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Is it safe to use hacks for windows media center?

yoda313 posted 2008 Jul 30 17:14

I know there was a post the other day about a hack for windows media center to play dvd vob files without conversions. Are these types of hacks safe for your computer? How easy is it to undo these modifications? Also - are there any divx hacks for media center? FYI I use Media Center in Vista Premium.

rallynavvie posted 2008 Jul 30 17:18

Why do you need "hacks" to play VOB or DivX-encoded content?

yoda313 posted 2008 Jul 30 17:23

Because media center only supports dvr-ms files natively.

redwudz posted 2008 Jul 30 18:44

The main 'hack' I used was to re-direct it to a 'video library' that shows the contents of my video servers. It plays Xvids with no problems. Or actually WMP does through Media Center. :) [s:9b89ba61c0]This requires a registry change, which is never 100% safe, but it's easy enough to back up your registry before making the modification. If problems occur, just load the saved copy. :)[/s:9b89ba61c0] EDIT: The 'hack' is for DVDs from a hard drive. Xvids just need the proper codec installed in WMP.

yoda313 posted 2008 Jul 30 19:37

Thanks for the reasurrance redwudz. Care to share some trusted links for these tips?

rallynavvie posted 2008 Jul 30 20:55

I can play any videos that would normally play through WMP through Media Center and I've been using it for years. DVR-MS is just the format it saves to so that it can store its extra meta-data (like program information and stuff) with the video. You just need to have codecs that work with WMP. The only difference I'm seeing is that the 64-bit version of Media Center doesn't play well with 32-bit codecs and takes some tweaking. Also my tuner apparently doesn't like it when more than 4GB of memory is installed. Who knew? I don't like the way MC "watches" folders for the video playback so I'm curious about this registry tweak of yours. It takes several seconds every time I try to access those folders from within Media Center. With MCE 2005 they loaded right up as soon as you went to the videos section.

redwudz posted 2008 Jul 31 17:16

Sorry, that 'registry tweak' was to play DVDs from the hard drive with Media Center. :oops: But if anyone needs that: http://forum.videohelp.com/topic347529.html#1823420 For Xvids or other formats that WMP can play, I just go to Media Center under 'Pictures + Videos>Video library', R click on the library and 'Add a folder to watch'. I have it watch a video folder on my video server computer over the LAN. WMP on my system won't play H.264, but most other formats work. But I more often use VLC or Zoom for playback, not Media Center. :)

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