full HD capabilities in MediaPortal

[mkuron]

I'm looking at setting up a MediaPortal-based HTPC instead of buying a HD-capable DVR.
Since I'll be powering a 1080p LCD screen, I have a few questions about MediaPortal's HD capabilities:

- Does MediaPortal support MPEG4-encoded DVB-C TV (which is the standard for HD cable in Germany)?
- Does MediaPortal support recording TV content in HD?
- Does MediaPortal support HD content (e.g. pay-TV) that requires to be output through an HDCP-protected digital output?
- How well is MediaPortal able to upscale SD content to 1080p?
- Is MediaPortal able to automatically switch screen refresh rate depending on the video content played back (e.g. 50p when playing PAL video/DVD, 60p when playing NTSC video/DVD, 24p when playing Blu-ray/HD-DVD?
- How can I play DVDs from any region on MediaPortal (i.e. make it code-free)?
- Does MediaPortal allow me to manually set a delay on the audio to lip-sync it to the video? (I am just asking this because most new HD-DVD and Blu-ray players support this since it's a part of the HDMI 1.3 standard.)
- Is it possible yet to play back HD-DVDs / Blu-ray discs in MediaPortal? EDIT: Seems like somebody's working on integrating a software player by ArcSoft for HD-DVD and BD

What kind of graphics card would you recommend for all this?

[joystick]

- Does MediaPortal support MPEG4-encoded DVB-C TV (which is the standard for HD cable in Germany)?

Yes, but thats a question of the codec you use (you should use PowerDVD 7/or better Ultra for Blueray)

- Does MediaPortal support recording TV content in HD?

yes

- Does MediaPortal support HD content (e.g. pay-TV) that requires to be output through an HDCP-protected digital output?

If your Grafics -Adapter supports it, yes.

- How well is MediaPortal able to upscale SD content to 1080p?

That again is a question of the codec you use, and maybe some postprocessors. There are some people with high.-end systems that run e.g. PDVD as Codec plus ffdshow for postprocessing, and recieve great picture quality. There has been an article in the german "C't" about that also.

- Is MediaPortal able to automatically switch screen refresh rate depending on the video content played back (e.g. 50p when playing PAL video/DVD, 60p when playing NTSC video/DVD, 24p when playing Blu-ray/HD-DVD?

Not shure, but I guess this is a question of your grafics hardware aswell...

- How can I play DVDs from any region on MediaPortal (i.e. make it code-free)?

should be no problem

What kind of graphics card would you recommend for all this?

ATI HD 2600 Pro or HD 2600XT NOT 2900!!!



cheers

joystick

[mkuron]

Originally Posted by joystick

That again is a question of the codec you use, and maybe some postprocessors. There are some people with high.-end systems that run e.g. PDVD as Codec plus ffdshow for postprocessing, and recieve great picture quality. There has been an article in the german "C't" about that also.

Could you point me at some threads here in the forum where the usage of PowerDVD as codec and ffdshow for postprocessing is described?
Also, when was that article printed in c't (which issue+page)?

Originally Posted by joystick

ATI HD 2600 Pro or HD 2600XT NOT 2900!!!

Any reason for that specific recommendation?

[tourettes]

Originally Posted by mkuron

- Is MediaPortal able to automatically switch screen refresh rate depending on the video content played back (e.g. 50p when playing PAL video/DVD, 60p when playing NTSC video/DVD, 24p when playing Blu-ray/HD-DVD?

Mediaportal is not able to change the refresh rate but there is one plugin available that can do it (althou it has issues on many systems so it doesn't work for everyone).

[tourettes]

[quote=mkuron;203634]

Originally Posted by joystick

Could you point me at some threads here in the forum where the usage of PowerDVD as codec and ffdshow for postprocessing is described?
Also, when was that article printed in c't (which issue+page)?

Any reason for that specific recommendation?

ATI 2400/2600 series video cards have additional HW decoding support for some video formats. But if you are going to use ffdshow as a postprocessing filter then ALL HW video decoding is going to be disabled.

[mkuron]

Originally Posted by tourettes

Mediaportal is not able to change the refresh rate but there is one plugin available that can do it (althou it has issues on many systems so it doesn't work for everyone).

Is it Refresh Rate Control?

Originally Posted by tourettes

ATI 2400/2600 series video cards have additional HW decoding support for some video formats. But if you are going to use ffdshow as a postprocessing filter then ALL HW video decoding is going to be disabled.

Do I have any other choice than using ffdshow (thus disabling HW acceleration) if I want good upscaling?

[geov]

Hi All

I bought the ATI 2600 XT, awesome card for video playback..not so good for games. Just a question, which driver version should I use with the ATI card because I'm having screen freeze problems when I switch on hardware decoding when using InterVideo codec in MediaPortal.

[joystick]

Also, when was that article printed in c't (which issue+page)?

Have a look here:
http://www.heise.de/kiosk/archiv/ct/...ildverbesserer

cheers

joystick

[ThaClown]

Originally Posted by tourettes

ATI 2400/2600 series video cards have additional HW decoding support for some video formats. But if you are going to use ffdshow as a postprocessing filter then ALL HW video decoding is going to be disabled.

Really? So this could be the reason why some of my FullHD files dont play on my HD2400?
I use PowerDVD and FFDShow.... but Graphedit doesnt show FFDShow being use when playing FullHD.

[mkuron]

Originally Posted by joystick

http://www.heise.de/kiosk/archiv/ct/...ildverbesserer

Thanks! I'll take a look at that article. Luckily I am subscribed to c't and have the 06/2007 issue .