Comments on: Media Center Decoder Utility (MCDU) Finally Comes to Windows 7

By: David

David — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 06:24:26 +0000

Ps. I gave up. With my x64 W7 this tool does not show all codecs installed, in may case ffdshow. Secondly for whatever reason the changing of codecs is not permanent and on a reboot W7MC cannot find a codec to use for TV Online. I have had nothing but trouble with this feces of a product called Media Centre which M$ charges Europeans for when DVB-C does not work, they know it and they do not care. Its like selling a car without wheels. Such a car would be laughed at so I have no idea why we put up with M$.

By: David

David — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 09:57:53 +0000

First thank you for a great tool.

Of course I do have a question. Windows 7 – x64.

When I change the codec it works as expected. The M$ dll is renamed and TV Online works. If I reboot, Then TV Online cannot find a codec anymore. I have to open the MCDU change back to M$ codec. Start W7MC and start TV Online. Then stop and I can then choose my codec again. But each time I reboot it breaks again.

I have noticed that it is changing the .dll in System32 folder. I thought x64 used different .dlls.

Second I know it is a classic one but I cannot get ffdshow to appear in MCDU drop down list. I have enabled the MPEG for AVI and MPEG1/MPEG2 codecs but still no go.

I have a feeling this is also a x64 issue but not sure.

Surprisingly COREAVC shows up in the dropdown list.

By: Marcus

Marcus — Tue, 25 May 2010 10:16:50 +0000

This messed up my computer big time. Switching to PowerDVD decoders was fine (except no hd audio), switching back however broke Media Center. Had to rename them back myself and was pretty tricky as permissions were all messed up too

By: Tui

Tui — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:41:56 +0000

I tried it and it messed up playback ability of MKV and aac files.

By: jacob

jacob — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:28:19 +0000

Just a heads-up – using MCDU in Windows 7 KILLS thumbnail generation of mpgs, mp4 files (and possibly more) in explorer.

This wasn’t the case with the Vista Media Decoder Utility, but it is in Windows 7. If you care at all about explorer thumbnail generation DON’T use this.

By: athec

athec — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:11:21 +0000

Hi, my status after using the MCDU on win7:

WMP will not play wma and dvd-mpeg2 via ffdshow, but graphedit is playing through ffdshow regardless of video or audio format used (wav, wma, mp3, mpeg2 has been verified). Also WMP will no longer play any dvd, as it reports “a problem encountered” (rough translation from native language)

My q: Does the MCDU utility include the WAV and WMA audio formats? If not, is this something to hope for?

Many thanks for this site and all the attempts to re-enable us to use ffdshow.

By: hijacked

hijacked — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:04:02 +0000

Hi, could you give me a mirror to download this utility?? the official link is broken

By: Garry Whittaker

Garry Whittaker — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 14:57:34 +0000

Hi all

I’m working on a revised version of the utility that should be more reliable at restoring the backed up files if a windows update has occured. I still don’t have a method that avoids the rename though as there doesn’t seem to have been any discoveries around registry keys etc since I wrote the first version.

Cheers
Garry

By: Youg

Youg — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 13:14:52 +0000

ok, it look like my filter manager is not working. I set FFDSHOW to preferred in it’s own configurator, and now i’m able to watch dvd.

One problem is with fast forward, it freezes the movie. But i’ll have to check into that later.

By: Youg

Youg — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 00:40:51 +0000

Ok, now everything work except playback of my ripped DVD (with dvd drecrypter and anydvd to ts folder).

I set everything back like it was. Now i get an error message saying that no decoder was found….but before trying the MCDU it was worlking.

They play fine in MPC.

Any idea?