MePo strikes back... (1 Viewer)

Uli123

New Member
October 21, 2012
2
2
Home Country
Germany Germany
Hi, during xmas holidays (last year...) I decided not to use my old media pc case any more and to build up a new media solution for my living room. Encouraged by several optimistic voices and my love for linux systems I decided to buy a PI2 and to use OSMC on it.

Well, days of work later, alarming discussions with my wife and never ending frustration about not working things, poooor performance in TV module (channel switch takes 10 sec. if it works...) and random crashes with damaged file system I decided to stop this and to give MP(1) a second chance.

Here for illustration my aborted PI2 solution:
- PI2 with 2A power supply
- Technotrend USB 4600 external DVB-S2 Tuner
- 2 GB external drive
- Amazon 10x USB Hub with external power
- WIFI USB Stick

Now, in just 1 day (ok, I call myself a quite experienced MP user (10 years of using it)) I'm again total happy and also my wife

Here's my setup:
- Intel NUC 3700 pc (costy (165€) but very small and nice finish)
- 8 GB Ram (26€)
- old 64gb ssd
- same USB tuner and external disc like with the PI2
- Windows 10 Home (fresh install and was able to activate with my old win7 home licence , for this you must make it at least to build 1511). Attention: Intel NUC solutions only support USB 3.0 thus no usb keyboard/mouse during install of win7(!). fixing this is a medium headache, google for it!
- Reduced fan minimum speed to 20% (normally no noise at all)

HIPHIPHORRAY for MP, BIG thanks to all developers and supporters!!!!!

Looking forward to many happy years using MP and successors!

Ulrich
 

Helios61

Retired Team Member
  • Premium Supporter
  • January 30, 2008
    4,587
    873
    62
    NRW
    Home Country
    Germany Germany
    Hi @Uli123 , i like these small boxes, but unfortunately N3xxx cpus aren't able to passthrough HD Audio (DTS-HD, True-HD...) with Windows OS. It is working fine with Openelec. Intel is still working on newe drivers to solve this issue (since july 2015 :() -> Link
     

    Uli123

    New Member
    October 21, 2012
    2
    2
    Home Country
    Germany Germany
    Hi Helios61 and MePo Community,

    you are right, after some month I also realize that my litte NUC 3700 lacks of bitstreaming support for HD signals :-( Following the thread on the official intel forum I do not think, that there will be a solution in future for this piece of hardware. Since I am not sure, if i3 NUCs will support bitstreaming (ie. NUC 5i3RYK) and also my surrounding devices like LG flat TV and old but genious Harman AVR 330 receiver will support HD streaming, I now think about using as much as possible software intelligence (hence: Mediaportal and codecs) to allow watching DTS-HD movies etc.

    So, my idea is to convert (PCM wise) HD signals to multichannel PCM (5.1) and hopefully my TV (via HDMI ARC) will route digital audio in DTS or Dolby quality (no ..HD) to my ancient receiver.

    Cabling is: NUC connected via HDMI to LG TV, LG TV connected via Digital Out (Toslink) to AV Receiver (ARC functionality). I know this is not a contemporary setup, but I'm trying to get the best out of it.

    Now, saying this my idea is that MP will convert ANY media format (DTS, Dolby, DTS HD, Stereo,...) to PCM (either multichannel or stereo, depending on source format) and not to bypass it and then NUC sends PCM signal to TV and TV will ARC it to Harman Receiver. Stupid? Impossible?

    However, I am a bit confused regarding SW components (FFDShow,...) and configuration. Maybe someone can give me some hints on it.

    Kind regards and thank you very much for your ideas,
    Ulrich
     

    Lehmden

    Retired Team Member
  • Premium Supporter
  • December 17, 2010
    12,553
    3,934
    Lehmden
    Home Country
    Germany Germany
    Hi.
    I had an older Yamaha AVR for a very long time. It also only has Toslink and wasn't able to playback HD formats. And if it only is because Toslink can not transport them...

    I have used a different solution. I've invested 25€ in an astonishing good USB sound card with toslink output and connected this directly to the AVR. Sound was significant better this way, especially on DTS and DolbyDigital sounds. You can set up LAVF to bitstream DTS and DolbyDigital but "downscale" DTS-HD and DolbyTrueHD to DTS/DD... If I don't want to use the AVR I still have the HDMI connection to my TV. There is (was?) a plugin to switch the audio output between HDMI and Toslink with a hotkey from inside MP1...

    But since some time I have a new, cheap (below 200€) Panasonic AVR with HDMI and Network connections (my i5 can bitstream HD formats for sure). This outperforms the more expensive (500€) but much older Yamaha AVR with ease. Especially the network capabilities are genius. Never want to miss this again as it offers a whole new world of possibilities.
     

    Users who are viewing this thread

    Top Bottom