Noob questions here: does MCE play nicely w/ ffdshow/nvidia purevideo decoder/zoomplayer combination? I thought i read somewhere that MCE does not like third-party software like ffdshow. I'm currently running these three programs in my htpc kicking the rez up nicely to 2160X1440

my question is can i do this w/ mce?

no

Yes and No on Zoom Player & ffdshow

There isn't a very good way to use Zoom Player w/ ffdshow inside of Media Center. You can use TheaterTek w/ ffdshow very easily using My Movies. (I think you can hack it to work with ZP, but the remote will not work natively)

Now, outside of Media Center itself, Zoom Player w/ ffdshow and everything else that you would use on Windows XP Home/Professional will work just fine.

i agree with ChrisL01

I have been trying to get ffdshow to co-exist with MCE but no go (outside the MCE shell). With ffdshow installed and trying to run MCE live-TV or watch recorded TV, I get the "Application Error: A critical media center process has failed, blah, blah, blah.." When I uninstall ffdshow, MCE runs smoothly. Can you explain how you got ffdshow & zoomplayer to work outside the MCE app. without any hiccups?

I'm using ffdshow just for it's AAC decoder and it works great in MCE.

The reason I needed this is that I wanted to play H.264/AVC content within MCE and was running into a lot of problems using the Cyberlink H.264 decoder w/ ATI 1600XT graphics card and QuickTime HD content. It turns out half the files wouldn't play due to some kind of conflict between the Cyberlink H.264 audio decoder and the Quicktime H.264 audio stream.

I installed the Haali Media Splitter and ffdshow AAC decoder and now everything works beautifully with the Cyberlink H.264 decoder handling video. Great! Now I can play all of the HD movie trailers in MCE!

I have been trying to get ffdshow to co-exist with MCE but no go (outside the MCE shell). With ffdshow installed and trying to run MCE live-TV or watch recorded TV, I get the "Application Error: A critical media center process has failed, blah, blah, blah.." When I uninstall ffdshow, MCE runs smoothly. Can you explain how you got ffdshow & zoomplayer to work outside the MCE app. without any hiccups?

Configure ffdshow audio to NOT work with AC3 and mp3(disable it), either when you install it or the ffdshow audio configure program from the start menu. Then your TV and recorded TV should play fine.

As far as ffdshow working inside of MCE - yes it does - for some things. I use it as the decoder for xvid, divx, h264, and aac - all within MCE and it works fine.

You can use portions of FFDShow with MCE. The audio directshow filters work fine. You can also use it as a decoder of certain codecs. You cannot use for mpeg2 decoding and upscaling though. My Movies will let you use TheaterTek and FFDShow externally but there is currently no way to upscale live tv or DVDs in WMP.

sounds like we need to get one of the many FFDShow coders to mod it so that it says to MCE "Hey MCE guy, I can do MPEG2 !!!!" In other words, find the method that MCE uses to query the decoder and just tell it what it wants to hear....

:cool:

sounds like we need to get one of the many FFDShow coders to mod it so that it says to MCE "Hey MCE guy, I can do MPEG2 !!!!" In other words, find the method that MCE uses to query the decoder and just tell it what it wants to hear....

:cool:
Fat chance on that... you can't even get MCE to recognize Nvidia's hardware deinterlacing features with the Nvidia decoder. :rolleyes:

Maybe Vista will be better.

Kai

you can also program the Mymovies plugin for Zoon Player, its not just for Theatertek. I am using MCE, TT, ZP, and PV all togher right now, but I have also used it in the ZP setup as well.

- Josh

can anyone tell me if theatertek supports avi files?

if not, would zoom player work as theaterktek does, with the ability to load it up from within mce.

cheers

There is a lot of talk about using ffdshow to upscale and clean up DVD content but no one is talking about it for SDTV. It would seem this could benfit even more than DVD. Is it possible to play DVRMS files recorded by MCE and have them upscaled and cleaned up?

SDTV???? What's that????

:)

There is a lot of talk about using ffdshow to upscale and clean up DVD content but no one is talking about it for SDTV. It would seem this could benfit even more than DVD. Is it possible to play DVRMS files recorded by MCE and have them upscaled and cleaned up?I hope you're referring to SD channels viewed on an HDTV.

There is a lot of talk about using ffdshow to upscale and clean up DVD content but no one is talking about it for SDTV. It would seem this could benfit even more than DVD. Is it possible to play DVRMS files recorded by MCE and have them upscaled and cleaned up?

No, you can't have ffdshow do this within Media Center. I guess if TT supported DVR-MS files (don't know if it does) then you could do it when you launch something through My Movies. But, within the MCE Shell you can't have ffdshow post processing for MPEG-2 (ie DVR-MS) content.

Chris

XVID isnt really available as a stand alone codec install package. I'm confused witch pack has the minimal amount of Junk.

My goal is
1) XVID (would rather not install DivX if XviD plays everything)
2) AAC/AC3 (clicking to use the volume boost is helpful)
3) MP4 H264 support

If I install KLite or FFDSHOW, and uncheck the stuff I "think" I dont need, then Media Center refuses to tune live tv. (you get the spinning circle hourglass lockup)

Here is my HTPC setup

ASUS Motherboard (latest AMD2)
NVIDIA 6600GT
X-FI Audio Auzentech
NVidia Dual Tuner
DVICO FUSION 5 gold HDTV Tuner

I have the latest NVidia PureVideo package. I use this, and say NO to the Fusion MCE MPEG2 codec when it asks if I want it. Using PureVideo results in MUCH smoother playback of live HDTV channels.

Once I mess with FFDSHOW or KLITE my system is hosed. I have an acronis true image backup so I can play with several combinations.

What is the best way to get XviD, AC3, and h264 working with my Media Center XP machine? Is it ok to mix in Purevideo? (confused what to try next)

KLite Basic seems to work well so far. The Basic package seems to be a bit outdated compaired to the Full and Normal ones. Where is the best site to download KLite-Basic?

Use FFDshow for the mpeg4 content and Purevideo for mpeg2. Use CoreAVC for the h.264 stuff.

CoreAVC looks great, I'll try that for my newe .mp4's h.264 stuff

What are the MINIMAL things to select durring FFDshow install for XviD/Divx, AAC/AC3? Any more might cause WIndows Media Center to get unstable again.

Purevideo is working great for Live HD OTA and DVD's so far.

There is actually a way to use FFDSHOW DIRECTLY IN mce for Live TV:

Step 1
Enable handling of mpeg1, mpeg2 and "mpeg for avi" in ffdshow (under codecs in video decoder settings). I selected libavcodec for these formats.

Step 2
Start regedit

Step 3
Select HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE and search for "ffdshow MPEG-4 Video Decoder"

Step 4
Keep searching 'til you find a key called "FriendlyName" that contains "ffdshow MPEG-4 Video Decoder". Copy the contents of the CLSID key.

Step 5
Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion \Media Center\Service\Video

Step 6
Set "PrefferedMPEG2VideoDecoder" to what you copied in step 4

Step 7
Restart MCE

that just enables FFDshow to be the defualt MPEG2 decoder doesn't it?

- Josh

Yes it does set FFDSHOW as the default MPEG decoder but finally its possible to process live tv!

Well, as you say there's a way to get MCE to use ffdshow to do post-processing on live TV, but you have to use ffdshow's MPEG2 decoder which isn't very good.

If only there was someway to get ffdshow to pass the decoding off to a decent mpeg2 decoder (purevideo/powerdvd/etc), but still be recognised by MCE as being the decoder, then maybe it could do the post-processing whilst using another mpeg2 decoder.

or a way to integrate the dscaler5 decoder code into ffdshow..... :D

or nvidia's into ffdshow.

- Josh

Well, as you say there's a way to get MCE to use ffdshow to do post-processing on live TV, but you have to use ffdshow's MPEG2 decoder which isn't very good.

If only there was someway to get ffdshow to pass the decoding off to a decent mpeg2 decoder (purevideo/powerdvd/etc), but still be recognised by MCE as being the decoder, then maybe it could do the post-processing whilst using another mpeg2 decoder.

Sorry for bumping an old thread, but I though it was possible to have ffdshow post-process a live TV signal now and use Purevideo for the mpeg2 decoder? Is this not possible or is it something that has become available since the last post in this thread?

Would love to find out if anyone is doing this!!! (PowerDVD/NVidia mpeg 2 decoder --> ffdshow postprocessing within MCE)

That is not possible.

Chris