CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[barcoed]

All,

I apologise in advance for the long story below but it needed to explain how I’ve got to where I am:

At the end of last year I bought a Panasonic BD30, a replacement Yammy amp and a Moome FullHD input card for my Sony G70 CRT projector expecting to sit back and enjoy Blur-ay…

The Moome card was faulty.
The second Moome card was also duff.
The new Yam amp sounded like a cheap transistor radio when compared to my humble AX2.
The Panasonic player was slooooooow – to do anything (darn Java belongs in a coffee cup and nowhere else!).

So I sent the Moome card back for a refund (which I eventually got), sold the amp and the blur-ay player and am pursuing the HTPC route.

[Engage RANT mode]
What a shame the industry spends a fortune “protecting” HD content against it being ripped off in a way that nobody would attempt it anyway! If they wanted to “rip it off” then they’d do it in a fraction of the time on a PC!!
[/Cancel RANT mode]

I currently have a competent PC with a modern dual core processor (2.4ghz I think) running 64bit XP (I hate Vista!). I’ve installed a Creative 7.1 (analog outs) sound card and a BDRom. The video card is a Quadro FX 3400 (not HDCP compliant but this doesn’t matter as I intend to use RGBHV to the G70).
I purchased a copy of AnyDVD HD and really like the simplicity of MPC-HC as a player although I’m happy to consider other players if necessary. Actually I couldn’t get MPC –HC to work so I’ve temporarily had to install PDVD.

I’ve connected the PC via RGBHV 1080p and was surprised to get a great picture – with or without AnyDVD. Analog appears to just work! – Yippee I thought.

I have these remaining problems:

> I’d like to get MPC-HC to play DB discs.
> How can I get the full quality of the lossless HD audio tracks out of the 7.1 analog connections on the sound card?
> Will I need to strip the HDCP from the disc by processing them to hard disc before I can play them?

Thanks in advance! – If I can’t get this to work then I guess I’ll be sticking with DVD.

[Mark_A_W]

Yes you will need Anydvd HD to break the encryption. Then you can actually play the disc..(grr).

You need:

- Anydvd HD

- MPC-HC, use Beliyaal's build (Doom9)

- Ffdshow tryouts

- Haali Splitter (includes renderer)

- Reclock


Use the INTERNAL MPEG splitter and VC-1 decoder of MPC-HC. Untick all other internal filters.


Use ffdshow audio (add to external codecs, select prefer and tick box). This will work for all audio formats, including TrueHD...except DTS-MA is core only.

Use ffdshow video or CoreAVC for AVC (the internal MPC one may work too).


Use Reclock as the Audio Renderer. Choose Kernel Streaming if you can - note this will require you to restrict the audio output in ffdshow to 32bit. I'm not sure if it will work on a Creative card. Kernel streaming is the only way to get decent sound out of XP.


Use Haali Renderer, and set it to TV levels to retain BTB/WTW and avoid banding.

A Quadro shouldn't tear. (Did you pinch a CAD workstation?)



If you really want all the audio to be 100% quality to you need have a soundcard that works with Kernel Streaming, and you need to remux to mkv with FLAC lossless audio. There is no other way to get DTS-MA 7.1 (I cannot get the Arcsoft HD audio decoder to work).

[barcoed]

Thanks for that, Mark.

I'm having trouble finding a download for - Haali Splitter (includes renderer). They all look a bit suspect! - Any suggestions?

[Nashou66]

Too bad you gave up on moome the best solution for those who have patience.

Sorry i had to give that "ribbing"

Athanasios

[Mark_A_W]

I sold my Moome.

It sucked.

[Mark_A_W]

http://haali.cs.msu.ru/mkv/

[Nashou66]

[Mark_A_W]

I had an ISS HDMI card.

It would not work with my PC with a new graphics card.

It worked with an old card, but syncing was very hit and miss, and it didn't clamp black properly. Black text on a white page would have a grey background.

VGA just works and looks better.

[barcoed]

Sorry Mark, I can't make any sense of your instructions. I’ve installed the software but can’t find the settings you list in any of the apps. When I attempt to play the BD film MPC-HC just reports that it can’t find the DVD directory.

[Mark_A_W]

In MPC, right click -> options -> internal filters

[barcoed]

[Mark_A_W]

I'm sorry, I did it all from memory.

Tick MPEG PS/TS/PSA from Source filters.

Tick VC-1 (FFmpeg) from Transform filters.


Untick all others (this is my setup anyway).


Then load ffdshow etc in External filters.

Just get it playing with Directsound audio, we'll worry about reclock later. But do pick Haali Renderer.

[barcoed]

Thanks - got it now - I hope! :)

Poblem is I still can't play a BD - MPC-HC says "Cannot find DVD directory" immediately below the play/pause/stop controls.
I'm clicking "File", "Open DVD" - then I select the DB drive (D:) , click "OK" and get this error.

[Mark_A_W]

I have no idea..


You have the latest Beliyaal build?

You have Anydvd HD running?

[barcoed]

Yes to both questions.
Still no go

I still have PDVD installed and that works.

[Mark_A_W]

Try using a different video renderer maybe...

Or, if you explore the drive, can you see the files? If not, then you need to install a UDF driver for XP to see the files on a Bluray.


The wildcard is XP 64. I love it at work - I run CAD on it. But Vista is the OS for a HTPC.

I run Vista32. I'd rather run 64bit, but drivers are an issue...lots of things are an issue with 64 bit. Hopefully Windows 7 will make 64bit the mainstream version.

[barcoed]

Aha! - I see no files. Where do you think I should look for a UDF driver...?

[Mark_A_W]

Google Toshiba UDF driver. It was the driver for the Xbox HD-DVD drive, but it works for my Bluray drive too.

If you can't find it, PM me.

[barcoed]

OK, thanks.
I'll check it out in the morning - don't you ever sleep??

[Mark_A_W]

Well, it's 11am here.