Transcode ripped DVDs to WMC extender

[WMCEnthusiast]

Hello folks!

Last Christmas, after 3 painful years of struggle, I finally fulfilled my dream of having a WMC7 HTPC. I've been trying to get the best out of it ever since, and still need to learn a lot about its capabilities. Most plugins I would like to try have been discontinued, probably due to Microsoft abandoning WMC altogether in 2013. Well, what can I say? I was still happily using VHS during the Blu-ray/HD-DVD war. When I finally settled on DVD and built a collection, HD video was the latest thing. Now that I enjoy my DVDs with WMC, 4K and streaming are what it's all about. Seems by the time I manage to get a grip on a format, companies have already switched to something else. Least it fits my old-fashioned personality.

The vast majority of my movie collection is stored as full DVD replicas, and after buying two Linksys DMA2100 off of ebay (released in 2008 and discontinued as early as 2009), I learned that extenders are incapable of playing back these formats. This came to me as a surprise, since Windows 7 Media Center can natively handle VIDEO_TS. I'm now wondering whether there are any options for on-the-fly DVD transcoding for WMC7. I tried Transcode360, but the only available version ([1.]4.1 Vista BETA) makes the computer freeze upon reboot (had to uninstall in safe mode to make it boot again).

[newfiend]

Hello,
See this page here for supported Video File types that work on extenders: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... =windows-7
My suggestion since you are using a DMA2100 would be to re-encode the DVD rips to a format supported by both WMC and your extenders.
If you want the best over all compatibility for both WMC and Extenders you would probably want to encode to a .wtv file. With this format you would have full FF and REW capability on both WMC and Extenders.
All other file types will NOT support FF and REW on extenders.

The only problem with doing this is it is a Microsoft container and not universally supported on other platforms like say .mp4 or .mkv etc..

If you don't mind not having FF and REW capability then I would suggest maybe encoding to .m2ts or .mp4. or .mkv. If your movie files have DTS audio you will have to convert that to a Dolby Digital (AC3) track.
A good (free) program for re-encoding that I found was handbrake available here: https://handbrake.fr/
You can get other containers to work like .mkv with some trickery.. but it becomes a complicated and often frustrating experience IMO when using these containers on extenders.
So options are.. .WTV for full REW and FF capability, .m2ts, .mp4. .mkv is an option as well but you would have better luck getting the other containers to work on extenders IMO.
HTH,
newfiend~

[WMCEnthusiast]

I use the Shark007 ADVANCED Codecs which does offer the ability to expose (NOT transcode) the raw H.264 stream inside a MKV container to be played back on extenders. I only tried it once yet and the result was a totally squeezed together image (wider than Cinerama) as well as unbearable macroblocking on a 720p TV capture. I wonder that it played at all because I read that MKV containers with internal subtitles are not supported whatsoever. Curiously, I just managed to play back VIDEO_TS folders on the Linksys by aid of Mikinho Extender DVD Transcode (main movie only) and the results were as bad as with the MKV (macroblocking on par with pre-2000 DivX rips), however the image appeared only half as squeezed (both movies 1.85 OAR). It would even start to play DVD ISO files (just as pixelated and in 16x9 Letterbox), but only the warnings (after the main menu would flash for a short moment).

All this behavior is very strange and I can't explain it. If someone can, and/or come up with a proper solution, I'd sure appreciate it. I thank you for your recommendations and will keep them in mind, even though I doubt that I will bother to re-encode a DVD each time I'd like to watch it on the extender.

[newfiend]

A lot of problems with .mkv is the bitrate the .mkv is encoded at. See this thread here for more information. http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... f=8&t=5675
also more info here http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... f=8&t=4744
It pretty much echo's my rambling above but will explain why some .mkv's play fine and others do not.
newfiend~

[blueiedgod]

I encode everything in XVID. It works in WMC, Linksys extenders, and XBOX360 extenders with FF/RR

[Haba]

Plex is the most popular software to address your needs.