Thursday, 23 July 2009

Vista Media Center

So with all the Blu-ray shenanigans I took the chance to scrub the HDD and installed Vista Ultimate and try out Vista Media Center.


The first problem is that it could not play some of my AVI files properly - it could play the sound but did not show the picture! After much messing around with installing codec packs (Vista Codec Pack and CCCP) and changing the settings - with the help of Media Player and MPC I did manage it in the end (having solved jerky playback in Media Player and MPC first).

The first impression of VMC is that it is slow (on this P4 machine)! And some actions lead to a blank screen or freeze (of the HTPC!) so not very good. I installed the iMON software and controlling VMC by the remote, and it works but I have to learn how to control it properly. The good thing about VMC and the iMON display is that it seems to work (unlike with MediaPortal).

But an odd thing about the Vista and VMC is the power saving features... you would think that when playing a video in VMC that the power saving routines would be disabled - but no! I've had this a few times now, first with Media Player and then with VMC - after a period of watching a movie - the screen blanks but the sound keeps going - then a lot of fuss to get the picture back, as you can't just wake the PC!

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