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Intel Clarkdale and H55 audio problems - Page 2

post #31 of 103
3/4/10 at 7:56am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by jpitt42 View Post

Does anybody know how to disable the upscaled volume level indication on the AVR-1910? I'm not sure what the source of it is. When outputting 1080p, I see two volume indications, one is in blocky white text, and the other is a more refined black background with white text. The more refined one is always off by one, and it flickers, so I'd like to just get rid of it.

In your picture I'm only seeing the Denon GUI overlay. I've only ever seen a single overlay with my Denon so I'm afraid I'm not much help. I thought you may have been talking about the windows media center volume but it sounds like it is something different.

As far as the volume when testing. Here is what I see going on in my system. The speaker icons on my Denon constantly go on and off. Whenever I switch audio sources. Whenever I pause the TV. Whenever sound just stops. My guess is that under the cover, because of overly aggressive copy protection software/hardware ie HDCP, the sound actually does turn off and that HDCP handshake needs to happen before it will play audio again and that is what is causing the delay in audio playback and all the thousands of other unnamed problems we see with HDMI.

One thing that is consistent though is that once audio starts playing, it usually is pretty solid and I have no problems. Are you seeing problems with the audio cutting out while watching TV or other sources?

Additionally, how many of you acutally install the PlayReady crapware in Win7? I read a really interesting post about how it causes a ton of other problems. For me the "low bitrate" error is so frustrating. The post suggested it may be related to PlayReady software. He also mentioned how it really ups the CPU usage as well as degraded the picture. So with this new build, I haven't installed it. It doesn't seem to make a difference with my TV viewing at this point.
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post #32 of 103
3/6/10 at 7:17pm
Thread Starter 
Got the latest BIOS update for the gigabyte board - Same problems.
Got the latest firmware update for my Denon 4310 - Same problems although there is now a new setting in the default audio formats in Windows 7: 16bit 176000Hz.
Got the latest Intel HD Graphics update 2086 - Same problems although I now have 23, 24, 29, 30Hz settings for the refresh rates.
Installed the Intel Management Engine - no changes.

None of these updates have increased stability or fixed the audio problems I am having. I have seen 2 blue screens in the last 2 days.
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post #33 of 103
3/9/10 at 5:07pm
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...9#post18138259

This thread talks a lot about how EDID screws up HD audio as it relates to ATI cards. At least there is a workaround for ATI. Is there one for Intel H55 / H57?
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post #34 of 103
3/13/10 at 8:25pm
@lancia - Sorry I haven't posted anything else. I'm at a loss at this point.

Is anybody seeing issues where they have sound, but the volume much lower than it should be? I get this, and re-selecting the A/V source on the Denon will bring the audio back to full volume. For example, my WMC volume is pegged at 50, and my AVR is set to 80/100 (which should be very loud). I get barely audible peeps out of the speakers when moving through the WMC menus.

I tried uninstalling PowerDVD and using Arcsoft TotalMedia Theatre 3 Platinum instead. TMT3 won't even play audio on Iron Man. It did make a fanstastically loud high-pitched sound at the start of the movie, then no sound after that. The audio menu doesn't give any options for changing what is output by TMT3. I didn't try any other discs. I'm returning it.
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post #35 of 103
3/14/10 at 1:37am
Quote:
Originally Posted by lancia View Post

Do you pipe your audio through an AVR of some sort or direct to your TV? Does your AVR have a speaker display? If so, do you see the speakers turn off and on when you switch audio sources? I see this all the time. It's like the audio signal is being turned on and off.

Onkyo TX-SR507 so no speaker display as such (toggle from default to see audio channels). Would it not be expected that the signal is interrupted and speaker display changed when switching sources?
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post #36 of 103
3/15/10 at 7:34am
lancia, have you tried a cheap AVR from BB yet? I have been thinking of building an HTPC with H55 motherboard > AVR > LCD TV via HDMI. After reading all the problems I am not sure if I am ready to do this.
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post #37 of 103
3/16/10 at 2:37pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by jpitt42 View Post

@lancia - Sorry I haven't posted anything else. I'm at a loss at this point.

Is anybody seeing issues where they have sound, but the volume much lower than it should be? I get this, and re-selecting the A/V source on the Denon will bring the audio back to full volume. For example, my WMC volume is pegged at 50, and my AVR is set to 80/100 (which should be very loud). I get barely audible peeps out of the speakers when moving through the WMC menus.

I tried uninstalling PowerDVD and using Arcsoft TotalMedia Theatre 3 Platinum instead. TMT3 won't even play audio on Iron Man. It did make a fanstastically loud high-pitched sound at the start of the movie, then no sound after that. The audio menu doesn't give any options for changing what is output by TMT3. I didn't try any other discs. I'm returning it.

The only time I have seen this is when I am piping a 5.1 audio stream into 2 channel stereo or something similar. In this case I either need to change the audio setup on my AVR to "stereo" or change the source to stereo.

Also, Media Center does have a setting under the TV setup for "auto volume". I don't think this is it but you may give it a try (check the screenie).
LL
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post #38 of 103
3/16/10 at 3:00pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sciúrus Arcânus View Post

Onkyo TX-SR507 so no speaker display as such (toggle from default to see audio channels). Would it not be expected that the signal is interrupted and speaker display changed when switching sources?

I don't think this is the case with standard rack mounted stereo equipment...or at least it didn't used to. The paranoia with all the copy protection freaks that designed HDCP/HDMI turned something simple into this complicated mess. Before HDMI the connection was made and I could always see the "supported output" speaker format. At least my 5.1 speakers. I suspect with HDCP they are so paranoid that in the spec they severe the audio connection/handshake to prevent copying the audio. I'm not a hardware engineer so I can't be sure but I am a software engineer so I know how they think. That's my guess.
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post #39 of 103
3/16/10 at 3:01pm
I will look at that.

FYI, I got my hands on a Pioneer AVR this past weekend, and all my problems disappeared. See the thegreenbutton.com thread I posted earlier for the full details.

I also reinstalled Win7 and prior to installing the Intel audio driver, I also had no problems.

So, whose fault is it? I'm hoping it's Intel, because updating is so much easier. I don't really like the Pioneer unit much compared to the Denon, so I don't want to switch.
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post #40 of 103
3/16/10 at 4:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by lancia View Post

I don't think this is the case with standard rack mounted stereo equipment...or at least it didn't used to. The paranoia with all the copy protection freaks that designed HDCP/HDMI turned something simple into this complicated mess. Before HDMI the connection was made and I could always see the "supported output" speaker format. At least my 5.1 speakers. I suspect with HDCP they are so paranoid that in the spec they severe the audio connection/handshake to prevent copying the audio. I'm not a hardware engineer so I can't be sure but I am a software engineer so I know how they think. That's my guess.

It's actually not HDCP, it's because HDMI is a two-way street. Prior methods either were one way (PC pushed the sound and didn't care what was on the other end). HDMI specs dictate that a sending device needs to query the receiving device and not send anything the receiving device does not claim it can handle. Most consumer electronics devices (DVD, Blu-ray, cable boxes, PS3s) have VERY relaxed standards on this and will often push data on a receiver regardless of its own claims. Which works well for interoperability even if it strains the spec a bit.

Windows, and hence drivers written for Windows, adheres closely to this spec at an OS level, while providing the EDID override method for those who are technical enough to take advantage of it (given the way it's written, I think the Microsoft folks hoped that receiver manufacturers would provide their own custom .inf fixes rather than have a cottage industry erupt on AVS). As a result, if the receiver guys screw up their EDID, or have a weak or poorly-timed driver on their response signal, the EDID info comes back to the PC as inaccurate, and Windows itself won't allow you to even attempt to send the formats. I'd like to see all graphics vendors adopt Microsoft's EDID override as standard.
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post #41 of 103
3/16/10 at 6:50pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by archibael View Post

It's actually not HDCP, it's because HDMI is a two-way street. Prior methods either were one way (PC pushed the sound and didn't care what was on the other end). HDMI specs dictate that a sending device needs to query the receiving device and not send anything the receiving device does not claim it can handle. Most consumer electronics devices (DVD, Blu-ray, cable boxes, PS3s) have VERY relaxed standards on this and will often push data on a receiver regardless of its own claims. Which works well for interoperability even if it strains the spec a bit.

Windows, and hence drivers written for Windows, adheres closely to this spec at an OS level, while providing the EDID override method for those who are technical enough to take advantage of it (given the way it's written, I think the Microsoft folks hoped that receiver manufacturers would provide their own custom .inf fixes rather than have a cottage industry erupt on AVS). As a result, if the receiver guys screw up their EDID, or have a weak or poorly-timed driver on their response signal, the EDID info comes back to the PC as inaccurate, and Windows itself won't allow you to even attempt to send the formats. I'd like to see all graphics vendors adopt Microsoft's EDID override as standard.

But all that talking back and forth is because of encryption/copy protection....something that is so easy to circumvent with a simple click nowadays. So the powers that be spent 100s of millions of dollars to create a system that does nothing to prevent what they claim the system is for, manufacturers spend 100s of millions on extra licensing and in turn we consumers absorb the cost to cripple our own hardware.
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post #42 of 103
3/17/10 at 8:04am
Quote:
Originally Posted by archibael View Post

It's actually not HDCP, it's because HDMI is a two-way street. Prior methods either were one way (PC pushed the sound and didn't care what was on the other end). HDMI specs dictate that a sending device needs to query the receiving device and not send anything the receiving device does not claim it can handle. Most consumer electronics devices (DVD, Blu-ray, cable boxes, PS3s) have VERY relaxed standards on this and will often push data on a receiver regardless of its own claims. Which works well for interoperability even if it strains the spec a bit.

Windows, and hence drivers written for Windows, adheres closely to this spec at an OS level, while providing the EDID override method for those who are technical enough to take advantage of it (given the way it's written, I think the Microsoft folks hoped that receiver manufacturers would provide their own custom .inf fixes rather than have a cottage industry erupt on AVS). As a result, if the receiver guys screw up their EDID, or have a weak or poorly-timed driver on their response signal, the EDID info comes back to the PC as inaccurate, and Windows itself won't allow you to even attempt to send the formats. I'd like to see all graphics vendors adopt Microsoft's EDID override as standard.

So, you think that an EDID override could solve my issue. I browsed through the posts on it before, but didn't think it was relevant for my issue. I'll read it again.
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post #43 of 103
3/17/10 at 8:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by lancia View Post

But all that talking back and forth is because of encryption/copy protection....

The HDCP handshake is because of copy protection, and absolutely causes its own interoperability problems. The HDMI check of the capabilities of the downstream receiver is entirely unrelated to content protection and all about the undefined behavior of streaming data to a device which cannot decode it-- it was present on VGA for video (causing trouble there) and audio was added on HDMI with inevitable results.
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post #44 of 103
3/17/10 at 8:30am
Quote:
Originally Posted by jpitt42 View Post

So, you think that an EDID override could solve my issue. I browsed through the posts on it before, but didn't think it was relevant for my issue. I'll read it again.

It could, if the Intel drivers support it. My attempts have been failures.
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post #45 of 103
3/18/10 at 12:31pm
Hi,

I recently thought that I had solved my problems but that was not the case...

My problem: When I finally fixed the audio everything was fine. Until the next time I started it up... Now my PC does a couple of blue screens until it is warm enough (or something like that). Then it kills a couple of applications (at random) until it hopefully works and lets me listen to music or watch a movie.
The strange thing is that when I set the refresh rate to 59hz (instead of 50), the control panel applet called sound tells me that my reciever only can handle DD and DTS and not more than 96khz audio and suddely no more apps are crashing and no more bsod.

So, I guess that this has something to do with HDMI and Denon...

My rig:
MSI H55M-ED55
Core i3
HDMI -> Denon 3808 -> HDMI -> LG 50" 1080 plasma
Win7_64
Media player Classic HC
ffdshow

Lets hope Denon releases a better firmware!

Br Linuxs
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post #46 of 103
3/18/10 at 1:29pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Linuxs View Post

Hi,

I recently thought that I had solved my problems but that was not the case...

My problem: When I finally fixed the audio everything was fine. Until the next time I started it up... Now my PC does a couple of blue screens until it is warm enough (or something like that). Then it kills a couple of applications (at random) until it hopefully works and lets me listen to music or watch a movie.
The strange thing is that when I set the refresh rate to 59hz (instead of 50), the control panel applet called sound tells me that my reciever only can handle DD and DTS and not more than 96khz audio and suddely no more apps are crashing and no more bsod.

So, I guess that this has something to do with HDMI and Denon...

My rig:
MSI H55M-ED55
Core i3
HDMI -> Denon 3808 -> HDMI -> LG 50" 1080 plasma
Win7_64
Media player Classic HC
ffdshow

Lets hope Denon releases a better firmware!

Br Linuxs

It does all this only when the Denon is connected? I would've guessed you had some bad memory or motherboard in your PC with those symptoms. You should try to isolate it.
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post #47 of 103
3/21/10 at 12:17pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Eric Olsen View Post

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...9#post18138259

This thread talks a lot about how EDID screws up HD audio as it relates to ATI cards. At least there is a workaround for ATI. Is there one for Intel H55 / H57?

I tried the EDID override and I am still limited to the 24bit 41000kHz default audio settings. No change. I've always been able to get the bitstreaming to work, now I'm just trying to fine tune everything.
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post #48 of 103
3/21/10 at 4:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jpitt42 View Post

It does all this only when the Denon is connected? I would've guessed you had some bad memory or motherboard in your PC with those symptoms. You should try to isolate it.

Thank you for answering!

Yep. I have tried to connect the HDMI directly to my TV and then I had no problem at all. Also, when I set the number of speakers to 2 the PC also works fine but then I don't get DTS HD master anymore...

But!

When I have successfully started the PC once, it will usually restart without a problem. That makes my problem solving a bit tricky...

Today I tried to start the PC without switching too that HDMI on my Denon. When I finally switched, I got greeted by this message: "Sorry, Windows can not repair your computer". When I restarted the PC, everything was fine.

I work with computers every day and this problem is more difficult then any of the problems at work. My guess is still: Bad driver for Intel HD Audio or faulty motherboard. Since I seem to be the only one with BSOD, perhaps it is the motherboard.
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post #49 of 103
3/21/10 at 5:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Linuxs View Post

Thank you for answering!

Yep. I have tried to connect the HDMI directly to my TV and then I had no problem at all. Also, when I set the number of speakers to 2 the PC also works fine but then I don't get DTS HD master anymore...

Do you have Reclock installed, and have you configured ffdshow for passthrough? To get TMT3 to bitstream I had to install Reclock, and to get MPC-HC to bitstream I had to properly configure ffdshow for passthrough and also configure MPC-HC to not use the ffdshow VC-1 and H.264 filters, to use the ffdshow audio codec, and to block the MS DVD-DTV audio codec. Basically I followed dbone's guide to bitstreaming in Windows 7 for the ffdshow and MPC settings.
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post #50 of 103
3/22/10 at 6:48am
I just got off the phone with Denon tech support regarding this issue. The tech said that the reason for the failure to play audio at full volume at higher bit-rates for me is likely due to the AVR protecting itself from too strong of a signal coming from the PC. I'm going to need to go read about PCM a bit to find out if that's a sensible diagnosis or not. I was basically denied my request for a more advanced level of debugging. I can't say I blame them. I don't think I'd want to debug interoperability issues with end users at my job.

As a side note, I don't think the Denon is actually the issue in this case. I'm suspecting the Intel driver. The "it's not possible that it's me" attitude really rubs me the wrong way. A simple "yes, it's possible that it's us, but it's not likely" would go a long way towards creating some trust, because it's the only logical stance. To be fair, they are looking into the issue. I actually got a call back to confirm the details of my setup. The tech said he's passing it on to engineering. I hope to hear something back with more details. At the very least, maybe they can tell Intel to fix their driver.
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post #51 of 103
3/22/10 at 10:32am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by jpitt42 View Post

I just got off the phone with Denon tech support regarding this issue. The tech said that the reason for the failure to play audio at full volume at higher bit-rates for me is likely due to the AVR protecting itself from too strong of a signal coming from the PC. I'm going to need to go read about PCM a bit to find out if that's a sensible diagnosis or not. I was basically denied my request for a more advanced level of debugging. I can't say I blame them. I don't think I'd want to debug interoperability issues with end users at my job.

As a side note, I don't think the Denon is actually the issue in this case. I'm suspecting the Intel driver. The "it's not possible that it's me" attitude really rubs me the wrong way. A simple "yes, it's possible that it's us, but it's not likely" would go a long way towards creating some trust, because it's the only logical stance. To be fair, they are looking into the issue. I actually got a call back to confirm the details of my setup. The tech said he's passing it on to engineering. I hope to hear something back with more details. At the very least, maybe they can tell Intel to fix their driver.

That's funny....when I talked to Denon they told me that it was likely that my audio problems were related to problems with LOW signal strength. I get the exact same thing...it can't possibly be our problem.

I just need someone to explain to me EXACTLY why I get ZERO audio when I have any default audio output selected other than 24bit 41000Hz. The computer shows that I am outputting audio but my AVR does nothing. I'm convinced my problem is a Denon HDMI problem because I also have problems with my Denon and AppleTV over HDMI.
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post #52 of 103
3/22/10 at 11:47am
I too have/had problems with a H55 based board going directly to a Denon 4810. However when using a DVDO Edge I have available between the PC and AVR the problem goes away... I have a HDMI Detective inbound to address a disconnect issue, but I will also test to see if it helps with the audio issue...

-pd
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post #53 of 103
3/22/10 at 5:47pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by pdermody View Post

I too have/had problems with a H55 based board going directly to a Denon 4810. However when using a DVDO Edge I have available between the PC and AVR the problem goes away... I have a HDMI Detective inbound to address a disconnect issue, but I will also test to see if it helps with the audio issue...

-pd

Nice...that would be great.
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post #54 of 103
3/24/10 at 3:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by kegobeer View Post

Do you have Reclock installed, and have you configured ffdshow for passthrough? To get TMT3 to bitstream I had to install Reclock, and to get MPC-HC to bitstream I had to properly configure ffdshow for passthrough and also configure MPC-HC to not use the ffdshow VC-1 and H.264 filters, to use the ffdshow audio codec, and to block the MS DVD-DTV audio codec. Basically I followed dbone's guide to bitstreaming in Windows 7 for the ffdshow and MPC settings.

No, I only have Win7_64, MPC hc, ffdshow, winamp and flac. Yes, I have ffdshow configured for passthrough and as long as my PC don't give me blue screens everything actually works fine. I only get bitstreaming in MPC-HC and that program can't handle the menus on a blueray any good. But I am ok with that. I don't like to buy programs, if I can avoid it... :-)

I wrote earlier that my problem was a bit tricky to test so the day before yesterday I borrowed some memory to see if my memory was faulty. Before I changed to the new memory I figured that I might move my existing memory to the empty slots (I have2x2GB and 4 slots on the mb), just to test it. Strangely enough my HTPC do not give me blue screens anymore.
I don't get this.

But I was only a happy man until today (after several successful restarts during yesterday) when explorer.exe had to be terminated.

In Sweden we have a saying: One time = no time. By that we mean if something happens once it don't count, so perhaps I should still be happy?
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post #55 of 103
3/24/10 at 4:00pm
On a side note: I find it interesting that Intel has had problems with protected stuff through HDMI since 2008.

http://www.intel.com/support/graphics/sb/CS-029809.htm
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post #56 of 103
3/24/10 at 8:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by lancia View Post

...and in turn we consumers absorb the cost to cripple our own hardware.

Isn't it great and it's only going to get worse.

Couple thoughts on your issues, pardon me if this is rudimentary and you've tried already.
Have you removed all removable cards and memory, etc. and re-seated them? Done a close visual on the mem sticks, mobo, etc. Check the slots for anything that looks bad. I've seen a lot by doing visuals close-up on stuff that looks fine at a glance.

Also I've have seen vague suggestions from vendors to avoid 64-bit OSs as sometimes there are issues with drivers. I'm not sure if you're running 64-bit or not.
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post #57 of 103
3/25/10 at 7:17am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by star_man View Post

Isn't it great and it's only going to get worse.

Couple thoughts on your issues, pardon me if this is rudimentary and you've tried already.
Have you removed all removable cards and memory, etc. and re-seated them? Done a close visual on the mem sticks, mobo, etc. Check the slots for anything that looks bad. I've seen a lot by doing visuals close-up on stuff that looks fine at a glance.

Also I've have seen vague suggestions from vendors to avoid 64-bit OSs as sometimes there are issues with drivers. I'm not sure if you're running 64-bit or not.

Yes...I've actually replaced the entire motherboard (different brand) so I've actually rebuilt the entire machine twice. The other motherboard was defective as well so it didn't really give me any insight.

I know my audio issues are related to the communication between the Denon and the audio from the board. I can't pin down the audio to either my Denon, the board, or the CPU/drivers. I think it's a combination between the Denon and CPU/Drivers.

I say that because my old build with a Xonar SlimHD1.3 worked perfectly with my Denon. With this build, how does anyone explain that the audio only works when I set the default audio output to 24bit 41000Hz? Any other of the 8 settings don't work. Very strange. But both Denon and Intel point to each other as the culprit. Gigabyte asked me to hook it up to my TV...duh.
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post #58 of 103
4/7/10 at 12:32am
Pardon me for jumping in late into this thread, but I've only just finished building my first HTPC, and I'm seeing some (but not all) of the same problems with my setup - which also includes a Denon...

My setup is: HTPC - HDMI - Denon 3808CI - HDMI - Panasonic TX-37LZD800

The HTPC:
- Gigabyte GA-H57M-USB3
- Intel Core i3 530 / 2.93 GHz
- Corsair XMS3 - DDR3 - 4 GB ( 2 x 2 GB )
- Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD2500BEVT 250GB
- Microsoft Arc Keyboard
- Microsoft Arc Mouse
- Hauppauge MCE Remote Control Kit
- LiteOn - s104 BD-ROM
- Nexus Value 430 power supply
- Silverstone Grandia GD05B case
- Microsoft W7 Home Premium OEM 64bit

I only have TMT3 and MyMovies installed with 7MC - no additional codec packs or stuff such as ffdshow or reclock. I have installed the latest version of Intel's MEI.

What I experience:

1). I can confirm the Denon OSD issue; the Denon OSD only appears if I set the HTPC to use the RGB colourspace, rather than the xvYCC extended colourspace that I think I should be using with my HDTV... And setting the xvYCC colourspace using the Intel-provided control panel is problematic. Sometimes it sticks, and sometimes it just reverts back to the RGB setting. No idea why.

2). I had a weird error that occurred when I tried to play an online DVD or Blu-ray. Windows Media Center would report a Video Error of the form:

Video Error: Files needed to display video are not installed or not working correctly.

Trying to diagnose it led me to believe that it has absolutely nothing to do with the video side of things, but rather some incompatibility in the audio chain. For example, the error would go away if I turned off the navigation sounds in Windows Media Center. Even more bizarrely, I found that someone had reported that you could have navigation sounds in Windows Media Center and working online media files if you:

- Set the Windows 7 HDMI Playback device to Stereo
- Set the Speaker configuration in Windows Media Center to 5.1 channels

I tried it and it works. No idea why. It follows no rhyme or reason, given that my AVR is a Denon 3808 with a physical configuration of 7.1 channels/speakers. Just bizarre.

3). A niggle is that the HDMI handshake is relatively slow in getting everything set up between the HTPC, the Denon and the HDTV. The latter tries a couple of times in the space of about five seconds before it achieves a perfect picture. This is far, far better than the original situation with my old Panasonic DMP-BD30 player with the Denon and the HDTV - there, it could take anything up to several minutes before a stable picture was obtained. Needless to say, if I take the Denon out of the chain, the handshake issues disappear.
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post #59 of 103
4/7/10 at 6:51am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by gcoupe View Post

Pardon me for jumping in late into this thread, but I've only just finished building my first HTPC, and I'm seeing some (but not all) of the same problems with my setup - which also includes a Denon...

My setup is: HTPC - HDMI - Denon 3808CI - HDMI - Panasonic TX-37LZD800

The HTPC:
- Gigabyte GA-H57M-USB3
- Intel Core i3 530 / 2.93 GHz
- Corsair XMS3 - DDR3 - 4 GB ( 2 x 2 GB )
- Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD2500BEVT 250GB
- Microsoft Arc Keyboard
- Microsoft Arc Mouse
- Hauppauge MCE Remote Control Kit
- LiteOn - s104 BD-ROM
- Nexus Value 430 power supply
- Silverstone Grandia GD05B case
- Microsoft W7 Home Premium OEM 64bit

I only have TMT3 and MyMovies installed with 7MC - no additional codec packs or stuff such as ffdshow or reclock. I have installed the latest version of Intel's MEI.

What I experience:

1). I can confirm the Denon OSD issue; the Denon OSD only appears if I set the HTPC to use the RGB colourspace, rather than the xvYCC extended colourspace that I think I should be using with my HDTV... And setting the xvYCC colourspace using the Intel-provided control panel is problematic. Sometimes it sticks, and sometimes it just reverts back to the RGB setting. No idea why.

2). I had a weird error that occurred when I tried to play an online DVD or Blu-ray. Windows Media Center would report a Video Error of the form:

Video Error: Files needed to display video are not installed or not working correctly.

Trying to diagnose it led me to believe that it has absolutely nothing to do with the video side of things, but rather some incompatibility in the audio chain. For example, the error would go away if I turned off the navigation sounds in Windows Media Center. Even more bizarrely, I found that someone had reported that you could have navigation sounds in Windows Media Center and working online media files if you:

- Set the Windows 7 HDMI Playback device to Stereo
- Set the Speaker configuration in Windows Media Center to 5.1 channels

I tried it and it works. No idea why. It follows no rhyme or reason, given that my AVR is a Denon 3808 with a physical configuration of 7.1 channels/speakers. Just bizarre.

3). A niggle is that the HDMI handshake is relatively slow in getting everything set up between the HTPC, the Denon and the HDTV. The latter tries a couple of times in the space of about five seconds before it achieves a perfect picture. This is far, far better than the original situation with my old Panasonic DMP-BD30 player with the Denon and the HDTV - there, it could take anything up to several minutes before a stable picture was obtained. Needless to say, if I take the Denon out of the chain, the handshake issues disappear.

Make sure you set up your Win7 speaker config to 2 channel stereo and leave it there. It shouldn't affect the source from playing back in full audio and your AVR decoding it properly.

Have you set your default audio output format to 24bit 44100Hz? While not perfect, that will give me audio consistently from all sources.

Still haven't figured out of the OSD issue...probably never will. This weekend I'm going to go buy a new motherboard and memory to see if a new motherboard is any different. I found a Fry's fairly close to me and they carry all the latest hardware.
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post #60 of 103
4/8/10 at 11:53am
Quote:
Originally Posted by lancia View Post

Make sure you set up your Win7 speaker config to 2 channel stereo and leave it there. It shouldn't affect the source from playing back in full audio and your AVR decoding it properly.

Have you set your default audio output format to 24bit 44100Hz? While not perfect, that will give me audio consistently from all sources.

Still haven't figured out of the OSD issue...probably never will. This weekend I'm going to go buy a new motherboard and memory to see if a new motherboard is any different. I found a Fry's fairly close to me and they carry all the latest hardware.

FYI, for me only 16bit 44100Hz works. 24bit does not.

I also have set my Win7 speaker config in that way to avoid issues. It has been more stable.

Recently, I've had more stability issues related to my HDHomeRun and the Intel drivers. I don't have enough testing in yet to confirm, but I think the Intel driver issues may have been caused by loading the latest drivers directly from Intel's website rather than the latest ones blessed by Gigabyte on their website (they're not the same).
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