Guide for HTPC

does media portal work OK with IMON and the VFD? I am contemplating getting a Silverstone case with a VFD but only if it works with media portal etc, other wise its probably not worth the extra cost.

I'm considering just turing my older main rig into the HTPC as I dont use it any more, its an AMD x2 3800+, 3gb ram and various drives. Will sell my 8800gts and get a cheaper low power ATI card that can decode HD material. Just worried about power usage, but will probably replace the board and cpu etc with an Atom based one in the future.

EDIT: actually, does media portal act as a media server like tversity allowing you to stream content to a ps3 etc?
 
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BruceLee said:
does media portal work OK with IMON and the VFD? I am contemplating getting a Silverstone case with a VFD but only if it works with media portal etc, other wise its probably not worth the extra cost.

I believe some have got it working and many have not. I couldn't get it working on my Antec Fusion so im using the MCE Remote kit instead.

I'm considering just turing my older main rig into the HTPC as I dont use it any more, its an AMD x2 3800+, 3gb ram and various drives. Will sell my 8800gts and get a cheaper low power ATI card that can decode HD material. Just worried about power usage, but will probably replace the board and cpu etc with an Atom based one in the future.

Should be fine with a descent ATi card with HA for HD material but a newer mobo/cpu would be better for all round performance

EDIT: actually, does media portal act as a media server like tversity allowing you to stream content to a ps3 etc?

No
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Just two quick questions from me:

Do you have to use KMplayer? I would like to use MPC-HC with FFDshow

Do you have to use Daemon tools? I would like to use Magic Disc as its footprint is tiny compared to DT and so much quicker.

Thanks
 
Lucero said:
Just two quick questions from me:

Do you have to use KMplayer? I would like to use MPC-HC with FFDshow

Do you have to use Daemon tools? I would like to use Magic Disc as its footprint is tiny compared to DT and so much quicker.

Thanks
Click to expand...

No you dont have to use KMPlayer. I use MPC-HC myself.
And, you dont have to use DT either. You can use really any application which you are comfortable with and works for you
 
Vimes said:
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This is what I got. From mm. I would have proffered the one with the touch pad to the right. Think it would suit a htpc better. But can't complain with cheap goods. Unfortunately just need a stupid gfx card with hdmi compatibility so I can connect it to the tv. i think everything else is set up and ready to rock.
 
I went and bought this for mine.

Sexiest, best keyboard ever. And the star trek volume is just so much fun.

Yeah £70 is a lot of money but meh!

5094012831849b5597fbd0.jpg


Show me something better that fits in with the whole HTPC ethos.

Youtube clip here of the orange cool fade features.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yksQ5wjJd9Q

Pay attention to the keyboard.........THE KEYBOARD!!!!
 
UPDATE

CoreAVC H.264 Video Codec Professional 1.9.0

The CoreCodec CoreAVC High Definition H.264 video codec is based on the
MPEG-4 Part 10 standard and is one of the codecs used in Blu-ray and in
HD-DVD.

AVC / H.264 is the next-generation standard for video, and CoreAVC is
being recognized as being the world's fastest H.264 software video
decoder.

The efficiency of CoreAVC in 'software' is often compared to be faster
than other solutions that try to rely on 'hardware' to increase playback
performance of H.264 video.

CoreAVC H.264 Video Codec - Version 1.9.0.0 (20090210)

- Add: NVIDIA CUDA accelerated video decoding (Thanks NVIDIA!!!)
- Add: NVIDIA CUDA detection to installer
- Add: Tray icon showing NVIDIA CUDA state
- Add: Tray icon mouse over shows 32bit/64bit states
- Add: Initial installer changes for 32/64bit
- Add: Updated Haali Media Splitter
- Fix: Focus bug related to MCE
- Fix: Focus prevention when the tray icon is off
- Fix: Improve seeking on frames with one IDR frame
- Fix: Various small bugs

Haali Media Splitter (20090111)
- Add: The shortcut for gdsmux is created in the start menu
- Fix: Broken Matroska files with looped SeekHeads could cause a hang
in Matroska Parser.
- Fix: Removed the workaround to find tags written by Matroska Shell
Extension.
- Fix: File linking is now enabled by default
 
Right, after reading through the info on the front page, would I be able to decode most formats with the following installed :-

MediaPortal
PowerDVD 7
CCCP with Windows Media Player Classic Home Cinema
CoreAVC
ffdshow
AC3Filter

Also, which OS is best for MediaPortal? I currently have Vista installed, but it seems a little slow and resource hungry with my E6600 and 2gb memory, would I be better off installing XP SP3 instead? Cheers. :)
 
broona said:
Right, after reading through the info on the front page, would I be able to decode most formats with the following installed :-

MediaPortal
PowerDVD 7
CCCP with Windows Media Player Classic Home Cinema
CoreAVC
ffdshow
AC3Filter

Also, which OS is best for MediaPortal? I currently have Vista installed, but it seems a little slow and resource hungry with my E6600 and 2gb memory, would I be better off installing XP SP3 instead? Cheers. :)
Click to expand...

The list you have made seems to cover any media type of file you will play. Let CoreAVC take care of HD files and ffdshow take care of divx/xvid/avi. Use AC3 for all your DTS/AC3 files and let ffdshow handle MPEG audio.

Make sure you un-tick all the internal filters/codecs on Windows Media Player Classic so it uses the above system default filters.

As for what OS, well, that is one that is debated a lot with no clear winner. I've never used Vista and have no intention because XP SP3 is as stable as a rock for me and does everything i need to. I think XP does not need as many resources as VISTA. Plus VISTA may need a lot more juice to run - unlike XP.

I would have thought an E6600 and 2GB of RAM would be more than enough. I'm using a E2140 (clocked to 2.6GHz) in my HTPC and its great.

If you want me personal opinion then i would suggest XP.
 
So has anyone given XBMC a go following my post earlier in the thread?

I've been using it for a couple of months now and I can't recommend it enough - Nothing comes close to the slickness and ease of use. TV Shows in particular look miles better than the MyTVSeries plugin for MediaPortal.

No messing around with loads of codecs and apps like MP, just a basic OS install with XBMC running on startup.

I'm not trying to put MP down, I used it for a long time, but it just doesn't come close to XBMC.

http://xbmc.org/

I'll get some screenshots up if I ever get round to it. :)
 
broona said:
Also, which OS is best for MediaPortal? I currently have Vista installed, but it seems a little slow and resource hungry with my E6600 and 2gb memory, would I be better off installing XP SP3 instead? Cheers. :)
Click to expand...

Vista + EVR ....EVR renderer alone is worth it over XP.

i run my htpc with only an e2180 clocked to 3.2ghz and it purrs along.
 
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Dingleberry88 said:
So has anyone given XBMC a go following my post earlier in the thread?

I've been using it for a couple of months now and I can't recommend it enough - Nothing comes close to the slickness and ease of use. TV Shows in particular look miles better than the MyTVSeries plugin for MediaPortal.

No messing around with loads of codecs and apps like MP, just a basic OS install with XBMC running on startup.

I'm not trying to put MP down, I used it for a long time, but it just doesn't come close to XBMC.

http://xbmc.org/

I'll get some screenshots up if I ever get round to it. :)
Click to expand...

the reason a lot stuck with MP was XBMC's poor pulldown of mpeg and also it's handling of h264/avc wasn't really upto snuff - if that's fixed i'd take another look but MP is faultless for me in terms of playback right now.

handling and performance of various file types takes a massive precedence over eye candy for me personally, and MP is hardly ugly.
 
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