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perisoft
Joined: 29 Aug 2007
Posts: 2920
Location: Ithaca, NY
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| Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2010 2:31 pm Post subject: HTPC reinstall... I swear to god I'll defeat the demons |
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Ok, so... I had to do some case-swappin' due to work stuff, so I decided to do a new Win7 install and build the machine the Right Way this time. Since it's cobbled together with cast-off bits from work (drives that we couldn't use or didn't want to, etc) it's got a ton of hard drives in it, almost literally. Two IDEs, five SATA drives, and the bluray.
I decided to throw caution to the wind and span the drives with Win7. I'm not sure what'll happen if one drive dies, or if I need to reinstall (though the clean 7 install did understand the previously-spanned IDE drives when it saw them, so if the drives are in tact I think I'll be fine). But it was such a massive pain to have stuff splattered over 5 different drives that I couldn't take it anymore.
So, now I've got this:
Woot! So, adding more space will be a pain since I'm fresh out of SATA slots, but 4tb on the media section and 1tb for the rest should keep me going for a while.
Now I've got to rebuild the rest of it.
That means:
Powerstrip (done)
AnyDVD (done)
VideoEqualizer (done)
AC3Filter
FFDShow
Avisynth
MPCHC
I also need to get my HD tuner card tested and running with windows media center, but that was shockingly painless when I tried it last time.
So, now I can start from scratch to try to get a system that will rip/play blurays reasonably well. What should I be putting on here to make this crap work right? 
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MikeEby
Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Posts: 5237
Location: Osceola, Indiana
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| Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2010 2:33 pm Post subject: |
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Great...Did you go 32 or 64 Bit?
Mike
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perisoft
Joined: 29 Aug 2007
Posts: 2920
Location: Ithaca, NY
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| Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2010 2:37 pm Post subject: |
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| MikeEby wrote: | Great...Did you go 32 or 64 Bit?
Mike |
32. I'm not doing memory intensive stuff, so I don't really need more than the 3.5gb available with 32bit, and I decided I didn't need another variable... I'm not aware of any real benefit to 64bit aside from the memory availability, though I could be wrong.
Plus, the biggie: Nokia Monitor Test refuses to run in 64bit. I don't think I can live without it, so until I recreate it myself, 32 bit it is!
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akajester
Joined: 09 Jul 2008
Posts: 934
Location: Wisconsin
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| Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2010 3:46 pm Post subject: |
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If you combined the physical drives you'll lose all data with just one failing. That's another reason why I keep my drives separate. Most front-ends will allow you to add multiple drives to search for media so it's transparent to the user.
Good choice staying away from 64-bit. You don't need the additional ram running a HTPC.
dale
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MikeEby
Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Posts: 5237
Location: Osceola, Indiana
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| Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2010 8:49 pm Post subject: |
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| akajester wrote: |
Good choice staying away from 64-bit. You don't need the additional ram running a HTPC.
dale |
+1 The 64 bit software is starting to get mature but still lacking in a few key areas. I don't think there is support for 24 bit FLAC in 64 bit nor is Reclock supported. I use both in on my HTPC.
Peri...Have you considered using FLAC rather than AC3/DTS and outputting analog to your audio gear. I'm really happy with my audio done this way.
Mike
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perisoft
Joined: 29 Aug 2007
Posts: 2920
Location: Ithaca, NY
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| Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2010 8:54 pm Post subject: |
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| MikeEby wrote: | | akajester wrote: |
Good choice staying away from 64-bit. You don't need the additional ram running a HTPC.
dale |
+1 The 64 bit software is starting to get mature but still lacking in a few key areas. I don't think there is support for 24 bit FLAC in 64 bit nor is Reclock supported. I use both in on my HTPC.
Peri...Have you considered using FLAC rather than AC3/DTS and outputting analog to your audio gear. I'm really happy with my audio done this way.
Mike |
I use analog now, since I use separate amps to drive each channel / set of channels. I like AC3filter because I can redirect / change EQ per-channel, which is very useful given my weird-ass setup. Reclock is a necessity!
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MikeEby
Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Posts: 5237
Location: Osceola, Indiana
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| Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2010 9:45 pm Post subject: |
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| perisoft wrote: | | I use analog now, since I use separate amps to drive each channel / set of channels. I like AC3filter because I can redirect / change EQ per-channel, which is very useful given my weird-ass setup. Reclock is a necessity! |
I really need to do a double blind study on the difference between lossless FLAC track and lossy AC3/DTS. Rip the same movie with lossless FLAC and one lossy AC3 tracks and see if I can really hear a difference. I think lossless sound better...But it could be subjective.
I'm thinking Watchmen would be a good movie to try it on....It's got a great audio track.
Mike
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perisoft
Joined: 29 Aug 2007
Posts: 2920
Location: Ithaca, NY
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| Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 12:43 am Post subject: |
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| MikeEby wrote: |
I really need to do a double blind study on the difference between lossless FLAC track and lossy AC3/DTS. Rip the same movie with lossless FLAC and one lossy AC3 tracks and see if I can really hear a difference. I think lossless sound better...But it could be subjective.
I'm thinking Watchmen would be a good movie to try it on....It's got a great audio track.
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Oh, God - but then you'll have to actually watch it again. I accidentally ripped the Director's Cut of that movie; the theatrical cut was probably 45 minutes too long and the Director's Cut added another half hour of snapping bones, soft porn, and dangling blue penis. That's three hours of my life I'll never get back. Ugh.
The newest EAC3to is on the list to install, too, by the way - the new titling stuff looks awesome and seems like it might help some of the versioning confusion I've been undergoing.
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Spanky Ham
Joined: 22 Mar 2006
Posts: 5643
Location: Comedy Central
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| Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 1:32 am Post subject: |
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Did you buy seven copies of Win 7?
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perisoft
Joined: 29 Aug 2007
Posts: 2920
Location: Ithaca, NY
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| Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 1:37 am Post subject: |
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| Spanky Ham wrote: | | Did you buy seven copies of Win 7? |
You mean like there being seven sacks with seven cats, and each cat had seven kits? No, just the one. At least, for my HTPC. God knows how many I've bought for work. They've probably paid for a couple of Mr. Gates's plasma TVs... 
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Mark_A_W
Joined: 15 Mar 2006
Posts: 3068
Location: Sunny Melbourne Australia
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| Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 11:01 am Post subject: |
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| MikeEby wrote: | | akajester wrote: |
Good choice staying away from 64-bit. You don't need the additional ram running a HTPC.
dale |
+1 The 64 bit software is starting to get mature but still lacking in a few key areas. I don't think there is support for 24 bit FLAC in 64 bit nor is Reclock supported. I use both in on my HTPC.
Peri...Have you considered using FLAC rather than AC3/DTS and outputting analog to your audio gear. I'm really happy with my audio done this way.
Mike |
My HTPC is 64 bit.
What happens if you have a 1GB video card? You lose all your ram.
But all my filters/codecs/players are 32 bit. So there's no issue with that, you just use the 32 bit ones as per a 32 bit PC.
The only player that "needs" 64bit codecs is Windows Media Center. But I use Zoomplayer, which is 32 bit, so that's not a problem either.
The issue is drivers. I had to buy a new remote and one of my old tuner cards didn't work (but a mate gave me one that does).
I think it's madness to install a 32 bit OS these days.
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Mark_A_W
Joined: 15 Mar 2006
Posts: 3068
Location: Sunny Melbourne Australia
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| Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 11:03 am Post subject: Re: HTPC reinstall... I swear to god I'll defeat the demons |
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| perisoft wrote: |
VideoEqualizer (done)
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That works for you?
I had to give it away 
The gamma settings didn't survive a reboot, the gamma loader didn't seem to work reliably with multimonitors...it was just too hard.
I went back to powerstrip gamma (but you can only use linear ramps or it bands).
How do you manage to use it?
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perisoft
Joined: 29 Aug 2007
Posts: 2920
Location: Ithaca, NY
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| Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 6:24 pm Post subject: Re: HTPC reinstall... I swear to god I'll defeat the demons |
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| Mark_A_W wrote: | | perisoft wrote: |
VideoEqualizer (done)
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That works for you?
I had to give it away
The gamma settings didn't survive a reboot, the gamma loader didn't seem to work reliably with multimonitors...it was just too hard.
I went back to powerstrip gamma (but you can only use linear ramps or it bands).
How do you manage to use it? |
What version have you got? The latest is a huge improvement.
It just kinda works. I have to reload the gamma every reboot, and sometimes it's odd - I'll have to load a random other profile before my main one will work. But aside from that it's reliable - this with multimonitors.
The early version wouldn't let you drag a control point; it'd crash. So you had to click where you wanted the control point to go... except because of the interpolation it would go some percentage of the way there. And the spline wouldn't work, so you'd have to go click on the other points nearby to smooth the spline... which would move the one you just placed. It was a massive PITA, but I fought through it and did a 21-point ramp. The new version you can slide the handles around easy-peasy, and I checked on a 64bit install and it does work.
Most of my work has been with ATI cards; maybe that has something to do with it. But when I recently tested the new version it was on an nVidia setup.
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greg_mitch
Joined: 03 May 2006
Posts: 5320
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| Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2010 10:01 pm Post subject: |
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| Mark_A_W wrote: | | MikeEby wrote: | | akajester wrote: |
Good choice staying away from 64-bit. You don't need the additional ram running a HTPC.
dale |
+1 The 64 bit software is starting to get mature but still lacking in a few key areas. I don't think there is support for 24 bit FLAC in 64 bit nor is Reclock supported. I use both in on my HTPC.
Peri...Have you considered using FLAC rather than AC3/DTS and outputting analog to your audio gear. I'm really happy with my audio done this way.
Mike |
My HTPC is 64 bit.
What happens if you have a 1GB video card? You lose all your ram.
But all my filters/codecs/players are 32 bit. So there's no issue with that, you just use the 32 bit ones as per a 32 bit PC.
The only player that "needs" 64bit codecs is Windows Media Center. But I use Zoomplayer, which is 32 bit, so that's not a problem either.
The issue is drivers. I had to buy a new remote and one of my old tuner cards didn't work (but a mate gave me one that does).
I think it's madness to install a 32 bit OS these days. |
64bit here. Seems "old" to install 32bit OS anymore. I don't see why I would ever go back.
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MikeEby
Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Posts: 5237
Location: Osceola, Indiana
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| Posted: Fri Jun 18, 2010 4:42 am Post subject: |
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That's good to hear 64 Bit it's working out for everyone. I'll probably try it on my next HTPC. If Mark is happy with it that means a lot!
Mike
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