Posts Categorised: Misc Media Software

0Windows Media Player LogoWindows volume control of HDMI output

Published by & filed under Amplifiers, Misc Media Software, Windows. Last updated .

I recently swapped out my old home cinema audio sys­tem (a Yamaha DSP-E800 and a Den­on ste­reo receiv­er) con­nec­ted via USB DAC and 6 chan­nel ana­log for an Onkyo TX-SR605 which has HDMI audio con­nec­tions. In most ways this was an instant upgrade but one issue really frus­trated me — volume…
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0Alarm Clock LogoKeeping your HTPC clock in sync

Posted by & filed under Misc Media Software.

I’ve had a long-stand­ing issue with my HTPC where it loses a minute or two every day.  If I leave it switched on for weeks on end, with only standby util­ised, I find that it starts miss­ing the start or end of TV pro­grammes due to hav­ing the wrong time.  I’ve tried modi­fy­ing the win­dows time ser­vice set­tings to make it update reg­u­larly, but this has­n’t worked.  Thanks to an art­icle on Life­Hack­er I recently stumbled upon I’ve now had an accur­ate clock for a couple of weeks.… Read Full Article

0AVStoDVDHow to burn files to compliant DVD-Video

Posted by & filed under Misc Media Software.

As I’ve doc­u­mented well on this blog I run all my TV through a serv­er and Win­dows Media Cen­ter. Occa­sion­ally I want to archive some recor­ded TV to DVD. Not a DVD of data-files, but a stand­ards-com­pli­ant video DVD that will play in set top play­ers. This isn’t always straight for­ward as prop­er DVDs have to con­form to vari­ous stand­ards, includ­ing being encoded in MPEG2 and hav­ing a PAL or NTSC res­ol­u­tion (480p or 576p). Most of what I have recor­ded is 1080p and I also have some 720p, and most of this is encoded using H.264. So turn­ing these files into a stand­ard DVD video means both recod­ing and res­iz­ing the videos.… Read Full Article

8Warning: Not foundTheHTPC.net — Down for the count? No

Published by & filed under Misc Media Software. Last updated .

Sad news — for the last few days TheHTPC.net has been show­ing a Serv­er 500 error.  Now the own­er (anoth­er Jon) has put up a mes­sage say­ing the site is broken and he may not be able to find time to fix it.  I for one am very much hop­ing to see TheHTPC.net back in the near future.  If that is not to be then I hope we will be able to source and provide a mir­ror of some of the out­stand­ing resources that were pre­vi­ously avail­able there.  RIP.

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14MC-TVConverterMC-TVConverter: An alternative to MCEBuddy?

Published by & filed under Misc Media Software. Last updated .

I’ve been fol­low­ing the devel­op­ment of MCE­Buddy for a while now, as it was the only free way to transcode WTV files to a more com­pat­ible format.  It is still in Beta how­ever, and whilst it works it has 2 down­sides to my mind.  It transcodes the video which means an inev­it­able loss of qual­ity, and this also means it takes a long time to transcode each record­ing.  Around 4 hours for a 1Hr BBC HD record­ing on my Sem­pron LE-1100 serv­er.… Read Full Article

0DVB LogicPlanning a new networked home media setup

Published by & filed under Media PC Hardware, Misc Media Software, Storage. Last updated .

In the com­ing months I will be buy­ing a new prop­erty, and to go with my new home, I’ve been read­ing up lots on how I might integ­rate a new home media setup.  In recent months sev­er­al excit­ing new options have become avail­able, which finally makes the sort of setup I have always desired a real pos­sib­il­ity.… Read Full Article

4Humax PVR-9200TCopy files from Humax PVR 9200T to PC

Published by & filed under Freeview, Misc Media Software. Last updated .

I own a couple of Humax PVT-9200T dual freeview PVRs, both of which are now quite full with recor­ded pro­grams.  Humax have provided a pro­gram called eLinker, but it isn’t very good.  A good altern­at­ive is Humax Media Con­trol­ler but unfor­tu­nately it does­n’t work with Win­dows x64, as Mike Dim­mick explains.  Thank­fully, Mike has also cre­ated a solu­tion by patch­ing some of the files, so that Humax Media Con­trol­ler can now be used suc­cess­fully in Win­dows 7 x64.  The only issue is that Win­dows must be booted with Driver Sign­ing Enforce­ment disabled.