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5 Posts
Ever had a situation where the more you read, the less you seemed to understand? I'm there. So I now turn to the experts....
Here is some background:
* I just purchased an Acer Aspire Revo. (The 1600 with the single-core Atom and nVidia Ion Chipset.)
* I then loaded Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit on it. I went to the nVidia site and downloaded/installed the latest Video Display drivers, HD Audio (HDMI) drivers and Chipset drivers. I am not specifically sure what these do, but I knew I had to add them.
Have I made any mistakes so far?
* Having enjoyed XP Media Center (2005) for years, I would really like to use Windows 7 Media Center as my media player of choice. Nothing against VLC, Media Player Classic, etc. I just really enjoy the MC interface.
* While most of my media consists of DVD rips in standard format (Audio_TS and Video_TS, etc.) I am beginning to convert those, as well as my blu-ray discs, to .mkv files with the h264 codec.
Now that I have stated that, I will tell you that I am very lost. While I can seem to grasp basic concepts, the true ins-and-outs of the requirements/possibilities elude me.
*Win7 Media Center - I think I understand that, unlike the WinXP I am used to, Win7MC has an inherent h264 decoder, yes? But I thought I read that a 'splitter' is also required but not inluded. Is that true? I think what throws me off is that I have gotten the impression that Win7MC does not play h264 mkvs out of the box. Why would MS included a decoder but not the additional required element?
* CoreAVC - I read an article on Lifehacker last week (which referenced a PCPro article) that talked about playing HD files with a combination of Media Player Classic Home Cinema and the CoreAVC Codec. While MPC-HC is not my media player of choice, I thought I saw upon further reading that CoreAVC works with windows (WMP, WMC), too. Is this true? Is it a superior decoder to the one inherent in Win7MC? I also read that CoreAVC comes with Haali Media Splitter, which would seem handy if an additional splitter is really needed.
*Direct X - Windows needs this, too, for video? I have heard of this forever, but I have no idea what it does, exactly. Furthermore, on the download page, there appeared to many different versions. I had no idea what I was looking at.
My two main questions are these:
1.) Can anyone offer me a basic explanation of how all these softwares work? More importantly, can you clarify of they integrate?
2.) How would you set up this PC so that it would play h264 HD content using Win7MC with minimal CPU usage and smooth playback?
I would very much appreciate any assistance!
Here is some background:
* I just purchased an Acer Aspire Revo. (The 1600 with the single-core Atom and nVidia Ion Chipset.)
* I then loaded Windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit on it. I went to the nVidia site and downloaded/installed the latest Video Display drivers, HD Audio (HDMI) drivers and Chipset drivers. I am not specifically sure what these do, but I knew I had to add them.
Have I made any mistakes so far?
* Having enjoyed XP Media Center (2005) for years, I would really like to use Windows 7 Media Center as my media player of choice. Nothing against VLC, Media Player Classic, etc. I just really enjoy the MC interface.
* While most of my media consists of DVD rips in standard format (Audio_TS and Video_TS, etc.) I am beginning to convert those, as well as my blu-ray discs, to .mkv files with the h264 codec.
Now that I have stated that, I will tell you that I am very lost. While I can seem to grasp basic concepts, the true ins-and-outs of the requirements/possibilities elude me.
*Win7 Media Center - I think I understand that, unlike the WinXP I am used to, Win7MC has an inherent h264 decoder, yes? But I thought I read that a 'splitter' is also required but not inluded. Is that true? I think what throws me off is that I have gotten the impression that Win7MC does not play h264 mkvs out of the box. Why would MS included a decoder but not the additional required element?
* CoreAVC - I read an article on Lifehacker last week (which referenced a PCPro article) that talked about playing HD files with a combination of Media Player Classic Home Cinema and the CoreAVC Codec. While MPC-HC is not my media player of choice, I thought I saw upon further reading that CoreAVC works with windows (WMP, WMC), too. Is this true? Is it a superior decoder to the one inherent in Win7MC? I also read that CoreAVC comes with Haali Media Splitter, which would seem handy if an additional splitter is really needed.
*Direct X - Windows needs this, too, for video? I have heard of this forever, but I have no idea what it does, exactly. Furthermore, on the download page, there appeared to many different versions. I had no idea what I was looking at.
My two main questions are these:
1.) Can anyone offer me a basic explanation of how all these softwares work? More importantly, can you clarify of they integrate?
2.) How would you set up this PC so that it would play h264 HD content using Win7MC with minimal CPU usage and smooth playback?
I would very much appreciate any assistance!