PowerDVD and SAF (1 Viewer)

[zicoz]

You still need PowerDVD or another BluRay program (WinDVD/Arcsoft TMT) to play back your full BR-disks.

You can use SAF and cyberlinks directshow codecs together.

Just install PowerDVD on any PC and copy videofilter folder (For PowerDVD9 it's under C:\Program Files\CyberLink\PowerDVD9\VideoFilter) and its content to any place on MP PC (ie. c:\Videofilter).

Call regedit and export HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\CyberLink from PowerDVD PC registry and import it on MP PC.

Finally call cmd and go to folder c:\Videofilter on MP PC (cd c:\Videofilter) and register both codecs:
regsvr32 cl264dec.ax
regsvr32 CLVsd.ax

Now you can select both codecs inside MP Configuration.

It works for me with PowerDVD8 and 9 and I can use SAF too (even reinstall without complaining).

I did not have to do the export/import in registry part. All I did was to regsvr32 cl264dec.ax and clvsd.ax and it seems to work.

 

[steve760]

Maybe I should install Coral WinDVD 9+ BR instead of PDVD, this seems like we fix the problem that way.

Zicoz, do you actually play your BR and HD through mediaportal, or are you calling up the external player, it seems as some are saying they play BR and HD with the mediaportal player using the codecs from an external player, maybe I am just missunderstanding a few posts?

Thanks for the info.

 

[zicoz]

To play your complete disks (with menus and extra material and all that stuff) You will need an extra software player, and as of today there are three options.

- Arcsoft TMT (the one I use)
- Cyberlink PowerDVD
- Coral WinDVD

I have my movies stored as ISO-files and when I tell MovingPictures to play one of them it mounts the ISO and Arcsoft TMT starts automatically in full-screen.

The internal player in MediaPortal can not play BR-disks or HDDVD disks.

 

[steve760]

Thanks for the reply, we are currently using pdvd9 on vista with mp installed, we play BD and HD without issue's, we just are starting with MP though, we were using Windows 7 with PDVD8 before, we could play BD and HD fine their as well, Windows 7 media center is great (still has a long ways to go though) though after trying MP I think we like the freedom and expandability of it more so and will most definitely stay with it.

We are currently just trying to figure out the best solutions for playing our media, codecs and such that should be used for the best playback experience, we have no concerns with hardware, our hardware can handle whatever we through at it, we Rip all of our normal DVD's to a folder on our windows home server (video_ts format) and then play them from their, we have no issue's with this, seems work fine with MP just added the folder to the Video section of MP and then browse the DVD's their (would be nice to have a separate DVD area though). We play BD and HD from disc only, at 50 gig each we dont want to take time to RIP them and take that much space up for movies, All of our music resides on the windows home server as well and we stream it from their also, we have used WinAmp for years and think this is about the most powerful player out their, also has the best GUI, so we have it installed and have it setup to use on a EVO touchscreen monitor atop our media tower, so we can use it if we want to really get technical when playing our music or if we want to make a play list fast, ect.

So any suggestions to better our experience just starting out with MP, Plugins or other we should have that may help with our setup. Any suggestions will be helpful, thanks.

I also should mention that we currently have WinDVD9+ Blu-Ray as well, we do not have it installed nor have we tested it with MP, we have tested it on our Vista Ultimate desktop, and it seems pretty nice, I know that I thought that regular DVD's looked better on it, this I think had to do with the upscaling features on it, regardless, looked pretty clean. So we might install this if it be a better solution than the PDVD9, I wonder if SAF would have the smae issues with it or not?

 

[dlthorpe]

Without regedit you can't use the h264 codec.

The quality of the new version is comparable to the one of the old one (PowerDVD 8). I use it only for HDTV and not for HD Movies (here I use SAF which plays back all of my movies).

Wow my post has come along

Slurm, another question if i may. Or to anyone feeling helpful...

Seeing as i purchased CoreAVC h264 codec does this mean for me that the aforementioned PowerDVD regedit trick is not required, seeing as im using CoreAVC instead?

In your opinion though is the PDVD h264 codec better than my CoreAVC? I dont really care if thats a "yes" even though I have paid for it. At the time I heard CoreAVC was the best so went for it.

Separately is WinDVD "blacklisted" software and thus SAF complains about that too? If not i dont mind switching to it instead of PDVD to get reinstalls of SAF working fine.

Also in my current setup I have not bothered to regsrv32 anything. I just followed the SAF install notes RE: getting the PDVD codec in place for the install to automatically handle. Am i missing something not doing the regsrv32?

Would be cool if the next SAF handled the regsrv32 or regedits for both PDVD cl264dec.ax and CLVsd.ax.

Thanks all,
D.

 

[steve760]

My questions above are to if WinDVD 9+ BR is Blacklisted software. I have looked for the actual list of blacklisted software, but have not found it, is it just these below?

*PowerDVD
*AC3 filter - can cause double audio decoding

or are arcsoft and windvd basicly the same as PDVD?

 

[zicoz]

So any suggestions to better our experience just starting out with MP, Plugins or other we should have that may help with our setup. Any suggestions will be helpful, thanks.

Well personally I am currently in the middle of creating a new "softwarebuild" for my HTPCs, and so far I've included these:


- Windows Vista Business (any should do, but I prefer Business because it has the ability to store network passwords. I belive Ultimate has this aswell) XP is probably good to. Install all updates.

- Drivers from motherboard manufacturer.

- Arcsoft TMT

- Daemon Tools (hopefullt I can change to VCD in this build)

At this point I run a disk backup using Seagate Diskwizard to save me alot of work when reinstalling.

- Install MediaPortal 1.0

- Install SAF codec pack regsvr32 Cyberlink Mpeg-2 and H.264 codec.

This is where the personal preferences comes in when customizing MediaPortal to you needs and likings. Personally I have chose to go with the StreamedMP skin. And the following plugins:

- Moving Pictures - For Movies
- TV-Series - For TV-Series
- Mvid DB - For Music Videos

And that's as far as I've come atm.

Also in my current setup I have not bothered to regsrv32 anything. I just followed the SAF install notes RE: getting the PDVD codec in place for the install to automatically handle. Am i missing something not doing the regsrv32?

Would be cool if the next SAF handled the regsrv32 or regedits for both PDVD cl264dec.ax and CLVsd.ax.

D.

As far as I know SAF install does not install the PDVD cl264dec.ax file so you'll have to manually regsvr32 that one.

 

[steve760]

You have any problems with Arcsoft TMT being installed with SAF? Does Arcsoft TMT have the Divx codec included with its package, as i have found that WinDVD9 Plus BluRay does install the Divx codec as PDVD does.

Sucks, I really like the new cinema layout of PDVD9 and I only need it to play BR and HD "disc's"

is there a way to get rid of the divx codec that is installed with PDVD?

Thanks for the reply's.

 

[steve760]

Is the main reason that pdvd is blacklisted and causes problems is the divx codec right? So can we just remove the divx codec from pdvd and then we should be ok, right. If so what is the name of that divx codec?

Thanks for the help.

I believe that it is DXdec.ax if i am not mistaking, also pdvd installs an aac filter and this would need be removed as well right?

 

[dlthorpe]

Either this forum isnt as busy as i thought or this is not that common an issue hehe.

I personally dont care what external player i use for Blu-Ray or HD-DVD as long as it does just that, and doesnt mess with SAF / codecs badly.

/me hoping for someone to fly in and give us a solution!

Thanks,
D.