Vista - Vista64 Media center and AVI

Hey guys,
New to the forum but just installed vista 64 the other night so im sure i'll be here a lot!
Now i've been looking a lot into how to play AVI files through the media center, and it seems everyone uses the FFDShow program.

So, after installing vista64, drivers, and all updates (except SP1), and configuring the media center
I then installed:
-Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Redistributable Package x64 SP1
-FFDShow
-MediaControl 5.4.4x64

In that order. Well after doing this my AVI files still wouln't play in media center, they wouldnt even open, i just got a message saying it could not open the file. When I open the file in media player 11, only the audio plays, not video.
So then I tried opening the FFDShow configuration menu and enabling some more codecs that were disabled upon installation. Still nothing.

So I go to restart my pc, BLUE SCREEN of death. Computer takes a super long time to boot up again, and the next time I shut down, another blue screen. So not only did it not work for me, it corrupted my machine and I guess i will do another fresh windows install.

Anyone know what I can do? Are there specific settings I need to make with FFDShow and the media center plugin or should they pretty much work right from the install? Im not highly educated in codecs but reading as much as i can going along. Thanks for the help


-ps: the avi file is known to work fine, i viewed the same file in windows xp with VLC media player without any problems.

i wouldve suggested instead of installing the ffdshow by itself but instead to install the shark007 codec packages provided here on the forums


here is the sticky for it Vista Codec Pack - 32bit & 64bit Media Player Codecs

thanks ill have to try that one. do you have personal experience with it?
im basically just trying to find the simplest solution possible to get my AVI files into my media center library and watchable.

sure. i have x64 ultimate, installed all updates and sp1. then installed the codec pack for x86/x64 and then the x64 component pack also provided in the sticky. they work very well. no problems whatsoever and media center and player work flawlessly. lemme know if you have any issues.


also all you need to do to add them to the library if media center doesnt pick them up already, is to go to the library setup option in the settings menu and tell media center to watch the folder with the avi's in them. good luck

worked perfectly thanks for the help!
blue screens are gone as well. my system just didnt seem to like ffdshow, i configured it exactly as the media center plugin suggested but mc wouldnt recognize the video codecs.
in removed ffdshow and installed the ones in that link and everything works.

the only thing i noticed was that fastforward didnt work for the AVIs
and the chapter skip actually skiped 30 seconds of the video instead. o well i think i can live with that.

now that you mentioned it i have those issues with avis too. the chapter skip while watchin avis skips 30 secs and ffwd doesnt work but if you watch a dvd they all work fine....i just thought that was how it was designed to work? i dunno i never thought of it as an issue. like i said i thought they worked flawlessly. im just thankful everything plays lol