it sounds like Media Center stays open in the background. This might not work because it creates another issue. Media Center demands exclusive audio mode. By using an external player while WMC is open, will block/stop bitstreaming. This will break all HDMI HD audio formats (this is bigger issue than the subtitles)... If I disable Exclusive mode for audio, WMC will not do any bitstreaming.jachin99 wrote:From his site on the web archive...
Open With is a simple helper add-in for Windows 7 Media Center for playing video files in an external player via the native interface. It works by configuring a default external player. The player will be launched for any configured extension in addition to any video file that has soft subtitle files (srt or idx\sub) present in the same folder as the video file. You may also setup a different player per file extension.
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Mikinho\OpenWith\Video]
"FileName"="D:\Program Files\MPC HomeCinema (x64)\mpc-hc64.exe"
"Arguments"="\"{0}\" /fullscreen /play /close"
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Mikinho\OpenWith\Video\.mov]
"FileName"="D:\Program Files\MPC HomeCinema (x64)\mpc-hc64.exe"
"Arguments"="\"{0}\" /fullscreen /play /close"
Why?
I basically wrote this add-in to increase my WAF. Soft subtitles do not work natively (yet) in MC7 and most decoders that will add subtitle support do not utilize hardware acceleration. I'm using Open With to fix both these issues while still using the native interface.
I have my default player set to MPC-Hc x64, this enables hardware acceleration on my Ion mini-HTPC. I also have .mov set to use VLC Player as my camera creates unsupported mov files.
Note:
•Hitting the Back will exit the external player and return to Media Center.
•I have only tested on W7 RTM x64
•You may see a the video play in Media Center briefly as the external player is launched
•If there is interest to localize the loading screen please let me know
I havent been able to find a copy of it but it sounds similar to your needs.
I have seen these issues with a Blu-ray software installed, I need to configure the software to completely exit WMC to be able to do bitstreaming.
it sounds like it would work but, of course brings up a larger issue.
Might give it a beta test though to see how it acts...the HD audio thing is HUGE for me.