How to disable Microsoft DTV-DVD codec? (1 Viewer)

[lloydsmart]

Hi. I'm finally working through some of my last remaining problems with Mediaportal, and I feel like I'm almost done, because everything actually does at least play now.

My current problem is that Mediaportal (and indeed other directshow players like WMP and Graphedit) will insist on using the Microsoft DTV-DVD codec to decode video, even though I have MPC installed as part of the Shark007 Win7Codecs package, and have it set to a higher merit (00800000 as opposed to 005FFFFF for the Microsoft one).

When I use graph edit, I get this:

I can easily change it within Graphedit to this:

and it plays perfectly, but of course that's not the default behaviour, so it doesn't happen in Mediaportal or any other program. I have set video playback to MPC in Mediaportal Configuration, too, so I don't know what's wrong.

Is there any way to disable the Microsoft filters? Filemerit won't even let me edit their merits, is there any way to delete them completely from Windows 7?

I'm on build 7068, x64 if that makes any difference. Using latest SVN of MP and latest stable release of Shark007's codecs (including x64 pack).

 

[bazzz]

Maybe this?

InstalledCodec - Disable/enable codec drivers and DirectShow filters installed on your system

 

[lloydsmart]

Nice find - I'll give that a try - thanks.

EDIT:

Ok, here's a progress update for you - that program didn't actually do what I wanted it to, but it did help me find a way to get things working, as is so often the case with this sort of stuff. Basically, I identified the Microsoft decoder codecs (decs?) in "InstalledCodec", but every time I tried to disable them, although it would say it has worked, a rescan of the registry would show that they're actually still enabled, and GraphEdit still uses them, so that was no good.

However, what it did enable me to to was to find the location on the hard drive structure where the codec server files are stored. I found this by right-clicking the codec registry entries in InstalledCodec and clicking "Properties". Here, there is a listing of the path and filename of the codec. On my system, it was stored under:

C:\Windows\SysWOW64\msmpeg2adec.dll
C:\Windows\SysWOW64\msmpeg2vdec.dll

Next problem was how to delete them. Windows wouldn't let me even though my account is an admin, because it said I needed permission from TrustedInstaller, whoever that is. So, after some digging around online, I found a solution.

What you have to do is enable the "real" administrator account by going to Start -> Run, typing "cmd" (without quotes), and if you've still got UAC on (ie it doesn't say "This task will be created with administrator privileges" underneath, right-click the menu item "cmd" that appears beneath the text box, and select "Run As Administrator".

Then, in the command window that appears, type "net user administrator /active:yes", and press enter. Now close the command window, save any work in open windows and log out. Once you're returned to the login screen, you should see and extra user account sitting there, called "Administrator". Click this to log into it. Once you've done that, go to "My Computer -> C: -> Windows -> SysWOW64" in explorer, and find and select "msmpeg2adec.dll". You still won't be able to delete it right away, but we're getting there.

Right-click the file, select "Properties", to the tab "Security", click on the "Advanced" button, click on the "Owner" tab, click the "Edit" button, click on "Administrators" from the list of users and groups, click "OK" as many times as it takes to get rid of all the dialog boxes that are currently open, and confirm or allow anything it asks you to in this time. Now right-click the file again and click on "Properties", then the tab "Securtiy", then "Advanced", then, in what should be the currently selected tab by default, "Permissions", click the "Change Permissions" button, then from the list that appears in the new window, click "Administrators", then click the "Edit" button, then check the box to allow full control (top left), then click "OK" as many times as it takes to close everything.

Repeat this process but for the msmpeg2vdec.dll file.

You should now have full permission and access to do with the file what you like. Rather than delete them completely, I actually just moved them to another location, zipped them and put them away for storage. Never know when they might come in handy again.

At this point I'd also recommend that you set a password for your administrator account using the control panel item "User Accounts", then log out and back into your normal user account.

GraphEdit now doesn't use them at all for any media files, and everything should use whatever has the highest merit by default. For me, that's MPC and ffdshow as installed by the Shark007 package, and sometimes Spdifier.

Wow - what a convoluted process, eh? Here's hoping that in the Windows 7 RTM they just make it so you can disable it with a simple control-panel selection!

hth

Now I just have a slightly annoying problem that the Microsoft codecs are still showing up in my registry, albeit as errors because they have no server file. Filemerit can't/won't delete them, weather I'm in my own account or the "real administrator" account. So I'm stuck with two erroneous registry entries for now. CCleaner didn't do it either. Anyone have any ideas how I can get this cleaned up? It doesn't really matter as it makes no functional difference and doesn't affect performance in any way, but I know it's there and it's bugging me because apart from that, my system and registry are really clean and tidy.

Help would be appreciated.

 

[iaTa]

I think all you had to do was rename them to something like msmpeg2vdec.dll.original - would have been a lot more simple.

To delete those reg keys:

Download Psexec from Sysinternals (now part of Microsoft)

PsExec

Type the following command to run Regedit under the System Account

psexec -i -d -s c:\windows\regedit.exe

 

[lloydsmart]

I think all you had to do was rename them to something like msmpeg2vdec.dll.original - would have been a lot more simple.

Yeah, that would work but you'd still have to go through all the permissions stuff as it doesn't even let you rename these files otherwise. But yes, you can just change the last bit of the method I described from "delete or zip and keep" to "rename".

 

[iaTa]

I didn't have to do any permission stuff when I was testing different codecs with Media Center 7 and I had to rename them. I don't logon as the system Admin account either.

 

[lloydsmart]

I didn't have to do any permission stuff when I was testing different codecs with Media Center 7 and I had to rename them. I don't logon as the system Admin account either.

No, I don't have to do it with other codecs, only these Microsoft ones. Very strange. Had to do it in regedit to get rid of the registry entries adwell.

But thanks for the tip about the registry - it worked great!