Sound Issues Resolved?


I think I have resolved the issues, but to clarify what the issues were:-

1. Poor sound, bad stereo imagery.

A recce by google identified known problems with this and relevant driver updates to resilve.

Down loaded and installed the latest versions, and now seems to be okay.

2. Intermittant Surround SOund through MCE

To cut a long story short, I was gettign intermittant surround sound through the SPDIF in MCE. If I informed the software that I was using two speakers, I was getting dolby prologic, and the voices from the centre speaker.

However, when informed that the SPDIF was being used, I would only get sound from the front speakers. During DVD playback, Iwas just getting the front spekers, no dialogue or surround sound.

That the system worked with PowerDVD Ultra, made me think that there is a codec issue or simialr between the MCE software, the sound codecs within and the sound card on the motherboard.

I reinstalled FFDSHOw, PowerDVD Ultra. etc. Also found my old Nvidia mpeg drivers (platinum) that i bought a few months ago and have managed to ressurect of sorts.

With a simple install , FFDSho and cyber link removed, things seemed to be okay, but fell apart when added FFDShow.

After tinkering with the FFDshow audio settings, I seem to have resolved the issue...

Final Outcome:


DVD playback in MCE appears to be multichannel again, but will check over the next few days to confirm its stability.

DVD playback in Cyberlink is also mutli-channel - it always was. this seems to be much more dynamic than the MCE codecs.

I hope this post makes some form of sense, and the moral of the story is to perservere, Google and read.

Adrian

What Now...?

Now that it seems that Ihave resolved the sound issue (not sure how); I am now ready to tackle the next stage.

However I have been so focused on the sound that I have lost focus on what i should be doing now to get the system working.

I obviosuly need to integrate MCE and PowerDVD further for DVD playback, as well as tweaking the registry as Adam suggested to allow, pursuade MCe to play hi-def files.

I also need to look into getting MCE to upscale normal DVD palyback.

I also need to look into incorporating my DVDs into MCE effectively.

Any suggestions on what else I should do, and the order would be appreciated.

Adrian

I would suggest having a look at MyMovies, It doesn't take too long to add your titles and has the benefit of you being able to browse all your media in one place rather than the defaul MCE annoying browse by disk/folder routine.

Once you have that sorted you can try viewing the files and see what issues you have and then go on to any registry editing etc.

As I have said before I reckon your Screen will do as good a job if not better, at upscaling DVD than FFDShow but I welcome you proving me otherwise

Personally I found the FFDshow thing a right pain to get working and couldn't really see the difference on playback. Again viewing distance is as important as anything else in this respect.

Cheers Adam,

I have installed my movies already, but not had the time to investigate... Every software I have added is mentioned in this thread...

I think that is the next stage, and pursuading MCE to play hi-def files.

Is there any way of merging PowerDVD into MCE for playing hi-def DVD?

I might start ripping my HD DVD to my PC

Sound issues and Codecs:


Thanks to the problem solving pages on the main site, I have now down loaded both Graphedit and filmerit. Between the two, I have removed the ffdshow sound decoder from the equation of playing .mkv files.

Consequently, I am now able to get full surround DD from these files.



And I have the means now to edit further problems as they arise.

Cheers Phil

Adrian

Theatre-Tek


I have installed the trail version of Theatretek last night. After a few glitches, and having to uninstall both mymovies and Theatretek, and reinstall, with theatretek first, I was able to install succesfully.


I twas a relatively straight forward proces, and I have set Theartretek to use FFDShow for post video processing.

When I pay a DVD from my-movies within MCE, the Theatretek window opens up, pretty much in the same manner as PDVD-Ultra does when playing a HI-Def DVD.

The green OSD from FFDshow is shown as the movie is played.

I was not able to really see if there was a difference last night but I know am able to watch up-scaled DVD from within MCE, albeit through another medium, window.

I will investigate futher and keep youinformed.

But since it is on offer at 35 dollars, Imight invest today

The other issue is now starting to load my films onto my-movies, i can see the appeal of just being able to press and play..

But I dont watch that many films at the moment - too busy, and also enjoy my music, and the disc space to store all 400 or so DVD would be phenominal, and expensive...


Adrian

Black Gold PCL DB-T TV card

Long story, ut I have two sigle tuner freeviewBT cards, whi are not totaly comatible.

This evening, I have transfered the blak gold from my old htpc into my new one.

Works a treat, so I am happy.

I also have in my Father's PC a Black-Gold PCL-express dual TV card, so so wat this pace



Adriian

Satellite Capture Card.

Living in a council managed property, we recently had the communal aerials updated to support the new digital free view channels. At the same time, we also had a communal sky dish fitted.

I am a Virgin Media customer, having started with Cable London when they first dug up our streets in about 1994/5. So Iam impressed with the BBC HD that is available but unable to record in significant numbers my favourite show...

So with this new HTPC, I wondered if I could view the free sky to view channels. I did a few recces’ by Google and of course searched the other useful A-forums website. Having read and posted a few questions, I opted for the Techno Trend S2-3200 Satellite DVB card (http://www.dvbshop.net/product_info.php/info/p238_Technotrend-S2-3200-HDTV-S2---Remote---Budget-CI.html) from http://www.dvbshop.net/ . Currently as I do not subscribe to Sky, I did not look into to much the additional equipment required for encryption services but I will do so at some point.

It arrived and was easy to install, just slotting it into my only spare PCL slot, and switching the PC back on. The lead from the aerial point has the F-type screw connectors on both ends.

On switching the PC on, XP found the new hardware, and the hardware wizard prompted me for the CD, it required two or three sets of drivers before the PC was happy. Forgetting the DVBviewer software, I then installed the Techno trend Media application, and shortly I was able to view the free view channels including the BBC HD service. However, the software had downgraded my PowerDVD7.3 Ultra to 7.0 Basic. Reinstalling 7.3 Ultra stopped the HD channel working, a brief search of forums proved that this was a known issue.

Searching the forums also reminded me the advice of DVBviewer- which costs 15 Euros or something silly. So Techno-trend Media software was uninstalled and replaced with DVBviewer, and again it was soon working, allowing me to view the Satellite channels.

However there are some issues.

Firstly, the only way that you can output AC3 sound from the HD channel is to down load, install and select AC3 Filter. Fortunately I already have this, and so am able to listen in DD.

Another issue is remote control. DVBviewer is supported by various plug-ins’, and there is a plug-in for the MCE 2005 remote. However so far I have been unable to get this working but i wil try again.

My major issue I have is relating to the EPG and using it to record HD channel programs in my absence. Again there are various plug-ins’ available but supported by limiting information, though there is a good forum for the software, i need to spend more time browsing...

However, I am able to watch BBC HD channel and record, making a .ts file. However the only way that I can play these recordings back with both sound and picture is Power DVD. Using the DVDviewer software only has the picture. I guess I need to check or deselect something somewhere.

But it works, just needs tweaking in particular with reference to the EPG system.

Here are two (poor ) picturesof HD TV






Adrian

Thanks for putting this up.

So am I right in thinking, you have sky installed (But you dont subscribe to it), with the cable coming into your room. All you had to do is plug this single sky cable into the satellite capture card, and you were then able to view and record the free sky channels? including BBC HD (Obviously once software installed).

Yes

Pictures were taken but need to upload it imageshack

Blue-ray Disc Drive


Last week, I received an email from Overclockers with their usual advertising, marketing gumpf. Thsi included listing the Black version of Pioneer’s new DVD recorder/BD disc combi drive available reduced (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showprodu ... subcat=925 ). Being intending to order one of these when in stock, i foolishly ordered it together with a third 500GB Samsung drive; there is logic behind this madness.
So Saturday morning or rather afternoon due to delivery issues (the Driver reported a failed delivery at 8:35 when i was awake. The manager of the depot delivered it at 12:30 after the depot had closed; I called about 11:45)

Dismantled the PC and reassembled the unit containing the drive. This bracketing system also contains the 3.5 inch media card reader that I purchased previously as well as another hard drive. So all assembled, it was inserted and secured.

Switching the Pc on the PC recognised the Blue-Ray Drive as well as the other items. It was then a process of ensuring that the HD worked, and formatting it, inserting a DVD into the drive (not checked it for recording or blue ray yet) ...

So I wait till the arrival of my first blue ray disc, to see if my HTPC is now fully HD compatible.

So to summarise the content of the PC

Motherboard Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe motherboard
CPU AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ (2.5GHz) Socket AM2
RAM Kingston 2GB KIT (2X1GB) DDR2 667MHz/PC2-5300
Graphics Card MSI 8600GT Silent edition 256MB DVI HDTV PCI-E
Hard Drives Three Samsung Spinpoint 500GB SATA 2 Drives
Case OrigenAE X11 A2 Case with three silent fans
PSU 430w Seasonic S12-430 aPFC PSU
DVD Drive Pioneer Blue-Ray DVD recorder Combi (Pioneer BDC-202BK 5x BD-ROM + 12x12 DVD±RW Serial ATA Dual Layer ReWriter )
HD Drive: Xbox HD-DVD drive
TV Card: Black-Gold PCL single DVB (freeview) card
Satellite Card: Techno-trend s2-3200 Budget card

OS: Windows XP – MCE 2005

Software includes:

• CoreAVC
• MatroskaSplitter
• ffdshow
• Slysloft’s AnyDVD
• Cyberlink’s PowerDVD Ultra 7.3
• AC3 Filter
• Graph-edit & Film-merit
• DVB-viewer
• Cant remember any more at the moment

I still need to tweak software, and mess about with plug-in software for both MCE and DVBviewer, including my movies.














Adrian


PS one minor issue with the new Pio DVD Drive, on booting up the PC it insists opening up, and if the door to the cupbaord is clsoed, it pushes againt the speaker material, sttretchign it. Can this be stopped soem where?

Cheers for the links i shall be having a look at the subscription services

Installation of myXMLTV


Living in a council managed property, we recently had the communal aerials updated to support the new digital free view channels. At the same time, we also had a communal sky dish fitted.

I am a Virgin Media customer, having started with Cable London when they first dug up our streets in about 1994/5. So I am impressed with the BBC HD that is available but unable to record in significant numbers my favourite show...

Recently I have installed DVBviewer and a techno-trend s2-3200 Satellite capture card to be able to; at least in the short term record the free to view services available through the Satellite dish on the roof.

The picture quality is excellent, and I am able to record via MCE and DBViewer simultaneously with out any obvious play back problems, though the pictures can be jerky during the recording; but I tend to have the pictures minimised.

However due to the Sky EPG system, it is not possible to record programs days in advance, as the EPG system is not present for what ever technical reason.

As such it is necessary to install some other software that will effectively take the EPG available from the internet and convert it into a format that DBViewer will recognise and to be able to set recordings in advance.

Whist it is not overly complicated, it has lots of little stages and so I hope this guide will help to compile all the useful information that I have found into an easy to use format.

Finally before you start, please ensure that DVBviewer is running.

1. Firstly you need to install the application myXMLTV. This is available for download from the DVBviewer Members Section; which will take an XMLTV input file & load the DVBviewer EPG. This will require you to have your username and password for this area of the site.

2. Extract the file from the compressed archive. I placed the myXMLTV directory within the DVBviewer directory. This software will import the EPG data into DVBviewer.

3. The next stage is to download the grabber software to find the EPG in the XMLTV format. The program that I used is Alan Birtle’s XMLTV GUI Grabber application http://www.birtles.org.uk/xmltv/. This grabs EPG data from the Radio Times web site amongst others and will format the data into an XMLTV data file.

4. Un-archive the file using winRAR and install. It will by default install itself in a directory under the Program Files hierchary.

5. This is where it starts to get possibly fiddly. Firstly the Grabber application needs to be configured. To start the program simply go to the start menu, click on programs, XMLTV GUI.

6. When the program has opened, click on tools --> settings.

7. Detailed configuration help can be found from here http://www.birtles.org.uk/xmltv/wiki/index.php/V3Config Basically you need to select some channels to download. Go to tools, settings, select the grabbers tab, select the grabber you are using and click on channels. Use the ">>" button to add channels. I selected the Radio Times, and moved it to the top using the up arrow.

8. If you want to save the files in another area, do so under settings. I save the myTV data file in the myXMLTV subdirectory within the DVBviewer area. However this does not always seem to work.

9. Before we go onto the next stage, we need to find the list of channels in a file called channels.dat By default it is in the DVBviewer directory, but often on multi user systems it is found the C:\Documents and Settings\All Users in a hidden folder. As such, you need to go to the control panel, click on the folders options icon and check the “Show hidden files and folders” option under the “view” tab. Then a search for Channels.dat should find two files, an old version and a very recent one. Make a note of this location.

10. Double click on myXMLTV icon, and press run. This will result in the DVBviewer XMLTV import window opening.

11. In the space. The input window under XMLTV, this is where you link the program to the information the grabber program collected. In this example it will be in the myXMLTV subdirectory within DVBviewer directory system.

12. Then click on the Channel Setup button in the bottom left of this window. This will create another pop up window called ChannelEditor XMLTV. There are three input boxes for you to enter information. The first one called XMLTV Channels should list the channels that you selected within the grabber setup in step 7. The second window will be filled with the option of C:\Program Files\DVBViewer\channels.dat – Change this if your channel.dat file is else where in step 9. Then the next part is tedious if you have lots of channels as you need to create a mapping of the XMLTV Channels to the DVBviewer channels. When you have finished the mapping process press OK.

13. Now you can press the Import button in the main window. It may take some time to process the data. After the program finishes importing you should be able to see a complete EPG withinin the DVBViewer EPG window.

I hope this helps, and please contact me with any corrections.

Adrian




Here is the Readme file that comes with the myXMLTV program

DVBViewer XMLTV Importer Version 0.5.2
Betaversion, handle with care

You need: A XMLTV compatible Datasource.

Attention: with the Version 0.5.2 you need the DVBViewer _running_ while updating the data

Firsttime Setup
---------------
You need to create a mapping of the XMLTV Channels to the DVBViewer channels.
First select the XMLTV file (tvguide.xml as exmaple).
Now press Channel Setup. Inthe ChannelEditor first select your DVBViewer Channel.dat file.
If both files are valid you should see on the left Hand the XMLTV channels and on the Right hand the DVBViewer channels.
Now you can start creating the mapping. First select a XMLTV channel and then select the matching DVBViewer channel. If you're done leave the setup with OK.

Now you can press the Import button in the mainwindow. It may take some time to process the data. Abfter the program finishes importing you should have a nice epg in the DVBViewer.

After the initial setup all you have to do is to drag and drop the tvguide.xml onto the programmsymbol. It automatically imports the data and closes itself afterwards.

have fun
lars

Adrian, I see that you have the same excellent Fujitsu plasma as I have. I'm looking at building my first HTPC to play Blu-ray, HD DVD and downloaded TV programmes. Currently I'm using a laptop connected to the VGA input on my Fujitsu screen, but I can't get it to output the correct resolution of 1360x768. It also struggles to play some .mkv files.

The more I look into this the more I get confused. I've built PCs before, but only standard, non gaming ones where the graphics issues are so much simpler. I hope you don't mind answering some very basic questions for me.

To get the best out of this screen, I understand that I should be outputting a resolution of 1360 x 768 @ 60Hz. I also have very specific timings given to me by Graham from Fujitsu over on the Avforums which should result in crisper text. If I have my HTPC set up in this way, when I play an HD movie, will PowerDVD Ultra scale the video to this resolution so that it will appear fullscreen on the plasma? Is this the best way to play HD on the Fujitsu? I'm conscious of the fact that the Fujitsu has pretty high end processing built into it and I don't know how a graphics card for a hundred pounds or so and software for sixty pounds would compare with it.

I don't know whether to go for the ATI 2600 XT graphics card, or the Nvidia 8600GT that you have used. Are there any particular reasons you have chosen the Nvidia card for Fujitsu screen?

I shall have to read through this thread several times as there is so much useful information here. Hopefully I'll end up with a system that will do my Fujitsu screen justice.

Thank you,

Teresa

Hi Terresa, and welcome

How did you find this forum, and this thread out of interest...

I am familiar with that thread on avforums, and would be interested in those timings et c from Graham/Liam.

I got my screen of Liam.

Right to answer your questiosn



I am not sure, to be honest why I got this card, but untill recently it was fine. LAst week i downloaded the HD version of this driver, and now unable to send a signal to 1360x768 rather than 1366 which it seems to prefer.

However I need to spend time playing with this...

Oh I think i got it becasue I wanted th N-vidia codecs etc as they were, at the time considered to be pretty good, and I have no problems on my screen.



As I have already said, I would liek that information from Graham, it may help resolve my little niggles...

Currently whilst using Power DVD Ultra, the HTPC will output the film to the screen at the settings defined in the graphics settings.

I have done soem limited testing, and to be honest, I have not noticed any real difference in between the settings, although this is somethign that I need to explore further. But at times I want to stop fiddling and enjoy. The Fifth Element in Blue ray is awesoem on that screen.

What does Graham recomend in terms of settign up the HTPC for displaying on the fujitsu?

I guess Iahve not answered yoru questions very welll, sorry if that is the case...

As to building a HTPC, it is pretty straight forward. As you elude to , it is the configuring that is a pain in the arrse.

But a work colleague of mine is in the same position of you, and I am currently advising his specs for his HTPC.

So if youwant that information....

Adrian