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Assassin's Simple/Beginner HTPC Buying Guide - Page 401

post #12001 of 15486
3/19/12 at 5:56pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by assassin View Post

Try the new VLC out and use it just for bluray disc. I have no idea if it works or works well so I would be interested to know as well. And its free so there is little downside.

That's what I intend to do, but I will need to get my hands on a Blu-Ray disc first as we don't currently have any in our collection
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Gear mentioned in this thread:

post #12002 of 15486
3/19/12 at 5:59pm
Power Settings.....Issues.

So, been using the sleep mode when calling it a night for the htpc. No problem awaking it again with the remote. In this setting, I did not have WMC launching automatically. I had to launch it on the desktop or use the Green Button. No Issues. Also, had windows prompt for the account login in this setting each time the rig was waken.

Now, configured without any user login prompts and allowed WMC to launch automatically. When I either press the sleep button or leave the rig on all the time, it resumes if sleeping on a black screen, froze..every time. If rig left on full power all the time, when I turn the AVR and TV on same issue, black screen or error stating WMC crashed or stopped working...and completely froze, have to hard reset rig everytime. This can't be good long term.

Assassin (or anyone!) - Do you have any suggestions on power settings or where I should be configuring proper power setting? Thanks Gents..
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post #12003 of 15486
3/19/12 at 6:02pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by cyberguy34 View Post

Power Settings.....Issues.

So, been using the sleep mode when calling it a night for the htpc. No problem awaking it again with the remote. In this setting, I did not have WMC launching automatically. I had to launch it on the desktop or use the Green Button. No Issues. Also, had windows prompt for the account login in this setting each time the rig was waken.

Now, configured without any user login prompts and allowed WMC to launch automatically. When I either press the sleep button or leave the rig on all the time, it resumes if sleeping on a black screen, froze..every time. If rig left on full power all the time, when I turn the AVR and TV on same issue, black screen or error stating WMC crashed or stopped working...and completely froze, have to hard reset rig everytime. This can't be good long term.

Assassin (or anyone!) - Do you have any suggestions on power settings or where I should be configuring proper power setting? Thanks Gents..

Could be a lost HDMI handshake causing the issue as well. Can you exit out of WMC when you put it to sleep or leave it on for extended period without using it?
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post #12004 of 15486
3/19/12 at 6:08pm
I have a problem. I have W7 ultimate. I have media browser. I have make mkv. And I have media center master. The problem is when use make mkv and select what I want to copy it seem to put 2 copies in media center master and it's a short clip. Also when I try to open some of the copied blu rays in WMC it's say cannot open file, but it will open and play in powerdvd12. I'm using:
ASUS P8Z 68M Pro
Gigabyte 6850 video card
Intel i5 2500k
Corsair 8gb ram
Crucial 128 bg ssd
Seagate 3 tb hard drive. 3 of them
LG BD burner.
I'm a Member of Assassin Blog but have no idea how email on the site.
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post #12005 of 15486
3/19/12 at 6:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by assassin View Post

Otherwise you are talking $50-$100 for software that doesn't work that well (in my experience).

TMT gives me closed captions, for which it's worth its weight in gold.
Different needs, different solutions.
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post #12006 of 15486
3/19/12 at 6:14pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by LastButNotLeast View Post

TMT gives me closed captions, for which it's worth its weight in gold.
Different needs, different solutions.

You mean subtitles?
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post #12007 of 15486
3/19/12 at 6:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by kesawi View Post

That's what I intend to do, but I will need to get my hands on a Blu-Ray disc first as we don't currently have any in our collection

Try your library. Mine has access to a surprising large and decent collection.
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post #12008 of 15486
3/19/12 at 6:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by assassin View Post

Could be a lost HDMI handshake causing the issue as well. Can you exit out of WMC when you put it to sleep or leave it on for extended period without using it?

I never exit out of WMC, I usually leave the last channel I was watching in liveTV mode when going to sleep or left on full power. I thought about the HDMI hand shake possibilities, but that shouldn't completely freeze/hang the htpc.

I prefer to use sleep mode on the htpc and resume while still in liveTV mode without re-launching it. Also, I hope disabling the windows user account login from sleep or re-start didn't break something, well it shouldn't. This was a extra step that my better half didn't care for each time she turned the TV on.

What do you suggest, or how do you configure your custom rigs for customers?
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post #12009 of 15486
3/19/12 at 6:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by assassin View Post

You mean subtitles?

No, there's a technical difference between subs and cc (which, sadly, I've forgotten). I have many TV shows on DVD that don't have subs, but do have ccs. HDMI doesn't allow the cc signal to go to the TV, which would otherwise decode the cc signal; TMT does the decoding and sends it to the set. Can't do that with any of my stand-alone players.

Which brings me to a good THANK YOU point:
I built my HTPC in January with relatively inexpensive parts (G530, ram on sale, etc.) since I wasn't sure how much I'd use or like a dedicated computer (especially running Windows, since I have several Macs). It turns out I LOVE it and use it all the time.
Thanks (again) for your support and guidance.
And be grateful you don't need subs or ccs (yet).
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post #12010 of 15486
3/19/12 at 6:34pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by kesawi View Post

That's what I intend to do, but I will need to get my hands on a Blu-Ray disc first as we don't currently have any in our collection

I just tried VLC to playback a bluray disc.

Epic fail.
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post #12011 of 15486
3/19/12 at 6:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by assassin View Post


I just tried VLC to playback a bluray disc.

Epic fail.

Yeah, whatever blu-ray lib they're using is terrible...
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post #12012 of 15486
3/19/12 at 7:00pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by cyberguy34 View Post

I never exit out of WMC, I usually leave the last channel I was watching in liveTV mode when going to sleep or left on full power. I thought about the HDMI hand shake possibilities, but that shouldn't completely freeze/hang the htpc.

I prefer to use sleep mode on the htpc and resume while still in liveTV mode without re-launching it. Also, I hope disabling the windows user account login from sleep or re-start didn't break something, well it shouldn't. This was a extra step that my better half didn't care for each time she turned the TV on.

What do you suggest, or how do you configure your custom rigs for customers?

Its almost impossible for me to trouble shoot. There are so many factors in play that its going to be tough to figure it out.

I would try to exit out of WMC to see if that fixes the issue. Handshake issues could hand WMC which could hand the PC.

Again, tough to troubleshoot remotely. Let us know what you find.
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post #12013 of 15486
3/19/12 at 7:01pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by LastButNotLeast View Post

Which brings me to a good THANK YOU point:
I built my HTPC in January with relatively inexpensive parts (G530, ram on sale, etc.) since I wasn't sure how much I'd use or like a dedicated computer (especially running Windows, since I have several Macs). It turns out I LOVE it and use it all the time.
Thanks (again) for your support and guidance.
And be grateful you don't need subs or ccs (yet).

Not a problem. Hope you used my guides to help get it all setup correctly and with less hassle.

Glad you got into HTPC!
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post #12014 of 15486
3/19/12 at 7:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cyberguy34 View Post


I never exit out of WMC, I usually leave the last channel I was watching in liveTV mode when going to sleep or left on full power. I thought about the HDMI hand shake possibilities, but that shouldn't completely freeze/hang the htpc.

I prefer to use sleep mode on the htpc and resume while still in liveTV mode without re-launching it. Also, I hope disabling the windows user account login from sleep or re-start didn't break something, well it shouldn't. This was a extra step that my better half didn't care for each time she turned the TV on.

What do you suggest, or how do you configure your custom rigs for customers?

I had similar check out this article/fix

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/w...9-63b985893bd6
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post #12015 of 15486
3/19/12 at 7:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by assassin View Post

Its almost impossible for me to trouble shoot. There are so many factors in play that its going to be tough to figure it out.

I would try to exit out of WMC to see if that fixes the issue. Handshake issues could hand WMC which could hand the PC.

Again, tough to troubleshoot remotely. Let us know what you find.

True, I hear you. I will continue to try other configs and report back.
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post #12016 of 15486
3/19/12 at 7:34pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by assassin View Post

I just tried VLC to playback a bluray disc.

Epic fail.

Which version of VLC?
They just released (today) 2.0.1 and it's supposed to play them
http://www.videolan.org/news.html
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post #12017 of 15486
3/19/12 at 7:37pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lars99 View Post

Which version of VLC?
They just released (today) 2.0.1 and it's supposed to play them
http://www.videolan.org/news.html

Yep. That's the one.
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post #12018 of 15486
3/19/12 at 7:44pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tomandbeth View Post

And if you pay for Prime, not only do you get great VOD but shipping on many items is free. I still check both Amazon and Bewegg for 'puter stuff though. Waiting for prices on 2-3 TB drives to come back to pre-flood prices. I won't hold my breath

Agreed. I've paid for my Amazon Prime membership several times over with all of the free shipping and the fact you can return EVERYHTING, no questions asked, for free too!
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post #12019 of 15486
3/19/12 at 7:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tomandbeth View Post

For those who had an interest in in the Asus BC-1281ST internal Blu Ray reader and MakeMKV, I've had no issues with it. I did NOT load the drivers that came with the player, just working with whatever MS had and the latest MKV version.

Agreed! Built mine last week and finally ripped a SD movie to see the protection error and just kept going. I ripped like everything else, pulled in the metadata with MCM and started the movie just fine!
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post #12020 of 15486
3/19/12 at 7:57pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cyberguy34 View Post

I never exit out of WMC, I usually leave the last channel I was watching in liveTV mode when going to sleep or left on full power. I thought about the HDMI hand shake possibilities, but that shouldn't completely freeze/hang the htpc.

I prefer to use sleep mode on the htpc and resume while still in liveTV mode without re-launching it. Also, I hope disabling the windows user account login from sleep or re-start didn't break something, well it shouldn't. This was a extra step that my better half didn't care for each time she turned the TV on.

What do you suggest, or how do you configure your custom rigs for customers?

Hit "STOP" before you put the HTPC to sleep. I have a Harmony and it is programmed to send a "STOP" command when the "OFF" button is hit and then turn everthing off. With that being said, I only let the TV and AVR turn off. The HTPC stays on 24/7 no sleep, off, or hibernate. Everthing seems to work so much better this way. I've never gotten an error in 6 months when turning on the TV and AVR since the HTPC is already on.
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post #12021 of 15486
3/20/12 at 1:54am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kalt45 View Post

Actually it appears that it does not have a speaker . I assumed it was either part of the MB or one of the many case wires I installed in the beginning (before I removed them all to test).

There was no obvious little wire leading to a small speaker in what I received from either the case of MB. Here is what I have:

ASRock Z68 PRO3-M
nMediaPC 5000b

some snips of Newegg comments about this board faking RMA:
"It doesn't beep to post, which if you get a blank screen at startup, can be scary. When I selected the DRAM profile that it detected for my RAM 7-8-7, the screen went blank and couldn't get signal. Fortunately F9 will reload the MB defaults, so I rebooted and kept pressing this. Then I manually set the RAM to 7-8-7 and all was good."
"As with other reviews here, the first board was DOA, at least seems to be...but it was not. After emailing ASRock tech support, they sent back test procedure with beep sound sequence (btw, not found in the manual). I was able to boot to EFI BIOS and it showed my i5 2500K 3.3Ghz CPU was overclock to 4.8Ghz. After loading BIOS defaults, everything booted up fine. FYI: If you order this board, you need to clear the CMOS first"

edit: what is CMOS?

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-cmos.htm

I know u gotta be freakin kidding me ... right ? No SPEAKER !

Should have still posted though . Yes absolutely reset the cmos . You can also go into the bios and reset to defaults . The board is set to o.c. from the factory ? Eh .... really , okay , that's a new one on me .

I have never had to do this on a brand new board but there is always a first time.

Normally you will need to manually set your ram timings in the bios to the specs of the manufacture BUT it will not usually keep you from posting . That is done after boot to get optimal performance out of your ram.

Sounds like your on the right path though and smooth move getting some help from the board manufacture / new egg
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post #12022 of 15486
3/20/12 at 9:33am
amazon $10 GC for $5. Just thought I'd post it here in case it gets missed.
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post #12023 of 15486
3/20/12 at 10:28am
Thread Starter 
Added Wilky13's awesome MCE Buddy guide today...

Guide 35B: Recorded TV: Transcode to a Smaller File Size, Remove Commercials, Download Artwork and Refresh Media Browser All Automatically

Wilky13 did a great job on this guide and its large and very thorough. It took me over 2 hours to add all the pics to the server and recompile them to the blog individually.

Enjoy!
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post #12024 of 15486
3/20/12 at 10:33am
Quote:
Originally Posted by assassin View Post

Added Wilky13's awesome MCE Buddy guide today...

Guide 35B: Recorded TV: Transcode to a Smaller File Size, Remove Commercials, Download Artwork and Refresh Media Browser All Automatically

Wilky13 did a great job on this guide and its large and very thorough. It took me over 2 hours to add all the pics to the server and recompile them to the blog individually.

Enjoy!

Thanks to Wilky13 and assassin!!
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post #12025 of 15486
3/20/12 at 10:49am
Quote:
Originally Posted by flocko View Post

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-cmos.htm

I know u gotta be freakin kidding me ... right ? No SPEAKER !

Should have still posted though . Yes absolutely reset the cmos . You can also go into the bios and reset to defaults . The board is set to o.c. from the factory ? Eh .... really , okay , that's a new one on me .

I have never had to do this on a brand new board but there is always a first time.

Normally you will need to manually set your ram timings in the bios to the specs of the manufacture BUT it will not usually keep you from posting . That is done after boot to get optimal performance out of your ram.

Sounds like your on the right path though and smooth move getting some help from the board manufacture / new egg

So I took the MB back home with me and reset the CMOS like the user manual said (which gives no indictation that anything is happening) and still nothing comes to the monitor. ASRock just wrote me a few minutes ago that it should work fine with just HDMI and that I should use the case speaker (suuure, just deflect the responsibility of providing a speaker to the case manufacturer..).

I'm just waiting for a chance to head over to Microcenter for a case speaker, then maybe, just maybe I will hear some beeps, which will tell me which device is malfunctioning. So simple yet so complicated.
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post #12026 of 15486
3/20/12 at 11:48am
Thread Starter 
In all fairness in my experience the speaker is usually provided by the manufacturer of the case. Some are built-in to the case and some are not. Some are not provided at all.
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post #12027 of 15486
3/20/12 at 11:50am
Thread Starter 
Windows 7 - Upgrade 3 Pack - $120

This is the cheapest I have seen it in a while.

http://www.buy.com/prod/windows-7-fa...id=116330530&&
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post #12028 of 15486
3/20/12 at 12:03pm
Can someone please point me to where I can learn more about madVR and what cards are compatible ? Is the integrated GPU on the Sandy/Ivy bridge capable ?
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post #12029 of 15486
3/20/12 at 12:07pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by HFGuy View Post

Can someone please point me to where I can learn more about madVR and what cards are compatible ? Is the integrated GPU on the Sandy/Ivy bridge capable ?

Here.

Most people think the GT430 makes an ideal entry level card for Madvr. You can also use the integrated Llano A6.

We are going to soon offer a "mini-Videophile" HTPC based on the Llano platform.
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post #12030 of 15486
3/20/12 at 12:17pm
Thanks ! I've been reading your blog and discovering I know even less than I thought.
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