178 replies to this topic

[eagle63]

@tojoski
So did you have to install additional "stuff" (codecs, whatever) on your HTPC in order get bitstreaming to work? I'm still a little confused as to why my .m2ts file (which has a DTS-HD audio track) won't play natively. My receiver supports DTS-HD as does my HDMI driver (Intel). Well, at least it appears that it does because in my Audio device properties it shows DTS-HD as a supported format. If I play a blu-ray disc using TMT5 I get the DTS-HD track just fine, although maybe TMT5 is doing something special?

As an aside, I'm still not sure I even know WTF bitstreaming means...

EDIT: Ok, so after some googling it looks like bitstreaming just means sending the audio tracks untouched to your receiver so that your receiver can do the decoding. I like this idea, since it means I can - at a glance - tell if the video I'm watching is dolby digital, or whatever, based on my receiver's display. For me, if I go into my HDMI device properties and check the "allow applications to take exclusive control.." checkbox, then any video I playback now shows "Dolby Digital" on my receiver instead of "PCM". So... I think that means I'm bitstreaming??

All that said, my .m2ts movie with DTS-HD still has no audio when I play it back... Hmm.

Edited by eagle63, 24 January 2012 - 09:32 AM.

[eagle63]

Wow, learning a lot today. Here's what I've found regarding bitstreaming:

1. If I go into my HDMI sound device properties in windows and check the "allow applications to take control of this device", then I can bitstream everything except blu-ray discs. (using TMT5) Blu-ray discs in TMT5 still show as "PCM" on my receiver.
2. In order to also bitstream blu-rays in TMT5l I have to check the 2nd box underneath the "allow applications to take control of this device.." which is called "exclusive mode". (or something like that) However, when this 2nd box is checked, I then needed to set my sound configuration (in windows) to stereo instead of 5.1 or 7.1. Without doing that, all the audio goes into a crazy looping mode and crashes WMC. (even though stereo is selected, it's still bitstreaming properly and kicking out surround sound)

I still can't get my .m2ts file to playback audio, but now I'm starting to wonder if I made a mistake when ripping the disc. That's the next thing to tackle.

Edited by eagle63, 24 January 2012 - 10:22 AM.

[tojoski]

The problem with trying to do bitstreaming with .m2ts is that the directshow filter that media center is using is not compatible with the DTS-HD and True HD streams. Therefore when you pay it back, it simply grabs the AC3 stream that it knows and ignores the others.

TMT5 works because it isn't using the directshow filters, it's using it's own decoders.

There are fixes for this out there, but they are messy from what I can tell. Thats why I went with the .mkv's and Lavsplitter.

Lavsplitter installs a directshow filter for the .mkv's and allows them to be played back in mediacenter and bitstream the HD audio.

To force directshow to decode the audio portion of the .m2ts files with something else might break other things since this is a system-wide filter.

Edited by tojoski, 24 January 2012 - 02:21 PM.

[eagle63]

The problem with trying to do bitstreaming with .m2ts is that the directshow filter that media center is using is not compatible with the DTS-HD and True HD streams. Therefore when you pay it back, it simply grabs the AC3 stream that it knows and ignores the others.

Well that helps explain it. If that's the case, then there's zero reason for me to mess around with m2ts - I'll just stick with WTV. But if I want to go to HD audio, then it sounds like the best solution is MKV.

TMT5 works because it isn't using the directshow filters, it's using it's own decoders.

There are fixes for this out there, but they are messy from what I can tell. Thats why I went with the .mkv's and Lavsplitter.

Lavsplitter installs a directshow filter for the .mkv's and allows them to be played back in mediacenter and bitstream the HD audio.

To force directshow to decode the audio portion of the .m2ts files with something else might break other things since this is a system-wide filter.

So Lavsplitter shouldn't mess with anything other than playing back MKV's? And I could always uninstall it I suppose if things went awry. I can't remember if you answered this, but can extenders (xbox 360 specifically) playback mkv's as long as you have Lavsplitter installed on the HTPC?

Edited by eagle63, 24 January 2012 - 02:34 PM.

[hewisond]

WHS --> MyMovies --> TViX6600 media player.

Plays all formats including BD ISO's.. no hassles - drop the disk into the WHS and as soon as its finished copying, we have full access to the movie all the way up to Full HD.

[ferraris]

All discs : Rip main movie only (folder structure) using DVDFAB on main PC ripping to WHS shared folder. DVDFAB seems to struggle with some discs so use AnyDVD to rip the whole movie in these instances. Then add to MM manually (don't trust it to do it automatically using the WHS add-in).

Playback using Windows Media Center with MM/TMT5 add-ins on HTPC.


Simon

Edited by ferraris, 13 August 2012 - 04:21 AM.

[ikon]

I, too, am finding 'folder structure' to be the most compatible/reliable way to rip. I actually use AnyDVD-HD to do the ripping. So far, it's worked great.

[pcdoc]

I am also ripping to folder except in addition to AnyDVD HD, I use TsMuxer so I can remove the "junk" as I only want the movie, and the HD sound track. Folder structure allows functionality of menus, skip, FF, RR, etc.

[awraynor]

AnyDVD with CloneDVD to remove the cruft, neither have ever failed me.

[pcdoc]

AnyDVD with CloneDVD to remove the cruft, neither have ever failed me.

Yep, I use Clone DVD as well but that only works on DVD. 98% or my rips now a days are BD which is why I am stuck with TsMuxer.

[Noland]

AnyDVD with CloneDVD to remove the cruft, neither have ever failed me.

This is what I use too. This is a great pair for people like me who are still in the stone ages of DVD.

[chris888]

Hi Guys,

 

First forum post EVER !! I can see WHS seems the standard OS been used in this thread but I thought I'd share my Linux set up:

 

OS - Ubuntu Desktop LTS

DVD & BR - Handbrake GUI

Playback - xbmc on a PC or xbian (running on a raspberry pi) for any TVs

 

Handbrake work great and is easy to use. Its availble for Vista & Win7, not sure about compatability with WHS though.

 

I've even used mkvtoolnix for joining DVD extras onto the back of movies

 

Great Thread! Cheers Guys!

[ikon]

hey chris888. Welcome to the forums. Interesting setup you have. Glad it's working for you. Can I ask what you do for Bare Metal Restore?

[chris888]

Hi ikon, thanks for the post. I have my OS, media files and user folders on 3 separate hard drives. I've got mirror back ups of both my media and user folder hard drives.

 

Installation of the Ubuntu OS and config of NFS files sharing is easy (now I know how!) and doesn't take long so I've not been too concerned about getting back ups of my OS and apps drive.

[ikon]

When you say 'mirror back ups' do you mean you have RAID1 mirrors? If so, those are not backups; they're redundant copies. A good backup strategy includes off site backup. It's called the 3-2-1 strategy: 3 copies of all data, on 2 different types of media, with at least 1 copy off site. If you search the forums, you'll find there is a ton of discussion about it.

 

When I asked about Bare Metal Restore, I was referring to your client computers more than your server. I use WHS to back up the system drive on each of my client computers, so I can restore them to a known good configuration very quickly. Otherwise, it takes 1 to 2 days to reinstall a client PC from scratch.

[chris888]

Thanks for the info, I've not heard of the 3-2-1 strategy before, certainly sounds pretty bullet proof! 

 

I run various OS on client PCs around the house and generate restore points using their own system, i.e. Time machine on Mac. However, they are on the same hard disk (although on a separate partition), so its not very secure.

 

For my R-pi I've got a pre-configured installation folder on my server that I just copy on to an SD card. If my R-pi faults, (like it did a few months back) I just wipe the SD card and copy over the pre-configured installation. Takes a few minutes but works a charm. 

[jmwills]

Only backups that are tested and verified are "bulletproof"

[ikon]

Do you have any Windows clients? If yes, then WHS would be useful for doing bare metal restores of them. Windows Restore Points only go so far in this regard. For example, there is malware in the wild that can survive Restore Point rollbacks. The only certain way to get rid of them is to take the system completely back to a previous date, which is something System Restore can't guarantee.

[revengineer]

AnyDVD+Handbrake->mpg4 on Windows 7, storage in alphabetic folders on WS2012E running secondary Apache server, playback using Roksbox channel on Roku.