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Windows 7 and TMT 5 or any other player are not going to be compatible with the UHD as you are digesting. I don't use strm files so perhaps another user will reply? I just navigate episodes in the iso menu when available just like the physical disc used with a dedicated player.
I no longer use any platform except W10. I cannot comment when you upgrade from W7 if everything will work like it used to. W8.1 and W10 are UHD compliant. Some prefer W8.1 until W10 is further refined for a few very specific things that I don't think affect me like they do others. For example, W10 is said to be migrating away from Full Screen Exclusive mode which I presently use with no complaints, something I assume W8.1 will retain. These unknowns make it difficult for developers to set a stage permanently or work with or around them so prefer established platforms free of further confusion. As for which is better? Personally, I prefer state of the art and adjust as needed.
You prefer free players and want to play 3D after abandoning your present TMT and use 3D iso's which more than likely are Frame Packed while Cinavia and playlist obfuscation are concerning. Various rip techniques include the need for additional software such as the AnyDVD you mention. AnyDVD is a ripper and/or live iso reader as is other similar software. And you have to rip so...... unless you have a friend or someone doing it for you that needs to be more selective in their technique for future playback of those without AnyDVD and the likes. The only free player is MPC with components but you will not render menus. Same with UHD. To take full advantage of your complete 1:1 3D and UHD iso's, pay players are required. If you don't use special hardware required for UHD playback and PowerDVD, you might be interested in adding DVDFab Media Player since it plays UHD iso's with full menus requiring nothing special. Both can be had very inexpensive on EBay I've noticed. Like $15 for both since they are old versions phasing out but I use them currently and work perfectly fwiw. Whether or not the new versions are worth the upgrade is beyond me but folks are selling their old versions. This way you might have no need for your strm fiddling I assume while securing confident methods of playing anything you desire perfectly.
In all honesty, I have found that UHD needs no further refinements other than a stage to perform. The challenge is a player that induces HDR to engage/disengage automatically. madVR provides this function for supported players. That said, playback quality looks no different to me player to player as modern displays scale as good if not better than software. These other players also engage/disengage HDR automatically too. madVR will remain preferred for quality vs functionality for lesser resolutions including 1080p 3D and especially poorly performed rips. Understand, the HDR switch is for the Windows Movies & TV app player. It has nothing to do with anything we do here except remain off. In the event you prefer that, the only other free player that can accomplish HDR, understand its audio and video quality are extremely limited as is its automation.
Hope this adds to your research.
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No DVDFab player 3 does not play frame packed 3D. The tab is greyed out for me. I had one response that the same is true for the new v.5 thus my hesitation to upgrade so I still require PDVD for those when menus are desired. I don't stream anything nor like you, desire to convert to mkv, so interesting info there. Thanks. I have zero TV shows, but I do have documentaries and such. Some have multiple iso's from multiple discs. 3 for example containing 7 episodes combined. I make a season folder. Inside the season folder I create 3 more folders named disc1, 2, and 3. Within each of these folders I place the corresponding iso and name it S01E01.S01E02.S01E03 and so on for the remaining iso's. After scraping in KODI, each episode lists separate and plays individually as listed. Same with a single iso containing multiple episodes. Naming is the key so that KODI understands what it is asking a scraper to do afaik. Another advantage to iso is in the player displaying full menus, you can select the episode you desire either by choosing or skipping chapters. Mkv users have no idea what they're missing and how complicated some of the little details never mentioned actually are. Cheers.
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ok back on topic,
so if I go to 8.1 I can still use TMT for the 3D I have , spend $5 to get dvdfab player from ebay for UHD ( Russia , I hope the lisence code is valid , but if not have only wasted $5 ) . Lock the OS down so it cant get to internet - so i dont need AV or firewall, for my strm files.
I will have 2 external players - 3 if I use mpc as well ( just in case ) . .
I will have time to plan as I wont be buying the graphics card till about august. I need to get more info - am going btwn a nvidia 1030 , and 1050 Ti . Opinion is divided on whether the 1030 handles UHD and HDR all in hardware without stutter. Ok what is up with pricing? the cards prices have gone up about $30 or more recently - is there a shortage?
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I am surprised that TMT still works for you. It has been discontinued and unsupported for going on four years. Newer titles sometimes have newer encryption and newer layouts that players need updates to play. I think you're living well past borrowed time!
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ragico
Senior Member
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Hi Brazen1,
I always follow your thread.
One question: With your late configuration, which I have replicated on my Pc, it seems that the bit depth is 8 bit if the dektop resolution is 3840x2160px60Hz in Nvidia control center. Drivers are 390.65 and my GPU is Gtx 960 4 gb.
So, playng a 4k HDR mkv, what will be the bit depth applied? 8 bit or 12 bit?
Thanks for your attention.
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2018-03-20, 17:00
(This post was last modified: 2018-03-20, 17:10 by brazen1.)
Remember, this guide is about playing everything and 3D is a demand so you will have to see if a newer driver works for you since you are not as demanding. I was pointing out that newer drivers have a setting retention after reboot problem that affects 2D users. If memory serves me correct, 385.69 should work for you, perhaps even newer. I don't know how far back this new driver problem started? I installed the new driver and worked back a few versions and gave up and installed old faithful.
I had no problems with the few titles I tested in v.18 Leia. MPC-BE included. Special subtitle conditions worked and it auto exited as it should which seem to be the hardest things for these players to do as every other function works regardless of the environment they are used in. Ditto with MPC-HC. V.18 just didn't call them properly from the playercorefactory. V.18 better work it out or I simply won't be able to use it. playcorefactory.xml's have worked in harmony with KODI for a very long time so I anticipate it will continue but I've never seen new version alpha's where it didn't work.
V.18 is very different from previous milestones though mainly 64bit. Perhaps the playercorefactory integration is a 32bit application and it didn't carry over and isn't backwards compatible but I'm just guessing. In my brief testing a few times now, it was extremely quick and snappy opening, browsing, playing, and closing. Simple log was void of previous warnings generic to previous versions. There were moments when the switch back to native resolution and refresh rates after playback caused KODI to window, crash, and need an end task to restart it.
Estuary skin works very well. Little features it offers most don't pay attention to are performing like champs. I just don't care for the home page layout as I prefer a minimalist view so I use Titan adjusted to bare minimum. Titan also works very well and backed up settings from Krypton carry over nearly perfectly. The trailer function was the only nonperformer I came across in my brief review although it worked flawless using Estuary. Aside from the playercorefactory problem, v.17 should be very close to release since imo it's performing very well. I'm not counting on miracles for its HDR performance although there is hope for software decoding afaik. There is only one Windows dev on the KODI team so I would hope he'd get things prioritized such as playercorefactory before HDR fine tuning since more and more users will be considering external players based on modern video formats. We will see......
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2018-03-21, 02:25
(This post was last modified: 2018-03-21, 02:31 by brazen1.)
NCP, adjust desktop color settings. Imo, keep it on 'Auto' which is the default setting. FSE is Full Screen Exclusive in madVR. Imo, you want to enable it for 2160p and 3D and it's your choice if you want to use a window instead for other resolutions. Imo, it makes no difference. If you want to separate settings for different resolutions (I encourage this for sure) FSE is one of the settings along with all the other settings. Be sure you select all the options when you create a profile because down the road you will be adjusting something from all of them. After you copy and paste the rule in, notice the red check mark in your new profile group name which you should name to match the original profile. You will need to add new profile within that group. Every time you add a new one, edit the name to 2160p, etc until the check mark turns green. Hover over it and it will tell you why if it isn't. Funny, I just posted this elsewhere yesterday but rather than link, here is the code I use for the 3 profiles:
I use this rule for PROCESSING and SCALING (thank you Warner):
if (srcWidth > 1920) "2160p"
else if (srcWidth <= 1920) and (srcHeight > 1080) "2160p"
else if (srcWidth > 1280) and (srcWidth <= 1920) "1080p"
else if (srcWidth <= 1280) and ((srcHeight > 720) and (srcHeight <= 1080)) "1080p"
else if (srcWidth > 960) and (srcWidth <= 1280) "720p"
else if (srcWidth <= 960) and ((srcHeight > 540) and (srcHeight <= 720)) "720p"
else if (srcWidth <= 960) and (srcHeight <= 540) "SD"
and this rule for RENDERING (thank you Manni)
if (3D) "3D"
else if (srcWidth <= 720) and (srcHeight <= 576)"SD"
else if (srcWidth <= 1280) and (srcHeight <= 720)"720p"
else if (srcWidth <= 1920) and (srcHeight <= 1080)"1080p"
else if (srcWidth <= 3840) and (srcHeight <= 2160)"2160p"
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You are using KODI 17.6? V.18 alpha will not work at this time fwiw. Make sure you edited the actual name of the .bat files so they match your playercorefactory.xml. Post all your files and the names of those files.
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Hi yeah running kodi 17.6
playercorefactory.xml looks like this
<playercorefactory>
<players>
<player name="PowerDVD" type="ExternalPlayer" audio="false" video="true">
<filename>C:\Users\gpwin\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\userdata\PDVD.bat</filename>
<playcountminimumtime>1140</playcountminimumtime>
</player>
<player name="MPC-BE" type="ExternalPlayer" audio="false" video="true">
<filename>C:\Users\gpwin\AppData\Roaming\Kodi\userdata\MPCBE.bat</filename>
<playcountminimumtime>1140</playcountminimumtime>
</player>
<player name="DVDFab" type="ExternalPlayer" audio="false" video="true">
<filename>C:\Program Files (x86)\DVDFab Player 5\DVDFab Player 5.exe</filename>
<playcountminimumtime>1140</playcountminimumtime>
</players>
<rules action="prepend">
<rule filename=".*HDR10.*|.*HDR.*|.*hdr.*" player="DVDFab"/>
<rule filetypes="iso|bdmv|mpls|m2ts|.*3D.*|.*.3D.iso|3D.*" player="PowerDVD"/>
</rules>
</playercorefactory>
PDVD.bat looks like this
Set file=%1
Set dummy=%file:iso=%
IF NOT %dummy% == %file% (GOTO playiso) ELSE (goto playbdmv)
:playbdmv
set pth=%1
set pth=%pth:BDMV\MovieObject.bdmv=%
set pth=%pth:BDMV\index.bdmv=%
"C:\Program Files (x86)\CyberLink\PowerDVD17\PowerDVD.exe" %pth% exit
exit
:playiso
"C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\3D Vision\nvstlink.exe" /enable
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Elaborate Bytes\VirtualCloneDrive\VCDMount.exe" /d=0 %1
"C:\Program Files\MPC-BE x64\mpc-be64.exe" P:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Elaborate Bytes\VirtualCloneDrive\VCDMount.exe" /d=0 /u
exit
MPBCE.bat looks like this
Set file=%1
Set dummy=%file:iso=%
IF NOT %dummy% == %file% (GOTO playiso) ELSE (goto playbdmv)
:playbdmv
set pth=%1
set pth=%pth:BDMV\MovieObject.bdmv=%
set pth=%pth:BDMV\index.bdmv=%
"C:\Program Files\MPC-BE x64\mpc-be64.exe" %pth% exit
exit
:playiso
"C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\3D Vision\nvstlink.exe" /enable
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Elaborate Bytes\VirtualCloneDrive\VCDMount.exe" /d=0 %1
"C:\Program Files\MPC-BE x64\mpc-be64.exe" P:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Elaborate Bytes\VirtualCloneDrive\VCDMount.exe" /d=0 /u
exit
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