video looks ok in windows but not on MCE

bubonicus

I have just installed MCE on an oldish computer. Now when I play a video file on the windows interface on the desktop the video plays fine.

But when I enable MCE, and play the same video, the video looks off colour.

I only have 378mb of RAM. So I'm thinking the extra RAM MCE takes up is messing with the video encoding so messing up the picture quality.

Has anybody had any experience with this or is there another option.

I am going to get a 512mb stick of RAM tomorrow, but just looking for some help in the meantime.

8T8

Hmm.. that is unusual I've never heard of the amount of RAM affecting it like that.

Are these low quality videos as MCE runs at the set resolution of the display so essentially your blowing up videos to fill the screen so if they were low quality to begin with it would magnify the problems in the source material.

Have you run the display wizard in MCE and fined tuned the colour settings as it provides demo videos to work against for correct colour calibration.

bubonicus

The video's are high quality and look absolutley fine when I just boot windows up and play them on WMP 10. But once I hit the MCE button and play the same video. It plays in off colour flickering in and out.

Update. I turned off some background processes and killed some startup items to free up some RAM. It seems to work fine now. So I'm going to buy some RAM in the morning and I'll drop in an update.

it might be because it's pc133 RAM. ?

8T8

Honestly don't know, maybe something running in the background is conflicting with MCE ?

If you cant find PC133 RAM locally Shop4Memory has some.

mathias

Interesting , very interesting , I have seen the same issue , and my system is not old and has 1GB of ram.

I have the HTPC set up as a DVD jukebox , and 1 title has the issue you described , Its a concert video , and it plays absolutely fine using PowerDVD 7 , but launch MCE Media centre ( which uses PowerDVD 7 ... its the only DVD player on the system , ) and it plays off colour and flickers , I was assuming its some kind of copy protection on the video , but like I say , outside of Media Centre its fine ??
Be interested in a solution if anyone knows whats going on , sounds exactly like the OP's problem , I dont thing RAM will help .

RuggieBear

could it be a conflict between codecs or something like that. You might have a program in the background that is trying to access the same stuff as MCE does when running the files (video).

I get that when i try to run winamp and i have MCE open

8T8

Also could be overlay problems related to the GPU ?

Make sure you are using a current graphics card driver.

Also install WMP11 it updates the video rendering pipeline in XP and fixes a few bugs.

bubonicus do you use PowerDVD for DVD decoding in MCE like mathias does ?

I cant recall because I have not installed PowerDVD in a while but by default don't they have their own rendering mode called eagle vision that messed with the colour balance in movies. It could be it doesn't work right in MCE only in their own player, try going into the settings of PowerDVD and disable eagle vision and re-enable the standard hardware accelerated video option.

bubonicus

Right guy's, Thanks for all the advice so far.

I have tried installing WMP 11. I uninstalled my k-lite codec pack and my divx codecs. Reset all my catalyst control center. reset my paging file.

Still the same thing happens. Seems to be on divx stuff only.

I have an ATI 9225 with s-vid out into a composite video on a CRT television.

I only installed upto 6.3 drivers, because I tried to install 6.9 but got an error. I've also installed the MCE addon for the ATI drivers.

Seemed to be a bit better when I cut back half of the visual functions to clear up some RAM. But it's still unwatchable.

I only have WMP 11 installed on the PC. It's only a fresh install of MCE.

I might try and update the drivers to 6.8. I'm lost now except for RAM.

8T8

If you are using the DivX codec go into it's properties and tick the box for use hardware overlay to see if that changes anything.

Bar that I'm out of ideas.

bubonicus

So a quick update.

I did enough research on MCE before I bought it, like i do with most things before I buy.

But now after this issue, I have found on the arse end of the DivX website and various other sites now that MCE is not fully compatible with DivX.

So what now, I have tried loads of different codecs and reinstalling my drivers again. But it's alway's the same.

So it looks like my dream HTPC which I've spent some money on now is totally useless for my needs. Oh well lesson learned (the hard way). Thanks for all your help guy's.

http://support.divx.com/cgi-bin/divx.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=997&p_created=1095097509&p_sid=uBQCLYii&p_accessibility=0&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MiZwX3Byb2RzPTAmcF9jYXRzPSZwX3B2PSZwX2N2PSZwX3NlYXJjaF90eXBlPWFuc3dlcnMuc2VhcmNoX25sJnBfcGFnZT0xJnBfc2VhcmNoX3RleHQ9bWVkaSBDRU5URVI*&p_li=&p_topview=1

SouperComputer

Sounds like an overlay/primary display issue. Chances are if you put MCE in a window and play Divx you will end up with a black hole where the video would be displayed.

TBH I have never had Divx issues with MCE, with the exeption of not being able to FFwrd, only skip.

Its not a RAM issue either. 386MB is tight and will be sluggish at times (MCE is very bloated) but will run OK.

Be sure that your overlay and primary display settings are correct in display properties. Ie if you wish for the TV to display the Divx, then make the TV the primary display. You can do this from advancerd display properties and checking the checkbox "make this my primary display"

If you are switching from VGA and SVideo, then you may also have to manually switch your primary display according to your needs. I have found Nvidia cards to be generally more flexible regarding primary display selection.

Anyway, I would be surprised if the above doesent reslove your issue.

mathias

First off , the eagle vision thing in PowerDVD was causing my problem , thanks 8T8 for that , everything is working fine now ,

Second , for Bubonicus , I have tons of Divx stuff on my system and it all plays fine. I have never had an issue with Divx .

Maybe look at using a different player ! There are a few different ones I believe !

bubonicus

I looked into this more.

My gfx card is only an ATI 9100. I found this is not compatible with MCE because MCE uses directx 9 direct draw to put video on screen. the 9100 is only directx 8.

So by pure luck I picked up a 9800pro last night and will be fitting it today.

Fingers crossed.

8T8

mathias good to hear that sorted it, I had a feeling that was part of the problem.

bubonicus only certain overlay modes are available with DX9 cards that "could" be the source of the problem in that you had a DX8 card.

It needn't be anything fancy even the lowest end & cheapest DX9 card will suffice.

bubonicus

yeah I picked up the 9800 for 60 euro. So can't go wrong for that. I'll give an update tonight.

Thanks lads.

bubonicus

Last update.

Well the 9800 pro worked a charm. All vids play lovely.

I ran into another problem with windows not seeing my DVD drive. But fixed that with a quick search on google.

So Finally have my HTPC up and running.

But now it's out of range of my wireless router.:(

On with the struggle.

8T8

You could try getting bigger aerials for the exiting router though I just got one of these Netgear Rangemax units and they kick ass (built in DSL modem as well) with a very strong signal.

SouperComputer

But now it's out of range of my wireless router

http://komplett.ie/k/kl.asp?bn=10280&sortBy=p&minprice=&maxPrice=

Should be somthing of benefit there.


As 8T8 said, MIMO stuff is good, but to get the full benefits, you will have to replace all of your gear, unless of course some of it is already MIMO!