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Thread: HTPC Help!!!

  1. #1
    Senior Member crazyfool's Avatar
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    HTPC Help!!!

    ok about a month ago i built a htpc and i've only recently started using it after getting it working with standby issues etc... However i have a couple of really annoying and seeing as its a htpc really major problems...
    The main one is lip sync when watching dvds in vista media center, no matter which codec combination i use i always have lip sync issues which occur and then correct themselves and then happen again every few minutes which is drivin me nuts
    All i have installed is vista sp1 + tv pack, ffdshow for xvid and powerdvd 7 ultra for hd dvd playback.
    My specs for it are Abit 780g motherboard and AMD 4850e CPU, the rest of the system is just ram etc and shouldn't be able to cause the problems i am getting. I am using onboard video and sound and have the latest drivers installed. Anyone have any ideas or am i going to have to give media portal a go

  2. #2
    SiM
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    Re: HTPC Help!!!

    I would give mediaportal a go... I love it.. and it has lip sync adjustment...
    Does it have lip sync problems in other playback software (eg VLC)?

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    Seething Cauldron of Hatred TheAnimus's Avatar
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    Re: HTPC Help!!!

    Media Center just uses the underlying Media Player system (and suffers the cronic lack of multithreading, but thats a different rant.)

    As such its a simple case of sorting out your codecs as you've guessed.

    The first thing to do is make sure your installing/un-installing of codecs actually changed the one been used. Media Player Classic i find makes this easyer to see which codec is active, i'm guessing ur finding that you installed a new codec, but didn't change the priority, so the old (broken) one was still been used.
    throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)

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    Senior Member crazyfool's Avatar
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    Re: HTPC Help!!!

    thanks for the helps guys but still got the lip sync issue... did a fresh install of vista with no other apps or codecs installed and i still got the problem... I also tried an earlier driver to see if it helps but still nothing... any other ideas

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    Seething Cauldron of Hatred TheAnimus's Avatar
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    Re: HTPC Help!!!

    do you have the sync problems when using say VLC?

    if its a case of a bad encode...... GIGO!
    throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)

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    Re: HTPC Help!!!

    definately not a bad encode as the hdd with the dvds on it used to be in a different pc and they played back fine... haven't tried vlc yet...i'll give that a go and see

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    Re: HTPC Help!!!

    ok i haven't had a chance to test out vlc but tbh i really cant be bothered to spend any more time on getting something as simple as this to work properly with vista and seeing as a few other stupid issues are creeping up i'm going to give media portal a go... it seems really buggy and unstable and my main rig but i'm hoping that with a little bit of work i can get it working on my htpc nicely... thanks for the help tho guys

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    Seething Cauldron of Hatred TheAnimus's Avatar
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    Re: HTPC Help!!!

    I've had pain from media portal it really is a poor man's MCE.
    throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)

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    Re: HTPC Help!!!

    yeh it does seem like that to me as well but i'll give it a go and see... alot of people think its crap and others swear by it so we'll c

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    SiM
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    Re: HTPC Help!!!

    It work very well for me... what doesn't work for you Animus?

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    Senior Member crazyfool's Avatar
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    Re: HTPC Help!!!

    right i am going to install mediaportal tomorrow finally... this better solve my problem
    Thing i just realised tho is i only installed vista on the machine for its media center and seeing as i am not going to be using it if this works would i be better off installing mediaportal on xp... less of a resource hog and such... seeing as you use mediaportal Sim what do you reckon

  12. #12
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    Re: HTPC Help!!!

    I had lip sync problems in media player whilst watching something i had downloaded off iplayer. I went into the setting and it had an option to drop frame to keep sound synced. i don't know if it would work with Media center though

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    Seething Cauldron of Hatred TheAnimus's Avatar
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    Re: HTPC Help!!!

    Media portal runs slowly when presented with a large library.

    MCE main problem here is a lack of multithreading which is inherient in media player, and made worse by the STA COM API for WMP!.

    So the trick is to find out whats going wrong with the codec (this is after all the problem) If its a case of you needing to drop frames? What spec is the CPU, how much RAM? Also what virus scanner you running? Are you seeing something like the indexing service thrashing your disk IO whilst playing?
    throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)

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    SiM
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    Re: HTPC Help!!!

    Quote Originally Posted by TheAnimus View Post
    Media portal runs slowly when presented with a large library.
    2TB of stuff works very fast for me...

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    Seething Cauldron of Hatred TheAnimus's Avatar
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    Re: HTPC Help!!!

    Uc i found it just as bad, if not slower than WMP (the engine of which is used via MCE) might be network latency and this is only on an Atom too.

    The main problem is media portal just uses the same codec library, so in the same way if you have the problem in Media PLayer Classic, u'll have it in media portal. I saw some trickery to get VLC working instead, but that was Alpha last time looked? Won't it just be as bad, looking more ugly, and running slower?
    throw new ArgumentException (String, String, Exception)

  16. #16
    SiM
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    Re: HTPC Help!!!

    e2200 processor 100mbit network and I get great latency and can playback very high bitrate 1080p video (on server) with no problems

    You say it works the same way as media player classic. Thats a good thing! MPC is brilliant, never had a problem with it!

    Does not need the VLC engine to do the playback imo.

    Clean setup with mediaportal and ffdshow + haali gives perfect h.264 and xvid playback. There is also a plugin to load Power DVD to play Bluray/HD-DVD - can MCE/VMC do that?

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