[anth2305]

My raspberry pi codecs arrived via email with the following message.. 'Thank you for purchasing codec license keys from the Raspberry Pi Store. to enable codecs on your device(s), add the following lines to the config.txt file in the FAT partition of your SD card:'
decode_MPG2=0xbxxxxx3a
decode_WVC1=0xaxxxxxx9b

Not being quite certain how to go about this, but going by what I had previously gleaned on a forum website, I inserted the Raspbmc SD card into my PC and opened up the config.txt in 'notepad' edit (which only produced the single line below) I then copied and pasted the the above as consecutive lines underneath, which looked something like..

arm_freq=800force_turbo=1disable_overscan=0gpu_mem_256=128gpu_mem_512=256
decode_MPG2=0xbxxxxx3a
decode_WVC1=0xaxxxxxx9b

I then saved them to the card, inserted it into the pi and rebooted, this produced a message of something along the lines that the config.text had been altered and would I like to save and reboot? I clicked on 'yes' rebooted and played an MPEG file in 'Video Files', unfortunately disappointment all round, as all I got was audio and an image of a strip of film, TIA for any help.

[willydoo]

have you tried with the raspbmc settings add-on

[anth2305]

No that's about as far as I've got involved in trying to follow the instructions that came with the codec keys, I have to go out now, but will play around later when I get back and see what happens, thanks.

[framp]

I also got this issue. Use the raspbmc setting to insert the keys (don't forget to include the 0x prefix)

[DrowningApe]

Raspbmc has simplified the process, and you enter your codec license in the settings addon. You only need to modify the config file on openELEC now.

[Milhouse]

The "Settings" add-on in Raspbmc is a nightmare for this kind of thing, overwriting config.txt at every opportunity - it's why I gave up on Raspbmc as there seems no will to improve (or curtail) the behaviour of the add-on to avoid this kind of inconvenience.

I would suggest switching to OpenELEC instead.

---

Raspbmc has simplified the process, and you enter your codec license in the settings addon. You only need to modify the config file on openELEC now.

Not only does it catch out the unwary - resetting what is otherwise a perfectly fine config.txt - but some more advanced users simply don't want to have the add-on manage their config.txt, and so they have no choice but be nagged by the add-on which always wants to reset their config.txt at every opportunity.

It's about the worst implementation possible. It's been suggested on their forum that they add an option to either import the new config.txt, or alternatively stop monitoring the config.txt and put it off limits, but it seems they won't have any of it. I've given up on Raspbmc because of it, as the constant nagging and potential for config.txt corruption by the add-on became a total PITA.

[DrowningApe]

I agree, and use openelec myself, but for beginners editing the config.txt is a PITA. I hesitate to recommend openELEC to people I know with a Pi because of the substantial jump in complexity over raspbmc. Raspbmc is pretty noob friendly because of its GUI.

[Milhouse]

Opening a file in Notepad is not really very difficult, and is documented all over the web as the way to update config.txt, so assuming that users will be coming at Raspbmc with a working and updated config.txt that they want to keep is a sensible idea. However I do agree that a Settings helper tool in Raspbmc is generally speaking a good thing, just that it shouldn't assume it's the only way which is where it falls down (as is evidenced by this thread).

[framp]

Folks, it works on raspbmc quite nice. Unfortunetely the eMail you get when you asked for a key states you should update config.txt. There seems to be a shadow copy of the config file held by raspbmc and during startup some kind of consisteny checking is done. That's the annoying updated message mentioned by the TE.

I don't think you'll get them to write a mail pointing to the pi setup window to enter the keys. But unfortunately you get this window every time - even you answered no (not to update the config with the shadow file). Seems to be a bug for me in raspbmc not to pdate the timestamp on the shadow file when no is answered.

[anth2305]

Well today I went into the Raspbmc settings, 'system configuration' and scrolled down until I came to 'advanced system settings' which gave me the option of typing in the MPEG2/VC1 codec licence keys, which I duly did and everything's been working fine since, so many thanks for the interesting and useful replies to my query.

PS I still don't quite know what the VC1 codec was all about, to be absolutely honest I've never heard of it before or come across any file that's used it, however for what it cost I thought I might as well have it and install it as an option, just in case.

[Milhouse]

PS I still don't quite know what the VC1 codec was all about, to be absolutely honest I've never heard of it before or come across any file that's used it, however for what it cost I thought I might as well have it and install it as an option, just in case.

It's used mostly by movies ripped directly from Blu-Rays.

[selleri]

...

[goxbmcgo]

...opened up the config.txt in 'notepad' edit (which only produced the single line below) I then copied and pasted the the above as consecutive lines underneath, which looked something like..

arm_freq=800force_turbo=1disable_overscan=0gpu_mem_256=128gpu_mem_512=256
decode_MPG2=0xbxxxxx3a
decode_WVC1=0xaxxxxxx9b

Use wordpad to edit config files and you'll see the line breaks. And your edits above will work.