Windows 7 64bit vs 32bit

[shabba007]

Hi all,

I have a Windows 7 MCE 64 bit and films appear to play better outside of MCE using the 32bit media player. Is it possbile to get MCE to use the 32 bit player rather than the 64bit ?

Want to try and avoid re-installing 32 bit windows.

thanks,

[Tester]

I could be wrong, but I believe that MCE uses its own internal playback. You do not even need to have Media Player installed on your system for MCE to play videos.

However, I am not sure if there is a 64bit version of MCE, I never checked since I still use x32 ( due to all the programs I have installed).

Tester

[mark1234]

Media Centre relies on Media Player for all its non-TV playback. You might be able to remove the WMP front end, but it's still WMP doing the work behind the scenes.

In 64bit Windows you only have a 64bit version of Media Centre, and it will use the 64bit version of WMP. By default when you start WMP in 64bit Windows, you get the 32bit version of WMP, but Media Centre will be using the 64bit version.

[Tester]

Hey Mark, I am curious. Your response makes sense, but why is that some videos do not play the same on WMP than on MCE.
This is clearly documented in alot of forums to always finally check your videos on MCE since they may not play exactly as WMP.

Thanks
Tester

[mark1234]

What differences are you seeing? I haven't noticed any differences, but then I don't use WMP and WMC on the same PC. I only use WMC on a dedicated PC, it's WMP on all the other machines in the house.

Have you installed any codecs? If you're using 32bit Windows then the same codecs should be used by both WMC and WMP.

[richard1980]

On Windows 7 x64, WMC is 64-bit and the WMP you get in the start menu is 32-bit, so 2 different sets of codecs are used. There is a 64-bit version of WMP, but you have to manually go find it in W7 x64 (it's in the "Program Files" directory, whereas the WMP that is linked in the start menu is in "Program Files (x86)".