Windows 7 Media Centre Thread
- Thread starter wolvers
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I don't think that the 7xxx series supports hardware decoding of H.264.
You can, yes.
Well it's not quite that simple - with extensions like MKV you have to add some registry settings to get Media Center to recognise the files but, once that's done, they work fine. That's the case on XP MCE and VMC at least, not sure what formats/extensions W7MC supports out of the box.
I don't know why you've had to do that for VMC to play mkv files. I just installed the splitter and the codecs and it plays fine. No messing around in the registry at all. Same with AVI's, which are also natively supported in 7MC.
Well I know you have to muck about with the registry in XP MCE but I was sure you had to do it in VMC too.
for some reason, taking 1 minute to open "Movies" with about 500 divx in
Yup,
That problem isn't fixed from vista. I don't know what its doing but a way to shorten the time would be have folders inside it
sid
Well I've been playing with this on my Pinnacle 7010ix card (twin DVB-T & twin DVB-S tuners) and had some interesting results.
On Windows 7 x86 it works like a charm - card is automatically detected and drivers downloaded from Windows Update. Both Freeview and Freeset channels found and can be viewed fine, plus Windows 7 lets you merge like channels from different tuners so you can tell it, for example, that BBC1 is available on either Freeview or Freesat - very neat.
On the downside, this card is a total no-go in x64. The Windows Update drivers it download by default seem to work but Media Center finds no channels when it scans and you'll get random BSODs. There are some old Black Gold drivers which work better (the BGT3540 uses the same chipset as the Pinnacle) but have a but which causes all output to break up and stutter when you have 4GB or more of memory.
The x64 issue isn't too much of a problem as I've always stuck with x86 for my HTPC as it's just easier and avoids a lot of codec issues. Need to do some more playing around with configs and working out how easily I can get ITV HD to show up but it's looking promising.
wolvers69: out of interest, are you using 64-bit Windows 7? Interested to hear from anyone with a DVB-S card that works properly with W7MC x64
On Windows 7 x86 it works like a charm - card is automatically detected and drivers downloaded from Windows Update. Both Freeview and Freeset channels found and can be viewed fine, plus Windows 7 lets you merge like channels from different tuners so you can tell it, for example, that BBC1 is available on either Freeview or Freesat - very neat.
On the downside, this card is a total no-go in x64. The Windows Update drivers it download by default seem to work but Media Center finds no channels when it scans and you'll get random BSODs. There are some old Black Gold drivers which work better (the BGT3540 uses the same chipset as the Pinnacle) but have a but which causes all output to break up and stutter when you have 4GB or more of memory.
The x64 issue isn't too much of a problem as I've always stuck with x86 for my HTPC as it's just easier and avoids a lot of codec issues. Need to do some more playing around with configs and working out how easily I can get ITV HD to show up but it's looking promising.
wolvers69: out of interest, are you using 64-bit Windows 7? Interested to hear from anyone with a DVB-S card that works properly with W7MC x64
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Is there an easier way to do this than sitting there with the remote for ages? Any 3rd party tools you know of?
Caporegime
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Good thread, I'm interested in this cause getting Freesat etc. working in Vista Media Centre is too much of a mess to say the least.
For this you'll need some kind of "red button" facility surely? ITV HD isn't yet officially even a channel, rather a bolt-on interactive service (partly for contractual reasons - they agreed certain content would not be available outside the UK and with Freesat they can't guarantee this unless they include it in interactive services).
For this you'll need some kind of "red button" facility surely? ITV HD isn't yet officially even a channel, rather a bolt-on interactive service (partly for contractual reasons - they agreed certain content would not be available outside the UK and with Freesat they can't guarantee this unless they include it in interactive services).
Well I've read that it's possible to force Media Center to display ITV HD as a regular channel with some registry tweaking but, truth be told, I can't be bothered atm as there's virtually nothing on it.
I'm building a new HTPC right now, was originally going to be using Linux & MythTV but I've decided to go down the Windows route instead (it just looks so much slicker).
Question is - as a first time user of WMC should I install the Vista Media Center or Windows 7 version?
Question is - as a first time user of WMC should I install the Vista Media Center or Windows 7 version?
Caporegime
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Surely that depends on what OS you want to use? I don't think you can install W7MC on a Vista machine and vice versa, though I could be entirely wrong.