How to make your Windows Media Center a real HD machine (1 Viewer)

[mattCR]

Dave raised a question I get asked.. if you did convert, in full format, a BD to an open format, what's the biggest advantage.

Well, in the last week, I've had several discs come in and I have them in my waiting area after converting them. Here's the biggest benefit.





In the time it would take any one of these discs to load on my fast loading Oppo, I can flip back and forth between 3 different Blurays with full audio and video preserved, and I can call them up with a remote control. The advantage of digital is that it responds very quickly compared to physical media. The traditional disadvantage was that quality was lower. So, perfectly preserved (bit perfect) images solve that.


Please note: because I had the encoder set at 15fps, and it doesn't the video frame rate, it may appear jerky. This isn't really the video or the way it works (You'll also notice it "leaps" a bit at times) this is only present in the Youtube recording because of the difference in framerates.

 

[DaveF]

Originally Posted by mattCR

Dave raised a question I get asked.. if you did convert, in full format, a BD to an open format, what's the biggest advantage.

As I said in one of these threads, this is exciting to me. I'd looked a few years ago at creating a DVD media center and it didn't make sense: I'd have to spend months (literally, I did the math) ripping, transcoding, compressing all of them to make the hard-drive space affordable. And then I'd have movies at less quality than the original DVD and have lost all the special features. And I couldn't find any practical way to manage special features. And it seemed that when the question of straight ripping was posed, in various forums, people just looked at you funny.


Matt extolling a raw rip of Blu-rays into a media center is just what I'm interested in. And now with rip times shorter, drive space cheaper, and a few more bucks to my name than I had five years ago, it's looking like a real option.

 

[mattCR]

Originally Posted by DaveF



As I said in one of these threads, this is exciting to me. I'd looked a few years ago at creating a DVD media center and it didn't make sense: I'd have to spend months (literally, I did the math) ripping, transcoding, compressing all of them to make the hard-drive space affordable. And then I'd have movies at less quality than the original DVD and have lost all the special features. And I couldn't find any practical way to manage special features. And it seemed that when the question of straight ripping was posed, in various forums, people just looked at you funny.


Matt extolling a raw rip of Blu-rays into a media center is just what I'm interested in. And now with rip times shorter, drive space cheaper, and a few more bucks to my name than I had five years ago, it's looking like a real option.

Dave-


I think when you see what you can do with Extras; have them where they are directly laid out, indexed, reach them instantly.. and find them without weaving through menus? It's hard to go back. I think this is really where things head. I tend to spend A LOT on bluray a month. It's a terrible brutal hobby that way.. but it's a serious investment. It's too big of an investment for me to have a stack of discs out that can get damaged.


a 1TB HDD would hold about 20-50BD, depending on what they are, and it's $50 locally. In full absolute quality. The only thing I ever take out are foreign languages. And the process? About 30 minutes a disc. It's safer for me - my kids would destroy the real media. So, I keep the real media hidden away. I tend to watch it once or twice, but that's it.


That's the cost of 2 blurays (my copy of Harry Potter 7: Pt1 and the Incredibles) But the knowledge that my kids aren't going to destroy a copy of either? That is -priceless-. A few years ago, I bought "Watchmen Directors Cut" for $29. It lasted one day as my oldest son scratched the disc and it was dead. I'm fairly through with throwing away money. I want to be able to save these for as long as I can. If the HDD goes bad, it's not a big thing, I can just redo the disc. But I will never, ever put myself in a position where I just throw caution to the wind and risk having my investment flushed.

If you are preserving your own, then you're doing what you should be doing (IMHO). It encourages you to buy discs. I have bought more discs in the last year then ever. I tend to get two or three deliveries from Amazon a week of things.. because now, the collecting of the titles is half the fun. I realized last week that when I searched my media center I had one Audrey Hepburn title. Bammo! Amazon had an order the next day.

Better then spending money on cars or a boat or whatever, this is a hobby both my wife and I love, and it's now easier then ever to do. So, I look at my expense on DVD/BD as a (minor) car payment a month

 

[John Dirk]

Originally Posted by mattCR




John-


I'm trying to put together my comparative review of both. First, TMT5 normally can be found on sale on weekends for up to 40% off. I'm not sure why you are running into issues with WMC integration, which should work in the trial. Make sure of these thigns that you are using a Catalyst 11.2 driver or Higher (so if you haven't updated the driver, do so now) and second, you might want to open up TMT outside of WMC and disable the function "turn off Aero on use" that solves quite a few issues.

Hi Matt and thanks for your reply. My system info is as below. I don't expect you to solve these problems. I just wanted to query the masses in case someone else either was currently, or had at some point, experienced similar issues. So I thought a little more info might be of interest. I really like TMT [not so much PowerDVD] but my near $100.00 Wal-Mart Magnavox standalone player easily trumps it in features and reliability. I really like the idea of having all of my media needs within one very flexible box, namely my HTPC, so I am still leaning towards a PC based Blu Ray player. I just wish there was a standout product on the market that I could count on.


Thank again for taking the time to read and respond.




System Info: OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601 Other OS Description Not Available OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation System Name THEATER System Manufacturer Gateway System Model LX6200-01 System Type x64-based PC Processor AMD Phenom(tm) 9500 Quad-Core Processor, 2200 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 4 Logical Processor(s) BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. 87IP011G, 8/6/2008 SMBIOS Version 2.5 Windows Directory C:Windows System Directory C:Windowssystem32 Boot Device DeviceHarddiskVolume1 Locale United States Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.1.7601.17514" User Name THEATER*********** Time Zone Eastern Daylight Time Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 8.00 GB Total Physical Memory 8.00 GB Available Physical Memory 6.31 GB Total Virtual Memory 16.0 GB Available Virtual Memory 14.1 GB Page File Space 8.00 GB Page File C:pagefile.sys GPU Info: Primary Adapter Graphics Card Manufacturer Powered by ATI Graphics Chipset ATI Radeon HD 5500 Series Device ID 68DA Vendor 1002 Subsystem ID 2008 Subsystem Vendor ID 1787 Graphics Bus Capability PCI Express 2.0 Maximum Bus Setting PCI Express 2.0 x16 BIOS Version 012.020.000.007 BIOS Part Number 113-SBSQ6G01-00R-00 BIOS Date 2010/03/16 Memory Size 1024 MB Memory Type DDR2 Core Clock in MHz 550 MHz Memory Clock in MHz 400 MHz Total Memory Bandwidth in GByte/s 12.8 GByte/s

 

[mattCR]

Originally Posted by John Dirk




Hi Matt and thanks for your reply. My system info is as below. I don't expect you to solve these problems. I just wanted to query the masses in case someone else either was currently, or had at some point, experienced similar issues. So I thought a little more info might be of interest. I really like TMT [not so much PowerDVD] but my near $100.00 Wal-Mart Magnavox standalone player easily trumps it in features and reliability. I really like the idea of having all of my media needs within one very flexible box, namely my HTPC, so I am still leaning towards a PC based Blu Ray player. I just wish there was a standout product on the market that I could count on.


Thank again for taking the time to read and respond.

As you've probably figured out, playing the same BD converted to MKV is a bit easier But, if you can, run a Belarc scan (www.belarc.com) and attach it to a private message here. I can load it up and see what it looks like.

 

[DaveF]

Originally Posted by mattCR

a 1TB HDD would hold about 20-50BD, depending on what they are, and it's $50 locally. In full absolute quality. The only thing I ever take out are foreign languages. And the process? About 30 minutes a disc. It's safer for me - my kids would destroy the real media. So, I keep the real media hidden away. I tend to watch it once or twice, but that's it.

I will be interested in talking about drive management under 7MC. I'm interested in eliminating "friction" and I don't want to manage hard drives and data locations. So what do you do with that 51st Blu-ray and the 1TB C: is full? Turn off the system, tear apart the HTPC, install a new internal drive, and then manually manage what gets stored on C: or D: or E: drives?


I'm wondering if it makes sense to spend the money on a DroboS, connected by USB3, and not worry about managing hard drive space.


Or does 7MC invisibly manage multiple drives and its space?

 

[mattCR]

I think most of us who store a lot end up using a NAS. That way, you can map network storage and it can be whatever (I have numerous TBs in my WHS). But because Windows 7 uses libraries, it all shows up as one cohesive storage to you in the end. Also, using software like MediaBrowser or MyTV or MyMovies, they present one common front no matter where the content is being stored.

 

[DaveF]

[Note to self: Google "NAS" and see how it compares in cost and features to "Drobo"]


Drobo is pricey -- and I've got one at work -- but I like how you can toss any collection of hard drives in there, upgrading as needed to keep boosting the space. It will be interesting to look into this and see what offers the right balance of cost and simplicity.

 

[mattCR]

NAS is just Network Attached Storage. Anything that does networked harddrive is a NAS. Drobo is a NAS. It's a pretty spendy one though.

 

[John Dirk]

Thanks Matt


PM sent.

Originally Posted by mattCR




As you've probably figured out, playing the same BD converted to MKV is a bit easier But, if you can, run a Belarc scan (www.belarc.com) and attach it to a private message here. I can load it up and see what it looks like.

 

[DaveF]

I spent an hour playing with 7MC. First, it's great it comes with Win7. My recollection of XP was that MC was some separate thing that had to be bought separately or needed a new hardware purchase, or was in some Microsoftian way overly difficult to get.


So there it is, part of a standard Home Premium install. My initial impression -- using no more than the handful of demo material since I have nothing setup for Windows -- was positive. The interface is pretty clean, simple, and full-featured. The navigation left me a little puzzled at the end; it will take some time to understand it's "Back" and "Orb" buttons, and how it stacks operations and hops back to them.


I was wowed by the "Internet TV" section. That would eliminate the hassle temporarily hooking up a laptop to the living room system, finding a show on Hulu or CBS, and watching it (when Tivo fails me).

Integrated Music, as easily used as TV or Movies promises a better design than what I have. Tivo buries Music from my Mac several button clicks deep. Its Pandora is more easily found. And music from my Xbox works well, but requires the effort of powering up the 360, a hindrance.


I tired to configure my 360 as an Extender, to test that. But it wouldn't connect. Probably as a result of running Win7 in Parallels on my Mac; maybe due to it being behind a router / switch on my network. I tried to debug, but didn't want to invest the time since for just playing around.


Been doing some reading at AVS -- they've got stickies on HTPC setup -- and was reminded that 7MC lacks the Tivo-ability to capture the entire buffer when you record a show. That is, if a show is in the live buffer, say 15 minutes into it, and you hit the record button, Tivo would record the previous 15 minutes with the rest of the show. 7MC instead discards the 15 minutes prior to the record button press. That's a major oversight in a DVR, a weakness that will annoy my wife and me in the future. But I don't think it's big enough to overcome the potential benefits. (Someone posted some sort of Contra-esqe UP, UP, DOWN, DOWN, LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT, B, A, START button sequence to trick around that, but it seemed uselessly convoluted.)


I can envision such a system will require some experimentation to determine the right way to manage music and photos and videos, since I'm otherwise a Mac guy. But it should be manageable so long as everything is networked and uses formats usable on all platforms, and convertable for iPhone use.


So my initial impressions are positive. I'm still waiting for certain household things to come together to let me start this project, but I'll keep noodling on it and perhaps start building a shopping list this summer.

 

[mattCR]

Dave-


Thing of the Orb as the instant shortcut "Home" back to the root menu from anywhere, and back is exactly back one step.

You're right, though.. the XBOX can't connect through Parallels. I had to check on that; there are ways around it, but it's kind of a bitch

 

[DaveF]

Thanks for double checking that. I won't spend any more time on it, then. Repeated clicking of the orb bounced between different states. Maybe it toggles between home and current state? It didn't just go home and stop. I'm sure it would become clear quickly in real use. I wish video played smoothly in win7/parallels. I want to watch the animated Star Trek shows I found!

 

[mattCR]

The orb universally goes home. If you are home and you click the Orb, it goes to "Now Playing" (whatever is currently playing) It won't go anywhere else. Unless there is something weird going on in paralells


Yeah, MS keeps adding to it's own internet TV channels, and does a surprising job of adding some pretty slick stuff to it.. every so often you can find some treasures there.


Dave-


You might look at Remote Potato (I just put up a review) for some other "cool" things that you can do with MC. I admit, I tried this for a client today, just to check, and frankly, watching back TV I recorded the night before on my iPad at the office... surprising how good it was.

 

[DaveF]

Making me go slumming in the review sections. I never browser over there, so it took a bit to figure out where your review was


For anyone curious: http://www.hometheaterforum.com/products/remote-potato/reviews/2353

 

[mattCR]

Now, now.. I'm sure the ownership is glad to see you "slum" I'll try to start a thread on it soon.

 

[DaveF]

I've given my opinion that reviews and forums ought not be separated by the present chasm

 

[Mike Frezon]

That...and we track Dave's whereabouts VERY closely...

 

[DaveF]

Looks like I need a chasm, myself.

 

[mattCR]

Video Archiving laid out; this is how you keep your DVR recordings. Here, I'm using a Windows Home Server, but this shows how a broadcast can be saved, moved, and indexed pretty much forever. Pardon my crappy vocals. I'm working on that. I -ALMOST- slipped and gave away a beta at the end, but walked it back as best I could