[Hallov]

Live in Hong Kong and we are probably a couple of years away from HD broadcasting.


Anyway, i got some TS files that i use VLC to play. Works pretty well but i have a fairly old PC (AMD 1800+, Radeon 8500) so will build a new HTPC that i will use for Panny plasma (ED) and projector (not decided but probably Sharp Z12000 or other HD2+ model).


My ? is if i would benefit from any HD decoder card and which one is best if so ?. Dont need any HD recording functions at this moment but.


THX !,

MH

 

[yatlee]

Hi fellow HK'er, I was on the same boat you were. I tried quite a few TS software player. Here are few you can try:


- Sasem Onair HD editor - I was using this for a while, but for some reason the time-out kicked in after a while. It use less CPU power than the VLC and provide better response on forward and backward.


- Media Player Classic - One that works pretty well for me and it pass thru DD and DTS thru SPDIF. Deinterlace mode works wonder for some of my problem file.


- TT 2.0 - You can read up on the other TT 2.0 thread. I use it a few time. works well other than some bugs to be fixed.


- MyHD - finally, comes hardware decoding. It plays pretty much all my TS file perfectly and the SPDIF from the DVI daughter card sounds a lot better than my on-board sound. The only complain is some of my files takes up to 5 mins before playback starts. However, once it plays, everything is fine.

I have not figure out a way to fix this.


There is another popular card out there - Fusion HDTV. The playback is using their software player (not hardware). I tried their demo player, it works pretty good as well.


Regards,


JB

 

[Hallov]

Thx alot JB for comment !.


Can i buy the MY HD card in HK or do i need to order it from US ?


Brgds,

MH

 

[jimwhite]

"- MyHD - finally, comes hardware decoding. It plays pretty much all my TS file perfectly and the SPDIF from the DVI daughter card sounds a lot better than my on-board sound. The only complain is some of my files takes up to 5 mins before playback starts. However, once it plays, everything is fine.

I have not figure out a way to fix this."


DON'T null-packet-strip your files !!!

 

[Jeraden]

It seems silly to me to drop $200+ for a MyHD card if you don't plan on using it for anything except the decoder.

Here's my experiences:


VLC - great for 720p, horrible for 1080i as the good deinterlacing algorithms take too much horsepower to run, and the bad ones are crappy. Although it gets the job done.


WinDVD6 - deinterlaces great. Only negative is that you can't jump ahead in the stream except via fast-forward, but then you lose picture while you do it over 4x, so you kind of have to guess at when to stop fast forwarding.


Media Player Classic - deinterlacing would probably depend on what video codec you use with it. My beef with it is that if you jump ahead in the stream the picture plays "catch up" for a while, which is annoying. I like to jump past commercials, but it takes about 10 seconds for the picture to re-sync with the sound when I do that.


TT2.0 - promising so far, but seek/FF is broken so its not useable to me at the moment. Supposedly going to patch that this weekend, at which point I think this would be the best option.

 

[Karyk]

Quote:

Originally posted by yatlee - MyHD - finally, comes hardware decoding. It plays pretty much all my TS file perfectly and the SPDIF from the DVI daughter card sounds a lot better than my on-board sound. The only complain is some of my files takes up to 5 mins before playback starts. However, once it plays, everything is fine. I have not figure out a way to fix this.

I believe this has something to do with null packets, or some such thing, not being in the TS file. I think I remember reading something about that in the forum on recording from a STB via Firewire.


You might try this lengthy thread or some other thread in that forum. Probably searching for MyHD would be best.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...light=firewire

 

[Dan Miller]

Quote:

Originally posted by Jeraden It seems silly to me to drop $200+ for a MyHD card if you don't plan on using it for anything except the decoder.

Not at all. The hardware playback absolutely CRUSHES any software playback as far as sharpness and overall PQ. The chip used in that card is the same as is used in many standalone STBs and does a wonderful job, and in addition you can get by with a PIII and still use it, since it offloads the chore from the CPU.


Trust me, it's my job to provide the HD content and playback for our booth at CES and CEDIA and I have spent countless hours examining at the pixel and even sub-pixel level all of the software solutions and no one comes close yet. That's not to say that it won't happen, but for $200, why not let your CPU do other things?

 

[Karyk]

A MyHD card would allow you to use almost any PC, regardless of video card. It contains it's own video output. This means an older PC could work, and that you wouldn't need to upgrade the video card.


This offers another advantage of being more like a STB as far as setting it up. It has pre-defined HDTV output resolutions that actually work!


Also, it allows you to upconvert DVDs to 1080i (although you'll need to buy a program to deal with Macrovision region restrictions). Software on a mid to high end computer does a better job of this, but this is a good solution for a low end computer or a computer without a very good video card.


I wouldn't assume that when HK goes HD, that it will be a system the MyHD can receive. But it doesn't sound like that's an important consideration, and if it can't you could always install a software based card that could, and use the MyHD card to watch the programs recorded with the software card.

 

[yatlee]

Quote:

Originally posted by jimwhite "- MyHD - finally, comes hardware decoding. It plays pretty much all my TS file perfectly and the SPDIF from the DVI daughter card sounds a lot better than my on-board sound. The only complain is some of my files takes up to 5 mins before playback starts. However, once it plays, everything is fine. I have not figure out a way to fix this." DON'T null-packet-strip your files !!!

Tried it already. Only got one program in the TS file; there are no other program. I've not had time to continue trying since. Any guide line what other thing I should remove? I have a "The Rock" TS cap.

 

[Hallov]

Thx alot for the feedback.


Gonna try the MyHD card; will see if they can send me one (i guess i could pay credit card or Paypal).


Will go with the DVI solution so guess that will set me back even further; still if it works, then i'll have HD playback and be a happy camper


Marcus

 

[Jeraden]

I dunno, I still think you are throwing money away. With the DVI daughter card you are talking about spending over $300 for a 2-slot hardware solution that will only offer marginal improvement over any fairly cheap software solution. If you are going to build a new HTPC anyways I'm assuming you will get a reasonably fast processor which means software decoding of HD streams won't be an issue as far as CPU usage goes. If you were going to watch HD live or record it, then its another story. Those people are just giving you bad advice.

 

[Dan Miller]

Quote:

Originally posted by Jeraden Those people are just giving you bad advice.

And you know this because...?


I have been working with high end video for about 30 years now. I have roughly 1 TB of stored TS data. Much of it professionally encoded from D5 master tapes. A handful are 40+ mbps.


1. Although it might not be of any importance, above 19.38 mbps, most software just won't do it. MyHD will upto about 50.


2. The MyHD solution isn't marginally better. It's alot better. Unless of course, quality is meaningless to you.


Now your qualifications are...?

 

[Jeraden]

Well it seems like money is no object to you then fine. Not everyone has cash to throw around like that for marginal picture improvements. Saying the MYHD picture quality "CRUSHES" software is a competely over-exaggeration. Maybe its worth $300 to you, but its not worth $300 to me, and I wouldn't call myself a tightwad or anything. I'm just trying to present the other side of the story. You don't need $300 worth of hardware to get acceptable TS file playback.

 

[Cliff Watson]

Dan,


Whatever you do, don't tell Jeraden the price of your projector.

 

[Karyk]

Quote:

Originally posted by Hallov Thx alot for the feedback. Will go with the DVI solution so guess that will set me back even further; still if it works, then i'll have HD playback and be a happy camper Marcus

No problem. I'm happy to give "bad advice" whenever I can.


I would warn you that there are some display devices that cannot deal well with the DVI portion of the MyHD card. I believe this is mainly certain Toshibas, but I haven't followed that for months (which might mean there's even a fix for the problematic units).

 

[Karyk]

Quote:

Originally posted by Jeraden I dunno, I still think you are throwing money away. With the DVI daughter card you are talking about spending over $300 for a 2-slot hardware solution that will only offer marginal improvement over any fairly cheap software solution.

I actually prefer software solutions for DVD playback, over the MyHD card. But I've yet to see a decent software solution for playing TS files when compared to MyHD. I'm significantly limited in computer horsepower, however, so others might have better experiences with the software programs.

 

[yatlee]

Quote:

Originally posted by Jeraden Well it seems like money is no object to you then fine. Not everyone has cash to throw around like that for marginal picture improvements. Saying the MYHD picture quality "CRUSHES" software is a competely over-exaggeration. Maybe its worth $300 to you, but its not worth $300 to me, and I wouldn't call myself a tightwad or anything. I'm just trying to present the other side of the story. You don't need $300 worth of hardware to get acceptable TS file playback.

I can attest that if one is watching it on a small display, you can hardly tell the different between software playback and MYHD. On a large display or Projector, it is not a marginal picture improvements (at least for me) and the picture is definitely smoother. For reference, I watch HD on a Mitshibishi HC 2000. Is it worth $300? Everyone has a different set of value standard, so I can't answer that.

 

[dlarsen]

I’d concur. I’ve always perceived SW decoders to be much softer than MyHD, HiPix or ADTV. I’ve used Ravisent, Elecard, Intervideo, OnAir, Videolan, and Nvida decoders with similar results. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that it can be difficult to get 1080i on the desktop but I also perceived similar when all are set @ 720p.

 

[Eiffel]

Ditto,


I have a few Fusion Cards (which I use with ATI video cards) and an AccessDTV hardware decode card... the picture the AccessDTV generates is significantly better... It feels much more '3D' for a lack of a better phrase.


This being said, I haven't done any testing yet with TT 2.0, which might improve on the bundled application/filters of the Fusion cards...

 

[mattmarsden]

I'm also interested in a solutions to use my PC to store all of my ts files, and I need a high quality playback.


Should I get the My-HD MDP120 with the DVI daughtercard?


Does this display the PC display as well as the HD output through the same DVI?


Presumably I don't need to mess about with the PC to get perfect 1080i timings - the card does this automatically?


What is the software interface like? Would I be able to use only a remote control to browse through my files to select what I want to play?