andrew:

Thanks for the awesome tip - I had just assumed that playing ripped dvd's was not possible as I have not used MCE2005 so this was a great surprise.

ipguy:

the regedit doesn't seem to work for me !

annie:

Now try and get xbox 360 media centre to read a dvd from a computer.
It won't do it. It wil read some video files but not a ripped dvd

Anonymous1:

Is this lawful?

magavara:

Who is asking about lawful? If I purchase a DVD then I own it and nobody should have the right to tell me on what kind of machine I play it in my home.
This is also the reason why I downloaded region hacks for all of my computers and DVD players. I frequently travel around the world and purchase DVDs from 4 different regions. If the player manufacturers had their way I would have to buy always carry 4 different laptops with me to play all those movies.
Putting restrictions on my private equipment and telling me how I am allowed to use it after I paid for it is immoral.

Taye:

You saved my life... Thanks!

Netaddict:

Hi - I followed instruction to add the DVDs folder after the reg key update, but Vista media center doesn't recognized any movies in the folder so it doesn't pull anything back after the 'scanning for content'. Any idea?

bran:

Hey netaddict!

Any luck getting it to work? I've experienced the same thing: reg key updated, DVD library shows up, but after adding the folder to watch scanning comes up empty...

Bran

bob:

I have the same problem with my library. I follow the steps from changing the registry up to adding the new 'watched' folder with all my ripped dvd files (VOB files, not converted or compressed). The option in media center changes from 'Play DVD' to 'DVD Library' as described. However the DVD Library only displays my root folder and when i open this, only one of my DVD's is there? Help anyone? its driving me nuts

Chris Green:

I have managed to get the media centre to recognise the files they have to be straight ts copyies i think as it will not see for some reason my vob files. However i have purchased the plug in that offers the best dvd playback for dvd's directly from the Windows site as the dollar was so strong, i thnk is was the roxio one anyway Windows Vista MCE will still not play my dvd's that i have just copied across could this be because they are copy protected or do i still need to use something like dvd shrink and not compress them?

Chris

NERDZILLA @dodgeit.com:

Thanks for the guide!

You don't need to compress anything, however some DVDs are encrypted so you can't just copy them onto your C:\. I use a program called DVD Decrypter to remove any regions or encryptions, and it puts an exact image on your hard drive (not in .iso, just in normal folders). Then, I followed the guide and it works perfectly. If I want to burn [strictly for backup purposes] ;) , then I use Nero to burn the E:\VIDEO_TS folder onto a Double Layer disc. (These discs are expensive, around $2 a disc). Using DL means no compression, and no quality loss.

**Make sure you follow registry settings to the dot!**

Eric:

is there a way to make media center play the movie using another dvd player like theater tek or powere dvd?

Dan-Håkan:

Great tip, but it only works for hard drives. Can't get USB connected HD to work. Anyone?

Fred:

I made the registry key modification and it works great.

I rip the DVD's with NERO Recode to a hard disk folder on my portable drive. Legal? Not sure. I watch them at night on my 2nd job then delete when Im done.

My external drive is a 120 gig USB 2.0.

daytona235:

The trick to this is that it will only check 3 folders deep. Root\folder1\folder2 thats it anything below that it wont find.

motleykid625:

I've tried to play a DVD folder on an external Hard Drive, but when I play it with Media Center, it shows a message that it can't play the DVD. Any solutions?

Paul:

I had exactly the same problem until a few minutes ago. I used subst to map my movies folder on my external drive to a drive.

Open cmd and enter:

subst m: "e:\my movies"

Where m: is the drive you want to access the folder through and "e:\my movies" is the folder on the external drive. The setting will be restored when windows starts, as long as the drive is connected.

Now just remove the watched folder on the external drive and add those on the mapped drive m:

Skypilot (New user):

I find this setting does not restore on a reboot in vista MC

Skypilot (New user):

As I said above the settings do not restore in WinVista upon a reboot - any ideas on how to run the subst command upon a reboot?

Skypilot (New user):

I find this setting does not restore on a reboot in vista MC

Skypilot (New user):

Yes this does work well except for me on WinVista the setting is not restored upon a reboot. Any Ideas of how to run the SUBST command upon boot? Autoexec.bat does not seem to work for WinVista so how else can I run it at boot?

buzz:

Dude, you more than rock! Thanks for helping fix this huge hurdle! As for lawful? Yeah, try looking up the 'Fair use' clause in the U.S. Copyright regs. As long as you've bought the DVD (not borrowed, or rented to 'time-shift' your Netflix or Blockbuster subscription) you're entitled to view it in any way you see fit.
Big thanks again!

Sean:

Awesome tip works great for me. Anyone know how to get this to work on MediaDirect for Dells equipped with this?

caballosweb:

Since Vista’s release, I’ve had mixed success in getting Vista Media Center working the way I want it to. Driver problems, codec compatibility…it’s not been the easiest road. And considering that XP MCE 2005 is such a stable and mature product, it was generally much easier just to stick with that.

However, the situation has improved and Vista MCE is looking much more healthy. However, there’s one feature which was annoyingly absent. In XP MCE 2005, if you set up a videos folder which contained ripped DVD files, it would happily play them back as if they were the original DVD.

I don’t mean DVDs ripped using an MPEG encoder, but rather if you copy the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folders off the DVD and put them in a root folder, when you selected that folder via the MCE interface, it would simply recognise it as a DVD.

By default, Vista MCE doesn’t do this. When you select the root folder it opens up the DVD subfolders, but doesn’t detect any files within them. There’s an easy way to fix this by modifying a section of the registry, which will alter how Vista handles DVDs.

Open Registry Editor (Start, Run, REGEDIT) and navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Settings\DvdSettings

Double-click the key ShowGallery and change the value from “Play” to “Gallery”.

Click OK and exit the Editor. If you’ve got Media Center open, you’ll need to shut it down and re-launch it. Now, under “TV + Movies”, the “Play DVD” option is now “DVD Library”. DVDs will still play as normal though – just insert the disc and the movie will auto-load.

Select this option. Apart from a couple of trailers there won’t be any content. Right-click or hit the “i” (More) button on the MCE remote, and select “Add Movies” and then “Add folders on this computer” (or whichever option is appropriate).

Click “Add folder to watch” and navigate to the folder which contains the local DVD files. The best structure to have is a top-level root folder, and then subfolder for each DVD title. Put a tick next to the top-level folder, and then click Next.

Vista will automatically scan and recognise the contents of the folder and populate the DVD Library. Select any title, and it will play it as if it was a standard DVD.

As with DVD file playback on XP MCE 2005, each DVD title found doesn’t have a visual representation.

To enable this, simply do a quick Google Image search for the title, find an appropriate DVD cover and save it to the subfolder containing the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folders – make sure you save the image as “Folder.jpg”. Go back into the DVD Library and the DVDs will have the appropriate image assigned to them.

If all of this seems like too much hard work, try installing My Movies. It achieves the same results as the process I’ve outlined above, but has a very useful Collection Management program which helps keep all your DVDs in order, and grabs all the relevant movie information, including cover art, from an online resource. Best of all, it’s free!




______________________

Submited by :

Caballos

thecleaner:

I changed the value from play to gallery, exited, restarted media center, but the play dvd did not change. I keep going back to the regedit, and it shows play again. Am I missing a step? Thank you.

thecleaner:

Got it! The capital "G" in "Gallery" is crucial. Never stop learning. Thanks for the information guys. This is what it is all about!

BigPoppa:

How do you get the menu to show up on a Media Extender like the 360????

Jay:

Excelent tip...thank you for sharing your knowledge and insight.

Jay

sandra:

Thank you sooo much, I just assumed I would have to get Power DVD to watch my ripped movies, and I was bummed cause I wouldn't be able to use my remote. I have an external drive, and it worked no problem. Thanks for a great tip!

bhcky79:

It works great thanks

gaye (New user):

It doesn't work for me, although vista can see my video folder, I cannot choose the correct folder and Vista does not play it. What would be the problem then?

Skypilot (New user):

Can Media Centre "See" the folder? your video files cannot be more than 3 folders deep.
See posting about using SUBST command too.

jerry (New user):

can you get it to show up on a media extender ?

jerry (New user):

can you get it to show up on a media extender ?

jerry (New user):

how do you get it to work for a media extender like linksys dma2100

Skypilot (New user):

Sorry do not know anything about media extenders or linksys

HWL (New user):

...

HWL (New user):

...

HWL (New user):

Thank you very, very much. You R the man.
From Holland with Love

clark1a3 (New user):

thanks did this it works a treat i tried everything before this and it did not work thanks again

clark1a3 (New user):

thanks for the tip worked a treat had tried all sorts before this non worked just about to give up menny thanks

Skypilot (New user):

I have found that the above works well but to be able to play DVDs in VISTA Media Centre you have to have UAC (user account Control) on otherwise it will say that it cannot play the DVD.

Skypilot (New user):

I have found the above works well but to be able to play DVDs in VISTA MC you will need to have UAC (user account control) enabled otherwise you can see the DVDs and select them but you will be unable to play them.

Petedadogg (New user):

Damn! Nice. Thanks for he tip. I was using Nero Showtime for ages because of the lack of dvd folder facilities in Windows Media. You legend. Works a treat.

kbobes (New user):

This was a great tip! One question. I'm trying to compress my DVD's so they don't take up so much room, is there anyway to get WMC to recognize the compressed DVDs? I'm using handbrake to compress them. Thanks!

Steen (New user):

This seems like the perfect solution for me. I followed the guidelines, including capital G in Gallery, but in Media Center it still says Play movie and not DVD libary. What should I do? I am getting desperate.
Can it have anything to do with me, being a Dane, running the media center in Danish (together with all other programmes)?

Skypilot (New user):

See my post above, 02 January 2009.

Try turning off/on the UAC - it has been a while since I fiddled with this.

Another solution is to go to WIN7 - it is excellent and plays ripped DVD without fiddling.

Here is an excellent MediaCentre site.
http://www.xpmediacentre.com.au/community/

stevieboy (New user):

A bit behind the times but finally got around to doing this and this has been the most useful tip I've found to acheive this that actually works - Thank you. The bit everyone else neglects to mention is the "adding folders" bit which I was trying to do through the settings menu option and wasn't getting anywhere.
Thanks again, worked perfectly.

Sam44 (New user):

I dont have a show gallery key. does anybody know why?

Sam44 (New user):

why dont i have a show gallery key. does anybody know why?