In Windows 7, Media Center comes pre-installed – but it isn’t necessarily set up properly. In our two previous articles for Windows Media Center, we showed you how you can set up Windows Media Center for the first time and how you can rebuild your Media Center library. Another thing that Windows Media Center is missing is playback support for Matroska Video (MKV) files. With the rising popularity of the MKV format, this can become quite troublesome. In this tutorial we’ll learn how to use a work-around to add MKV playback ability to Windows Media Center.
Step 1 – Download FFDShow Tryouts
Adding MKV playback support to Windows Media Center doesn’t take much, in fact it mostly involves downloading a few codecs. Let’s start with the first one: Download FFDShow Tryouts.
Once the download is finished go ahead and run the installer, it is pretty straight-forward.
Note: If you are running a 64-bit operating system you will need to also download this file to enable 64-bit rendering.
Step 2 – Download Gabest’s MKV Splitters
Now we need one more codec called Gabest’s MKV Splitters.
Download the 32-bit version or download the 64-bit version depending on which version operating system you are running.
Once downloaded, Extract the contents of the archive to the C:\ directory* (root) of your computer.
*Or whatever custom directory you’ve installed Windows to.
Now that the contents are on your C:\ drive, Right-Click the gabest_splitter_enable.cmd file and select Run as administrator.
A messages will pop up confirming that the installation was a success.
Step 3 – Downloading the Registry Modification
The last thing you need to do is to download and open a registry file. Again, there is a different version for 32-bit and 64-bit computers.
or Download the 64-bit version
Optional: If you are curious as to what keys the registry files will be editing, just Right-Click the registry file and Select Open with > Notepad.
Once downloaded, Right-Click the registry file and Select Merge (this will require administrator privileges).
If a warning dialog pops up, Click Yes to continue.
Once it is done adding the new keys to the registry, you’ll see a pop-up saying “…successfully added to the registry.” Click OK to finish.
Done!
You should now be able to enjoy MKV videos using Windows Media Center without any problems!
I got to the gabest part but when I dbl click on it to install it I get a message…The module “C:\MatroskaSplitter.ax” failed to load.
Make sure the binary is stored at the specified path or debug it to check for problems with the binary or dependent DLL files.
The specified module could not be found.
Where did I go wrong?
After downloading the archive you need to extract the files to the C: directory (root). Otherwise the install won’t work.
Stefan
After i installed this process i can see all the mkv file’s in my wmp center
But if i try to play the center restarts or shutts down
I am running Windows 8 with WMCE
Can you help
Per
Thanks! This worked perfectly on my windows 7 x64 box. I uninstalled the combined communicty codecs pack first, then followed these directions and now media center plays my .mkv videos. Awesome!
Hello, thanks for the post! Video and audio work great but i can’t seem to get subtitles to work. Any idea’s? Thanks, Neil.
so far so gd!, now for mkv files with subs……
any way to be able to upgrade the media center on my xbox360!? it won’t play .mkv files, but the media center on my computer does.
the reg file fucked all my comutet aoudio.
in songs and movies (even in youtube) when someone talk (or singing in songs) its unable to heare the talks, like a karaoke.
sos.. please…
You need to make sure both Windows and FFDShow have your correct speaker set-up. If you have only stereo speakers, have that set or speech might be set to a non-existent middle speaker of a 5.1 system.
Go to “Start button -> all programs -> ffdshow -> audio”
Also – thanks Stefan for this tip.
it is saying I do not have permission to extract to my c:\ drive but I am logged on as administrator.
I have this problem aswell any ideas on how to fix?
Worked like a charm. Good, clear directions and screen shots!
Thanks for the easy steps….appreciate that you took the time to explain this.
Worked a treat.
NOTE: I run Win7 64bit and when I went to the FFDShow Tryouts link – there was a 64 bit version which I downloaded and ran. I skipped this part ” If you are running a 64-bit operating system you will need to also download this file to enable 64-bit rendering.” and it is still working a treat.
Suspect they’ve added the 64bit tryout after this post was written – but either way…reg edits and all…she’s working a beauty.
Thanks again.
Although I must also note that I’d previously installed the Matroska codec pack and the Community Codec pack… – not sure if any of the stuff in there allowed me to skip the additional 64bit rendering file or whether it was the 64 bit tryouts installer…I suspect the latter.
Thanks so much! Easy as pie to do and worked immediately!
Worked perfectly thanks. I’m about to go look but any guides on how to then get the mkv to work via xbox360 media center connection?
it works, can play mkv files with wmc, but i can’t see mkv files in Movies > Movie library. should i? and if not, how to persuade wmc to show mkv files there?
Thank you!
Anyone try this procedure on Windows 8 ? Video work on WMP but on WMC app crash if I try to play a mkv video !
Thank you so much, worked like a charm for me: Windows 7, 64-bit.
Looked sketchy with the .cmds but it was all good. Sometimes the videos can be buggy when fastforwarding but it’s fine. Thanks, mate!
Just tried this on Windows 8 media center…. yeah now I can’t even view a folder with MKV’s in it without the whole thing crashing. Going to look on google for a fix… otherwise I will have to start all over…
Did you fix it? What I did was uninstall the second download in step 1. So it plays in WMP but no sound for WMC. Have you figured anything out?
Works great but…. no sound Please help! Also video shows up on Xbox but very pixelated, no sound as well
Works like a charm so-far, at least locally on the Win7 Machine. WMC on the XBOX doesnt appear to see the videos in my PC library w/ the .mkv extension.
IT dosnt work on vista ultimate 32 bit… anybody know another guide… i can find the mkv files but it keep saying it cannot open them, either damage or wrong codec…?? help
Some of my MKV’s have multiple audio languages. How do I disable the other languages so I don’t have multiple languages going all at once? BTW, this tutorial was awesome. Thanks.
Worked perfectly, except for forced subtitles.
Just installed in Win8 64 and I’m crashing every time I try to navigate to a directory. Please help with either a fix (obviously preferred) or an uninstall…
Thanks so much!
What about m2ts files with DTS-HD master audio? I can play mkvs with and the audio works, but the m2ts files play with no sound.
ok works fine but i got 2 audio tracks runnig at the same time
its realy anoying to hear german and english together