Is it safe to use hacks for windows media center?

[yoda313]

I know there was a post the other day about a hack for windows media center to play dvd vob files without conversions.

Are these types of hacks safe for your computer? How easy is it to undo these modifications?

Also - are there any divx hacks for media center?

FYI I use Media Center in Vista Premium.

[rallynavvie]

Why do you need "hacks" to play VOB or DivX-encoded content?

[yoda313]

Because media center only supports dvr-ms files natively.

[redwudz]

The main 'hack' I used was to re-direct it to a 'video library' that shows the contents of my video servers. It plays Xvids with no problems. Or actually WMP does through Media Center. [s:9b89ba61c0]This requires a registry change, which is never 100% safe, but it's easy enough to back up your registry before making the modification. If problems occur, just load the saved copy. [/s:9b89ba61c0]

EDIT: The 'hack' is for DVDs from a hard drive. Xvids just need the proper codec installed in WMP.

[yoda313]

Thanks for the reasurrance redwudz.

Care to share some trusted links for these tips?

[rallynavvie]

I can play any videos that would normally play through WMP through Media Center and I've been using it for years. DVR-MS is just the format it saves to so that it can store its extra meta-data (like program information and stuff) with the video. You just need to have codecs that work with WMP.

The only difference I'm seeing is that the 64-bit version of Media Center doesn't play well with 32-bit codecs and takes some tweaking. Also my tuner apparently doesn't like it when more than 4GB of memory is installed. Who knew?

I don't like the way MC "watches" folders for the video playback so I'm curious about this registry tweak of yours. It takes several seconds every time I try to access those folders from within Media Center. With MCE 2005 they loaded right up as soon as you went to the videos section.

[redwudz]

Sorry, that 'registry tweak' was to play DVDs from the hard drive with Media Center.

But if anyone needs that: https://forum.videohelp.com/topic347529.html#1823420

For Xvids or other formats that WMP can play, I just go to Media Center under 'Pictures + Videos>Video library', R click on the library and 'Add a folder to watch'. I have it watch a video folder on my video server computer over the LAN. WMP on my system won't play H.264, but most other formats work. But I more often use VLC or Zoom for playback, not Media Center.