Guide for HTPC

broona said:
This will be used for the following :-

Blu-Ray - no experience so cant comment
HD-DVD - no experience so cant comment
DVD (upscaled if possible) - no experience so cant comment
Divx/Xvid (upscaled if possible) - i have posted a guide on the first page
HD rips in various formats, i.e. mkv, x264, h264, etc - I use CoreAVC for my HD rips. Its not free though and there are others. Again, i have posted info on first page


I already have a copy of PowerDVD 7, but would like to have a nice front end that will automatically load when I start the PC, and will allow me to select and play every file I need from within that one application, would MediaPortal be able to do this for me? - Yes, See my guide on 1st page

If so, any pointers on how to get it set up, primarily for picture quality, and ease of use too, as the wife isn't particularly technical, so would need to be easy enough for her to stick a DVD on for our 18 month old too. :D - You Can use MediaPortal for this. Again, see my guide on 1st page

Any hints/tips on hardware setup would be much appreciated too, especially the HDMI audio side of things to the amplifier. Assuming I should be able to set it up for 5.1 LPCM output, but no idea where to start with that! - I send untouched audio straight to my amp for processing using AC3filter.
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See my comments.
Pretty much what you want to do, i have posted links to guides on the first page of this thread.
You need MediaPortal as your front end with a simple skin like Monochrome. You can set it so it auto loads with windows, insert dvd, browse a few very simple screens and hit enter/play and its on.

However, for best PQ i would stay clear of MP's own built in player. Use an external player within MP such as KMPlayer or Media Player Classic. I use MPC.
 
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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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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
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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
 
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
 
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. :)
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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.
 
broona said:
Tried everything, think I'm getting somewhere now at last though!

Uninstalled everything, reinstalled Ati Catalyst 8.2 instead of 9.1 as I read somewhere that it was the last Catalyst driver to support HDMI audio, and I can now select 'ati hd audio rear output' in my sound and audio device manager, is this as it should be? :confused:

In my device manager, I now have an Ati Function Manager for High Definition Audio, ATI A401, whereas before it was an Ati HDMI Audio Device.
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yes i think thats how it should be.
I've heard of people having problems getting HDMI audio out via DVI > HDMI. Im sorry i cant be much help as i have a dedicated HDMI port on my mobo so getting audio out is a little different for me.

As a pointer, im using ATI 8.2 with Realtek R2.10 with ATI HDMI Audio Device R2.13
 
Hardware acceleration is only really beneficial when you have a weak CPU which cant handle the processing itself. With HA the GPU takes care of things taking the stress off the CPU.

Any descent Core2Duo will happily run 1080p material fine - even if it is working 70-90%.

As an example:

My E2140 @ 2.6Ghz with my onboard X1200 graphics with CoreAVC plays 1080p @24Hz material fine. I get no stuttering or dodgy artifacts. I have AC3filter sending the audio to my AV amp via HDMI aswell. I've never had any problems. It plays all media files brilliantly/flawlessly!

I should however point out that during 1080p HD playback, my CPU is stressed to around 80% load and temps are around 55*C. This is with a Scythe Mini Ninja running at the lowest setting (800rpm) and 1 case fan running at 800rpm also.

For those of you who can enable HA then that's good but for those who cant dont worry as its not the end of the world. The end result is the same. Just means that those with HTPC's without HA are working a little harder :)
 
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