Playing FLV files on Vista Media Center

I have been informed the instructions below no longer work. It seems most people these days just install the Shark Codec Pack for Windows 7 and flv playback is supported (supposed to be...I personally do not use this codec pack).
http://shark007.net/win7codecs.html

Old instructions...

Here's what I did to be able to play .flv (Flash) files on Vista Media Center.

1) Install FFDShow. In my case, I just installed Vista Codec Package 5.2.2 Final
Whichever you choose should be fine. I got the Vista Codec Package from here:
http://majorgeeks.com/Vista_Codec_Package_d5326.html

Caution - Once I did this, I noticed I lost audio from streamed movies. The codec package may have installed something that disrupted my AC3Filter. After reinstalling AC3Filter I got my audio back in movies. Always be careful when installing codecs. Installing over existing codecs can cause problems.

2)Edited the registry to add this:
Under HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.flv create a new registry string REG_SZ called "PerceivedType" and name it "video"
If you want to run a file to do this download this zip, extract it, run the .reg file (when prompted to merge in registry choose yes).

3) Next I copied a test .flv file to Public\Videos folder. I right clicked the file and chose 'open with' and set it to 'always open' with windows media player. When you open the file, WMP may say 'do you really want to open this extension' click OK, and the vid should start in WMP.

4) Next, I went into Media Center, Video Library, found my sample file, clicked it and it played.

Making subtitles work with Transcode 360

Transcode 360 appears to have the ability to display subtitles. These are enabled through the t360 configuration utility. But, as far as I know, it has never worked. One of the visitors to this blog took the matter into his own hands and fixed the transcode360 executable and now subtitles work. Here is what he says:

Hi,Me again, I was a bit busy doing other things, but I finally managed to get
subtitles and the right audiostream while transcoding.I've put a replacement
Transcode360.exe on
http://cid-bdb369ad69a0b096.skydrive.live.com/browse.aspx/Openbaar?uc=1
Assembling a tray app and setup, with all forms etc. is too much work for me at
the moment. Just stop the Transcode360 service, replace the .exe and start the
service again.I'm currently using the modified t360 with mencoder svn rev 28311
and ffmpeg svn rev 16596, both downloaded from http://oss.netfarm.it/mplayer-win32.php

The discussion took place on this thread's comment section:
http://tobias-tobin.blogspot.com/2008/12/reauthoring-ripping-with-changes-dvd.html

If you have transcode360 setup and working, just stop the service (this can be done through the config utility) and replace the transcode360.exe with his copy. Re-start the service. Also remember to enable subtitles in the config utility.

Any requests?

I am wondering if anybody has any computer issues I might be able to help with? I am open to requests. Email me if you have an question and think having a solution might help yourself and others. I've been doing Windows based IT support for about 10 years. These days my work revolves around Active Directory, scripting (wsh, vbscript, wmi, adsi), Group Policy, WSUS, imaging (Ghost), some VB.NET, and then about anything Windows related. Lately I have not had much to write about...

Installing drivers on a Panasonic CF-50 after clean XP with SP2 install

I had to rebuild a Panasonic CF-50. I didn't have drivers on disk to reinstall and my only option of OS was XP with SP2 already installed. I downloaded the missing drivers from the Panasonic site. But, I couldn't install any of them. When I tried to run their .exe I would get the message 'this does NOT support'. Yeah that's all it said.

So I used WinRAR to extract the files from the .exes. Once I had the files extracted I could run the setup, or just point to the driver file. I still could not get the video drivers to install. I ended up using Mobility Modder http://www.driverheaven.net/modtool.php.

I followed the instructions on the website (msxml update, and .Net install) and pointed the modder to the drivers I had extracted. It fixed them and I was able to install the video drivers.

Enabling Firewall Logging in Vista for troubleshooting purposes

The idea here is if you are having some kind of issue on your home network and you want to see if you are having a firewall issue, enabling the firewall logging of dropped packets can help with troubleshooting. Here is how to enable logging for dropped packets.

Enabling firewall logging in Windows Vista

With Control Panel in Classic View

Go To Start>Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Windows Firewall with Advanced Security

On the right click Properties

Click Private Profile Tab

Under Logging Click Customize button

Next to ‘Log dropped packets:’ do the pulldown and select Yes.

Click OK

If you want to log for Domain (not necessary unless your system is in a domain) or if you want to log for Public, click the tabs and repeat the steps above to enable logging for dropped packets.

Click OK

Close the Windows Firewall with Advanced Security window.

Now if your firewall blocks something on your home network you should be able to see it in the log.

To check the log open this file:
C:\Windows\system32\LogFiles\Firewall\pfirewall.log

Dealing with 'invalid' filenames in Windows ("Cannot read from the source file or disk")

Occassionaly I run into this issue. A person has copied over a file created by a Mac onto a Windows system, due to illegal or invalid naming, the file cannot be deleted or read.

Another issue might be someone saved something and the path was too deep. Now the data is problematic - it cannot be copied from the system, deleted, renamed, whatever.

I learned something really cool today thanks to another blogger (http://blog.dotsmart.net).

Please read this post:
http://blog.dotsmart.net/2008/06/12/solved-cannot-read-from-the-source-file-or-disk/

I don't want to copy his work but I will say that you can get Windows to ignore the invalid elements by prefixing paths with \\?
For example: "\\?\C:\Documents and Settings\user\filewithdotatend."

This allows commands like C:\>ren "\\?\C:\Documents and Settings\user\filewithdotatend." "filenamewithoutdot"
Now the file is usable, deletable, whatever.

This is so cool. I had no idea. Thanks to Duncan Smart’s Weblog !

Transcode 360 choppy playback - stutters and pauses

I recently went watch a movie on my xbox 360 using MyMovies and Watch Stream, which utilizes Transcode 360 to encode the movie. The movie kept pausing and stuttering. It was not a CPU issue. I stopped the transcode service on the Media Center (a reboot of the machine will accomplish the same, getting it to stop transcoding), opened the Transcode 360 Configuration Utility and on the left click on Advanced. On the right, at the bottom I checkmarked 'Downmix multi-channel AC3 to stereo MPEG audio' (I had it unchecked from some previous testing I was doing). I then started the Transcode 360 service (if you rebooted you don't need to do this). I then tried that same movie and it played very nicely. No stuttering or pausing.