Home Theater Focus : Windows XP Media Center 2005

Stream DVD Movies to Xbox360 from WinMC

Mon, 13 Feb 2006 17:29:00 GMT

Welcome to the final installment of Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 and Xbox 360 Extender. This time we'll cover exactly how to stream your DVDs through Media Connect to your Xbox360.

By now we’ve learned Windows Media Connect (the connection between WinMC/WinXP and your Xbox360) won’t stream anything but MPG or WMV. This seems like a showstopper if you thought you were going to stream DVDs to your Xbox360 Extender. But don’t despair, there are solutions.

If you want to stream video formats outside MPG2 or WMV you’ll have to do something called Transcoding. Transcoding using Videoras free Xbox360 Converter utility works. It’s a CPU intensive process and it takes a long time. Your PC will work hard for almost an hour to transcode two hours of quality audio/video. But it’s worthwhile if you want to have access to AVI, Quicktime, MPG4, DivX etc.

Note: There might be better transcoders out there, in fact I hope there are! But Videora’s Xbox360Converter worked.

DVD is a special case. As we know WinMC with a DVD decoder will play backed up copies of your DVDs. You just copy your DVDs VIDEO_TS directory and Windows Media Player treats it as the original DVD. Try and open your VIDEO_TS directory through your Xbox360 extender and you get the following error message:

Video Not Supported

Video cannot be viewed in media center from a remote desktop connection.

The workaround is a two step process:

Decrypt the DVD movie, strip it down to just a VOB file.
Rename the VOB extension to MPG.

First, your DVD is probably encrypted, most new material will require decryption. Also remember that breaking encryption is against the desires of the DVDs producer and is a grey legal area. This should be done for back up of DVDs you own.

There are many decrypters out there, like DVD Shrink and DVDDecrypter_3.5.4.0. You can probably find both utilities at www.Doom9.org. DVDDecrypter is very straightforward with lots of options. DVD Shrink is my personal favorite because I find it easier to use its myriad of editing options.

Using a decrypter you’re doing two things, decrypting plus making a VOB file of just the movie itself. What might be a drawback to using the extender to playback movies is you’re losing the DVD presentation. No menus, no fancy animations between video options. You’ll have to load the movie using Windows MC rather than the neat DVD interface.

I prefer DVD Shrink because of its re-authoring features. Sin City Recut presents a special challenge because it’s made up of several episodes based on the graphic novels. I used DVD Shrink to extract each chapter and create MPG from it and even put each MPG into separate folders with images for each.

DVD Menu system Episode selector:

I want all these episodes of Sin City to be a selectable video file that streams to my Home Theater system through the Xbox360. To start I used DVD Shrink to turn each episode shown above into a separate MPG.

As you see here, DVD Shrink has amazing re-authoring ability. I can choose exactly what soundtrack (Dolby Digital 5.1), subtitles (none) I want. I retain the original quality of the DVD because I am not applying any compression whatsoever. The file isn’t limited to the constraints of a 4.5 Gig DVDR.

A few things you’ll need to do whether using DVD Shrink or any decrypting/editing software.

Remove compression. Allow files to be as large as they need to be.
Disable the creation of VIDEO_TS. You just don’t need the directory.
Disable VOB splitting: Don’t let your decrypter split VOB files. You should have an option to split the VOB into less than 1Gig chunks. DVD Shrink has this checkbox under Tools, Preferences. Uncheck it.

After decryption is complete you’ll have a directory with a VOB and other DVD support files.

If you select this folder that includes a BUP and IFO files Xbox360 will think this is another lame attempt from you to send it a DVD. 360 will say no dice, again.

Simply delete everything that isn’t a .VOB file then rename the VOB extension MPG. A VOB is really just an MPEG file.

Personally I like to find an image (Google Images are easy to use and about the right size) and add it to the folder. Name your image, Folder.jpg and it will be the image for the folder that holds your MPG. Don’t worry about the jpg not being centered perfectly, I like the off center look, it kind of has an artsy feel to it.

Extract every episode of Sin City in its full Dolby Digital 5.1, uncompressed glory. Now you can stream it through the Xbox360 extender. Creating a folder for each episode located in your main Sin City folder, you get a Microsoft Windows Media Center menu system.

I used an image from the cover of the graphic novel for each episode

Now, you and your Media Center can live happily ever after.

Troubles

It seems that people might have trouble because they’ve kept the extra files along with the VOB (now renamed to MPG). You can’t do this, you can’t have a DVD. This method just gives you an MPG video file. If you know how you can retain all the functions of the DVD and stream it to Xbox360, I invite you enlighten me.

If you have problems with this method it could be your decoder. Your DVD decoder must support Windows DRM10 or Windows Media Player 10.

Run Microsoft’s XP Video Decoder Checkup Utility. To ensure you only have the one decoder you mean to have. Delete or uninstall any extras you might have. Sometimes a bad decoder will get in the way and block the stream through Media Connect. If you have a decoder with any red Xs, even though your primary is all green checkmarks, delete it.

Also make sure you’re removing the support files that are found in a VIDEO_TS directory. Remember the 360 Extender won’t play a DVD so it will stop you from trying to send it those support files. Strip it down to just the MPG and a folder.jpg if you want to be fancy.

Transcoding.

I tested this with a backup method using the Decrypter then conducted the unnecessary step of transcoding with Videroa’s Xbox360 Converter. The result is horrible. Transcoding loses video quality, the movie had a too soft air brush quality to it. The sound was just slightly off kilter with the video so it looked like the voices were being dubbed. The audio options through Videroa are Stereo, and some controls over bit rate. While it might be okay for converting some AVIs or home movies, there is no AC3/5.1. This is literally a show stopper. Transcoding ruins the pristine quality of the DVD so, forget about it.

Windows MC Video: Round4

Fri, 10 Feb 2006 16:53:00 GMT

Video troubles: To simply playback a DVD on your new Windows MC machine you’ll need a codec that is compatible with Windows Media Player10. If you’ve bought a pre-built WinMC HTPC it’s probably already installed. But if you’ve installed the Operating System like I did you’ll need a decoder to playback DVD.

If you’re scouring the internet looking for free codecs you’ll want to see if the one you’ve found is really DRM 10 compatible. To see if your codec is compatible with Windows MP10 DRM check it with this handy utility.

Here is Microsoft’s list of suitable codecs you must pay for. Nvidia’s is highly rated among users and has a free 30 day trial. It’s sad that a fresh install of WinMC isn’t enough to play back dvd. As crappy as that sounds, you just have to bite it.

Now for your next hurdle, you want to play back video through the Xbox360 extender. Microsoft’s Xbox360 extender feature list is a bit deceptive because it doesn’t come right out and tell you what can’t do!

Microsoft says:

Connect to a computer running Windows Media Center and

Listen to your music collection
View pictures
Watch live TV
Pause and replay live TV
Record TV shows then watch them later
Watch Videos
Download and watch movies
Buy music online

Xbox.com’s FAQ says:

Q: What media file types are supported when streaming content from a PC running Windows XP Media Centre Edition 2005?

A: Video

Windows Media Video (WMV) 7, WMV 8, and WMV 9

Maximum resolution of 1920x1080 (1080p)

Windows Media Audio Standard or Windows Media Audio Pro audio

WMV content may be Windows Media DRM-protected

MPEG-1 with MPEG-1 layer I or II audio

MPEG-2

Maximum resolution of 1920x1080 (1080i)

AC-3 or MPEG-1 layer I or II audio

WMV Image 1 (Photo Story 1 & 2), and WMV Image 2 (Photo Story 3)

Your Windows Media Center PC can back up a DVD by copying its VIDEO_TS folder onto your computer. WinMC will happily play this back as a full DVD. If you’ve got your WinMC box hooked directly to the A/V system you’re all set. But if you’re avoiding that by using an extender like me (because you’re too cheap to buy the high end video/sound cards) you’re in trouble.

Try to stream that VIDEO_TS from your WinMC machine to the Xbox360 and you’ll get this dreadful wakeup call:

Video Not Supported

Video cannot be viewed in media center from a remote desktop connection.

This FAQ will give you a straightforward run down of what video you can and cannot stream to your Xbox360. It’s a nice presentation with nice images, and probably the utility it sells you (Videora's Xbox360 Converter) is probably the best utility for anything but a backed up DVD.

So you want to playback DVD backups through WindowsMC to your Xbox360 extender?

What you need.

DVD Decoder. Must support Windows Media Player 10. This gets your computer reading DVDs period. You can’t do anything without this.
DVD Decrypter: Most DVDs are copy protected today. WinMC will playback a DVD with only a decoder. But to stream it to the Xbox360 you must remove the encryption.
MPG2 Conversion: This is where it’s confusing. A VOB file is MPG2, this will stream to Xbox360 but not as a VOB. Videora’s message board is full of confused individuals who believe they must transcode from VOB using the Xbox360 Converter utility. This works but is not optimal.

Tomorrow we'll cover the rest of Video using good old fashioned logic

Spok will be proud

Get ready, tomorrow I’ll close the deal on Video streaming to your Xbox 360. You’ll learn the Kung-Fu secrets that one might expect would normally require several consecutive hours learning on AV message boards. But it’ll all be distilled to the bare facts, Monday before noon EST.

Not being here would be illogical.

Windows Media Center / Xbox360 Round:3

Thu, 09 Feb 2006 16:58:00 GMT

In part2 we established the Win XP/MC ’05 PC, and that works great! More smiles than dinner time at the Wickenheiser’s on Hamburger Helper night.

Here are my first baby steps into Xbox 360 extender and Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005.

The initial connection was easy as pie. Using 360’s Media blade simply select Media Center. Follow instructions that will involve writing down a key code and then going to your computer and downloading extender software including Media Connect.

Once this is done you now have media bliss. But not without a few small wrinkles and one rather big stinking problem! There’s a sense of satisfaction to seeing the Media Center desktop on your big TV if you’ve only seen it on a monitor, it’s a bit like the first time you ever used Remote Desktop. But you have to get your head around the fact that this isn’t Remote Desktop or VNC (Remote Desktop and VNC are tools that let you take control of another computer in a window on your computer). You’re using a separate instance of the WinMC OS through Media Connect.

MP3s work great! I told WinMC where my music was and it was all properly filed and compiled into a library. I can surf the library through the 360 the same as if I were sitting at the PC, the album cover thumbnails were downloaded automatically to the folders for the appropriate albums. You even have the ability to make your own album cover art for each album you have in your library.

Here’s how from AVSforum’s amazing FAQ on WinMC. Simply add an image called folder.jpg to the folder that contains the album.

Picture viewer: Obviously the closer in resolution the images you’re viewing are to the TV’s native res, the better they look. Now this is how to look at baby pictures when the relatives come over or re-live last summer’s camping trip.

Updating content to the extender: This is where things get a bit sticky. It’s probably my own fault for thinking in terms of Remote Desktop when I’m using the extender. But you can’t simply add content (such as images, music or videos) to your instance of Windows MC and expect to see it over on the extender. It must be added separately on the extender. Use the Info button on the Xbox 360 remote control to bring up Windows MC’s “add” menu. That should save you about five minutes of aggravation. It’s conceivable to have two separate catalogues of pictures/music/videos between 360 and the ‘puter itself.

Tomorrow I’ll get into the big troubles with streaming video to the Xbox360. It’s nearly a showstopper but not without a solution. Here’s a hint, you can’t stream video to the Xbox 360 from a Media Center PC unless it’s in the WMV format. Yeah, that’s bad!

Windows Media Center 2005: Round2

Wed, 08 Feb 2006 15:59:00 GMT

It’s been awhile since I’ve thought about Windows MC. But since obtaining some new computer hardware I found an OEM version of the product and installed it. This means I built a PC and installed the operating from scratch rather than using one of the pre-built systems that are rather over-priced.

Here is a hardware run down:

AMD Athlon processor 3700+: It's a cheap chip these days. A nice sweet spot between the lower end processors and the still-too-high-priced dual core Athalons.

Cheapest motherboard I could find w/ Nvidia’s Nforce4 chipset. I did without SLI support. This got me a mobo for <$100.

Black box w/ a quiet fan. Or a case as the more debonair of you would call it. <$100 again, being a Philistine myself, I still call it a box. The guy at the computer store corrected me about three times. “Get off my Case!” I had to say.

A word on PC Cases: No need to get fancy with your box. Too many people are focused on those expensive HTPC boxes that are super-duper quiet. If you bought an expensive box you’re only going to stick an expensive video card and motherboard chipset into it. Both of those devices are going to have noisy assed fans anyway. It only takes ONE noisy fan in your quiet box to make it a noisy box again. Just get a box that with a power supply fan that makes less noise than Bell UH-1 and you’re all set. If you don’t want to hear your computer, get an MC extender. The money you save on ultra quiet boxes and high end video and sound cards will save you money in the long run.

Video card isn’t important because I already have the Xbox 360 and I’m not planning on having this PC ever touch a TV. So, reasoning that the video processor isn’t going to process anything while the operating system passes streaming audio/video through my network, you can get a $20 video card.

I didn’t happen to do that however. I like to play a computer game once in awhile even though I don’t have time for games anymore and I already have an underutilized Xbox 360. But I got a video card by Asus based around Nvidia’s 6800GT chipset w/ 256M of DDR3 RAM.

Network. The mother board has a built in network card. I also happen to have a wireless network card laying around. So far I’m not planning to use the wireless network card. RJ45s connect the Xbox 360 and computer to the router.

So far the budget for all this stuff is well under $300 for a U built it HTPC. But we’re not done yet.

You’ll also need RAM, at least 256 megs of 400FSB ram. I happen to have 1Gig of FSB333 laying around the tool-shed so I’m scrimping a bit of bus speed.

You’ll need storage. I picked up an ultra cheap 80Gig SATA HDD which runs under $1 a Gig these days. You can probably find one of these minimalist HDD’s for around $50 or less. However, I have probably a 500Gigs of IDE storage lying around.

Note on IDE vs SATA: SATA is the new thing in storage, it’s faster than IDE. Not just the impressive throughput but where it really counts in the seek time. But that’s no reason to trash your perfectly good IDE hard drives. If you have a bunch of extra drives and a router, just use a network storage device.

Installing Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 was surprisingly easy. It’s just Windows XP with some extras. In fact it IS Windows XP, but you have this Media Center button that brings up a remote friendly interface that can be easily closed or minimized. Before installing it and seeing it for myself I wasn’t sure how intrusive to the conventional Windows experience MC would be. It’s definitely not intrusive, it’s just XP with an additional slick interface.

Other parts: To record TV you’ll need a tuner card. To burn DVDs you’ll need a DVD writer obviously. You don’t need either of these things to start playing with MC. I own neither of them yet and I’m not in a hurry, for now.

What sucks! There is bad side I’ve encountered already. There is no way to record HD content from premium cable sources (at least not legally, yet). The IEEE 1394 (firewire) outputs on your digital cable terminals won’t send your HBO in HD. Your coax output on the Digital Cable box will downsample your video to 480i, which sucks. Yes, it’s the wonderful world of content protection. It’s a poop sandwich from which we all must bite.

That will conclude part2 of my journey to a Windows Media Center PC. My next step will be testing out the features of Xbox 360 extender and testing running DVD movies copied from the VIDEO_TS directory.

Journey to Windows MC

Thu, 22 Dec 2005 15:31:00 GMT

They say the thousand mile journey begins with the first step. My first step to digitizing all my media will be documented here on this blog. It's been done, sure. This isn't promising to be the definitive guide to all things HTPC. But thus far, a working HTPC has eluded me. I've been interested and I've been touting the strengths of going with digital media and storing away all those DVDs and CDs for a long time. Actually the CDs are pretty much unsed in my house anymore, as with most who have simply converted to MP3 and have other means of playing them back.

But movies and TV programming, recording shows and storing them away permanently (or even burning them to DVD) is something else. I've been using a PVR for awhile but it's only transient. I'm not really building a collection of media with it. It's a handy device, don't get me wrong. But the PVR alone has a finite storage and isn't designed to be ported to mpg2 format to my PC. I'm sure there are hacks that could perform this operation but I'm going to go the HTPC server route. I have the Xbox360 now, so it'll be the machine I keep near the TV that hooks up using component video and optical audio S/PDIF connection to my main home system.

Here is what I'm interested in being able to do with the 360 as my extender:

Xbox 360 Media Setup

With Xbox 360, you can:

Connect to a computer running Windows Media Center and

Listen to your music collection
View pictures
Watch live TV
Pause and replay live TV
Record TV shows then watch them later
Watch Videos
Download and watch movies
Buy music online

Connect to a computer running Windows XP Service Pack 2 and

Listen to your music collection
View pictures

I dug this up from Xbox.com from their faq about what formats exactly are supported for streaming to the 360 from the WinMC HTPC machine. This are the most important steps in the thousand mile journey, deciding there are indeed services that are valuable to getting this job done.

I'll make a new category on this blog so I can keep track of the HTPC. This will be the first entry.

Q: What media file types are supported when streaming content from a PC running Windows XP Media Centre Edition 2005?

Video

Windows Media Video (WMV) 7, WMV 8, and WMV 9

Maximum resolution of 1920x1080 (1080p)

Windows Media Audio Standard or Windows Media Audio Pro audio

WMV content may be Windows Media DRM-protected

MPEG-1 with MPEG-1 layer I or II audio

MPEG-2

Maximum resolution of 1920x1080 (1080i)

AC-3 or MPEG-1 layer I or II audio

WMV Image 1 (Photo Story 1 & 2), and WMV Image 2 (Photo Story 3)

Audio

Windows Media Audio (WMA) 7 through WMA 9

WMA Standard content may be Windows Media DRM-protected

WMA Professional

WMA Professional content may be Windows Media DRM-protected

WMA Lossless

Windows Media DRM protected WMA Lossless is not supported

MP3

Other formats that have a DirectShow decoder installed on the host computer that outputs pulse code modulation (PCM) audio.