Line Rate

I love Windows 7 Media Center.  I like having high-def recorded TV via cablecard, my encoded DVD Library, Music, Pictures, etc. all in one place, on one screen, without having to futz with multiple inputs on a receiver or the TV.   

I use handbrake to convert my DVDs and it's the perfect tool for the job.  It's free, it's quick, and its awesome. 

I recently started using an Xbox 360 as a Windows 7 Media Center Extender and it works pretty well.
One thing that has bugged me for quite some time is the (lack of) codec support on the 360.  When running in Media Center Extender mode, it doesn't seem to support much and there are a lot of files in my library that won't play.   

Last night I took a DVD and ran it through a handful of handbrake encoding presets to figure out which one(s) work.

So far, the Apple TV2 built-in preset does a bang-up job.  Since my TVs are only running 720p right now, I'm happy with that.  When I embrace 1080p and blu-ray, I'll probably revisit the topic to see what other options are out there for the 360s and the higher resolution.

Hope this helps someone else out there who runs into the same problem.  That's why we blog, right?