Software choices for an HTPC build?

[Xuestor]

Hey!

Didn't really know where to post this topic, so feel free to move it to a better place.

I'm currently planning a htpc build, and are pretty clear on what parts to use. What Im not sure about yet, is what software to run. With the experience I have, I'll say that the right software is just about as important as good parts.

So, Im planning on using win 7. What codecs/players/programs will be best to run all of my xvid/divx/mkv files smoothly?

I really do prefer WMP for pretty much everything exept I use VLC for .img files (which is impossible to play straight into WMP as far as I know?).

Anyone have suggestions for a good setup?

[Michael Sandstrom]

You should avoid codec packs. Instead install FFDShow Tryouts and the Haali Media Splitter. FFDShow provides DirectShow filters and will enable Windows Media Player to handle almost any format. Some people also install Real Alternative and Quicktime Alternative. I prefer to convert Real and Quicktime files using the Super encoder. The Super encoder emplpys FFDShow Tryouts and the Haali splitter for DirectShow conversions. Sometimes I will use one of the Pazera encoders (FLV, MP4, etc.) if needed. I also use Handbrake.

[Jay_S]

So, Im planning on using win 7. What codecs/players/programs will be best to run all of my xvid/divx/mkv files smoothly?

I really do prefer WMP for pretty much everything exept I use VLC for .img files (which is impossible to play straight into WMP as far as I know?).

IMO, hardware and software should be selected together. For example, MPC-HC's built-in decoders enable DXVA for VC-1 decoding using AMD/ATI GPU's - but not with Nvidia GPU's. Had I known I'd be dealing with so much VC-1 content (way more Blu-rays feature VC-1 streams than I ever imagined), I would have picked an AMD GPU.

I evaluated Windows 7 RC1 x64 for a few weeks for use on my HTPC. I never got around to even using Media Center because 1) it made doing everything I need to do more difficult, from MKV playback to sharing folders with my XP boxes, and 2) I could not get my transcoding software package of choice - MeGUI - to work reliably. In the end, I was reminded of the simple maxim: never "fix" a working system. I'm sticking with XP for now.

I believe that the majority of my issues were related to picking the 64-bit version of Win7. This was my first experience with a 64-bit windows OS, and I've learned (from my experience and from reading discussions over at avsforum.com) that there's really no reason to use 64-bit for a HTPC. The x64 version includes 32 and 64 bit versions of Media Player (though Media Center is 64-bit only), so installing codecs can be a chore (you can't mix and match 32 & 64 bit codecs). I think this is also why MeGUI freaked out all the time (it needs to use 32-bit versions of everything: Haali x86, avisynth x86, etc.).

Windows 7 Media Center and Media Player have built-in Media Foundation mpeg2 and h264 decoders that can supposedly take advantage of your GPU to accelerate decoding. These decoders have a higher merit/priority than DX decoders, meaning Media Player and Media Center will pick them over DX decoders/filters without some hacking on your part. Graphedit (DX only) is useless for figuring out which filters Media Center uses. You can override the default decoder preference through registry hacks, or using the much easierWindows 7 preferred filter tweaker (which was a godsend for me).

All of my rips from DVD's, Blu-ray's and HD-DVD's are remuxed into MKV containers. Out of the box, Win7 does not know what to do with MKV's. So you will have to install the Haali/Matroska splitter before Media Player will be able to open them.

I have transcoded all of my DVD rips to h264. About 75% of my Blu-ray rips have native h264 streams, as are a few of my HD-DVD rips. The Win 7 built-in decoders can supposedly take advantage of your GPU to accelerate h264 decoding. Playing 1080p non-transcoded (~20-24 Mb/s) h264 rips, I saw CPU usage in the mid 20% range (using an AMD 5050e with a PCIe geforce 9500GT). While this is a lot higher than in WinXP using the standalone MPC-HC decoder (1-2% CPU), it still looks like at least some part of the decode process is being offloaded to the GPU.

The rest of my HD rips contain VC-1 video streams. Win7 RC1 and (I've read) RTM do not include built-in decoders/filters that offload VC-1 decoding to the GPU. My experience confirms this, as 1080p non-transcoded VC-1 content consumes 80-90% of my CPU's resources. I find it completely rediculous that MS doesn't include a GPU-accelerated VC-1 decoder (the codec they promoted like crazy a few years ago), but does include an accelerated h264 decoder! If you want/need GPU-accelerated VC-1 decoding, I don't know what will do it.

Finally, since I own a lot of HD-DVD's, I have to stay with PowerDVD 7 (because later versions removed HD-DVD playback). I didn't try PowerDVD on Win7 RC1 x64, but it does do DXVA VC-1 decoding Windows XP.

In the end, I'm avoiding Windows 7 for now. Maybe by October 3rd-party devs will have solutions or work-arounds for all of my issues.