[Kabn]

I have two machines:

CURRENT

• Dell SC420
• P4 2.0Ghz
• 1GB RAM
• Windows XP SP3
• Windows Media Connect

TEST

• Custom built
• Athlon64 3200+
• 1GB RAM (soon 2GB)
• Windows 7 RC
• WMP11

I currently stream music and videos from CURRENT in my office to a ShowCenter 200 in the living room. Music playlist functionality in WMC is spartan at best (I was spoiled by Pinnacle's software), and I would like to utilize WMP11 and its built-in UPNP server to get the playlist flexibility added to the folder-based navigation available in WMC. To that end, I'm testing WMP11 on TEST. I have tried other UPNP server software in the past (TVersity, Twonky, Winamp, etc.), but have decided on WMP for now.


Everything went pretty well right up to the point where I tried to stream a video file from TEST. The video quality and processor/memory utilization suggest WMP11 is transcoding the video before it goes out, which is wholly unnecessary since the ShowCenter device plays the files without issue from CURRENT via WMC (Xvid in AVI container). Video quality is significantly degraded and the picture no longer fits the screen.


I just know this is going to be a simple setting, but I have looked in WMP11 and the sharing settings within Windows itself for about three solid hours over the last few days to find something that disables this. I have disabled file conversion for synced devices, but nothing changed. Everything else is working the way I expected, but if this can't be disabled, I'm going to have to start looking for different server software.


Any help toward disabling the transcoding would be very much appreciated.

 

[ex2014jf]

WMP11 does not come with Windows 7 WMP12 does (unless you'd somehow installed it - I know there are supposed hacks out there)


WMP12 has a transcoding engine although the conditions of when it kicks in are hard to say (I haven't seen any up to date documentation) it should only when the device does not support the media which is as far as I know how it's meant to work.


Your running the Win7 RC your still going to encounter bugs, the video quality in the Win 7 RC WMP12 when it came to XviD content wasn't that great (it was an issue brought up in Doom9 forums) it may have been corrected in final build and it may be that's what your seeing it's not transcoding.

 

[Kabn]



Quote:
Originally Posted by ex2014jf /forum/post/16986128


WMP11 does not come with Windows 7 WMP12 does (unless you'd somehow installed it - I know there are supposed hacks out there)


WMP12 has a transcoding engine although the conditions of when it kicks in are hard to say (I haven't seen any up to date documentation) it should only when the device does not support the media which is as far as I know how it's meant to work.


Your running the Win7 RC your still going to encounter bugs, the video quality in the Win 7 RC WMP12 when it came to XviD content wasn't that great (it was an issue brought up in Doom9 forums) it may have been corrected in final build and it may be that's what your seeing it's not transcoding.

It appears it is WMP12; thank you for the correction.


I have checked all the settings for the device within WMP and and Windows sharing center and can't find a way to keep it from transcoding video going to the it. I just find it odd that the exact same media is being streamed without issue from an older version of WMC while this new implementation within WMP12 is transcoding it no matter what. It seems amazingly ignorant to not give the user the choice of whether the software transcodes media bound for a certain device.


Xvid performance in Windows 7 should not be an issue since I'm just looking for a way to disable it from ever touching the media: if the UPNP server within WMP12 works the way I wish it to, it will simply act as a glorified file server, never decoding/encoding anything. The device does support the media as it is able to play it from another server. WMP is transcoding: the processory/memory usage as well as the process names noted as soon as the file is played are evidence enough.


I will be ordering a Popcorn Hour C-200 the minute they're available, so maybe I should just make do with my current setup and use MyiHome when I get that.

 

[pete1122]

I am also having the same problem with Windows 7, it is transcoding all my files to my extender when it does not need to. Has anyone found out a way to diable transcoding in Windows 7?

 

[Magendanz]

I'm seeing the same problem streaming to a D-Link DSM-510. Ironically, everything worked fine before calculating my performance index, but now that it knows it has the processing power, it insists on transcoding video that would normally play natively on the device.


I'm sure this is just a regkey setting to disable, but I haven't yet found it.