Convince me to build an HTPC, or what's the ultimate HTPC hardware?

[rparker]

I figured that. And I am not dropping any frame rates or have any for a frame freeze. Once I went to a newer video card that could handle the pass through

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by stanger89

I believe Fuzzy it talking about the inability to get a PC to refresh the picture at precisely right rate to avoid periodic frame drops. By using reclock you sync the audio to the video, eliminating frame drops.

mostly correct. In media playback, the playback clock is slaved to the audio (as inaccuracies in the audio rate are far more perceptible than the video rate). this will lead to frame skipping or frame duplicating if the audio clock isn't running at just the same rate as the video refresh rate. ReClock is a replacement audio renderer (the source of the audio clock) that slaves itself to the video refresh rate, then accurately shifts the audio playback to make everything nice and smooth. It cannot shift the audio clock though, if it is encoded bitstream audio, just PCM.

[cncb]

You might want to take a look at J. River Media Center. They recently added a built-in feature called "VideoClock" that does the same thing as Reclock. They also have "Red October" which sets up all the Directshow stuff for you without any downloading, registering, or other intervention necessary (including bitstreaming, MadVR, etc.).

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by cncb

You might want to take a look at J. River Media Center. They recently added a built-in feature called "VideoClock" that does the same thing as Reclock. They also have "Red October" which sets up all the Directshow stuff for you without any downloading, registering, or other intervention necessary (including bitstreaming, MadVR, etc.).

There is no reason NOT to use ReClock (since it works with any directshow player). the only caveat is that you can't do bitstreaming. there's really no reason NOT to send out PCM though.

[cncb]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

There is no reason NOT to use ReClock (since it works with any directshow player).

Except when the feature is already built-in to the player.

[panteragstk]

If you are concerned about video playback quality and refresh rate accuracy this is the best article I've found that compares intel HD graphics as well as the latest from amd and nvidia.

[stanger89]

FWIW, I've been playing with LAV filters, LAV CUVID and madVR on my desktop. I'm sort of amazed it all works on my 9600GT, I figured I needed a lot more GPU to run it. One thing I like is it does the more advanced deinterlacing than DXVA, instead of deinterlacing 60i down to 30p, it does something akin to MVBob (AVIsynth filter) to 60p, retaining all the temporal resolution in 60i.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by stanger89

FWIW, I've been playing with LAV filters, LAV CUVID and madVR on my desktop. I'm sort of amazed it all works on my 9600GT, I figured I needed a lot more GPU to run it. One thing I like is it does the more advanced deinterlacing than DXVA, instead of deinterlacing 60i down to 30p, it does something akin to MVBob (AVIsynth filter) to 60p, retaining all the temporal resolution in 60i.

Are you using it outside of sagetv? I wonder if those are compatible with my 8800gt I've been using...

Nevermind. 1080p 60 isn't compatible with anything other that VP4 hardware and above. Everything else should work according to the forum post.

[stanger89]

I've just been playing with them in MPC-HC on my desktop. I actually don't have a SageTV box that plays anything anymore (all extenders).

On the outside Sage topic, anybody remember, or know how to get TheaterTek to load custom graphs in Windows 7? I think with LAV filters I could get TT to play BD rips. Would be nice to have something with such powerful AR controls as TT for BD rips

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

There is no reason NOT to use ReClock (since it works with any directshow player). the only caveat is that you can't do bitstreaming. there's really no reason NOT to send out PCM though.

I'm guessing by that you are of the "no difference between pcm and lossless codecs" camp. I've never been able to A/B them so I have no clue if there is an audible difference between the two. I assume (which I don't like to do) that you don't hear a difference in audio quality? I'm hoping not so I can try reclock when I get home and see if I can get it working before I rebuild everything for my PJ/new receiver install.

[Fuzzy]

By definition of lossless codec, they are identical. You take a PCM stream (the original mix), encode it to your lossless format, then decode it back to PCM, and you get the exact same PCM that went in. Bit for Bit perfect. That's the definition of lossless, and is what it is done. Now, if you are sending the compressed stream over the HDMI, decoding it in the receiver, and sending that decoded PCM to the D/A, you get x sound. If you decode it in the client, and send the exact same PCM over HDMI to the same receiver's D/A, you get the same x sound.

[rparker]

But even going to pcm you can loose some of the suround and alternate audio tracks

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by rparker

But even going to pcm you can loose some of the suround and alternate audio tracks

What? no... that is wrong. Even HDMI 1.0 can support 8 channels of 24-bit LPCM audio at 192kHz, this is more than any BluRay soundtrack. Alternate tracks are selected in the splitter phase, NOT the decoding phase, so they are unaffected.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

What? no... that is wrong. Even HDMI 1.0 can support 8 channels of 24-bit LPCM audio at 192kHz, this is more than any BluRay soundtrack. Alternate tracks are selected in the splitter phase, NOT the decoding phase, so they are unaffected.

The only issue I can see coming up is the fact that windows is stupid and sends the surround channels in 5.1 out to the back speakers when you have a 7.1 channel setup. Do you have that issue?

[rparker]

I am getting true 7.2 out of my setup. And I am not remixing. But I do have a high end yamaha av unit

[Fuzzy]

Originally Posted by panteragstk

The only issue I can see coming up is the fact that windows is stupid and sends the surround channels in 5.1 out to the back speakers when you have a 7.1 channel setup. Do you have that issue?

I do not, as I don't have a 7.1 setup... I've got a 7.2 receiver, with 5.1 speakers... As for what channel gets decoded to what speaker, that would be the decoder itself making that call, NOT the OS or drivers. ffdshow has all the control you could want as far as speaker mixing/mapping.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy

I do not, as I don't have a 7.1 setup... I've got a 7.2 receiver, with 5.1 speakers... As for what channel gets decoded to what speaker, that would be the decoder itself making that call, NOT the OS or drivers. ffdshow has all the control you could want as far as speaker mixing/mapping.

I use ffdshow currently and it works great. With windows 7 can output pcm all the time (IIRC) if you set the speaker output to 7.1. When playing back a 5.1 stream I get surround channels coming through my back speakers. I'm using analog out, but have read the same happens if you bitstream pcm. To overcome this I have ffdshow double my surround output to the side speakers (which in 5.1 would be surround) as well as the back that way surround comes out of the appropriate channel as well as what the stupid windows mixer thinks is correct. If someone can tell me a better way I'm all ears.

[panteragstk]

Originally Posted by rparker

I am getting true 7.2 out of my setup. And I am not remixing. But I do have a high end yamaha av unit

Are you bitstreaming pcm or the lossless dd and dts?

[Fuzzy]

Do you have ffdshow set to output 7.1 (3/2/2 + LFE) as well? if so, then it will always be outputting 7.1 to windows, regardless of the incoming format. Windows would only come into play in determining the channel arrangement if ffdshow is set to 'same as input'. If you DO have ffdshow set correctly (3/2/2 + LFE) and your mapping is incorrect, it would be a problem in ffdshow, and can be corrected by creating a separate auto-profile for 5.1, and mapping the channels appropriately in the mixer.

EDIT: just did some looking, and it looks like both libavcodec AND libdts decode 5.1 audio to F/C/R/LB/LR/LFE, so they are mapping correctly to the back speakers in the 7.1 setup.. that said, it CAN be manipulated in ffdshow to map however you want (you could actually send it to EACH of the rear speakers if you want). I use separate presets for Mono, Stereo, 5.1, and 7.1 sources, set to auto-load the presets based on channel count (1, 2, 6, 8, respectively).

for Mono sources, I have it set to send the center channel (which is where it decodes mono to) 0.5 to left, right, and center, each.
for Stereo sources, I use the ProLogic decoder, and then map 1:1 for all channels
for 5.1, I just map 1:1
for 7.1 sources, I map the surround AND rear channels at 1:1 to the surround speakers.

[rparker]

No, I have mixer turn off.