HELP! VC-1 encoded .m2ts files = NO VIDEO in MCE/WMP12

I would be grateful if anyone could describe how they have successfully tweaked their codec set up so that MCE/WMP12 plays back .m2ts files that were encoded in VC-1 (my .264 .m2ts files playback fine) - preferably with hardware acceleration if possible. Currently, when I playback a .m2ts file encoded using VC-1 in MCE/WMP12, I get audio but no video. I know that by converting the files to .MKV, they will play back using FFDSHOW, but I have so many .m2ts files that converting them all would be a tremendous hassle. I've been spending weeks trying to figure this out. Your help would be much appreciated!

Battles

Battles said:

I would be grateful if anyone could describe how they have successfully tweaked their codec set up so that MCE/WMP12 plays back .m2ts files that were encoded in VC-1 (my .264 .m2ts files playback fine) - preferably with hardware acceleration if possible. Currently, when I playback a .m2ts file encoded using VC-1 in MCE/WMP12, I get audio but no video. I know that by converting the files to .MKV, they will play back using FFDSHOW, but I have so many .m2ts files that converting them all would be a tremendous hassle. I've been spending weeks trying to figure this out. Your help would be much appreciated!

Battles

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Haha, I have been dealing with the same thing. I was actually going back and forth with Mike Healy over at Hack7MC regarding, and it appears you need to use the MPC Video Decoder filter and not FFDShow. I plan on giving it a shot tonight. See post, scroll down to the bottom of the comments section to see my dialogue with Michael.

Windows 7 Codecs - Shark007 Pack makes codec installation easy on Hack7mc.com

dbone, I tried sending you a message directly, but I'm not sure it went through. Anyhow, I left a post in the HackWin7 in the same thread that you posted above with regard to MPC. Please let me know if you have gotten it to work. I can get MPC to work outside of WMP12/MCE, but not within the WMP12/MCE environment.

Hey Battles,

Did you ever get this to work? I tried following Shark's suggestion checking off Gabest under the MPEG tag but that didn't work, and actually made things worse as the audio played back choppy (still no video). I decided to just move my ts/m2ts VC1 movies into the mkv container and now they play fine in W7.

I may try putting W7 on my second HTPC this weekend, and will see if I can get the ts/m2ts VC1s to work (probably just install Haali/FFDShow instead of using Shark)

There is solution.
First ur gonna install MPCVideoDec.ax from here. Unpack files and copy decoder to system32 folder. Then Start>>cmd and run it as administrator. In command line paste bolded text ...\system32\regsvr32 MPCVideoDec.ax then press enter.
Now download this tool and choose that filter as VC-1 decoder. And ur done!
Additionaly u may check properties of decoder as it decodes many formats as default. If u want only VC-1 u have to uncheck the rest of formats.

sirdan said:

There is solution.
First ur gonna install MPCVideoDec.ax from here. Unpack files and copy decoder to system32 folder. Then Start>>cmd and run it as administrator. In command line paste bolded text ...\system32\regsvr32 MPCVideoDec.ax then press enter.
Now download this tool and choose that filter as VC-1 decoder. And ur done!
Additionaly u may check properties of decoder as it decodes many formats as default. If u want only VC-1 u have to uncheck the rest of formats.

Click to expand...

I actually tried those exact steps and it didn't work. Even though I registered MPCVideoDec I am not sure my PC was registering it properly. Using Filter Manager under Direct Show Filters MPC - Video Decoder does not show up (running Vista it would show up after registering).

Did u use 64x filter??? Just looked on ur signature.
What message u get after installing filter?

sirdan said:

Did u use 64x filter??? Just looked on ur signature.
What message u get after installing filter?

Click to expand...

Yeah, I used the MPCVideoDec x64 filter. After I register the filter a popup shows saying something like "DLL service has registered successfully...". It is very weird because I am doing nothing different then in the past on my Vista machines. All those machines will show MPC Video Dec in the Filter Manager. It does not show up in the filter manager for W7, so I assume this has to mean it is not getting registered properly. I will see if I can tinker around with it tonight

I have attached screenshots showing that I was able to successfully register the x64 MPCVideoDec.ax file, yet it shows up nowhere in the filter manager or in the W&FIlterTweaker

Yes its really strange. You registered filter and programs cant see it. I have never had 64bit win so that would be my guesses. First copy decoder file (*.ax) to folder where are stored other direct show filters (on 32 bit os its system32), and register it there. Secondly im not sure if radlight can detect 64 bit filters since it is 32bit application. Or maybe there is 64b one actually?
Another thought would be that You have to download the very last version of tool (that w7 filter manager i pointed u) because MPCdecoder was added just very recently. I hope ur problem can be solved.

Dbone,

I found a solution that works. I sent you a message.

Battles

Battles said:

Dbone,

I found a solution that works. I sent you a message.

Battles

Click to expand...

What is your solution? Could you share the solution with us?

Thanks.

This is what you need to do:

Add .bak to the following two files you'll find under system32 and sysWOW64 (if you are using win 7 64 bit). You'll need to download the take ownership patch, if you haven't already from the web before you try to rename the files.

mfds.dll
WMVDECOD.dll

Once you do this, your VC-1 m2ts files will play back fine with hardware acceleration using Microsoft's internal decoder (with one caveat...while it appears that MS internal decoder is decoding the .m2ts VC-1 files on my system, this may not be the case (it appears that MS' internal codecs are decoding my .m2ts VC-1 files because no 3rd party decoder icon pops up in my system tray when playing back the VC-1 .m2ts files besides Haali). To be safe, you may want to go ahead and register MPC's video decoder just in case, as it may be decoding my .m2ts VC-1 file behind the scene(that's what graphedit indicates on my system at least). What you will give up by disabling the .dlls above is MS' built in .264 AVC video decoder which utilizes hardware acceleration. On the other hand, by following the steps above, your VC-1 .m2ts should play, and there are a number of 3rd party decoders you can use for the playback of .m2ts AVC/.264 files as I describe below as a replacement for Microsoft's built in .264 decoder.

For AVC/.264 .m2ts video file playback you can use Microsoft's DTV/DVD decoder (w/o hardware acceleration) or you can use the MPC decoder which enables hardware acceleration or CoreAVC which doesn't. With MPC, even though it places less of a load on my CPU, playback tends to studder for me. Maybe you'll have better luck. Alternatively, CoreAVC works pretty well but still studders for me unless I'm using a high power CPU. In order to select which video decoder you would like to use, I recommend CSLID's preferred codec filter which you can find on Hack7MC's website.

Let me know how it goes.

P.S. if the solution above does not work, in addition to the steps I describe above, download Shark's codec pack (after uninstalling any other codec packs you have installed) and select "use dxia codec" on the .264 tab. The only reason I mention this is because in my set up, I have also installed Shark's codec pack, but it is unclear whether Shark's codecs are part of the solution to playback VC-1 .m2ts.

Just to follow up I have not had a chance to try out Battles suggestion, got caught up with the joys of having the in laws stay over and a root canal this past month... I still have to set up one of my HTPCs with W7 and when I do I hope to test out Battles method

Any update on this? I'm having VC1 headaches with RTM and am looking for solutions...

MarcG said:

Any update on this? I'm having VC1 headaches with RTM and am looking for solutions...

Click to expand...

Did you try Battles suggestions?

Here is my writeup of setting up 7MC and I have not had any problems with VC-1 playback:

A Digital Home Blog: Setting Up Codecs for 7MC

MarcG said:

Any update on this? I'm having VC1 headaches with RTM and am looking for solutions...

Click to expand...

If you choose to use a current release of the Shark007.net - Windows 7 Codecs
it is a single click to make this work but I do not suggest leaving this particular setting permanently enabled. Using this setting will also disable all other settings on the SWAP TAB of the settings interface.

With a default installation of these codecs, go to the SWAP TAB of the Settings Application and on bottom right choose to disable Windows Media Foundation and all of your m2ts files will play. If you have x64 Media Center, the same option is available in the x64 Settings Application.

Shark007 said:

MarcG said:

Any update on this? I'm having VC1 headaches with RTM and am looking for solutions...

Click to expand...

If you choose to use a current release of the Shark007.net - Windows 7 Codecs
it is a single click to make this work but I do not suggest leaving this particular setting permanently enabled. Using this setting will also disable all other settings on the SWAP TAB of the settings interface.

With a default installation of these codecs, go to the SWAP TAB of the Settings Application and on bottom right choose to disable Windows Media Foundation and all of your m2ts files will play. If you have x64 Media Center, the same option is available in the x64 Settings Application.

Click to expand...

Hey Shark - didn't realize you got this working, great news! So this only applies to ts/m2ts VC-1 correct? If you play any other files you suggest re enabling WMF? What issues if you don't do this, improper playback?Thanks.

dbone1026 said:

So this only applies to ts/m2ts VC-1 correct?

Click to expand...

yes, this particular thread is all about vc1 m2ts files and my response is also concerning that format.

dbone1026 said:

If you play any other files you suggest re enabling WMF? What issues if you don't do this, improper playback?Thanks.

Click to expand...

WMF is an integral part of the Windows 7 OS. It should not be disabled, ever. With that said, there is no other way to playback this format unless you disable it. So, I empowered my users to playback thier files. Doing this with a single click makes it simple to disable/re-enable WMF.

Being the .ts format can contain MANY audio/video formats occaissionally a 2nd click may be required. Look on the MPG~MP4 TAB and select gabests Blu-ray splitter if the audio is coming out all scrambled. Again though, this is not a setting I would leave permanently enabled. It disabled haali's splitter and can interupt MPG streaming playback.

Hi guys,

Turns out my media giving problems was 1080i VC1 which is rare and exotic. See interesting discussion here:

Help! 7RTM trouble with VC1 MKVs. Choppy! - AVS Forum

MEanwhile using MPCVideoDEc.ax seems good for more common VC1 progressive material.

Thanks for your help. Dbone, I will review your guide tonight. Thanks.

Marc