H.264 support in Windows 7: native and out-of-the-box

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Reply # 175721 4-Nov-2008 14:41

RickD: So will Vista Media Center get an H.264 update anytime after it was left out of the TV Pack 2008?

Or do we have to wait for (AND BUY) Windows 7 to get Freeview DVB-T support in Media Center?

Integrated Blu-Ray would be nice also - launching a 3rd party application for playback is lame.

I think this fairly well confirms that we will not see H.264 support in Vista however you never know..

I don't think there will be intergrated blu ray playback in Windows 7. They talk about support for blu ray data rather then blu ray movies from what I can see.
Also I can well imagine the quality we would see out of a player even if they did do one. Think TMT will be keeping me going for a couple of years yet at least. Also Arcsoft release updates on a reasonabley regular basis. MS cannot compete with that they are just too big...

Media centre PC - Case Silverstone LC16M with 2 X 80mm AcoustiFan DustPROOF, MOBO Gigabyte MA785GT-UD3H, CPU AMD X2 240 under volted, RAM 4 Gig DDR3 1033, HDD 120Gig System/512Gig data, Tuners 2 X Hauppauge HVR-3000, 1 X HVR-2200, Video Palit GT 220, Sound Realtek 886A HD (onboard), Optical LiteOn DH-401S Blue-ray using TotalMedia Theatre Power Corsair VX Series, 450W ATX PSU OS Windows 7 x64

euanandrews

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Reply # 175729 4-Nov-2008 15:01

A good read.

I notice the article says all the features in the TV Pack are included in Windows 7...coupled with native H.264 support, does this mean the Windows 7 MC will finally accomplish everything we require here in New Zealand?

Hence native support for:
- Freeview HD/H.264
- DVB-T
- DVB-S
- New Zealand EPG

If so...thats worth the upgrade itself.

If they could go a step further and include support for the following, they then would have caught up to the others, overtaken in fact (given MC is much more ascetically pleasing, stable, and well supported than the others)
- Multiple tuners
- Server/client

madad

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Reply # 175731 4-Nov-2008 15:14

From what I've seen so far, that's exactly what you can expect from windows 7. I have personally managed to tune local channels using an HVR2200 (twin tuner DVB-T card), altho there's heaps of bugs still.
Combine that with the h264 being deployed in the next update of media center for xbox360 and you have a compelling client server architecture.
This truly is the time I have been waiting for where I can finally get rid of all my media pcs and push HD roun dmy house to extenders/xboxs.
[Hopefully.] :)

Nety

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Reply # 175812 4-Nov-2008 18:47

TheBartender:
If they could go a step further and include support for the following, they then would have caught up to the others, overtaken in fact (given MC is much more ascetically pleasing, stable, and well supported than the others)
- Multiple tuners

TV pack gives multiple tuners but still does not give the ablitly to record more then one thing of the one mux using one turner.. now that would be nice.

euanandrews

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Reply # 175841 4-Nov-2008 19:47

Nety: TV pack gives multiple tuners but still does not give the ablitly to record more then one thing of the one mux using one tuner.. now that would be nice.

Including allowing different types of tuners?
ie. DVB-S & DVB-T....so could I enable all 4 tuners on my Blackgold BGT3540?

And different model tuners?
ie. Nova T 500 & HVR 2200

Nety

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Reply # 175989 5-Nov-2008 08:06

TheBartender:
Nety: TV pack gives multiple tuners but still does not give the ablitly to record more then one thing of the one mux using one tuner.. now that would be nice.

Including allowing different types of tuners?
ie. DVB-S & DVB-T....so could I enable all 4 tuners on my Blackgold BGT3540?

And different model tuners?
ie. Nova T 500 & HVR 2200

Yes to all the above...

...Prior to TV Pack, a Vista Ultimate Media Center system could support two tuners of three different types. TV Pack increases the limit to four tuners per tuner type.....

RickD

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Reply # 176056 5-Nov-2008 11:50

Does Windows 7 Media Center support sound for Freeview DVB-T in the beta?

Hmm was thinking of trying the beta using VMWare but I don't think the guest OS can access PCI devices, wonder if any USB DVB-T tuners are supported.

RickD

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Reply # 176062 5-Nov-2008 12:00

Think TMT will be keeping me going for a couple of years yet at least. Also Arcsoft release updates on a reasonabley regular basis. MS cannot compete with that they are just too big...

Bit off topic but... what do you think of TMT vs PowerDVD 8? Have you played a .mkv file with TMT? And what is the VMC integration like, does it launch the app/minimise VMC when it plays like PowerDVD?

euanandrews

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Reply # 176080 5-Nov-2008 12:52

Nety:
TheBartender:
Nety: TV pack gives multiple tuners but still does not give the ablitly to record more then one thing of the one mux using one tuner.. now that would be nice.

Including allowing different types of tuners?
ie. DVB-S & DVB-T....so could I enable all 4 tuners on my Blackgold BGT3540?

And different model tuners?
ie. Nova T 500 & HVR 2200

Yes to all the above...

...Prior to TV Pack, a Vista Ultimate Media Center system could support two tuners of three different types. TV Pack increases the limit to four tuners per tuner type.....

Ummm....I can read that quotation 2 ways...

I was of the understanding that previously, Media Center only allowed 2 tuners, and that those 2 tuners had to be of the same signal type (eg. DVB-S, DVB-T) and also of the same model card (eg. PVR150)...

Previously:
2 maximum tuners, could be chosen like so:
- DVB-S + DVB-S or
- DVB-T + DVB-T or
- Analogue + Analogue
And also the model of tuner had to be the same like so:
- PVR 150 + PVR 150 (if using cards with single tuners)
etc

Hence, 2 tuners, of 3 different types (as above)

So, how that statement can be read, is the updated Media Center will now allow up to 4 tuners, but to the same configuration rules as above apply:
eg.
DVB-S + DVB-S + DVB-S + DVB-S

What I am asking, and I am not sure if your information clarifies properly, is will the updated Media Center allow 'a mix' of tuner types and models:
eg.
DVB-S + DVB-S + DVB-T + DVB-T

And, that mix could come from different model cards:
eg.
PVR2200 + Nova T 500

Mattv

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Reply # 176102 5-Nov-2008 13:51

TheBartender: What I am asking, and I am not sure if your information clarifies properly, is will the updated Media Center allow 'a mix' of tuner types and models:
eg.
DVB-S + DVB-S + DVB-T + DVB-T

And, that mix could come from different model cards:
eg.
PVR2200 + Nova T 500

Am currently running Vista Ultimate with TV Pack. I assume W7MC will be the same.

Tuners I have running are DVB-S + DVB-S (BGT3540) + DVB-T (actually DVB-S thru Nova -S but using DVBSBridge) + Analogue + Analogue (HVR2200) + Analogue (PVR150MCE). So 2 + 1 + 3 I could probably take out the 150 and use the 2 2200 analogue tuners instead but will leave it there for prime UHF when I get around to trying DVB-T with Windows 7.

waldoverkill

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Reply # 176562 7-Nov-2008 11:07

I have had a quick play with Windows 7 and Freeview and I am getting excited....

Freeview HD works along with Analogue on the same guide.

Freeview Satellite works and allows you to grab the Sky guide and apply it to your normal channels.

AAC sound on Freeview works fine, it defaults to the AC3 channel if one exists.

At the moment I can't get Analogue and DVBT and Satellite to work together (Satellite only seems to work by itself). Once these three work we should be able to apply the Sky guide to our normal channels (unless a XMLTV solution arrives)

It is quite stable. The HD tuner crashes if you change to analogue and back. You then need to exit MCE and restart EHRECEIVER.

What did suprise me is that you can fast forward HD recordings and DIVX

Nice.... Roll On the release!

Wal

nudge

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Reply # 176567 7-Nov-2008 11:16

Nice release alright. I fired it up last night and they have got most things right.

Wal: I can't get Satelite to play ball with analogue or T either ;-(
I noted you comment about it crashing when you change from HD to analogue. I have setup HD T only and it still crashed (regually, unfortunately - too often for use)

Fiji had the same problem with the blank screen ting and the work around was to change settings in the library, but that option isn't available in 7

Has anyone worked around the blank screen, decoder crash thingy, for either receiver type?

waldoverkill

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Reply # 176571 7-Nov-2008 11:27

You can fix the blanking screen by disableing MHEG plugin under (i think) setup-general-program library ooptions-edit program library-mhegaddin

Wal

mixja

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Reply # 176735 7-Nov-2008 21:40

Got it working for me with Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 900 USB DVB-T tuner on a Mac Pro with ATI Radeon HD3870 graphics card.

HD sources (720p/1080i) work perfectly and hardware acceleration appears to be working based upon CPU usage (~10%).

SD sources (576p) however don't work - just grey screen initially and then after a while you get pixelated green screen. I suspect this is to do with hardware acceleration as I've seen this with older versions of the ATI drivers on Vista (currently using the inbuilt Microsoft Windows 7 driver - version 8.501.2.1).

Seems much more stable than the Fiji beta - you do need to disable MHEG 5 addin by going to Settings -> Start Menu and Extras -> Edit Extras Library and unselecting the MhegAddIn option at the bottom.

XBox360 Extender connects, however Live TV is stuttery but you can see the picture reasonably well...

Also noticed Windows Media Player plays AVCHD movies (with H.264/AC3 streams) with no third party codecs - no seeking though...

nudge

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Reply # 177295 11-Nov-2008 10:05

Has anyone managed to get DVB-S and DVB-T working together. If I set both tuners it hangs when trying to save the TV settings. If I clode it and reopen it I am able to scan for Satelite channel, but it ignores the fact I have set the T card and I can not set any channels.

I can setup the T card on its own (or any other single car for that mater) but as soon as I select more that one card it hangs on the save screen.

Any help or suggestions appreciated.

I thought there may be away of setting up the DVB-T channels and then changing the registry to make activate the scan satelite menu, but I'm not sure where to look.

Cheers,
Nudge

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