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lyd
Joined: 15 Sep 2007 Posts: 390 Location: Lake Mills, Wi
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Link Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 3:25 pm Post subject: Arcsoft TotalMedia Theater is released! |
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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
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Link Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 4:26 pm Post subject: |
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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
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Link Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 4:32 pm Post subject: |
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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 Forum Moderator
Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 26690 Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
TV/Projector: Sony 1252Q, AMPRO 4000G
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Link Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 5:30 pm Post subject: |
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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 Posts: 390 Location: Lake Mills, Wi
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Link Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 11:17 am Post subject: |
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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 Forum Moderator
Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 26690 Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
TV/Projector: Sony 1252Q, AMPRO 4000G
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Link Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 5:03 pm Post subject: |
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Wow with a laundry list of problems like that and you are STILL thinking about purchasing it. You must really hate PowerDVD U.
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fireanimal
Joined: 17 Jul 2007 Posts: 231 Location: Stayner, ON
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Link Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 5:13 pm Post subject: |
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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
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Link Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 6:03 pm Post subject: |
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fireanimal wrote: | I am hoping that they will be upgrading the Ultra users at no charge. |
I think your dreaming there!... 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 Posts: 231 Location: Stayner, ON
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Link Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 6:51 pm Post subject: |
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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!... 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
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Link Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 9:44 pm Post subject: |
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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
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Link Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 9:46 pm Post subject: |
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[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 Posts: 231 Location: Stayner, ON
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Link Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 9:46 pm Post subject: |
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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
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Link Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 9:48 pm Post subject: |
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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 Posts: 231 Location: Stayner, ON
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Link Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 9:52 pm Post subject: |
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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
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Link Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 10:50 pm Post subject: |
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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 Forum Moderator
Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 26690 Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
TV/Projector: Sony 1252Q, AMPRO 4000G
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Link Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 11:19 pm Post subject: |
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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.
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fireanimal
Joined: 17 Jul 2007 Posts: 231 Location: Stayner, ON
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Link Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 11:22 pm Post subject: |
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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
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Link Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 11:38 pm Post subject: |
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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 |
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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 Forum Moderator
Joined: 08 Mar 2006 Posts: 26690 Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
TV/Projector: Sony 1252Q, AMPRO 4000G
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Link Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 11:40 pm Post subject: |
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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 Posts: 390 Location: Lake Mills, Wi
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Link Posted: Mon Jan 21, 2008 11:53 pm Post subject: |
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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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