XBMC - DXVA/PVR On The Horizon

I have always been a fan of XBMC and really feel like with the last few updates it is moving in the right direction. So you may be asking, why don't I use it as my frontend for my HTPCs? The two big reasons were XBMC did not support DXVA in Windows and it does not support PVR functionality. You can actually get DXVA working with Windows by using a new DirectShow based internal player called DSPlayer, but I would like to see support for the default XBMC player. Well, it looks like soon enough both of my reasons my be answered. The XBMC blog just posted about some future features, and here is what they had to say:

• DXVA2: Elupus has already added the initial code for gpu offloading in Windows (Vista/7 only). Not to be confused with DSPlayer below.
• DSPlayer: A new DirectShow based internal player from tiben (Windows only) that also provides GPU acceleration. See the forum thread for more info.
• CrystalHD: Davilla is still hard at work on the Broadcom hardware decoder. Watch the current status here. For those who haven’t yet taken the plunge, Logic Supply is now offering $10 off to XBMC users, just use the code: “XBMC10″.
• AC3 Encoding: An often requested feature. Thanks to gnif, realtime transcoding will soon be available.
• HTTP Server: The crusty old web server is soon to be ripped out in favor of a much more interactive JSON-RPC one. Check out topfs2’s informative post. Watch for a web-interface contest!
• Addons Manager: Even better than it sounds. Will allow an easy way to manage addons, including among other things, PVR backends.
• PVR Frontend: Probably the most requested feature for XBMC. This will provide a unified experience to your choice of PVR backends such as: VDR, MythTV, Tvheadend, and MediaPortal TVserver.

I am definitely excited to see that DXVA is on the horizon. As for PVR, it is hard to say since you will need to rely on other software's "PVR". I can't really comment on this yet since I have no idea how it would interact with XBMC. It is definitely a step in the right direction but not quite what I would call the "All In One" solution I had hoped for. If PVR integration does go seamless then XBMC will truly be a force to be reckoned with and could serve up quite the competition, especially for the media center platforms that are not free (such as SageTV).

You can read the full XBMC blog here.

Win7DSFilterTweaker - Now With Disabling!

Probably one of the more popular posts on my blog is setting up codecs in Windows 7. There was hope that once Windows 7 came out codecs would be a thing of the past. Although much progress was made unfortunately we are still left to deal with codecs. In my Windows 7 codec guide I mention disabling Windows Media Foundation and Microsoft DTV-DVD Audio Decoder by taking ownership of the dll files and renaming. Well, I just noticed recently that the latest version of Win7DSFilterTweaker will actually do this for you! If you take a look at the screenshot below you can see that options have been added to disable. This really does make things a lot easier, as now you just have to register a few files, run through Win7DSFilterTweaker, and you should be off to the races. In the next few days I will revisit the Windows 7 codec guide and update where necessary. You can get the latest Win7DSFilterTweaker here.

PCH A-200 Review Just Posted

Well, I have had a few days to play around with the PCH A-200, so got my thoughts together and posted my review. For the most part the A-200 performed in line with my expectations as a C-200 owner. I did encounter what I would consider two significant issues with audio though:

- Audio dropouts when playing a movie with TrueHD (dropouts occur every 5-10 seconds)
- Inconsistent results with bitstreaming HD Audio from ISO/BDMV structure (only 1 out of 4 different movies currently bitstreamed)

I know other people have experienced similar issues as well, so hopefully this gets treated seriously by Syabas and is addressed very quickly through a firmware update.

You can read up on my full review here:

http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2010/02/04/review-popcorn-hour-a-200/

MakeMKV 1.4.12 Released - UPDATE

Yesterday I posted about the next release of MakeMKV which supported forced subtitles. I tested out briefly this morning before I left for work, and when I first loaded MakeMKV a popup appeared telling me that I had a 30 day evaluation of MakeMKV. After the 30 days was up an activiation key would need to be purchased. Although there is no official confirmation on the MakeMKV site, from digging around on the forum it appears that the one time fee will be USD 50.00.

http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2010/02/03/makemkv-1-4-12-released-pay-model-on-the-way/

How To Bitstream With MPC

About a week ago I posted that I had gotten full HD Audio bitstreaming with my HTPC. I finally had a few minutes to document the whole process. Funny enough, it was a lot easier then I expected, but I guess it is easier said then done as I did run into some bumps along the way. Overall I am very happy with my HTPC setup now as the lack of bitstreaming was the one feature that kept me using my PS3 for Blu Ray playback. I only had a chance to document setting up with MPC, but I hope to document how to set up with WMP/WMC as well. You can check out my guide here:

http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2010/02/02/guide-setting-up-bitstreaming-with-your-windows-7-htpc-part-i/

MakeMKV 1.4.12 Released

MakeMKV has just released version 1.4.12. The big update here is support for forced subtitles. When I get home I will test out on a few of my Blu Rays that have forced subtitles to see how well it works. Full list of changes below

MakeMKV v1.4.12

• Added support for AVCHD sources with recognition of camera metadata
• Corrected error when subtitles were missing with some blu-ray discs
• Added abilty to save only forced subtitles for blu-ray discs
• Miscellaneous stability and UI improvements

Using MPC As Your Default Player In Media Browser

Through my trials and tribulations of setting up bitstreaming with my HTPCs I had a chance to use MPC HC (Media Player Classic - Home Cinema) and quickly became impressed with how well it worked. What impressed me the most though was the ability to play back anything I threw at it without having to install one codec/filter. I utterly hate codecs/filters, so this was a welcome change. Well, I am happy to report that I now have MPC working with Media Browser with no effort, and the integration is seamless. I need to spend a little more time with it, but hopefully this will be the end to codecs/filters/hacks and I can spend more time just enjoying my movies!!!

You can read up on my guide here. I hope to get this working my MyMovies and once done will update the guide.