In need of some HTPC help

Rob Babcock · « **on:** 23 Oct 2010, 04:25 am »

Here's my deal- a while I ago I decided to turn one of my less-used PCs into a theater PC. Not a "server" in any conventional sense, I just want to use it directly connected to the HT system. It seemed like all I needed was a better video card. Of course, I decided I should add a Blu-Ray drive, too. After all, it's only another $50. Well, sadly after cracking the case I found my old machine was older than I realized. So I decided to build myself a new machine based on an Intel i3 and use my (then) current PC for an HTPC.

Yikes! Easier said than done. I'm getting video now, after a lot of tweaking, but the sound is completely FUBAR. My rig is an AMD X2 running at around 2.9 gig per core with 2 G DDR memory. The card is an Invidia 9000 series with 1 GB memory. I'm running XP with SP3. Yeah, I use Windows 7 on my other machines I don't wanna blow the cash to upgrade this one if I can avoid it. As Invidia cards of this vintage don't pass sound thru the HDMI, and because my HT receiver (a Denon 3805) lacks HDMI, I need either to downmix thru the optical output or use the soundcard's analog outputs.

I'm reasonably competent with computers (pretty close to my degree actually) but I don't know a lot about HTPC. I've already spent a few hundred more than I meant to, so I'd rather solve the problem without blowing much more. That said, I'm willing to blow the cash if I need to. Anyone have any advice for me?

bpape · « **Reply #1 on:** 23 Oct 2010, 11:10 am »

The absolute first thing I'd do is double the RAM. 2GB while trying to run XP, HD audio, and multi-channel video is asking a lot.

I'd also recommend poking around and trying to disable and uninstall any and all unnecessary processes in the OS.

How exactly is the sound FUBAR?

Bryan

Doublej · « **Reply #2 on:** 23 Oct 2010, 01:24 pm »

Like Bryan asks what's the problem with the sound?

Plug in a pair of headphones and see if you get sound. If not, click on the speaker icon on the bottom right and verify that each of input and output levels are set sufficiently high.

If that doesn't solve the problem go into the control panel and click on audio section. You may need to change the audio is being directed to. It might not be set to the soundcard's analog output.

etcarroll · « **Reply #3 on:** 23 Oct 2010, 01:52 pm »

First and foremost - what front end are you using? My 1st htpc ran WinXP Media Center edition.

The hardware items you list should be working, at least to pass DD5.1 or DTS, so I'm going to guess a software/configuration issue.

WGH · « **Reply #4 on:** 23 Oct 2010, 03:05 pm »

I use a M-Audio Transit for AC-3 (DD5.1) and DTS.
The Transit_WDM_5.10.00.0055v2 driver works best with my AMD 4200+, XP SP3 computer.

Software used is ZoomPlayer for DVD's and VLC Media Player for .avi files.

Wayne

bpape · « **Reply #5 on:** 23 Oct 2010, 03:07 pm »

The M-Audio would be a nice piece and they come up used now and then. In fact, IIRC, there was one on AC for sale not too long ago.

Bryan

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #6 on:** 23 Oct 2010, 09:34 pm »

I do think I'll upgrade it to Windows 7 tonite. Every other PC in the house has 7, and I do have an extra legit copy of it on hand. The video card is an Nvidia GeForce 9500GT, a pretty good card with HDMI output. After some fiddling with, it now plays Blu-Ray discs fine with good downconverting of Tru-HD to DD. But it won't play a rip/file yet. By Fubar I mean I'm only getting PLII on some, on others I'm only getting random layers of the sountrack (eg maybe just the gunfire or dogs barking but not the dialog). But the hardware must be working okay.

Right now I'm using Windows Media Center for playback but I'm messing around with a few others.

flintstone · « **Reply #7 on:** 23 Oct 2010, 10:55 pm »

I have HP dual core media center PC with 8 gigs of ram, and onboard digital in and out. Windows 7 64bit OS, Foobar, and Windows WASAPI output sounds very good to my ear.

I have S/PDIF coax running to my DAC in the big rig, and usb optical running to the smaller computer sound system. My music is stored on a 1 tb usb drive at the main computer, but I can stream to any of my other computers also (mostly to the laptop outside in the summer).

I also have an extra hard drive in the computer which I have Linux OS installed on....I can boot to either operating system at startup. I use Foobar running in wine on that OS..........it sounds good also.

Dave

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #8 on:** 24 Oct 2010, 04:44 am »

I'm getting all set to install Windows 7 on the HTPC. We'll see after that how it runs. More memory would be nice but it's not a matter of it running poorly, it's that I can't get the crappy 5.1 Rocketfish card to output DD/DTS nor downconvert TrueHD. I wonder if the analog outputs would work better?

hanguy · « **Reply #9 on:** 24 Oct 2010, 07:00 am »

Rob,

I have been using a HTPC to watch movies for several years now. Things have been running pretty well for me using my lowly Intel E2200 dual core with 2G Ram. So your computer processor and Ram should be fine. I have upgraded the video card several times from Nvidia 7950GT to ATI 4550 to ATI 5570. I get from just SPDIF (DD/DTS) out to 7 Ch LPCM to now HD bitstream to my Emotiva UMC1 and everything have been working just fine.

The problem you are having seems to be software/driver related. What software player are you using? The downmix setting should be in the software player unless you are using FFDSHOW.

Mike

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #10 on:** 24 Oct 2010, 10:28 am »

Thanks, hanguy. After installing Windows 7 and doing all the updates, everything is five-by-five.

Everything seems to work. A correction- my PC has 4 GB, not 2 GB. I fat-fingered it. DD/DTS is now working like a charm. It most came down to getting the current drivers.

Thanks to all, I'm pretty much on the beam.

hanguy · « **Reply #11 on:** 25 Oct 2010, 05:38 am »

Rob,

I am glad that it's working fine now. Windows 7 seems to resolve a lot of driver related problems on software DVD players. I had a very hard time to get HDMI audio to work correctly in XP but Windows 7 took care of it. Now I am running HD audio bitstream to my processor without any problem.

Mike

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #12 on:** 25 Oct 2010, 10:12 am »

Yeah, W7 does fix a lot of driver issues on its own. The only minor issue I have now is that occasionally I get a few artifacts during scenes with a lot of motion. Maybe the 4GB of memory isn't quite enough. Will going up to 8GB improve frame rate? Or is it an issue of tweaking system settings?

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #13 on:** 26 Oct 2010, 06:01 am »

One other question- would overclocking my processor help? My mobo will overclock the AMD proc by 15% without messing with anything else.

hanguy · « **Reply #14 on:** 26 Oct 2010, 05:51 pm »

Getting more rams or increase processor speed would not get rid of the artifacts. This is due to the deinterlacing by the computer.

There should be a way to set the deinterlacing method in your software player as part of the video setting. Nvidia has very advanced deinterlacing algorithm built into the video card so you should use that as the default. This should help with eliminating the artifacts.

You can read more about Nvidia's Pure Video on their web site: http://www.nvidia.com/page/purevideo.html

Mike

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #15 on:** 26 Oct 2010, 09:58 pm »

D'oh! I remember seeing deinterlacing set to "off"! I'll have to delve into the menues a bit more.

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #16 on:** 28 Oct 2010, 03:56 am »

There, I think I'm "done" (if one can ever really be done with anything with computers!

). As counterintuitive as it seems, I had to turn off hardware acceleration, but once I did things are smooth as silk. The only snag still remaining is that I'm presently not having any luck getting discrete MC sound off of a physical Blu-ray disc.

Oddly enough, HD files play fine with MC sound from the hard drive, just not off the physical disc. But it could be my media player- it seems like the one that came with the BR drive says it can only pull 2CH sound off the disc. That wouldn't be unheard of since most BR drives in a PC would be hooked up to only 2 speakers, if there're external speakers at all.

Anyone have any suggestions for a good media player for DVD & BR?

hanguy · « **Reply #17 on:** 28 Oct 2010, 04:18 pm »

What player came with your BR drive?

How do you exactly connecting your audio out to your receiver? Via HDMI or analog outs?

Rob Babcock · « **Reply #18 on:** 28 Oct 2010, 11:04 pm »

The player is PowerDVD from Cyber Link. I'm using the optical output from a Rocketfish 5.1 audio card and HDMI from an Nvidia GeForce 95000GT video card.

hanguy · « **Reply #19 on:** 29 Oct 2010, 12:05 am »

The problem you have may be due to the downmix setting in PowerDVD. Double check and see if you have it output decoded bitstream.