Reinstalling Codec

Hello all,

Can anyone tell walk me through or point me to a tutorial for reinstalling my mpeg2 codec. I've been having problems with my MCE
machine playing Widescreen DVD's.

I posted a question on TheGreenButton.com. You can find it here with a detailed description of my problem:

http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/101932.aspx

One of the guys mentioned contacting Dell to see if they can help me out, but I reall don't feel like talking to an Indian that I
can hardly understand who will just tell me to reformat my hard drive. I know some one out there will know how to do this. Please
help.

Thanks for any help anyone can provide,

Conan Kelly

I was the one that recommended it. Its sometimes harder to get to your
decoder install from a name machine. Usually its not just in the box. I
would look on the dell website under the support and downloads. There
should be an install program for it.

Use the decoder check util to figure out what decoder you have installed.
Then look for it on the dell website under drivers and software for your
make/model. Sometimes you can just get the oem version from the software
makers website. The most common packaged decoders are windvd, powerdvd and
purevideo.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

--

Bryan Socha
MSMVP - Media Center
http://www.microsoft.com/mvp

In general, you just reinstall you DVD software (i.e. PowerDVD, WinDVD,
etc.) then the codec will be available to Media Center and Windows Media
Player. You don't need to play movies/shows with your actual DVD software,
you just need to install it.

The system should have come with a reinstall disk for DVD playing software.
The reason it worked when you got it was that it was already installed.

You can purchase codecs separately, but why bother when you already have
paid for one with the system?

-Mike

"Bryan Socha (MVP-MCE)" <> wrote in message
news:...
>I was the one that recommended it. Its sometimes harder to get to your
>decoder install from a name machine. Usually its not just in the box. I
>would look on the dell website under the support and downloads. There
>should be an install program for it.
>
> Use the decoder check util to figure out what decoder you have installed.
> Then look for it on the dell website under drivers and software for your
> make/model. Sometimes you can just get the oem version from the software
> makers website. The most common packaged decoders are windvd, powerdvd
> and purevideo.
>
> http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en
>
> --
>
> Bryan Socha
> MSMVP - Media Center
> http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
>
>

Lately name computers do not ship disks with their systems anymore and if
they do, they are reinstall disks where you have to wipe your entire
machine. the ones with burners theres a utility to take the reinstall off
the hidden hard drive partition and create your own dvds/cds.

It makes it a little hard to reinstall a specific piece of software without
reformating your machine. A lot of times your forced to hope there is an
update available on their support site. If its a name compuer, you don't
need to buy it again.

--
Bryan Socha
MSMVP - Media Center
http://www.microsoft.com/mvp


"Mike" <> wrote in message
news:. ..
> In general, you just reinstall you DVD software (i.e. PowerDVD, WinDVD,
> etc.) then the codec will be available to Media Center and Windows Media
> Player. You don't need to play movies/shows with your actual DVD software,
> you just need to install it.
>
> The system should have come with a reinstall disk for DVD playing
> software. The reason it worked when you got it was that it was already
> installed.
>
> You can purchase codecs separately, but why bother when you already have
> paid for one with the system?
>
> -Mike
>
> "Bryan Socha (MVP-MCE)" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>>I was the one that recommended it. Its sometimes harder to get to your
>>decoder install from a name machine. Usually its not just in the box. I
>>would look on the dell website under the support and downloads. There
>>should be an install program for it.
>>
>> Use the decoder check util to figure out what decoder you have installed.
>> Then look for it on the dell website under drivers and software for your
>> make/model. Sometimes you can just get the oem version from the software
>> makers website. The most common packaged decoders are windvd, powerdvd
>> and purevideo.
>>
>> http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en
>>
>> --
>>
>> Bryan Socha
>> MSMVP - Media Center
>> http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
>>
>>
>
>

I know that Cyberlink offers a free trial of PDVD on their website. I wonder
if when it expires, the codecs aren't still available to other programs;
maybe the expiration just keeps PDVD from running, and if you're not using
it anyway . . .

Also (for PDVD), you could use Ghost8 to extract the .sim (license) file
from the Dell restore partition and paste it into a downloaded trial of the
same version. Or copy and register all of the *.ax files manually.

-Mike


"Bryan Socha (MVP-MCE)" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Lately name computers do not ship disks with their systems anymore and if
> they do, they are reinstall disks where you have to wipe your entire
> machine. the ones with burners theres a utility to take the reinstall
> off the hidden hard drive partition and create your own dvds/cds.
>
> It makes it a little hard to reinstall a specific piece of software
> without reformating your machine. A lot of times your forced to hope
> there is an update available on their support site. If its a name
> compuer, you don't need to buy it again.
>
> --
> Bryan Socha
> MSMVP - Media Center
> http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
>
>
> "Mike" <> wrote in message
> news:. ..
>> In general, you just reinstall you DVD software (i.e. PowerDVD, WinDVD,
>> etc.) then the codec will be available to Media Center and Windows Media
>> Player. You don't need to play movies/shows with your actual DVD
>> software, you just need to install it.
>>
>> The system should have come with a reinstall disk for DVD playing
>> software. The reason it worked when you got it was that it was already
>> installed.
>>
>> You can purchase codecs separately, but why bother when you already have
>> paid for one with the system?
>>
>> -Mike
>>
>> "Bryan Socha (MVP-MCE)" <> wrote in message
>> news:...
>>>I was the one that recommended it. Its sometimes harder to get to your
>>>decoder install from a name machine. Usually its not just in the box. I
>>>would look on the dell website under the support and downloads. There
>>>should be an install program for it.
>>>
>>> Use the decoder check util to figure out what decoder you have
>>> installed. Then look for it on the dell website under drivers and
>>> software for your make/model. Sometimes you can just get the oem
>>> version from the software makers website. The most common packaged
>>> decoders are windvd, powerdvd and purevideo.
>>>
>>> http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>> Bryan Socha
>>> MSMVP - Media Center
>>> http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>