How to replace your home theater pre-pro with a HTPC!

[dallasjustice]

Got it all setup on iRule now. Learning the IR codes for my DAC was a snap. I nailed it on my first try. I think Global Cache and iRule have made big improvements in the last couple of years in terms easy-of-use. Here are some screenshots of my iRule pages I built. The volume is also controlled using the volume rocker on the iPad. The iPad controls everything via IR, RS232 and network codes. The server is controlled via Jriver port 52199. The wife likes it!

 

[prerich]

Don't get me wrong - I've been doing some very experimental stuff with multiple DACs synching up volume controls via iRule and so on. Also, I have been avoiding HDMI like the plague. First Marantz UD9004 into MCH analog preamp, now Oppo Modded with digi out board into Trinnov.

The difference between my experiments and an HTPC is it eventually it works flawlessly and I can just kick back and enjoy. For me the hobby is ultimately about enjoying music, not troubleshooting PCs.

I will achieve the same goal as you with the MSB UTM plus transport, and avoid HTPC problems.

I rarely have to troubleshoot any of my HTPC's. It's generally just turn it on and go. The only time I get in experimental mode is when I find a new feature. I've been playing with my measurements and such lately, but all in all - its just click and go. I use Gizmo via Android or a MC Remote to control everyting. I just, as you say - Kick back and enjoy - as a matter of fact most of the stuff I do pertains to this hobby (putting up diffusors or reflectors, taking measurements, ect... I finnally got tired this morning and said - That's as flat as I'm going to get it!) Maybe I'll buy Audiolense for Christmas unless someone has a Surround license they want to sell me - but other than that - I'm greatly satisfied with my HTPC, best a/v investment I've made (stopped all of my ugrade this and that - only thing I may upgrade one day is my DAC...and I just might build it).

 

[mojave]

My only hitch so far is with bluray audio. I am using anydvdhd trial version to play bluray and it works. I am only 2 channel so I set audio to 5.1 in 2 ch container using jrss. I get an error message from jriver when I start the bluray. Jriver thinks I am trying to send a 32 bit audio file to my DAC which won't support 32 bit. If I click the change audio settings automatically, the movie plays fine with no audio problems. I can't figure out why I keep getting this error message.

Did you get this figured out yet? I use 2 channel for Blu-rays on one of my systems using JRSS and have no problems. If using ASIO, many DAC's ASIO driver will present the DAC as 32 bit to JRiver because the DAC has a 32 bit internal path (for volume control, etc.) even though the final output is 24 bit.

Is it still possible to get uncompressed audio off bluray using jrss to mix down to 2 channels?

Yes.

I saw an iRule demo by Stephen Crabb (iRule Team) back in April at a friend's house. Pretty cool stuff. The friend has a CAPS server running JRiver.

In some exciting news relating to using an HTPC, JRiver just announced that they hired Hendrik Leppkes as a developer. Henrik goes by nevcarial on many forums and is the developer of LAV Filters that is used by JRiver (among others like XBMC) for decoding audio and video. This might lead to even better Blu-ray support down the road.

 

[dallasjustice]

Did you get this figured out yet? I use 2 channel for Blu-rays on one of my systems using JRSS and have no problems. If using ASIO, many DAC's ASIO driver will present the DAC as 32 bit to JRiver because the DAC has a 32 bit internal path (for volume control, etc.) even though the final output is 24 bit.


Yes.

I saw an iRule demo by Stephen Crabb (iRule Team) back in April at a friend's house. Pretty cool stuff. The friend has a CAPS server running JRiver.

In some exciting news relating to using an HTPC, JRiver just announced that they hired Hendrik Leppkes as a developer. Henrik goes by nevcarial on many forums and is the developer of LAV Filters that is used by JRiver (among others like XBMC) for decoding audio and video. This might lead to even better Blu-ray support down the road.

Mojave,
Thanks for responding to my question about the error message I am getting. Yes, I am still getting the message. The funny thing is that I can just click the button to make auto adjustment and the bluray plays no problem. I just don't like getting the message. Maybe there's nothing I can do about that.

When I play bluray audio in 2 channel using jrss, I only get 48k. How can I set up jriver to get totally uncompressed audio? I saw some old threads at yabb and it appears complicated. Something about using a file from arcsoft and moving it over to jriver or something. Is that still the only way to do it? Maybe that's why I am getting the error message?

I am also very excited about jriver. It seems like the improvements are coming at an accelerated pace now. I did tryout some of the madvr settings and they just screwed up my picture when I watch HDTV so I dropped it and use regular Red October. Maybe the new hire can sort things out a little better.

Thanks,
Michael.

 

[dallasjustice]

Mojave,
Maybe I should have read the thread you link to first. It looks like I can decode uncompressed audio using those LAVFSplitter filters and the Arcsoft file? Is that how you do it? Sorry, I am a little slow.

 

[mojave]

Mojave,
Thanks for responding to my question about the error message I am getting. Yes, I am still getting the message. The funny thing is that I can just click the button to make auto adjustment and the bluray plays no problem. I just don't like getting the message. Maybe there's nothing I can do about that.

Can you PM me a screenshot of the message? It usually means a setting is wrong. Also provide some more details like version, audio settings in options, and output format settings in DSP. You shouldn't have to get the message.

When I play bluray audio in 2 channel using jrss, I only get 48k. How can I set up jriver to get totally uncompressed audio? I saw some old threads at yabb and it appears complicated. Something about using a file from arcsoft and moving it over to jriver or something. Is that still the only way to do it? Maybe that's why I am getting the error message?

JRiver decodes Dolby TrueHD natively. However, for DTS-HD you need the dtsdecoderdll.dll file from an Arcsoft installion or trial. You can read more at the JRiver wiki. JRiver's Audio Path will show if you are decoding the DTS-HD or the standard DTS core.

I am also very excited about jriver. It seems like the improvements are coming at an accelerated pace now. I did tryout some of the madvr settings and they just screwed up my picture when I watch HDTV so I dropped it and use regular Red October. Maybe the new hire can sort things out a little better.

Check out the excellent madVR Guide at Interact. I have found it very helpful for setting things up beyond the default settings.

Michael (and my great-grandparents were Lowe)

 

[dallasjustice]

Can you PM me a screenshot of the message? It usually means a setting is wrong. Also provide some more details like version, audio settings in options, and output format settings in DSP. You shouldn't have to get the message.

WILCO.

Maybe we are related.

 

[dallasjustice]

Mojave,
I had the wrong container selected. I selected 2.1 channel and jrss. I then mapped the sub channel to left and right speakers. It works very well. I install the arcsoft .dll to decode lossless audio on bluray and am using the anydvd hd from slysoft. Here is a screenshot of my audiopath. Does this mean I am decoding lossless now?

 

[prerich]

Mojave,
I had the wrong container selected. I selected 2.1 channel and jrss. I then mapped the sub channel to left and right speakers. It works very well. I install the arcsoft .dll to decode lossless audio on bluray and am using the anydvd hd from slysoft. Here is a screenshot of my audiopath. Does this mean I am decoding lossless now?
View attachment 11717

It looks like you are getting lossless DTS-HD MA then remixing to 2 channel, applying your filters and finally outputing at the same 48khz but resampled to 32 bits.

 

[dallasjustice]

Thanks. It wasn't that difficult. It looks harder to do than it is.

 

[mojave]

You really should select 2.0 instead of 2.1 channels. 2.1 assumes you will be adding 10 dB of acoustical output at the subwoofer. 2.0 properly mixes all levels electrically. When you map the subwoofer channel back to the right and left channels you would need to attenuate the levels of the left and right to be exact to the original mix. If you try to add gain to the subwoofer this will lead to clipping.

It is easier just to select 2.0. If not using internal volume, then also add -4 dB of volume adjustment to the left and right channels to prevent clipping in a worst case scenario.

Yes, you are getting lossless now.

 

[dallasjustice]

I have been working on my iRule Panel for a few weeks and I finally have everything the way I want it. I traded my Ipad I in for an Ipad mini. The mini is the the perfect form factor for an iRule remote control. This is incredible. I can control every component in my system over wifi; jriver, projector, screen up/down, power amps on/off and awesome jriver 2 way interface. The jriver interface is actually webgizmo that has been modified by a dude named Nick. You can find his improved version of webgizmo here. Note that it is important to have a back button. Stock webgizmo doesn't have a back button. So, when I import the webgizmo URL into irule panel, there's no way to go back. That's the main reason to use Nick's customized webgizmo. He's also added media controls including a fancy volume wheel (which I don't use). The names of the files are also not truncated.

 

[mojave]

You can also integrate JRemote into iRule if you like it better than using webgizmo.

 

[dallasjustice]

Thanks Michael. The problem with app integration in irule is that the panel has to be set up with a button that will take you to the other app. That's a problem because getting back to the irule panel can be tricky. I understand the latest version of iRule helps fix this problem. My other issue is that I want everything on a single panel; ie. wife-proof.

I hope you start using iRule though. I need someone smarter than me that I know that is also an iRuler.

You can also integrate JRemote into iRule if you like it better than using webgizmo.

 

[dallasjustice]

Anydvd isn't doing the job anymore on latest bluray releases. For example, "Now You See Me" causes my screen to disconnect when the movie starts. My JVC projector screen goes blue like the HDMI is disconnected. Maybe it's an EDID issue caused by copy protection? I also had the same problem with another new release. Of course, my older blurays work fine. I have the most up to date version of anydvd.

 

[mojave]

It worked fine for me, but was a Red Box rental. Did you rip "Now You See Me"? There was a problem with Slysoft's online database marking the wrong titles with that movie. If you ripped using an older version of anyDVD then you will still have the problem even though you now have a current version. Try playing directly from disc if you aren't already.

Every once in a while the default title that starts playing is the incorrect title. If you purchased the movie I think there are both the theatrical release (1:55:21 in length) and the extended version (2:04:48 in length). The extended version also has a special scene during the credits that isn't available on the theatrical release. You can arrow down while in Theater View and get to the title menu. Then you can view all the titles available and select the correct one.

If you go to anyDVD Settings > Status you will see the correct titles listed.

Here is an example from Now You See Me, but your disc may be different:

Summary for drive H: (AnyDVD HD 7.3.5.0, BDPHash.bin 13-08-02)
HL-DT-ST BD-REBH12LS38 1.00 D204271199B6G35608
Drive (Hardware) Region: 1

Current profile: BD-ROM
Media is a Blu-ray disc.

Total size: 12193664 sectors (23815 MBytes)
Video Blu-ray label: NOW_YOU_SEE_ME
Media is AACS protected!
Drive supports bus encryption!
AACS MKB version 38
Removed AACS copy protection!
Note: automatic detection of region code not possible with this disc.
Blu-ray disc Region set to A!
Java BD protection good playlists: 651, 706
Blu-ray Java signatures fixed!
BD-Live deactivated!
Sony structural BD-J protection removed!

 

[dallasjustice]

Thanks Michael. It was a Redbox rental and I didn't feel comfortable ripping it, since I don't own it. I was playing it direct from disc. Maybe i need to mess with the settings. It must be a copy protection thing though because the sound plays for the movie, but the video disconnects. I've never seen anything else like it before.

It worked fine for me, but was a Red Box rental. Did you rip "Now You See Me"? There was a problem with Slysoft's online database marking the wrong titles with that movie. If you ripped using an older version of anyDVD then you will still have the problem even though you now have a current version. Try playing directly from disc if you aren't already.

Every once in a while the default title that starts playing is the incorrect title. If you purchased the movie I think there are both the theatrical release (1:55:21 in length) and the extended version (2:04:48 in length). The extended version also has a special scene during the credits that isn't available on the theatrical release. You can arrow down while in Theater View and get to the title menu. Then you can view all the titles available and select the correct one.

If you go to anyDVD Settings > Status you will see the correct titles listed.

Here is an example from Now You See Me, but your disc may be different:

 

[mojave]

It must be a copy protection thing though because the sound plays for the movie, but the video disconnects. I've never seen anything else like it before.

I think I had a similar thing happen with a RedBox disc that was damaged (might have been video with no sound). Physically, the disc looked fine. I exchanged it for another and had no trouble. I've also had one of my Blu-ray drives not read a couple of discs right. It would work on one computer, but not another. The drive that didn't work was older, though.

This will also happen with the wrong title. I recently watched Expendables 2. The wrong title was chosen first and had blackouts and the scenes were in mixed up order. Once I selected the correct title it worked fine. There are tons of fake titles on the discs. anyDVD removes most of them, but occasionally a fake title is still present. Fake titles were present on the "Now You See Me" that I rented, but the correct one was played.

I really don't think it is copy protection since nobody has reported anything on the Slysoft forum.

 

[edorr]

I remember a Jriver luminary explaining how to do this at some point, but would be very hard to dig up this info. So here is my question:

I am ripping my Blu Ray Concert collection. The rips don't allow me to view a list of tracks and jump to individual tracks, like I can with an audio rip. The best I can do now is navigate by skipping back and forward, but I don't even have track name info. I believe there is a way to create this in JRiver 19. Can anyone point me to information explaining how to do this.

 

[mojave]

I remember a Jriver luminary explaining how to do this at some point, but would be very hard to dig up this info. So here is my question:

I am ripping my Blu Ray Concert collection. The rips don't allow me to view a list of tracks and jump to individual tracks, like I can with an audio rip. The best I can do now is navigate by skipping back and forward, but I don't even have track name info. I believe there is a way to create this in JRiver 19. Can anyone point me to information explaining how to do this.

It is done by creating particles. Currently you can auto-create particles for all the titles on a Blu-ray, but not for chapters. It has been requested several times to enable it based on chapters so hopefully they will add this. For now, you have to manually create a particle for each chapter/song. Once you have the particles creted, you can also extract/convert just the audio portion using the Convert Format tool so you could have them all as FLAC files. This is useful if you want to sync with a handheld or make it easier to stream.

http://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/Particles