pc rebuild ??

karltimber

had a few problems with my media pc and have decided to do a rebuild.

this stems from no tv (decoder problem) that I cannot fix and the pc hanging coming out of s3. Pc worked fine til last week but no restore point set (thought I had :rolleyes: ).

so,
I will list the items I think I need to re-intsall, please add if I have fogotten anything.

mce2005
any mce updates
MS wireless keyboard update
mce roll-up update
.net2
graphics card drivers
hauppaguge pvr150 software drivers
cyberlink dvd - video decoders
anit virus sw
mst - to force s3 standby
ffdshow

what audio drivers do I need ?
best set of codecs around?

thx
K

8T8

What motherboard have you got if using onboard sound probably Realtek anyway.

For codecs use ffdshow or use the CCCP (it is ffdshow with a few extras).

Making an image with something like Ghost would be a good idea to save you a reinstall in case anything happens again.

karltimber

howdy,

format'd the hd , and have everything loaded again.

But some avi's will not play ??? (mainly music videos) I have the codecs 8T8 listed loaded but no luck. And power dvd as the video encoder.

what else can I try ??

thx

SouperComputer

start with Gspot to find out exactly what codec you need.

You could use the k-lite codec pack, but it can cause occasional issues. Ill second the advice of making an image when you are happy with it. Get a copy of acronis true image, it will allow you to create a series of incemental images in a hidden partition.

8T8

Do the AVI files play in Windows Media Player as if they play in WMP they should play in MCE ?

karltimber

Gspot says that the audio & video codecs are there to play these files.

these are mpeg files not avi's.
and no -they will not play in wmp -as a file run by itself.

but there are other mpeg music video files that will play!!
wmp11 has all the updates so not sure why these particular ones will not play.

one thing- they are all recent d/l's, over the last few weeks.

what else can I do.
should another video encoder be installed ,even though cyberlink is the preferred encoder and works fine on avi's and other mpegs ?

thx

karltimber

I have it fixed.
tried a few different codec packs and if they didn't work -uninstalled them.

then tried this codec pack at http://www.starcodec.com/en/

and all the new poblem mpegs worked fine.

thanks for all the help/ideas

K

SouperComputer

these are mpeg files not avi's

Just an FYI, thats a distinction without a difference! AVI covers a multitude of file formats, including MPEG (including 1,2 &4), and uncompressed frames. Its not associated with a particular format of video.

karltimber

My mistake.

My understanding of the mutiltude of different formats is limited but expanding.
Looking at a list of files - avi's,mpeg,mp3,mov - one would think they were all different just by naming convention alone, but obviously not.

Have to admit - building and maintaining a media pc is not an easy task at times -but interesting to say the least.

thx