I recommend you stay away from codec packs. They say they play everything and can end up messing up your finely crafted system. A good article on this subject is Chris Lanier’s Guide to Codecs in Vista Media Center. As Chris’ article shows, you need 2 things. A splitter, which lets you open the files and a decoder to actually play the files.

Download and install Haali Media Splitter so you can open files like MKV, OGM, MP4, FLAC.

Next, download and install ffdshow. Ffdshow is always being updated. I mam having good luck with the latest stable build, ffdshow_beta5_rev2033_20080705_clsid.  Best to go with what works.Take all the defaults I’ll go into more detail later.

You also need to tell Vista how to handle these files. Simply use notepad to create a file called video.reg and copy and paste these lines into it:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.mp4]
"PerceivedType"="video"
"Content Type"="video/mp4"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.m4v]
"PerceivedType"="video"
"Content Type"="video/mp4"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.m4a]
"PerceivedType"="audio"
"Content Type"="audio/mp4"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\MIME Types\video/mp4]
@="mp4file"
"UserApprovedOwning"="yes"
"Extensions.SpaceSep"=".mp4 .m4v"
"Extensions.CommaSep"="mp4,m4v"
"Extension.Key"=".mp4"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\MIME Types\audio/mp4]
@="mp4file"
"UserApprovedOwning"="yes"
"Extensions.SpaceSep"=".m4a"
"Extensions.CommaSep"="m4a"
"Extension.Key"=".m4a"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\Groups\Video\mp4]
@="mp4file"
"Description"="Includes files with .mp4 and .m4v extensions."
"Extensions"=".mp4 .m4v"
"FriendlyTypeName"="MPEG-4 Media File"
"MIME Types"="video/mp4"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\Groups\Audio\m4a]
@="mp4file"
"Description"="Includes files with an .m4a extension."
"Extensions"=".m4a"
"FriendlyTypeName"="MPEG-4 Media File"
"MIME Types"="audio/mp4"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\Extensions\.mp4]
"Permissions"=dword:0000000f
"UserApprovedOwning"="yes"
"Runtime"=dword:00000007
"PerceivedType"="video"
"MediaType.Description"="MPEG-4 Media File"
"Extension.Handler"="mp4file"
"Extension.MIME"="video/mp4"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\Extensions\.m4v]
"Permissions"=dword:0000000f
"UserApprovedOwning"="yes"
"Runtime"=dword:00000007
"PerceivedType"="video"
"MediaType.Description"="MPEG-4 Media File"
"Extension.Handler"="mp4file"
"Extension.MIME"="video/mp4"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\Extensions\.m4a]
"Permissions"=dword:0000000f
"UserApprovedOwning"="yes"
"Runtime"=dword:00000007
"PerceivedType"="audio"
"MediaType.Description"="MPEG-4 Media File"
"Extension.Handler"="mp4file"
"Extension.MIME"="audio/mp4"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player\Extensions\Descriptions]
"737"="MPEG-4 Media File (*.mp4;*.m4v;*.m4a)"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player\Extensions\MUIDescriptions]
"737"="MPEG-4 Media File"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player\Extensions\Types]
"737"="*.mp4;*.m4v;*.m4a"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\MLS\Extensions]
"mp4"="video"
"m4v"="video"
"m4a"="audio"

Save the file, close Notepad and then double-click on the file. Click ok to have the file added to your registry. Now these types of files will show up in your Media Player library.

Optionally, I install 2 other useful tools:

Real Player Alternative (MUCH better than installing Real Player)

QT Lite (Quicktime alternative) – Note: If you install the above correctly, you shouldn’t need to worry about quick time.

Ffdshow has lots of options for improving audio and video. I set up mine to be used with most every file type. While Ffdshow can be used to upscale or de-noise, etc. I do not enable any of those settings. I just let it play the files with out adding any extra overhead to the CPU.

Here are screen shots of how I set up ffdshow to play all the file types I need. You can also download this registry file and apply all the settings quickly. ffdshow-techlifeweb

Video Settings

Audio Settings

My favorite software for ripping CDs is Exact Audio Copy. This software is getting better and better over time. It allows the conversion to MP3 or lossless formats like FLAC. I rip all my music to high quality mp3s. True audiophiles will probably want FLAC but the thing is, FLAC isn’t everywhere yet. MP3 is much more portable. For example, I can play it on my computer, stream it to my media extender, put it on CD for the car stereo, put it on my Archos, etc.

To get started you need:

EAC-Exact Audio Copy

LAME encoder 3.97

There are great EAC guides at Hydrogen Audio Wiki

Follow the wiki page for the configuration wizard then see the screen shots below.

The screen shots below show how I have the various EAC options set. This helps get things set up quickly and if further info is needed, the Hydrogen Audio Wiki will provide the best resources. Click the image to enlarge.

EAC Menu – EAC Options (F9)

On the next screen I set the Naming Scheme to:  %A\C%\N% – %T

This creates the file structure: Artist\CD Title\Track# – Song Title

Example: “Z:\Diana Krall\When I Look In Your Eyes\01 – Let’s Face The Music And Dance.mp3″

EAC Menu – Compression Options (F11)

The main setting here is the Command Line Options. Here is my command line:

-V2 –vbr-new –ta “%a” –tt “%t” –tg “%m” –tl “%g” –ty “%y” –tn “%n” %s %d

The bit rate doesn’t matter at that line overrides.

Enjoy your music!