TV playback Software

[robdos]

Hi

Does any one know which software is used to play TV on MCE? My sound is really poor on live TV, but I have just noticed if I play a recorded TV programme then the sound is fantastic.

I presume this is because a recorded programme is played in PowerDVD, which enhances the sound, where live TV is played in another application?

I've tried google but no joy.....

Cheers,

Rob

[Danny Boy]

The same video decoder is used for live tv playback, recorded tv playback and dvd playback. I found that out when my windvd trial ran out and turned off hardware acceleration for all video in MCE. I've had choppy sound on MCE before but cant remember exactly how I fixed it. I think it was a decoder problem, so try switching to another decoder to see if it helps out. You can use this (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=DE1491AC-0AB6-4990-943D-627E6ADE9FCB&displaylang=en) tool to check which decoder you are using and select which one MCE will use for playback.

[robdos]

Thanks

I've checked with the m$ tool you posted and PowerDVD is the default.
The sound is not choppy, but tinny, completely different for everything else. I have rich sound in DVD playback and recorded TV, just not live TV. It sounds like it is not in 5.1 mode (there is an effect for that in PowerDVD)

Cheers

Rob

[Danny Boy]

Ah, ok. That still wouldnt explain the difference in recorded and live tv though, as they are essentialy the same thing, especially if you use time shift. If changing settings and swapping decoders doesnt fix the issue for you then you could try the age old MCE fix. Thats a simple 2 step process.

1) Format
2) Reinstall

Mce can be a real pain and if you're as unlucky as me you'll have to reformat every couple of months :(

[robdos]

ah heck....I've only had it a few weeks!

I'll have a play about before the dreaded.....

Thanks for your help

Rob

EDIT: Whats time shift?

[Danny Boy]

Time shift is where you pause or rewind live tv. MCE automatically buffers tv as you watch it, so you can skip backwards any time you want. Thats why I was saying watching live tv is basically the same as watching recorded tv, as it is just tv thats been recorded and is being played back.

You may get lucky with your installation, its just that some setups MCE really doesnt like. On my first 2 or 3 installs I had to remove all tv channels and scan for new ones once a week as MCE refused to get any signal on any channel. I'm now on install number 7 ish and it doesnt affect me any more, and no hardware has been changed! I think it just takes time and a bit of luck to get MCE up and running properly, but once its done and running smooth then you'll be happy you bothered :)

[robdos]

Ah cool. I guessed it was something to do with the recording....

Okay I've found a bodge for now. I had the Live TV on in a minimised window and opened PowerDVD, and as if by magic glourious sound :rolleyes:

Dropped power dvd into the start up for now which seems to be okay :D

Still a bit confused though :confused:

[nick_1]

I'm just wondering if you have installed any codec packs? It might be that one of those is loading and causing problems. It might be that when power dvd loads ac3 gets loaded correctly rather than the broken one from a codec pack. ac3 is one to look at along with any other audio codecs.

I hope that helps,
Nick

[robdos]

Essentially this is a new build PC, I have installed;

MCE
Drivers
Ran Windows Update (Everything)
Anti Virus (AVG Free)
MBM5
PowerDVD v4 OEM
Then upgraded to v6 Deluxe to get the 5.1 sound
MyUK

Thats all thats been installed, no codec packs.

My fix above is a pain as when you put a DVD in PowerDVD runs it, so does Windows so you end up with two copies playing at once. With no mouse thats a real pain!

[nick_1]

Thats all thats been installed, no codec packs.

My fix above is a pain as when you put a DVD in PowerDVD runs it, so does Windows so you end up with two copies playing at once. With no mouse thats a real pain!
It sounds like media center is running the old version of powerdvd then. What version numbers did the media center codec tool claim were active? My version numbers are 6.0.0.1014 and 6.0.0.1006 as it kept both versions installed when i did an update...

Nick

[robdos]

I understand. Wife is watching telly so cant check now, but I would imagine its okay, I'll check in a bit.

Its odd that DVD and recorded playback is ok?

[robdos]

Okay:

6.0.0.1006 is set as default and 3.5.0.1011 must be the old one.

Thanks,

Rob

[Danny Boy]

You should be able to set powerdvd to simply not autoplay when a disk is inserted. As I said before MCE can be very fussy. Sometimes the order in which you install everything changes how it works (no, im not kidding!). For me the specific order is:

1) Format
2) Install MCE
3) Install EVERY update (even optional ones)
4) Install drivers
5) Install dvd decoder
6) Load the MCE front end for the first time

But to be honest, if you can get powerdvd to stop autoplaying when you insert then I'd just leave it at that. If its in a working state dont mess with it, it could be a lot of work to get it back to that state again.

Another thing, you might want to look at installing My Movies (http://www.mymovies.name), its an awesome plugin :)

[nick_1]

Okay:

6.0.0.1006 is set as default and 3.5.0.1011 must be the old one.
Hi Rob,

I've just been hunting around online and the closest I can find was this:
http://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache:Sp9VK6fswYYJ:www.mcse.ms/archive212-2004-6-768508.html+audio+problems+watching+tv+media+cente r&hl=en&gl=uk&ct=clnk&cd=3
(Google cached page as the real one is down)

One solution I would try would be to try the nvidia purevideo decoder to see if that also has the same problem. I seem to recall having problems with powerdvd 4 but I never upgraded to 6. Sorry, I'm running out of ideas :(

Nick

[robdos]

Okay, thanks Nick and Danny

I'm out of time tonight, will have to wait until my wife is doing something else!

I'll try the Nvidia decoder first I think.

Thanks again

Rob

[robdos]

Morning

Could either of you do me a small favour? Could you go into the speaker set-up in MCE and see if the start of the wizard is always set to 2 speakers, or is it on 5.1 as you have it set up?

I think my issue is that MCE is forgetting the setting.

Thanks,

Rob

[Danny Boy]

None of them are actually selected, but by default the highlighted button is the 2 speaker one. You shouldnt have the white dot in any of the buttons though.

[robdos]

thanks

too short

[nick_1]

Hi again.

I've just had a codec problem of my own with media center. I don't know if this will help you but I took the video which was crashing media player and I ran it through gspot (http://www.headbands.com/gspot/) to see what codec was loading and causing me problems. You can then change the codec chains to resolve the problem. This might help you with your problem with live tv if you can find the file which is used for live tv timeshifting.

Nick

[robdos]

got completely tits off with this now, just doing a nice fresh install.

Got a free compy of PowerDVD 7 this week from Cyberlink so going to put that on with no upgrades :-)

[robdos]

Okay, it gets worse. Now the Cyberlink settings in MCE work with no audio output...!!! AAAHHHH this is driving me nuts! Even the dolby options dissapear from the menu!!

I cant even pick up at TV signal now!!

I'm at my wits end......