WIndows Media Center isn't supplied with the required video codecs and many users have had to install Cyberlink or Power DVD to achieve the required result. This writer chose instead to pay $19.95 USD for the NVidia codec, it works very well. Here are the details from their website.
The NVIDIA® DVD Decoder combines the industry’s highest quality DVD and MPEG-2 playback with rich surround sound audio and provides the best experience with Windows Media Center Edition.
Featuring Dolby® Digital surround sound audio and hardware-accelerated video on all Microsoft DirectX® compatible graphics processors, the NVIDIA DVD Decoder delivers unmatched color fidelity and smooth DVD, video, and TV viewing. The NVIDIA DVD Decoder is also the best way to experience PureVideo on your NVIDIA GeForce 6 Series GPU, enabling such features as spatial temporal de-interlacing, inverse telecine, and bad edit correction.
The NVIDIA DVD decoder is the first software decoder to receive the “Designed for Media Center Edition” certification, ensuring that it will deliver premium video quality and unmatched performance for Media Center PCs. In addition, the NVIDIA DVD Decoder is designed to work with Portable Media Centers allowing users to take their recorded TV shows with them on the road.
Features
Enables DVD viewing with Microsoft® Windows Media® Player or Microsoft Windows Media Center Edition.
High quality MPEG-2 decoder supports any third party software application based upon Microsoft DirectShow.
Enables PureVideo technology on GeForce 6 Series GPUs.
Dolby® Digital** surround sound decoding.
Minimizes CPU utilization by offloading the MPEG-2 decoding onto the graphics processor.
Enables advanced de-interlacing.
Decodes high-definition MPEG-2 streams for ATSC tuners.
Supports Windows Mobile-based Portable Media Centers allowing end users to transcode.
MPEG-2 content into Windows Media Video 9.
S/PDIF pass through for external decoding of Dolby Digital and DTS (compatible hardware required).
Technical Specifications
Fully compliant ISO MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video and audio decoder.
MPEG-2 acceleration for inverse quantization (IQ), inverse discrete cosine transform (IDCT), and motion compensation (mo comp).
Microsoft DirectShow support.
Microsoft DirectX video acceleration support.
Microsoft Video Mixing Renderer 7 and 9.
Overlay support.
Sub-picture support.
System Requirements
Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Professional, or Windows XP Home Edition.
DirectX 9.0 or higher.
Windows Media Center or Windows Media® Player 9.0 or higher for DVD Playback.
DirectShow compatible software for MPEG-2 file playback.
DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA) compatible graphics processor.
DVD-ROM drive required for DVD viewing.
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The NVIDIA DVD Decoder works with Microsoft Windows Media Center, Windows Media Player, Interactual, and NVIDIA ForceWare Multimedia applications only for DVD playback.
NVIDIA Website Shop
