this is a follow on from my other blog post about HDDVD playback in Windows7, the caveats of the format good or bad have already been mentioned so i wont mull over them again, instead i am going to show all the HDDVD lovers how to play HDDVD films within Media Centre for windows7 , this might even work for Vista with the right codec pack but as i no longer run a Vista test rig i cant be certain
HDDVD playback with Media player and or Media Centre
1. go here scroll down until you see majorgeeks.com , this will take you to the shark 007 w7 codec pack download location, download them and install them ( a massive thanks to shark007 for his work on the codec packs )
2. find a programe that can copy your HDDVD to your hard disk an example would be anydvd hd , basicaly any programe that can copy the disks contents to your hard disk
3. locate the directory where you copied the file to and delete anything that isnt the feature.evo file / files , some have feature.evo feature_divide.evo , it all depends on the main film evo structure , each disk is different , you decide which is the main film part , usually the 2 biggest files
4. merge the 2 files with a DOS prompt batch file , which is easy to do , create a new txt document and type
copy /b (nameof1stfeature).evo+(nameofsecondfeature).evo (filmname).evo and real example from my harry potter film would be copy /b feature.evo+feature_divide.evo mainfilm.evo
once you have the copy command typed into the new txt doc , save it as a .bat file , run the .bat file and this will merge the 2 files into 1 with the output name (mainfilm.evo)
5. ok we now have a single evo file
6.put the file where you keep your movie library in a directory of the file name
7. fire up Media centre , use the Video library to find your chosen film and play the file
7 thoughts on “HDDVD playback possible within W7 media centre easily”
i have tried to “play to” the file to an xbox but it failed lol , well it was worth a try and it also couldnt be played back on an xbox but thats down to the Xbox limitations, however the above works well in media player and media centre
Some nice discoveries Gadget. Have you posted on the Green Button about this? Might be an idea to get a little more exposure.
Personally, I’d love to see an app that uses these discoveries for disc playback since they are so cheap now. Even if menu support was not there I could live with that. Go straight into the main movie and off we go! 🙂
I’ve just checked out the Shark007.net forums and looks like somebody there has recently done a similar thing to you. Shark has responded that his codecs are designed to playback HDDVD and BR files but the disc structure is not supported. I can’t believe I hadn’t noticed this before. I am convinced there is potential here.
Great post gadget! Might be worth considering using something like RipBot264 (awesome program, really great) to convert the EVO into an HD MP4 (you can do this without merging the files as Ripbot does this for you). Saves space and I have to say looks awesome. I’m currently converting all my HDDVD’s into 720p MP4 files (my TV is only 720p – Ripbot will easily convert to 1080p as well). Can take a while, but you can then play on the Xbox, add to iTunes and easily then convert for an iPhone (& WinMo / Zune I guess). Codecs not so important then either as the native ones work fine.
glad its helping out guys 🙂 , its an early effort on HDDVD playback but it does work and work well , as time goes by i`m sure other ways will become available , and it is a shame we cant playback HDDVD`s on the fly direct from the drive but thats more a player problem than codec problem , all i wanted to achieve was HDDVD playback in W7 and most importantly, to me at least keep it simple and quick , i hate having to encode things , its to time consuming and more often than not problematic , all i have done is bring some bits and pieces together that work … if anyone should be congratulated it should be Shark007, his work on the codec packs is outstanding and makes this possible where it wasent before
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i have tried to “play to” the file to an xbox but it failed lol , well it was worth a try and it also couldnt be played back on an xbox but thats down to the Xbox limitations, however the above works well in media player and media centre
Some nice discoveries Gadget. Have you posted on the Green Button about this? Might be an idea to get a little more exposure.
Personally, I’d love to see an app that uses these discoveries for disc playback since they are so cheap now. Even if menu support was not there I could live with that. Go straight into the main movie and off we go! 🙂
I’ve just checked out the Shark007.net forums and looks like somebody there has recently done a similar thing to you. Shark has responded that his codecs are designed to playback HDDVD and BR files but the disc structure is not supported. I can’t believe I hadn’t noticed this before. I am convinced there is potential here.
Great post gadget! Might be worth considering using something like RipBot264 (awesome program, really great) to convert the EVO into an HD MP4 (you can do this without merging the files as Ripbot does this for you). Saves space and I have to say looks awesome. I’m currently converting all my HDDVD’s into 720p MP4 files (my TV is only 720p – Ripbot will easily convert to 1080p as well). Can take a while, but you can then play on the Xbox, add to iTunes and easily then convert for an iPhone (& WinMo / Zune I guess). Codecs not so important then either as the native ones work fine.
I was able to play batman begins in WMP but not MCE. I noticed the audio and video was out of sync after a while as well. I’ll try RipBot264.
thanks
glad its helping out guys 🙂 , its an early effort on HDDVD playback but it does work and work well , as time goes by i`m sure other ways will become available , and it is a shame we cant playback HDDVD`s on the fly direct from the drive but thats more a player problem than codec problem , all i wanted to achieve was HDDVD playback in W7 and most importantly, to me at least keep it simple and quick , i hate having to encode things , its to time consuming and more often than not problematic , all i have done is bring some bits and pieces together that work … if anyone should be congratulated it should be Shark007, his work on the codec packs is outstanding and makes this possible where it wasent before
@ Dangelus …that was me .i was up til gone 4am trying to unravel how to do it , the next day when my brain regrouped it became odvious lol