Windows Media Center Edition on Inspiron 8200 w 440 Go 64MB

[Robert Gerrity]

I am trying to get Windows Media Center Edition (MCE) (Version 2002, Service Pack 2) to run well on my Dell Inspiron 8200 (I8200) with its Nvidia 440 Go (440Go) 64MB graphics card and the Dell 2405FPW external monitor.

I have gotten the 61.76, 93.71, and 94.22 drivers to run the MCE operating system stably at 1920x1200 on the external display, however problems with the Media Center (MC) application and video playback continue to plague the system.

An error message (video card does not support Media Center) appeared when starting MC with the 61.76 and 93.71 drivers, but not with the 94.22 drivers. In all cases, non-DVD video has problems playing back in Media Center even when the same videos play well in Windows Media Player. When trying to play videos in MC, they attempt to load but just produce a "cannot play video" error message. DVD videos seems to play alright.

I've found one workaround for this video problem in the 94.22 drivers (I haven't tried it with other drivers). If I open Media Center by double-clicking on a .dvr-ms video file recorded on another MCE PC (rather than by opening MC directly), then the .dvr-ms video plays properly and all subsequent .avi/.wmv and other videos also play back correctly. I don't really understand why this works, but it is getting the job done.

If anyone knows how to get Media Center to play videos correctly when opened directly on an Inspiron 8200 or other Nvidia 440 Go-based machine, please let me know.

[Michael Marley]

What MPEG2 codec are you using? I have had similar problem setting up Media Center systems, all of which were resolved by having the correct codec.