HTPC Build - Antec Fusion 430 (Black)

[armandp]

Nice! that link will go into my blog... might postpone my upgrade to august then - those x3 low power cpu's seem ideal

[Smitty2k1]

I just put together a similar setup:

HARDWARE:
Antec Fusion 430 Black
Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H
AMD X2 5400+ 2.8GHz 65W
2GB DDR2-800 Dual Channel Memory
IDE HDD
SATA Blu-Ray Drive
Digital Receiver - Panasonic xr55 (Digital Optical)
Westinghouse 42" 1080p LCD TV (VGA Connection, HDMI is hit or miss)
Harmony 880 Remote
Logitech DiNovo Edge Keyboard

SOFTWARE:
Vista x32 SP0 (I don't see the reason to update)
Media Portal 1.0 RC1 (No plugins, not used for TV just movies and music)
Haali Meedia Splitter
MPC Video Decoder
AC3Filter

DRIVERS:
Gigabyte LAN drivers
Catylist 8.5
Realtek 1.95 Audio
iMON (Most recent update from iMON not Antec)

Everything seems to work well, all video and audio files play. I get DD/DTS from my VIDEO_TS rips, and XVIDs that have AC3 audio. However, my x264 (MKV) and h264 files will not pass through DD5.1. They only play 2 channel PCM. I know for a fact they have DD5.1 because it used to work on Vista Media Center.

Any suggestions?

Next up is getting the remote to work better!

Thanks for all the wonderful info in this thread.

[armandp]

i recommend using GraphEdit to see which codecs are used when you are playing the x/h264 media before we look any further

[Smitty2k1]

Here are 4 graphedit screenshots. x264, h264, xvid and divx. I just opened the files using the graphedit menu. Is there some way I need to specify that Media Portal is playing back the file?

Also, when I open the x264 file Graph Edit gives this error: "Some of the streams in this movie are in an unsupported format" The h264 file gives no such error, but still produces no dd/dts passthrough, just 2 channel. The xvid and divx give no errors and play back with dd/dts.

DVDs ripped to the HDD play with dd/dts.


Side question:
I followed the guid linked to in your first post to get the harmony series of remotes working with the antec 430/iMON. The remote works flawlessly (well there is one thing but I'm afraid to mess with it and its not a big deal). The PROBLEM is the LCD on the case. It is frozen to what was showing when the IR Blaster Suite was installed. Restarting the computer does not change it. The IR still works perfectly. How do I regain control of this LCD? I don't care if it does anything as long as it can at least default to show the time.

Thanks for your help on these questions!
I'm almost there... HTPC bliss!

[armandp]

LCD issue:

Try powering down the HTPC, unplug the power cable or switch the PSU completely off.. the LCD should go black now.. to regain control you can usethe IMON display software or you can install the latest CybrDisplay Plugin and run a test in it's configuration (for more detailed information look at the Cyberdisplay topic).

GRAPH:
i don't know for sure but why is it using two audio decoders on the x264 one ?
It first uses MPA and then connects to AC3Filter.. I think this is what's causing the loss of dd/dts.
If you look at the divx graph it's connected directly to AC3Filter.. Maybe the Haali splitter is overriding something?

[Swooosh]

which software do you use for the display? i need it for mediaportal and maybe winamp
afaik theres the little program delivered on cd, imon and the cyberdisplayplugin
i dont have a fitting remote, only the wintv-remote if its important

edit: would be cool if the htpc would display the time and stats when not playing a file/off

[armandp]

I suggest you take a look at the CyberDisplay Plugin thread

[Smitty2k1]

Originally Posted by armandp

GRAPH:
i don't know for sure but why is it using two audio decoders on the x264 one ?
It first uses MPA and then connects to AC3Filter.. I think this is what's causing the loss of dd/dts.
If you look at the divx graph it's connected directly to AC3Filter.. Maybe the Haali splitter is overriding something?

Hmm I'm pretty stumped. I showed the video setup from media portal too, I don't know what else to change??
As far as the dual audio codecs I'd agree that is the problem. But why does x264 give an error while h264 does not? The decoder chain is the exact same for both. Neither give the DD/DTS output I'm looking for, but at least h264 doesn't give an error in GraphEdit.

[armandp]

How is AC3Filter configured?

[Justchill]

Try another codec for x.264 like coreavc..