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HTPC
Media Control Chapters
0As 90% of my movie collection is comprised of DVD/Blu-ray rips, most of them are MKV files, also they include chapter points which Handbrake (the H.264 encoder I use) made from the original sources.
My intention was to be able to use these chapter points in Windows Media Center on my HTPC/Media-PC just as you would a DVD. Unfortunately it wasn’t as simple as that.
From what I could find out, the only way of achieving this is using a 7MC addon called “Media Control”. Basically it utilises the FFDShow decoders’ Remote Control API to inject remote commands via the remote or keyboard.
My problem (yep another problem =P) is that I’m using the DXVA version of the FFDShow decoder, which meant I had to duplicate the standard registry entries into it (no biggie).
Anyway, that seemed to work, it allowed to to fast forward at the very least, but for some reason it doesn’t want to know about the chapter points in my MKVs; the best I can get it to do is skip forward, which is the default action when chapters aren’t available.
So what I can deduce from that, is that FFDShow isn’t detecting chapters; which is funny considering when you right click it’s taskbar icon it shows them and allows you to skip to them.
I’ve tried reinstalling all my codecs, wiping every registry entry of FFDShow/media control. I’ve tried using the standard FFDShow codec, I’ve tried using Haali’s splitter, i’ve tried the LAV splitter.
Nothing worked!
I should probably also mention that I’m using Shark007’s codec packs on Windows 7 x64 -with both 32 and 64 bit packs.
It seems again that I am at a loss. It should work. No one else has had the same problem -not solved at any rate (from a LOT of Googling).
One day things might just… work.
*sigh*
Derryn
Router upgrades finally complete
0Received my eBay el-cheapo ($8) PCI graphics card the other day, and it turned out to be an ExpertColor S3 Trio64 86C764X 8MB; Perfect for my purposes.
I am now very grateful that I didn’t splurge on a PCI-e card which would have costed me ~$70 and would have caused an overheating situation and also increased power consumption.
On that note, I noticed the CPU wasn’t really being used, so I dropped it from 2.6GHz to 1GHz by dropping the CPU multiplier to its lowest. So now I get a reduced power usage, improved thermal efficiency and no really to any performance detriment.
Also, the 4x1GB sticks of RAM seemed a bit much. So I ended up taking out 2 sticks so that I can still have it running in dual-channel mode. I know 2GB is still way too much (its currently utilising a maximum of 1% at any given time) but I just cant bring myself to keep at least enough to have it in dual channel mode. At any rate, at least they aren’t all squeezed together now so there’s room for the heat to dissipate evenly.
The only thing left to do is get the media drives (one on the router, one on the media-pc) to sync up automatically. I’ve been using rsync to accomplish this, but I haven’t yet been bothered to figure out how to sync from the router to the media-pc, currently it only works the other way around.
Perhaps I can simply reverse the paths i’m using so:
rsync -r -t -v -u -h --progress /mnt/mediaSMB /mnt/media
Will sync new/updated files from the media-pc to the router
rsync -r -t -v -u -h --progress /mnt/media /mnt/mediaSMB
Should do it the other way around … or will it?
Anyways, we’ll see how it goes, though I’m hesitant to try it considering I have already lost the media drive once.
Later.
New Router
0As good as the old machine I got from TAFE, the router is in need of an upgrade.
Now normally I need no reason to do this, but for the sake of convincing myself my reasons are as follows:
1) The current computer isn’t optimised for power efficiency (newer motherboards are surely more efficient)
2) The power supply seems to be making funny noises (could just need a dusting but meh)
3) It currently doesn’t natively support 1Gbps LAN (needs PCI addon card)
and finally:
4) It doesn’t have SATA, requiring the use of another PCI card to include the media backup drive in my setup (which is currently only working in one direction).
So here’s what I have in mind:
CPU:
| AMD | Intel |
| Cheapest:Sempron 140 2.8GhzSingle Core 45w x64 | Cheapest:Celeron Socket 775 E3400 Dual-core 2.6Ghz 65w |
| $31 | $47 |
| Ideal:Athlon II X2 255 Dual-Core 3.10Ghz 65w | Ideal: Core 2 Duo E6600 3.06Ghz Dual-Core 65w |
| $61 | $67 |
Motherboard:
| AMD | Intel | AMD Old Motherboard |
| ASUS M4A78LT-M-LE
Socket AM3+ Integrated GFX + DDR3 Ram + 1x 1Gbps LAN |
ASUS P5G41T-M-LX Socket 775+Integrated GFX + DDR3 Ram + 1x 1Gbps LAN | Gigabyte GA-M56S-S3 Socket AM2 (supports AM3 @ 2000MT/s)+ DDR2 Ram + 1x 1Gbps LAN |
| $55 | $59 | $0 |
Memory:
Kingston 2GB DDR3-1333
$17
Power Supply:
Vantec ION2 CAN-460C 460Watt
$45
Extra requirements:
Low power consumption
Integrated Graphics
Integrated Dual-Gigabit networking
Or a Free PCI port
Using Old motherboard:
Requirements:
- · CPU (Supports AM3 at lowered bus speeds)
- · RAM (DDR2 only)
- · Power Supply
- · Graphics card? (temporarily use 8800GTS I guess)
CPU:
Sempron 140 $31
RAM:
Kingston 2GB Value $29
Power Supply:
Vantec (As above) $45
TOTAL Cost:
| AMD Budget | AMD Ideal | Intel Budget | Intel Ideal | Using Old Mobo |
| $31 + $55 + $17 + $45 | $61 + $55 + $17 + $45 | $47+ $59 + $17 + $45 | $67 + $59 + $17 + $45 | $31 + $29 + $45 |
| $148 | $178 | $164 | $184 | $105 |
All prices are taken from MSY and were all in stock at the time of writing.
I would personally like to make a new machine (less the case), my experience with ad-hoc new/old part swapping is not exactly stellar.
That said, I have just been reminded of another motherboard I have left over: the M2N-SLI Deluxe; But that might be overkill in retrospect… it was designed for high performance more than anything (though it would mean I only need a power supply and a CPU to get it going.
*sigh.*.. i’m gonna need to think about this..