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Blu-ray disc release list and must-have titles. Buy the latest and best Blu-ray titles to show off in your home theater!

Arcsoft TotalMedia Theater is released!
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lyd




Joined: 15 Sep 2007
Posts: 390
Location: Lake Mills, Wi


PostLink    Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 3:25 pm    Post subject: Arcsoft TotalMedia Theater is released! Reply with quote


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Whee! I was downloading that Japanese beta and while waiting I went to the Arcsoft site just for the heck of it. Looks like it is available for purchase now and there is an english trial download there too.

lyd

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MikeEby




Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Posts: 5238
Location: Osceola, Indiana


PostLink    Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 4:26 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Interesting... I will have to try it. I have a new MB & CPU on order so I have to nuke and pave my htpc anyway. If it screws it up oh-well.

Mike

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lyd




Joined: 15 Sep 2007
Posts: 390
Location: Lake Mills, Wi


PostLink    Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 4:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

If you get a chance to try a TrueHD track output via analog I'd be interested to know the results. It's not doing it for me.

I was just trying to determine whether the trial is crippled with regard to this, but I can't find any info on that one way or the other. Seems like it would be a crazy thing to disable, given the current state of play, but who knows.

lyd

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AnalogRocks
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Joined: 08 Mar 2006
Posts: 26690
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

TV/Projector: Sony 1252Q, AMPRO 4000G


PostLink    Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 5:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I downloaded the Japaneese version a couple of weeks ago. It never did play anything but since I can't read the stuff on the screen maybe I didn't have it setup right. I just tried to drag and drop a video file and it just sat there.

I'll download the English trial. I'd love to hear 5.1 out from the analog on the soundcard too.

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lyd




Joined: 15 Sep 2007
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PostLink    Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 11:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, I watched 4 movies with it over the weekend, Spiderman 1 - 3 and Replacement Killers, all on BD. I also popped in DVE on HD-DVD very briefly. For the most part it was encouraging, but there are definitely still some issues, at least on my system.

-- With hardware acceleration enabled there was a lot of jerkiness. Turning it off solved the problem 99%, but there was still an occasional glitch in all 4 movies. My C2D@3Ghz seemed to be running around 50% most of the time (avg. of both cores), but I did not check closely enough to see if there were spikes corresponding to the stutters.

-- I was unable to get correct multi-channel output with TrueHD or LPCM tracks, outputting from the PC via analog from my soundcard (Onboard Soundmax HD chipset). LRC seemed to behave correctly, while the rears never made a peep. This works correctly with PDVD, so I don't think it is an issue with my machine. DD and DTS tracks behaved normally, using either analog or spdif.

-- The menus on the DVE disk were completely hosed, and did not function properly at all. You could still select titles from the right-click menu, but when they played the DVD menu did not leave the screen, rendering the disk essentially unusable. Earlier versions of PDVD had a similar problem with this disk, so I'd hope it will be a simple update to fix it with TMT. I haven't tried any other HD-DVD titles yet.

-- This is a quibble, but the pop-up navigation bar behaved a little erratically. Sometimes it would go away on its own when I stopped moving the mouse, sometimes I would have to monkey around clicking on and off screen to get it to hide itself. Space bar to pause did not work as documented, I needed to use the mouse.

All in all, if the audio issue is resolved I think I will go ahead and purchase it. I like it better than PDVD even with these problems.

lyd

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AnalogRocks
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Joined: 08 Mar 2006
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Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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PostLink    Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 5:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wow with a laundry list of problems like that and you are STILL thinking about purchasing it. You must really hate PowerDVD U. Very Happy
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fireanimal




Joined: 17 Jul 2007
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Location: Stayner, ON


PostLink    Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 5:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I tried the demo, and in no way is it better than Powerdvd, I was really hoping that Arcsoft was going to deliver, because I do hate Powerdvd, but at least it plays every movie I own, except for 3:10 to Yuma. I tried Three Blu-Rays on Arcsoft, none would play.

Powerdvd is releasing a version 8 next month, that will include Bluray 1.1, and full support for DTS-HD Lossless audio, instead of just decoding the DTS core like they are doing now. I am hoping that they will be upgrading the Ultra users at no charge.
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MikeEby




Joined: 24 Jun 2007
Posts: 5238
Location: Osceola, Indiana


PostLink    Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 6:03 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

fireanimal wrote:
I am hoping that they will be upgrading the Ultra users at no charge.


I think your dreaming there!...Smile hope I'm wrong.

Just hope is not a whole new set of issues. My only gripe with PDVD is the mouse cursor appears on FTB...Nobody I know of is seeing this issue other then me, I saw it with NVidia and ATI cards.

Mike

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fireanimal




Joined: 17 Jul 2007
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Location: Stayner, ON


PostLink    Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 6:51 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

It is the first company that made $100 a head off of it's beta testers, so they better exempt us into the final release software!


MikeEby wrote:
fireanimal wrote:
I am hoping that they will be upgrading the Ultra users at no charge.


I think your dreaming there!...Smile hope I'm wrong.

Just hope is not a whole new set of issues. My only gripe with PDVD is the mouse cursor appears on FTB...Nobody I know of is seeing this issue other then me, I saw it with NVidia and ATI cards.

Mike
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lyd




Joined: 15 Sep 2007
Posts: 390
Location: Lake Mills, Wi


PostLink    Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 9:44 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

fireanimal wrote:
It is the first company that made $100 a head off of it's beta testers, so they better exempt us into the final release software!

Ha! Heard of a little company called Microsoft?

lyd

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lyd




Joined: 15 Sep 2007
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Location: Lake Mills, Wi


PostLink    Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 9:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

[quote="MikeEby"]
fireanimal wrote:
My only gripe with PDVD is the mouse cursor appears on FTB...Nobody I know of is seeing this issue other then me, I saw it with NVidia and ATI cards.

I see the cursor appear at each chapter change. Sometimes that corresponds with a fadeout... sure that's not what you're seeing?

I just move it off screen.

lyd

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fireanimal




Joined: 17 Jul 2007
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PostLink    Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 9:46 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I might take some heat over this, but I have never had a problem with Microsoft, except for Windows ME.

lyd wrote:
fireanimal wrote:
It is the first company that made $100 a head off of it's beta testers, so they better exempt us into the final release software!

Ha! Heard of a little company called Microsoft?

lyd
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lyd




Joined: 15 Sep 2007
Posts: 390
Location: Lake Mills, Wi


PostLink    Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 9:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

fireanimal wrote:
I tried the demo, and in no way is it better than Powerdvd, I was really hoping that Arcsoft was going to deliver, because I do hate Powerdvd, but at least it plays every movie I own, except for 3:10 to Yuma. I tried Three Blu-Rays on Arcsoft, none would play.


Which three?

lyd

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fireanimal




Joined: 17 Jul 2007
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PostLink    Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 9:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

DTS-HD Demo Disc
Pans Labyrinth

Sorry gapped on the third.
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lyd




Joined: 15 Sep 2007
Posts: 390
Location: Lake Mills, Wi


PostLink    Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 10:50 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

fireanimal wrote:
DTS-HD Demo Disc
Pans Labyrinth

Sorry gapped on the third.


I just popped in Pan's Labyrinth. No problems at all playing it with TMT on my system.

lyd

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AnalogRocks
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Joined: 08 Mar 2006
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Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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PostLink    Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 11:19 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

lyd wrote:
fireanimal wrote:
DTS-HD Demo Disc
Pans Labyrinth

Sorry gapped on the third.


I just popped in Pan's Labyrinth. No problems at all playing it with TMT on my system.

lyd


How's the interface compared to P-DVD-U?

By the way I love your sig. That is so true. Though many people are lacking in that catagory.
"de gustibus non disputandum"

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fireanimal




Joined: 17 Jul 2007
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PostLink    Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 11:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Weird....Is it decoding in full 7.1 DTS-HD lossless?? That was the main thing I was wondering.


lyd wrote:
fireanimal wrote:
DTS-HD Demo Disc
Pans Labyrinth

Sorry gapped on the third.


I just popped in Pan's Labyrinth. No problems at all playing it with TMT on my system.

lyd
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lyd




Joined: 15 Sep 2007
Posts: 390
Location: Lake Mills, Wi


PostLink    Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 11:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

fireanimal wrote:
Weird....Is it decoding in full 7.1 DTS-HD lossless?? That was the main thing I was wondering.


lyd wrote:
fireanimal wrote:
DTS-HD Demo Disc
Pans Labyrinth

Sorry gapped on the third.


I just popped in Pan's Labyrinth. No problems at all playing it with TMT on my system.

lyd


Well, none of the HD formats are decoding properly for me with this player. I get the front three channels and no surround when I use analog output for TrueHD, LPCM or DTS-HD.

I do, however, get 5.1 (or maybe 6.1 -- I have 6 speakers and they all make noise, but I can never tell when there is really a 6th channel and when it is my processor doing stuff) from a DTS-HD track downsampled (or is that what the core audio thing is?) and output over spdif with TMT. Not so for TrueHD, unfortunately, with either player.

lyd

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AnalogRocks
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PostLink    Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 11:40 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You know I'm betting most of the software vendor's are counting on the majority of people being happy just getting suround

If we complain enough maybe they'll fix it.

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lyd




Joined: 15 Sep 2007
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Location: Lake Mills, Wi


PostLink    Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 11:53 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

AnalogRocks wrote:
You know I'm betting most of the software vendor's are counting on the majority of people being happy just getting suround

If we complain enough maybe they'll fix it.


Well, if we are depending on the choices of "most" people, the battle is already lost. I have mentioned in passing here a couple of times that I have been working as a CATV tech the last few years. The vast majority of surround systems I see are of the in-a-box sort (not necessarily a bad thing, but frequently can be), and the speaker placement would make you weep.

lyd

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