WMC installation guide

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=18653867#post18653867

as you mentioned, you find different opinions, but this should be a good start.

[quote=Oingofan]

many archived files didn’t work, folders didn’t work correctly within Media Browser, ripped movies don’t display correctly, etc.).[/quote]

I am working on a guide on how to get up and running from a freshly installed PC to get .MKV playback working from out of the box. Stay tuned for that.

As far as your files didn’t work, what format are your files in? Assuming .mkv’s? but what else? Video_TS dvd rips? .ISO? Would help immensely if we knew what your setup was in terms of content storage methods.

I personally don’t use media browser, I am old school and like the native DVD Library, and the My Movies plugin, I don’t like plugins that detract from what Media Center is at it’s core.

[quote]After searching on Missing Remote for some basic WMC installation and configuration guide, I can’t see one.[/quote]

What are you looking for? Just media playback support such as getting proper .MKV playback? or are you looking for more than that?

[quote]It seems like many have different settings and opinions on how the Shark007 codecs should be configured.  If there is no guide, what about thoughts on getting a few of you experts to make one so newbies (such as myself) can adopt WMC much more?[/quote]

The problem with Codec Packs, is they are like religions, some folks you will find here will say NEVER NEVER use a codec pack, only install splitters and codecs you need for specific playback, but I for one have been using Sharks for a while, he really does stream line what he does, and makes it simple for newbs to use. I am working on a new guide to get Sharks up and running on a fresh clean installed system so again stay tuned for that.

-Josh

1. ISO support: I have heard people have issues with Dameon Tools. I never used it, but I can say that I have no issues using SlySoft’s Virtual Clone Drive to handle ISO mounting.

2. Video_TS: This is handled natively by WMC.

3. MKV: You only need something like LAV Splitter or Haali Splitter for handling MKV containers.

4. Additional codecs: So far, you haven’t demonstrated a need for them. What’s inside of your MKV containers? What makes you think that you need them?

5. Folder Layout: Are you looking to use the Native Movie Library, Video Library or both? We have a Native Movie Library guide that was just written.

6. TV setup is covered in the Ceton Network Tuner guide as you found.

If I were in your shoes, I would uninstall any codec packs and other software and start from scratch again. Then, work on one aspect at a time so that you understand what it is you need and what it is you are doing. By installing a codec pack, you are blindly shooting a shotgun into the dark and hoping you hit the right target and don’t hit something you didn’t intend (unless you know exactly what the codec pack does).

[quote=Oingofan]

You guys all make good points.  Prior to using WMC, I used XBMC.  XBMC allowed me to play .MKV, Video_TS, and .ISO files (which I have all) out of the chute.  [/quote]

You have to realize that XBMC is open source, they have zero restrictions on codec support, licensing, ect… Because Media Center is a pay for product, you have licensing and other things to deal with, so virtually nothing will work out of the box unless it isn’t licensed. One thing you will note is that in the early days of Media Center (2004, XP, and Vista) .AVI files didn’t even play unless you had codecs installed. 2004 and XP Media Center didn’t even have AC3/DD/DTS decoders or even an Mpeg2 decoder.

So if you wanted to record and play back TV shows in XP Media Center days you needed to install a third party mpeg2 codec.

[quote]

Now that I’m moving to display TV (Ceton), I need to use WMC, but found it is really nitpicky on the types of .MKV’s that it’ll display and won’t play my Video_TS or .ISO files. [/quote]

Because Media Center is part of windows, there is no easy way to play back an .ISO image without mounting it first. So if you want .ISO playback you’d need to

have an APP like virtual clone drive, or Deamon Tools to be able to mount the .ISO image.

Then Media Center doesn’t have a way to tell Virtual Clone Drive or Deamon Tools to mount the image so then you need a Media Center plugin like My Movies or Media Browser to tell those apps to mount the .ISO image, make sense?

[quote]

If Shark007 solves all of the .MKV issues…I still have problems displaying them all through my extender (which gives me a “this video format is not supported…” error).  [/quote]

Extenders DO NOT support .MKV’s period. There was “some” and I mean that in the loosest of terms, support for .MKV playback with extenders, that came in the terms of Media Foundation, built into Windows 7. Divx Corp developed a Media Foundation splitter, the issue… The .MKV file could ONLY be h.264 and AC3. If the .MKV was DTS, or another video format inside of the .MKV container you were out of luck.

More on Divx Tech Preview: http://labs.divx.com/mkv-on-Windows-7-tech-preview

So the ONLY way to get reliable .MKV playback in Media Center is ONLY when playing back the content locally on the PC itself.

[quote]

I thought if a file type wasn’t supported, it would convert it to a streaming format that would be supported (without an error).[/quote]

Unfortunately no it wont. Simple as that. There are Media Center Plugins, that would do transcoding to have pseudo support. Read up on Transcode 360 for more info, great concept, but slow and buggy at most.

[quote]

I have my temporary WMC setup in a separate room without being connected to speakers or a TV.  Funny enough, when I go to play the Video_TS or .ISO files on my XBox 360 extender, it won’t allow it because the WMC errors out that it doesn’t have speakers connected.  I’m sure that is all configuration based.  This shouldn’t matter too much soon as I’m moving to a dedicated HPTC running WMC that will be connected to my TV and receiver.[/quote]

Once you have a dedicated HTPC connected directly to your display and surround sound setup, most of these issues will go away.

As far as extenders go, for support, what i’ve done is converted all my .MKV’s to .M2TS, Extenders natively support .M2TS but again they still have to be h.264 and AC3 audio, can’t be DTS audio.

Also Extenders only support lower bit rate video. Don’t even think about trying to play back a full 20mbps 1080p blu ray rip on a Media Center Extender, just won’t happen.

12mbps 720p is about max you’ll see for smooth playback on an extender.

[quote]

OK, enough of my bickering issues.  I know WMC can do all of these things that I have used in XBMC…and that is just the issue.  It would be great if there was an overall guide that would show what to load and how to configure it for the basics:

• .MKV file playing[/quote] I Will have a guide eventually, maybe in the next week or so. [quote]
• .ISO file playing[/quote] Again that more so depends on Media Center plugins that you want to run. Find the one you want, and they will have instructions for that. [quote]
• Video_TS file playing[/quote] Media Center will play back Video_TS folders natively via the Movies section, this is trivial, but again this is something that is PC based only, doesn’t support Extenders. [quote]
• Recommended/minimum codecs required (and where to get them)[/quote] Sharks Codecs, see above about .MKV, will be coming soon. [quote]
• Correct folder layout for the basic WMC – forget Media Browser for now[/quote] This I am confused about, there is no “special” folder layout you need. Add a folder or directory to the Media Library and you are done. [quote]
• TV setup – although this is already well explained with the Ceton guide[/quote] Follow the Ceton guide, any tv setup is pretty straight forward, nothing else to explain, the setup by step wizard that Media Center has is all you need. [quote]
• Any other small tweaks[/quote] Look at the tips and tricks guides we have. Most of that is already there.

-Josh

Josh, after thinking about it for a little bit, I’m starting to not want any extenders for the way I use my media.  The primary benefit of an extender is that I won’t have any copy protection issues from the WMC HTPC.  However, if my current cable company (Charter) has all standard TV as copy freely and only the premium channels as copy once, a secondary small WMC HTPC (that pulls the content from the primary) in the bedroom would be more powerful as it won’t have all the issues that extenders have.

A drawback to having multiple WMC HTPC’s would be that the Ceton doesn’t support tuner pooling (that I know of), so maybe another tuner setup would be better.  This just opens up a new questions that should be in their own thread.

Wayne

[quote=Oingofan]

Josh, after thinking about it for a little bit, I’m starting to not want any extenders for the way I use my media.  The primary benefit of an extender is that I won’t have any copy protection issues from the WMC HTPC.  However, if my current cable company (Charter) has all standard TV as copy freely and only the premium channels as copy once, a secondary small WMC HTPC (that pulls the content from the primary) in the bedroom would be more powerful as it won’t have all the issues that extenders have.

A drawback to having multiple WMC HTPC’s would be that the Ceton doesn’t support tuner pooling (that I know of), so maybe another tuner setup would be better.  This just opens up a new questions that should be in their own thread.

Wayne

[/quote]

The issue you’ve already identified with dedicated HTPC’s is tuners, you can stream live tv from one PC to another PC like you can with an Extender, also you can’t get a unified guide for series recordings.

You can however share tuners between pc’s, a Ceton is till a network tuner card, and you can do network sharing of tuners to other pc’s from a ceaton tuner.

-Josh