Hacking Windows7 MediaCenter

Sometimes you just need a single Directshow filter, say an MKV splitter to use with the default Windows 7 codecs. Should you install a codec pack when all you need is a single splitter? Absolutely not! Maybe you just need an x64 video decoder capable of hardware acceleration. There’s no reason to download something you don’t need to get the functions you want from your current filter setup.

What you do need, is to get acquainted with a little resource on Sourceforge where you can download stand alone filters used in the popular Media Player Classic – Homecinema media player. This resource includes practically any splitter or decoder you might need in single serving sizes. No need to download that complete codec pack to get a single filter!

Finding the right filter for your needs can be slightly cryptic but not too difficult. First you should choose the correct platform, x86 or x64, or be sure to download and register both versions for maximum compatibility on x64 systems. You should be able to discern the type of filter from the filename of each download (especially if you’re looking for something specific). For instance, MPCVideoDec is the video decoder used in Media Player Classic which is capable of DXVA (GPU hardware acceleration).

Getting your filter registered can be slightly more difficult. You will need to extract the file to a location on your hard disk then open an elevated command prompt. To get an elevated command prompt simply open your start menu and type “cmd” then press ctrl-shift-enter. Once inside type the following: “C:\Windows\system32\regsvr32 FILELOCATION”, replacing FILELOCATION with the location of the extracted file. For registering x64 filters do the same except use: “C:\Windows\sysWOW64\regsvr32 FILELOCATION”.

To uninstall a previously installed filter follow the same steps to launch an elevated command prompt then enter “C:\Windows\system32\regsvr32 /u FILELOCATION” or “C:\Windows\sysWOW64\regsvr32 /u FILELOCATION” depending on the version.

Those are all the steps to download and install individual filters from the Media Player Classic – Homecinema project for use in your DirectShow setup. As long as no errors occurred during the process the filters should be installed and ready to use.

Need more? Take a look at Clearing Up the Codec Confusion for a more complete guide to setting up your codecs and filters!

Written by MHealy | 1 comments

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Tagged As: codec, graphstudio, install

You probably want the best quality audio for your CD rips for playback on your Media Center setup, who wouldn’t? Ripping audio to FLAC is the preferred method for storing audio CDs without losing any of the original detail. FLAC is known as a lossless codec, meaning there is no loss in quality between the original CD and the FLAC file, unlike MP3 which can degrade the quality quite a bit.

How do we get that data off the disk and onto our drives though? Simple, a program called Exact Audio Copy. This apply named program will take the pure audio from your disk and encode it to FLAC without much hassle at all. It even includes the ability to retrieve disk information from freeDB and some fairly advanced error correction (for those less than new CDs).

Getting started is easy, just download and install Exact Audio Copy then run the program. An initial startup wizard will appear asking you to set some of the basic options. During this you should let EAC know that you’ll be encoding to FLAC not MP3. Also, entering your e-mail address is required to retrieve information about CDs from freeDB.

Once the initial setup has been completed insert a disk into the drive you setup as the default during configuration. After a few moments EAC should display a listing of al the tracks on the disk in the main window. You’ll notice that none of these tracks have any tag information and EAC will most likely want to process offset information on a first run. Go ahead and let that happen and any gap processing EAC would like to run.

Now to retrieve information for this CD automatically you can press the CD icon in the toolbar to access freeDB. As long as freeDB recognizes the disk you’ve loaded it should automatically retrieve artist, title and track information. Otherwise, you can edit basic information in the main EAC interface before ripping.

To begin ripping the CD to separate FLAC files you just need to press the MP3 button on the left. This slight confusion in the interface can cause some trouble for new users but the button will use your default compression mode, MP3 or not. There are also options available to rip the disk to a single or multiple uncompressed WAV file(s) with or without a cue file. Unfortunately, at this time WMP and Media Center do not support cue files.

During encoding you can monitor the process through a small dialog displaying the progress of the current track, the entire disk and any problems that arise in the Status box. You will also be able to monitor any error correction taking place through the small red grid box on this window. Any error processing will appear as a progress type display in the box.

Once the encode has completed that’s all there is to getting the audio from the disk to your hard drive. You’ll need to follow the guide on Playing FLAC Files in WMP and Media Center before you will have access to them in those programs. Then just sit back and enjoy your high quality lossless encoded audio!

Get more control over audio in Media Center with this guide on Using FFDShow Audio in Media Center!

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Tagged As: flac, music library, programs

Continuing to get your movie collection in order you may find yourself wanting to change order encodes such as AVI or MP4 files into an MKV format. For instance, the easiest way to bypass the new Windows Media Foundation framework inside of Media Center is to use a non-native format such as MKV. Of course, this will also break support on Media Center Extenders as most often they will not support the MKV format.

Converting each movie from it’s current format to another using traditional means can be a task that many would give up before even starting. The idea of converting each file one by one can be daunting for those with large collections. That’s where these files and guide can come in handy. This will enable you to do a batch processing of AVI and MP4 files into MKV files.

Get the tools

Before we get started you will need a couple of items downloaded and installed. The first of which is MKVToolnix, this set of tools will provide the command line program used by the .bat file to convert any AVI or MP4 files which don’t include WMA audio. Install the program using the installer provided on the MKVToolnix website.

Second, this zip file, which includes a .bat file and a directory which should be placed in your movies directory. Also, these files are marked “Hidden” by default and necessity, you’ll need to enable hidden items which you can find instructions for here.

Getting Started

Once you have installed MKVToolnix and extracted the zip file to your movies directory you will need to move all your AVI and MP4 files to the main directory if they aren’t there already. The simplest way to accomplish this is to enter a search in Windows Explorer for .avi/.mp4 and cut/paste into the main directory.

This is done due to the fact that the .bat file doesn’t use recursive directory codes. There are four different versions of the batch file included in the zip.

1. Just Convert – Will convert any AVI and MP4 files to MKV
2. Convert and Move - Will convert to MKV then move to a directory with the same name as the file's name
3. Convert and Delete - Wil convert to MKV then delete the original AVI/MP4 files
4. Convert, Move and Delete - Will convert to MKV, move to folders then delete the originals

During conversion, if the file is able to be converted by MKVToolnix’s MKVMerge it will be. This is the fastest method of converting the files to the MKV format as it simply re-muxes the file into an MKV. If the original file uses WMA for audio, however, the conversion will not occur with current versions of MKVToolnix. Support for these files is planned for later versions.

Also, included is a version named simply “avitomkv.bat”. This version includes the ability to convert files encoded with WMA audio by using the HandbrakeCLI from Handbrake.fr. This version is the most robust as it will re-encode all files, however, during this process the original files are deleted. This isn’t optional in this version and is irreversible, use with extreme care!

Stick with Hack7MC

Hopefully, this guide will get anyone looking to do a batch conversion of their media where they need to go. This little .bat file saved me much time recently converting a sizable collection of AVIs to MKV in order to circumvent Windows Media Foundation in Media Center.

Check out more Tips to Organizing Your Movie Collection on Hack7MC!

Written by MHealy | 3 comments

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Tagged As: codec, matroska, mkv, movie library, windows media foundation