This WIKI is for setting up Vader's Transcoder Version 2.2 which was the original free version. If you are using a newer purchased version of "DVD Transcoder" then this WIKI is not for you.
UPDATE2: The original version 2.2 of Vader's transcoder does not work with Windows 7. It does work well with Vista however.
UPDATE: Vader504 has released a newer improved version of his transcoder with an installer called "DVD Transcoder" here. However it is $40 to cover his development costs! Please visit his site and donate for the newer version if you find his transcoder useful, I suggest you tryout the free demo of "DVD Transcoder".
Or alternatively you can still follow the below WIKI and use the original free version, Thank you.
Disclaimer: Try this hack at your own risk, it does work 100% for me and others who have given me positive feedback. Create a system restore point before you continue.
I recently setup a new Media Center PC and I enabled the DVD Library hack and installed Vader’s transcoder, this enabled me to see the DVD Library on an XBOX 360 and a Linksys DMA 2200 extender and to be able to play the ripped DVD movies (VOB's) on the extenders.
The DVD VOB's were stored locally on the Media Center PC and not on a NAS or WHS, however it should be possible to set this up with your media content stored on the network as apposed to on the local Media Center PC.
The original DVD Library on extenders hack requires the creation of symbolic links and playlists for each movie and at the time that hack was first released it seemed like a lot of hassle and effort to get it working and at the time I was quite happy with My Movies and Transcode 360 on my extenders.
However since then Vader’s transcoder has been released and this handles all that for you so you don't have to create the symbolic links and playlists and it makes for a much easier and simple setup.
The original guide for the DVD Library hack on extenders can be seen here.
The original transcoder was version 0.7
In this guide I will not be using the above links. Instead we will follow Vader's method.
No symbolic links and Playlists required for each and every single movie!
Introduction:
This version of transcoder.dll enables streaming of ripped DVDs, and discs in DVD drives (including changers) to Media Center Extenders. Ripped discs must be stored in folders with a VIDEO_TS subfolder containing the movie (.vob) files. No other formats are supported.
Installation:
1. Download the original free version of Vader’s transcoder from here At the time of writing this was version 2.2.
(Note: Alternatively Vader's newer "DVD Transcoder" can be purchased here)
Extract the zip file to a temporary working directory you can get back to later on.
The contents of the zip file are:
- TranscoderControlPanel.exe
- Transcoder.reg
- Transcoder.dll
- readme.txt
2. Download MPlayer (Windows) from here. Run the zip file and unzip to C:\Program Files.
The folder under program files should be called MPlayer-1.0rc2
The contents of this newly created folder can be seen in the screen shot below.
3. Download DirectShowNet V2.0 from here and copy DirectShowLib-2005.dll to the
C:\Windows\eHome folder
4. Copy transcoder.dll you extracted to your working directory earlier in step 1 to the
C:\Windows\eHome folder
5. Run Transcoder.reg from your working directory. (You might want to Run-As Administrator to be on the safe side).
6. Turn User Account Control off in Control Panel/User Accounts (required for streaming physical drives, if you only have ripped DVDs you can leave it on).
7. Restart Media Center and your extenders. You should now see the DVD Library item on the start menu of your Media Center PC and extenders. Select it and you should see all of the physical discs on your PC, either in local DVD drives or Media Center compatible firewire changers.
To see ripped discs, you must use the Add Movies option on the Info menu to add the folders where your ripped disc folders are located. Select a disc and then play to start a movie.
On the PC this will normally take you to the title menu. On the extenders the main title will begin to play after a brief delay. Note that DVD menus are not supported on the extenders.
If your DVD library is not working at this point, you may need to adjust the setting in the Transcoder Control Panel. (Check the settings in the Transcoder Control Panel)
Using the Transcoder Control Panel:
Copy TranscoderControlPanel.exe from your temporary working directory in step 1 to a directory location where you can re-launch the TranscoderControlPanel.exe when you need to.
The below is taken from the readme.txt file and I have added in some information as well.
Encoder Exe path: Transcoder.dll uses mencoder.exe to remux the DVD into an mpeg file. By default, transcoder.dll will look for mencoder.exe in the default installation path C:\Program Files\MPlayer-1.0rc2\mencoder.exe. If you install it to another location you will have to store the path here.
Encoder Arguments: This is for advanced users only. If you'd like to try different settings for Mencoder, or even replace Mencoder with your own favourite tool, you can now do it by editing the "Arguments" string here.
* I'm adding more information in here: JesperH on The Green Button supplied me with these two strings for use with Mencoder one is for PAL which is the one I used and the other for NTSC. These strings set the size of the video correctly, so you don't have to mess about with the Zoom options on your remote each time you play a movie, also you will note that I have highlighted -slang en in bold below.
If you want subtitles to appear then leave -slang in the string, en = English. I don't have a list of other codes for other languages but if you know your languages subtitle code then change en to what ever your code is.
If you don't want any subtitles to appear then simply remove -slang en from the string.
PAL:
-dvd-device "{0}" dvd://{2} -alang en -slang en -oac copy -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg2video:vrc_buf_size=1835:vrc_maxrate=9800:vbitrate=4900:keyint=15:vstrict=0:aspect=16/9 -vf scale=720:576,harddup -of mpeg -mpegopts format=dvd:tsaf -ofps 25 -o "{1}" -quiet
NTSC:
-dvd-device "{0}" dvd://{2} -alang en -slang en -oac copy -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg2video:vrc_buf_size=1835:vrc_maxrate=9800:vbitrate=5000:keyint=18:vstrict=0:aspect=16/9 -vf scale=720:480,harddup -of mpeg -mpegopts format=dvd:tsaf -ofps 30000/1001 -o "{1}" -quiet
This is the original mencoder string that Vader provides:
-dvd-device "{0}" dvd://{2} -alang en -ovc copy -oac copy -of mpeg -mpegopts format=dvd:tsaf -vf harddup -o "{1}" -quiet
Cache Path: As a side effect of the transcoding process, the transcoder generates temporary mpeg files in this folder. You may delete these at any time, however the transcoder will use them if they are there to avoid retranscoding the same file. If you would like to change the location of the cache, store the new folder path here. I suggest moving this to a public folder if you have more then one extender, as this will allow viewing the cached file on different extenders without having to re-transcode the file. Don't forget to grant full access to Everyone to this folder (or at least every extender user).
* I took the recommendation and created my Cache Path under the public folder and called it:
C:\Users\Public\Vader's Transcoder
Cache Size: This setting determines the maximum number of cached mpegs that the transcoder will keep. It will throw away the oldest files first.
Delay: This setting controls the delay (in milliseconds) between when transcoding begins, and when playback starts. You may have to increase this on slower machines so that playback doesn't catch up with the transcoder.
Save: Saves any changes that you've made. If you don't do this before trying to close the application you will be reminded that you have unsaved changes.
* Copying Metadata for MCX(s) users: (This is additional information that is not in the readme)
The metadata for the movies that the My Movies Collecton Manager program (Or other similar movie management programs) downloads from the internet is not visible in the DVD Library on the extenders, what does this mean? It means you will not see the movies synopsis information on the extender(s). You will only see the movies cover art and the file path.
However there are a few possible work arounds to this by essensially copying some XML files from your main users profile on the Media Center PC to the extender(s) user profile(s).
You could copy the files manually, you could create a cmd file to schedule the copying process, which I will not cover here in this Wiki. Or my recommendation is to create a symbolic link. With the symbolic link you set up the link(s) and that's it, nothing further is required, like additional copying of the XML files when you add new movies. With the symoblic link(s) you create it and then forget about it, job done!
Below I describe manually copying the files or creating a symbolic link(s), do one or the other not both! Like I said if I was you, I would create the symbolic link(s).
Manually Copy required files:
On the Media Center PC open Windows Explorer and navigate the C: drive and open this folder:
C:\Users\Username\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\eHome\DvdInfoCache
Where Username is the name of your main user account on your Media Center PC.
In this folder you will see a bunch of XML files. These files contain your movies metadata.
You need to copy all of these files to the Media Center Extender(s) user profile(s). If you have one extender then you will only see a user folder called MCX1 under C:\Users
If you have more than one extender up to a possible total or 5, then you will also see listed folders called MCX2, MCX3, MCX4, MCX5 etc.
Browse to this folder:
C:\Users\Mcx1\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\eHome\DvdInfoCache and paste in the XML files you just copied from the previous step. Repeat this process for any other additional MCX(Number) folders you may have.
If you then open Media Center on your extender(s) you will now see the movie synopsis metadata is now showing. Of course if you add any new movies in to your collection and you don't copy the additional newly created XML files to the extender(s) user profile(s) then those new movies will not have the synopsis information present.
Automated:- Create a symbolic link(s)
* Make sure all your extender sessions are disconnected before doing this.
Open a command prompt right click the command prompt shortcut icon from the start menu and select Run-As Administrator. Type the following commands one by one and hit return on your keyboard after each one.
Type: CD\
Type: CD C:\Users\MCX1\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\eHome\
Type: RMDIR /S DvdInfoCache
Type: Y
Type: mklink /D DvdInfoCache C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\eHome \DvdInfoCache\
Where <user> is the name of your main user account on your Media Center PC that you use to manage your DVD Library metadata. You should see a symbolic link created message.
If you only have one extender then Type: Exit
If you have more than one extender, you need to repeat all the steps above for the other MCX(Number) folders that you can see under C:\Users
That's it open the DVD Library on your extender and you should have the movie synopsis information now showing.
Troubleshooting:
The below is also taken from the readme.txt file.
If you are having problems, your first stop should be the transcoder.log file, in the transcoder cache folder. If this file exists, then you can assume that you have correctly installed the dll and your DVD library should be showing up on the Media Center menu. The log will show the commands that the transcoder is trying execute. You can open a command prompt and try the same commands. If they work correctly then you probably have some problems with folder permissions for extender user accounts; see below. If you can't find this file, then the transcoder is mostly likely crashing while it is being loaded. In this case you may find a file named ehshell.crash in the Windows\ehome folder that will help diagnose the problem. Finally, look through the event logs (Control Panel/Administrative Tools) for clues.
The most common source of errors is improper permissions on shared resources, like the ripped DVD folder, or the transcoder cache folder. These will show up as "Access denied" errors in the logs. The easiest way I know of to solve these problems is to share these folders with the sharing wizard (right-click on folder then Share...). Add yourself as the owner, and Everyone as a co-owner. Another option would be to turn on public folder sharing and create them in the public folder.
Another common source of errors is the location of the mencoder.exe program. Make sure the path in the Transcoder Control panel is set correctly. The easiest way to ensure this is to use the change button to navigate to the file.
Finally, if you are trying to share physical drives, you must turn UAC off or the extender will crash when you try to play a DVD. Unfortunately this appears to be a bug in Media Center itself, not transcoder.dll so there isn't anything I can do about it.
Conclusion:
I have set this up twice now on two different machines both Vista Ultimate 32bit (Non TV Pack) and it seems to work pretty well. I much prefer Vader’s Transcoder as it cuts out all the hassle of messing with symbolic links and playlists as required in the original DVD Library on extenders hack.
Vader’s transcoder remuxes the VOB files in to MPEG so it is lighter on system resources compared to Transcode 360 which transcodes on the fly to WMV format. That can hit your CPU usage.
Keep an eye out on Vader's download page as I believe he is releasing an updated version of his transcoder at some point.
I would recommend using the My Movies Collection Manager (back-end) to mange your DVD collection and to download the XML files for the metadata for the movies. You can setup Collection Manager so it automatically downloads the metadata for all your movies which is a massive time saver over doing it manually say on dvdxml.com
Check out the other user guide for getting Transcode 360 working with My Movies here. I have setup Transcode 360 with My Movies also a few times now and that guide is excellent and works 100%.
I can also confirm it is possible to setup both the DVD Library hack with Vader’s Transcoder and Transcode 360 with My Movies on the same Media Center machine and both will exist together and not conflict with each other. You normally probably wouldn't want to setup both however, you would just use either the native DVD Library or My Movies depending on your preference. But I set both up on a Media Center Demo machine and it worked well.
Update:
Playing two movies at the same time on two different extenders:
I have a contact who I setup both of these transcoders for on his Media Center PC.
He says with My Movies and Transcode 360 he is able to watch two different DVD's on two different extenders at the same time. He's using a Linksys DMA2200 and an XBOX 360.
On another test he was not able to watch the same movie at the same time however on the two extenders. His PC has a mid range Core Duo processor and he said his CPU was running about 60%
He has also confirmed using the native DVD Library and Vaders transcoder he was also able to watch two different DVD's on two different extenders at the same time. However the CPU usage was very high 98-100% so I guess you couldn't go on to watch a third movie on another extender!