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kuhnesito

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20 years ago

K

kuhnesito

140 Posts

0

3343

April 11th, 2007 20:00

Vista + Xbox360? Help please

Hey guys, before I say anything let me say I have tried every possible way to fix this... reinstalling software... etc... I just wanted to know if any of you had any specific ideas of what the problem might be.
 
I use vista 64bit and I watch all my videos in my pc, in my tv, with my xbox 360 as a media center extender.
 
I used to watch all kinds of videos.. from files the extender recognizes such as .WMV .MPEG etc.. to files the extender doesn't recognized, such as divx or xvid, using a program called transcode360.. which is awesome btw.
 
Anyways, I have a bunch of digital licensed .wmv's, in other words, movies I have purchased online for download and the extender played those beautifully.
 
Then one day all of a sudden, both Media center extender AND the media center software in my computer decided to stop detecting all the files media center should recognize.. in other words. if I go to media center and select "add folders" and add a folder in which I have a bunch of .wmv's media center will say there are no items in that folder. I know it's supposed to take a while for the program to recognize the files but this is something that happen suddenly. interestingly enough, media center keeps seeing the divx and xvid file types.. because as far as media center goes, those arent playable anyways but the files it is supposed to play, are not even being detected. Not by my media center in windows vista or by my media center extender in xbox 360.
 
Of course if I go directly to windows explorer and go to said folder, the files will be there and if I double click them they will open perfectly in media player. in other words, this is a media center and media center extender specific problem.
 
I went and contacted microsoft support, sent them an email, thankfully my windows vista hasnt been activated for more than 90 days so the MS support was free of charge.
 
The lady who replied tried to be very helpfull. she told me to go to command prompt and input some lines and try again, this didn't work.
 
I am all out of ideas and I am completly not in the mood of formating/reinstalling windows vista.
 
This is very very annoying, anyone here have any idea of what might be going on?
  • B

    BloodRaven

    63 Posts

    805

    0

    Posted April 12th, 2007 14:00

    That is an odd one. 
    Personally, I think it's a Vista Media Center issue.   Since Media Center is integrated into Vista, you can't run the famous Media Center Reset Utility that worked for resetting everything in MCE 04' and MCE 05'.
     
    Here is something fun for you to try.
    1. Create a new folder on your desktop.
    2. Copy some photos into that folder and make sure they are ONLY .bmp files.
    3. Open Media Center and try to add that folder to the Picture Library. 
    4. You should notice that it doesn't appear, even if you close and reopen Media Center or even if you reboot the system.  It just will not show up.
    5. Now, put just 1 JPG format picture into that folder.
    6. BAM!  Now it's seen in Media Center.
    7. Now, remove that JPG from that folder and re-open Media Center.  Amazing! It's gone again.  Funny thing is, as long as the folder is in the "Pictures" folder, it is seen, even if it only has BMP files inside it.

    So, it sounds to me like this is an indexing issue.  Same thing might be occurring with your files.   Maybe if you put all of your videos into the "Videos" folder that is in your user folder, perhaps it will be seen correctly.  :: shrug ::

     
    I know that doesn't help you resolve your issue, but at least you can see that the problem happens with other types of media as well.
    I am hoping and praying that Service Pack 1 will fix these issues.
  • K

    kuhnesito

    140 Posts

    805

    0

    Posted April 12th, 2007 17:00

    Thanks to both of you, I will try your tips and come back to you with the results.
     
    thanks again
  • K

    kuhnesito

    140 Posts

    805

    0

    Posted April 12th, 2007 18:00

    I tried restoring the indexing defaults but still nothing.
     
    whats weird is media center isnt recognizing jpegs either... even jpegs I dump directly into My pictures folder... it just shows subfolders but nothing in any folder at all..
     
    so no wmv's no jpegs....whats going on?
  • K

    kuhnesito

    140 Posts

    805

    0

    Posted April 12th, 2007 21:00

    Thanks for  the help!
     
    however, I see that thread over there is about music files. music files are not my problem, actualy I think media center does play the music files. so does the extender. what is not detecting are videos and pictures
  • K

    kuhnesito

    140 Posts

    805

    0

    Posted April 13th, 2007 16:00

    ok I will try that, however that seems to be a media center extender problem right? my computer itself doesnt see the files, not just the extender, it is moth the media center program in my vista machine and my extender that dont see the files

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