Thanks!

I guess the built in Microsoft MPEG2 codec just doesnt cut it.  Before these tweas, Live TV was extremely jerky on the two higher res HD stations (ABC and KQED I think)

I installed PowerDVD and used the VMCD.exe to fix the default defaul video decoder. (and bam, live tv on all HD stations are smooth!)

Ok, so LIVE tv works great as long as nothing is recording at the time of watching.  If I have a SD recording going, I'm NOT able to watch a HD channel.  example, I had The Daily Show recording, and then I tried to watch KQED-HD.  All HD channels show like the first frame of the stream, and then it just stops.  You can hear audio all jerky, and sometimes you'll get another frame of still video.  As soon as the SD recording stops, all is well again.   I had no trouble watching an HD channel while recording another SD channel when I was on Windows XP MCE with the same hardware weeks ago.

I also noticed that when you watch an HD channel, the Dolby Digital takes over and no other sound can be played.  I'm also not able to mute or change the volume.  I dont remember this being the case before with XP.  I was using the Auzentech X-Meridian, but I went with the built in soundcard on my asus motherboard.  (ADI SoundMax)  The Auzentech driver was buggy and sometimes would drop audio until you rebooted.   So my question again is this.  Is it normal for Dolby Digital HD channels to take over and passthrough the sound with no control options?  Would the Auzentech handel this better maybe?

Suggestions?

My Hardware:

XFX GeForce 7950GT Silent Passive Cooled 0db no noise
VistaView Saber 2020 (analog dual tuner PCIe card)
VBOX Cat's Eye 150 PCI (for MCE OTA HD Recordings
Asus NForce 590 motherboard (P4N32-SLI Premium)
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 (I was such an AMD Fan before too)
SilverStone LC18 Case
Seasonic M12-600 Power Supply
Zalman CPU Cooler CNPS9500AT
2GB RAM/Memory (Corsair)
Western Digital (SE) SATA Hard Drive (ultra quiet)
HP 840i DVD+-RW

I figured it out.  I had to change a sound card setting.

Start, Control Panel, Sound, Right Click SPIDIF Interface, Properties, Advanced(tab), and then.....

UNCHECK "Allow applications to take exclusive control of this device"

After that I was able to record a HD channel, and watch another SD or recorded SD/HD channel with no problem! 

Things are working great now. (no more stutter/freezes even when extreme multi tasking)

Good for you :)

I'll just update the Tips and FAQ's with your stuff :)

I do not have PowerDVD 7.  Is there a better, free, mpeg2 decoder that can be used in place of the MS decoder?  

no - not really.

MS's isn't that bad - it works.
If you wan't good stuff it usually wears a price tag :)

Just added guide to use CoreAVC -this is a SUPER codec with 30-40 CPU percent usage when decoding 720p or 1080 :)

Also added Smearing/ghosting fix for Hauppauge 150 and ATI (BOB in CCC)

Awesome, what I have tried so far has been flawless.

 

Thanks for putting this together

Good to know :)
and
Your are welcome :)

For the second part of item 2 [MKV AND TS With Matroska and CoreAVC (the best!! but not free)"] I have installed Core AVC which I purchased from http://www.coreavc.com/. Are you also sudgesting to install the Haali Media splitter (MatroskaSplitter.exe) as well? As you say "do the same as above but add the following instead:" meaning the registry part only or the registry part and installing MatroskaSplitter.exe as well.

Hope that makes sense

Phill

Yes.
MKv files is just a container of h.264 video, subtitles, audio etc.
MatroskaSlitter just opens the fileformat and CoreAVC is needed to decode h.264
You also still need ffdshow to decode the audio

I have done as you have sugested in the first part of part 2) MKV AND TS With matroska but when trying to play a sample h.264 video from http://www.leadcodecs.com/Download/H264-Videos.htm I get sound but no picture. Any ideas?

Open FFDshow's video configuration and make sure h.264 is selected and set to livavcodec (this does not apply when using coreavc - this must be disabled then)

Thanks but it is already set to livavcodec. Any other ideas?

I'm interested in getting thumbnails for .ts files in Vista Media Center.  Is this possible?

Does Haali Media splitter provide this?

Haali Media splitter unfortunately doesn't work for my .ts files and/or system for whatever reason, I get slow motion playback.  Nvidia PureVideo decoder works perfectly, but I don't get thumbnails for .ts files.  When I did use Haali Media splitter I never saw thumbnails for my .ts files in Vista Media Center but perhaps I didn't have something set for this?

Is there anything I can do to get thumbnails for my .ts files in Vista Media Center and continue using the Nvidia PureVideo decoder? 

thanks,

--Don

system specs:

Asus P5W DH, Intel E6600 @ stock speed, 2 GB ram

Nvidia 8800 GTS 640 MB

Creative Labs X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional

I haven't ever had any problems with matroska, ffdshow, ts and mkv with thumbnails.
So i'm kinda lost giving support there.
I just install in this order:
FFDshow
Matroska
Reg-hacks for files (see guide)
Then i make sure ffdshow is set properly in audio and video codecs.
Then it normally takes a reboot for it all to fall in to place.

For TS files - you could also just associate it with mpeg2 (content type video/mpeg)