Hey guys....  I've had as much as i can take with this .wmv bug in Vista media center.  I have decided that I want to convert the .wmv files I have to .dvr-ms so that I don't have to exit out to the 360's dash board just to watch them.  what program do you recomend that will convert the .wmv to dvr-ms file with the 5.1 sound that has been ripped to the wmv's? 

Plus i also need a good program that will tag the dvr-ms files also.

I use VideoReDo to create DVR-MS files.. It's by far the fastest I have used.

You can edit your tags with this:
http://blogs.msdn.com/toub/archive/2005/05/12/416874.aspx

but does it convert .wmv files to .dvr-ms?

oh yikes, is there any other metadata editor for dvr-ms files?  I would really hate to have to type in the GUID to tag the file for movies.  Otherwise i guess i might dust off the visual studio's and create my own.

 

I haven't tried WMV in VideoReDo.  WMV is the ***-stepchild of codecs so I steer clear of it whenever possible.

As for the meta, you can always jsut right click the dvr-ms file and edit the tags in the properties tag.  Or are you wanting some sort of CDDB type system that auto-enters all the fields for you? (which I dont think is doable)

Also this thread when un-answered, so I suspect that tool is all there is.

how about a good wmv to mpeg converter that will keep the resolution?  i did try using convertxtodvd and it works great and keeps the 5.1 sound but one of my HD wmv's got dropped down to dvd resolution.

Videoredo will work fine for converting just about anything to dvr-ms.

Confused.  WMV plays back just fine within the Extenders portion of the Xbox 360 as well as the Dashboard.  DVR-MS on the other hand is limited to just the Extender.  Converting WMV to DVR-MS is a bad idea, going from WMV to MPEG-2 will increase your file size by 2-3x and decrease quality overall.

Chris - Moderator:

Confused.  WMV plays back just fine within the Extenders portion of the Xbox 360 as well as the Dashboard.  DVR-MS on the other hand is limited to just the Extender.  Converting WMV to DVR-MS is a bad idea, going from WMV to MPEG-2 will increase your file size by 2-3x and decrease quality overall.

 

I too, am confussed... So I will ask, "what output stream does Vista output, for recording?"... Can it be selected to .dvr-ms ? Yes, I've never used Vista, plan on building my machine towmarrow... So I am worried Vista is not the right choice... and can aways reload my MCE 2005, instead...

My MO so far is to "record in .dvr-ms"...

Then I Edit with VideoReDo... Which IMO is the Best Editor software on the planet http://www.videoredo.com/en/index.htm, But saddly it does NOT support .wmv file formats... Input or Output...

So, I then use DVRtoWMV (its in the DL section), to shrink the files... and Yes, they DO loose some Picture Quality, but not much... They go from 1900k to 556k file size, for 1hr of programing...

The OPer does NOT want to go from .wmv to dvr-ms, the picture simply looses too much Quality to even bother...

mabrown:

If videoredo can convert .wmv's to .dvr-ms files, then why is it that I get an error message everything i try to open the file that says "Editing of elementary streams is not yet supported."  What am i doing wrong to open the file?

 

Chris & rpgsmoker:

check out this thread http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/172951.aspx .  That should tell you what the problem is.  I use dvd-wmv to rip my dvd's, and it does a great job, but if you read the above thread, this is what happens when played on the Media Center extender portion.  Yes I know that file size will increase and i won't be able to play them from the dash, but frankly, i'm to the point that I don't care anymore because I would much rather play them from Media Center extender than from the dashboard.  When i play them from the dash board, i don't have access to the guide, or anything else that I could do inside media center while the video is playing, and that is why I want to go to a file format that WILL work properly inside media center.

this probably is one of the biggest problems with media center extenders imo.... not just wmv but the fact that xbox 360's dont support all the video codecs (wmv... transport controls are very buggy).  seems the only codec extenders work well with is dvr-ms/mpeg. 

really hope ms improves everything related to playing back video on xbox 360 extenders.  i really thought things would get fixed in sp1 and its very disappointed it hasn't been properly addressed.  I use the dashboard for now and it works far better but the ui on the dashboard is horrible.  ive also wmv video generally looks better in the dashboard vs media center (it almost looks like there is some color space reductions or something like that being done in media center)

so i guess i'm SOL to find a wmv to mpeg converter that will keep the 5.1 and the original resolution of the wmv?

I am looking for DVR-MS to WMV/AVI for free? I looked everywhere only I found was DVD-Edit.

I cannot edit files using Windows Movie Maker and it is on Windows XP mode.  It works for Vista, but not for XP it does support the file.