Hi,

So here is my setup -
I have an MCE 2005 PC that is connected to an XBOX media center extender.

I have a ton of 1 hour DVDs that were created by my miniDVD camcorder and
have stored these on my MCE 2005 PC hard disk.

I am not able to view these using my extender.

I do understand that Microsoft intended users to not be able to watch DVDs
on their PC through the extender due to copyright issues.

But what about DVDs that you create on your own? I can't go back and convert
all my stored content into a media format that the extender permits to be
viewed. The conversion will be lossy and time consuming.

Is this something that slipped through the cracks during the
design/development of MCE?
Or is there a way I can do this?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

-Gaurav

Hi Gaurav:

I'm in the same situation as you. The answer is no. You cannot view a VOB
file through the Xbox extender. You must convert to a different format.

My solution: to view VOB files we gather around the monitor/TV directly
connected to the MCE machine; to view VOB files through the Xbox, I have gone
and converted to WMV which I can then view. However, watching WMV files
through the Xbox gives you very limited navigation: skip forward 30s and
back 6 secs and that's it. Therefore, I have only converted a fewe VOBs to
WMVs for this purpose. You could also convert to MPG as well. There may be
other solutions but the end result is, unfortunatly, you have to do some work
to get the file format you want to work throught the xbox extender.

"Gaurav Maini" wrote:

> Hi,
>
> So here is my setup -
> I have an MCE 2005 PC that is connected to an XBOX media center extender.
>
> I have a ton of 1 hour DVDs that were created by my miniDVD camcorder and
> have stored these on my MCE 2005 PC hard disk.
>
> I am not able to view these using my extender.
>
> I do understand that Microsoft intended users to not be able to watch DVDs
> on their PC through the extender due to copyright issues.
>
> But what about DVDs that you create on your own? I can't go back and convert
> all my stored content into a media format that the extender permits to be
> viewed. The conversion will be lossy and time consuming.
>
> Is this something that slipped through the cracks during the
> design/development of MCE?
> Or is there a way I can do this?
>
> Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>
> -Gaurav
>
>
>

You can't view video DVDs (.VOB files) on an extender. This
restriction was implemented to supposedly enforce DVD copyright
laws. But they went way overboard IMHO, as it also prevents users
from viewing media that they themselves have created and legally
own.

I don't know if Microsoft will correct this limitation/restriction
in the next generation of extenders (such as the Xbox 360). I sure
hope so...

BTW, if you're miniDVD video consists of a single .VOB file,
and the audio is encoded in MPEG1/Layer2, you should be able
to just rename the .VOB to .MPG, which would allow you to play
it on the extender.

--
-Bob
_______________________________
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP Media Center Edition
http://www.microsoft.com/ehome


"Gaurav Maini" <gaurav_maini@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:%23wDmSPqwFHA.3556@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
> Hi,
>
> So here is my setup -
> I have an MCE 2005 PC that is connected to an XBOX media center extender.
>
> I have a ton of 1 hour DVDs that were created by my miniDVD camcorder and
> have stored these on my MCE 2005 PC hard disk.
>
> I am not able to view these using my extender.
>
> I do understand that Microsoft intended users to not be able to watch DVDs
> on their PC through the extender due to copyright issues.
>
> But what about DVDs that you create on your own? I can't go back and convert
> all my stored content into a media format that the extender permits to be
> viewed. The conversion will be lossy and time consuming.
>
> Is this something that slipped through the cracks during the
> design/development of MCE?
> Or is there a way I can do this?
>
> Any help would be greatly appreciated.
>
> -Gaurav
>
>