Back on the blog!

Hello! Sorry, I've not been blogging of late - did anyone miss me? No..? Oh well...

A lot has happened to my Freesat/Freeview HTPC since my last post... so here's they are itemised!

1. Windows Vista HTPC
So I tried moving to Vista on my P4 based machine, and found it quite slow. I upgraded the memory to a full 4Gb - to find that the bios can't deal with more than 3.4Gb. I bought a Readyboost USB stick to improve performance, but that did not help too much. The machine was still a pain to use... so I tried...

2. Windows 7 HTPC
Windows 7, initially gave the impression of being speedier, but after a while I found it was pretty much like Vista in terms of performance. I also found Windows 7 to be lacking drivers and codecs that I needed to play some media files.

I was so un-impressed with both VMC and 7MC that I had no time for it. I suppose I could have made an effort and installed some mods or skins but found the V/7MC experience so poor compared to MediaPortal that I didn't...

3. Windows XP HTPC
So after all the faffing about with Vista and Windows7, I had to return to Windows XP. What a great version of Windows this is... really. A brand new install, and tweaked immediately to give a faster boot up.

Now it boots up so fast that if I put MediaPortal in the startup menu item, it starts up way before the other applications (such as anti-virus) starts that it no longer becomes the foreground application - and the remote does not control it!

4. MediaPortal 1.0.2 and 1.1.0
5. Removal of 7010ix tuner!
6. Dreambox plug-in
7. Dead PSU!

MP: Scheduled a recording...

With ITV HD testing upscaling of their SD material on their HD stream and with the fact that in MP 1.0.2 there a recording timer facility under the TV section, I performed an experiment...

I turned on my HTPC, went into the TV section, turned on the TV and tuned into a blank channel. I then setup a timer to record The Matrix Reloaded on the ITV HD channel, and left it. Before I went to bed, I setup WinOFF to turn off the HTPC 5 mins after the timer ends.

The next morning, I checked the HTPC to see that it was off, and booted it up to check to see if the timer had recorded. All was successful - it was off and the timer had recorded ITV HD!

Here's some screen grabs upscaled of The Matrix Reloaded! (It took me a while to fine where the 14Gb ts file was, as MP had not put the recording to where my settings was pointing to...)


And for those who want to compare the PQ look at this screengrab from Blu-Ray.com and my screen grab:


Spot the difference! :) (open both in new windows...)

Upgrade to Windows 7

After experiencing the sluggish behaviour of Vista, I decided to upgrade it to Windows 7!

The beta version of Windows 7 (which is still available to download, running out in July next year) allows you to upgrade from Vista. The upgrade took a while to perform on my P4, but went without a hitch. Someone informed me that VMC is not upgraded in the process but it seems to have done so. Although I had not configured VMC too much, it certainly seems to have upgraded, rather than forcing me to start from a fresh set up.

But it looks like the 'upgrade' has only upgraded the OS. It has certainly not transferred the VMC settings to 7MC - I had to perform a retune to get back my TV channels. In fact, I had to do this with MediaPortal too... I guess it didn't want to keep any TV channel settings!!

More memory woes...

So I bought 2 x 1Gb memory sticks to replace my 2 x 512Mb sticks that made up my 3Gb of RAM in the P4 HTPC, only to find out that the BIOS could only handle 3Gb. Initially I thought the memory was faulty but the constant 3Gb value that appeared each time I moved the sticks about in different configurations... was a good indication that there was a limit of some sort.

I had to perform a BIOS upgrade to see if I could get more than 3Gb of memory to appear, so I has to find out how to perform a BIOS upgrade... After much, much fiddling about - I could not get a floppy disk and drive to work - I burnt a bootable CD and performed a successful flash with that. Now the PC can see 3.4Gb of memory! It wasn't worth the effort, man! All I am hoping for is that the some of the 3.4Gb is not being used by the GPU - that the GPU memory is addressed separately and that is why only 3.4Gb can be addressed for the rest of the system... I don't even know where the rest is being used...

The two USB flash drives have also arrived and I am using one as the Readyboost drive. I'm not to sure that it has speeded anything up or not - too early for me to tell.. The other USB flash drive has not been used to buffer MediaPortal TVServer yet. I am having a problem with decoding TV with the codecs on the HTPC at the moment, having only installed PDVD9, CCC codec pack, and TMT3. I haven't experimented with all the codecs but PDVD9 for TV gives jerky pictures...

Running total:

• Antec Veris Remote Max HTPC case @ £133
• Pinnacle 7010iX Dual Analog + DTT + Dsat tuner card @ £23
• 2 x 1 Gb PC2-4200 DDR2 RAM @ £20
• Pentium 4 CPU fan @ £15
• SATA DVD rewriter @ £15
  
• HD 2600 Pro GPU @ £23
• Zalman GPU heatsink @ £10
  
• Liteon BD-ROM @ 45
  
• 2 x 1 Gb PC2-4200 DDR2 RAM @ £20
• 2 x 4Gb flash drives @ £10

Total: £314

Recall, recall, recall...

Well, it is not a problem with the memory - I ran MemTest for 4 hours and not one error resulted. So what can it be that is causing my PC to freeze and on reboot give me the access violation blue screen of death? I have to do more investigating... But, I've managed to boot up into Vista without the bluescreen and reboot, so that's something...

In the meantime, I've been reading up on speeding up Vista and all the googles return talk about Readyboost, so I've ordered two 4Gb USB sticks off Play.com which are Readyboost ready! One to use as the Readyboost memory cache, and the other as a buffer for MediaPortal's TVServer (for it to buffer TV to, instead of writting to the HDD). We will see how this goes...

I've also ordered two 1Gb memory sticks to raise the memory in the HTPC from 3Gb to 4Gb. I am also thinking about getting a controllable 120mm case fan (or a 120 to 80mm adaptor), as I think it might be the heat that is causing my PC problems. Currently I do not have the case's two fans plugged in due to the noise they make!

Working Blu-ray but not Vista!!

So I sent away the BD-ROM drive back to Scan to get a replacement. It cost me £6.70 to post it to be signed for and insured, and within a couple of days I got a new drive back.

I fitted this back into my HTPC (now with Vista Ultimate installed) and TMT3 could play the Blu-ray movies I (eventually) got from Amazon! This was an unexpected result - it looks like the previous drive was dodgy - refusing to play the discs and wanting to update the AAC keys which did not succeed. Well, I wasn't going to declare success with Blu-ray playback until I had a chance to test it with PowerDVD. This weekend I had the chance, and installed PowerDVD 9, and low and be hold... it worked. PDVD9 could playback the Blu-ray discs it had complained about before. Great!

Unfortunately, not so great on the Vista front. I've now solved my display blanking out half way through watching a video - I had to turn off alsorts of power saving features in Vista, and the clincher was disabling the GPU's power saving mode. I thought all my problems were solved until, while watching a movie, the HTPC froze! On reboot, I get a bluescreen 'access violation' of death and the machine reboots again... :( (Now I have to solve this problem!)

Vista Media Center

So with all the Blu-ray shenanigans I took the chance to scrub the HDD and installed Vista Ultimate and try out Vista Media Center.


The first problem is that it could not play some of my AVI files properly - it could play the sound but did not show the picture! After much messing around with installing codec packs (Vista Codec Pack and CCCP) and changing the settings - with the help of Media Player and MPC I did manage it in the end (having solved jerky playback in Media Player and MPC first).

The first impression of VMC is that it is slow (on this P4 machine)! And some actions lead to a blank screen or freeze (of the HTPC!) so not very good. I installed the iMON software and controlling VMC by the remote, and it works but I have to learn how to control it properly. The good thing about VMC and the iMON display is that it seems to work (unlike with MediaPortal).

But an odd thing about the Vista and VMC is the power saving features... you would think that when playing a video in VMC that the power saving routines would be disabled - but no! I've had this a few times now, first with Media Player and then with VMC - after a period of watching a movie - the screen blanks but the sound keeps going - then a lot of fuss to get the picture back, as you can't just wake the PC!

Say no to Blu-ray on your HTPC!

So with the past month's experiences of getting Blu-ray on my HTPC, the conclusion is that it is not worth it!

I've spent the weekend trying to get the playback of Blu-ray movies on my HTPC and not succeeding. I question this facility at the start of the build and I wish some had advised me against it. Since the price of Blu-ray players have dropped significantly, it is simpler to buy a CE device and place it under the TV than configure a PC for Blu-ray playback. The main problem being the copy protection - without a working version of AnyDVD - playback simply does not work! (I've tried various software that claims Blu-ray support and playback, PowerDVD, WinDVD, and TotalMedia Theatre, and none of them can deal with the AAC protection, producing errors of some sort...

Whereas, a CE Blu-ray player will simply play the discs without a hitch! I even installed my recent purchase of Vista Ultimate, which recognise Blu-ray media, but still presents the copy protection problems. I have decided to return my superficially damaged BD-ROM drive and keep to one side or put it on eBay, and return to Blu-ray playback on the HTPC when the has completely product matured.

Meanwhile, the playback of 2001 and Bladerunner on my Blu-ray player was superb. Although these two transfer did beat broadcast HD, it all depends on which movie you purchase on Blu-ray to be wowed. Unless you are a real film enthusiast and one who likes picking specify titles to buy and watch, you are not missing out on HD on Blu-ray if you only have broadcast HD to watch.

Blu-ray Player

So after contacting Amazon again to query about my disc not arriving, they have actually sent me them now. I have the two Blu-ray discs sitting on my desk now!

In the meantime I contacted Scan about return my BD-ROM drive, which unfortunately turns out that I am unable to for a refund. Since it arrived damaged, I could return it on that basis, but unfortunately, they only give 48hrs for you to contact them. The only thing I can do now is to return it under my Scansure insurance, which will replace the superficially damaged drive and not for a refund.

I still have to decide whether it is worth returning, as the damage is superficial and the drive works with the fascia off inside the HTPC case. The only problem is that the eject button does not work, as the external case button can not touch the internal ROM drive button. I will have to pay postage for the return to Scan for a replacement - effectively paying £5 for a new fascia...

I've been having problems with playing Blu-ray disc on the HTPC, but I when I've got it to play, I wasn't very 'overwhelmed' by the PQ of Blu-ray. Admittedly the Amadeus transfer to Blu-ray is not the best but I had expected it to be of better quality than broadcast HD pictures on Freesat.

So thinking maybe it was my GPU/HTPC and PowerDVD that could pump out the PQ of the Blu-ray movie, I went and spent £100 on an end of line Samsung BD-P1500 Blu-ray player. I watched Amadeus from start to finish on this device (had not done this on the HTPC) and noticed that certain scenes were good, I concluded that the PQ was as good as the HTPC, but was still not overwhelmed by the PQ over broadcast HD.

Admittedly, the Samsung BDP isn't the top of the range device, and that the Amadeus movie PQ is top notch, I will try out Bladerunner and 2001 on both the player and the HTPC and then tell you whether it is worth getting Blu-ray or not...

EDIT: I have found a Blu-ray plug-in for MediaPortal: ArcSoft Player

Manual recording with MP

I made my first recording last night with MP. I started a manual record of Torchwood on BBC HD at 9:02pm and left it to record. I set WinOFF (an auto shutdown program) to turn off at 10:05pm and left my HTPC recording...

In the morning I checked to see if it had recorded OK. I booted the HTPC and started MP, and found it was still recording! Well it seemed to have kicked off recording where it left off, so I made a manual stop, and yes, it only recorded a minute. I looked in my recordings list to find two recordings:

The times indicating the length of the newest recording was fine, but the Torchwood recording showed 21:02-21:02! I quickly checked to see if it had made the full recording... and fast forwarded to the end - and it seemed fine and complete.

So I posted on the MediaPortal forum, to find out that this how it behaves if the recording was cut short (like if WinOFF has turned off the HTPC), and the only way of fixing this is to edit the database entry for this recording! (read this post). So the lesson is to learn how to schedule timers within MP, or use ForTheRecord to make my recordings...

Anyway back to the Blu-ray playback. Well I uninstalled AnyDVD, and tested PowerDVD8 on the Blu-ray disc check - and unfortunately this fails. There is still this bug in PDVD and so its use for playing Blu-ray must be inconjunction with AnyDVD. I also noticed that the BD-ROM drive seems to be whirling all the time now (whereas with PDVD9 it would stop after a while).

My other Blu-ray movies still have not arrived! It's been over 7 (working) days since the 3 were posted. I contacted Amazon and ask them where the other two were and got a reply saying to wait for another week incase it is slow in the post! Well, I can't see why one would arrive and not the other two, so I am suspicious that two of them are lost...