MPC HC (known as Media Player Classic – Home Cinema) is a free and versatile audio and video player for Windows. One of the great features of MPC HC is that the audio and video codecs are built-in. What this means is that you don’t have to mess around with dreaded codecs or filters on your PC to play back video, simply install MPC HC and you are ready to play virtually any video. It also has native support for DXVA (DirectX Video Acceleration) which is especially critical for low powered CPUs of PCs. I have always used MPC HC to test out my videos before I copy over to my server to make sure everything looks ok. Even though MPC HC sounds like the perfect player I have never really used for playback of my movies on my HTPCs. The reason is because it is not a media center platform like Windows Media Center or XBMC. If you want to play a movie with MPC HC you need to navigate to the movie from Windows Explorer which would bypass WMC or XBMC completely and really take away from the user experience. XBMC, and add ins for WMC such as MyMovies and Media Browser, allow you to launch MPC HC for playback when you select a movie, but it just never felt seamless. Since I operate my HTPCs solely with a universal remote, I felt like I always lost remote functionality when MPC HC was launched, which was very inconvenient and not good for the ever critical WAF. Up to now I have just stuck with using the default WMP player that W7MC uses (which requires additional codecs/hacks to be done for playback of some of my material, I will discuss this further in an upcoming post).
If you read my post from Monday, you saw I mentioned setting up bitstreaming for my HTPC. This has been somewhat buggy with WMP/W7MC, so to get bitstreaming to work properly I needed to use MPC (how I got bitstreaming to work will be in an upcoming post as well, so stay tuned!). However this led to a dilemma. Either I use MPC so I can get the full glory of bitstreaming HD Audio on my HTPC but get a reduced user experience and WAF, or continue to use W7MC/WMP but lose out on HD Audio until all the bugs get worked out. Well, I have found out I can have the best of both worlds! I had tried launching MPC from MediaBrowser but my remote wouldn’t control MPC. It turns out the reason for this is because even though when MPC launches it appears that it is in “front” of WMC, in actuality WMC is still in front, so all my remote signals were going straight to WMC and not MPC. I had posted a question on the Media Browser forum about if anyone had integrated MPC into WMC/Media Browser, and user pheare came to my rescue (a big thanks to pheare who is responsible for much of this guide). Since I now have MPC working seamlessly with WMC/Media Browser I thought I would walk through how to set it up.
Files To Download:
- MPC HC – You can get the official release here. However, I prefer to get the latest build, which can be found here.
- ExternalLauncher Minimizer MC as created by tyborg (file is at the very bottom of the post)
- DirectX End-User Runtime Web Installer – necessary to run the latest MPC HC
- Optional – EventGhost, AutoHotKey, or LM Remote KeyMap
Setup:
1. Download and install MPC HC
NOTE – IF YOU ARE USING MEDIA BROWSER THUNDER BLADE OR GREATER YOU CAN SKIP STEPS 2-3 AND INSTEAD JUMP TO STEP 4A2
2. Download ExternalLauncher Minimizer MC and extract the ExternalLauncher.exe file into your MPC folder (mine is located at c:/Program Files/MPC HomeCinema)
3 .Create a bat file (you can simply use the standard Windows Notepad, my tool of choice is Notepad ++) . Copy and paste the following line into your notepad (you may need to adjust the address depending on where your MPC folder is), and save in your MPC folder (I named the file ExternalLauncher.bat). TIP – some people have experienced issues when copying the lines below directly into Notepad. Someone the “quotes” get handled incorrectly when copied over. If MPC will not launch properly from WMC/Media Browser try deleting the quotes from the bat file and typing in manually.
@echo off
“C:\Program Files\MPC HomeCinema\mpc-hc.exe” %1 /fullscreen /play /close
ExitIF YOU ARE DOING ON AN x64 MACHINE, THIS IS WHAT THE BAT FILE SHOULD LOOK LIKE:
@echo off
“C:\Program Files\MPC HomeCinema (x64)\mpc-hc64.exe” %1 /fullscreen /play /close
ExitIF YOU DECIDE TO USE THE x32 VERSION OF MPC ON AN x64 MACHINE, THIS IS WHAT THE BAT FILE SHOULD LOOK LIKE:
@echo off
“C:\Program Files (x86)\MPC HomeCinema\mpc-hc.exe” %1 /fullscreen /play /close
ExitHere is a screenshot of what my MPC HomeCinema folder looks like:
——————————————-For Media Browser——————————————-
4a1. Go into your Media Browser Configuration Tool, select Advanced, and go to the External Players tab. Click the Add button and select the media type you want to assign a 3rd party player to. Now click the Select Player button and navigation to the ExternalLauncher.exe file. That is it, Media Browser will now launch MPC for any media type you choose (see my screenshot below, I used mkv as my media type)
4A2.Go into your Media Browser Configuration Tool, select Advanced, and go to the External Players tab. Click the Add button and select the media type you want to assign a 3rd party player to. Now click the Select Player button and navigation to MPC-HC.exe file. Now to get MPC-HC to launch in fullscreen click on the “Change Parameters” button and enter the following parameters:
“{0}” /fullscreen /play /close
NOTE – FOR SOME REASON COPYING AND PASTING FROM THIS BLOG, THE QUOTES GET MESSED UP, SO PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU TYPE THE QUOTES IN MANUALLY
That is it, Media Browser will now launch MPC for any media type you choose (see my screenshot below, I used mkv as my media type)
———————————————-For MyMovies———————————————-
4b. Go into Collection Management. Under Tools -> Options go to External Players. If you only want specific files to be used by MPC HC click the Add button under “Specific File Types (Advanced):”, type in the file extension, and then in the dropdown choose “Media Player Classic Homecinema”. The other choice would be to just change “Other Files (Default):” to Media Player Classic. Please keep in mind that to use MPC as an external player with MyMovies you are required to have 1,250 points (USD 50.00 or via contributing to the web service). If you unsure about this feature, you can request a free 21 day trial to gain access to all MyMovies features.
5. Now before we test out if MPC launches properly from Media Browser, we want to make sure that our remote (I use a Harmony remote set up as an MCE remote) can control MPC just as if we were using the default WMC player. Open up MPC and go to View -> Options. Under Player go to Keys. Here you will see a list of all the commands for MPC and what keys control.If you scroll to the right you will see the App Command column which shows if any Apps have been assigned to the respective command. Right now we just want to focus on the basic commands which would be Play, Pause, Stop, Exit, Next (skip chapter forward) and Previous (skip chapter previous). By default you will see that MPC already has App Commands assigned to most of these commands, the only one that is missing is Exit. When I hit the stop button I want MPC to exit and go back into Media Browser, so I assign the App Command MEDIA_STOP. For me this covers everything I need, but feel free to play around with the different commands.
6. One other feature I want enabled with MPC is I want the ability to resume where I left off if I exit out of a video. While still in the Options screen go to Miscellaneous and check “Remember DVD position” and “Remember File Position” (thanks for the tip thejulianath20).
7. Now this part is completely optional. In the Files To Download section I mentioned programs like EventGhost. What these programs will allow you to do is further customize how you use your remote to control your HTPC. For instance, with an MCE remote the “Videos” button will automatically launch the default videos library in WMC. With these programs you can overwrite this and have the Videos button pull up some other command to your liking. Right now I am happy with the basic functions I have working with MPC so I have not spent much time with these programs. An excellent guide on how to set up a program like EventGhost can be found here.
Tips/Tricks:
- When you launch MPC from WMC you will briefly see the desktop wallpaper as WMC minimizes and MPC launches. To further create the seamless integration pheare has make his desktop wallpaper black and hidden all desktop icons, so you never even realize you are switching from one program to another.
UPDATE:
MPC HC can be used to play back BluRay rips in folder structure. In order to do this and have it launch correctly from Media Browser you must make sure that the internal mpeg splitter is enabled.
Go to View -> Options -> Internal Filters and make sure “MPEG PS/TS/PVA” is checked off. I just tested and now it launches correctly from MPC HC + Media Browser 
Summary:
So there you have it. In a couple of steps you can set up MPC to be your default player for videos with WMC + Media Browser. You can also achieve this with MyMovies, and I will update this guide for this once I have a few minutes to set up and document. As much as I love to tweak and mess around with settings on my HTPC one of the things I absolutely hate dealing with are codecs. Using MPC is an easy solution around this and greatly reduces the chance that you kill your system with codec issues. Stay tuned as in the coming days I hope to write up about how I set up bitstreaming (guide now posted here) as well as a closer look at mkvs, codecs, and anything else that comes to mind.
Resources:
Article by Damian
Hi, my name is Damian, and I'm tech gadget addict! Although I always had some interest in technology, it wasn't until I got my EX470 and more importantly found Mediasmartserver.net, that my interest became an addiction. My goal, aside from world domination and to see the Mets/Broncos win another championship, is to set up the perfect digital home where all my media is available at the click of a button. When I am not writing for Mediasmartserver.net you can find me over at my blog at http://www.adigitalhomeblog.com or follow me on twitter
{ 295 comments }
Another guide from Damian means I know what I’ll be working on this weekend…
Awesome work, as usual! One thing, I thought Mediabrowser had the ability to resume. No?
@ Heath – Media Browser has the ability to resume when you are playing from the WMC internal player, so yes. However, once you use MPC it no longer has this as it only monitors resume with the WMC player. This is the reason why I needed to add the resume feature to MPC directly.
Would this have any effect on an Xbox used as an extender?
Hi Damian,
Nice write up. Wish I had something like that when I was trying to figure it all out.
You give me too much credit. 
Most of my info came from other people and posts that I found along the way.
Take care.
If you haven’t already, you should look at creating a shortcut with the following command to launch wmc (ehshell.exe):
/entrypoint:{CE32C570-4BEC-4aeb-AD1D-CF47B91DE0B2}\{FC9ABCCC-36CB-47ac-8BAB-03E8EF5F6F22}
When you launch wmc, this will cause you to enter right into media browser instead of the wmc main screen.
@ Damian Ah, I see. If you don’t mind me asking, how does this work in MPC? Does it just always auto resume, or does it present an option to resume or start from the beginning? Thanks.
@Heath, I haven’t found out a way to make it work real well. In my testing, if you actually stop the movie – which is how I exit from MPC to get back to WMC, it will not resume.
However, if you pause the movie and then exit, it will resume, but it does not ask you if you want to start over or continue.
Neither is ideal. And since you can only map one button the mpc exit command, you are stuck with either or. Or maybe Damian has figured out a better way, as I have just done very limited playing around with resume.
@ Gilson,
Good question. Honestly I have never used my Xbox360 as an extender. I would assume it would not work on the xbox360 but I wonder if the Xbox would just ignore the MPC launcher and just try to launch with its own player
@ Heath – if you look at step 6, by checking those options in MPC that is how I get resume to work. It won’t say “Resume” in Media Browser like it does when you are playing from the default WMC player, but when MPC is launched it will resume from where you left off (you don’t get a choice, it is auto resume). I am going to see if I can assign a button so that will apply “Start from the beginning”
@ pheare – thanks for pointing out the entry point, I will add it to the tips/tricks section. If i come across anything else I will update as well.
MOVING TO OVER HERE, Damian thanks for this, will be putting to good use
Tried it with 64 bit machine and it didn’t bring up the MPC-HC. I did see my desktop flashes but it went right back to WMC
@ViEd – I have it working fine on my 64 bit machine. make sure you are pointing the bat file to the right exe. it is a different name in win7 64 bit. Here is the contents of my bat file:
@echo off
“C:\Program Files\MPC HomeCinema (x64)\mpc-hc64.exe” %1 /fullscreen /play /close
Exit
Also, make sure your bat file is named ExternalLauncher.bat and that in Media Browser Config, you are pointing to ExternalLauncher.exe
Darren beat me to it, you need to check the naming convention with x64. I never tested on x64 but going to give it a go on my wife’s PC.
Darren,
I just tested on my wife’s x64 PC. Weird, MPC launches without a problem and WMC minimizes, but MPC never takes focus nor does it go to fullscreen.
hmmm. I have absolutely no issues. MPC takes launches full screen and take focus- not sure how it couldn’t if wmc minimizes. Maybe try this. Make sure wmc is full screen, close wmc from full screen, using the X in top right. Re-launch wmc (it should launch fullsceen), go into media browser and try again.
You do have /fullscreen in your bat file right? You could also set mpc to go fullscreen right in the mpc options – that should take care of the full screen issue anyways. This can be set under the Player – Open Options. Pretty much the first screen when you go into mpc options.
Darren – it appears that others have the same issue as well. Someone commented that Intel systems won’t let you launch MPC on top of WMC, even though we tell it too. I have a feeling that my wife’s PC is an intel system (I assume referring to the mobo), whereas I know with my desktop PC and my HTPC they are not Intel mobos. Crazy if true, huh???
That does sound weird. Not sure how a motherboard would cause such behavior.
I know it works on my Dell pc, not sure what the motherboard is in it though.
Yeah, this is a concern of mine as I will be building a new HTPC in the next month with the core i5, and if certain mobos cause this problem then it will factor into my decision of what mobo to purchase.
Well for what it is worth I have a gigabyte ep43-ud3l with a core2duo q9300 2.5GHz in my main htpc. Runs 1:1 bluray rips like a champ – especially with dxva. this mobo does have an intel chipset and no problem with mpc opening fullscreen and in focus.
why an i5? Seems kinda overkill now that you have an ati 5xxx.
and for the record, computer mentioned above is running 32bit win7.
I have the same problem with W7 x64.
Passing the /fullscreen and /close commands through the optional parameters bit in MB doesn’t help either (except for that one time, but it hasn’t happened ever again)
DFI x58 motherboard with an intel i7 cpu here
I had the same problem with the 64 bit version running on windows 7 x64.
Remove the quotes around this part of the script and it should work
“C:\Program Files\MPC HomeCinema (x64)\mpc-hc64.exe”
Excellent guide, I finally have MKV playback working in Media Centre – thankyou.
One question – I have a Harmony remote and use the “previous/back” button to stop playback which is the same as the backspace key on the keyboard. Is there a way to get this key/button to stop playback in MPC and therefore exit back to Media Browser?
When I press the button on the remote it skips back 5 seconds and pauses the video. I have tried changing all the obvious App Commands in MPC to MEDIA_STOP but none work.
Darren,
I wanted to build a new mini-itx HTPC to test out against my current ones. I went with the core i5 because I would not need to add a discrete card to get bitstreaming. Also, I got the core i5 for the same price I see the core i3 on most sites, so couldn’t pass up a good deal!!! Right now I have two HTPCs in my house. One has the 5670, the other only has a 4670. It the core i5 Mini ITX build comes out well, it will replace the HTPC that only has the 4670 (I will probably then turn that HTPC into a test rig). More importantly, I NEED to build something, and this is how I justify it to myself, lol
@ Fred – removing the quotes doesn’t work for me, it won’t even launch MPC
@ ecidious – OK, I HAVE IT WORKING ON MY WIFE’S x64 PC!!! Can you test out and let me know if this owrks for you as well.
Open up MPC, go into Options, and in the Player Menu under “Other” tick off “Always on top”. Once I did this is now works flawless. If it works for you I will update my guide for people having problems
@ Dan B,
I think what you want you need to do through the Harmony software, not MPC. I haven’t loaded my harmony software back onto my PC since I did a clean installm but i know I had changed how a few buttons work. For instance, the “return button” on my harmony one I changed to mean “back” instead of enter in WMC. All you have to do is go into this software and change the “previous/back” to mean stop. MPC should then link up the “stop” command from the button with MEDIA_STOP
Hello,
My bat file is pointing to the right 64 bit exe but I still see a screen flash, briefly saw my desktop and the control went back to Media Center. Even if I clicked on the bat file by itself, outside of Media Center, I could not bring up MPC-HC 64 bit. I even removed the quotes, suggested by some one but didn’t help either. Very strange.
@echo off
“C:\Program Files\MPC HomeCinema (x64)\mpc-hc64.exe” %1 /fullscreen /play /close
Exit
Also, make sure your bat file is named ExternalLauncher.bat and that in Media Browser Config, you are pointing to ExternalLauncher.exe
@ ViED,
Did you change the settings in MPC as I suggested in my last comment?
Alright, I figured out my problem. I put a pause in the batch file and saw the problem, which was the quotes copied from this page were showing up as ô & ö for beginning/end quotations which was throwing the following error:
The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.
My suggested fix: If you copied and pasted the line for the batch file type it in manually. Also, leave the always on top and fullscreen settings in MPC alone (off by default).
Good to hear you got it working. For whatever reason it only works on my wife’s x64 PC if I keep “always on top” enabled.
Thank you ecidious. The quotes that I copied from the page caused the problem for me. Removed it and everything is working great now. Thank you, thank you.
I don’t know whats up with x64, but it’s definitely finicky. If I have more problems after this I’ll probably move to 32-bit for a dedicated HTPC just for sanity’s sake.
I should have said that I removed the “copied quotes” and manually put back the quotes and my setup works. Didn’t want to confuse anyone, thinking that literally, removing the quotes was the solution.
Who would have thought by copying the quotes from the page was the problem because of strange characters inserted. Thanks to ecidious.
Glad to hear everyone has got this sorted out. I too, do NOT need to have ‘always on top’ checked off for this to work.
Damian, gotcha on the i5 reasoning.
@Dan B, like Damian says, you need to remap your button in the harmony software to ‘Stop’ and then in mpc, map the command to media_stop, and you should be good.
For whatever reason, I wasn’t able to download Tyborgs ExternalLauncher.exe file directly through your post.
I found it here though: http://www.mymovies.dk/forum.aspx?g=posts&t=9768
Here is the problem I am experiencing.
Intel Clarkdale i5. Windows 7 x64
Setup as discussed above. (Always on-top w/ or without)
The file will open above WMC, but non of the controls will control the MPC. Play, stop, ect…
Since WMC is still open, the controlls on the remote seem to want to defualt to WMC and not to MPC. If I close WMC, the controls work fine on MPC.
I was previously using this script below in my batch file to solve this. This script will actually close WMC, and re-open into Media Browser when the movie closes. However it is slightly less ideal as it will take you back to the main MB page, not the details page you came from.
@echo off
TASKKILL /F /IM “ehshell.exe” > nul
“C:\Program Files\Combined Community Codec Pack\MPC\mpc-hc.exe” %1 /fullscreen /play /close
start “” “C:\Windows\ehome\ehshell.exe” “/entrypoint:{CE32C570-4BEC-4aeb-AD1D-CF47B91DE0B2}\{FC9ABCCC-36CB-47ac-8BAB-03E8EF5F6F22}” “/directmedia:general”
Has anyone had the problem I’m having?
@Jason, I don’t think it is a case that the controls on the remote are defaulting to WMC, it is more likely that while mpc is opening on top, it is not taking focus.
Have you tried the quotes thing that is discussed a few posts up?
@ Darren & Damian
Batch File – I had the same issue with copying the batch file code from this post. I ended up running it from a command line and then copying the code from there.
Harmony Remote – I like the way the back button work in Media Centre/Browser and don’t want to change it. I just want the backspace key to equal MEDIA_STOP in MPC so that it backs out into Media Browser.
@Dan B. Maybe just semantics here, but keep in mind, in mpc you are not mapping buttons to, say, media_stop – media_stop is the mce button, to which you are mapping the mpc command; in your case the Exit command.
It doesn’t look like mpc supports the direct mapping of the ‘Back’ key, at least I don’t see anything. Something like LM Remote (optional downloads mentioned in the article) would get you around this, but I think it would bugger up the native wmc functionality of the back button.
Why not map the Exit command to media_stop and just use the stop button? this is what I do and is also how the native wmc player works – when you hit stop, the player exits and returns you to the details screen.
@Darren
Thanks. you have confirmed my thoughts, I was hoping to get a seamless control experience between WMC and MPC so I didn’t have to do any training for the rest of the household. Getting them to press the stop button instead of the back button when playing MKVs shouldn’t be too difficult.
Nice thing about using the stop button to exit (training wise) is that hitting stop in wmc internal player will also bring you back to the detail screen. So family can always use stop and get the same result, regardless of the file type (assuming all other file types are using the internal player).
OK, been on the road all day, just getting home, good to see the dialogue
I will update my guide to mention the whole “quotes” issue. So it appears that the only people having problems are those running x64 (and even then not all x64 people are having problems). Really is crazy that this stuff can’t be consistent across all platforms.
Update:
My problem was apparently related to my iMon software (software controlling the IR signal/display). It’s a serious pain to have to set up different controls on multiple levels (Harmony, EventGhost, iMon) … I’m not sure they are all needed, but it’s working now so … me no touchy.
Thanks for the tips Damian (and everyone else)
@ Jason,
Great to hear, not make an image/backup of your system since it is inevitable that you will do something that will kill everything at some point
@Jason, good it is working, but what are you trying to do that you need so pieces of software to get your remote working? I’m only using LM Remote and that is because I wanted to add some additional functionality beyond the standard , pause, play,ff, etc. For those you shouldn’t need anything – assuming you have a mce ir receiver.
Yeah definetly BIG thanks for this guide. Its was so nice getting rid of all my individual codecs and just having it all in one. Good call on the .bat correction, worked like a charm. Im getting that xonar bitstreamer tomorrow or i guess technically later on today, hopefully it will live up to what it says. Im using the nmediapc keyboard and remote from newegg, definetly going to be looking into customizing more keys.
In answer to some of the key mapping questions (I also have a Harmony One).
1. To Exit – mapped exit command to app command BROWSER_BACKWARD. Allows use of the back button
2. To Stop – mapped stop command to app command
MEDIA_STOP. Allows user to stop and reset playback at the beginning.
3. To Pause (also showing Seeker, Controls and Status) – mapped Toogle Seeker,Toogle Controls,Toogle Status commands to app command MEDIA_PAUSE. Allows pause to act as a toogle to display on screen status.
4. To Skip forward and backward 30 seconds – mapped Jump Forward(small) and Jump Backward(small) to app command MEDIA_FAST_FORWARD and MEDIA_REWIND. Allows the use of fast forward and rewind buttons. (need to change small jump distance (under tweaks) to 30000).
5. To Skip forward and backward 5 minutes – mapped Jump Forward(largel) and Jump Backward(large) to app command MEDIA_NEXTTRACK and MEDIA_PREVIOUSTRACK. Allows the use of next track and previous track buttons. (need to change small jump distance (under tweaks) to 300000).
Thanks Fred. I think the problem with MEDIA_STOP is that some of us have MPC set up to resume playback from where we left off, so MEDIA_STOP will just pick up from the last spot. Trying to figure out if there is a way to get MPC to start from the beginning when you have “resume playback” set up.
@ Jason,
I really forgot how much I truly hate codecs until I started using MPC. I will have the bitstreaming guide posted today
I have MPC set to resume playback, but If I want to start from the beginning, I set an extra button on my Harmony remote to Stop & Play the movie, this effectively restarts it (at least it works for me).
Once I get the Harmony software back on my PC I will have to test out. It is a PITA with the 890 because you not only have to hook in the 890 to the PC to update, but also the RF base.
@ Jason,
I have the same setup as you with the i5 cpu and iMon software, what did you change in the iMon setup in order to get this to work?
@Fred Thanks for the info on mapping exit to BROWSER_BACK, now everything works seamlessly between MediaBrowser and MPC.
Sorry, rookie question here: Which file types are better associated with MPC versus 7MC/Mediabrowswer? Can MPC play iso, ifo, vob, mt2s, BDMV? Sorry for spelling mistakes. What are you using to bitstream normal blu-ray discs inserted into your HTPC?
Peter ,
I have MPC set up to just play my m2ts and mkv files. The reason is because these are the file types that would require special codecs/filters for bitstreaming. My other files, mp4, mpeg, avi, Video_TS, etc… play fine with the default W7MC player.
As for actual Blu Rays I don’t play since I always rip to my PC after I purchase, but most people either use WinDVD, PDVD, or TMT. I am honestly not sure if MPC can handle ISO or BDMV, good question. If it can I would assume at a minimum you would just get the main movie playback and not full menu functionality. If I have some time I will test out. Maybe someone else here will comment if they have used successfully
My guide for setting up bitstreaming in MPC was just posted:
http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2010/02/02/guide-setting-up-bitstreaming-with-your-windows-7-htpc-part-i/
For some reason can not extract ExternalLauncher Minimizer MC to MPC. it says : can not creat externallauncher.exe ….access dinied.
Any toughts
Thank you
Sorry, WMC need it to be closed. works now
When created externallauncher.bat in notepad, can not save in mpc, it says:
you do not have prmission, contact aministrator
Help please
Thank you
@ ziggyk,
So when you try to save a file into the folder where you have MPC you get permission issues?
Sorry for so many post. This problem still exist :can not creat externallauncher.exe ….access dinied.( I tought it got extracted)
I use winrar and always work for extracting to folder, I do not know why it does not work now.
I figured out how to copy .bat file so discard that.
Thank you once again
So you donwloaded the zip file with externallauncher.exe. You are then trying to extract the exe file into your MPC folder. This is where you get denied, correct? Have you tried extracting the exe to your desktop, and then just copy into your MPC folder?
It works all. WMC lunching the MPC, Awsome.
All I have to do extract to any folder in PC and drag it to MPC. Samething with .bak file drag it to MPC. I had to remove quta and do manualy, just like you said.
By the way you did great write up I look you site all the time and learn all the time. I was sick of codecs in WMC. I could not get DTs working while playing mkv. So I do not have to worry now.
Thank you
Great to hear you got it working. Now go enjoy a movie
Just found this great site – very impressed. A few questons: (1) what is your preferred storage format for BR Hdef movies and (2) what player do you use on WMC?
Many people seem to save movies as ISO and use TMT as an player (but seems very expensive and extra layer of complexity). Apparently the ISO storage is because they are worried TMT will in future remove the ability to play BDFM folders.
My setup is W7 x64 with 5.1 analog out to amp and dual graphic card with hdmi for 1080p TV. I have used MakeMKV a few times and they play quite beautifully using MyMovies with native WMC player (with Halli splitter). Problem is i need audio and subtitle switching and in the future want to stream to another PC in the house and will replace amp with 7.1 capability. So what format to store and what player would you recomment for me?
P.S. One thing that has confused me in your BD Clown review you are saving the output as .ts. I haven’t seen WMC users talking about this – they all discuss bluray ISOs and mkv. What’s the benefit.
@ Sam,
Welcome to the site. I have stayed away from ISOs for two reasons:
1) I don’t want to purchase a 3rd party player such as TMT or PDVD. I don’t use my HTPC to play back actual Blu Ray discs, and don’t care about maintaining Blu Ray menus. Obviously everyone is different in this
2) Although the whole mounting thing is simple to do, it just adds another step to the whole prcess.
I currently just rip to either mkv (using MakeMKV or my tool of choice now is ANother eac3to GUI) or ts with Clown_BD, and use either MPC or the WMP/WMC player
I think sticking with mkvs is a good choice. If you want audio/subtitle switching you can use MPC as your player from WMC as I talk about in this post, or you need to install a 3rd party app called Media Control (http://damienbt.free.fr/)
TS is a popular container for owners of NMTs like the Popcorn Hours because you could bitstream HD audio from a ts but not an mkv. From the standpoint of an HTPC/WMC user it doesn’t make a difference, and since many HTPC users like to use FLAC you can only do this with mkv. Another issue with ts is that W7 does not ts VC-1 movies, so you need to hack around a little to get it to work. mkv VC-1 movies play fine, albeit without DXVA unless you change a setting
Thanks for the advice – all makes good sense. I don’t need BR menus and don’t want to store all the extras – i just want the main movie uncompressed. So I am in your camp.
The only reason I was tempted with BR ISO & TMT was for audio/subtitle switching capability. But having read the TMT forum there are lots of comments about forced updates and stuff that reduce the WAF factor.
Previously when running on Vista x64 VMC i tried Media Control and found it to be the best available but still not wholly reliable. I think your idea of trying MPC-HC (called from inside MyMovies) is the most promising solution and will certainly give it a try.
Q1. Do you know how MPC-HC controls the audio – I am going out on analog and so need bass management, vocal enhancement etc on the PC
Q2. Does this MPC-HC external launch solution have the capability to set the screen frequency to 30Hz before playing a MKV? (has that got you thinking!)
@ Sam,
My writeup is for launching MPC from Media Browser, but I hope to have a few minutes to update it for MyMovies as well (I think a few steps are different). I will try to get the guide updated soon
Q1 – Honestly I haven’t looked into the audio settings much on MPC HC. I would probably just donwload and mess around with some of the setting to see if you get what you are looking for
Q2 – In MPC under Options -> Playback -> Fullscreen there is actually an option to allow for autochanging fullscreen monitor mode based on the frequency, and you can assign what monitor frequency based on the content frequency
Another question – does MPC-HC support chapter skipping for MKVs since I don’t think Media Control does.
I know the answer to that one, yes
Another reason why I like MPC
Brilliant – chapter skipping means I must tryout MPC. I have young kids and when we sit down to watch a DVD it is great to jump to their favorite scenes. I have just been looking at Media Control and don’t think this feature is available – instead there are bookmarks (less attractive solution).
Earlier you mentioned having FLAC inside an MKV. Last month I decided to re-do my music library and use FLAC – this is a work in progress job. So I am already a fan of FLAC. But why put flac inside an MKV?
And once again many, many thanks. I have spent alot of time trying to work out what approach to adopt. For example – there is almost no discussion anywhere or alternative approaches to TMT etc.
The chapter support was a pleasant surprise. I am probably going to move my Blu Ray ts rips over to mkv so I can fuull chapter support as well.
The reason why some people use FLAC is because up until recent you couldn’t bitstream HD audio from a PC, or you needed an expensive sound card. Another reason was because someone had a receiver that could not decode HD audio. In both these cases FLAC would allow you to hear the full lossless audio without need for bitstreaming or proper audio equipment. I imagine as as bitstreaming becomes more and more commonplace that the use of FLAC will go down.
I must have changed my mind about a million times about what approach to take, but I think I am finally getting to a point where I can get my system set up exactly how I want and not have to keep messing around with it.
I have also changed my mind numerous times! On W7 with MyMovies3 the user experience is fabulous. Categories, filters, box-sets, default views + covers + consistent quality metadata – so you have automatic genre screens, etc. The app starts really quickly and the software is very solid. I backup DVDs as video_ts using DVDFab – not free but I have used it for 2 years and its well maintained and reliable. For hdef I will use MKVs – assuming I can get MPC-HC to work seemlessly (quick auto startup, chapter skipping + audio/subtitle switching).
My only area of weakness is TV series. Media Browser currently has better capability but MyMovies is/has made improvements. That said, in MyMovies you can define episodes (as disc name) to give a nice popup that lists all available episodes for a TV show. User setup is probably more time consuming but it’s a one-off activity and the results are great (but remember to ‘lock’ the title so the web service cannot overwrite the disc/episode setup).
For music I have a master folder for music and do not allow WMP or iTunes to see it (both apps have a nasty habit of changing folders and metadata). My music is copied to another folder for WMC. By default i now store in FLAC format.
For photos. Adobe Photoshop organiser and editor are fabulous (but expensive). If you want to learn how to edit/manage photos then this is the right software to learn about. I then export my photos to a folder for WMC. Again WMC never looks at my master photo folders.
Thanks for you advice. I look forward to seeing how you get on with MPC-HC and MyMovies.
@ Sam,
I think between MyMovies and Media Browser there is definitely something for everyone. I record tv shows with my PC, so the tv functionality is very important with me which is one reason why I cannot use Mymovies (although I believe this may be a feature added down the road). Also, for WAF I want to keep everything consistent, so with Media Browser she can go there for TV Shows, Movies, and music. I would love to move my music over to FLAC, but I mostly listen to music on my iPod/Zune, and the capacity of those models just don’t allow for a large collection (and don’t support FLAC as well). I just try to stick to as high quality settings as I can get with mp3. My photos are a mess, I use Corel Photo Album which serves its purpose but I have just never had enough time to look over and clean up. That is a project I would like to assign to my wife, but who knows…
I will test out MPC w/ MyMovies this weekend and get the guide updated. Will post back here when it is done
Hey man great guide just got 1 question. I am running dual monitors. When I open WMC it automatically opens on my plasma tv. When I hit play now mpc-hc is opening but it is doing so on my little lcd monitor. Do I have to change something in the bat file?
Thanks in advance!
Hey Brett (just got your PM as well
)
I am not sure, my desktop pc is actually set up with dual monitors and MPC opens up on the correct monitor. However, it sounds like you are running in clone mode, correct? Mine isnt (it is bascially one big monitor my I choose to have one of the monitors as the priority). Assuming you are running in clone mode I honestly am not sure what the problem is, can you set your plasma to priority monitor?
As priority monitor you mean like the primary monitor in the screen resolution settings for windows? I am using extended desktop. The lcd is the primary, the tv is only used for video so it wouldn’t make sense for me to set it as the primary (as in it being the one showing my desktop.)
It wouldn’t really be worth it to me to set the plasma as primary every time I was going to watch a movie. But I would think that I would not have to.
You say you are using extended mode as well. Is the screen that WMC opens on the screen that you also have your desktop on?
Gotcha,
For my desktop PC my “main” monitor which would be the equivalent of your LCD is where WMC opens for me, as well as MPC. My secondary monitor I really only use when multitasking. OK, so to test, I moved WMC over to my secondary monitor, and when MPC opens it launches on the primary monitor, so same problem as you. I think it has to do with MPC. For instance, if I open an application on my main monitor, move and maximize on the secondary monitor, and close the application, the next time I open it opens on that secondary monitor. If I do the same with MPC it still always opens on my primary monitor.
Not sure how to change this behavior. I will search around, but the only thing I can think of is either to ask the question on ASVForum or ask support on the MPC home page. Maybe you are the first person who has ever run into this problem???
I will let you know if i find anything.
Ok thanks man, yes that is exactly the issue. MPC will always open on my primary display, I just drag it to the tv. But using it inside of wmc this isn’t really practical.
Thanks for all the info btw great site here.
Ok I think I found it. In the options under player there is a box for “remember last window position”. I checked this off and then closed mpc on my secondary monitor. It worked like it should now. Another nice thing is that I can now use my desktop while a movie is on.
WMC normally locks the mouse cursor inside it but this is like using mpc normally. I do notice that when the movie is running there is a command prompt box running in the task bar. I guess that has something to do with how it all works, no big deal.
Thanks again for the guide Bro!
@ Brett,
I was just looking in the options as well, you beat me to it!!! When I have a sec I will update the guide with this tip, thanks much!!!
I am going to get the AMD 5570 card for my other HTPC (I think the card comes out on Tuesday) so I will set up bitstreaming/MPC on that one next. Glad the guide helped, let me know if I can help with anything else or you come across any other tips you think I should add.
Yes, and thank you. I was also about to get that card as well. Not sure anymore but I look forward to hearing about it, it sounds like the perfect htpc card.
This doesn’t work for me. All that happens when I hit play is WMC flickers and that’s that. It doesn’t launch MPC-HC and it doesn’t minimize. I’m using 32bit windows 7.
If I point the media browser configuration setting to external player and then MPC-HC itself it will at least launch it. But it stays behind media center.
Jason this happened to me too. I recommend you edit the .bat file. Delete the Quotes ” and retype them (if you didn’t already.) I read this in the guide but forgot about it. When I retyped them I noticed that the quotes were a tiny bit different then the originals. This fixed my problem straight away.
I manually typed the quotes. Still no go. I also tried it without quotes and that didn’t work either.
I can type “C:\Program Files\MPC HomeCinema\mpc-hc.exe” directly into a command prompt and it works. But the bat file does not.
Ok, I got it. I don’t know if it was a typo or what but it’s working now.
@ Jason,
Glad to hear it is working. I am still scratching my head as to why directly copying and pasting f’s up the quotes???
@ Brett,
I will let you know if I run into any troubles with the 5570. So far I haven’t had any issues with the 5670 in my one HTPC
Hi, when I try to watch a rmvb file, a error pop-up. Can this be fix?
Error: Failed attempt to launch program or document:
Action:
Params:
The current thread will exit:
Specifically: The System cannot find the files specified:
Line#
005: RunWait, ExternalLauncher.bat “%1%”, Min
@ Jimmy,
Does it work with other files, just fails with rmvb?
“I am still scratching my head as to why directly copying and pasting f’s up the quotes???”
I noticed that the quotes were different ever so slightly. The quotes I pasted had a little curl to them and the quotes I typed were straight up and down. SO I think it just didn’t recognize that style.
“I will let you know if I run into any troubles with the 5570. So far I haven’t had any issues with the 5670 in my one HTPC”
Cool thanks man.
Guide updated to show setting up with MyMovies. All the steps remain the same except step #4, which is now broken out between MyMovies and Media Browser.
The external launcher should not be needed with Media Browser 2.2.1 or above, since the MCE is minimized by MB when an external player is launched.
Alex (MB developer)
Hi Alex,
Thanks for sharing. I will have to test out again. My desktop pc is running Firestorm, and the issue I was having is that even thouh WMC would be minimized when MPC was launched, MPC would not be put “in front” so you could not be able to control with an MCE remote (the commands would still go through to WMC and not MPC). The launcher was meant to put MPC in focus.
Hi Damian,
just checked. MB is minimized, but for some reason MPC-HC when started don’t get foreground. Since there is a security timer (10 sec) MCE is minimized even if there is no new window in foregorund, so you can view MPC-HC but you cannot interact with it.
I’m trying to solve it and keep the community update.
Thanks,
Alex
Alex,
That is what the MPC Launcher does, somehow it brings MPC to the front so you can interact with MPC directly. Without the launcher using MPC as a 3rd party player is useless. I have no clue how it does it, but that would be great if you could incorporate whatever the launcher does into MB so there is no need to use the launcher.
Many thanks for looking into this and keep up the great work with MB.
Cheers,
Damian
@Alex, great to know this issue is being looked at by a MB dev.
I know I spent more hours than I would have liked trying to find away around this issue. That said, using externallauncher.exe works great. Though a MB based fix, will save many others countless hours of frustration – I’m certain.
@Damian
Hi Damian, finally got it working. The problem was copying your command into notepad did not work properly. For some reason your ” does not copy as “, after changing it manually it worked.
@ Jimmy,
Glad to hear you got it working. If you look right above where the command is in my guide there is a Tip not to copy directly as the quotes get f’d up. No clue why this happens, but typing manually fixes.
Hi all, I have fixed the issue with MPC-HC (and potentially all external players not getting focus as soon as launched), maintaining TMT3/PDVD9 fix that minimize MCE during playback and maximize it when done.
I think you can find the fix into the next release of the MB (Thunderblade) due on 15 feb.
Thanks all for pointing me to this mis-behaviour.
Alex
Alex,
That is awesome news, many thanks from everyone on this. Once I get my hands on Thunderblade and confirm it is working I will update the guide.
Cheers
Damian
Afternoon Damian,
Thank you for your excellent post. I was able to get the Windows Media Center to launch MPC. I had to alter the bat file. I thought it may be use-full to others so I thought I would mention it.
At first it did not work and I thought it was because of the “Quotes” So I tried copying and pasting and inserting my own quotes….to no avail.
Here is what I did.
@echo off
“C:\Program Files\Media Player Classic – Home Cinema\mpc-hc.exe” %1 /fullscreen /play /close
Exit
In my program folder MPC is listed as Media Player Classic, so no matter how many different way would I be able to get it to work lol. I guess when MPC installed it decided to name the folder. I was able to successfully get it to integrate with media browser.
My issue is that only one movie brings up the meta-data. I thought that it was because the rest of my movies were Asian so I added an American title then it worked……….So I added a few more and it did not work lol. Any possible solutions. I did some research and it looks like I will be using Meta browser to get my Movie info its ok because where as I have a ton of movies I don’t want nor need all of them so I am adding them as I want them. My next question is how do you add a background poster of each movie when you are viewing the titles in cover flow?
Thanks once again.
Touré
@ Toure
Glad to hear you got it working. Couple of things, I assume each movie is in its own folder, correct? Also, you can eithe rrely on MediaBrowser pulling in the correct Metadata/Art or you can use a program like metabrowser to handle. This applies as well for background posters. Take a look at my initial writeup of MediaBrowser where I talk about setting up, using metabrowser, etc:
http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2009/11/04/review-media-browser-2-1-3-0-phoenix/
Let me know if I can be of any other help
@ Damian
Thanks for the quick reply. Yes my movies are in the individual folder and I used the file2folder app to make sure they are. I will review your write up and post back. There may be some time between post. I am trying to do the last minute Valentines Day hustle lol.
Hi Damian
Just thought I would pop-in and let you know how I got on with current svn build of MB and mpc-hc launcher pre ‘Fireblade’.
Appreciate that it is pre-release, but the fact that it has been committed to code, would indicate that its ready to go, though it may be that little testing has been carried out on the committ, with perhaps the exception of Alex. This is not a criticsm, merely pointing out that unless other users experiment then issues may go unnoticed.
I have enquired about the problems I came across here http://community.mediabrowser.tv/permalinks/r/233/5264/mpc-as-external-player-not-working-properly#5264
Thanks for the heads up steelman, I guess we have only a few days until the official release…
Hi Steelman, please download changeset 930. Let me know if you find any issue.
Thanks, Alex
Hi Alex
Have done (well 931 I think) – perhaps best to keep this to the MB tracker – don’t want to hog all Damian’s site. I just posted initially to give an update.
Jason – Could you explain how you got your system working? I am having the exact same problem and am using imon software that came with my case. MPC opens fullscreen but the remote still controls MC.
Damian – Thunderblade delayed for a short time (7 days) and I have not been able to test the external player fix. Although initially reported as resolved, it would appear that the code was never committed to svn properly by Alex, something about not pushing the changes to the Google repository.
Will let you know if there are any changes to the position prior to release and whether it actually makes into trunk.
Steelman tested my fix getting the latest version of MB from HG repo, it reported is working!
Details of the fix on http://community.mediabrowser.tv/permalinks/r/233/5419/mpc-as-external-player-not-working-properly#5419
Alex (a proud MB developer :))
That is great stuff Alex. Once Thunderblade is out I will update the guide. Keep up the great work
Cheers
Damian
Ha Ha Alex beat me to it – thanks for adding this to the code for inclusion in Thunderblade – much appreciated.
I am not sure what I doing wrong but my remote iMon /VFD is still focused in WMC when WMC launch MPC and play the movie. The only thing I did different was in MPC instead of using App Commands to control MPC I used customised keys such as Play/Pause/Stop=CTRL+P/U/X that were also defined them from the iMon Manager. The remote works fine if I open MPC I can Play/Pause/Stop from my iMon Remote. But when I open MPC via Media Browser/WMC I still control WMC.
I have installed the External Launcher App for W7/MPC 32bit
I managed to sort out the issue of iMon and Remote focus, just un-check the exclusive mode in the iMon settings
Thanks for the guide. This will make things a lot easier from now on, not having to deal with all the codecs and all.
FYI: I had to modify my registry in order for WMC to recognize MKV files, otherwise the the above doesn’t work. Don’t know if that is obvious or not, it wasn’t for me.
@ Bryce,
Are you using Vista or W7? When I was using Vista I had to do a registry edit to get the mkvs to show, but with W7 my mkvs showed in MediaBrowser/MyMovies without needing the registry edit (you only need to do the registry edit if you are trying to view the mkvs in the default WMC library)
@ Damian
“I have MPC set up to just play my m2ts and mkv files.”
Thanks for this guide.
I’ve got mkv’s working as described.
Could you please share with us how you got m2ts ( bdmv folder ? ) working ?
I’ve been fiddling around but with no luck so far.
With the external launcher it starts mpc but it won’t start the m2ts which is in a bdmv\stream folder.
When i start mpc (not using wmc) and choose directory the m2ts plays just fine.
Thankzzz
@ Percy,
When I say m2st I am talking about a standalone file (same as with an mkv). You are talking about a BDMV folder which is completely different. In this structure you need to use either TMT, PDVD, or WinDVD to play back since this essentially is a Blu Ray disc (that is how WMC sees the BDMV folder structure).
Let me know if you have any other questions
Cheers
Damian
@ Damian
Thanks for your reply.
So if I place an m2ts in the root of a folder then it should work ?
How about the settings in media browser / externallauncher ?
There is no m2ts to add.
@ Percy,
It may not be that easy. Several Blu Rays are seamless branch (which means the main movie it made up of multiple m2ts files). I would recommend just using a program like Clown_BD to create a single ts file, or you can use a program like MakeMKV or others to create a single mkv. As far as the settings ts and m2ts are the same thing.
Thanks again for the reply.
Just found out about an important update for Arcsoft Totalmedia Theatre, version 3.0.1.120_3.0.1.170.
“NEW FEATURES: 1) Support PAP/bitstreaming on ATI 5xxx cards 2) Support PAP/bitstreaming on Intel Clarkdale/Ironlake mobos 3) Dynamic Lighting added to SimHD 4) MKV support restored BUG FIXES: 1) Lots. No organized/detailed list at the moment unfortunately. KNOWN ISSUES: 1) Bitstreaming on ATI 5xxx cards REQUIRES use of the ATI version of the HDMI audio driver. Using the Realtek version WILL NOT WORK. 2) In some cases SimHD will be lost during the patch process to 170. It appears related to cases where SimHD was purchased seperately, and can be resolved by reinstalling the SimHD installer. But there is no guarantee that versions with prepackaged SimHD will continue to work after running this patch, and in such cases there may be no way to reactivate it. If you experience the loss of SimHD please report in this thread the original version, whether it had SimHD built-in or applied seperately, and what patches have been applied.”
Supports MKV ! PAP ! TrueHD and DTS-MA !
I’ll give this one a try.
Look over here:
http://www.mce-community.de/forum/index.php?showtopic=40398
It’s in german but theres a link for the update
@ Percy,
Correct, TMT released a patch to support bitstreaming. If you are using a 5xxx card it only works with the ATI HDMI driver and not the realtek driver. Of course to bitstream TrueHD/DTS(MA) you need the compliant hardware (clarkdale, 5xxx, or Xonar)
Cheers
Damian
@ Damian or anyone else
So, here i am again.
I’ve got WMC working with MediaBrowser playing MKV’s with MPC HC.
The updated Arcsoft player seems to be the right choice for playing BluRay / AVCHD’s. With the right settings TrueHD / DTS-MA is supported. I’ve got an Radeon 5450. Tested it with the arcsoft player on a standalone base.
But I can’t figure out how to set WMC / Mediabrowser to start the Arcsoft player playing BluRay’s / AVCHD’s stored local or on my network.
I installed the Arcsoft player, it integrates itself into WMC.
But when starting a bluray folder / avchd WMC says something silly about proxy / in use, even on a local drive.
Did some testing with externallauncher placed into the arcsoft folder but it won’t start.
Playing those same files is no issue from within arcsoft on a standalone base.
I can play MKV’s from all over my network and nothing is ‘in use’.
Do you, or anyone, have the correct settings for me to start Arcsoft Totalmedia Theatre playing BluRays / AVCHD’s in WMC / Mediabrowser ?
@ Percy,
You got me on that one. I don’t play Blu Ray discs/BDMV folders on my HTPC so I never had a need for TMT. If noone can answer here try posting your question on the Media Browser forum. POst back if you find a solution as I am sure it will be helpful for others.
Cheers
Damian
ArcSoft TMT3 can be easily integrated in MB configuring BDMV and HDVD tyes as external launcher pointing at \programfiles\arcsoft tmt3\umcedvdplayer.exe.
Alex
Thankzzz Alex
Damian,
i am so close! if you have some time it would be great if you can walk me thru my problem. Using x64 mpc with mediabrowser.
i made the notepad file and saved it as ExternalLauncher.bat . I then try to overwrite it over the existing externallauncher batch file in the mpc folder, but i get the “access denied” warning. Anything i can do?
thanks again!
@ goondog,
Which version of media browser are you using? The latest version (Thunderblade) you no longer need to do the ExternalLauncher process (I need to update the post)
I have updated the guide as externallauncher.bat is no long necessary for Media Browser version Thunder Blade or later. Refer to step 4a2. Let me know if you have any questions.
Cheers
Damian
Thanks Damian for updating the guide!
Alex
@ Alex,
Hey, thanks for fixing it so we don’t need the bat file
Damian,
will try again tonite. cant thank you enough for making this guide.
you are THE GO TO streamin’ dude.
also is there a good program to shrink the giant mkv BD rips to something more manageable (handbrake?)
@ goondog,
Handbrake is a good program (I use it for tv shows). For any Blu Rays I don’t encode anymore but when I did I would use Ripbot (see wiki I wrote here – http://www.mediasmartserver.net/wiki/index.php/RipBot264)
Cheers
Damian
How can i attach cover art to the mkv files i have. Using mkv because mcp-hc connected to mediabrowser would not recognize ts files even though mpc-hc standalone would. Perhaps i am ripping them incorrectly
@ Justin,
What do you mean your ts files would not be recognized? All of mine get picked up without issue with MediaBrowser?
As far as fanart/covers, are you talking about having Media Browser display?
Damian.
i think im slowly becoming a streaming stooge. need some advice though.
im using MPC-HC/mediabrowser (thx!) for big mkvs, but how well will native MC (windows media player?) play everything else? Do i need to be messing with codecs or installing basic ones?
is there one thing to install and forget. i look at the configurations and my head starts to hurt. I have whatever ripbot requires and i think klite installed. is there such a thing as too many codecs? and how do i configure them?
@ goondog,
I have basically decided that if I can avoid codecs, I will. The setup I have finally settled on now is just installing FFDShow. I set my mkvs and m2ts to play via MPC in MediaBrowser and all other formats (mp4, mpeg, avi) play in the native WMC player without needing to install any codecs/filters. This is the cleanest approach and for me just works. Having too many codecs can definitely cause havok on your system
Hi Damian,
I’ve been watching some movies lately but i’ll get to notice that my audio seems to be out of sync a little bit, it comes slightly to early.
I’ve got all the settings as described in your guides and it is an issue with the mkv and the m2ts containers.
Any advice ?
Thanks
@ Percy,
Although I have not run into this problem, if you go into the Audio Decoder Configuration for ffdshow, and go to Output, you will see towards the bottom of the screen a field for Audio Delay. Try messing around with different settings to see if this fixes your problem. Let me know if it works.
Cheers
Damian
@Damian
This is pretty cool. I’m just trying it out now on the Pegasus release. For MKVs, MPC-HC gets called as it should and plays fine.
I think I found a bug in MediaBrowser though. This won’t work for the WMV file type. At least not on my machine. Reason I want to do that is I want to use MPC-HC with AC3 filter to process WMVHD’s with multi-channel sound (which I finally got working).
@ Scott,
Interesting. I don’t think I have any WMVHD files to test. So if you play the WMVHD file directly from MPC you are fine but if you try to play by launching from Media Browser it doesn’t work?
@ Damian
I’m trying to play WMV files through mpc-hc. In my case it is a WMVHD file but that doesnt matter. If you still have the sample files included with Windows 7 there is one called wildlife.wmv in C:\Users\Public\Videos\Sample Videos.
To be clear: WMV files work an in MediaBrowser. They play in Media Center and do not shell out to MPC-HC no matter how I set it up.
Scott,
Just tested and same result as you. You should log a bug on Community Tracker/Media Browser
Damian,
Thanks for testing. I submitted a bug earlier. I got changed to a question but we’ll see if anyone else has an answer.
Cheers.
Thanks for this write-up. I’m running this setup through MyMovies and it all works great EXCEPT that when a movie file finishes playing in MPC-HC, the player just sits there. What I want, of course, is for MPC-HC to exit and MediaCenter/MyMovies to regain focus.
Does anybody know of a way to do this?
You need to assign the Media-Stop command in MPC to EXIT
Thanks a bunch Damian, regular WMC always complained.
Damian —
Yes, that is already assigned and works as advertised; if I hit STOP on the remote, MPC-HC exits.
What I’m talking about is the movie plays to the end and then MPC-HC enters a PAUSED state. While one could certainly just hit STOP at this point and exit the program, I was looking for a method for the program to do this automatically once a file (or media stream, as it were) is finished.
@ Andy,
When MPC goes to the end mine stops automatically and goes back into Media Browser. All I have is the STOP key and the EXIT& key in MPC both assigned to MEDIA_STOP.
OK, I just tested with MyMovies and have the same problem. It must be a mymovies issues because with Media Browser once the movie finishes using this parameter (“{0}” /fullscreen /play /close) MPC closes and I go right back into Media Browser
Hi Damian,
Maybe you’ve got some insight on this one. I’m trying to configure MPCHC to do skip forward and skip back just like WMC does, using the skip keys (the >| and |< keys that give +30 seconds and -5 seconds for recorded TV). In MPCHC these keys seem to move from one chapter to the next. I never use chapter stuff… just want them to be jump forward large and jump backward medium in MPCHC. Went into Options… Keys and assigned Jump Forward (Large) to VK_Next (no modifier) and Jump Backward (medium) to VK_Previous (no modifier). But these keys still do chapter movements, even if I clear out the entries for Next and Previous commands to none/blank.
Any thoughts here? I can assign the Jump commands to different keys and they work… but I seem to be missing something re: the VK_Next/Prior to get it to work like it does in WMC. Maybe I've got the wrong VK assignment?
Any help appreciated!
PS: Another EAC3to Gui is working fabulously. Thanks for the help bringing it to MikeEby's attention.
Marc
Having a slight issue unrelated to your guide, but thought you might have some insight.
Having great success bitstreaming as long as the movie is started from the beginning.
I have “Remember DVD position” and “Remember File Position” both checked.
As long as I start/stop/restart the same movie all is good. But, If I stop one movie and start another (especially with different HD Audio format), then my receiver (Denon) show multichannel in, indicating that MPC/FFD are decoding.
If I stop the movie and restart from the beginning, bitstreaming will start correctly again.
Any ideas?
@ Ash,
Are you using the latest version of FFDShow? I know some of the older versions of FFDShow had audio issues when stopping/starting. I haven’t had any issues so far with stopping/starting (can’t recall what version I am using)
@ Marc_G,
Not sure to be honest. For my movies I use the chapter skip. I assigned the other buttons (I think > and <) to jump forward (sorry at work, can't see what I actually set up)
i have the latest versions listed on the russian site. i’ve reformatted and reinstalled with the same results. i’ll continue to poke around for answers. thanks.
Thanks for the guide… all working perfect except for the remote… i have origenae case with irtrans… any solution?
Sorted my jump forward/back key problem. Solution is here:
http://www.sevenforums.com/hardware-devices/78397-how-figure-out-vk_-virtual-key-key-2.html#post690283
@ Mark_G
Nice work, I have been trying to figure this out for a while.
MPC HC Slider Bar crashes…
Hi folks. Wondering if anybody has thoughts on this one:
Very frequently, using the slider bar to move forward/back in MPC HC causes the program to crash when watching AVC/h264 content. I think it happens with VC1 as well, but not old SD material. Very reproducible, in x32 & x64, on two totally different W7 systems:
1. Open MPCHC
2. Open a file (I use quick open file, probably any other way will be the same)
3. Use slider bar to click around to different places. Will NOT crash (probably).
4. Close the file (without closing MPCHC).
5. Open a different file. Click around with the slide bar. By the second or third click MPCHC will crash and ask to exit.
I’ve used builds from late last year through the most current nightly build. Content ripped either by MakeMKV or EAC3to.
Thoughts?
I think I may have figured out a solution to an issue that’s been holding me back from implementing this. I really only want to invoke MPCHC for movies that contain forced subtitles (which are the ones I rip using Another EAC3to GUI). What has been holding me back is that since pretty much all my media are .MKV, figuring out a way to tell Media Browser to launch MPCHC for “these MKVs” (the select few) but not for “those MKVs” (everything else, including lots of TV series rips etc.) has been challenging. However, I have found that if I rename a movie from movie.mkv to movie.mkv2, thus potentially giving Media Browser a discrete extension to use to separate them by, MPCHC can still figure out that .mkv2 files are really .mkv and it plays them fine. I’ve just tested this by manually loading the renamed files in MPCHC; haven’t set it up with Media Browser yet. I’ll have to test to see if Media Browser recognizes my new .mkv2 extension or ignores it.
Marc
@ Marc_G,
Interesting. I have been trying to sort out some issues I have with MPC HC. I record live tv from WMC and use MCEBuddy to cut out the commercials/convert to h.264 mp4. For whatever reason though when I play back in MPC HC it is terribly pixelated (in particular my son’s cartoons). I through the mp4 into an mkv and still the same problem. What makes it even weirder, the issue only happens with my PCs that I upgraded to CCC 10.3, if I keep my HTPCs with the 8.69RC driver I don’t get the pixelation (the same files play perfectly fine in WMP/WMC though). So the problem is that all my Blu Rays are in mkv which play fine in MPC, but then my sons shows don’t. I have been moving my son’s shows to avi so I can have just played with the WMP player, but changing them to .mkv2 could be a solution. Let me know how it goes.
My first test with Media Browser suggested that by default it didn’t recognize the .mkv2 file as a media file, so pretty much ignored its existence. It was a very brief test though. I’ll research it over the next day or two as time permits. Stay tuned, I’ll report back when I sort it out. I’m sure there’s a solution.
After some more lack of success and fumbling failures in messing with the config file in media browser, it doesn’t recongnize my .mkv2 files yet. I posted on the MB forum here:
http://www.mediabrowser.tv/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=6096&p=44863#p44863
Will report back with answers when I get them and try them out.
Interim solution (a real hack, but it works!) to my “launch mpchc for some but not all mkv files” problem is posted at the link above. Basically, when in doubt, lie.
Marc
Final solution to playing some mkv files in MPCHC posted to the media browser BBS at the link two posts up. I hope it helps someone!
Me again!
I was thinking to use MPC-HC as a possible way to get around the “Weird Stuttering Video Problem” caused by some content on some OTA stations (posted here: http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/t/79957.aspx?PageIndex=25 ) by using MPCHC to play my .wtv files for the specific afflicted series.
For me this is only CSI/CSI-NY. I’ve got Media Browser launching them in MPCHC just fine, but MPCHC plays them without DXVA, so they don’t look great, actually worse than dealing with the original stutter.
Anybody got hints for playing .wtv with DXVA in MPC HC?
My graphics card is ATI HD 5670 if it matters.
Marc
I must have done something wrong. I can see a screen shot from my movie inside Media Center. But when I click “Play”, Media Center minimizes for a second and then comes back. Since the movie never starts I guess there is an error. Would that information be logged somewhere so I can figure out my problem?
@ John,
Did you enter in the parameters in the Media Browser configuration tool? Also, if you did enter in the parameters did you type in manually or copy and paste directly from my writeup?
I tried entering the parameters both times. Perhaps I just don’t understand steps 4a1 and 4a2. They seem to do the same thing. Does 4a2 override what happens in 4a1? What about the batch file in step 3? How is that used in this process?
@ John,
Step 2,3, and 4a1 are no longer needed with the latest Media Browser. Which version are you using? If you are using the latest version then you just need to do 4a2 and make sure you type in manually:
“{0}” /fullscreen /play /close
Do not copy and paste this line from here because for whatever reason when copying and pasting something doesn’t get picked up correctly
I am using 1.3.1249.0 of the MPC-h64 with MediaBrowser2_2_3.
I retyped the command line parameters again and it still fails.
There is a brief flick when I hit play as if it tries to launch something but it quickly returns to Media Center.
It started working now. I don’t know what changed, but I guess that is not important at the moment.
@ John,
Good to hear
Quote:
“{0}” /fullscreen /play /close
Do not copy and paste this line from here because for whatever reason when copying and pasting something doesn’t get picked up correctly
/quote
For anyone interested, the trouble with copying/pasting the line is that it uses open/close quotes rather than straight quotes. Probably the editor uses “smart quotes” that replaced Damian’s straight quotes with the curly quotes when he first entered the line.
I get “file not found” when MPC-HC opens up . Is there something in the file arrangement between Mediabrowser and MPC i need to think of ? For info, all my files are on a separate server and arranged in folders by metabrowser
K
@ Marc_G,
Did you ever find a solution for playing wtv files in MPC HC? I am not sure MPC HC has been developed to fully support wtv (at least with DXVA). You could possibly trying using custom external filters but I would be afraid that by doing so it would break something else. Right now all my wtv recordings get encoded after the commercials are cut out, so I don’t spend much time with that format.
@ Kent,
Can you clarify what type of file are you trying to play? Are you sure the file can be accessed over the network?
I am trying to play mkv files, and tries to follow your instructions above. Yes I can access all the files over the network, and can play all files on MPC by opening files via file menu in the MPC…could it be the command line issue in media browser that you mention is the culpit?
@ Kent,
Do you know what version of Media Browser you are using? Also, with the parameters are you typing in manually or just doing a copy/paste from the site?
i am using 2.2.3
i will check the parameters once more tonight and see if there is a problem there. to the best of my understanding i have followed above instructions to the point, but will check again
Let me know how it goes, I am sure we can get this figured out.
@Damian re: WTV files in MPC-HC
Lacking an obvious solution I let it drop in the press of other things going on. I was a bit nervous about setting up external filters but may give it another shot when I get some time. I haven’t extensively googled around to figure out what filters might work best… And I figure MPCHC might evolve to natively handle these files better. I only have 2 hrs per week of problematic stutter WTV content (CSI, CSI-NY); the rest of my recorded TV is just fine. So, this fell below the line for me… But if anyone has ideas I’m open to them!
If CSI/CSI-NY are the only issues maybe just try cutting out commercials/encoding just these episodes, and leave all other shows in their wtv format?
I got it to work, It must have been something with the text in the command line that i messed up..now all I have to do is get some functional programming of remote for mpc-hc to integrate flawlessly
Kent
Great info, I am using the media browser 2.2.3 version but when I select the mkv file from media browser it opens up MPC with no problem and the movie plays fine, but if I select on my remote to “pause” or “play” in MPC, it knocks me out of MPC and it goes back to media browser menu, but you can still hear the movie in the backgroung playing on MPC. I am using the Harmony remote 880 and my case is the Antec Fusion Remote Black, and running Media Player Classic – Home Cinema 1.3.1845. I am not sure what it could be….
Are you using the IR Receiver that comes built in with your Antec case?
yes I am using the receiver built in, Harmony software recommended for me to set it up this way :
(device as = Media Center PC), (Manuf. = Soundgraph), model = Imon (media center pc)…
My guess it is an issue with Imon software. It sounds like WMC is still staying on top, so the signals your remote is sending through gets registered by Imon to WMC and MPC. I actually have the IR receiver on my Antec Black case disabled and just use a USB IR Receiver.
Just to confirm, you set up the parameters to be used when MPC launches, correct?
The parameters I got it as : “{0}” /fullscreen /play /close
When the movie is done playing, it returns to media browser with no problem. I’ll see how much a usb ir receiver goes for at my local store and I’ll probably get one if the price is right.
I just bought a cheap mce remote:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16880121001&cm_re=mce_remote-_-80-121-001-_-Product
I haven’t messed around with the imon software but I feel like someone else had the same problem with you where the imon software was keeping WMC on top. I will let you know if I find anything.
@Damian
Great guide BTW.
Issue:
I’m using the latest MB and have my trailers in a ‘Trailers’ folder within the main movie folder as described here:
http://community.mediabrowser.tv/permalinks/1465/how-exactly-does-local-trailer-support-work
MPC works great as an external player for the main movie, but when I select a trailer to play MB seems to be trying to open them in WMP12. I get a windows error saying it doesn’t support this file type (.mkv or .m2ts). This is because I don’t have any filters setup for WMP12 to play .mkv or .m2ts (MPC takes care of those and I don’t need WMP12 to play them). I don’t want to install any other filters than I already do (ffdshow’s latest build).
The trailers play fine if they are .avi that WMP12 can play. So I know that MB is finding the trailer ok.
Question:
What do I need to do to get MB to play my trailers (.mkv & .m2ts) using MPC?
File types .mkv and .m2ts are played by MPC by default.
Do I need to set MPC as my default media player?
I don’t want MPC then attempting to play my audio (flac & mp3′). WMP12 plays those fine and I don’t want to break that.
I realize this is probably a issue for Sam @ MB to answer, but I have searched their forums without success for an answer.
Thanks for your time.
Hmmm….so you have Media Browser set to launch MPC whenever you play an mkv or m2ts, but whenever you try to play a local trailer that is mkv or m2ts MPC does not get launched but WMP does get launched? Or is it just the internal WMC player that is trying to play the trailers?
Correct-
When a local trailer tries to play, WMP gets launched, NOT MPC.
Seems like whatever code for local trailer playback is telling the internal WMC (which is WMP12 right?) to play them, NOT the external player (MPC is our case).
Have you tried this yourself with local trailers?
Thanks
Since I use other media players for playback of my media I could not use the new local trailer setup since it causes problems. If I get a minute though I will test out to see if I get the same issue. This definitely sounds like an issue with the Media Browser code that ignores external players for trailers. A quick fix for mkvs is to register MatroskaSplitter.ax. This will get your mkvs playing in WMP and minimize installing extra crap
Ok, that is what seems to be the problem. I’m trying to find where on Media Browser’s website to ask for support for this, but haven’t found it yet.
How exactly do I :
A quick fix for mkvs is to register MatroskaSplitter.ax.
Thanks again.
Another question:
Since CCC 10.4 seems to have fixed most of the EDID issues that tulli has been addressing, have you switched to using the ATI HDMI audio driver from the Realtek one?
I can’t get TrueHD with the Realtek HDMI HD audio driver 2.42 and have read the ATI HDMI audio driver fixes this.
I never did use one of tulli’s EDID overides.
Thanks
The website is fragmented. What you have to do is post the topic in Community Tracker (http://community.mediabrowser.tv/).
As far s registering Matroska, download the standalone filters here, all the way at the bottom of the screen. (http://www.xvidvideo.ru/media-player-classic-home-cinema-x86-x64/media-player-classic-homecinema-x86-x64-svn-1856.html). Locate MatroskaSplitter.ax and copy it somewhere on your harddrive. Take a look at Step # 8 which outlines how to register (http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2010/02/24/guide-setting-up-bitstreaming-with-your-windows-7-htpc-part-ii/). Let me know if you need help
As far as CCC I am actually still using the 8.69RC, so I haven’t messed around with the latest 10.4. Did you clean out all old drivers/EDIDs?
I haven’t attempted the clean out yet. I did however purchase a copy of driver cleaner and plan on it this weekend.
I have DTS-HD MA working great (thanks to your guide), but TrueHD plays multi-channel. I did attempt one failed EDID override weeks ago. I completely lost my display and finally after a few restarts I had to RDP from my desktop and use my system image to get me back. So, I’ve been apprehensive about the EDID thing.
Thanks for the link and I did send this to the MB tracker found here:
http://community.mediabrowser.tv/topics/2368
I’ll keep you updated.
Thanks
Just an update to report.
Local Trailers within media browser are NOT played by your external media player. Therefore, you have to install the proper codecs for WMC’s native player (WMP12) to play your local trailers.
The answer to my issue:(Known bug)
http://community.mediabrowser.tv/permalinks/1576/video-error-with-trailers-in-mediabrowser-2-2-2
Thanks for your help Damian
Stelvio,
Thanks for the update. That stinks. I dont know if the fix will be in for the next MB update on the 15th.
For now just register MatroskaSplitter.ax and your mkvs will be fine. Any m2ts trailers you have I would move into mkvs as well so you don’t have to hack up Windows
I just bought my first HTPC and your site is an indispensable asset. I’m also using MB with MPC-HC as an External player. Works great, for mkv, ts. Since I need subtitles I thought I’d use it for .avi’s as well (quite a few which are in two parts). This is where the problem lies (http://www.mediabrowser.tv/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=3939).
Since I can’t just join my entire collection and I also need subtitles could you please describe how I’d use WMC itself to play .avi’s (with subs). I came across this: http://www.hack7mc.com/2009/07/loading-subtitles-with-directvobsub-vsfilter.html, but am not sure what exactly it breaks (I want to keep the defaults as much as possible, that is one of the reason I went with MPC-HC).
Are there other ways? Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
I decided to do a bit of a guide on how to get skipping working the same as Media Centre with Harmony Remotes:
Options > Keys
- Set any key relating to skipping forward or back to nothing
- Set App Command for Jump Backward Medium to MEDIA_PREVIOUSTRACK
- Set App Command for Jump Forward Large to MEDIA_NEXTTRACK
Note how one is set to medium jump and one is large.
Now go to Options > Tweaks and set the jump distances:
Medium = 5000ms
Large = 30000ms
hi! thanks for having this great tutorial!! im having problems playing mkv from the media browser on WMC. i keep on getting the “Failed to render file” error everytime i play a movie. i can play mkv movies using MPC alone but using media browser on WMC, i keep on getting that error.
hope to hear from you soon!
many thanks,
allan
@ Allan,
Just to confirm, you get the error when trying to play an mkv file from MediaBrowser using WMCs player or launching MPC?
Hi Damian,
yes, i get an error playing a MKV file using MPC on WMC’s Media Browser. MPC opens but it doesn’t play the MKV file.
thanks!
@ Allan,
Are you using the latest MPC HC (svn 1940 here – http://www.xvidvideo.ru/media-player-classic-home-cinema-x86-x64/)?
Everything working ok… but some issues: how i make to show in my screen the infos like control status / remain time etc? And finaly if you press (stop/exit) not closing normaly… before comes in MB flashing the screen!
ugh, i installed ffdshow and MPC following your directions on your other directions, but I am confused, I cannot open any of my recorded tv .wtv files that I already had recorded that work in WMP… is there something I am missing?
@ Sean,
Are you trying to use MPC HC for your wtv files? If so I don’t think it is supported and you should just use the internal WMC player for playback.
Very nice article–as a fan of MPC, this was very useful to help me set things up to bet good use out of the media remote I picked up cheap on Newegg. I do have one question, though–is there a way to set things up so that WMC starts in Media Browser without using shortcuts–specifically, I’m wanting it to start in MB when I hit the Big Green Button on the remote. Complete newbie with WMC, so feel free to point and laugh if it’s got a simple and stupid answer.
Or feel free to just point and laugh at my poor spell-checking skills. *get* good use, not bet–it’s not that kind of setup.
@ Vulpis,
No worries on the spelling
If you install the latest MediaBrowser (Cronos) during the installation there is an option to have Media Browser automatically launch on start up. As for the Green Button, although I have not tried yet editing the entry points may do the trick, see article linked below:
http://www.hack7mc.com/2009/05/media-center-command-line-switches.html
Right–problem is, this is my general use PC, not a dedicated media machine. the main reason I’m setting this up is so that if I’m feeling lazy, I can watch videos from across the room…so running MB or WMC on startup isn’t particularly an option. As for the article–that’s the same one I already looked at that tells how to set up shortcuts that will automatically jump to MB, not how to set it up so that all I have to do is hit the green button and it starts up WMC/MB and goes directly to my video listings. Ah well–the existing behavior isn’t too horrible–green button, browse down to the MB start entry, and then go from there. I was hoping to be able to cut out the intermediate step, though.
I believe there is a way to edit the “Green Button” to default to Media Browser instead of just WMC. I forget where I read about it but if I find the article I will post back here.
When I was messing around with Boxee I came across this post about using the Green Button to launch Boxee instead of WMC:
http://forums.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=15458
Thanks. I kinda wish this remote had a driver that let you configure such things directly (not a MS remote, but the Diamond ‘All in Wonder Green Button Remote’…which means I have a Big Green Button, but not the red blue and yellow ones I’ve seen mentioned elsewhere). I *think* I remember seeing something called Intelliremote that lets you reprogram some things, but I’d like to try to work with the existing setup rather than having to install Yet Another Third Party Program.
How i make to show in my screen the infos like control status / remain time etc?
I wonder if someone know how to pull out the list of audio / subtitles in MPC instead of switching to the “next track / subtitle” with every click. If you have a movie with 10 subtitles in different languages and let’s say yours is the last one, it is a bit uncomfortable to click “next” couple of times…
@Stiwi Ummm….other than using Navigate->Audio Language or Navigate->Subtitle Language, you mean? Or is this something you’re trying to access from your remote?
Yes, other than method mentioned above, as I am accessing the subtitles from my remote.
Ok, i have been reading and following your forum for sometime now to setup my new HTPC and WHS builds. I have everything on the HTPC up and running how i want it to, but now i am stuck on my home server. I am already at 12TB of DVD and BR rips stored on 2TB external drives. I am going to move all this to my server, but i dont want to use WHS mirroring to back up files because that will cost me double storage. I was wondering if you have used FlexRAID? Do you recommend it? Is it easy to setup? I am lost when it comes to software and your guides and helped me so much, but i havent seen any meaningful guide for setting up FlexRAID and i am overseas where the videos would take forever to load and watch (we are still using dial up modems out here). Any input would be great. I want back up, but not at the cost losing half my storage space.
@ islander84,
I honestly know very little about FlexRaid. I know people have use WHS + FlexRaid together (where WHS is used for the O/S and FlexRaid is used for the pooled drives). Here is a good starting point:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=19008745
Hi,
I thought I’d followed the above directions properly, but when I click on a movie in MB, it opens up MPC but then freezes on the splash screen. If I click on the MPC window I can see along the bottom the message ‘File Not Found’.
What am I doing wrong???
Might have something to do with steps 4a1 and 4a2 – I got confused here. 4a2 overrides the ‘External Player Location’ you enter with step 4a1.
Help please !!!!!
Nevermind, I forgot to change the ” in the above section.
Thanks very much for this tutorial.
DirectX Web Installer shitware is actually required? Or does MPC-HC just need a certain revision or newer? I assume the latter but clarity would be nice.
All the site says is that Direct X version 9.29.1962 is required.
Also, I was running through this using my older version of MPC since I won’t be able to get my hands on MPC-HC until later – will this work with dual monitors? MPC goes to the monitor 1 no matter where Media Browser/Media Center are when I hit play.
I believe MPC HC would launch from whatever monitor it was last active on. The way I make sure this works with my dual monitor setup if to open MPC HC in fullscreen on the monitor you want it to launch on. Then take MPC HC out of fullscreen mode, and then close it. This should leave MPC HC opening on this monitor. Let me know if this works.
dbone,
i tried to get MB working within 7mc to play mkv via yours and greeneyez guide and ran into issues. (no sound, subtitles etc).
i would like to revert back to MPC/WMC/MB as described here. is it the cleanest/streamline install in your opinion?
Do i need to remove shark codecs and use a cleaner like ccleaner?
Should i reinstall ffdshow? and do i need madflac?
i was getting an orange icon ffdshow icon running rips through 7mc but i remember a blue icon that actually told me i was bitstreaming correctly. Can you enlighten me on the color icons?
thx again in advance!
Yes, I think it is the cleanest install. If you are going to use MPC as your external player there is no need to keep sharks codecs. I would uninstall (make sure you uninstall via the shark config gui). I would then use CCleaner to clean everything out, and then install the latest MPC HC and FFDShow.
As far as the colors I think it has to do with what ffdshow decoder is being used, something like red means the audio decoder, blue is the video decoder, and orange is the dxva video decoder.
Hi everyone! Thanks for this great guide! I am having an issue with Media Player and Media Browser when trying to watch Blurays. I have MPC set up as the external player. When I click to watch the Bluray from Media Browser, the screen flickers, the MPC logo shows up (full screen) but then the movie never starts. It all seems to be working perfectly except for the movie not playing (the logo for MPC stays up permanently). The files work in MPC fine if I open them directly from MPC. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!
Hi Peter,
Are you talking about a BluRay rip (i.e. folder or ISO)? If so Media Browser does not launch this properly from MPC HC which is why it isn’t working for you. To be honest, I am not sure if anyone ever posted a bug on this.
Yes, I was talking about a Bluray folder structure. Does anyone know if there is a fix for this in the future? Seems silly that MPC can play these files but Media Browser can’t automate them being played (since it can automate MKVs).
Is the only other way to make this happen by using TMT3?
Thanks for the follow up!
I don’t know if this has ever been reported as a bug on the Media Browser Community Tracker (I use mkvs instead of BluRay folders so I have no problems with MPC HC launching). Using TMT3/PDVD with Media Browser would do the trick
Hey Peter,
I got MPC HC working with Media Browser for folder rips, see the UPDATE section at the bottom of this guide
if i’m not interested in bitstreaming trueHD audio, i don’t need to install any other codecs, the MPC-HC should take care of it, correct?
Folks,
I just updated the guide, if you go to the bottom of the guide go to the UPDATE section where it explains how to set up MPC HC to properly launch and play back a BluRay rip from Media Browser.
I have a following problem with MPC-HC: whenever I play a DVD and the menu shows up, which shortcut key is responsible for “enter”? It seems to be something basic but I didn’t find “enter” under the “keys” section of MPC. When I play it through WMC7, everything is ok and I can navigate through DVD menu.
Hi Damian,
so far no luck for me.
I ended up having PowerDVD started each time I want to play BluRay Rip.
My problem is, that I can´t get MPC to be handled as registered player for “BluRay Disc”.
After installing PowerDVD, you can right-click in the BluRay Drive (either original BluRay in BluRay-Rom OR mounted BluRay Rip in a Virtual Drive).
There is simply no MPC entry in the context Menu.
If you go to System Properties, you´ll have the possibility to set different Programs for different media types.
E.g. you can set “DVD” to PowerDVD OR WMP OR MPC or whatever is installed.
BUT:
For BluRay it offers only PowerDVD since Windows 7 does not recognize MPC as player for BluRay Disc.
Therefore any time I (automatically by MediaBrowser) mount a BluRay rip and try to play it out of MediaBrowser, I end up getting PowerDVD started and the movie played (I know, there is worse, but I still want MPC to play it).
For your information:
My BlueRay Rips are in folder structure (BDMV and Certificate).
I change them to .ISO after I ripped them.
so basically there would be the streams available if needed.
But I tried to point MediaBrowser to these folders and set MPC-HC to be external player but I end up with the already discussed “failed to render file”.
Unfortunately I discovered, that MPC-HC seems no longer to be able to play “BluRay Discs”.
When I start MPC-HC and click “open DVD folder” and point to the Virtual drive I get “failed to render file”.
I could swear that this worked some days ago.
Must be screwed up while installing and uninstalling MPc and PowerDVD 100 times or I screwed up config, I don´t know.
Any ideas what I could try for my special need?
Playing ISOs out of MB using MPC-HC?
thx
Voider
Hmmmm….honestly not sure what the best approach is. I don’t use ISOs (I just keep in folder structure). If I find some time I may try to create an ISO test file to mess around with.
When I try to install the Directx file (Directx June 2010 Redist), what folder should I extract it to? Without that, I keep getting a message that I need to install the latest Directx. Once I click okay, the movie plays in MPC-HC, but it would be nice to get rid of that message.
When I installed I just let it install into the default directory. The message you are getting sounds like it did not install correctly
That might be right. I just double checked and the link that you have provided here is different than the link that I got from the MPC-hc website when I was downloading the latest version of MPC-hc. I downloaded the file that you have linked to and it is going through the installation process. The other question I have is when I go into options>Miscellaneous, I do not have the 2 options that you have shown in your screenshot to renew playback from where left off or something like that. I thought I installed the latest version of MPC-HC. My version is 1.4.2689.0. Do you know if this is taken away in the later versions or if this is no longer need to be set. When I go into my Miscellaneous screen, I only see the color, saturation etc.
In the later MPC HC they must have moved menu items around. It is now in “Player” under Options.
Okay got it. One more question. Is there a way to start Media center by default when I start my HTPC. I know that we can do this in XBOX360, but can we do this in the HTPC as well?
See if this works:
http://www.tipstrs.com/tip/11219/Run-Windows-Media-Center-on-Startup
Yes, this helps. But even otherwise, it looks like my harmony remote has a windows media center related activity and if I press that, it starts windows media center.
On a different note, I was able to set up the subtitles to on and off using the keys in the options note that you had mentioned. It works great so far.
Looks like the “remember position” options are missing in the latest release of MPC-HC. AFAICT you need to add a “favorite” by hand to get that to work.
Oh. Found it. Damn.
Cool. I think they moved around the menu items with the later releases.
Just wanted to say thanks for this great post. Together with your post to get bitstreaming working in WMC, I now have HD movies and HD sound working in WMC… fantastic!!
Thanks!
BTW, I am converting my movies to MKVs. You suggest in this post that MPC can play Blu Ray rips. Do you mean that it should be able to play rips with the menus and everything? Or just the movie itself?
Thanks
Great to hear everything is working. MPC HC cab play Blu Ray rips, but only the main movie (so you lose the menus)
I am having the same problem as Allan above.
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hi! thanks for having this great tutorial!! im having problems playing mkv from the media browser on WMC. i keep on getting the “Failed to render file” error everytime i play a movie. i can play mkv movies using MPC alone but using media browser on WMC, i keep on getting that error.
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I have the latest MPC installed. I am thinking that it isnt loading up the directshow filters properly?
For the parameters you entered in Media Browser did you type them in manually or did you copy/paste? They need to be typed in manually because for whatever reason if you copy/paste from here the characters get messed up. Also, do you have the latest DirectX installed?
Thank you. I typed them in manually and now it works. Very weird.
If the MKV has chapter with MPC splitter and ffdshow the win7MC player crash! Any idea why happen this?
PS. I don’t like the Haali because don’t play trueHD (freezes)!
So you are using the WMC player and not MPC HC? I don’t believe the WMC player supports mkv chapters unless you are using Media Control
Dear Damian Hi, yes I use WMC7 & MediaControl! The crash comes from MPC slitter, with Haali no problem but the Haali has many problems with TrueHD playback! Any solution for the MPC splitter?
I know Media Control can be unstable/unreliable, so I don’t know if it is how Media Control is using the MPC Splitter that is causing the problem. This is actually the reason why I just prefer to use the MPC HC player as an external player launching from Media Browser as I find there are too many variables with WMC player that could go wrong. I am surprised you are having issues with Halli and TrueHD as I believe the issue with Haali was usually DTS(MA). Try using the latest Haali ,remux one of your TrueHD mkvs with the latest mkvmerge and see if the problem goes away (I think a fix was added to mkvmerge in one of the latest builds to correct some issues with Haali)
Dear Damian thanks a lot for your answer, I will try all this!
Dear Damian a) I remux the mkv (with truehd) and now works! Thanks. b) with MPC-HC (1.5.1.2910 beta) and last catalyst 10.12 I have problem in MC7 & MediaBrowser (external player) to make work in 24p… plays like missing frames! Any idea why happen this?
The playback aspect of this has been working great for me so far. I still run into issues when I have to skip, rewind, jump back or fast forward as it looks like the MPC-HC and Media Browser go out of sync or something like that. It might just be a matter of me not mapping the correct commands on my universal remote also. Has anyone else run into this problem or is there an easy fix that I might be missing?
I haven’t run into those issues yet, but will say I don’t regularly skip, rewind, etc… The only weird thing I encounter is that at times MPC won’t close down properly, so when I turn my HTPC back on and go into MB MPC will continue playing in the background (forcing me to whip out the mouse/keyboard to close). How nice would it be if the internal WMC player handled all this properly so we didn’t have to rely on a 3rd party player…
I think the fact that MPC does chapters “out of the box” for MKVs is a fantastic feature. I use a WMC remote and chapters worked without any modifications. I had to play with the mappings to get FF to work. I liked MPC so much I also send DVD playback to it. I did have to play with the key mappings to get up-down-left-right and select to work with DVD menus but otherwise it works well.
I have never seen any jumping round issues nor problems of it not closing. The only issue that ever occurs is MPC crashing, but it is rare enough that I have not bothered to investigate.
Hi,
can you please give what you are using to map some of your keys like skip forward, skip back, next chapter, previous chapter, fast forward and rewind. I am just using a Universal remote and I would like to map out these keys. Right now, every time I try to skip back or forward or use fast forward or rewind, the video and audio go out of sync and it looks like those commands are not going to the right player.
Thanks,
Pradeep
BTW, I was inspired by this post to do a WMC walkthrough were I discuss the features of WMC and show off it playing HD movies.
http://itproreview.net/WMCp1 Part 1 is an introduction
http://itproreview.net/WMCp2 Part 2 covers Menus, pictures and music
http://itproreview.net/WMCp3 Part 3 covers Netflix, video and movies
Part 3 also includes Media Browser and MPC working together.
I am going to film a part 4 that is a conclusion and a step by step walkthrough of how to set up WMC. I am planning to give special thanks to Damian because without him I would not have been able to get streaming HD sound working so well.
Very nicely done Martin. WMC is really a great tool, I guess the only real downside being MS does not seem to take it seriously. It will be interesting to see what/if devices come out with WMC embedded, and what flexibility the OEMs have over customizing.
Glad I could be of help. We are all in the same boat here, we just want to watch our media and have a nice looking/functional UI to navigate through. Hopefully the current ice storm hasn’t caused too much havoc your way.
Hi folks… long time, haven’t posted in a while.
For some reason when I launch MPC-HC from WMC, these days it is the wrong size, taking up maybe 45% of the screen, in the upper left, with the desktop showing in the rest of the space to the right and below.
I believe this started when I upgraded Media Browser to the latest version in January.
Any idea which setting got tweaked and what to do about it? Thanks in advance, folks!
Marc
Isn’t that done by the ““{0}” /fullscreen /play /clos” line? Did you try deleting this line and re-typing it in?
Thanks TheTinRam.
I checked and that line is properly set (including straight quotes instead of curly ones
It turns out that the Media Browser upgrade was a red herring. I haven’t used MPC-HC much because I use it just for subtitle movies, and recently I’ve had few of those. This problem actually dates backward a bit.
I think I may have messed something up when I was watching some funky Asian films with weird aspect ratios.
I tried fixing it by installing a recent build (1/31/2011 I think) and that didn’t fix it. But I reinstalled again with reset settings checked, and that took care of it. Then of course, I had to go in and fix my key settings because I had it set up specially to work with my wireless keyboard to mimic the way WMC uses those keys. But all is well now. Thanks for the help.
Marc
@Mark, the version you are running they changed the renderer and it is still very beta. Great (put very technical) thread on Doom9. http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1475721#post1475721
Hi and thanks. but it’s too technical for my knowledge… in simple words, can i fix this or i wait the next version?
Not sure I understand all of that thread either but I’m watching it to see what I can learn. In your case, I think I’d start with the latest public release that is here: http://mpc-hc.sourceforge.net/
See how that does ‘out of the box’ with out any tweaks. Then we can see where to go from there.
…Not sure I understand all of that thread… me too! Thanks I will try…
too many changes… we need new-fresh Guide!
Anybody have problems with MPC-HC freezing? I’ll be watching a movie, all is well, then at some random time 10 secs to 20 mins in, the video freezes. The audio may or may not freeze. The time indicator at the bottom, if I bring it up, keeps ticking away. It may eventually sort itself out after some minutes, but it’s a real pain.
Seems mostly to happen on BD rips (as opposed to DVDs) and with subtitles on.
Any experiences that may be useful? I tried updating to the latest nightly build (last night) but still see it.
Marc
Marc
Hey
just getting my feet wet with MCE 7…Using MPC-HC really helps me get around the low volume in WMC when playing movies…I am having a minor isue though…shouldn’t MPC-HC close upon completion of video file and take you back to Media Browser?..I am getting a resized MPC-HC window in a paused state…I wind up having to close MPC-HC manually to get back to Media Browser
Would be nice to just close on it’s own
Ray
What do you mean by “completion of the video”? As far as I remember I don’t actually remember if I ever let a movie just end. I tend to push the stop button on my remote. When I do, MPC-HC closes and I am back to WMC. I remember that I had to configure it.
Just assign EXIT to the stop command which will close out MPC and take you back to Media Browser. I believe this should also work if you let the movie finish on its own
I got it working now…I never configured MPC-HC for the remote,as I was just using a mouse and keyboard…now working very nice…that low volume in WMC was killing me
Thanks for the guidance
Hi,
I have been using this for quite a while now on my htpc (thanks to Damian again for helping me build the htpc). I recently ran into 2 issues.
1. When I try to play MKV files from my media browser using MPC-HC, I do not hear audio. I have heard audio on these same files in the past. So, not sure if some setting got changed accidentally or if something else has really changed in the way this works. Audio still works fine for AVI files. Can you help me with some direction on what I should look at to probably fix this.
2. When I start media center on my HTPC or when I switch to the HTPC using my harmony remote, media center always opens in non full screen mode (forcing me to use the keyboard and or mouse to make it full screen. Is there some setting to make sure that media center always remains in full screen mode.
Looks like the audio problem went away on its own. I still have the issue of media center not starting in full screen mode every time I switch to that activity on my harmony remote. If anyone has any ideas on how to fix that, please advice.
Thanks,
Pradeep
I’m having trouble getting Media Browser to open Media Home Center as a player. Is it estential to have My Movie set up? Media Browser works on the XBox but it’s not opening and playing through MHC.
What do you mean by “Media Home Center”? If you mean Media Player Classic Home Cinema, then you don’t need to have “My Movies” configured as Media browser does not look at it at all.
Damien is the expert around here, but I would say that if MPC is not being called properly then you made an error in step 4 or this guide (external players). You first need to specify which file extensions will be used for the external player and then you need the string of parameters Damien provided in step 4a2. Remember to type it and not copy-and-paste.
Hope that helps, if you didn’t mean MPC HC, then let us know what you meant by “Media Home Center”
I meant Media Player Classic Home Cinema. I got frustrated and took it all off but I may start over. Guess what I’m saying is when I open a movie on the XBox 360 Slim through WMC7, click on Media Browser and play the movie there, should the TV screen look like the MPC-HC player on my PC? If the subtitles show on MPC-HC on my PC desk-top, it should show on the XBox, right?
Oh, so you are using the 360 as a Media Center Extender? Thats interesting, didn’t know you could do that. If you get this working, let me know.
MPC HC doesn’t work on the Xbox360, you need to use the internal Xbox360 WMC player (with its limitations unfortunately)
i just installed mpc on my desktop and when i play a movie,it appears upside-down.can i change that? plz help
hi
whats the purpose of the bat file? you tell us how to make it, how to name it and where to put it, but you never say what we are to do with it? you point all players at exe files and not the bat file???
The bat file is no longer needed
I would like to get 2 answers:
1. Is it possible to replace “Skip forward”, “Increase speed”, “Slip back”, “Decrease speed” buttons on a toolbar with the function, i.e. “Jump forward (medium)”, “Jump back (medium)”, “Jump forward (large)”, “Jump back (large)”?
2. I have a large playlist. Sometimes I start to watch a movie, then before finished it, start another. When I want to get back to continue to watch previous one, instead of remembering file position, MPC starts the movie from the start? Why MPC doesn’t remember file position, like GOM Player for example do? “Remember File Position” is checked in MPC’s preferences, of course. It looks like this option is working only if the movie is continued to be played, but not after some other one.
If I use “Favorites” in my playlist, MPC unloads my large playlist, and loads only “Favorized” movie to a new blank playlist.
Any solution that I missed? Thanks in advance
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