My HTPC Thread

[FifthFreedom]

I mean you can get a HD-DVD and Bluray player for £75 and you've effectively future proofed your device. @ HERE

Because I don't think anyone is making HD-DVD's any more the number that you want to watch will be shrinking all the time.

Unless your one of those people who is content with watching a film over and over.

[staffsMike]

Well there are still normal DVDs...

[SiM]

Approximately:
Cost of 20 HD-DVDs + Xbox Drive = Cost of 4 blu-rays + Blu-ray reader.
I will upgrade to blu-ray once I have seen all the HD-DVDs

[Blackmage]

Nice sim, i've bulit an HTPC.

1.What O/S you using?

2.What Software are you going to use for HD-DVD playback?

3.I presume your using it on an HD-TV.

4.Are you looking into the souncard side of things?

5.You thought about a TV card?

Also install those Avivo drivers!

[SiM]

Nice sim, i've bulit an HTPC.

What's your spec?

1.What O/S you using? XP Home

2.What Software are you going to use for HD-DVD playback? Power DVD 7.3

3.I presume your using it on an HD-TV. Yup, on 5 year old Pioneer Plasma 50". I might get a 1080p projector too, although I need to sort out this and other things first

4.Are you looking into the souncard side of things? Well once HDMI sound is set up there will be no need, until then the mobo's spdif is sufficient as only DD5.1 or DTS5.1 or better tracks will be played (unless the film only has 2.0 sound - quite rare)

5.You thought about a TV card? Recording Sky is not something I am interested in picture quality is terrible!

[FifthFreedom]

I'm going to add that to the list of things I'll buy when I have the money...

First: Gaming Rig
Second: ASUS eee (or similar)
Third: HTPC

Damn I'm gonna have to work hard this year...

[SiM]

Hmmm... I don't know if I want a Eee, my 13" asus r1f is small and light enough (less than 2kg)... add homebuilt file server/NAS to your list too

[Blackmage]

What's your spec?

1.What O/S you using? XP Home


2.What Software are you going to use for HD-DVD playback? Power DVD 7.3

3.I presume your using it on an HD-TV. Yup, on 5 year old Pioneer Plasma 50". I might get a 1080p projector too, although I need to sort out this and other things first

4.Are you looking into the souncard side of things? Well once HDMI sound is set up there will be no need, until then the mobo's spdif is sufficient as only DD5.1 or DTS5.1 or better tracks will be played (unless the film only has 2.0 sound - quite rare)

5.You thought about a TV card? Recording Sky is not something I am interested in picture quality is terrible!

Weirdly Power DVD 8 doesn't have support for HD-DVD anymore. Does your motherboard output 5.1 over spdif? if not to send 5.1 to external devices you should look at AC3 filter

[SiM]

Weirdly Power DVD 8 doesn't have support for HD-DVD anymore. Does your motherboard output 5.1 over spdif? if not to send 5.1 to external devices you should look at AC3 filter

You can hack PowerDVD 8 to work with HD DVDs, but I just use 7.3 because its easier
I think it does do spdif to external. It has the 3 pins that say spdif on the mobo, I have a spare converter bracket (from another gigabyte) mobo that should make it work hopefully

This is what I mean:

[SiM]

And it does officially support spdif out on the spec... so there is no reason why I won't be able to get it working

[shaithis]

Is anyone playing HD-DVD/BluRay in Vista with optical output from an XFi to an AV receiver?

Just set mine up recently and my amp constantly tells me its getting a DTS Neo:6 signal instead of the standard DTS signal I am expecting.

No amount of fiddling with codecs, drivers or amp settings seems to change this and its driving me nuts. Anyone else noticing the same by any chance?

[Blackmage]

And it does officially support spdif out on the spec... so there is no reason why I won't be able to get it working

Look below

Is anyone playing HD-DVD/BluRay in Vista with optical output from an XFi to an AV receiver?

Just set mine up recently and my amp constantly tells me its getting a DTS Neo:6 signal instead of the standard DTS signal I am expecting.

No amount of fiddling with codecs, drivers or amp settings seems to change this and its driving me nuts. Anyone else noticing the same by any chance?

Yes this is exactly what i'm talking about the spdif problem, try using AC Filter 3 to get DTS. To get the New HD lossless formats your going to have to wait for the new cards witch are compatible with DTS connect.

Acfilter 3

Dts connect

[SiM]

AC3 filter is a direct show filter, it won't work with PowerDVD afaik as PowerDVD uses its own filters/codecs...

Its pointless spending any money on a sound card imo as that money can go towards a better amp, because the sound will eventually be done over HDMI

shaithis, what software are you using for playback? AC3 filter or ffdshow should work if you are using a direct show player. You need to tell it to output via spdif in the settings

[FifthFreedom]

I just use Media Player Classic for everything now.

It can play any file with any codec and does so without all the clutter of most media apps...

[SiM]

Only problem with mpc is that setting up it to work with HD-DVDs and Blu-ray is not easy... I tried and failed

[Blackmage]

AC3 filter is a direct show filter, it won't work with PowerDVD afaik as PowerDVD uses its own filters/codecs...

Its pointless spending any money on a sound card imo as that money can go towards a better amp, because the sound will eventually be done over HDMI

Does powerDVD have an codec that allows you to output DTS over spdif?

Yes i agree with the amp part(are you buying one?), what are you doing to get 5.1 currently?