Questions about DVDs
I’m the program manager for DVDs and Movies so if you have questions, send them my way.
Two I got recently are…
Q: Is it possible for Media Center to remember the ‘resume’ position of multiple DVDs?
A: No, Media Center only remembers where you left off of your most recent disc. Yes, it would have been great if we could have improved this functionality when we introduced My DVDs so that Media Center would remember the position of any disc you stopped watching, but we had a tight schedule and limited resources and had to focus our attention elsewhere.
Q: Will My DVDs be available on the XBox 360?
A: No. We did not implement the ability to remotely play back a DVD from a MCE to an XBox 360 Extender so it did not make sense to make My DVDs available. I certainly understand how cool it would be if you could put your MCE and full loaded DVD changer in a closest and use XBox 360’s to watch your DVD collection from any room wirelessly but this is something that’s going to have to wait until a future release.
The xbox360 has been the impetus behind the transformation of my media room. Windows Media Center 2005 (WMC2K5) is certainly robust and easy to use. The MyDVDs tweak is a welcomed addition to anyone’s environment. However, the inability for the xbox360 to mirror the MyDVD functionality is almost too much to bear. Hopefully this will be addressed sooner than later. I know you can’t please everyone all the time, but please take this to heart. I, and a number of other people would certainly appreciate and enjoy this feature. Thank you for being so forthcoming on the site and continuing to work on a project that has certainly streamlined the way my household handles multimedia.
Matt,
I really appreciate you making this info available to us. I have a question for which I have been searching for answers with out any and I am hoping you can help. The My DVD feature that you have come up with looks awesome. Currently I have a Sony DVD changer and use a Pronto remote which allows me to select DVDs from the changer. It works ok but not nearly as cool as the My Dvd feature on MCE 2005. From what I can gather there are only a few options for using My Dvds. One is to buy the new Sony computer with the 200 disc changer. This is not a good option for me becuase we have 350 dvds and already have a newer computer so for the $2000.00 price tag we only be able to access part of our dvd collection. The second option would be to add a Niveus chnager to my current system. The 200 disc changer cost 2500.00 so this also doesn’t seem like a good option. For my current collection it would cost about $5000.00 for 2 of these. Are these currently the only options for using the My DVD interface? If so what do you see as the future for this feature. Do you think more companies will release changers which will drive down the price? Could it be possible for newer players like the Sony CX777ES to be accesed using My Dvds? This is a 400 disc player that cost around $500.00. I really love the interface and the useability but right now it is too expensive for me. Obviously MS can’t control the price of the changers so I am just hoping you have some input as to when we may see large changers that will work with MCE 2005 at a lower price which will most probably be driven by competion.
Mike
Hi Mike, the Sony XL1 and the Niveus are currently your only options. Expect to see more changers in the spring but I wouldn’t get your hopes up about a $500 changer.
Hi, is this comming in vista?
“Is it possible for Media Center to remember the ‘resume’ position of multiple DVDs?”
Thanks
christian
This is not planned for Vista.
Hi,
Is the ShowGallery = Gallery feature going to be maintained in Vista to allow locally stored DVD content to be played?
Tim, yes.
Matt,
How in the world can I get dvd id information into the xml file for dvds in the changer that are not being reconized correctly? I have try my dvd’s settings and my dvds extended meta to no avail. Everytime I re-open my dvd’s it overwrites the xml file back to blank or wrong?
Are there any plans to add My DVDs to the xbox 360 Media Changer in the near future?
Hi, I’m using Vista RC1, and have enabled “my dvds”. I have all my DVDs ripped to a server in my garage (3 terabytes!), and can get them to play perfectly in Media Center. I’m using the Nvidia DVD decoder. My problem is that I cannot get Media Center to unmount a DVD so that I can play a different one. No matter what DVD I select, it always goes back to the one which I first started playing during that session of Media Center. If I want to watch a different DVD I need to re-start Media Center. Is this a ‘beta’ issue, or is there a setting somewhere?
Thanks
Robertxc, that was a known bug that should have been fixed in post RC1 buidls.
I have a question based on the post from RobertXC. How do you enable Media Center in Vista to see the library of DVD being on the hard drive? I am just using the Ultimate Edition which currently contains Media Center in it.
Thanks
Hoi
Will Media Center ever support the playback of commercial DVDs (outside of a fully trusted hardware path from optical drive to screen, that is)?
After deciding on a Media Center PC instead of a Myth box or a dedicated PVR, I was horrified to find out that my investment wouldn’t play commercial DVDs at their original resolution when connected to HD set, even after purchasing & installing compatible, CSS-compliant decoders. Why on earth would someone cripple the MCE product with a deliberate limitation that no other consumer-grade DVD player (hardware or software) imposes?
I know all the “workarounds” for this situation, but all I really want is the convenience of letting my family use the MCE interface for DVD playback without my having to go making .isos or whatnot. How about a patch? ;-)
ok I figured a COOOOOL workaround to stream your DVD on XBOX 360. If you are going to go thru all the pain to copy the dvd on the HDD, then just do one additional thing. Rename your .VOB files to .mpg and put it on a folder that is shared with XBOX 360… VOILA .. play all your dvds 5.1 surround sound! I have confirmed this with Vista ONLY …. dont know bout XP MCE.
Tell me how it works out for you !
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