New user moving from Windows Media Centre (2 Viewers)

[Skywizard]

I have not made a post for a few days because I have been playing with MePo. I now have a better understanding of the system and what is going on.
I have workout that the cover art of the music CDs. is because I ripped them to a folder that the database lookup does not recognise - I will use Media Slayer to reload all my CDs....

The same goes with the DVDs - the folder names are not recognised by the database look up - I will go through and rip those again.
I have been ripping Blu Ray to ISO but have not been getting audio - other DVDs are fine - so need to look at that, I have not yet put time into the plugin names and disabled ons still appearing...

The remote is working as it should - I will need to look a bit more at the programming of the button - there is a good Wiki help topic - in fact all the wiki help is very good.

The reason I was looking at importing the .WTV was it was mentioned in a post that it could be done.... It seems not.

I will look at the "My Video" options all in good time....

 

[Skywizard]

@Edalex is right about importing WTV files as recordings. Adding them to the videos section is easy; adding them as recordings is a completely different story.

The other thing I want to do is move the live TV buffer or whatever MP calls it on to a USB stick

I'd recommend caution with this approach. While USB sticks may have fast read access, the write access can be slower than a traditional HDD... and that can obviously have an impact on channel change times. Anecdotally, USB controllers also seem to have more issues (eg. bad controller drivers that have high or spiky DPC latency; bandwidth contention due to the number of connected devices and/or motherboard design) than traditional HDDs. If you don't want to use your SSD for timeshifting (which is understandable, though perhaps not as much of a concern as you might imagine) and you don't have enough RAM (memory) available to create a RAM disk, then I would probably recommend using a traditional HDD before I'd recommend a USB stick... but perhaps it's worth trying both and seeing real world results before deciding.

Notwithstanding what you have said about using a USB stick for timeshifting, I bought a fast USB 3 stick and connected it to a USB 3 port. All seems to be working fine. Then again I have not tried timeshifting on a HDD or SSD.....

I love the way it is so easy to specify where you want the timeshifting and other folders.

I now have my MP up and working in a functional way and I just need to resist tweaking this and that.

I have worked out the codecs and the Audio rendering. Blu-ray play (ripped ISOs). One annoy feature is the start menu for blu-ray - it starts with the directors commentary despite what menu choice I select - I have yet to figure that one out - I think it is something to do with the java menuing system used on the blu-ray.

I am using HDMI from my PC to the 4 or so year old 32" Sony TV. From the TV I am using optical to my Sonos PlayBar. When playing 5.1 capable disks should I be getting that sent through the TV optical to the play bar - when I look at the LAV status it shows only stereo channels - as far as I am aware I have configured to use 5.1. Does/would the TV be limiting the audio to stereo through the HDMI and the optical out?

On the whole I am very impressed with MP (working on win 10 pc) - well done.

 

[mm1352000]

Sounds like you're making good progress.

Notwithstanding what you have said...

Do what works for you.

One annoy feature is the start menu for blu-ray...

I have to pass on this, as I have no experience with Blu-Ray.

I am using HDMI from my PC to the 4 or so year old 32" Sony TV. From the TV I am using optical to my Sonos PlayBar. When playing 5.1 capable disks should I be getting that sent through the TV optical to the play bar - when I look at the LAV status it shows only stereo channels - as far as I am aware I have configured to use 5.1. Does/would the TV be limiting the audio to stereo through the HDMI and the optical out?

If I were you I would attempt to work this out in stages.
First thing I'd ensure is that you've selected a 5.1 track for playback.
Following that, I'd determine whether LAV and/or audio renderer were decoding the audio. Optical (S/PDIF) can definitely carry 5.1 audio... but AFAIK it has to be DD encoded. Wikipedia says S/PDIF can only carry 2 channels of PCM. In other words, I think if you want 5.1 audio from the PlayBar, you'd need to configure LAV and/or the audio renderer to bit-stream the 5.1 DolbyDigital (DD/AC3) audio.

 

[Lehmden]

Hi.
S/PDIF can carry DolbyDigital and DTS in 5.1. PCM only is in 2.0 I've used this for many years before I got a new AVR with HDMI last Christmas... For S/PDIF it's better to use AC3FIlter as it is better configurable than LAVF to your specific needs.
But as far as I know, most TV only can pass through from HDMI to Stereo. So I'm pretty sure this won't work as you tried it. You need to connect the PC directly to your Sonos with a S/PDIF cable (optical or coax depends on your hardware). If you want to have sound on TV only you need to switch Windows sound device, what you can do from inside MP as well.

 

[Skywizard]

I think I understand - Only stereo will come from the TV no matter the input. On the TV option for optical out I have 2 options - Auto and PCM so I guess auto would still be PCM as there is no other manual choice. So you are saying that PCM is only stereo.....

I did have the Sonos connected (optical) to the PC - the issue with that is if I use autoplay the Sonos "Switches" on and plays sound when it wakes up to do a recording in the middle of the night. If I don't use Auto Play then the Sonos Mutes when there is no input and I have to exit out of MP and open up Sonos and get the Play Bar to "Play" I can use an Android device but that too is a PITA..... the auto play is by far the better solution (there is no on/off switch on the Sonos system).

 

[Skywizard]

I wrote of using a USB stick for time shifting - I have now had two malfunctioning (Patriot USB 3 quad channel) USB sticks. The first one lasted about 3 weeks - it died by locking the stick to read only and nothing could be done to recover from that.

The second one died after less than a week - It is not recognised when I plug it in unless I go to device manager and search for new hardware - then I can see it in explorer but cannot do anything with it - I hope I can get this one replaced or refunded under warranty too as I did the first.

I used a Patriot USB stick as a live TV buffer on windows MC and did not have a problem.

I am now thinking of using a RAM disk for the TImeShifting buffer - I need to get some more RAM to add to the PC I hope I do not bugger up the RAM by using a RAM drive/disk. Has anybody had any experience with using a USB stick or RAM disk for a Timeshifting buffer?

 

[HTPCSourcer]

Has anybody had any experience with using a [..] RAM disk for a Timeshifting buffer?

This is very common and actually a good thing to do. Take a look at IMDISK.

 

[Helios61]

Has anybody had any experience with using a [..] RAM disk for a Timeshifting buffer?

This is very common and actually a good thing to do. Take a look at IMDISK.

Easy setup with ImDisk Toolkit -> Link

 

[Skywizard]

I bought some DDR 3 1333 4x4gig simms and the buggers are not compatible with my mobo (although that is what the specs say) - it is a few years old..... otherwise I have a total of 8 gigs and allowing about 2 gigs for win 10 - I guess I have a bout 6 for a timeshift buffer - does not seem like enough....

 

[Lehmden]

Hi.

does not seem like enough....

More than enough. You can pause Live HDTV for more than one hour or SDTV for more than two hours before you are running out of space.
I've used RAM disk with 3 GB size for some years without ever reach the limits of it. Now I have newer Hardware with more RAM (8GB total) and I'm using a dynamic RAM disk up to 5 GB (means the RAM only will be reserved for RAM disk when needed).