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"I have
media player that’s all I need"!
Well not
exactly. Media player is ok for music, but for full screen MPEG 2 then
you need other software. You will soon find that filling a wide screen
TV can be a problem sometimes even with the propriety play back software
supplied with the Nebula DVB TV card. Also having on program to play
DVD another to play TV recordings and so on becomes a bit of a hassle.
Ultimately
it’s up to you how you want to interface with the HTPC. I will
list the core programs that allow you to play videos and DVD’s
listen to music and view your photo album. I will then list interfacing
and automation programs with some other ways to take control of your
HTPC.
Again the
list on the left is what I use with the Nebula DVB TV card viewing on
a wide screen TV.
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Digiguide
DVTRecord
DivX Pro
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DigiTV
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Case
decals or logos
A collection
of VCD, SVCD, DVD, DVD-RW,DVD+RW, DD, Dolby Surround, DTS and THX image
logos.
Thanks
to videohelp.com |
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Software that is supplied
with Nebula DVB.
I do not use this as the
video playing software or to schedule recordings via EPG (electronic
program guide). With video playback on non-wide screen recordings
there are vertical black bars each side of the picture i.e. forcing
the screen into 4:3 ratio. On live broadcasts my Sony TV automatically
adjusts the ratio but when playing from my HTPC no adjustments are
made. Also Digitv only plays its own video format MPEG2ts and will
not play any other format including DVD or DivX so as an integrated
player not its very good. It is planned in the future DigiTV release
that the interface to act as a total home entertainment suite, the
current version hints to this, we shall see.
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Windows Media Player
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Useful for
music and picture viewing but cannot play MPEG2 unless a licensed of
the codec has been purchased, the MPEG2-TS is normally available if
DigiTV is installed.
Problems
with non wide screen broadcasts that produce the annoying black vertical
bars each side of the TV image, the same as DigiTV.
MP9 Can play
back other video encodes like DivX and MEG1 and AVI without problems
and is a great audio player, with the exception of looking for copyright
licence's, and feeding back information from your PC!.
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Zoom Player
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Zoom Player
Standard remains Free for Non-Commercial use, no DVD playback support
so I use Zoom Player Professional. There is a Zoom Player WMV Professional
and both come in a Fully Functional (un crippled) trial version. However
after a time they require registration ($19.95 and $29.95 respectively).
Zoom player
pro version that allows DVD integration. Zoom player can play any file
format like DivX but like Media Player you require a licence for the
MPEG2 and MPEG2-TS files (register each separate decoder within Zoom
player, which is very easy to do) however Zoom player is extremely adjustable
and can stretch the image to fit any aspect ratio so eliminate black
bars. Also depending upon the codec you have installed different filters
can be applied to improve picture and sound quality, however these become
CPU intensive. The interface and control is designed for TV viewing
and is much more VCR instinctive, simple and never crashes even under
windows 98SE.
There are
free versions of the MPEG2-TS decoders but I had no success with these
and even Win DVD had freeze and crash problems so I use Moonlight- Elecard
MPEG2 decoder see below.
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Moonlight-Elecard
MPEG2
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MPEG2 Player
is a Windows application to play back multimedia files. It comes with
Moonlight-Elecard MPEG2 Video Decoder Direct Show filter to enable efficient
MPEG1 and MPEG2 playback on virtually any PC.
MPEG2 Video
Decoder is a Microsoft Direct Show filter which handles MPEG1 and MPEG2
video streams. It is optimized for the most efficient CPU usage and
incorporates a number of useful features such as stream information,
frame capturing and decoding accuracy control.
I don't use
the player part of this program, but register the video decoder in zoom
player. The program is free for 1 month then requires $20 registration,
after the trial period the program can still be used but a dancing logo
and scrolling unregistered text over the video. Also during install
like media player and not like zoom player wants to run with any media
files so careful install is required.
At the moment
I am only able to run with version 2.1, other versions cause playback
instabilities, even on different PC with either XP or 98SE. This is
currently under review
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WIN DVD
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Came with my sound card.
Again you can use the Win DVD software to play the DVD or register the
decoder in Zoom player for one player interface.
Win supports dolby 5:1 surround
and can change the aspect ratio of DVD MPEG2. There is no aspect ratio
change on DivX films and MEPG2TS recordings have a slight audio skip
problem, so in my case is not a complete player option compared to Zoom
player, but a very useful plug in DVD (MEPEG2) decoder.
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Digiguide
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This is a
fantastic EPG, gives 14 days program information and is extremely configurable,
suggests programs upon your likes and dislikes and even looks out for
programs based on name, type and even actor. Now this program is great
but cannot control the Nebula DVB card directly so an nice little program
called DVTRecord links this program up and the Nebula DVB/Digitv software
see below. Notice the little green tv icon in the born to be bad listing,
that is the DVTRecord marker.
It costs
£8.99 per year and has a free 30 day trial, but the great news
is that you can install on 3 other computers in the house.
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DVTRecord
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Interface
for Digiguide and nebula DVB card/Digitv software.
To set up
a recording you simply left mouse click on the program you want recording
in the Digiguide interface and a DVTRecord icon is placed on the program
(see digiguide). When the program is about to start DVTRecord starts
Digitv, changes its channel and records the program, at the end of the
program closes digitv down moves and renames the file into a designated
folder. The start and end times can be manually extended so that you
never miss the program as Digitv sometimes missed the end of the recording.
All the program
information from Digiguide is also kept with the recording for excellent
for indexing.
The second
part of DVTRecord is the ability to convert the big MPEG2-TS file into
a smaller MPEG4 or DivX files with just one click in the file manager
or automatically after recording. (Add-on pack is required) There are
several quality settings available (can be completely adjusted) but
the important thing is that once set up no messing with multiple processing
options that you can be faced with when encoding video. DVTRecord uses
2 programs for the convert, 1) PVAstumento which converts the MPEG2-TS
to MPEG2 (synchronies the audio) and VdubMPEG2 that converts MPEG2 to
any other video format. You can play with Virtual Dub if you want.
DVTRecord
will convert each program in the list delete the PVAstumento files and
the old MPEG2-TS files when finished so cleans up the hard disk.
DVTrecord
costs £18.50 but is well worth it just for the interface/control
between Digiguide and DigiTV.
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DivX PRO
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For DVTRecord
to encode in DivX you need the codec, the free version has spy ware
on and now have a free 6 months version that has a Goggle interface.
Paying for
the pro version is best for $19.99, and is very fast, 1 hr of video
takes just under 1 hr to convert. I use the HTPC to render (convert)
films down during the night when not in use. I can normally cue up 4
to 5 films in one night.
1 hr of MPEG2-TS
is 2GB compared to 1 hr of DivX @ 92% quality full size video is 0.4GB.
This then allows a massive amount of programs to be stored on the hard
disk or on DVD disks.
The codec
is accessed via Virtual Dub and can be manually adjusted direct from
Virtual Dub or let DVTRecord apply the coding settings (see DVTRecord).
You can download
Virtual Dub MPEG2 for free if not using DVTRecord, or use Virtual Dub
after DVTRecord trail period has ended.
The Dr DivX
does not work with MPEG2-TS.
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my HTPC
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Was a free
program but a newer program called Meedio is out that looks like media
center and costs $59.99 + vat!!!!. The myHTCP is still available for
download on the forum site (click forum and scroll down to end of listings)
along with additional plug-ins
myHTPC is
a lovely interface program, so you can group and list all the HTPC programs
in a single interface, and the program will look for media in multiple
places and display in one list e.g. on the HTPC and in directories on
my server PC.
It is completely
configurable, which can be a little complex at times but in the end
you will get exactly what you want.
Different
plug-ins that aid music playback using Media Player 9, and other media
or applications.
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LCDC
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Program that
comes free with matrix orbital 2 LCD display.
Completely
configurable, import plug-ins that will display what you want when a
program is active, or a sequence of information when not active.
e.g. when
zoom player is playing a sequence of video title, program duration and
left to play can be shown with 10 second interval, and when zoom player
mode is changed that mode can be displayed.
Once zoom
player closes a different sequence can be shown say time, mother board
temperature or even access the web to get weather details or stock market
quotes. It can inform you when new emails are available.
The software
can be used to control fan speeds at different CPU temperatures.
Using the
matrix orbital interface it is possible to control of the HTPC, list
files play files and shut down windows direct from the font of the HTPC,
great for music.
Also with
plug ins such a win amp excellent graphical information can be displayed
like graphic equaliser volume meter etc.
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