Which Platform most stable for XBMC?
#31
fryed_1 Wrote:HTPC has an nvidia 9800gt in it. It has an SPDIF connector on it for passthrough audio. I have an internal SPDIF connector on the mobo that plugs into the vid card. Then have a DVI-HDMI cable that goes directly from the vid card to the stereo.

FYI I don't think my stereo supports dts-hd or truehd sound. Just standard DTS audio, which it detects and plays correctly.

So when I said that I just "plug it in and go" I meant that for the capabilities my equipment has, which I'm completely satisfied and content with, it just "works".
That is what I thought, you're not bitstreaming then. The message have to be clear so that others reading it don't get confuse by it. In your case, XBMC is doing all the decoding and sent it to your AVR as PCM.

If it is bitstreaming un-molested codec, your AVR will be doing all the decoding and processing.

Anyway, what is the model of your Samsung AVR? If it is capable of bitstreaming DTS-HD/TrueHD, you should see it (as shown below) in W7 control panel.

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>Alienware X51- do it all HTPC
>Simplify XBMC configurations
>HOW-TO Bitstreaming using XBMC
I refused to watch movie without bitstreaming HD audio!
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#32
I'll look it up when I get home. Can't remember off the top of my head.
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#33
bluray Wrote:This one will playback everything- SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 6450 1GB!
My 6450 is arriving today. I guess I should remove my current audio card. What's involved with sending music over the HDMI cable?
Kodi: Shield Pro 2019
Storage: Synology DS2415+, DS1815+
HT: LG 65C9 OLED, Pioneer VSX-LX503
Speakers: ProAc Super Towers/front, ProAc EBT's/rear, Polk S35/center, SVS PB-2000 Subwoofer
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#34
gquiring Wrote:What's involved with sending music over the HDMI cable?
With discrete HD6450 GPU, you can enjoy BD in full 1080P with HD audio.

1. You need to connect your HTPC this way: HTPC-->AVR-->HDTV via two HDMI cables. If there is an option in your AVR, you can set it to pass-thru video.
2. Update your HD6450 to the latest driver from here- AMD Driver Update
3. Select AMD HDMI output in Windows 7 control panel\hardware and sound\sound\playback
4. In sound\playback\configure\speaker setup select "stereo"

After you setup steps 1-4, you have two ways to enjoy DTS-HD\TrueHD:

1. If you have ArcSoft TMT5, you can setup XBMC external player by download the files below. If you have PDVD11, you can modify the codes to PVDVD11. With external player, you'll enjoy original BD menus, chapters, etc and it can bitstreaming DTS-HD/TrueHD fluently-
a. Playcorefactory
b. PlayBDMV
c. PlayDisc
d. PlayISO

2. If you don't care about BD menus, chapters, etc, you can bitstreaming using XBMC (compiled by DD).
a. Download- XBMC Beta3 + HD-Audio + Global AV Delay
b. If you haven't installed this ms c++ package, you can install it here- microsoft visual c++ 2010 redistributable Package (x86)
c. Configure XBMC as shown in the screen shots below
d. Select blu-ray movie with HD audio and enjoy it! (if you don't know what movie have HD audio, you can verify it with bdinfo)

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Image
>Alienware X51- do it all HTPC
>Simplify XBMC configurations
>HOW-TO Bitstreaming using XBMC
I refused to watch movie without bitstreaming HD audio!
Reply
#35
bluray Wrote:With discrete HD6450 GPU, you can enjoy BD in full 1080P with HD audio.

1. You need to connect your HTPC this way: HTPC-->AVR-->HDTV via two HDMI cables. If there is an option in your AVR, you can set it to pass-thru video.
2. Update your HD6450 to the latest driver from here- AMD Driver Update
3. Select AMD HDMI output in Windows 7 control panel\hardware and sound\sound\playback
4. In sound\playback\configure\speaker setup select "stereo"

After you setup steps 1-4, you have two ways to enjoy DTS-HD\TrueHD:

1. If you have ArcSoft TMT5, you can setup XBMC external player by download the files below. If you have PDVD11, you can modify the codes to PVDVD11. With external player, you'll enjoy original BD menus, chapters, etc and it can bitstreaming DTS-HD/TrueHD fluently-
a. Playcorefactory
b. PlayBDMV
c. PlayDisc
d. PlayISO

2. If you don't care about BD menus, chapters, etc, you can bitstreaming using XBMC (compiled by DD).
a. Download- XBMC Beta3 + HD-Audio + Global AV Delay
b. If you haven't installed this ms c++ package, you can install it here- microsoft visual c++ 2010 redistributable Package (x86)
c. Configure XBMC as shown in the screen shots below
d. Select blu-ray movie with HD audio and enjoy it! (if you don't know what movie have HD audio, you can verify it with bdinfo)

Image
Image
Wow lots to do, first step will be to just get it working via HDMI. I use a Pioneer VSX-1121k receiver, right now it's mapped using HDMI and TOS. So I have to undo the map to get audio from HDMI.

All my blurays are MKV files. Some do have the DTS-HD audio tracks. I use mediainfo to know what's in them. So should I stick with the internal XBMC player?
Kodi: Shield Pro 2019
Storage: Synology DS2415+, DS1815+
HT: LG 65C9 OLED, Pioneer VSX-LX503
Speakers: ProAc Super Towers/front, ProAc EBT's/rear, Polk S35/center, SVS PB-2000 Subwoofer
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#36
gquiring Wrote:So should I stick with the internal XBMC player?
If you want to bitstream using XBMC, you need to follow the steps in second choice. The released XBMC (Dharma, Beta1/2/3, etc) doesn't support bitstreaming....
>Alienware X51- do it all HTPC
>Simplify XBMC configurations
>HOW-TO Bitstreaming using XBMC
I refused to watch movie without bitstreaming HD audio!
Reply
#37
bluray Wrote:That is what I thought, you're not bitstreaming then. The message have to be clear so that others reading it don't get confuse by it. In your case, XBMC is doing all the decoding and sent it to your AVR as PCM.

If it is bitstreaming un-molested codec, your AVR will be doing all the decoding and processing.

Anyway, what is the model of your Samsung AVR? If it is capable of bitstreaming DTS-HD/TrueHD, you should see it (as shown below) in W7 control panel.

HW-C500 - from what I can tell no HD audio

Quote:Dolby® Digital, DTS™, DTS 96/24, Pro Logic® II

Honestly I probably haven't heard HD audio and likely my speakers aren't up to it, but it sounds damned great to me.

This is what I see in XBMC when browsing HD movies

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This is what appears on the AVR

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When the DTS shows, I'm unable to use any of the sound effect options... assuming because it's in "DTS" mode and wants to put out the true sound that the movie was produced/encoded/whatever with.

If it doesn't show DTS (typically with movies that don't show the 5.1/7.1 options in XBMC) I can apply any of the sound effects (hall, concert, game PL2 movie, etc...) I wish.
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#38
actually none of them show 7.1 because this unit only does 5.1...


but... like I said, as far as which is the most stable, win7 takes a bit of work to get setup nice but it still seems like a computer hooked up to the tv. When I use linux/xbmclive, it just works out the box with everything attached and seems more like a set-top box for movies instead of a computer.
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#39
The 6450 went in smooth for audio. Installed the lastest drivers, rebooted and Windows just worked with audio coming out the HDMI port!

Can't say I had an easy time with the video though. The video was rather underscanned. I went into the ATI panel and played with slide adjuster to get it full screen but the screen was not perfectly centered. So I have cropping on the right side in order to get full screen on the left side. I don't think I am going to loose much but I never had a video off center before.
Kodi: Shield Pro 2019
Storage: Synology DS2415+, DS1815+
HT: LG 65C9 OLED, Pioneer VSX-LX503
Speakers: ProAc Super Towers/front, ProAc EBT's/rear, Polk S35/center, SVS PB-2000 Subwoofer
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#40
DDDamian Wrote:The IGPU has been the most problematic - would recommend ATI card, esp if you go with windows, not so much for Linux due to drivers.

Not so much an option since I'm using an M350 with 2100T, so Linux of Windows?
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#41
gquiring Wrote:The 6450 went in smooth for audio. Installed the lastest drivers, rebooted and Windows just worked with audio coming out the HDMI port!

Can't say I had an easy time with the video though. The video was rather underscanned. I went into the ATI panel and played with slide adjuster to get it full screen but the screen was not perfectly centered. So I have cropping on the right side in order to get full screen on the left side. I don't think I am going to loose much but I never had a video off center before.

Ensure that your TV's native timings are enabled in Catalyst control panel. For example you may need to enable or add 1080p50hz or 1080p60hz. Look under the My Flat Panel TVs or something similar.

You can use a free program called MonInfo to find out what your TV is reporting as supported resolutions via HDMI. Add whatever you want and is supported in the Catalyst control panel. This should fix the timing issue you mention.
System: XBMC HTPC with HDMI WASAPI & AudioEngine - Denon  AVR-3808CI  - Denon DVD-5900 Universal Player  - Denon DCM-27 CD-Changer
- Sony BDP-S580 Blu-Ray  - X-Box 360  - Android tablet wireless remote - 7.1 Streem/Axiom/Velodyne Surround System
If I have been able to help feel free to add to my reputation +/- below - thanks!
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#42
fryed_1 Wrote:HW-C500 - from what I can tell no HD audio
Regardless of what software you have in your HTPC, you will not be able to bitstreaming DTS-HD/TrueHD audio with your HW-C500. It is the end of bitstreaming discussion for you then.

fryed_1 Wrote:Honestly I probably haven't heard HD audio and likely my speakers aren't up to it, but it sounds damned great to me.
Biststreaming DTS-HD/TrueHD have nothing to do with speaker. With proper GPU and AVR, you still can bitstreaming DTS-HD/TrueHD with any speaker.
>Alienware X51- do it all HTPC
>Simplify XBMC configurations
>HOW-TO Bitstreaming using XBMC
I refused to watch movie without bitstreaming HD audio!
Reply
#43
gquiring Wrote:The video was rather underscanned. I went into the ATI panel and played with slide adjuster to get it full screen but the screen was not perfectly centered. So I have cropping on the right side in order to get full screen on the left side. I don't think I am going to loose much but I never had a video off center before.
For screen resolution, you can use the recommended screen resolution in Windows 7 display settings. If it doesn't fill up the entire screen, you use Underscan/Overscan options in CCC Scaling Options to fill up the entire screen.

For video quality, you can try the options below:

1. Leave all default settings in CCC video/quality
2. Configure XBMC video PlayBack in Video Settings as shown below
3. You can launch XBMC and try to playback a blu-ray movie
4. If you don't like the video quality, you can try to disable all Video Settings in CCC video quality. (I preferred everything disabled in CCC other than "Enforce Smooth Video Playback")
5. You can try to playback the same blu-ray movie again

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Image
>Alienware X51- do it all HTPC
>Simplify XBMC configurations
>HOW-TO Bitstreaming using XBMC
I refused to watch movie without bitstreaming HD audio!
Reply

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Which Platform most stable for XBMC?0