Wictor Wilén

SharePoint Server MVP / Author / MCT / MCTS / MCP / MSc writing about SharePoint and other interesting Microsoft technologies

Watch DVDs in VIDEO_TS folders on Vista Media Center

Posted at 2006-12-20 06:41 by Wictor Wilén in Windows Vista , Windows Media Center with 23 comments.

Windows Vista Media Center Here is a small tip to all of you that have DVD movies on your hard drives, like me. I have copied most of our kids DVD's to the hard drives so there is no need to change DVD every fifth minute and as all of you with kids know - they are not that gentle to the DVD discs nor the cradle of the player.

Windows Vista Media Center does not initially allow you to watch ripped DVD movies using the Video Library, it only shows an empty VIDEO_TS folder. What you have to do is enable the DVD Gallery in Media Center, this is done through a small registry tweak.

Change the data of the ShowGallery value of the following key from Play to Gallery and you will have the DVD Library enabled instead of the Play DVD option.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Settings\DvdSettings

Now you can add the folders containg the copied DVD discs to the gallery and have fast access to your DVD movies.

Disclaimer: All changes to the Windows Vista registry is done at your own risk.

Comments and trackbacks

# Gallery folder... by Harald

"add the folders containg the copied DVD discs to the gallery" Where is exactly this folder?

# Re: Gallery folder by Wictor

You should create a folder for the DVD in (for example) c:\Users\Public\Videos and that folder should contain the AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS of the DVD. For example: c:\Users\Public\Videos\MyDVD\VIDEO_TS\

# Beautiful!! by luke

Your directions were very clear. Worked like a champ. This has been a pet project of mine (transferring kids DVDs to the media server) but was having a hard time finding something as easy as MCE for the wife and kids to use. FYI..after I rip the DVDs to the drive I use nero recode to cut the size down to 3-4GBytes per movie. Don't notice a difference. Thanks much!

# dvd error by Eliseo

i tried this and it worked up untill i tried to play the movie. I got an error stating that i had to close the media center app and open it again. i was trying to play the dvd off a external usb drive. any thought?

# Re: dvd error by Wictor

I have a similar trouble but no solution, whenever I'm switching between a DVD on the hard drive and a real DVD Media Center crashes...

# DVD error by Kiel

I am having the same problem... i have all my DVDs saved to an external hard drive, VMC recognizes them, but when i try to play them i get the error saying to close VMC and insert the disk again... when i try to play the same ripped file off of my local drive (internal) it works fine... i think its an issue of transfer speed over USB? any thoughts? i have an eSATA connection on my external HDD and as soon as i get a cable for that ill try it and let you know if that works! Cheers

# DVD error by Jason

I have the same issue. However, when I am writing to the external HDD and while it is writing I try to play a movie it will work. Can anyone tell me what the problem might be?

# Re: DVD error by Wictor

Jason and Kiel, I'm sorry I have not experienced anything like that and it really sounds strange. I hope that someone can help you out on this issue.

# DVD error by Marco

make sure you pressed stop before switching DVD's Marco

# why wasn't it enabled? by TomWaddle

I don't understand why MS didn't enable it in the first place. This is awesome

# why wasn't it enabled? by TomWaddle

I don't understand why MS didn't enable it in the first place. This is awesome

# external hard drives. by mazz

Apparently, VMC has issues playing ripped DVD movies (VOBs) stored on external hard drives. The solution is here: http://www.mediacenterthemes.com/forums/index.php?topic=223.msg1457#msg1457

# Summing up the year of 2007 and embracing 2008 by Trackback

The year of 2007 is about to come to an end, and it has been a really exciting year. First of all I've had a great year with my family; my daughters turned four and one years old during 2007 and it's...

# cool it worked by Oli

coolsky it worked. why not have it in the WMC UI as a user option rather than yet another registry hack. There is so many things like that in Microsfot vista... it is all becoming a real pain in the butt.

# Play DVD content from Server, External HD by Rob R.

This is very cool, but does anyone know how to make this work from an external HD. I have a server I use for all my DVDs and have no way to play them without converting them to mp4, etc. I would love to use Media Center but it don't see them unless they are in my users folders.HELP. Thanks

# Help - Ext Hard drive - DVD Error by Darenh

I have even installed my movies 2 and still get the dvd error and to restart the media center.

# test by test

test

# watching rippd DVD's in "VIDEO LIBRARY" of VMC by glee88

this is good, however, is there a way to play ripped DVD's from the "Video Library" section of VMC? I'm wanting to group my titles and one set of titles, I've got in different formats (eg, avi, mpg, rmvb...and also ripped dvd - ie video_ts) the registry hack works, however it means I can only watch the ripped dvd's from "DVD Library" section of VMC and then switch over to "VIDEO LIBRARY"....I know I can convert the files, however, as many would know, this was available in MCE2005

# watching rippd DVD's in "VIDEO LIBRARY" of VMC by glee88

# It works great by John

I just wanted to say thank you very Much to the poster of this ad. I did as you said and it works great. I have been researching this for about a year. Thanks again

# TS windows 7 media center by Derrick

I have been trying to get WMC 7 to see my video-ts files.All my dvd's have been ripped to hd with dvd shrink 3.2 They are all on my video's folder. Thanks

# TS windows 7 media center by Derrick

I have been trying to get WMC 7 to see my video-ts files.All my dvd's have been ripped to hd with dvd shrink 3.2 They are all on my video's folder. Thanks

# Watch DVD in VIDEO_TS by Nate the Skate

WORKS PERFECT!!!...THANKS!!!

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