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My New HTPC with 3D playback!

4K views 28 replies 6 participants last post by  Barrettmr 
#1 · (Edited)
First let me tell you my journey thus far to get my perfect HTPC setup has been tough so I hope this may help others as well as help me figure out the last few bits!

My goal was to have the best PQ/Audio for my DVD, BD, and 3dBD collection when viewing in my theater as well as having the same content available on TV’s and other devices such as iPad, Roku, etc. around the house. All my rips are with MakeMVK including my 3d Blu-ray’s, not interested in compression or conversions…



My Setup is as follows;
  • Windows 7 64bit with MediaBrowser 3 Classic (and theMediaBrowser Server 3 back-end server on its own dedicated machine)
  • LAV filters (installed as part of MBT)
  • MPC-HC set to the external player for MKV’s
  • MadVR set to the high quality settings and set to adjust automatically for 24Hz vs. 60Hz (BD – DVD)
  • Stereoscopic Player (new beta with full MKV MVC 3d support)external player for .MK3d files
  • Connected via HDMI through receiver to an Epson 5020UB
Now as far as DVD and Blu-ray playback goes, everything isworking great on my new HTPC. I have a high-end i5 CPU and NVidia 550ti GFXcard. On the 3D side things are a little more confusing, and this is where any help would be appreciated! I have searched many forum posts, much of the information is dated now and much still leaves a lot of unanswered questions.

I have Stereoscopic player set to view method ‘NVidia 3d’ (Ihave not enabled NVidia 3d on the desktop within the NVidia control panel as Ithink that’s only when using a desktop 3d scenario) and set it to playback at24Hz as all my BD 3d movies are this format and I want the smooth playback of film J

I tested this on my LG passive 3d TV and on the HT Epson projector and right now it feels like its working (looking) better on the TV than the projector. In both cases the picture is displayed as top and bottom and I have to manually tell the TV and the Projector to use this method, then Iget the 3d picture. On the projector I can only select 3D – Top/Bottom – Side by Side or 2D, the TV I think may have one or two other options.

So, what I am trying to learn is what viewing method would be the best (right) one for the projector vs. the TV and ultimately what is the format of the file (MKV rip of MVC3d file) as I want the 1:1 experience as if Ihad put the disk in my player – I think this may be frame-packing, but I have no idea what this is or how that relates to selecting the viewing method?

Is seems like the Stereoscopic player is taking the MVC file and then playing it with whatever viewing method is selected – I just need to know which one is the ‘native’ standard frame-packing option so it works like the actual BD player and the Projector auto senses the 3d signal?
I know many have tried to get a 3d solution working and not many players support MKV MVC right now and there is a lot of confusion, people thinking they are getting full HD 3d and are getting something else like 2d-3d conversion etc.

Also there is a lot of conflicting information, such as the filters/decoders. I have LAV installed as part of the MBT/MPC-HC install and its working great. When you fire up Stereoscopic player it pops up and says it recommends ffdshow to be installed. I read you shouldn’t install multiple codec packs so have skipped that for now… should or shouldn’t I have both??

Please share how you have you HTPC and 3d playback setup and let me know if you have questions on my setup so far!
 
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#4 ·
Well I am setting up a second HTPC to mirror the install of the first, this one will be connected to the LG Passive 3D TV and allow me to play around some more with the options of Stereoscopic player. I'll let you know as I find out more and compare playing the physical 3d BD vs. playback from an MKV rip on the HTPC.


What I did notice with these setting in the theater with the Epson 5020UB was that the cut between scenes was aggressive on the eyes, like too much time on a black frame and depending on the movie I had to keep switching the left/right eye option.. anyway I'll see how I get on over the next couple of days. On the Epson support pages it sounds like they talk about side by side rather than the top/bottom that the NVidia view option provides, so I'll try more viewing options tonight....
 
#5 · (Edited)
I have Stereoscopic player set to view method ‘NVidia 3D’ (I have not enabled NVidia 3D on the desktop within the NVidia control panel as I think that’s only when using a desktop 3D scenario) and set it to playback at 24Hz as all my BD 3D movies are this format and I want the smooth playback of film.

I tested this on my LG passive 3D TV and on the HT Epson projector and right now it feels like its working (looking) better on the TV than the projector. In both cases the picture is displayed as top and bottom and I have to manually tell the TV and the Projector to use this method, then I get the 3D picture. On the projector I can only select 3D – Top/Bottom – Side by Side or 2D, the TV I think may have one or two other options.

So, what I am trying to learn is what viewing method would be the best (right) one for the projector vs. the TV and ultimately what is the format of the file (MKV rip of MVC3D file) as I want the 1:1 experience as if Ihad put the disk in my player – I think this may be frame-packing, but I have no idea what this is or how that relates to selecting the viewing method?

Is seems like the Stereoscopic player is taking the MVC file and then playing it with whatever viewing method is selected – I just need to know which one is the ‘native’ standard frame-packing option so it works like the actual BD player and the Projector auto senses the 3D signal?

I know many have tried to get a 3D solution working and not many players support MKV MVC right now and there is a lot of confusion, people thinking they are getting full HD 3D and are getting something else like 2d-3D conversion etc.

Also there is a lot of conflicting information, such as the filters/decoders. I have LAV installed as part of the MBT/MPC-HC install and its working great. When you fire up Stereoscopic player it pops up and says it recommends ffdshow to be installed. I read you shouldn’t install multiple codec packs so have skipped that for now… should or shouldn’t I have both??

- Epson 5020 UB: The best 3D input is Frame Packing, of course. Choose NVIDIA 3D Vision in Viewing Method. You have to turn on Stereoscopic 3D in NVIDIA control panel.

- LG passive 3D TV: You can send either Frame Packing 3D or Row-Interlaced 3D (in addition to SBS and TAB). Frame Packing 3D is eventually converted to Row-Interlaced 3D inside the passive 3D TV. Choose NVIDIA 3D Vision for Frame Packing, or Row Interlaced for Row-Interlaced 3D.

You don't have to install ffdshow, although installing it is not harmful at all, just don't use it if you don't like. As for video decoder, 3dtv.at AVC/MVC Decoder (by CoreCodec) is the only decoder that supports MVC MKV properly, so LAV Video Decoder or ffdshow Video Decoder is useless. Only displaying subtitles in Divx/Xvid 3D requires ffdshow Video Decoder (that includes a subtitle filter). LAV Audio Decoder is the only audio decoder you will ever want (unless you want to do audio processing tasks beyond stereo mixing).
 
#6 ·
renethx - thanks so much for your response - I did end up with NVidia 3D as the viewing method in some of my testing, the projector/tv displayed two images in this mode, one above and the other below. I used the 3D options on the display to select that mode and the 3D kicked in... but it sounds like I need to turn on Stereoscopic 3D in the NVidia control panel as well? I played with that a while back and it looked like it made the Windows desktop 3D as well - on the HTPC I only want 3D when I select a 3D movies from within Media Browser Classic so do you think that would work? I have been playing with setting on the TV setup as its faster than trying to play with the HT Projector stuff and I got the side by side viewing method working well after reading one of the FAQ pages on 3dtv.at where it says most TV's will support SBS left first or something like that.


Also, I did select LAV as the audio filter within Stereoscopic player and set the refresh for playback to 24Hz (not sure how that refresh relates to the NVidia desktop refresh setting - still learning about that and read a lot about creating custom refresh entries for use with MadVR.


So I will play some more and try the NVidia view method again on the projector and play with the NVidia control panel settings. I guess what I really want to do is be able to select the 3D movie and once stereoscopic player fires up, the projector automatically detects it and switches to 3D - is that possible or am I trying to do the impossible?


Again, thanks for you insights, just knowing that NVidia 3D viewing mode is frame-packing stops my head hurting a little more
 
#7 · (Edited)
OK, 3D mode of GeForce is problematic, in particular with Stereoscopic Player. I see only Top And Bottom-like 3D images instead of Frame Packing, that's not good. This is a bug of the player? For Epson, you can choose SBS (every 3D display supports this mode). For LG, choose Row-Interlaced, that's the best option.

Personally I highly recommend AMD graphics or Intel iGPU (in Core i3 or higher) over NVIDIA, with which 3D playback is a lot easier, basically everything is automatic. Just play back a MVC MKV and the player/driver will take care of the rest. When the playback finishes and the player is closed, the normal 1080p @60Hz desktop mode will be restored. You don't have to do 'Stereoscopic 3D Test' beforehand either. In Stereoscopic Player > Viewing Method, select

- AMD HD3D for AMD
- Intel Stereo Driver for Intel

that assures Frame Packing 3D output. "NVIDIA 3D Vision" for NVIDIA should also work, but does not work, unfortunately.
 
#8 ·
Funny, I just logged in to tell you the same thing, I could only see top and bottom images after turning on the NVidia 3D in their control panel... The good news was the sync was auto for the projector to switch to 3D but I couldn't get off seeing the top and bottom image no matter what 3D mode on the projector I selected.


Just built these HTPC with the NVidia cards, mostly I wanted the power for MadVR, wish I got AMD now :-(


I did get i5 CPU's with the 4600 GFX so I may try that but I think I read they don't have enough power for high settings in MadVR for non 3D stuff.....
 
#9 ·
Try Intel HD Graphics 4600 first. You will be surprised to see how easy it is to output Frame Packing 3D. :)

To upscale movies in 1080p, Radeon R7 260X is enough. Only for 720p60 videos you would need R9 270X.
 
#10 ·
Thanks, just took out the NVidia card and tried Intel 4600, yes it works great, only problem is not enough power for MadVR to deal with DVD, really bad with PAL DVD - so I may run out tomorrow and grab an AMD card and try that... getting closer thanks to your help :)
 
#11 ·
For now I have gone back to turning off the 3D activation within the NVidia control panel. When a 3D movie starts with the view method as NVidia 3D in stereoscopic player I have to select the 3D mode on the projector as top and bottom and it then works. For now I will leave it like that until I can test some more - I compared playing the start of Frozen 3D with the HTPC in this mode and the physical disk in my Oppo 103 and the picture and 3D looked the same to us, we couldn't tell them apart in any way.


As far as this bug with NVidia, do you think its on the NVidia side or with stereoscopic player? I saw lots of application options within the NVidia control panel for 3D applications, wonder if something there will fix this?
 
#12 ·
The following is a reply from 3dtv.at support concerning Nvidia cards:
On NVIDIA cards, you need 3DTV Play for HDMI 1.4 frame packing. If you have a NVIDIA 3D Vision IR transmitter, you can connect it and don’t need a 3DTV Play license. The transmitter is just used as a dongle, not as a transmitter.



I’m not aware of any way to activate HDMI 1.4 Frame Packing without using 3DTV Play.
This is a link to AMD HD3D's problem posted by 3dtv support:
http://devgurus.amd.com/thread/168983
 
#13 · (Edited)
I have an Nvidia Card and stereoscopic player and everything is working the way it should for MVC. I found out that the only way to make Nvidia card work in my hdmi 1.4 a/v chain (and in many other cases I've read online) is to activate Nvidia's 3D TV play software. Having 3D enabled in Nvidia control panel alone is not enough. This is not stereoscopic player's fault; it's just the way Nvidia has chosen to deal with hdmi 1.4. Unfortunately, 3D TV Play activation costs my extra $40 since I don't own 3D vision emitter (it's free with the emitter). You can download a trial of 3D TV Play activation from Nvidia to see if it works for you. This is only needed for MVC frame-packing 3D. Without activating Nvidia 3D TV Play, all I got was top and bottom video in Stereoscopic Player. Frankly, I find Nvidia's tactics in charging extra money lame (the software is in the driver already, but they charge their customer for activating it just to make something that should have worked anyways).

I'd rather use my AMD R9 270 instead of Nvidia, but at the moment AMD driver has a bug that causes a delay in the left eye image in Stereoscopic Player. This is true for all AMD R7 and R9 series cards as confirmed by 3dtv.at.
Frame Packing 3D with PowerDVD / TMT and a HDMI 1.4a 3D TV works just fine with "Stereoscopic 3D" turned on, without "3DTV Play" activated. So I usually dismiss this type of claims that "3DTV Play" is necessary for 3D video playback with a HDMI 1.4a 3D TV. :) (For gaming, it is surely necessary.) But I tried once again. I activated "3DTV Play", following NVIDIA® 3DTV Play™ Free 14 Day Trial. Unfortunately I got TAB again.

Is this an official reply from 3dtv.at (pwimmer)? Working or non-working anyway, this is another good reason for me to avoid NVIDIA (in addition to, for example, poorer NNEDI3 performance in madVR).

On NVIDIA cards, you need 3DTV Play for HDMI 1.4 frame packing. If you have a NVIDIA 3D Vision IR transmitter, you can connect it and don’t need a 3DTV Play license. The transmitter is just used as a dongle, not as a transmitter.

I’m not aware of any way to activate HDMI 1.4 Frame Packing without using 3DTV Play.
 
#14 ·
Frame Packing 3D with PowerDVD / TMT and a HDMI 1.4a 3D TV works just fine with "Stereoscopic 3D" turned on, without "3DTV Play" activated.
I'm trying to discern whether or not your quoted statement above still holds in the context of what you said afterwards

I haven't tried it just yet, but I was nearly certain I watched an MVC iso in pdvd with my nvidia 660
 
#15 ·
@Theologian Thanks for the information, right now any experiences others are having is great help!


I was wondering what the 3D Play option would do, and saw the link to the 14 day trial while I was playing around with activating NVidia 3D - right now I just want it to work nice so if it takes another $40 so be it, but I agree that NVidia shouldn't be charging us extra!!


So if I hear you correctly, for now with stereoscopic player + NVidia 3D activated + 3D play the top and bottom issue goes away and 3D playback starts just like using the Intel/AMD cards?


I'll go back and do the 14 day trial and test I guess...


Thanks again for your help.
 
#16 ·
Renethx,
That's a reply from Peter @ 3dtv support to my inquiry about Nvidia cards. Nvidia has trouble dealing with many hdmi 1.4 display chains, especially for TVs and projectors (CE), but it seems to handle computer monitors much better. My video chain is 750ti =>Onkyo 609=>Mitsubishi HC7800D (all hdmi 1.4a) and unfortunately, frame-packing wouldn't work until I activated 3D TV Play.


Barrettmr,
Yes, in my case I needed Stereoscopic Player (check Nvidia 3D vision), activate 3D TV Play, and enable 3D in Nvidia control panel (I ran the 3D wizard as well, not sure if it matters). But after that everything works great. I need Stereoscopic Player since it's the only software player at the moment that plays MakeMKV's MVC 3D. I used it as an external player with XBMC (you can even select the "23Hz" option in Stereoscopic Player for 3D). It integrates well; I use a batch file to enable and disable "Stereoscopic 3D" in NVidia control panel as needed.
 
#19 · (Edited)
Renethx,
That's a reply from Peter @ 3dtv support to my inquiry about Nvidia cards. Nvidia has trouble dealing with many hdmi 1.4 display chains, especially for TVs and projectors (CE), but it seems to handle computer monitors much better. My video chain is 750ti =>Onkyo 609=>Mitsubishi HC7800D (all hdmi 1.4a) and unfortunately, frame-packing wouldn't work until I activated 3D TV Play.


Barrettmr,
Yes, in my case I needed Stereoscopic Player (check Nvidia 3D vision), activate 3D TV Play, and enable 3D in Nvidia control panel (I ran the 3D wizard as well, not sure if it matters). But after that everything works great. I need Stereoscopic Player since it's the only software player at the moment that plays MakeMKV's MVC 3D. I used it as an external player with XBMC (you can even select the "23Hz" option in Stereoscopic Player for 3D). It integrates well; I use a batch file to enable and disable "Stereoscopic 3D" in NVidia control panel as needed.
YES! I just added 3D TV Play and now everything works just as you have it - fantastic!


I also have stereoscopic player as an external player just for 3D movies I rip with MakeMKV but I use MediaBrowser 3


For anyone else reading this is my set up - now fully working with 3D in case it helps others:


HTPC Hardware tested/used


Quad Core 2 Q6600 Intel CPU - NVidia Gforce 545 - 8 GB Ram - SSD HD
Quad Core i5 4690 Intel CPU - NVidia Gforce 550ti - 8 GB Ram - SSD HD
Quad Core i5 4590 Intel CPU - Nvidia Gforce 640 - 8GB Ram -SSD HD


Display


LG Passive TV
Epson 5020UB
Epson 5020UBe


In all cases HDMI through a AVR


Software


Windows 7 64bit
Mediabrowser3 Theater (only for evaluation but is part of the build that installed LAV etc.)
Mediabrowser3 Classic (Windows Media Center add-on)
Stereoscopic Player 2.2.8 beta
NVida 3D Play


My Build Process


After installed Windows 7 go to control panel, select 'Sounds'
Select your AVR and then click on configure and choose your speaker configuration such as 5.1 or 7.1 etc. complete the next steps until you get back to the first dialog with your AVR selected
Click on Properties and then the Advanced tab, here select 24bit 48000Hz Studio Quality - Click OK


Then launch Windows Media Center and follow the standard setup for your TV and Speaker configuration, once done Exit WMC


Install Mediabrowser3 Theater, install the LAV filters and Xy splitter as part of the install options. Once installed Exit MBT (you will need MB3 Server already set up to use the MB3 Clients)


Open the LAV filter configuration from Windows Start Menu - configure LAV audio and video (lots of guides out there , for me I just select bit stream all to the AVR and I select the NVidia option in video acceleration, oh and I used the default selection of both 32 and 64bit- I can provide more detail to my settings here is anyone wants them)


Download and install MadVR (lots of guides out there for this as well, set up your AVR and Display device, here I give it the 23,34, and 60Hz options for auto frame rate switching, also select the PQ options you want - I am using high settings and everything is smooth and looks great. Again let me know if you want my detailed configuration)


Download the MPC-HC 32bit and install that - you will need to open a movie file and configure MPC-HC and MadVR. (Same as before let me know if anyone wants details of my settings)


Download and install Stereoscopic Player 2.2.8 beta - you will need to purchase a licenses as this is not freeware. The trial mode only lets you play a few minutes of video if you wanted to test before spending money. I opened the player set the view method to NVidia 3D at the top and bottom of the settings page, and I changed the output settings to 24Hz


Configure/Activate NVidia 3D from the control panel then download and install NVidia 3D Play


You can fire up both MPC-HC and Stereoscopic player and test out your settings by opening one of your MKV or MK3D files. All my media is MKV and for 3D you rip the MVC track and after MakeMKV is done rename the file extension to .mk3d


Now just open the Mediabrowser3 WMC configure program from the start menu and in the external players add MPC-HC for all formats except mk3d and then add stereoscopic player for just mk3d file types.


Make sure the players are both set for open in full screen etc.


Now when you open Mediabrowser3 and select a DVD or BD film the MPC-HC player fires up using MadVR which gives the best PQ and auto switches to 23.976 for BD and when you play a 3D movie the stereoscopic play opens and plays the 3D BD rip :)


You will also need to configure whatever controller you have and the 'key' options for the players, exiting the player returns you to WMC - Mediabrowser3


I'll try and do a full write up and video to help others ----


Thanks!
 
#17 ·
PowerDVD: Frame Packing works without 3DTV Play.
TMT: Frame Packing works without 3DTV Play.
Stereoscopic Player: Frame Packing works only with 3DTV Play. (Apart from the fact that it doesn't work in my system.)
I’m not aware of any way to activate HDMI 1.4 Frame Packing without using 3DTV Play.
This indicates that CyberLink and ArcSoft are informed of how to activate Frame Packing (without 3DTV Play), but Peter isn't ...?
 
#23 ·
PowerDVD: Frame Packing works without 3DTV Play.
TMT: Frame Packing works without 3DTV Play.
Stereoscopic Player: Frame Packing works only with 3DTV Play. (Apart from the fact that it doesn't work in my system.)
To further my understanding:

As far as I know, PDVD and TMT don't support frame packed mkv playback while stereoscopic player does

Does your above quote apply translationally to BD3D from an optical drive, iso, and mkv? If not which type does stereoscopic player support without 3DTV play and/or with
 
#18 ·
Maybe, it's system dependent. On my system, neither PDVD 12 or TMT 5 worked in Frame Packing without 3D TV Play either. I don't know about PDVD 13, 14 or TMT 6. The bottom line for me is that Nvidia clearly knows how to take care of the problem, but they charge extra for making it work!!!
 
#20 · (Edited)
On my system, neither PDVD 12 or TMT 5 worked in Frame Packing without 3DTV Play either.
I haven't heard this often. Even CyberLink tech support itself says:

BTW- for BD 3D-playback via HDMI 1.4 you do not need 3D play.
An AVS Forum member's experience:

Yeah, I got it to work now. Without 3DTV Play. Thanks!
Ganesh T S (an AnandTech editor)'s post here in as early as October 2010:

rene, 3DTVPlay is not necessary for BR 3D. It is only for HDMI 1.4 gaming / stereoscopic photo viewer.
(Until then I believed 3DTV Play was necessary for BR 3D, like many other people. :))

Unfortunately there are lots of contradicting information on the Internet, partly because of NVIDIA's confusing (even false?) advertisement.
 
#26 ·
I guess the fact we are trying to play back 3D BD rips that are MKV MVC files is one that limits us to stereoscopic player which may not have the same issues as using something like PDVD or TMT.


I do have an update to my experiences - I may have spoken to fast in my last update!!! While the NVidia option worked great once I installed 3D Play - when I tried to play a non 3D movie which fires up MPC-HC I get a screen message in big red letters stating the refresh rate is not supported in 3D and to change to 1080 24Hz, this is a pain but it disappears after a few seconds - Then I got an OUT OF MEMORY message in the big red letters across the screen which will not go away!!!


Every time I start WMC I get the message about the 3D refresh rate and then the Out of Memory message that sticks - bloody NVidia!


I have gone back to de-activating NVidia 3D in their control panel and have to select TAB from the TV/Projector remote for now - starting to think an AMD card is the only way this is going to work correctly.
 
#28 ·
Well, AMD Rx series has a bug in their driver that causes a slight delay in the left eye when using Stereoscopic Player for frame packing 3D. This renders it unwatchable. I'm not aware of any solution yet. See http://devgurus.amd.com/thread/168983
But my old HD6850 worked fine until it broke.


Back to Nvidia. You can turn Nvidia's 3D function on and off with nvstlink.exe

I made a batch file called PlayStereo.bat
Code:
@echo off
"C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\3D Vision\nvstlink.exe" /enable
Start "C:\Program Files\AutoHotkey" AutoHotkey.exe
Set pth=%1
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Stereoscopic Player\StereoPlayer.exe" %pth% -fss -nl -ol:NVIDIA -termend
"C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\3D Vision\nvstlink.exe" /disable
Taskkill /IM AutoHotkey.exe /F
You don't need the lines about AutoHotkey. I just use it to write keyboard shortcuts for Stereoscopic Player. This file turns Nvidia 3D on before it opens Stereoscopic Player in full screen, and it turns Nvidia 3D off after Stereoscopic Player is terminated (or exits full screen).

I then use XBMC's playercorefactory file to call PlayStereo.bat every time I need it to play 3D. I don't know how MB works, but I'm sure you'll figure it out from here.

Alternatively, you can also turn 3DTV Play's on screen warning off by replacing one of the .dll files with a custom made one. Just google for the file. However, I find it "cleaner" just to turn Nvidia 3D on and off as needed. This way, it won't interfere with custom resolutions and refresh rates, especially when using 23hz and 24hz (Nvidia 3D enables 1080p resolutions/refresh rates that overrides some custom resolutions).

Good luck!
 
#29 ·
Great, thanks Theologian.. You are helping me so much!


I'll have a go and see how I can make this work with MB3 Classic within WMC - I can't believe they make it this hard for us, but then again I guess they don't profit from it so don't care - plus I guess the studios don't really want us doing this either lol.....
 
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