TotalMedia Theatre 5 - Page 7

TMT5 needs to fix the windowed thing. That's a common complaint.

I would say TMT5 still has to heal from it's teething problems for now...

In a few months we will be able to tell...

I was watching a BR iso with TMT5 today and I noticed that there was no sound (I was bitstreaming) anymore after rewinding, skipping a chapter or continuing play back after a pause.
After the third time of losing audio, I fired up PDVD10 and enjoyed an error free playback...

For now I would keep fingers crossed and see how things pan out with TMT5.

Agreed - I purchased TMT5 and cannot use it because of the incompatibility with MM3 - seems a bit murky as to who is at fault, but at this point it was a wasted $50....

I just got the new 3-disc set of Avatar and it unfortunately stutters on TMT5. Tried disabling Aero but that was no better. I guess it already needs an update.

EDIT: Curiously, TMT3 plays the movie with zero issues.

Well, I will be sticking with TMT3 for now and save my upgrade money for when TMT5 is in full form. It seems like it is never worth upgrading a HTPC as soon as something new comes out because so much software is linked together to provide a total solution for HD Media.

First thoughts (trial version):

Main player:

New UI/Features are nice if you plan on using TMT as your media hub/manager or if you are into eye candy. I'm not, so moving along...

MCE Player:

I absolutely HATE the changes to this player. I cannot stand the WMC UI/Navigation which is one of the main reasons I don't use WMC. If you like the WMC UI, you will like the the new TMT MCE player.

I prefered the stripped down UI of the old player. It could be launched from practically any application and fit in. Right Clicking or pressing the "Info" button on the remote would bring up a small but sufficient menu with quick access to the menu option you wanted. Now, it brings up an overlay that covers half the screen.

The issue of uMCEPlayer5 and MM3 rests squarely on the shoulders of ArcSoft. uMCEPlayer5 will not accept command line parameters to launch a movie from a specified drive or folder. It will always automatically play the first optical drive that contains a DVD/BD. There's not much MM can do about it.

3D:

Not tested due to lack of hardware.

Conclusions:

Since I only used TMT for BD and HD DVD playback and I only used the MCE player (until they broke the command line in TMT3), this new version offers nothing for me and is actually a step backwards. As with PDVD 10, I'm going to pass.

You guys do know they put out a hotfix for some of the MCE issues, right? I don't know if it fixes the command line issue with MM3, but, it's worth checking out. As this is an initial release, I'm not sure why people are expecting perfection given that *NO COMPANY* that has a player has ever released a flawless first new major version. PDVD10 had issues. PDVD9 had issues. TMT2 had issues. TMT3 had MANY issues. All improve over time. I'm not saying that TMT5 is for everyone, but, it's as though people forget that updates get released to fix problems. I'm not directing this at anyone in particular, and I already knew Vladd's opinion anyway. I can completely respect it. But, this is not the final release of TMT5. It's the first. And it's to be expected that there's going to be issues. Anyway, just my opinion. For me personally TMT5 is a step up, but, then I don't use the MCE interface for it. Yet.

Is anyone else getting a black screen when hitting stop (regular player, not in MCE)? I hit stop and get a black screen...then when I hit Exit (Ctrl-X) The UI appears for a quick second, then the program shuts down. NV GT430 260.99 drivers.

Edit: After further testing, I had Disable Aero unchecked (Aero works fine in TMT3)...after checking Disable Aero, the UI appears after hitting stop.

Edit II: New problem introduced now...the Aero disable process takes focus away from TMT and puts it on the Windows Task Bar. No way to clear the task bar away (and get focus back on TMT so the remote works) without using the mouse. Needs work. I'll go back to using Aero...or TMT 3

Last one I hope: Setting Always On Top gets rid of the task bar, but it still doesn't have focus...you still need to click somewhere on the screen, with the mouse, for the remote to work.

P

No I didn't. I'll look at that. And in my defense, I did say that it was my "first thoughts"

I didn't have a problem with your thoughts. Ok, ok, I was giving you a hard time. I admit it. LOL! Seriously, though, I do get that TMT5 is not going to be for everyone, and that with this first version there's DEFINITELY going to be (already are) problems. It's just not been vetted by the entire user base yet who have myriad of different configurations of hardware and software. Look how long it took to get TMT3 stable. Build 160 for the most part. I expect that TMT5 will go through some growing pains, too, but, I do think overall it's a better player IMO.

I tested the patch. I can now launch DVD folders from the command line but not BDs.

It would also be nice if the MCE player would launch in fullscreen mode when launched from outside Media Center.

Yeah, our bar for commercial software has definitely been lowered thanks to Bluray.

(ArcSoft is not alone here and I'm sure they are cursing Bluray at this point too.)

Yea, both are known issues that ArcSoft is aware of. God help them if they don't fix them.

Pretty pathetic, isn't it? This is all due to the stupid protection requirements put on software players. If they could just concentrate on writing good software, we'd ALL be better off.

BD is also much more complex and flexible than DVD. Sometimes the other side of that sword isn't pleasant.

Oh believe me, I completely understand that. And that's really my point exactly. If the developers were allowed to focus on implementing the spec rather than focusing on asinine protection requirements such as BD+, Cinavia, and Protected Audio Path, then perhaps the players would be in better shape at matching standalones. We'd have had bitstreaming long ago. No downsampling means we'd have had less audio decoding bugs (maybe). We'd probably have things like bitstreaming HD DVD and MKV. Maybe auto refresh rate switching. ETC. I get that it's complex. It's even MORE complex artificially.

Yep. Just what the studios intended.

Did they ever fix the command line option for the v3 MCE Player? I honestly don't know but would like to. It would be nice to have it usable again.

At least they're stomping out piracy. Oh... wait... no... that should be "customers" not "piracy"

While I agree with you, TMT3 had the exact some problem playing from folders in WMC when it came out. Archsoft really should know better and not have blown it again this time around. That on is totally on them.

Retail Upgrade purchased version:
I have tested quite a bit with BD movie folders using MCE/MyMovies3 (with the hotfix) and I agree with vladd regarding the MCE player and the new UI with the overlay. I had my URC MX-980 remote programed with one button to turn on or off the popup information (useful when testing). Playback of discs/iso seems to work fine, but folder playback is still iffy. I have found one BD folder, Armored, that won't play with uMCEPlayer5, but plays fine with standalone player. Many times when trying to play a BD folder from MyMovies it will flash away from the MyMovies screen for a moment and then comes back and never loads the movie. If you keep pressing play eventually it will get to the disc screen (I hate this screen) and then loads up the small window and start playing. Stoping the movie and then hitting back button on my remote will work, but if you don't exit the application after stopping it it usually won't load another file until you close WMC and reopen.

My 2 cents: I think the picture quality is vastly improved for DVDs and Disc/ISO playback seems to be mostly trouble free. Remote functions properly for both the standalone and MCE interface. On the other hand, if you have many folder rips that you want to play from either Media Browser or MyMovies I suggest you wait until the bugs are worked out as I am sure they will be at some point .

I don't know how they do development at ArcSoft, but most places take the prioritized feature list and work their way down with a date in mind. Depending on how much code is shared b/w TMT5 and older revs this could just be a feature that didn't make the cut for initial scope.

I haven't been able to get Reclock to start with either TMT5 players. I have added them in the Advanced Tab, with load and ask, but it never loads or asks. SamuriHL are you using reclock with TMT5? If so, did you have to do anything special to get it to load?

I have no problem with locks on the doors. But it shouldn't be easier to break into the house than it is to open the lock with the key.

As for the poll, part of that 42% could just be listening to it online from legitimate sources and not actually downloading.

I don't know. I thought they had done some stuff with the command line on the MCE UI but I don't use it so I'm not sure.

Yup. I agree with you. Carelessness in that case.

As a software engineer I can tell you that if you're working on two branches of code at the same time, you absolutely *MUST* port any fixes you do to both code lines. Else you run into this kind of nonsense. It means their engineering practices are faulty. Nothing more than that.

The real problem is that "purveyors of content" confuse the nature of the good they sell with the distribution of the good they sell.

Digital goods are non-rivalrous in consumption (i.e. marginal cost approaches zero and consumption doesn't devalue* the good) so decoupled from distribution the price should approach zero over time. Distribution on the other hand is rivalrous (whether physical or IP based), so in economic terms that is what you need to pay for.

* can you steal something w/o taking it away?

Yes. It's more involved than that. I've asked James to update ReClock when he gets a chance, but, for now follow this:

http://forum.slysoft.com/showpost.ph...99&postcount=7