Media Player Classic for HD-DVD and Blu-Ray

[sarah99]

have been playing around with MPC to play HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.
I think I have finally got it sorted, and the filter list took some playing around with to get all the different combinations working.
You will need some way to decrypt your files first (I used AnyDVD HD)

HD-DVD .evo files DTS, DD+
Blu-Ray .m2ts files, mpeg2, VC1, mpeg4 AVC

You need (I'm not telling you how to register filters on your PC)
Windows Media Player 11
cl264dec.ax (Video)(cyberlink H264/AVC Decoder from PowerDVD Ultra)*
splitter.ax (Haali media splitter (AR) from Haali Matroska splitter)
cinemaster audio.dll (Audio)(Sonic Cinemaster Audio Decoder v 4.3 from Cineplayer Codec Pack) **
ffdshow.ax (Audio)(ffdshow audio decoder from FFDshow)

Media Player Classic settings

select view/options/External filters/
Add filter ....... Haali Media Splitter (AR), set merit 00900000, set prefer
Add Filter ........ ffdshow audio decoder, set merit 00700000
Add filter ....... cyberlink H.264/AVC Decoder, set merit 00900400
Add Filter ........ Sonic Cinemaster Audio Decoder 4.3.0, set merit 00805000
Add Filter ........ ffdshow video decoder, set merit 00800000 (added to stop ffdshow taking over MPEG-4)
Add Filter ....... Sonic Cinemaster Video Decoder, set merit 00700000 (late fix to stop Cinemaster Video taking over from ffdshow video)
** Add Filter ........ Cyberlink Video/SP Decoder (pdvd7), set merit "prefer" (try this for some hardware acceleration in XP)
** Add Filter ........ Nvidia Video Decoder, set merit "prefer" (block cyberlink) (try this for h/w accel in XP or Vista if you have Nvidia Purevideo)

select view/options/Internal filters
deselect anything mpeg , matroska from the source list
deselect anything AC3, mpeg from the transport filter list

select view/options/output
Select the options you like the look of (I used VMR9 renderless)

Here are some screen shots showing each combination of filters in action, just drag and drop the big files into MPC.

HD-DVD .evo (most common VC1 with DD+) 2 Fast 2 Furious **


HD-DVD .evo (VC1 with DTS-HD) Rambo First Blood


Blu-Ray .m2ts (most common MPEG-2) Planet of the Apes


Blu-Ray .m2ts (VC1) Starship Troopers


Blu-Ray .m2ts (MPEG-4 AVC) Pirates of the Caribbean *



"Print Screen" will give a desktop screen grab then paste into "Paint" to save at your set screen resolution.
"File / Save Image" in MPC will give a full 1080 grab

If any of your files don't work, take a look to see what filter you have different to mine. Ordering filters is dead easy really, you have to put them on the External list before you can move them up or down in priority.

Tested on Vista 32 and Windows XP and works perfectly but takes plenty of processor power.
This solves all the Nvidia/PowerDVD green screen problems too.

PS
I am assuming you have Windows Media Player installed (v11), it won't work at all on PCs without this installed.
Cinemaster codecs v4.2 won't work either!

Advantages of using MPC
You don't have to waste time with menus, trailers and adverts
You can zoom the movie to get rid of the black bars (numpad key 9)
You don't need an approved graphics card

Disadvantages of using MPC
Minimum processor Core2 Duo (any one will do)
No Dolby TrueHD tracks available using Haali splitter

I have been experimenting with Vista and XP,
Xp will play "2 fast 2 furious" on a C2D with 60% CPU perfectly
Vista will play "2 fast 2 furious" on a C2D wit 100% CPU and stutter

My conclusion is stick to XP!