[GUIDE] Windows 7 HTPC Playback Guide

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Perfect!

Hopefully this will lead to the end of the "codec pack" generation.
 
good reading! i am adding a bluray drive and 9600 series vid card to my pc for htpc use
 
Wish this was around before I rebuilt my two HTPC's with 64bit.... Only complaint from default settings is that WMC in W7 doesn't like my Tivo shows dumped to PC from Tivo Desktop that Vista had no problem with. It won't playback or thumbnail them through WMC but will play in WMP.
 
It's probably a transport stream with weird flags. When you have media splitters installed, like Haali, sometimes it doesn't play nice with them.
 
I set up my laptop to act as an HTPC following your directions completely, but I still have lag when playing 1080p content from the laptops hard drive. It doesn't seem like the GPU is decoding everything because the video becomes choppy after the CPU usage exceeds 80%. I'm using forceware 186.03 with Core AVC 1.9.

Laptop Specs:

Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8Ghz
2GB DDR2 667
8400M GS 64MB+System Ram
 
You should have the little green CoreAVC icon light up in the system tray if it is doing hardware decoding, and CPU usage will probably be under 20%. Use CoreAVC 1.9.5.0. Version 1.9.0.0 had many issues, especially with the 8200/8300/8400/9300/9400 nvidia chips.
 
I set up my laptop to act as an HTPC following your directions completely, but I still have lag when playing 1080p content from the laptops hard drive. It doesn't seem like the GPU is decoding everything because the video becomes choppy after the CPU usage exceeds 80%. I'm using forceware 186.03 with Core AVC 1.9.

Laptop Specs:

Intel Core 2 Duo 1.8Ghz
2GB DDR2 667
8400M GS 64MB+System Ram

Try the newer drivers 190.38 IIRC
 
Amazing guide w1retap. Look forward to using it soon once I go from vista to 7.

Only thing I wanted to ask is:

I know you're on hdbits, so if you rename the file/folder's to be easily recognizable for metadata/movie compiler programs, how do you manage uTorrent or some other torrent program to keep it uploading?
 
The CoreAVC icon isn't changing to green. I'll try those drivers posted above.
 
Well I finally have a green icon using the 182.05 Vista 32-bit drivers, but now any video I play in WMC is green. The sound is fine, but it only displays a purely green picture.
 
W1retap, you can easily fix the issue of MB not showing up in MC with this .reg file.

Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Start Menu\Applications\{ce32c570-4bec-4aeb-ad1d-cf47b91de0b2}]
"OnStartMenu"="True"
"Category"="Custom Start Menu"
"Title"="Media Browser"
"TimeStamp"=dword:00000000
 
W1retap, you can easily fix the issue of MB not showing up in MC with this .reg file.

Code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Start Menu\Applications\{ce32c570-4bec-4aeb-ad1d-cf47b91de0b2}]
"OnStartMenu"="True"
"Category"="Custom Start Menu"
"Title"="Media Browser"
"TimeStamp"=dword:00000000
Thanks. Added. :)

Which Windows 7 build would you recommend?
The final RTM version. My second recommendation is the RC, but that starts expiring March 2010. 32-bit.
 
Any answer for "I know you're on hdbits, so if you rename the file/folder's to be easily recognizable for metadata/movie compiler programs, how do you manage uTorrent or some other torrent program to keep it uploading?"

Is the answer: "you can't." ?
 
Any answer for "I know you're on hdbits, so if you rename the file/folder's to be easily recognizable for metadata/movie compiler programs, how do you manage uTorrent or some other torrent program to keep it uploading?"

Is the answer: "you can't." ?
That isn't what this thread is for discussing. Hint: multiple hard drives.
 
I installed haali, and many .mkvs stutter, I tried muxing them to .ts but when I play the .ts files I get no sound if the sound stream is dts or pcm, I talked to a guy who makes the windows 7 codecs, and he said "windows 7 tries to force handling of .dts when it can't handle them"? Anyone have a solution?
Currently I'm just using mpc-hc, which works, but I'd prefer wmp.
 
You didn't setup your audio properly. Re-read. Either use the pass thru, or software decoding. MPC-HC works because you're most likely using the internal AC3filter.
 
Ok, I went back over everything, no matter what I try I can't get dts/lpcm in .TS to play. I don't have a spdif connected system, just regular cheapo speakers. Has anyone got dts to play from .ts files in wmp?
 
Ok, I went back over everything, no matter what I try I can't get dts/lpcm in .TS to play. I don't have a spdif connected system, just regular cheapo speakers. Has anyone got dts to play from .ts files in wmp?
I can play DTS tracks in *.TS files within Media Center just fine using the FFDshow method I have posted. But I only have one movie to test with like that, and it's The Day After Tomorrow capped from satellite and muxed with the DTS audio track. You should be using the MKV container anyhow..
 
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Is there a way to use chapters in Media Center with MKVs?
The only way I know of is with the Media Control plug-in I referenced in the subtitles section of the guide. Still, it's really buggy and not worth it IMO. I really don't see a need for chapters when viewing movies with 7 Media Center, because you can just drag through the timeline now.
 
The only way I know of is with the Media Control plug-in I referenced in the subtitles section of the guide. Still, it's really buggy and not worth it IMO. I really don't see a need for chapters when viewing movies with 7 Media Center, because you can just drag through the timeline now.

Thats a shame. I tried that Media Control program before and found it nearly useless. I'd use the timeline but I don't have a mouse for my HTPC Oh well, Media Browser keeps track of where a movie was left off effectively now and 30 sec will have to do.
 
Metabrower placed an XML file for every movie folder in my <Movie> directory, so there are 51 movie folders and 51 XML files. Should these files have been placed in their corresponding folders? It placed several other files correctly, but it doesn't seem that any information about the movies show up in WMC except the thumbnails.
 
The XML files are the things that hold the metadata. If you follow the guide and name your movies properly with the right folder structure, you'll have zero problems. Each folder has your movie, along with the XML and a 'folder.jpg' and 'backdrop.jpg'. Use MetaBrowser to pull the advanced metadata with better artwork and high res backdrops.
 
Each folder does contain 2 XML files:

Mymovies
metabrowser.dvdid


but the main folder also contains 51 XML files with names similar to

588a9c5b-2494-4bb2-84ca-11a52d139cbb

that were created while using the program.
 
The two XML files are fine.. i have that too. I have no idea what the 51 others in your main folder are. I've never seen that in the 20 or so setups I've done for people. Perhaps you have the naming/year incorrect for some of your movies and it doesn't know where to put files.
 
man, media browser is a serious bitch to set up and look nice. i'm totally new to it so its probably not as bad as is seems, but SHEESH.
 
It's not hard at all. You just install it, point to your movie folder, and that's about it. Given you have the proper file and naming structure for your movies, it will pull down all the metadata for you.

I just setup a client with it yesterday. From the install of Windows 7 to the point of playing movies in MediaBrowser, it wasn't even an hour's worth of work.
 
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