Windows Media Center doesn't recognize my video files

[KLC]

I have a Windows Home Server box for my home network. I also have an xbox 360 that I'm using as a media extender on my LCD TV using Window Media Center on a Vista PC. In the WHS I have a folder with all of our home videos. We want to watch home videos on our flat screen TV through the xbox extender using Windows Media Center.

I go to Library Setup in Windows Media Center and I can find the folder that contains all of my videos on the home server. I click on it to make it a watched folder. I get a small dialog box that shows a progress bar and a legend saying "X files added". Over about 5 minutes the progress bar goes to 100% but the legend does not change from 0 files added. When the progress bar hits 100% it goes back to the Library Setup menu. No files were added and there are no new videos in my video library.

The Microsoft website says that library setup will search all subfolders in the folder that is added. It also says that avi is a supported video format and all of the videos are avi. Can anyone help me figure out why media center is not recognizing any of the videos in the file?

 

[ViRGE]

AVIs definitely work in the general sense. What codec are they compressed with? Perhaps you don't have the right codec installed for Vista to recognize them? My off-the-cuff theory is that you're using 64bit Vista, which means you're using the 64bit VMC, and at the same time only have 32bit MPEG-4 ASP (DivX/XviD) codecs installed.

 

[KLC]

Virge I'm using 32 bit Vista. These are MiniDV tapes that I downloaded onto my computer using the Sony camcorder that recorded them with the capture function in Sony Vegas Pro 8. I don't know what codec that would be.

 

[ViRGE]

Virge I'm using 32 bit Vista. These are MiniDV tapes that I downloaded onto my computer using the Sony camcorder that recorded them with the capture function in Sony Vegas Pro 8. I don't know what codec that would be.

Try MediaInfo; it should be able to tell you what the codec is. It sounds like Sony is using a codec that's not standard on Windows Vista.