I just went through a series of emails with a reader about this topic:

You need to make sure the dvd files are in a folder named VIDEO_TS, perhaps inside another folder with the movie name. You should also make sure that you don't rename the VOB files to anything else... DVD players tend to only want to play the files in the original name format.

There should be an IFO file in there as well, which lists out the menus for the dvd... you can use an app called IFO Edit to make sure that the menus are there and are correct.

The How-To Geek

Holy Crap! I dont HAVE to make avi's of the DVD's Ive ripped from Blockbuster Online to play directly in MCE 2005! I just pointed MCE to the folder with all the DVDs (iso's wont work, must be a video_ts folder with vob's). That makes life SOOOOOOOOO much easier. THANKS FOR THE POST!

jczarni

Just like Adam, after making this registry edit, I see the menu to view "DVD Library" but none of my ripped DVDs are showing up. It sure would be awesome to access ripped DVDs through the Xbox 360 extender. I'll be watching the comments in case anyone gets it to work.

jinglejammer

I've got all my movies ripped as ISO's on my Vista PC. I've made VLC my default player cos it plays ISO's but when browsing my video folder in Media Center, it still won't see the ISO's. I tried it after the Microsoft hack but that just sees folders that have video_ts folders under them. I'm still trying to find a way to make MC play ISO's....

iniquitor

I should followup with my prior comment by saying that Austin, the reader I referred to, was the one that got it working. He had to recreate the IFO files using IFO Edit before Media Center would pick them up.

The How-To Geek

Hey neat. Thanks for the props.

I also suggest that anyone who is running a home theater / media center PC check out the site [www.thegreenbutton.com] - loads of useful information, though I did find out about the registry hack for DVD Library on AV Science Forum ([avsforum.com]). The former is dedicated to running media center home theater PC's, whereas the latter is an enthusiast site for ALL things home theater, including high end equipment ($20,000 speakers and the like).

jtimberman

Mine is now working GREAT! Thanks!

I did have to do some work first... Mine needed to be organized as such:

[driveletter]:\[WatchedDirectory]\[Movie Name]\VIDEO_TS - For Example:
D:\DVDs\Rocky V\VIDEO_TS - and the VIDEO_TS folder contains all of the original IFOs and VOB files from the DVD.

On my Media Center, the registry hack gave a menu under "TV + Movies" called "dvd library". If I go into that, and Right-Click anywhere in the blue area, I get the options, one of which is to "Add Movies". Then I just browsed to the DVDs folder on my drive (i.e. D:\DVDs\) and hit the check box.

I must admit, I first tried adding my DVDs folder to the Videos library under Pictures + Videos, and that DID NOT WORK. You must do it through the "dvd library" section under "TV + Movies"

Thanks for this GREAT TIP!

jakewill

No one has mentioned this, but the folder for DVD's has to be added differently than other media items (at least in Vista). When in the DVD Library view, right click or press the info button on the remote. Choose add media (or something like that) and add the folder there. For some reason, adding the folder in library setup doesn't work.
Also, I use DVDxml.com to label DVD's. They have files that provide cover views and info for most commercial DVD's. It makes a really nice looking library.

e-gadgetjunkie

************Here is what to do***********

Do the registry hack to have dvd library show up. Rip the dvd's to a folder on your computer in a format like, like C:\movies\hackers. In the movie folder you'll have the video_ts and audio_ts folder. Now go to DVDXML.com and search for your movie. Download the xml file to thr directory of your movie. So now you should have Video_ts, Audio_ts and somefilename.xml in your hackers folder. Now in media center go to dvd library and hit info on the remote (or right click and hit settings) and add your C:\movies folder as a watched folder. Now you should have all your movie covers that you can scroll through.

amartins02

Edit: My computer's Media Center is now working great... I still need to figure out how to get my XBox 360 Media Center Extender to show my "dvd library" option. :(

jakewill

@amartins02: DVDXML.com required registration to get any file. oh well.

mrhammerstein

Hey guys, this will work for MCE2005 and Vista, but the Xbox 360 Media Center Extender does not stream full DVDs. You will need to convert the DVD to WMV or DiVX/Xvid. I have even tried ripping to one vob and renaming it to .MPG (since it's just a MPEG2 stream) and that didn't work.

Here are the supported codecs for streaming to the 360 (and other Windows Media Center Extenders):

Video formats

MPEG-1 with MPEG audio

MPEG-2 with MPEG audio or AC-3 audio

WMV 7, 8, and 9 with WMA Standard or WMA Pro audio

WMV Image 1 and 2 (Photo Story 1, 2, and 3)

Audio formats

Windows Media Audio (WMA) Standard

WMA Pro

WMA Lossless

MP3

This was taken from: [www.microsoft.com]

kooky

I don't have Vista, but for playing back ripped DVDs, I've always used WinDVD together with a little program called DVDStarter. Basically, you put your movie in a particular folder and tell DVDStarter where it is. DVDstarter then creates a virtual drive with the movie in it, boots up WinDVD and plays your movie - no fuss, no muss.

It's kinda old now so not sure if it works with Vista.

da5id_nz

@ mrhammerstein

Just use a fake username

amartins02

@kooky: You can make MPG from VOBs by using the freeware app VOB2MPG found at [www.videohelp.com]

It works great for Xbox360 media center .. i still would love to find a way to play my ripped dvd folders WMC on 360

jonthomasdesigns

I've been ripping my DVDs using handbrake and then watching then through the 360 dashboard. I use media center for everything else. This way, I don't have a fully uncompressed DVD sitting on the HD.

Anyone else noticed some new features lately, like the movies thing actually works now, and the sports thing? Plus all the new internet tv related stuff.

radink360

@jonthomasdesigns:

Like I said, when I'm on Media Center on my 360 the My Movies app allows me to use the "Watch Stream" feature to watch JUST the main movie, and it IS in full DVD quality (I have a picky eye, and have NEVER been satisfied with the BEST conversion quality). When I get directly onto my Vista box, I can "Watch Movie", and that allows me to have access to all the previews, menus, and bonus features, etc.

I am 100% sure this works! It is the only solution I have found so far that allows me to play a DVD without first converting it to some other format for my 360. It gives me cover art, metadata, and lets me watch the stream of the main movie. :) So excited to add more storage and archive off all my DVDs!

jakewill

You sure about that ? Ive used Mymovies and never got it to play on Xbox360 .. it always says something like cannot use with WMC extender .. yes it does work on my PC but not in xbox ..

jonthomasdesigns

Edit: Got it!

... Still a work in progress, BUT -

[www.mymovies.dk] offers a free application that requests a donation, but it creates a "My Movies" icon on your XBox 360 Media Extender Start Menu, right in the "TV + Movies" tile.

You download the My Movies software, then go to the Collection Management app in your Program Files folder. From there, you go to File, then Import, then Folder Content. After that, you just browse to your parent folder where your DVDs are stored (i.e. D:\DVDs\) and hit OK.

The only downsides so far are -
1.) My Movies may incorrectly detect a DVD if it is obscure
2.) My Movies is a 3rd party app, instead of a stock Microsoft update/registry hack
3.) I'm sure it will play your full DVDs on the Vista box the same way the "dvd library" hack will, but on an extender such as the XBOX 360, you can only select "Watch stream", which just plays the main movie by default, NO DVD EXTRAS.

I am currently watching The Polar Express with PERFECT DVD quality!

PROPS JTIMBERMAN!

jakewill

Sorry, to clarify about DVD Shrink - I rip using the Video_TS folders with the .VOB files. I don't use ISOs.

Regarding Xbox360's or other media center extenders - I don't know anything about those, as I don't have any. If I did own an Xbox360, it would be plugged into my 50" TV.

I don't know anything about MyMovies either. I was going to try using that, but it was unstable on my system, and I didn't particularly like it.

jtimberman

I'm glad this was helpful, though I realize my original comment on the other post was not complete, as some people have noticed. Here's the steps I use.

1. My media is stored on D:, movies are D:\Movies. I have Media Center scan the drive for content.

2. I use DVD Shrink to backup the movies to D:. I leave the region encoding unmodified.

3. I use a tool called DVD Library Manager to get disc/movie information from Amazon or IMDB, and for the cover art. This thread on The Green Button has links and information from the author. [thegreenbutton.com]

4. I did the registry change mentioned in this post and linked on my comment on the other post.

5. Watch movies!

Sometimes the DVD information from DVD Library Manager doesn't get stored properly. This doesn't bother me, I don't care about anything other than the cover art.

jtimberman

I was the guy the How-To Geek was talking about. I should mention that when I installed Vista SP1, my movies quit playing in Media Center.

austinrippe

I just got vista last week, been playing with it primarily to use as a server for my 360 as an extender. What I was playing with last night was a prog called VideoReDo, which will take your VIDEO_TS folder and dump it into a MS-DVR file, which will show under your video library. I have MyMovies downloaded, but haven't played with it yet.

The VideoRedo method, I played with just pulling straight off the DVD or using DVDShrink first, the straight pulls look AMAZING for SD-DVD, whatever upconverting the 360 does is great. My biggest goal is the WAF, so I'm trying to be picky as possible. I tried Transcode360 with a DVD ISO, and it was horrible.

-JK-

I know there is a ton of information out there about this and I've been reading through all sorts of sources like Lifehacker, TheGreenButton and others. However, getting my media to play through my Xbox 360 Media Center Extender seems to be a daunting task. So far I've tried Ripping the DVD's to VOB and then converting to mpg. This hasn't worked once out of 5 DVDs.

I ten downloaded Super Converter (or something like that) and converted the existing mpgs into a supposed XBOX compliant Mpeg-2 file, but lost picture and sound quality during the conversion.

I then tried downloading Transcode 360, hoping it would be able to handle my original VOB/mpg files, but the transcode software wouldn't install correctly on Vista. it appears that transcode 360 isn't being supported anymore (at least according to a few things I read on their forums).

So I ask, is there a definitive guide to streaming media to 360 Media Extender? Are any of you folks doing this successfully today? Is it even possible to use media Center Extender for high quality DVD rips?

I guess I could try the dashboard method, but I like the GUI of the MCX. Why bother including it with the Xbox if it doesn't even match the functionality of the dashboard?

Chooch

My Movies 2 is an excellent FREE plug-in for Vista Media Center that tackles this very problem rather gracefully. You run the server and client on the same machine, tell it where your movies are and it imports them and adds covers, and other various info. It's interface in Media Center is great and it has never failed to playback anything I have ripped. Check it out [www.mymovies.dk]

The best thing I have found to rip dvd's besides Nero Recode is Handbrake.

itrooper

I have my DVDs backed up as .avi files on my computer. I can't seem to get them to work on the Xbox 360 Media Center Extender, nor the WMC (Vista). However, i can go to the "Media" tab on my 360 and view the .avi movies from there.

josh1413

It is great. But I have to put the ripped DVD folder into C/Public/Public Videos, then it shows up in Media Center and can be played.
However, I have a library of DVDs on an external drive (actually bigger than my internal hard drive) Does this mean, I have to put the DVD by hand into //Public Videos, each time I want to watch it? Or is there a way to associate the external drive with the windows media center library?
Thanks Gerhard

gfheiche

I have my movies backed up on my computer in .avi files. I can't play the backups through Xbox Media Center (and Windows Media Center), but I can play them on my 360 by going to the Media Tab:
Videos>my computer>video-folder>movie - play video
The same with my pictures and my music. I use TVersity to stream the content, because it works much better/faster than Windows Media Share.

josh1413

@-JK-: If you just pull from the Video_TS folder , what does videoredo do with the menus etc , or are you just ripping main movie ?

jonthomasdesigns

Can anyone recommend a remote control?

iain010100

I experienced this problem and got it working using the method(s) listed in the comments above. I was very disappointed that it didn't enable the "My Videos" portion of Vista Media Center to play back folders containing VIDEO_TS folders/VOB files. "DVD Gallery" is an OK addon feature, but I'd much rather play ripped DVDs through the "My Movies" view; I like being able to browse movies by folder and "DVD Gallery" will not do that.

I suggest everyone who wants the "My Videos" feature fixed leave a comment on the Microsoft Knowledgebase article: [support.microsoft.com]

CarltonBale

I have the Harmony 659 and it works great. It doesn't have a dedicated Media Center button, but you can create on on the custom buttons w/ the LCD screen. It is by far the easiest remote to program too. You can find 659's cheap every so often. they seem to go on sale a lot.

JK - Can you elaborate on what exactly you are doing when you say that you "played with just pulling straight off the DVD or using DVDShrink first"?

Chooch

@iain010100:

I am using the Logitech Harmony remote for XBOX 360 and it works GREAT! I'm sure that any of the Logitech Harmony remotes would work just fine.
LINK
[video-games.pricegrabber.com]

If you are wanting to control your PC, I believe a Harmony remote would work, but you'll need an IR receiver of some sort.. Not sure which is best, though.

jakewill

I also have a Harmony 659 and it's an okay remote. The functions and buttons are not documented well, if at all, so there was a lot of trial and error during set up. I really wish the "media" button could be programmed to be "Green Button", as the movie/music/TV list that can be programmed there is not a feature I care to use.

Even though it is a 'universal' remote, I still use my receiver and TV remotes for some things, primarily menu/setup features that the Harmony couldn't seem to work with.

The remote can be had for very reasonable prices on ebay.

I had bought a Hauppagge TV tuner card that came with an MCE remote, so I got my IR receiver with that. I don't know the brand or model.

jtimberman

I use this Microsoft remote ([www.microsoft.com]). It has a dedicated media center button and is easy to use. It has all the necessary buttons and the primary ones are lighted.

austinrippe

So I did run into some issues with My Movies through the 360, namely choppiness and audio sync on certain DVDs, which I know are good.

To fix the choppiness I increased the number of seconds to buffer in Transcode 360 by opening the Transcode 360 settings, then changing the number of seconds to buffer media to at least 25.

The audio sync issue seems to be a compatibility problem between My Movies and Transcode 360, but I did find the following post from Waynecierkowski on the mymovies.dk forum:

---------------------------------------------
Waynecierkowski wrote:

You mught want to try this fix. I did it back in November and have not had the out of sync issue since.

Brian and To All that may have this issue,

I searched the runtime360 WEB site and even posted a question on their fourm. But during my research I stumbled across this "fix" for Audio Sync problem.
________________________________________________________________

if you don't want subtitles but want to solve audio sync problem, i think you may try this:

1. backup MEncoderTranscoder.cs and move the backup copy to another location

2. open MEncoderTranscoder.cs with Notepad and search for these six lines:

if ((fileExtension == ".vol" || fileExtension == ".iso") && source._subtitle_id<0)
{
videoArgs = String.Format("-ovc copy -ofps {0}", fps);
}
else
{

3. delete above six lines, AND delete the following matching "}" (it's right above "// Source").

4. restart Transcode360.

it works for me, but may or may not work for you. you could give it a try.
-----------------------------------------------------

I will be testing this more later tonight, but just thought I'd share my findings.

jakewill

Well, after extensive troubleshooting and testing throughout the weekend, I have figured out the best method and configuration if you want to watch full-quality DVDs through the XBOX 360 Media Center Extender.

1.)Follow this guide by Andrew Lusk. I'm not sure why I wanted to fight this so bad, but I finally gave in and followed these directions. Worked like a charm!
[www.360mediacenter.com]

2.)On the last step, performing the Quickstream fix through VideoReDo, use .mpg as the file type. Converting to DVR-MS did allow me to successfully fast-forward and rewind, but the quality wasn't up to par and at random intervals I would get blocking and pixelation (Not sure why, though?). Using a large MPG file bypasses Transcode 360 and plays fast at GREAT quality. You can still skip forward and back 1 minute at a time.

3.) Install MyMovies and make sure you go through the Collection management to import DVD info from the web for your specific collection.
[www.mymovies.dk]

In the end, I still do not have full-menu functionality for the DVD, but I am satisfied for now... I'm still keeping the full VIDEO_TS files for now, but I may soon decide I don't need all the features. If you have any questions, feel free to email me. My setup is VERY similar to the one on this site:
[mynetworkproject.blogspot.com]

jakewill

@jakewill:

Thanks for all of the testing and reporting. I've been trying to find a good working solution for ages, and I know how frustrating it can be. I haven't tested your solution yet, but I just wanted to say thanks anyway.

splitmetal

I have a vista pc and have been using dvd shrink to back up movies on my D: drive, but when i go to dvd library in media center and try to add the folder to be watched it says "no folders added, no changes will be made". This is really frustrating! The folder is organized like this D:\Media\DVD\30 days of night\VIDEO_TS, with all the actual vts folders in the last folder. What am i doing wrong?

jcoon182