A Guide to Encoded HD Video Playback

so heres my question. In the setup guide for using VMC it lists Qucktime Alternative as one of the components to be installed, but i dont see the install and use section in the setup. I have everything running smoothly but when i installed QA this morning i cant seem to get it to do anything. I tried what was suggested in the setup at the top of the page and nothing happens except a register screen for quicktime......any suggestions. thanks

Ok getting confused here. In my "video" folder on my WHS i can see all my ripped films and my films i have purchased from Itunes, but the itunes films are not visible from within VMC. I thought installing QA would allow me to see them but i guess this isnt the case.
Can you tell me whats going on here? Is it even possible to see and play my purchased films through VMC or do i just have to launch Quicktime/itunes to play them?
 
Quicktime Alternative just works for me. I can see my stuff in VMC using MyMovies when I add them, and I can play them in MPC. As for purchased content through iTunes, I have no idea about what type content protection they use, even if there's any.
 
ok, well i dont have media player classic installed since it doesnt say to do that in the second half of the above guide. I will install it and see what happens.
thanks
 
Well found a work around... Use MKV with AC3 now all is great. It is either the AAC audio encoder or decoder that is having the issue... I sure hope there will be some official x64 support someday.


Anyone else experience this?

I have 2 x64 Media Centers (>4GB ram)

I have 4 files created using Ripbot264 1.11.5.

settings

MP4 CQ 22 / 1080P / AAC 320 /auto crop

Creates about a 10GB file.

The files play fine in Media Player x32 no issues. Using FFDshow 2527_CLSID_SSE_ ICL10 x32 and Haali Splitter and MPCHC MPCViddec.ax (3-5% cpu)

The files stop @ halfway point in Media Center x64 using ffdshow 2527_CLSID_x64 latest splitters from MPCHCx64 or Gabest splitters. It will crash at the same point with MPCHC MPCViddec.ax for video. The file plays back excellent until that point. I have tried nearly every ffdshow x64 I could find and x64 splitters with the same results.

I even trieds a shark Codec pack with x64 components with the same results. I also removed PowerDVD 7.3.

I have a feeling it is my file but why does it play fine in 32bit or the splitters and codecs all have a defect.

This happens on both of my systems.

Im using these registry entries to add support:

Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.mp4]
"PerceivedType"="video"
"Content Type"="video/mp4"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.m4v]
"PerceivedType"="video"
"Content Type"="video/mp4"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.m4a]
"PerceivedType"="audio"
"Content Type"="audio/mp4"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.mkv]
@="MatroskaVideo"
"Content Type"="video/x-matroska"
"PerceivedType"="video"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.mka]
@="MatroskaVideo"
"Content Type"="audio/x-matroska"
"PerceivedType"="audio"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\MIME Types\video/mp4]
@="mp4file"
"UserApprovedOwning"="yes"
"Extensions.SpaceSep"=".mp4 .m4v"
"Extensions.CommaSep"="mp4,m4v"
"Extension.Key"=".mp4"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\MIME Types\audio/mp4]
@="mp4file"
"UserApprovedOwning"="yes"
"Extensions.SpaceSep"=".m4a"
"Extensions.CommaSep"="m4a"
"Extension.Key"=".m4a"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\MIME Types\video/x-matroska]
@="MatroskaVideo"
"UserApprovedOwning"="yes"
"Extensions.SpaceSep"=".mkv"
"Extensions.CommaSep"="mkv"
"Extension.Key"=".mkv"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\MIME Types\audio/x-matroska]
@="MatroskaVideo"
"UserApprovedOwning"="yes"
"Extensions.SpaceSep"=".mka"
"Extensions.CommaSep"="mka"
"Extension.Key"=".mka"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\Groups\Video\mp4]
@="mp4file"
"Description"="Includes files with .mp4 and .m4v extensions."
"Extensions"=".mp4 .m4v"
"FriendlyTypeName"="MPEG-4 Media File"
"MIME Types"="video/mp4"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\Groups\Audio\m4a]
@="mp4file"
"Description"="Includes files with an .m4a extension."
"Extensions"=".m4a"
"FriendlyTypeName"="MPEG-4 Media File"
"MIME Types"="audio/mp4"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\Groups\Video\mkv]
@="MatroskaVideo"
"Description"="Includes files with .mkv extensions."
"Extensions"=".mkv"
"FriendlyTypeName"="Matroska Media File"
"MIME Types"="video/x-matroska"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\Groups\Audio\mka]
@="MatroskaVideo"
"Description"="Includes files with .mka extensions."
"Extensions"=".mka"
"FriendlyTypeName"="Matroska Media File"
"MIME Types"="audio/x-matroska"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\Extensions\.mp4]
"Permissions"=dword:0000000f
"UserApprovedOwning"="yes"
"Runtime"=dword:00000007
"PerceivedType"="video"
"MediaType.Description"="MPEG-4 Media File"
"Extension.Handler"="mp4file"
"Extension.MIME"="video/mp4"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\Extensions\.m4v]
"Permissions"=dword:0000000f
"UserApprovedOwning"="yes"
"Runtime"=dword:00000007
"PerceivedType"="video"
"MediaType.Description"="MPEG-4 Media File"
"Extension.Handler"="mp4file"
"Extension.MIME"="video/mp4"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\Extensions\.m4a]
"Permissions"=dword:0000000f
"UserApprovedOwning"="yes"
"Runtime"=dword:00000007
"PerceivedType"="audio"
"MediaType.Description"="MPEG-4 Media File"
"Extension.Handler"="mp4file"
"Extension.MIME"="audio/mp4"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\Extensions\.mkv]
"Permissions"=dword:0000000f
"UserApprovedOwning"="yes"
"Runtime"=dword:00000007
"PerceivedType"="video"
"MediaType.Description"="Matroska Media File"
"Extension.Handler"="MatroskaVideo"
"Extension.MIME"="video/x-matroska"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\Extensions\.mka]
"Permissions"=dword:0000000f
"UserApprovedOwning"="yes"
"Runtime"=dword:00000007
"PerceivedType"="audio"
"MediaType.Description"="Matroska Media File"
"Extension.Handler"="MatroskaVideo"
"Extension.MIME"="audio/x-matroska"


[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player\Extensions\Descriptions]
"737"="MPEG-4 Media File (*.mp4;*.m4v;*.m4a)"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player\Extensions\MUIDescriptions]
"737"="MPEG-4 Media File"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player\Extensions\Types]
"737"="*.mp4;*.m4v;*.m4a"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\MLS\Extensions]
"mp4"="video"
"m4v"="video"
"m4a"="audio"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player\Extensions\Descriptions]
"819"="Matroska Media File (*.mkv;*.mka)"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player\Extensions\MUIDescriptions]
"819"="Matroska Media File"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player\Extensions\Types]
"819"="*.mkv;*.mka"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\MLS\Extensions]
"mkv"="video"
"mka"="audio"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\MIME Types\video/mp4]
@="mp4file"
"UserApprovedOwning"="yes"
"Extensions.SpaceSep"=".mp4 .m4v"
"Extensions.CommaSep"="mp4,m4v"
"Extension.Key"=".mp4"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\MIME Types\audio/mp4]
@="mp4file"
"UserApprovedOwning"="yes"
"Extensions.SpaceSep"=".m4a"
"Extensions.CommaSep"="m4a"
"Extension.Key"=".m4a"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\MIME Types\video/x-matroska]
@="MatroskaVideo"
"UserApprovedOwning"="yes"
"Extensions.SpaceSep"=".mkv"
"Extensions.CommaSep"="mkv"
"Extension.Key"=".mkv"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\MIME Types\audio/x-matroska]
@="MatroskaVideo"
"UserApprovedOwning"="yes"
"Extensions.SpaceSep"=".mka"
"Extensions.CommaSep"="mka"
"Extension.Key"=".mka"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\Groups\Video\mp4]
@="mp4file"
"Description"="Includes files with .mp4 and .m4v extensions."
"Extensions"=".mp4 .m4v"
"FriendlyTypeName"="MPEG-4 Media File"
"MIME Types"="video/mp4"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\Groups\Audio\M4a]
@="mp4file"
"Description"="Includes files with an .m4a extension."
"Extensions"=".m4a"
"FriendlyTypeName"="MPEG-4 Media File"
"MIME Types"="audio/mp4"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\Groups\Video\mkv]
@="MatroskaVideo"
"Description"="Includes files with .mkv extensions."
"Extensions"=".mkv"
"FriendlyTypeName"="Matroska Media File"
"MIME Types"="video/x-matroska"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\Groups\Audio\mka]
@="MatroskaVideo"
"Description"="Includes files with .mka extensions."
"Extensions"=".mka"
"FriendlyTypeName"="Matroska Media File"
"MIME Types"="audio/x-matroska"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\Extensions\.mp4]
"Permissions"=dword:0000000f
"UserApprovedOwning"="yes"
"Runtime"=dword:00000007
"PerceivedType"="video"
"MediaType.Description"="MPEG-4 Media File"
"Extension.Handler"="mp4file"
"Extension.MIME"="video/mp4"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\Extensions\.m4v]
"Permissions"=dword:0000000f
"UserApprovedOwning"="yes"
"Runtime"=dword:00000007
"PerceivedType"="video"
"MediaType.Description"="MPEG-4 Media File"
"Extension.Handler"="mp4file"
"Extension.MIME"="video/mp4"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\Extensions\.m4a]
"Permissions"=dword:0000000f
"UserApprovedOwning"="yes"
"Runtime"=dword:00000007
"PerceivedType"="audio"
"MediaType.Description"="MPEG-4 Media File"
"Extension.Handler"="mp4file"
"Extension.MIME"="audio/mp4"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\Extensions\.mkv]
"Permissions"=dword:0000000f
"UserApprovedOwning"="yes"
"Runtime"=dword:00000007
"PerceivedType"="video"
"MediaType.Description"="Matroska Media File"
"Extension.Handler"="MatroskaVideo"
"Extension.MIME"="video/x-matroska"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Multimedia\WMPlayer\Extensions\.mka]
"Permissions"=dword:0000000f
"UserApprovedOwning"="yes"
"Runtime"=dword:00000007
"PerceivedType"="audio"
"MediaType.Description"="Matroska Media File"
"Extension.Handler"="MatroskaVideo"
"Extension.MIME"="audio/x-matroska"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player\Extensions\Descriptions]
"737"="MPEG-4 Media File (*.mp4;*.m4v;*.m4a)"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player\Extensions\MUIDescriptions]
"737"="MPEG-4 Media File"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player\Extensions\Types]
"737"="*.mp4;*.m4v;*.m4a"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\MLS\Extensions]
"mp4"="video"
"m4v"="video"
"m4a"="audio"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player\Extensions\Descriptions]
"819"="Matroska Media File (*.mkv;*.mka)"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player\Extensions\MUIDescriptions]
"819"="Matroska Media File"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player\Extensions\Types]
"819"="*.mkv;*.mka"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\MLS\Extensions]
"mkv"="video"
"mka"="audio"
 
Following the guide, I have not gotten Vorbis audio to work. When I open the file in MPC, it says it cannot use the pin or something and specifies vorbis audio at 48000Hz as the problem. How can I fix this? thanks for helping

-darkmatter08
 
this helped me out, i couldn't understand why my 1080p movies were having so many problems playing (distortion, freezes, bsods etc) because my system is pretty good (q9450, gtx280, 8 gb ram) but it must have been ffdshow and vista64 causing the issue, all movies are running perfectly now with core avc.
 
Following the guide, I have not gotten Vorbis audio to work. When I open the file in MPC, it says it cannot use the pin or something and specifies vorbis audio at 48000Hz as the problem. How can I fix this? thanks for helping

-darkmatter08
Enable OGG Vorbis within FFDshow. MPC will then pick it up and play it.
 
Thank you, this is an awesome guide. I am somewhat a noob regarding this, but to confirm, if I only want to have movie playback via bluray dvd drive or 1080p movie files and some small gaming, do I need a good video card to do the trick? My goal is to install XBMC and watch movies. What would be the recommended video card I should get? I just purchased the Toxic 4870 HD with stock OC. Thanks.
 
Well uh.. since you already purchased it, that will work. lol?
 
we should expand this sticky with some stuff that really improves IQ imo.
alot of ppl leave their settings at default, and their videos subsequently look like trash
you really have to change the video renderer, and config of ffdshow video decoder.

i really like haali video renderer or evr, and with ffdshow, i use xsharpen and do postprocessing with mplayer accurate deblocking.
 
If you have properly encoded movies, you don't need all the post processing bullshit. It actually makes the image worse and wastes cpu cycles.
 
I'm having trouble unregistering the CoreAVC codec, I continue to get an error in vista 32, is there any other way. This is the error message I get:

The module "C:\Program Files\CoreCodec...CoreAVCDecoder.ax" was loaded but the call to DLLUnregisterServer failed with error code 0x80070005

has anyone else encountered this? is there any other way to unregister the codec?

SOLVED

make sure you turn off User Accounts Control (UAC)
 
Does anyone have a sample of a properly encoded h264 file so I can check to see if I've successfully set this up?
 
I don't know the legality of posting re-encoded media allowing for someone else to download, so you're probably best encoding it yourself with your own HD movies.
 
Hey w1retap, great walkthrough, I have it set up and working on xp pro 32-bit sp3.

One question: why did you add the null decoder? I know it just drops everything, but why have add it into external filters?

Thanks
 
Ok.. I finally got all my movies working through Vista Media Center + MyMovies. I figured out a few things.

Basically my setup goes:
File server --GigE--> HTPC

My file server has the MyMovies server edition that holds all the movie files. They're pretty much all MKV x264 encodes and DVD rips to folders. It then streams to my HTPC which has the MyMovies client edition installed on Vista Media Center.

Before, I couldn't get some of my MKV contained movies to playback while others of the exact same file type and codec would work just fine. It puzzled me for over a month. I did some deep digging and I found out that you cannot have VSfilter set to autoload within the Haali Media Splitter settings.

I was also getting occasional stuttering when playing 1080p rips. My CPU usage was normal, so that wasn't what was causing it. I have gigabit networking, so I didn't see that as a cause either. BUT, I found out that some hardware settings for the network card can cause issues that lead to stuttering when streaming high bitrate 1080p video. Basically you have to go into your network adapter settings from device manager on both machines and change some settings. Here's what they should look like:
Flow Control: RX & TX Enabled
Interrupt Moderation: Enabled
Large Send Offload*: Disabled
TCP/UDP Checksum Offloading*: Disabled
*There may be more than one of some of those (variants for IPv4 and IPv6... set them all to disabled)

I hope this helps some people.
 
Something else to add for streaming:

Some Nics and Almost every Wifi card has a cache setting.....increase it to the max.
 
all i did for vista,

install divx, xvid and ac3 filter..

install lazyman mkv codec pack.

play with the reg so media center will recognise mkvs as well as avis..

and done...
 
w1retap

I have been pulling my hair out

How in the hell can I get FLAC audio files to play in WMP?

I have tried it seems a billion things.....my OS might just be confused as hell, but nothing works.

Any suggestions besides a new OS Install.
 
w1retap

I have been pulling my hair out

How in the hell can I get FLAC audio files to play in WMP?

I have tried it seems a billion things.....my OS might just be confused as hell, but nothing works.

Any suggestions besides a new OS Install.

In wmp or vmc?
 
Preferably both, but WMP would be a start.

I thought ffdshow could handle it for me. Tried reg, x64, and MT versions. With both 32 and 64bit WMP......nothing

Then I downloaded the stuff from flac.sourceforge.....nothing

MadFlac....wont install
 
Anybody FLAC on 64bit?

I just installed Win7 on different partition, and I have the same problems.
 
Anybody FLAC on 64bit?

I just installed Win7 on different partition, and I have the same problems.

FLAC doesn't really work... and you're using V64 which means instant fail for stuff like this. You can't do it; V32 would be easier to possibly find a solution but not with V64.
 
Yea I know....It works great on my 32bit installs.

What im trying to do is get 8 channel lossless audio into a .mkv file.
That way when I upgrade to my 8400 board I can pass 7.1 over the hdmi to my reciever.

Am I going about this the wrong way?

Only reason I want it work is, I do all my encoding work on 64bit and it would be nice to check to see if they are good before I put them on my server.
 
hey thanks for the help w1retap, the only thing I want to comment on is that my single core Athlon 64 at 2.2Ghz is playing the Hulk at 1080p with no problems right now, my video card is a HD3450...

 
Does anybody know if its possible to get VMC to buffer playback of local/networked videos before playback? The setting in Media Player only seems to function for mms/rtsp streams and not of videos played back locally or via network shares.
 
I couldnt get that work for me.

Ive since gone with Madflac codecs, and manually registered them through the command line, and its working great.

Im going to be doing a writeup for HD playback with Media Center x64
 
I've been reading this guide since I'm recommending Vista 64-bit for an HTPC system build I'll be putting together for two friends and I'm a little puzzled about the and another user mentioned this thread to me to review before I recommend this OS.

One thing puzzles me is that in that this entire thread nobody has made any mentions of the filter order for codecs or how a Filter Graph is built, how it can be viewed with Graph Edit to enumerate the filters (e.g. codecs) that are actually used to decode the streams and how it can be reconfigured with the Filter Merit value to resolve video and audio playback issues and to promote and demote some filters to control which codec will decode the stream.

I see many folks here recommending PowerDVD, CoreAVC, FFDshow, and Codec packs all at the same time but nobody is mentioning the fact that each codec handles usually the same stream types and sets it's own filter merit value to override those of other codecs for the same stream type causing major issues. This hodge podge of recommendations just muddies up the waters for everyone.

I'm going to write a little guide for this thread to explain how the whole codec thing works and how to use Graph Edit to view the filter graph to determine the codecs that are used and how to use GSpot to change the filter merit values to disable codecs to resolve codec conflicts. For now, I would highly recommend that anyone who wishes to learn more about this codec stuff get their hands on Graph Edit and GSpot utilities and skim Microsoft's web site for DirectX and DirectShow information regarding Filter Graphs.

You can also read a long post I made regarding my problems with getting HDTV to work over HDMI and how I found all those commercial problems causing all the problems.

MaximumPC - 2009-01 (Pg 66) - Correction (Major): Connect Surround-Sound

Magazine: Maximum PC
Date: 2009-01
Page: 66
Article: Connect Your PC to Your Surround-Sound Audio System
Author: Michael Brown

There is a major mistake in the "Scenario 4: Nvidia Videocard with HDMI" section. It incorrectly states the information below.

Quote:
Even if your motherboard does have it, the card is capable of receiving only two channels of digital audio that can be sent over HDMI cable -- you can't get any form of surround sound over HDMI this way, much less Dolby TrueHD or DTS-HD.


Quote:
At the risk of sound like a broken record, this scenario limits you to two-channel audio.

CyberLink PowerDVD 8 Second Display No Video Problem

Free Blu-ray & HD-DVD Playback - H.264, VC1, XviD, Ogg

AnyDVD - Blu-ray and HD-DVD Playback Without Restrictions
 
Well First off if you follow the GUIDE for 32bits it works perfectly.

Secondly I dont know of any filter manager that will work with x64, so good luck.

The reason x64 is not reccomended for HTPC's is not because they do not work.
But simply because they do not benefit from it.(You can get it to work, my Workstation is x64 and it works with Media Center very well, but it also took me a lot of hard work and research. Not something the avg joe wants to deal with.)
What is the Point of x64 for an HTPC?

Jack dont be naive. Just because our thread isnt garbaged up with graphedit SS like AVS forum.
Doesnt mean we dont know how to use it, or know what we are talking about.
 
I never went over it in detail, because frankly, the programs I was showing how to use it with don't need graph edit to show what you're using because you specify in the program what codec you're using. For Media Center however, you can use radlight for setting merit to what direct show filter you want to use. But when you install CoreAVC and Haali, everything is taken care of automatically because media center doesn't have any other filter to use associated with say an MKV container with h264, so it grabs those.
 
Secondly I dont know of any filter manager that will work with x64, so good luck.

The reason x64 is not reccomended for HTPC's is not because they do not work.

I hear you and since I don't have any experience with 64-bit issues I'm not trying to tell you that I have a solution for something that I've never had to deal with. I'll deal with these issues once I get around to setting up a 64-bit OS and see what the real problems are. If there are no filter managers in 64-bit then it would be registry editing time. But I'll see the issues first hand. As for why 64-bit and not 32-bit for HTCP? Because if you're building a 6GB or 8GB system that'll be used for all around gaming and usage you want to use all that memory.

The thing that I was commenting on is the complexity of the guides written here and all the recommendations to install all these different codecs and uninstall other codecs without explaining anything to the end user about how all of this changes the filters on the system and there is no explanation of the filter graph to people so that they know what is going on. I just want share the stuff that I learned about the filter graph and how I was able to use it to diagnose and solve the issues with my HDTV over HDMI on second DVI port with S/PDIF audio over HDMI issues.
 
I never went over it in detail, because frankly, the programs I was showing how to use it with don't need graph edit to show what you're using because you specify in the program what codec you're using. For Media Center however, you can use radlight for setting merit to what direct show filter you want to use. But when you install CoreAVC and Haali, everything is taken care of automatically because media center doesn't have any other filter to use associated with say an MKV container with h264, so it grabs those.

If you're referring to Media Player Classic (including Homecinema) then you're right since you're depending on the Internal Filters. However, I found that for my issue with video output on secondary display the best solution was to disable all internal filters, giving up hardware acceleration, and let FFDshow handle all the video and audio decoding. I still use FFDshow (the new releases not the classic) exclusively for all my audio and video decoding and now I'm able to play anything that I want without having to manage any other codecs.

I didn't know about RadLight FilterManager until I just downloaded it and tried it. It looks pretty good but GSpot seems to be quite a bit more in-depth when it comes to filter management and that's why I want to write up a little guide on how to use GSpot to view and manage filters. Just a little educational primer for people so they understand the filter graph process.

I also read your guide and I wanted to give you a little feedback. I find that most of the programs recommended for installation are unnecessary, purely in my opinion. After I uninstalled all the commercial media playback software and all the other codecs I cleaned up my system to the bare minimum and now it is very usable and manageable. I ended up with Haali Media Splitter, Media Player Classic Homecinema, FFDshow for all audio/video decoding, and MediaInfo for identifying streams inside container files. That's it. I gave up DXVA by disabling all internal filters in MPC-HC to get video out on the secondary display and now I enjoy HDTV with digital surround sound through my nVidia card over one HDMI cable going 60-feet to my Plasma.

I depend on FFDshow for all the hard work decoding audio and video but it is the best and most flexible solution to me since it can decode all formats internally, it doesn't glitch up and it is very fast and efficient, and I have it configured very simply to upmix my audio to 5.1 AC3 and Normalize the volume. I use the video processing filters sometimes for some playback and I let it do subtitle rendering also for me since it supports almost all subtitle formats.

I'll try to write up a quick setup guide also for that.

The software listed in your guide Media Player Classic (origina), AC3Filter, Koepi's XVID, FFDshow (classic), CoreAAC are all unnecessary since FFDshow (new) can handle all of those formats and it does so very well with full support now. I would recommend that you remove them from your guide since they are not needed.

CoreAVC is another little gem that I would not recommend and let H.264 (Blu-ray) decoding be handled by FFDshow or MPC-HC Internal Transform H264/DVC (DXVA) filters. It's unnecessary when the other software does the job just as well if not better.
 
yes.. the guide is outdated. Things change from month to month.. but FFDshow still blows. About all it's good for is audio decoding now. There are far better video filter choices, especially with the various hardware accelerated options we have.

Also, CoreAVC = win. It's better than DXVA now. With CUDA support it gives hardware acceleration for more profiles than DXVA supports.. plus it works flawlessly in VMC.
 
Personally I like to use MPCvideoDec.ax for DXVA of my videos, merely because I dont want to pay for CoreAVC.
Yes FFDshow sucks for Video
 
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