To get started download MCEBuddy 1.1 (x86) or MCEBuddy 1.1 (x64) from our Hack7MC mirror or check the official MCEBuddy page for the latest version download links. Once downloaded, extract the files from the archive and run the setup .msi file. Go through the standard setup install then run the program’s configuration from Programs –> MCEBuddy –> MCEBuddy Configuration. After launching the program you can access the configuration at any time through the System Tray as long as you minimize the program instead of exiting.

The first area contains the settings to be used when converting the video file. Choose what type of video to output at the end as well as whether or not to delete the original file, cut commercials, sort by series and start the program minimized to the System Tray. For HD programming I would recommend WMV (no resize) or H.264 MP4 (no resize, 2-pass) to retain the best quality video. Standard Definition television can likely get by with lower quality settings such as MPEG2 or H.264 regular. Though there was a minor issue with one file that was processed most came out fairly good quality.

Also of note in the configuration is the Video Paths section. Here you will need to set your Recorded TV directory and another directory to use for processed videos. The program seems to strongly dislike using the same directory for both and files disappeared forever when trying to use the same directory for each.

Set to the default directories the program performed quite well. WTV files were converted and commercials were cut with a fair deal of success from the shows. You can see above that a File Log is provided giving you a full recount of processed files as well as a more detailed events log that will gladly provide you with details on each step of the process performed on every file.

Unfortunately, the program doesn’t yet support the cutting of commercials directly from a WTV file so they’ll all need to be converted. Curiously the program doesn’t seem to offer DVR-MS output either which would help to overcome the last issue being the incompatibility of Recorded TV and non Media Center file types (WTV and DVR-MS). This means you’ll either need to use the Videos section under Pictures and Videos or obtain a third-party plugin like Media Browser to look through the files.

Aside from those few issues MCEBuddy does exactly what it claims it will do, convert video files into other video files automatically and even remove commercials. Hopefully we see some further progress on version 2 and it will include support for WTV files natively. It was clear early on that the switch to WTV from DVR-MS would hinder development of programs like this (likely intentionally) and it’s a problem still lingering shortly after the official release of the operating system.

To get started you’ll need to download the latest version of the Popcorn Audio Converter from the forums at Network Media Tank. Once installed launch the program and you will be prompted to allow for downloading a set of conversion utilities to assist in the conversion of the audio formats compatible with MKV. This simple method for obtaining the proper conversion tools is a handy addition to the program ensuring you’ve got all the proper software to accomplish the conversion without having to hunt down and download the packages manually.

Once the download has been completed you’ll notice that the once red boxes for inputting the locations of the tools, in the upper left hand corner of the program, have been filled in and are now white. If you should download a later version of any of the utilities used by Popcorn Audio Convertor you will need to use these input boxes to point the program to your preferred program location.

This should take care of the initial setup process of the program and you should now be all set to start your conversion. To begin, select the original MKV file you’d like to operate on in the Source File input box, which will be red until a file has been selected. Next determine the target file, this is the where you assign the name of the final converted file.

When you selected your input file you may have noticed that the text area below the file input area filled up with details on the original file. Use these details as a reference as to what is currently contained inside the MKV file. Next select the audio type from the tabbed options in the upper right hand area of the program that you’d like to convert. Choose the format of the original audio type currently contained in the file.

Under the tab for each audio format you’ll find numerous options for the conversion of that audio type. For example, under DTS you’ll be able to convert all the DTS tracks in this MKV file to AC3 Dolby Digital format. You can also adjust the bitrate or remove the DTS tracks from the MKV entirely. The other format options contain similar conversion possibilities though each original media type will have different format options available for the conversion.

Once the options have been set, simply press the Run button under the file input area to begin the process. A new dialog area will appear showing the conversion process as the file is demuxed, converted and finally re-muxed into a new file. The process is relatively quick, taking only a few minutes to convert a single audio track from a full length movie.

That’s all there is to it! A simple program that does it’s task very well and quite efficiently. The options may be somewhat limited but for the specific purpose of converting formats that are incompatible with your software or hardware the program performs very well. A perfect example of a program designed for a single specific purpose without the frills making it simple to use for beginners and advanced users alike.

Before we get started we’ll need to download and install a few programs. First, in order to read and thereby convert the DTS stream we need a decoder such as FFDShow installed. Under a default installation FFDShow should be all set to decode a wide variety of audio formats including DTS. Next, we need to download and install MKVToolnix and MKVExtract. Installing MKVToolnix  is fairly straight-forward though in order to install MKVExtract the archive should be extracted to the same directory as you installed MKVToolnix.

Now that we have the tools to work with MKV files we also need to be able to convert the audio stream once we’ve extracted it. For that we need to download and install both AVISynth and MeGUI. These programs will allow us to work with the individual streams once they’ve been extracted from the MKV file.

Alright, time to get started. First let’s open up MKVExtractGUI from the location where we extracted it which should be in the same directory as MKVToolnix. Using this program is fairly simple, first select the MKV file we’ll be working with from the Input selection box. Once you’ve selected a file the Content box should be populated with the various tracks available. Check the box next to the audio track we want to convert and press the extract button.

After a few minutes (or several depending on the bitrate) you should receive a message stating that the de-muxing was successful and you should now have a .dts file in the same directory as your original MKV file.

Now that we’ve got our DTS stream extracted let’s open up MeGUI and perform the conversion. The first thing you’ll need to do with MeGUI is make sure to update the files for the conversion we’ll be doing, in most cases it can’t hurt to actually update all the available files. First time users will be prompted to update upon launching the program, others can update through the Options –> Update menu.

Next under the Audio tab , in the Audio Input box locate and select our new DTS stream file. Under the Encoder Settings dropbox you’ll need to select the correct audio format you’d like to convert to, in this case FFmpeg AC-3. FFmpeg is actually the program that is being utilized to do the conversion and you should be sure that it has been updated to the latest version through the MeGUI update process. AC-3 is the format we’ll be converting to.

Using MeGUI you can also adjust many of the available settings for the conversion of the stream such as the bitrate and channels available in the newly created stream. Simply press the Config button next to the selected Encoder settings option to bring up the options dialog for that encoder. Enabling the Force Decoding via DirectShow option will enable the use of FFDShow to decode the DTS stream, if you encounter errors during encoding you may want to enable this option as well.

Once you’ve set the options and are ready to do the actual conversion return to the main MeGUI dialog window and press the Enqueue button under the audio section. Then select the Queue tab from the top of the window and press the Start button. This process will take some time to complete and there is a preprocessing period that can take several minutes before the actual process will begin. Once the process has begun you can monitor the progress through the status window.

Once MeGUI has finished converting your DTS stream into an AC3 stream we need to reconstruct our MKV file. Open MKVMerge from the MKVToolnix programs menu and begin by adding the original MKV file to the Input files. Next locate our new AC3 stream and add it to the list of input files as well. Under tracks, chapters and tags you should now see the AC3 audio source listed as well as the original DTS source. MKV supports multiple audio tracks and if your hardware and decoding software does as well you may want to leave both tracks and remux the MKV file like this. However, if you’d like to remove the original DTS track you’ll need to uncheck the track from the list before remuxing the file.

Also, you’ll likely want to rename the new MKV file to something different than the original to be able to discern between the two versions. Once you’ve done that you can now start the muxing process by pressing the Start muxing button at the bottom of the window. A dialog will appear showing you the progress of the process and remuxing should only take a few minutes at most. That’s all there is to it, you should now have an MKV file with a converted audio track.

This process can also be used to convert other audio formats as well using the available MeGUI encoder settings. This guide was written with assistance from an AfterDawn guide published here.

The preferred method for getting unsupported media types from your Media Center to your Xbox extender has been to use Transcode 360. Plenty of users are having quite a bit of trouble getting the third party application to work properly on their Windows 7 setups however.

Thanks to CW-Kid of The Media Center Blog we’ve got a new guide to setting up Transcode 360 on Windows 7 machines. The guide takes you through all the steps to get the program working on Windows 7 Media Center. Setting up a number of the most popular plug-ins like My Movies and Media Browser are also covered.

To get going you’ll need to download the guide which is in PDF format, so you’ll also need a PDF reader. Adobe Acrobat or FoxIt Reader which are both free applications you can use to view the guide. You will also need a couple of files during the installation process. Hack7MC has setup a mirror of the files so as to not overload CW-Kid’s Live Drive.

Download the files you’ll need during setup here:

• Transcode 360 1.6.3
• Mencoder and FFMpeg Updates
• Transocde 360 Network Registry

Now just follow the guide and it will take you from setup all the way through streaming your first video to your Xbox 360 Extender.

Thanks to CW-Kid for this great guide! Hack7MC can’t operate without the great community of Media Center users and programmers. If you’ve got a hot tip or trick to share with the community let us know with through our contact page!

I wrote yesterday how EncodeHD can help you convert your video files for use on your portable devices.  It’s perfectly suited and with the list of supported hardware, it should work for just about anyone.  The one issue with using it for Media Center or playback on the Xbox 360 is the limitations imposed by the 360 on the mp4 format which EncodeHD converts your files to.  The 360 doesn’t support AC3 audio and therefore you lose surround sound.

Luckily there’s a solution for this and it’s located in the same place.  EncodeHD replaced Encode360, the first conversion application from Dan Cunningham.  Encode360 converts your files to wmv using ffdshow and Windows Media Encoder.  Using wmv is the (pretty much) perfect solution due to the fact that it’s fully supported in MCE and on the 360 as an extender.  Where the problem comes in is that MS is no longer developing Windows Media Encoder which is used in the conversion process.  This has rendered Encode360 a bit dated (so it seemed) and forced Dan to move forward with the replacement app, EncodeHD.

Having loved using Encode360, I decided it was time to give it a try in Windows 7 to see if the application could still work.  I use EncodeHD for converting files for my Zune since it’s quick, easy to use and and the output files play perfectly.  When it comes to my 360 and MCE however, I want my surround sound.  That’s why I was so happy to find out that Encode360, while no longer supported, is still available for download.

Installing the application is a pretty straight forward process.  There are a few things you’ll need first though.  Windows Media Player 11 is required but we’re up to 12 in Windows 7 so you shouldn’t have to worry about upgrading that.  You’ll also need Windows Media Encoder and a Hotfix that is available.  After you’ve installed these two executables, you’re ready to install Encode360.  Something to keep in mind here:  Unlike EncodeHD, Encode360 is an installer package.  When you run the installer, the package installs K-Lite codec pack on your machine (optional but codecs are required).  We all know that codecs can be absolute havoc with video playback in Media Center and other applications.  I’m lucky enough to have a laptop to use for file conversions so that nothing touched my main MCE machine.  Be sure you know what you’re doing before installing Encode360.

Once you have the app installed, it looks a lot like EncodeHD as far as layout.  You can drag and drop files for conversion and then choose your settings.  You can see at the top of the app that you can choose your resolution.  I typically try to match the input file so there’s no change.  The only time I lower it is if I happen to be converting a file for the Zune.

Before you start converting files you’ll want to be sure and head into “Advanced Settings”.  This is where you can choose your bitrate, exact wmv encoding you want along with a plethora or other settings:

As you can see from above, this screen will also provide you more details on the file you have selected for conversion including the actual input resolution so you can match it up if you want to.

While Encode360 is no longer supported, if you either know how to manage codecs on your PC or if you have a spare PC you can use for conversion, it’ll work in Windows 7 and provide you a way to get different video codecs to play nicely with Media Center and extenders.

Find even more home theater guides and news on The Digital Media Zone at thedigitalmediazone.com

This guide assumes you already have media browser installed and configured. Updated 6/3/2009 – This guide has been updated to include a different version of Transcode 360 and updated Mencoder and FFMpeg files provided by CW Kid in this post on The Green Button.

What you will need

• Transcode 360 1.6.3
• Mencoder and FFMpeg Update
• Hstart

Preperation

It is important to disable UAC before attempting any of these steps. Make sure you do not have any previous versions of transcode 360 on your computer.

Installation

Install Transcode 360 as a tray icon not as a service. Be sure to install to c:\Program Files\Transcode 360 as it will try to install to C:\Program Files(x86)\Transcode 360 by default. Reboot your computer. You will get a message saying Transcode 360 tray icon failed to load. We will fix that right now.

Click on the start menu and type msconfig. Under the startup tab disable Transcode 360 by unchecking it. Now Navigate to to c:\Program Files\Transcode 360  in explorer. Right click on Transcode360.exe and click properties. Go to the compatibility tab and select run as administrator.

Now open Notepad and paste the following lines into it:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Transcode360]
“PluginsPath”=”C:\\Users\\yourusername\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\nsiF3D2.tmp”
“InstallPath”=”C:\\Program Files\\Transcode360″
“ServerAddress”=”localhost”
“ConnectionTimeout”=”40″
“WindowsApplication”=”1″
“InterfacePort”=”1401″
“InstallationType”=”WindowsApplication”

Save the file as a .reg and run it. Alternatively, you can download this pre-made reg file and open it in notepad to replace the username. Afterward run the reg file and apply the changes to your registry.

Now extract the contents of the Mencoder and FFMpeg Update. Copy ffmpeg.exe into C:\Program Files\Transcode360\ and then copy mencoder.exe into C:\Program Files\Transcode360\Wrappers\MencoderTranscoder . You should now be able to run transcode 360 in the command prompt by navigating to the Transcode 360 directory and typing transcode360.exe –console. You should get a dos prompt that reads transcode 360 process started.

At this point you are ready to transcode but you would have to leave the console open whenever you want to transcode. That’s where hstart comes in. Extract the contents of the hstart64 directory to your transcode 360 directory. Now create a shortcut with this as the target

“C:\Program Files\Transcode360\hstart64.exe” /NOCONSOLE /RUNAS “Transcode360.exe -console”

Call it whatever you want.  Drag it into the startup folder on the start menu.

Now open the transcode360.config file in notepad and change the key that says <add key= ‘BufferDelay’ value= ‘6′ /> to something higher like <add key= ‘BufferDelay’ value= ‘30′ /> depending on your computers speed. You can also change the bitrate if your network is causing latency.

Now within the Media Browser configuration wizard on the extender tab make sure “Enable Transcode 360” is checked. You should be good to go. If it causes errors on the extender you most likely need to tweak the config file. This has a much better result than the built in MKV support.

Reading here, you know I love my Zune.  But, there is one thing I absolutely hate about it and that’s the fact that Microsoft refuses to allow you to convert and sync certain video codecs and containers.  A lot of MS products are like this so it isn’t really a surprise.  The same goes for iPods and other portable media players (PMPs.)  They each only support the file types that the company has decided to support, but I want to be able to watch my content on the go.  Luckily there’s an easy way to do this.

There are a lot of video conversion suites out there.  Most of these require installation of the codecs to which you want to read and convert.  Some are simple affairs while others boast more features than you’d ever want to deal with.  EncodeHD is simple for sure, but simplicity is it’s strength.

If you can’t tell already, I’m a fan of this application.  I have been since it was Encode360 (previous application which EncodeHD replaces).  You can read my email interview with the creator, Dan Cunningham, over at the Entertainment 2.0 blog.  Dan has put a lot of work into the application and it shows.  While EncodeHD will re-encode your video files for home use on different systems, this article will focus on it’s use for PMPs.

As I stated above, EncodeHD is all about simplicity.  When you download the application, you unzip the files to a folder and that’s it.  There’s no installer.  When you run the application you double click the icon and go.  EncodeHD comes packaged with everything it needs to run so there’s no codec packs to install which (for us MCE users especially) takes the guess work out of what you need.  The interface is simple and uncluttered.  You can drag and drop the files you want to convert right into the app.  From here, simply select the device you want to play your content on and you’re ready to go!

That’s it.  Hit that start button and watch your conversions go.  The time it takes of course depends on the file size and type.  This is really one touch encoding.  The app includes batch processing so if you want to let it run over night and convert, say, an entire season of a television show, it should be done by morning.

EncodeHD has support for a good number of devices and it seems more are added with each new version.  Currently supported are:

• BlackBerry (8100) Pearl
• BlackBerry (8200) Kickstart
• BlackBerry (8300) Curve
• BlackBerry (8700) Electron
• BlackBerry (8800) Indigo
• BlackBerry (8900) Javelin
• BlackBerry (9000) Bold
• BlackBerry (9500) Storm
• iPhone
• iPod 5G
• iPod Classic
• iPod Nano
• iPod Touch
• PSP
• Zune

This is just a list of the portable devices.  EncodeHD also supports:

• Apple TV
• Playstation 3
• Western Digital TV
• X-Box 360

One thing to keep in mind is that when converting for the Xbox 360, you will lose surround sound.  I spoke to Dan about this quickly and learned that the Xbox doesn’t support AC3 audio in mp4 so it can’t be included in the stream.  This is something MS could solve I’m sure, but I won’t hold my breath.

In the end, if you’re looking for an easy to use video conversion utility, this is as far as you have to go.  With support for AVI, MKV and other popular formats, one click and batch conversion, you’ll finally be able to take them with you!

Find even more home theater guides and news on The Digital Media Zone at thedigitalmediazone.com