Despite Windows 7 Media Center’s inclusion of a native movie library no function to actually rip the DVDs to the library was included. Certainly an attempt to avoid this legal grey area of copying purchased media to a secondary source, this also leaves out an important feature from the Media Center platform. This of course leaves an area open for third party developers to come up with a solution, however, up until this point very few options were available such as My Movies’ Media Center plugin. Fortunately, eMpTy3000 of The Green Button forums has taken up the initiative to create another option for Media Center users though not quite as developed as the My Movies option.

To get started with Auto Rip n Compress we’ll need to download a few programs. First, we’ll need to get a copy of DVDFab which includes the command line interface such as the latest version. Once installed you’ll need to run the program once to select the Free edition of the program as well. Also required is a copy of the latest version of the Handbrake CLI available from the Handbrake site as a separate download. Finally, install the Auto Rip n Convert program  check the TGB thread for the latest version.

After installing the program we need to setup the options. The main options dialog will appear once setup completes allowing you to set the basic options and define the locations of the programs we’ve downloaded as well as the DVD drive.

Be certain that the locations are correct as well as setting the final location to an area available to the Windows 7 Media Center Movie Library. On this screen there is also an option available to rip just the main movie or the entire disk. The Compress Settings allows you to establish the Handbrake CLI settings to be used by Auto Rip n Convert. Be certain to set the correct location of the Handbrake CLI, the file type extension to be used as well as the preset and subtitles options on this window. If you’d prefer to not compress the disk and leave the Video_TS as it is simply change the Compress option to No.

Once all the settings have been established correctly most Media Center users will want to create a start menu strip entry for the program as well to enable launching the program from inside Media Center. Unfortunately the program doesn’t offer this option and we’ll need to use Media Center Studio to do that at the moment. Also, the program doesn’t include a Media Center interface for naming the titles and instead minimizes Media Center to require manual title entry which will certainly be a turn-off to many Media Center users.

For those unfamiliar with Media Center Studio check out our previous articles on using the program as well as creating custom start menu strips. In order to add Auto Rip n Convert to a strip we’ll need to take the extra step of creating an entry point for the program inside Media Center Studio. From the Start Menu options pages press the Application creation button on the top actions strip to create a new entry. Then enter the location of the Auto Rip n Compress program and give the entry point a title then save the changes.

Now we can return to the main Start Menu tab and drag the new entry point from the listing to any strip we’d like to have it listed in. Once again save the changes and you can now close the program and launch Windows 7 Media Center.

As mentioned earlier the current version of Auto Rip n Convert doesn’t include a method for setting the DVD title from inside Media Center and will minimize the program to request the title entry. This is a serious downside and hopefully something that will be addressed in the future as there are many people who would prefer a complete Media Center experience.

From there the program will send the relevant options to DVDFab and Handbrake to automate the ripping and conversion process. The launching of these various windows may also interfere with the display of Windows 7 Media Center but this isn’t necessarily something that the author will be able to rectify. Also, DVDFab presents a number of additional options that will need to be answered before processing the first disk. Be certain to select the Do Not Ask Again option on each of these windows so as to not be prompted each time. That’s all there is to it! Auto Rip n Convert is certainly a decent new project and we’re sure the future will bring some updates that will improve the user experience though as always we’d love to see the project go open source.

Source Article:
Auto Rip n Compress adds DVD Ripping to Media Center (Almost)

Using the latest version of DVRMSToolbox from Andy VT we can easily convert an MKV file to the new WTV format thanks to the inclusion of an updated todvrms program. Why would we want to do this? Well, for those who use Windows 7 Media Center exclusively for watching movie content it means ultimate compatibility. Converting to the WTV format for those who use Media Center exclusively means full fast forward and reverse support, no more codec packages and all the other features supported by the native format. The downside, of course, is limited support at this point for the format in other popular media players. For those concerned only with the best Media Center experience, however, this may be the best way forward.

To get started download and install the latest version of DVRMSToolbox which includes the new todvrms and a profile to convert MKV TV shows to WTV.

Then give your profile a name and description and remove the extra methods that aren’t needed for our simple conversion. Since we don’t need to retrieve and save TV series metadata we can remove most of the existing profile. Those experienced with DVRMSToolbox can add other actions such as removing the original file and moving the file to an alternate location at this point as well. Save your profile and close the settings application.

Now that we have a profile to do our conversion open up the DVRMSToolbox GUI program to get started with the conversions. Determine whether you’d like to process a single file or a complete directory and select the appropriate tab. Select the proper input and output files/directories and our new profile from the dropdown box and hit run. Simple as that the profile should start converting our MKV to a more Media Center compatible WTV.

It’s also possible to run the entire operation from the command line though the DVRMSToolbox GUI provides a graphical interface that most uses will find much easier to use. Once the conversion has completed, that’s all there is to it. You can now open your movie inside Windows 7 Media Center with full support of the built-in codecs including Dolby Digital audio and audio support on first level fast forward. No more fussing with codec packages and settings.

Remember, there is slim support for the WTV format from third-parties at this point however and if you’re accustomed to viewing movies outside Media Center or Windows Media Player you may want to hold off on converting until your favorite third party programs add support for the format. This is likely to be a fairly popular solution for those who are Windows 7 Media Center exclusive however.

Source Article:
Converting MKV to WTV with the latest DVRMSToolbox

If you’re a student with a valid .edu e-mail address (non US students see below), Microsoft is offering Windows 7 for $30 USD for a limited period. Microsoft also has a growing list of approved US institutions that don’t provide their students with e-mail addresses.

The price tag has been reduced from the lowest Windows 7 retail price of $120 (USD) for a Home Premium upgrade and the special promotional price can be obtained through win741.com, which was launched this week.

This is not a lightweight student version, it’s the full retail version and Microsoft recommends that anyone upgrading from Windows XP should perform a clean installation and recommends they purchase a backup Windows 7 DVD.

US students can pre-order their copy of Windows 7 now, and can download the OS from October 22nd (general availability).

Students in the UK can pre-order their copy beginning September 30th for download on October 22nd.

Students in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Korea, and Mexico can participate in this offer on October 22nd. In most markets, the offer ends on January 3rd, however in Australia the offer has been extended until March 31st.

Many college and university students can already get Windows 7 Professional for free through the MSDN Academic Alliance (MSDNAA) but this is offer is aimed at students without this access .

Source Article:
$30 Windows 7 For Students

Around here we love when someone comes along and creates an application to take even the simplest processes and refines them into an even easier single solution. Previously we covered creating your own bootable USB Windows 7 installation manually and today we’ve got a couple of applications that make the entire process a snap. Even better, both applications are entirely free of charge. Installing Windows 7 from USB makes the perfect method for installation on that home-brew movie streaming box in the bedroom or even a drive-less main media center machine.

The first application is from Tweaking with Vishal which provides a very streamlined interface for creating your new bootable Windows 7 installation. To get started you’ll need to download and install the program from the askvg.com page. By default the installation will create a desktop icon from which you can launch the program.

On the first run of the program a handy Help guide will appear walking you through the steps to create your new installation disk. The process is incredibly simple, first insert the USB drive into the USB port. Next press the Check USB button and select the disk from the dropdown box. After selecting the proper drive press the Format USB button, note that if you’d prefer to do a fast format saving quite a bit of time be sure to enable it in the Options before pressing the Format button.

After formatting has completed select whether you’d prefer to create the installation from a DVD drive or an ISO file. This is a handy feature that the other program we’ll be looking at doesn’t have, the ability to copy files from inside an ISO without mounting it first. After choosing ISO or DVD and selecting the proper location of the files press the Start button to begin the process of copying the files to the USB drive. This will take some time depending on the disk’s speed and whether or not the program will need to extract files from an ISO.

Afterward you should now have a complete Windows 7 installation USB drive. Just pop it into the destination machine, make sure that the BIOS is set to boot from USB and get started.

The next program we’ll be looking at is WintoFlash, a program first featured on Paul Thurrott’s Supersite for Windows. The process with this program is fairly similar. Begin by downloading and extracting the program to your hard drive then launch the wintoflash.exe file to begin. Once opened you’ll have the choice of running the program as a wizard or manually by selecting the Welcome! or Task tab.

Under the Task option, select the option to transfer Vista/2008/7 setup to flash. The next screen will prompt you for the USB drive type, file system format and format type. The default selections are adequate and shouldn’t need changed. Under the setup files path you will need to select the DVD drive or mounted ISO image to load the files from. As mentioned earlier this program doesn’t offer the option to load an ISO file directly. Next select the location of your USB drive and press Create to get the process started.

Another super simple way to transfer Windows 7’s setup to a flash USB drive! Both these programs performed quite well for the task they were designed to perform though the “A bootable USB” program’s ISO option certainly gives it an edge.