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Windows Media Center MPC-HC/BE Plug-in

post #1 of 10
12/8/12 at 12:42am
Thread Starter 
I've always wanted to play Blu-ray's from native Windows Media Center Movie Library so that they open with players like MPC-HC or MPC-BE, so I could get the best possible image quality by using madVR and LAVFilters.

I decided to make a MPC-HC/BE Plug-in for 7MC/8MC, it's written in C#, Visual Studio 2012. When you start Blu-ray playback from Movie Library (Physical Disc Drives, Mounted Drives and Folders on HDD), it instantly launches MPC on full screen and playback starts, when playback ends, MPC closes and takes you back to Movie Library. Remote back button closes MPC and takes you back to Media Center.

MPC-HC & BE allows you to use the best possible video renderer, splitter and video/audio decoders (madVR and LAVFilters). madVR can for example automatically change your display refresh rate to 24p when Blu-ray playback starts.

Short video of how it works.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQwzVABwIhg

1.0.2.2 - 2012/12/10 Download

Features
- Can launch Blu-ray, HD DVD, DVD* and MKV* files from native WMC Movie Library (Physical Disc Drives, Mounted Drives and Folders on HDD).
- Can move WMC out of DirectX exclusive mode before MPC loads.
- Resumes playback where you left.
- Remote buttons are mapped as in WMC.

*If you wan't to launch DVD's and MKV files from Movie Library, create a folder BDMV alongside with VIDEO_TS folder or MKV file.

Known issues
- If you press for example Green button or Guide button, WMC activates on the background to take some remote commands over MPC.

I've added MPC-BE in the installer in the first builds so it's easier to test, I plan removing it soon so that the installer has just the plug-in. You can remove MPC-BE from "Program Files\Media Player Classic" and copy MPC-HC there, your settings aren't affected if you have previously used MPC-HC from different folder.

Links
MPC-HC
MPC-BE
madVR
LAVFilters
xy-vsfilter
Edited by Joni_78 - 12/10/12 at 8:22am
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post #2 of 10
12/8/12 at 5:38am
So is there a list of improvements in BE over HC forks of HPC?

There's another plugin to do this here. I haven't used it because I prefer the Media Browser library over the WMC native library.
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post #3 of 10
12/8/12 at 7:10am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sammy2 View Post

So is there a list of improvements in BE over HC forks of HPC?
There's another plugin to do this here. I haven't used it because I prefer the Media Browser library over the WMC native library.

It's a different kind of plug-in. It doesn't allow DVD's or Blu-ray's from Movie Library.

There's guite a lot improvement's, too bad the authors haven't done english changelog. MPC-HC is lacking dev's and is only getting bugfixes atm so no improvements/new features expected there.

http://translate.google.fi/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=n&prev=_t&hl=fi&ie=UTF-8&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.xvidvideo.ru%2Flogi-izmeneniy%2Flog-izmeneniy-media-player-classic-be.html

Just noticed save video from youtube, I wonder if that really works.
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post #4 of 10
12/10/12 at 8:17am
Thread Starter 
Fixed some bugs.
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post #5 of 10
12/10/12 at 8:39am
I applaud your efforts. Getting media browser to allow me to select MPC-HC for blu-ray playback and getting media browser to automatically mount .iso files are high on my want list.

I am waiting for a new internal Blu-ray drive to come. When it does I will give your plug in a try. Please keep posting how your development is coming.
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post #6 of 10
12/10/12 at 9:40am
All I really need is a true solution for >> and << rather than using 'x' second skips to do it. Anything going on with that?
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post #7 of 10
2/14/13 at 5:12am
To Joni_78

Using build 1.0.2.2, I've been able to get blu-rays to work. Excellent!

I have three suggestions, which I hope you can implement in a next version:

- when I select the "Play DVD" option in 7mc, the screen turns black for a moment but then 7mc returns to the main menu. That makes you think the operation has failed, but after a few seconds MPC-BE kicks in. Is it possible to increase the time the screen goes black until the moment MPC-BE takes over playing the video?

- when I return to 7mc after playing the blu-ray, 7mc sometimes gets juddery, as if it where operating at 24fps (which it doesn't). Minimizing the window, switching refresh rates, nothing helps. Restarting 7mc is the only way of getting rid of this. Perhaps of importance in this matter: I let MPC-BE change my refresh rate to match the 24Hz of the Blu-ray, but it neatly returns to 50Hz after quitting. I use Reclock as well.

- playing MKV's doesn't work. I read somewhere this is because of 'spaces' in the filestructure. My MKV's are structured as "D:\My DVD's\Name Of The Movie\Name Of The Movie.mkv". I'm not a fan of renaming the structure without spaces, because this also changes the movie title display in the movie library of 7MC.

Your work is greatly appreciated! I really hope you are willing to go the extra mile of making your plugin for me the ultimate solution for my high definition movies with 7mc.
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post #8 of 10
2/14/13 at 4:57pm
Well Done looks like a great addition to WMC is it easy enough to add in media browser library as I dont use the WMC movie folders (Im a novice user so I'm not sure how easy that is)
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post #9 of 10
3/7/13 at 2:05am
After some more tests, it seems the problem I mentioned earlier is that the plugin, after exiting MPC-BE, doesn't re-enable Exclusive Mode for 7MC. Even though the original refresh rate is restored after playback, 7MC still acts as if the refresh rate of the movie was applied.

Joni, could you please fix this?
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post #10 of 10
3/10/13 at 4:02pm
Does anyone have media center displaying cover art on the blu-ray folders that are be executed by this plug-in?
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