The VideoLAN Forums

i've seen this question asked a few times over the past year, but alas, i could find no clear answer posted in response so here goes again...

i would like to be able to watch on my laptop the digital tv / high def dvr-ms files that are recorded and stored on my windows media center PC without going through endless hours of transcoding to an MCX compatible file format (have media center extender, but MCX version 1 is not able to play hd dvr-ms streams).

can someone tell me if vlc player will play back over a (wireless g) network hd dvr-ms files from windows media center?

thanks much!

i wish to be able to use vlc player on my laptop and hook the laptop to my TV instead of the MCX (due to the MCX limitation).

At present VLC can not play wmv3 type files. It is my understanding that there is some support in the nightly builds but I wouldn't be surprised if it isn't finished.

VLC will probably never support DRM, so if you have purchased these files they most likely copy protected so they will not run.

There is however complete support for QuickTime H.264 with AAC audio. So if you want to experience HD content (480p to 1080p) you can assuming your machine is fast enough. There are movies showing up in this format and has been ratified as the format of choice for the new blue ray disks. Microsoft lost. Now what the motion picture companies will do is something we will probably find out later this year.

Winbdows Media center automatically recordeds TV into dvr-ms format, and it does not appear to have DRM for recording TV. I can play back the files fine in ATI File Player, and I can see that in order to play them it uses a MPEG2 decoder I have installed as well as an AC3 audio decoder. I wish to be able to go into the files, edit out ads and the like, then save them again, even if in a different format. I hate to say this, but for my purpose being able to inport the file into windows movie maker, even if I have to convert it first using a program like VLC to something like AVI with VERY simple encoding (and very large file sizes) would be excellent for doing the work I wish to do.

Does anyone know of any free way to do this, or have any clue why changing the extension of the files in quiest to .avi or .mpg isn't enough for VLC to be able to play them? It shows the correct length of the file and acts as if it is playing, but no audio/video.

main error: no suitable decoder module for fourcc `DVR '.
VLC probably does not support this sound or video format.

Is the error I get trying to play the file. Sorry for the double post.

Winbdows Media center automatically recordeds TV into dvr-ms format, and it does not appear to have DRM for recording TV. I can play back the files fine in ATI File Player, and I can see that in order to play them it uses a MPEG2 decoder I have installed as well as an AC3 audio decoder. I wish to be able to go into the files, edit out ads and the like, then save them again, even if in a different format. I hate to say this, but for my purpose being able to inport the file into windows movie maker, even if I have to convert it first using a program like VLC to something like AVI with VERY simple encoding (and very large file sizes) would be excellent for doing the work I wish to do.

Does anyone know of any free way to do this, or have any clue why changing the extension of the files in quiest to .avi or .mpg isn't enough for VLC to be able to play them? It shows the correct length of the file and acts as if it is playing, but no audio/video.

If your ATI player uses a Standard MPEG-2 format then VLC will probably be able to play and transcode your files. It may also be able to take the TV stream in directly and put it into yet another format. You would still need an editor to delete the unwanted portions of the material as VLC was not designed to do this.

I would suggest downloading one of the newer nightly builds as this would give you the best opportunity to do the things you want.

http://nightlies.videolan.org/

I second the desire to have VLC be able to read DVR-MS files. Does anyone know if this is possible?

Have you tried searching this on the web? It has been suggested here that this is a MPEG format. But if VLC will not play it, its probably not standard or there is no open source available.

You could try VideoHelp.com or the Doom9 forum.

Two suggestions for programs that might help you.

1) DVR2MPG: very simple, free tool to "convert" .dvr-ms files to mpg. As I understand it, .dvr-ms is natively mpeg2 with ac3 audio, but it's packaged differently (maybe as a "stream?"...I probably sound stupid...maybe somebody smart can clarify). This tool just re-packages quickly into a more "regular" file. With my HD tuner, I record video at roughly 8GB/hour...this tool will convert an hour of hd video in a matter of a couple minutes or less.

2)DVR-MS Editor: another very simple tool for editing .dvr-ms files. So, you can edit them in this, input them into DVR2MPG, and have regular old MPEG2 files that'll look beautiful in VLC.

I found both of these pieces of software through here:
http://watchhdtv.net/download.aspx
Just scroll to the bottom and you'll see the links. I think you need to have Microsoft.NET framework 1.0 and/or 2.0 installed for DVR-MS Editor to work.

One more note: when you click the link for DVR-MS Editor, the page looks all complicated...but if you're like me and don't know anything about stuff, don't get discouraged. Just download "dvr-ms sample code.msi", run it, and find the DVR-MS Editor within the folder "...\DVR-MS Sample Code\Applications"