lalandev

sigh... We know that Vista Codec Pack x64 works... but: There's a difference between be able to play videos in Vista x64 Media Player and building a HTPC. Here is a list of things that you will have problems with if you use a Codec Pack instead of using just the codecs, splitters that you REALLY need: SPDIF passthrough for AC3 and/or DTS MediaControl (plugin for Vista Media Center) Using audio stream switching in a matroska container file. Using audio stream switching in a MP4 container file. Like I previously said, if you just want to be able to play media in Vista x64, install the codec Pack if you want. But if you want to build a STABLE and clean HTPC, there is more to it than meets the eyes. Regards.

News: If you go x64, Haali Media Splitter doesn't exist (yet) as an installable package. You must download the splitter file itself and register it with regsvr32.exe Download path http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...lease_id=571845 Also, you must open an .mkv file with Media Player x64 at least one time to associate the .mkv extension...

Wow! Most of the changes were on my personal "wishlist". Incredible release, thx again for your dedication and hard work!

You're right about your codec pack, it probably works... it is just not a "clean" way to do it. Normally, as like anything with computers, you just install what YOU NEED. In your case, you found that you needed indeo for ONE video. Keep in mind that Indeo is a old codec developped in 1992. The compression algorithm is really not efficient and nobody on the Net will ever encode a movie, a TV shows, or something big with this. Honestly, the only sector that I know of who still use Indeo is for video conferencing. Go read the Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indeo You'll see that you just fell on an exception... just to make me looks bad!!! Seriously, I don't pretend to have the best or the only solution. I'm just in HTPC since a good 3 years and this is my 3rd box. It is always on, go on sleep on S3 when not in use. Last reboot? 68 days (it was for a graphic card drivers update). I've never downloaded a movie or tv show in 1 year that the actual codec combination couldn't read. And if it happens, I still have Gspot to help me install the good thing. It is more efficient than shooting it the dark with a Codec Pack...

1. If it is a HTPC that will just do GameEx, you can use Instant Sheller (google it), it works well. It will remove the desktop and keep gameex. 2. If your computer is used for other stuff, you can just copy the GameEx shortcut into the Start\program\Startup folder.

My bad, you're right, I forgot to tel you to choose libavodec for both mpeg1/2 Do to a quick test, uninstall ffdshow to see if you're video is playing without. Don't forget that office computers sometimes miss some important multimedia component.

Is the video was working before FFDshow install? Is there was any codecs installed before? Hmmm, work computer tends to not have DirectX updated: In "Run...", type: dxdiag It will tells you the DirectX version, If it is not 9.0c, go install http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details...;displaylang=en Run also http://www.free-codecs.com/download/GSpot.htm This tool tells you which codec your video was encoded with, and more importantly: if the codec is installed...

No problem! Keep us informed how it went...

Yes, installing both 32 and 64bit codecs at the same time WILL cause conflict and/or instability (trust me, I'v tinkered a lot with Vista as an HTPC) Yep AMD64 got the same infrastructure as Core2Duo. And don't worry, these 2 are enough... just don't forget to tick MPEG1 and MPEG2 in the video section when you install FFDshow. Good luck!

1. If you use Vista Media Center and GameEx ONLY for games, you must absolutely install x64 codecs because VMC uses the 64bit player in the background. 2. If you use GameEx to do all, install 32bits codecs. Here's the path for FFDShow x64 and Matroska x64 http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.p...lease_id=523000 When you install FFDshow, in the audio section, don't forget to tick SPDIF for AC3 and DTS, this way your Dolby Digital signal will passthrough to your Receiver without been decoded by FFDshow http://downloads.sourceforge.net/guliverkl...mp;big_mirror=0 To install the Matroska file, type: regsvr32 "path to the file"\blablabla.ax The only other cool thing I install is Media Control. http://damienbt.free.fr/ It fix the Fast Forward "problem" on your remote when watching a divx or something...

Great tips, next romset I get, I'll try it. So, how can we help the community with our snaps/title "set"? You talked about a dat file?

I totally agree with the "if it not broke, don't fix it" philosophy. But, maybe one day, you'll download a movie encoded with an "exotic" codec and your codec pack will not play it, for God knows why the reason. But, if you want to do it: 1. uninstall your codec pack 2. reboot 3. user Filmerit (the tool) 4. reboot 5. Install FFDShow et Matroska 6. reboot Should be perfect. Another question, where do you send your sound? Analog connections on your sound card? SPDIF optical or coaxial to an AV Receiver? If you use SPDIF, there a few tweakings to do pass the Dolby Digital and DTS to the receiver...

Honestly, the only 3 codecs that you need to install are: FFDShow http://www.free-codecs.com/download/FFDShow.htm Haali Media Splitter (the Matroska I talked about earlier) http://haali.cs.msu.ru/mkv/ QuickTime Alternative (if you need it, personally I hate .MOV) http://www.free-codecs.com/download/QuickT...Alternative.htm Please, stay away of all the Codecs Pack, they MAY seem to work, but Vista Media Center is one picky piece of software. It doesn't take much to screw his codecs links, priority and all. With these 3 components, you should be able play anything. Just be alert when you install FFDshow, don't forget to tick the boxes [MPEG1 Video codec] and [MPEG2 Video codec]. This way, FFDshow takes over Vista Media Center when it needs to decode older video. Last tip: http://paul.glagla.free.fr/filmerit_en.htm This is the best software I found to repair codecs. This small application will scan your machine and tells you if some codecs are broken. Most of the time, it fix automatically the problems. I hope it will helps you a little.

I' REALLY a noob in all the world of emulator, roms, dat files, etc. So, I don't really know the way to build a dat file for the renaming process. The way I did it is with Bulk Renaming Utility. There's a field for RegEx and I simply used: match: (.*)(\(.*\))(.) replace: \1\3 and match: (.*)(\[.*\])(.) replace: \1\3 This way, it removed all () and []. At the end, there were still some snaps with the wrong name (ex: Final Fantasy 2.png --> Final Fantasy II.7z) For all my roms, it took me less than 2 hours, can't imagine doing it manually...

Yeah that's why I stay away of x64 for an HTPC. It is a pain in the a$$ to configure Vista Media Center to use correctly x64 codecs. Plus, if your familiar with Matroska container file... try to find a x64 codec that works properly...

Hi! The thing to understand is: Vista x64 doesn't have all his programs and processes in 64bits. In fact, just to give you an example, your system have Windows Media Player 11 in both 32 and 64 bits installed at the same time (in Program Files for the 64 and Program Files (x86) for the 32). When you use the WMP11 shortcut, by default, it starts the 32bits version, so technically, if you installed some 64bits codecs, they wont apply to the 32bits version. So, here's the point: GameEx is a 32bit application, so it will use only 32bits codecs, unless Tom says otherwise but I'm pretty sure. That's why your stuff plays properly in Vista Media Center (uses Media Player 64 bits in background) but not in GameEx. Install the regular FFDShow from free-codecs.com and everything should be fine.

I don't have a intelligent explanation to give you but, try launching directly the .EXE opposed to launching the .lnk. In my case, it fixed some problems.

I would be delighted contributing to the community. But, is it some kind of copyright on those files I've downloaded on screenshot archive? The snaps were goodtooled, so I"ve just used a RegEx renaming tool to get rid of the (UJE), [!] stuff. After, I"ve just browsed quickly in GameEx to see if there were still problems. I've renamed manually maybe 1% of all the snaps that were not exactly the same name as my GoodMerged roms. I've done: NES, SNES, N64, GBA, Genesis, Sega Master System.

Finally, I renamed all my snaps with a RegEx application. Everything is now working perfectly. I'm still eager to try the new release that Tom is talking about. Maybe it'll save me the renaming of a future romset I may download one day.

Great idea guys, I'll start by changing the security on the config files, if it works, it'll be more elegant that overwrite the config each time. My 2 problematic emulators are NEStopia et Project64. I'll give it a try and keep you guys informed.

Hi guys, It is not related to GameEx but I would like to know if other people got the same annoying behavior from NEStopia and Project64 (in particular). Example: you configured properly 4 gamepads (Logitech Dual Action) in the emulator. You plug them, start GameEx, start Mario Kart 64, you play, you have fun, you quit, you unplug, you shut the HTPC off. The next day, you turn on the HTPC, this time you plug 2 gamepads, you start GameEx and Mario Kart. You play... bla bla bla. The next day, you turn on the HTPC, this time you plug 4 gamepads,you start GameEx and Mario Kart. Guess what, Project64 "forgot" that I had configured 2 others gamepads at the start and can only use 2. Am I doing something wrong? is it necessary to keep my 4 gamepads plugged in at all time to be sure not to screw the configs?

Wow thx, it is the first time that I don't feel like posting a stupid question... hehehe By "next version", you mean not 9.43 ?

LEGO Star Wars LEGO Indiana Jones I KNOW, it looks like games for kids. But for you who have played, you know these are incredibly fun games... This is the only games my girlfriend loves to play with me. The graphics are SOOOO prettier on the PC version than on the Wii/360/PS3 (if you got a graphic card beefy enough, something like a 8600GT does the job pretty well, even at 1920x1080)

Thx for the insight. But, have you found your romset already "ungoodmerged" or you used a regular expression tool to rename then?

Sooooooooooo guys, what are YOU doing??? No goodmerge? Your roms are just "dumped" in a folder and your snaps have the same naming convention? I know that hard drive are cheap and that, for example: a SNES romset is not big, but I like the 7zip compression and the neat look in the folder. Anyway, plz feel free to describe a little bit your setup, maybe it'll give others ideas! Thx guys.