Need input from Seasoned MP users (1 Viewer)

[barryrod]

I hope this is posted in the right place.....If there is a better place I should post this, please point the way.

This is my first thread here, but have been reading these forums for a couple months now and now have a few questions.

I have myself a PC I built for MP. It is currently a P4 2.53ghz with 1gig of ram running XP Pro and MP 0.2.0.4.

Video card is a PNY Geforce 6200 AGP (Used Rivatuner to open the closed pipes) connected to HDTV with DVI-HDMI cable at 720p.

HDD is a 40gig (Most content is stored on a file server P3 1ghz with 512g mem)

I have an SD tuner card but was getting a severe migrane trying to get everything to work right with Directv so I took it out...I have DirectTivo already.

Now for the questions.....

1. I am currently just using the MP box for Photos, MP3s, and Videos but want to integrate OTA HDTV (USA) with a Vbox DTA-150. Will this work well for OTA HDTV? I have a 3.4ghz Northwood I can swap into the MP box if it will make a big difference. I have read a bunch about decoders and such but which will work best for this setup? I have Pure Video installed already.

2. As I said, I am using this for music and photos, but it takes a looong time to populate both of their respective directorys. Is there a way to make this much faster? Some kind of database setup or something? I am planning to upgrade everything to Gigabit soon but don't know how much that will help.

3. I have been ripping my DVD movies using Fairuse Wizard to store on the file server and watch using MP. I had been ripping in Divx and see that there is an option for X.264 codec (says it is H.264). Is H.264 a higher quality than Divx or Xvid? Can I watch movies I rip with this codec on MP?? If both answers are yes than what will I need to do to make it work?

That's it for now but may have more in the future. Thanks so much in advance.

Barry

 

[marshall]

For 1.: The Vbox DTA-150 is working great for me. There are a few channels that still only broadcast analog (or more correctly, they broadcast different things on their HD channels and I want to watch what they are broadcasting analog) and the analog portion continues to be a pain while the HDTV works great. I'm using the the MPV and MPA codecs for everything except DVDs.

For 2.: There are a few people working on the databases to speed these features up.

For 3.: No idea.

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

Is H.264 a higher quality than Divx or Xvid

yes, i use Nero Digital set at a Fit to 800mb filesize and against both my Xvid and Divx files of a similar size, there is a MAJOR clarity difference. the only problem is within MediaPortal Fast forward and rewind are a bit hit an miss. otherwise I love it.