Thursday, October 21, 2004
Back From Vacation - The Tweaking Continues
I'm plodding along, continuing to tweak this and that and making some progress.
In the DVD player area, I have decided on TheaterTek with FFDShow postprocessing. I've downloaded the recently released TT 2.0 and the latest version of FFDShow. It took some playing around with it, but they are now working together well and the picture quality is superb. FFDShow is a software postprocessor and while it's running it puts significant load on the CPU. I had anticipated this, and am now glad that I chose a 2.8 GHz HT processor. I'll have to keep an eye on the CPU temps while playing DVD's.
I'm moving along slowly with the integration of Meedio the HT Front-end software. It has a great deal of functionality and along with that comes a great deal of complexity. I've downloaded several plug-ins and a new theme. I'll show some new screen shots in the next day or so and, at that time, point out some of the new features made available through the plugins.
My next major effort will be the integration of TheaterTek/FFDShow into the Meedio shell and replacing the basic Meedio DVD player. It's been done by others, and I'll draw on their experiences and guidance to get it working.
One thing that I want to do with the HTPC is to use it to capture XBox screen shots and video clips. Easier said than done I think. I currently feed the XBox video directly to the Samsung TV via the XBox Hi-Def pack and route the audio digitally from the XBox to the Linn Audio processor. I recently communicated with a friend (Daniel R) who is an expert at such things - seeking his advice and guidance. He gave me several ideas that I'm currently exploring. I'm using a very good video card in the HTPC (ATI 9600XT) with DVI output directly to the Samsung. It would be great if I could add a capture card to the HTPC which would feed video to the 9600XT via the PCI bus while still maintaining the HD (420P & 720P) capabilities of XBox games. For now, that's a "want to do" and not a necessity. In my experience, if I dwell too much on the "want to do"s they quickly become perceived necessities.
To Be Continued:
In the DVD player area, I have decided on TheaterTek with FFDShow postprocessing. I've downloaded the recently released TT 2.0 and the latest version of FFDShow. It took some playing around with it, but they are now working together well and the picture quality is superb. FFDShow is a software postprocessor and while it's running it puts significant load on the CPU. I had anticipated this, and am now glad that I chose a 2.8 GHz HT processor. I'll have to keep an eye on the CPU temps while playing DVD's.
I'm moving along slowly with the integration of Meedio the HT Front-end software. It has a great deal of functionality and along with that comes a great deal of complexity. I've downloaded several plug-ins and a new theme. I'll show some new screen shots in the next day or so and, at that time, point out some of the new features made available through the plugins.
My next major effort will be the integration of TheaterTek/FFDShow into the Meedio shell and replacing the basic Meedio DVD player. It's been done by others, and I'll draw on their experiences and guidance to get it working.
One thing that I want to do with the HTPC is to use it to capture XBox screen shots and video clips. Easier said than done I think. I currently feed the XBox video directly to the Samsung TV via the XBox Hi-Def pack and route the audio digitally from the XBox to the Linn Audio processor. I recently communicated with a friend (Daniel R) who is an expert at such things - seeking his advice and guidance. He gave me several ideas that I'm currently exploring. I'm using a very good video card in the HTPC (ATI 9600XT) with DVI output directly to the Samsung. It would be great if I could add a capture card to the HTPC which would feed video to the 9600XT via the PCI bus while still maintaining the HD (420P & 720P) capabilities of XBox games. For now, that's a "want to do" and not a necessity. In my experience, if I dwell too much on the "want to do"s they quickly become perceived necessities.
To Be Continued:
