Hi!

I post this thread to start a discussion about this new file format MS has presented. As I understand it this is a container format not unlike the very popular MKV format. This brings me to a very interesting idea.

It is no surprise to the users that MS doesn't want other file formats other than their own to work properly within Media Center, for example you cant REW or FFD in any other formats than WTV and WMV (as far as I know) and the DVD library doesn't accept any other file formats than the vob and WTV.

So, what if someone with knowledge on the WTV file format simply wrote a tool similar to the MKV Merge GUI application? Where you can import an existing mkv, or separate video/audio/subtitle files and mux your new WTV file. This should not be too difficult or would it? What would we gain from this?

1) Ability to add our movies into the DVD library (or the new Movies gallery in Windows 7) with metadata and folder art!

2) Ability to select subtitles/audio tracks with the MCE remote using the MCE GUI.

3) Perhaps even ffd/rew/resume functionality depending on how WTV works.

Am I the only one that see endless possibilities with this? Instead of bugging MS about "Support MKV etc etc" we simply make a small tool that can convert from any popular formats into something Media Center feel comfortable with and work perfectly with. This won't mean the death of the mkv format, since the Media Center users are a small percent of the large mass.

How difficult would this be? There are lots of people that have made all kinds of useful tools for the existing media center, like menu mender, dvr-ms toolkit just to name a few.

I would happily pay some1 to do this, since it would give atleast me a LOT more value in my media experience.

Perhaps some1 from MS wanna comment this? I am sure since people cracked the dvr-ms format, it should be possible to read the wtv format also?

any and all comments are appreciated!!!

/Henrik

The problem most people have with WTV is that creates HUGE files, similar to their old format.  Most people to save space by converting them to other formats.  It would be a lot better to get FF/RW and such working on other formats, but MS probably won't let it.  Plus WTV is MS's format, meaning throwing it on OS X or use in non-MS apps is less likely going to work.

But doesn't 7MC support h.264? And can that be contained in the WTV format? Seems like it should be able to, but I'm not sure. Anyway, if it does, we could encode stuff in h.264 into the WTV container. Or am I thinking about this all wrong?

jkatennis:

The problem most people have with WTV is that creates HUGE files, similar to their old format.  Most people to save space by converting them to other formats.  It would be a lot better to get FF/RW and such working on other formats, but MS probably won't let it.  Plus WTV is MS's format, meaning throwing it on OS X or use in non-MS apps is less likely going to work.

I disagree. Most people don't convert...conversion = loss of quality.

I think this could be a valuable tool, personally.

Hi!

Im glad someone responded on this.

For one, Im not talking about "ripping" the wtv format and use it on other platforms, nor about transcoding the content of the mkv files. MS has made a decision stating that: "In the media center experience we only support wtv containers to be used in movie and dvd gallery. Ok tI can live with that, but considering that most users have movies in lots of other formats, mkv as one of the largest for HD, it seems only logical that they enable the community to get these files into media center somehow. And the only way that is possible is to take the content out of the mkv files and put them into the wtv. And with Windows 7 MS officially supports h.264 which is what 99% of the mkv files are encoded in... so it should be no problem at all.

- Video should be a way of just read and write a bitstream since the wtv can contain any video format... and uses DirectShow to render it... (i suppose)

- Ditto for audio + find a way to add the metadata for multiple audio tracks

- Subtitles are more tricky, the common srt files must probably be converted to MS format. Just a matter of getting the specs...

- Indexes... have no idea on this really. But I REALLY want to be able to pause/resume and forward/reqind ALL my movies. Its pretty useless without this.

When this is complete you can enjoy all your files from within media center without the need to install 3rd party apps (sorry mymovies etc but if you cant make them look good enough and with enough functionality, I won't buy them).

Honestly, Im not sure exactly where MS is going, but I guess they want the community to use their formats since I see no hints that thwy will add support for other formats. Logic dictates that there is only one possible course of action, to allow the community to make use of the wtv format. If they released the specs for the dvr-ms, then why not release it for wtv also?

kind regards

Henrik

Anyone know how they did with the dvr-ms toolkit? Did they actually read the file specs from MS or did they reverse engineer the format?

/Henrik

I am not seeing the point personally. You can ff/rr much more formats in W7 as it has been said on here by others.

PLUCKYHD:

I am not seeing the point personally. You can ff/rr much more formats in W7 as it has been said on here by others.

 

Hi!

Really so you can change subtitles, make mkv files appear in movie gallery in W7 with metadata and folder art, and also resume/ffd/rew them? If it is a yes to all this, then I agree with you.

Can you specify which formats exactly that you can do all this with in W7? I already know that they support divx but thats not the issue here since divx is not the first choice when it comes to HD. MKV container with h.264 video and ac3 audio is the preferred way if you want to keep filesize reasonably small.

kind regards

Henrik

I've had no problems using DVRMSToolbox to convert wtv to drv-ms. Then, I just changed .dvrms to .mpg.  My problem is that while VLC will play it just fine, my Popcorn Hour will not play it. 
I have tried to convrt .wtv directly to mpeg with toolbox but I only get a 30 second or so clip when finished.  VideoReDo won't touch it either.  Any ideas?

Roxio MyDVD was able to convert to mpeg that now plays fine on the Popcorn Hour.