Is XBMC the solution for what I want to do.
#1
Hi!

Here is my grocery list of option that I'm looking for a frontend:

- Play video with HA in a way that is easy to setup (I have both NVidia and ATI card so anything will do)
- Be able to switch between 24hz and 60hz depending on the material.
- Play MKV with subs and Flac Audio
- Play DVD folders (with menu)
- MCE remote friendly
- Easy skins installation
- Work on Win7 32bits
- Can use local meta (saved with the media file)

Now, I know that XBMC can already do most of this with the 9.11 build. But the 1st point, HA, seem to be a pain to install (either DSplayer or the DXVA2 experimental build), and they seem to break the plugins and skins installation.

Any help would be welcome because I would really love to be able to use XBMC for my big media collection, but HA is a must for my 1080p BR rip.
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#2
Tuxon86 Wrote:- Play video with HA in a way that is easy to setup (I have both NVidia and ATI card so anything will do).

Using DXVA is easy enough... Simply download one of the latest builds from http://sshcs.com/xbmc/ and you are all set (or you could of course wait for the next stable release since it will include hardware acceleration.

Tuxon86 Wrote:- Be able to switch between 24hz and 60hz depending on the material.

Not sure about this one, but why would you want to do this?

Tuxon86 Wrote:- Play MKV with subs and Flac Audio

Mkv w/ subs (both internal & external) work fine and flac audio works too AFAIK... may have to ask someone else or search for this one to be sure.

Tuxon86 Wrote:- Play DVD folders (with menu)

Works fine for me.

Tuxon86 Wrote:- MCE remote friendly

Same.

Tuxon86 Wrote:- Easy skins installation

Super easy with the new addon system (which more or less is working in the latest Build r30892).

Tuxon86 Wrote:- Work on Win7 32bits

Will work on just about any OS. I've used Win7 32 and 64-bit personally.

Tuxon86 Wrote:- Can use local meta (saved with the media file)

Yep.. using nfo files and there are plenty of "media managers" that you can use to micromanage this.
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#3
Dont forget if you are using XP then the native DXVA will not work. You must use Vista or Windows 7.
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#4
good point. forgot to mention that.
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#5
compcentral Wrote:Using DXVA is easy enough... Simply download one of the latest builds from http://sshcs.com/xbmc/ and you are all set (or you could of course wait for the next stable release since it will include hardware acceleration.

I tried that but I wasn't able to make it work. Maybe the latest build was a bad one for me. I also seem to have read that you couldn't use any but a few skins and plugins on those and that the scraper was non-working also. There was also something about having to configure your own filter also, which I don't call a user friendly process.

Quote:Not sure about this one, but why would you want to do this?

When my LCD TV goes into 24p mode it displays "1080p 24hz" this is what I meant by switching frequency. I want my 24hz cadenced media to play at their native cadence as to not have to do a 3:2 pulldown wich bring all sort of anomaly in the picture.



Quote:Mkv w/ subs (both internal & external) work fine and flac audio works too AFAIK... may have to ask someone else or search for this one to be sure.

This would be great since about 50% of my new acquisition are ripped to that format.

Quote:Works fine for me.



Quote:Same.



Quote:Super easy with the new addon system (which more or less is working in the latest Build r30892).

This is what I was afraid of. WIP build are good to try but not that much on a production machine.

Quote:Will work on just about any OS. I've used Win7 32 and 64-bit personally.

Good. Do you have to run as Admin on 7?

Quote:Yep.. using nfo files and there are plenty of "media managers" that you can use to micromanage this.

Good
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#6
Tuxon86 Wrote:Good. Do you have to run as Admin on 7?

Only if you use Portable mode (i.e. save all settings in \Program Files\XBMC). In Default mode XBMC runs fine as an ordinary user.

Portable mode is deprecated in the next build of XBMC. It will still be there for backwards compatability but it will no longer be an installation option.

JR
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#7
The auto refresh rate switching is fine if you use the software renderer (assuming your setup is good enough to do that). But There are various issues when using auto refresh rate switching with DXVA enabled.

A lot depends on your Gfx card but i still cannot get it to work without major screen tearing on my ATI 5450

For me personally i also had to disable the Windows7 Aero to get playback at the correct fps using DXVA
HTPC specs:
Samsung 40" ES8000 3DTV, Win8 Pro 64bit, Intel Core i3 530, ATI HD5450, Antec Minuet HTPC Case, 6GB Kingston HyperX DDR3 1333, Gigabyte GA-H55M-USB3
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#8
Lister of Smeg Wrote:The auto refresh rate switching is fine if you use the software renderer (assuming your setup is good enough to do that). But There are various issues when using auto refresh rate switching with DXVA enabled.

A lot depends on your Gfx card but i still cannot get it to work without major screen tearing on my ATI 5450

For me personally i also had to disable the Windows7 Aero to get playback at the correct fps using DXVA

Hmm... I do get the occassional minor tearing on some files and I could never quite figure out why it was happening. I suppose that does make sense. I always assumed it was a v-sync issue. Do you force v-sync on at all times? This helped quite a bit for me.

I'm just using a basic onboard nVidia 9000 series video chipset on Win7 64-bit (aero enabled) and using DXVA, and all my files play at the correct fps, even 1080p high bit rate material. My CPU usage usually hovers around 10% using DXVA... without it, it's around 50%.
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#9
compcentral Wrote:Hmm... I do get the occassional minor tearing on some files and I could never quite figure out why it was happening. I suppose that does make sense. I always assumed it was a v-sync issue. Do you force v-sync on at all times? This helped quite a bit for me.

I'm just using a basic onboard nVidia 9000 series video chipset on Win7 64-bit (aero enabled) and using DXVA, and all my files play at the correct fps, even 1080p high bit rate material. My CPU usage usually hovers around 10% using DXVA... without it, it's around 50%.

Yeah i have v-sync forced in the driver. I think nvidia cards have been having better DXVA results than newer ATI cards (5 series)

I have tried every setting and setting combination i can, but there is always a niggling issue somewhere. (using svn30260)

If 24p content plays alright, 25p content never will.... and visa versa

Being from England, all the TV shows are in 25fps (50hz) Sad
HTPC specs:
Samsung 40" ES8000 3DTV, Win8 Pro 64bit, Intel Core i3 530, ATI HD5450, Antec Minuet HTPC Case, 6GB Kingston HyperX DDR3 1333, Gigabyte GA-H55M-USB3
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