts and multiple attached extenders, and will feature a full remote control functionality for Windows Media Center.
The application is available now for a price of USD 6.99, EUR 5.49 or GBP 3.99. This newsletter can only go though a small list of the full functionality, and we recommend that you take a look at our "My Movies for iPad" product page, which includes detailed descriptions and a full screenshot gallery - the page is available here.”
I’ve been beta testing a new website that allows you to easily create your own custom Home Cinema intro videos. Such as the 20th Century Fox, Pixar and Universal intros, where you can change the text to your own and then have the video rendered by the website. These intro clips could then be used with My Movies for Media Center that supports playback of intro clips before the main film is started. Can Media Browser do this as well?
On this page you select the template from which you wish to create your intro clip from, there are currently 11 templates.
Its just a case of entering your own text in to the different fields, selecting the desired resolution from the left hand side, i.e. 1080P or 720P and clicking the Create button!
Also on the left hand side you can see how many points you need to create this particular video. I selected 1080P which is 650 points, 720P is 550 points, points translate in to $$$ and you can purchase different packages with different amounts of points.
After clicking the Create button you are shown a page like the one below. This is called the cooking progress. I found in IE that the progress percentage bar was a bit irratic and didn’t always move unless you refreshed the page, it worked much better in Firefox however. One of the Developers I have spoken too called Andrey from Russia said they were aware of the issues in IE and were working on fixes.
The Video creation or cooking time can take between 5-10 minutes, which is very fast for rendering clips like this!
Once your video has finished cooking you can go to the My Videos area and see your completed videos. Here you can preview the videos and download them. The videos are currently only created in .MP4 and .FLV (Flash) formats, although Andrey informs me they do have possible plans for other file types such as .AVI, .MPG and .WMV
Download page:
I don’t have the final URL web address of the VIPID website that will be used when the site goes live to users, but when I have it I will update this post and let you know!
Overall a great website that does exactly what you’d expect and it is very easy and fast to use. Highly recommended!
20TH Century Fox – Custom Intro Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_3-rCEod48
This is a sneak preview of a video I created using a new Home Cinema custom intro creation website, that is currently in private beta. The site should launch in a few weeks time and I will post again soon with more details about it and how you can sign up, it will be a paid service, but what a service! you can create Hi-Res 1080P / 720P clips like the one below in about 5 minutes and its extremely simple to use. It doesn’t get any easier than this!
Custom Pixar Intro Video
My first generation XBOX 360 has died for a second time with the dreaded 3 Red Rings of Death. Microsoft UK are now wanting 68 UK pounds to have my console repaired. That seems like allot of money when you can buy a new 4GB slim model for 150 quid.
My console first died whilst I was living in Thailand and at this time when checking the UK XBOX support website I would have been entitled to a free no cost repair according to their online system. However I could not easily post my XBOX from Thailand back to the UK for repair and they would not have sent it back to me in Thailand anyways.
I recently moved back home to the UK so I checked the XBOX support site again and now their system states a fee of 68 pounds is required. I contacted XBOX support via email but they just said they could not offer me a free repair at this time.
So that’s that, I’m not paying to have it repaired and I doubt very much I will buy a new XBOX from Microsoft again. I’ve heard many stories from my own friends and people I speak to in the forums that their XBOX’s have died at some time or another.
I did some searches on eBay UK and US today and was amazed at the numbers of faulty and broken XBOX 360’s listed for sale, page and pages of them!
If you have had problems with your XBOX 360 and feel frustrated about it, then please leave a comment and let us know!
I recently built a x64 bit Windows 7 Ultimate HTPC. In the past I'd mainly stayed away from x64 bit OS and always used 32bit, mainly because I was usually testing lots of different applications and utilities and also just because I felt more comfortable with 32 bit and codec setup.
But on this latest HTPC for my own living room I decided it was time to try x64 bit properly and make it stable. If you are using the Shark 007 codec pack on x64 you first need to install the x86 version of the codec pack as nornal, in addition to this you then need to install the x64 components.
By default on 64 bit Windows 7, the default WMP12 player is the 32 bit version, there is also a 64 bit version of WMP12, Shark recommends sticking with the 32bit version of WMP12 and not changing the default to be the 64 bit version. The Windows Media Center by default is 64 bit ! The x86 version of the shark codec pack is used to configure 32 bit players such as the default WMP12. And you use the x64 bit version of the shark codec pack for configuring 64 bit players such as Media Center.
Before I continue, at this point I'd like to thank Shark for his help setting up my new x64 bit HTPC as I did get stuck in places and required his help, some of the below information was passed on to me from Shark and if you are using his codec pack and find it useful, please consider making a donation to him as I expect releasing these codec packs and supporting them is very time consuming indeed.
I'd like to state that the below settings are working for me on my HTPC for my files, this is not to say these exact same settings will work for you as you expect! I'd also like to point out that my HTPC is based on an AMD Processor and an onboard ATI HD Radeon 4200 graphics chip. Also I currently don't have an AVR so I am not passing through or bit streaming audio to the AVR, its just a simple HDMI connection from the PC direct to the HDTV. But I will mention audio pass through later.
When launching either version of the Shark codec pack from the start menu you should always right click the icon and run as administrator. Ok so lets get started!
The first tab is the configure tab, on here you can choose which version of WMP12 is the default, stick with the 32 bit version as recommended. I also never use subtitles so I change the Subtitle control to "No Subtitles". You probably want to change the Hardware Output to TV/Projector.
I found some of my HD MKV movies where stuttering so I decided to enable FDDShow DXVA (hardware acceleration) on the H264 tab, which meant on the Config tab clicking Configuration Items and selecting FFDShow DXVA
Under the FFDShow DXVA configuration, I unchecked Subtitles, as I found some MKV's were showing the hard subs. I also checked H264 and VC1 under DXVA codecs enabled.
I did not change anything on the Misc tab.
Ignore the tool tip on this screen shot, I don't think I changed anything on the Audio tab either, however if you have an AVR and want to pass through / bit stream the audio to the AVR you should select: use pass-through (Digital Audio) under FFDShow S/PDIF pass-through. You'd probably select 5.1 as well from the Choose speaker configuration. When I am using an AVR I don't use AC3Filter as I always had problems with it and just use FFDShow.
On the AVI tab I have been selecting Gabest's splitter lately, but Shark recommends using the Microsoft Splitter here. So that's what I am using at the moment.
On the H264 tab I select the settings you can see that have red rings round them, as I said I enabled FFDShow DXVA for hardware acceleration.
On the MKV tab I am using the Haali Splitter and there is also a DIVX Media Foundation Splitter, this is for XBOX 360 users apparently. However I had issues with this setting until Shark explained it to me, you MUST disable the DIVX Media Foundation Splitter on 64 bit OS. If you don't, when you play MKVs and other files in Media Center they will not use FFDSHow but the Microsoft codec. So I have to have this disabled on my X64 HTPC.
But I also have an XBOX 360 extender, I've not tested playing any MKV's on the extender yet, but ideally you would want the DIVX Media Foundation Splitter enabled for playback on the XBOX 360, which means manually changing this setting first. Also AVI's on my XBOX 360 MCX are not playing that well, slowing down and speeding up. But if I play the same movie that's on the WHS from the XBOX 360 dashboard video library it plays fine.
Apparently this is not a problem for 32bit OS as you can have the DIVX Media Foundation Splitter enabled and it will also still use FFDShow in Media Center OK.
MOV OGG tab I did not change anything on this tab, I can play some 1080p .MOV movie trailers I downloaded from Apple OK in Media Center, I've not tested the .MOV files my little digital camera creates yet.
On the MPG MP4 tab I am using Gabest's splitter for MP4 playback, I did play one sample MP4 video file OK in Media Center.
Under overall MPEG Playback 1/2/PS/TS I am using the default which is Automatic section.
Below is a quote from Shark:
Swap tab, below you can see the settings I am using. The main ones to point out are:
FFDShow codec for XVID/DIVX/MP4v in DirectShow.
FFDShow for WVC1 instead of Microsoft
I also had to disable Media Foundation for a sample .M2TS file to play in Media Center.
The thing that has changed, is in the past with an AVR and when playing AVI files with 5.1 audio tracks in them I would have to disable DMO for them to play. You don't need to do this any more apparently.
That's it!
I can play the following on my Media Center:
Above are the main video types I use, however I also tested the file types below in Media Center using sample video clips I have:
I also used GraphStudio during my codec setup to render media files and see which codec were being used in the graph.
If anyone has any comments or suggestions please let me know, also I am not a codec expert who knows everything about them so please don't ask me for technical support with codec, I would recommend heading over to the Shark 007 forums here.
