You’ve probably already heard about the Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 Create DVD Update. According to the official write-up, this patch … oops, I mean update … “enables increased reliability when creating a video DVD using recorded TV files (.dvr-ms).” I won’t be installing it, though, until I have some more information. For starters, my home-built Media Center machines don’t have the Sonic DVD creation software that comes with every MCE machine sold by a big-name OEM, so I suspect the patch update won’t do me any good. Why is that? It makes no sense to treat white-box builders, do-it-yourselfers, and upgraders as second-class citizens, and it confuses the hell out of people, even when they’re already experts.
Not to mention the other problem with burning DVDs from content recorded in .dvr-ms format: You have to re-encode it before you can squeeze a two-hour movie onto a single DVD. Re-encoding is CPU-intensive, time-consuming, and general PITA. There are some great tutorials out there, but it really needs to be one-click easy.
Update: Matt Goyer confirms that this fix is only for systems with the Sonic burn engine, and specifically only for PAL systems (primarily European). So I won’t be installing it, and if you’re an American Media Center user you probably shouldn’t, either.
Ed Bott 
Re-encoding is easy with AutoGK, but it is still time consuming.
I have a home built MCE machine. According to Microsoft, there should be an option to record a Video-DVD from a “Disc format” page. I have never seen this. Sometimes I would like to be able to record a Video-DVD and would certainly like to give the kids the option (I can go through “other” steps, but don’t really want to take the time to teach the kids all the extra steps… one step is prefered.)
Did I miss something in the build? Am I missing some software?