Don't get me wrong. I am very greatful, MP is the best there is IMO. However, I don't like being called a cheapskate when thats obviously not the case. Your solution will cost a hell of a lot more than $25 by the time you add an Asus HDAV sound card to get proper HD audio using nVidia or buy a much more powerful ATI card.
1080i material not deinterlacing under 1.0.1.0 (2 Viewers)
- Thread starter Andrew H
- Start date
I agree with both Andrew H and KKzoma. We all very much appreciate the great great product, but I also get where KKzoma is coming from. By adding an extra video card, you're sacrificing a PCIE slot... which (in my case) is being used for a capture card (on the 780g board). Some may argue the TV server and client should be on separate computers, but up to this issue, there were no problems with this setup, in a condo sized home where you don't have the luxury of having space for multiple machines, and rely on compact sized slick look.
it's not a terrible issue... I still like MP and its features. Come fall though, I hope that this Software bug/issue can be resolved someway somehow, otherwise, I'll have to sacrifice the 1080i look to have the additional tuner or sacrifice the tuner and spend more money on a video card, (which, i hate to say it, but without testing it myself, maybe a waste of money if this doesn't resolve the issue to my satisfaction). Another option I will try is going Vista 64bit (4 gigs ram) using EVR. I've read there's a great chance it may help... (unfortunately my 2nd tuner is an Aver m780 that isn't supported in MP on a Vista system... so I'm pooched either way)
Again... thanks for the great work... really, this seems to be the only little issue that would make this software absolutely perfect.
it's not a terrible issue... I still like MP and its features. Come fall though, I hope that this Software bug/issue can be resolved someway somehow, otherwise, I'll have to sacrifice the 1080i look to have the additional tuner or sacrifice the tuner and spend more money on a video card, (which, i hate to say it, but without testing it myself, maybe a waste of money if this doesn't resolve the issue to my satisfaction). Another option I will try is going Vista 64bit (4 gigs ram) using EVR. I've read there's a great chance it may help... (unfortunately my 2nd tuner is an Aver m780 that isn't supported in MP on a Vista system... so I'm pooched either way)
Again... thanks for the great work... really, this seems to be the only little issue that would make this software absolutely perfect.
OSD, menus etc. are still available in fullscreen, so such switching is not possible.
You can always use the external players on the low end PCs (of course you will loose some nice things like OSD and good integration to the frontend).
If you check for example 9500 / 8600 is not that costy anymore, less than 1TB hard drive that you are using for the pirated movies
Like Andrew_H and kkozma, I really like MP - I've tried some of the alternatives, and MP is overall head-and-shoulders better - and cost isn't a big factor in my HTPC hardware choices, but case size, heat and noise are.....in my system a low-profile 9500GT was the most powerful card I could fit within the space and power supply restrictions - fortunately it's good enough to cope with running MP with 1080i HD content.
I've spent the last 30 years designing electronics hardware for a living, so I'm fully aware of the compromises that have to be made in any design/development project - I don't have the software skills or dev tools to be able to directly contribute to the project, but (in the spirit of open-source) I support MP by donating and contributing to the support forum when I can.
And no, I don't have any pirated movies on my HTPC hard disk - it's mostly full of my own HD camcorder footage and recorded TV
So keep up the good work
Tony
@ Andrew:
@ MP Develpers:
Maybe we can add a check box in configuration.exe where we can just disable that future... (I know that this will be difficult, but you are frightening off users with old hardware)
I'm not using the 6200 any more. I have now a ATI Sapphire X1600 Pro 256mb. I have to buy a AGP card. What card would you suggest? But first I will stay as long as possible with 1.0.0.
@ MP Develpers:
Maybe we can add a check box in configuration.exe where we can just disable that future... (I know that this will be difficult, but you are frightening off users with old hardware)
Unfortunately that would require more extra effort that just adding such setting, please see some of my older postings in this topic. So unfortunately such setting wont be available.
- July 1, 2007
- 274
- 77
- Home Country
-
New Zealand
When I bought my "cheap" video card it cost about $100. We ain't all on 6-figure income streams! What with the recession, & all.
I agree with others, you devs & all contributing to the software side of MP do a wonderful job. However, you expect people to continue, or to start, donating when your next move may force further, unknown hardware upgrades? What's next: deciding to add "methodology" that forces MP users to upgrade to a quad CPU?
If my tone sounds agressive: you're danged right. I finally had a great, stable, working system, running the perfect front-end, that did everything I wanted & one that looked great & now I find I'm being forced into a situation I don't want, or like.
I was going to continue to redonate, over time, but now I can't risk doing that, knowing the next upgrade may require me to throw away MP for another front-end.
- Thread starter
- #87
1gkar -- WOW... you are a purist! I see you have an 8500 and assume it's performing well.... yes? Yet you're chiming in on this. On the other hand, I'm pleased to know that for $25 (ok, so I spent $40 believing I'll actually receive the MIR) I can continue using MP without much interruption. For those on a more limited budget they can revert to using an external player! The .ts files, DVDs, etc are still playable under their current systems. I prefer to remain intergrated and since the developers have spent so much time refining the TSreader.ax to do searches/skips better I'm happy to pay a complement to these guys! I fully believe their intent is to develop a really strong application... our feedback keeps them straight and abreast of issues we're experiencing. Let's remain positive... there are options
weissollo -- the 1600Pro rates in the 90 fps... and you're having problems? Do you find WMP or MPC-HC plays seemlessly and it's JUST MP 1.0.1 / 1.0.2 giving you issue? I see you're running a 2800+ Sempron... How's your CPU usage? Why are you not at SP3 & how much RAM on your mobo? Have you run the Video Stability Test for a benchmark?
weissollo -- the 1600Pro rates in the 90 fps... and you're having problems? Do you find WMP or MPC-HC plays seemlessly and it's JUST MP 1.0.1 / 1.0.2 giving you issue? I see you're running a 2800+ Sempron... How's your CPU usage? Why are you not at SP3 & how much RAM on your mobo? Have you run the Video Stability Test for a benchmark?
- July 1, 2007
- 274
- 77
- Home Country
-
New Zealand
@1gkar --
If you had read my initial post (#70) in this thread, you would see my system does work perfectly; on every version, except the latest two. That's why I am "chiming in on this". If the devs aren't made totally aware of how disgruntled users could become, then, putting aside all the rhetoric positivity, future upgrades may be further compromised, in terms of hardware compatibility. I would hope, in the very least, this discussion has shown that if people's sytems are going to be limited, it may make for a more transparent decision-making process about which way to proceed for future MP features
If I wanted to use a player that required keyboard useage, I probably wouldn't use a front-end to begin with. My requirements dictate I use a remote for FULL front-end control; & that includes playback. The only way to fully utilise an external player is configuring a programme like HIP, or Event-Ghost & they all seem to have compatibility issues when taking the entire system into account.
I have never doubted that, & as I have before, numerous times, they do a fantastic job. My only criticism is that forcing people into this situation will amount to a percentage of users abandoning this great programme. Besides, I have never seen a reason given as to why it was NECESSARY to include this extra "methodology" putting apparent extra loading on the video cards' GPU. What benefits will arise from this?
Maybe I have missed it in the tech-speak. as someone who is totally ignorant of programming, coding & all things software, this is easily possible (I am not in the industry, never have been, & am totally self-taught. Consequently, there are gaps in my knowledge).
I further realise this may simply be an issue related directly to H.264 MPEG4 HDTV broadcasts & most MP devs are probably not in countries that use that transmission method?
As non-technical explanation: To reduce/cure flickering that Vista / ATI users are seeing (as ATI has crappy drivers).
Semi-technical explanation: DirectX has been previously used wrong (surffaces directly).
Technical: Please see SVN changes.
Now, please stop the off topic posting and nagging. Few more nagging posts and I'll stop coding on my free time. Period.
Go. Figure where your catch-22 is...
Almost all our decisions are transparent (at least for the more tech savvy users). Like a company we are forced to unpopular decisions if helps the "greater goal". At some point we could also decide to drop XP and Vista support in favor of Windows 7 if e.g. code quality and stability demands that step. Of course many users would be disappointed (as linux users are today) but please note:
The only decisions that are made based on "loud feedback" are those to step back from contributing.
If someone feels the need to vent off some hot air please just drop me a PM - I cannot promise to read it but writing alone might already help
All further posts here refer to the topic please!
In fact many MP team members (not just devs) are able to receive h.264 content.
Here again my experiences:
- Nvidia 8200: too weak for 1080i deinterlacing, sometimes even struggling on 576i if output resolution is 1080p (720p is always fine). Therefore everything below (like NV 7050, etc) will surely not do proper 1080i.
- AMD 780G: with Athlon X2 it manages to do _some_ 1080i content properly - seems to be right on the edge. No problems with any Phenom (HT3 CPU). If there's stuttering, you might be able to workaround it with CoreAVC, another version of PDVD codecs or live with Bob deinterlacing.
- Nvidia 9400: Unfortunately comes at a price - especially since you need a more expensive Intel CPU as well but it was the first onboard GPU which was playing everything nicely with FullHD output. Still no Bitstream HD-Audio output via HDMI though and therefore not yet the "perfect" HTPC solution.
Another note: Several team members confirmed that a nicely working rig with PDVD codecs might just fail to do proper deinterlacing at some point (not related to a specific time frame). We didn't find out the true cause of it yet but guess it's cyberlink's fault. Rebooting the machine cures that situation.