I'd previously concluded that it was not possible to play generic - xvid output from fab in vista media center.

I thought this was bacause vista woudl not support xvid, but I now find that vista does happily play video converted from you tube which has a very similar xvid codec.

2 examples follow - the data had been grabbed with avitag editor.

example 1 is from youtube via easy video converter. it plays fine in vista media center video library.

example 2 is ripped from dvd with dvdfab platinum- it does NOT work in vista media centre.

can anyone explain this ???

example 1 works in vista

Codec: XviD MPEG-4 codec 'xvid' <0x64697678>
Kilobits per second: 258.473
Frames per second: 29.9700
Frame size: 320x240 pixels
Aspect ratio: 1.33
Frame proportion: 3x4
Effective bits per pixel: 0.112
Effective bits per frame 3x4: 8646
Video compression: 99.532%
Power of video compression: 213.7:1

example 2 - dvdfab generic rip does not work in vista media centre ( reports missing codec)

Codec: XviD MPEG-4 codec 'XVID' <0x44495658>
Kilobits per second: 1200.344
Frames per second: 25.0000
Frame size: 1024x576 pixels
Aspect ratio: 1.78
Frame proportion: 9x16
Effective bits per pixel: 0.081
Effective bits per frame 3x4: 64179
Video compression: 99.661%
Power of video compression: 294.8:1

it could be the audio codecs ( example 2 uses AC3), but I doubt it, & life's too shor t to test all possible permutations.

I'd like the dvdfab authors to test their generic option outputs with vista media centre video library & either make them compatible or tell us what tweaks are needed - please

& please note - it's specific to VISTA - the generic xvid file outputs from DVDFAB work OK in Windows XP media center edition, but not in Vista home premium media center ( with the same codecs installed as on the XP machine! )