How To Play Xvid And Avi Files With Vista Media Center
I’ve spent a lot of time this weekend finally setting up Windows Vista Media Center, and I suddenly realised that Vista Media Center won’t play Xvid and Avi files even if Windows Media Player will. If you want to add support for third party codecs including Xvid and Avi files in Vista Media Center then you need to install the Media Control Plugin For Windows Vista Media Center.
This plugin allows Windows Vista Media Center to utilize te FFDShow decoder, which needs to be installed seperately ((FFDShow rev 1108 recommended: download the last version from http://sourceforge.net/projects/ffdshow-tryout)). FFDShow adds support to Vista for MPEG-4 video formats like DivX, Xvid, H.264 and also alllows MP3, AAC, Dolby AC3, and OGG Vorbis audio files to be played back.
The Media Control Plugin for Windows Vista MCE also adds the following additional features:
- Switching embedded audio and subtitles streams while playing a video: works with AVI, OGM, MKV
- Switching between external subtitle files (.SRT, .SUB)
- Switching between FFDShow presets (audio & video)
- Setting and loading bookmarks inside a video with visualization of the pictures of the saved bookmarks
- Real fastforward (and rewind) exactly like in the TV module (with 3 different speeds)
- Switching and setting post-processing filters in FFDShow (video filters only)
- Separate application to assign keyboard/remote control shortcuts to the commands and the MCML pages of the plugin.
- Full remote control support (6 buttons are mapped by default, but this can be changed)
- Default mapping (works in full screen while watching a video, except the blue button that is always caught) :
- Fast forward / rewind buttons
- Blue button : loads the startup page of the plugin
- Red button : switches audio stream
- Green button : switches subtitle stream
- Yellow button : switches subtitle file
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Isn’t Vista’s version much more stable and much more spectacular then 2005’s every was? I absolutely love it!
Yeah it is amazing. I’ve somehow messed up though. I managed to get Vista to play AAC/m4a files, and somehow in my tinkering I’ve screwed this up.
does this mean i can now play xvid files from my xbox 360 which is an MCE?
no, you will need transcode360 or something similar to do that
hmm I can hear the sound but no picture on media player on media center says no codec :/ is it same problem?
yes
[...] Files With Vista Media Center I’ve spent a lot of time this weekend finally setting up Windows Vista Media Center, and I suddenly realised that Vista Media Center won’t play Xvid and Avi files even if [...]
tony williams you look like biggie “it was all a dream i used to read wordup magazine salt and pepper and heavy d up in the limousine”
download this codec and avi’s will play http://www.techsmith.com/download/codecs.asp
Hey, I followed the directions and downloaded ffdshow and media control and that worked great, But when i try to play movies on my xbox 360 on media center when you click on the movie to play it just freezes up. And on my computer it’ll play moves fine on media center.
Any help would be great
Thanks Andy
@Andy
I use what I think is a better way now. Uninstall the stuff above (sorry!) and try the vista codec packs:
I am deaf and would like to view the subtitles/closed captioning. But I don’t understand most of what is posted because I am not an advanced computer user. Does anybody have any simple ways to view the subtitles/closed captioning on these free tv/movie sites? I would appreciate any help!
@cathy
The subtitles have to be added by the person who encoded the original file and that is done manually.
Does Tony’s suggestion work instead, the Vista Codec pack? If I install that, can I then play AVIs via WMC on my Xbox?
If not, then how do I use this method?? I get the plugin working and the ffdshow icons show up in my taskbar. But it says ffdshow is inactive and I get a cannot play file error on my Xbox.
Hi Clayburn - I would actually follow this post which has the best codec guide I’ve seen http://www.onetipaday.com/2008/05/04/guide-to-the-best-windows-codecs/
[...] many many hours of digging I came across a blog entry that told me Vista Media Center didn’t use Media Player to play media like Windows XP Media [...]
[...] How To Play Xvid And Avi Files With Vista Media Center :: One Tip a Day – for those of you using the Vista version of Media Center this is a must have tip and one that I have socked away. [...]
Thank you so much
I can now watch movies on my laptop that I had to on my PDA before…
Thanks…
I downloaded everything but it is still not working. I am trying to run an AVi file. Do I need to enable the program to play AVi files?
i just reinstalled vista on my pc. the only thing i needed to do was to download the ffdshow codec from free-codecs.com (http://preview.tinyurl.com/66ludo) and *poof* all my avi files work flawlessly.
Have tried to no avail. Is there a regedit that can allow VMC to use 3rd party codecs?
@ Dirster: stupid question. Is UAC enabled on your pc? I am wondering do you have to either disable it or to run as administrator to install ffdshow.
Also be aware if you’re running x64 version of Vista you need the x64 version of ffdShow. Files play with Media Player but apparently WMP that comes with x64 Vista is 32-bit by default, although this can be tweaked. WMC needs x64 codecs, and you’re quite literally laughing.