I’ve been spending the past couple weeks playing with a brand new machine I made for Windows Vista, and it’s been great. One of the things I’ve been looking forward to the most is Windows Media Center. Aside from the fun I can have developing WMC addons, I’ve been meaning to try out the Windows Media Extender functionality of my Xbox 360. Hooking up my laptop to my TV every time I want to watch things just doesn’t cut it. Unfortunately, I have one problem – most of what I watch is already encoded in XviD format, which the Xbox 360 lacks a codec for.
But that’s not my only roadblock. Being a sucker for the bleeding edge, I decided that my shiny new Core 2 Duo, being a 64-bit processor, should run Windows Vista Ultimate x64. Right off the bat this presented a problem – after installing DivX and XviD, Windows Media Center would complain that any file I threw at it was unreadable. This didn’t make any sense, since those same videos played just fine in Windows Media Player. Perplexed, I happened upon Task Manager, where I noted that Windows Media Center was running in native (64-bit) mode, while Windows Media Player was running in 32-bit mode. The problem was that I only had 32-bit video codecs, and Windows Media Center couldn’t use them from its 64-bit ivory tower.
However, no problem is a problem for very long. Both of my issues can be resolved with freely available software, and here’s how it works. First, you need to install the ffdshow Vista Codec Package. This will put video codecs for just about every known video format onto your machine. No worrying about downloading this codec and that codec – they’re all here. Next, install the ffdshow x64 components. This makes all those codecs usable from 64-bit programs, as well as giving you a handy shortcut that will set Windows Media Player to always run as 64-bit, too!
Now all your videos work in Media Center. To close the gap with the Xbox, you need Transcode360. This app will transcode your videos, on the fly, into a format the Xbox 360 can understand. It takes a hefty machine, but you’ve got a 64-bit processor anyway, right? Once this is installed, just fire up Media Center from your Xbox, navigate to a movie, hit “Info” on your remote, select “More…”, and select “Transcode 360″. It’ll pause for a while as it crunches through the first few minutes of your video, then it’ll start. Voila!
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[...] Blog « Getting Windows Media Center to stream DivX/XviD to an Xbox 360 from Vista x64 [...]
What if I can’t even play video from the start. Everytime I load a video of any kind the screen goes white and tells me that Windows Media Player has encountered a problem. Might this have something to do with not having a graphics card? or is this just a realy bad problem that no one seems to have but me?
I believe that is an entirely different problem.
Its nice to see VCP creating a few smiles.
The current release, version 4.3.5 has some important changes.
A major change is how MPEG2 decoding is handled. This has a major impact (for the better) concerning Dreamscene content.
Along with the upgrade of VCP, I’ve released version 1.1.2 of the x64 Components. These releases contain important updates. Also note, you need to uninstall your current version for the updates to be realized.
developer, Shark007
Thanks for the update! I’ll grab those new versions immediately.
x64 Components updated to v1.1.3 on April 2, 2007
This release brings you crisp and clean h264 playback along with
a multitude of improvements and fix’s.
I’ve got Windows Vista and Media Center, and I’ve got VCP 4.3.8. When I watch a video in Media Player, everything is fine. When I play the same video in Media Center, the quality is much poorer. I have run through the setup many times, I’m running it in 720p on a flat screen tv… any ideas?
Vista x64 still uses the x86 version of WMP11!
To switch to x64 WMP:
Run this at a cmd prompt
%windir%\system32\unregmp2.exe /SwapTo:64
Then go here in regedit:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App
Paths\wmplayer.exe
And set the Values as follows:
(Default) – “%ProgramFiles%\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe”
Path – %ProgramFiles%\Windows Media Player
aite…
this is allow the media player in all versions of vista play codecs…
Thank you very much! I’ve been looking everywhere how to make my vista media center work. I’ve tried so many codecs already and tried a lot of guides. I’m so happy to have seen your blog. Thank you. More power to you.
That worked a treat!!! Thank you.
thanks for the virus filled links wanker
Sorry if you got a virus, but I don’t think it was from these links (though I’m not sure, I’m not responsible for the content at the other side of links). I’ve been using these codec packs for quite a while with no virus infection. That said, it’s always a good idea to run downloads by a virus scanner before executing them.
Is there a trick to getting the 360 to link with Vista x64 through media center in the first place? Every time I run the extender connect it freezes my rig after the second check box.
This is wonderful just what I was looking to find for my class room project, I have to say a great blog you have provided.