Media Center 2005 codecs?

[Blue_MiSfit]

Hey all,

I picked up XP Media Center 2005 and cobbled together a HTPC. In the new Media Center application, the interface is really slick, and it connects so incredibly easily to the SMB shares on my main PC to stream content.

However, I have noticed that it does not seem to use standard directshow filters to play video files. I installed ffdshow, and still none of my mpeg-4 clips will play in the Media Center. I googled around and found some sort of vile homebrew version of "XVid" (as it is called on the offending website) that is (instead of a directshow filter) a "windows media player plugin" or somesuch nonsense.

Regardless, I am a little confused regaring how to get this thing working with all my backed up media! Does anyone out there know what the hell microsoft is thinking? :)

Thanks!
_MiSfit

[Blue_MiSfit]

Well.. a year and a half later, I gave up on MCE2k5, and installed XP Pro with MediaPortal. It's AWESOME. Uses any media player you want, so I can use Media Player Classic with ffdshow and CoreAVC, AC3Filter, and Overlay Mixer. I can play x264 at full NTSC resolution out the S-Video (in proper interlaced mode) with my lowly P3 1 GHz, 512MB, Radeon 7500 AGP, etc. HD is a bit out of the question, but all my SD stuff looks great on our 34" CRT SDTV!

I also got one of these (http://www.extremetech.com/article2/1,3973,543459,00.asp)nice little beasties to control everything with using my existing AV remote.

Awesome.

I still wonder though, are there any plugins for MCE that would allow viewing MPEG-4 containing AVIs, MKVs etc? I haven't looked in years!

~MiSfit

[zambelli]

I still wonder though, are there any plugins for MCE that would allow viewing MPEG-4 containing AVIs, MKVs etc? I haven't looked in years!
I think your problem might've been specific to your system. I've never had any trouble playing MPEG-4 video in MCE. Just plain Ffdshow takes care of everything.

[Blue_MiSfit]

Interesting. I will admit it's been awhile since I actually tried this.

So, the media player in MCE's media center is basically WMP - aka directshow?

What about non (microsoft) standard containers like MP4 and MKV? I'm sure Haali's splitter etc would decode it perfectly, but will MCE actually show MP4 / MKV files in the list?

~MiSfit

[zambelli]

So, the media player in MCE's media center is basically WMP - aka directshow?
Yes. It's basically WMP with VMR9.

What about non (microsoft) standard containers like MP4 and MKV? I'm sure Haali's splitter etc would decode it perfectly, but will MCE actually show MP4 / MKV files in the list?
I believe the standard method for adding new file types to WMP will work for MCE too.