VanillaXtract said: I will look at videohelp.com and if you can verify playback, that would be great. I am guessing the skip is using the skip button. I will have to verify, but since the file shows up as 1:29, I can't FF or RW past that, but maybe I can skip. The problem I have is if I am watching a 2hr movie and have to shut things off to go somewhere, come back, I can't resume or get anywhere close to where I was in the file. The strangest part is that If I use the x280n interface, the files show up with the correct length and I can ff or rw. If I use mce, then it appears as about 1min long. I have also noticed that at some point if I view a movie enough times, it appear to show the correct time and stay that way! Like with Speed Racer (my son loves it), it used to appear as 1min34sec. Now it shows up as 2hrs and some change and it has everytime now. I am unsure about dvr-ms as I am trying to keep the files to about 1GB. Using handbrake with with a .avi extension x264, 2 pass encode and AC3 passthrough, it seems to be the best solution for quality and size.

I will try to confirm 5.1 in wmv in the next few days.

The ff and rw limitation on various file types is imposed by VMC. I am assuming that when you play h264 avi in extender mode on the x280n you are using Window 7 Media Center and not Vista Media Center, is that correct. If I am not mistaken the only way to play h264 in Vista Media Center is to use on the fly transcoding.

It sounds like your best bet at this point in time is to make the skip thing work(yes the skip button is what is used). Unless you have the HDD space or plan on having more HDD space then you are stuck with re-encoding everything. I made the decision long ago to add HDD space as required in order to preserve PQ and simplify the over all process.

Another downside to wmv is that it is pretty much the slowest to encode. The stuff that I sometimes re-encode to wmv generally does not have 5.1 and even if it did, it is stuff that my wife watches and she could care less about the audio....just as long as she can hear what is being siad.

I have been using the x280n on and off now for quite sometime. IMHO it is not worth much if not being used in extender mode. Streaming video to it via MediaSmart Connect Server software or WMP11 is far from satisfying and that includes using something like Tversity. The problem then that I have is that I have just about had it with all of the VMC/WMC restrictions and funny business. I am about to go in the SageTV HD direction. I just wish I had purchased XP Pro before Newegg stopped selling it. W7 or as it should called Vista2 is better but it still installs MC on your PC.

VanillaXtract said: I was using Vista and just put Windows 7 on. As soon as I put 7 on, I set up WMC just like I did on Vista, so no idea what is required or not. But I am using MediaBrowser along with Transcode360 and it works great and even looks great. Hack7mc.com is a site you should check out if interested in wmc at all. I will check out the skip button in the morning when I wake up. Thanks for you help and suggestions.

Thanks for the link but I personally have no desire to transcode anything on the fly. As I said in my last post I greatly prefer watching video in its original form.

I am surprised that you need to transcode h264 with W7. You may take a look to make sure you are not transcoding your h264. If you are then it is just one more thing that can go wrong, uses significant amounts of CPU and even though the transcoded video is watchable it may be degraded.

The x280n can play h264 so as I said you should be able to play h264 in W7 without the use of Transcode360. I use MB as well and I have tried Transcode360 and IMHO if you do not need to transcode then do not transcode and of you need to transcode then try to find a way to not transcode.