ArcSoft TotalMedia (English Version) Availability

[SamuriHL]

did I point out that they have the analogue outputs for the centre and right speakers reversed, so it's useless for 5:1 and 7:1 sound.

Uh, no, you didn't, but, that's good to know considering that's how I play all my HD discs. How in the hell did this make it through beta testing?!?!

 

[talon95]

That first link is interesting. That would explain James' problem with it. I'm still not sure I want to put this on my HTPC though. I have an 8800 GT in there so it'd work according to that post. I don't know...I want more people other than me to test it further. I'm certainly not reinstalling Vista on that machine. It was a pain to get set up correctly in the first place. Now that I've finally got it working well I ain't touching it. Anyway, thanks for the links. Very enlightening.

Yea, it's not worth it at this point. I posted more results over there. Short answer, still no luck.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=12873840&postcount=711

 

[SamuriHL]

Here's hoping they can get all the problems fixed in a timely fashion. I, however, am not going to hold my breath waiting.

 

[talon95]

Here's hoping they can get all the problems fixed in a timely fashion. I, however, am not going to hold my breath waiting.

Well, I sent a note to them with all the info I have. I'm not sure how helpful it is since there is no error message and no log file that I could find, but worth a shot.

 

[ajeffo]

I loaded this onto my 32bit Vista HTPC with an 8600GT graphics card and ran the following tests. Note i havent watched a film all the way through. Also on all tests using sp/dif if got proper 5.1 sound either DD or DTS depending on the disk.

300 Blu-ray Non BD+ from the Disc - seems to run ok
Fantastic 4 Siliver Surfer BD+ from the disc - seems to run ok
Blood Diamond HD-DVD from the disc - seems to run ok
Harry Potter order of the phoenix - from the hard drive either ISO or the BD files - seems to run ok
Blood Diamond HD-DVD from the hardrive (didnt try ISO) - seems to work
Fantastic 4 silver surfer from hard drive ISO or BD files - didnt run at all, with or without AnyDVD-HD.

The CPU didnt go above about 35% so it would appear that hardware acceleration is working.

Streaming HD files from network drives it loads a lot faster than PDVD.

I also briefly tried it on my other PC with a 7600GT in it, this also played the Harry potter film from the BD files on the hard drive.

There is some promise in this software, but i wont be buying yet until the main bugs are sorted out.

 

[peterbus]

I loaded this onto my 32bit Vista HTPC with an 8600GT graphics card and ran the following tests. Note i havent watched a film all the way through. Also on all tests using sp/dif if got proper 5.1 sound either DD or DTS depending on the disk.

300 Blu-ray Non BD+ from the Disc - seems to run ok
Fantastic 4 Siliver Surfer BD+ from the disc - seems to run ok
Blood Diamond HD-DVD from the disc - seems to run ok
Harry Potter order of the phoenix - from the hard drive either ISO or the BD files - seems to run ok
Blood Diamond HD-DVD from the hardrive (didnt try ISO) - seems to work
Fantastic 4 silver surfer from hard drive ISO or BD files - didnt run at all, with or without AnyDVD-HD.

The CPU didnt go above about 35% so it would appear that hardware acceleration is working.

Streaming HD files from network drives it loads a lot faster than PDVD.

I also briefly tried it on my other PC with a 7600GT in it, this also played the Harry potter film from the BD files on the hard drive.

There is some promise in this software, but i wont be buying yet until the main bugs are sorted out.

you know the more i read the problems associated with total media the more i believe it boils down to each individual system.for me it wont play fantastic 4silver surfer from disc.maybe the different combos of drive,processor,graphic card etc,has an effect on the programme.anything it wont play pdvd will,thanks to advd.so far totalmedia plays everything from hdd from 300 hd-dvd to shoot em up blu-ray with s/pdif out no prob.:doh:

 

[hddvdsupporter]

i read on a website that arcsofts product crash if you try to play a bd+ copy protected movie if you have installed vista service pack 1..

 

[Adbear]

crashes for me on 3 systems, 1 XP, 1 Vista home Premium and 1 Vista Business, some films start to play then crash, I find it a bit lame if this is supposed to be a finished product and I can't watch a film all the way through on 3 different spec systems

 

[talon95]

Here's another problem. I discovered a little while ago that WMP was completely broken for playing MP3's. Turns out the Arcsoft audio codec must have been loading and screwing up WMP. As soon as uninstalled TMT, MP3's worked again. I even tried reducing the merit of the Arcsoft audio codecs, but it still didn't work. Only uninstalling fixed it.

 

[YaniD]

did I point out that they have the analogue outputs for the centre and right speakers reversed, so it's useless for 5:1 and 7:1 sound.

IIRC, the advanced audio codecs use a different channel mapping in the stream than we are used to with plain DD and DTS.

I guess it's possible they forgot about this (which doesn't instill confidence they know what they are doing).

Do you get the same problem with DD5.1 or DTS5.1?

 

[Mangoat]

Well, I've now watched Apocalypto (from disk) and 3:10 To Yuma (rip, run through Tsremux to only keep the PCM track) via Arcsoft, and I've had no problems with it at all. There was no audio channel swtching (using analogue outs), there were no issues playing the titles in question. The only thing I can comment on was that Yuma stuttered on 2 occassions, but that could have been the HDD itwas playing from, or an error introduced in the rip or the remux process.

 

[sarah99]

IIRC, the advanced audio codecs use a different channel mapping in the stream than we are used to with plain DD and DTS.

I guess it's possible they forgot about this (which doesn't instill confidence they know what they are doing).

Do you get the same problem with DD5.1 or DTS5.1?

Pretty much everything
HD, DD+ (MI3), DTS-HD (Rambo)
Blu DTS-HD (Broken Arrow)

HD
MLP (AKA dolby lossless) works properly but only Star Trek uses that format

Blu
Dolby TrueHD works properly (Blade Runner)
LPCM works properly (Fifth Element)
Dolby Digital AC3 works (fifth element, blade runner)

 

[peterbus]

Pretty much everything
HD, DD+ (MI3), DTS-HD (Rambo)
Blu DTS-HD (Broken Arrow)

HD
MLP (AKA dolby lossless) works properly but only Star Trek uses that format

Blu
Dolby TrueHD works properly (Blade Runner)
LPCM works properly (Fifth Element)
Dolby Digital AC3 works (fifth element, blade runner)

I see the full version is for sale on the arcsoft site.i just checked my 5.1 and 6.1 output via s/pdif and all seems fine,in fact the sound is crystal clear and coming from the speakers they should be coming from,i also noticed thst the welcome screen ot total media is different on their site than the downloaded version.has any one taken the plunge yet?.havent got TrueHD yet,but working on it.:

 

[sarah99]

I see the full version is for sale on the arcsoft site.i just checked my 5.1 and 6.1 output via s/pdif and all seems fine,in fact the sound is crystal clear and coming from the speakers they should be coming from,i also noticed thst the welcome screen ot total media is different on their site than the downloaded version.has any one taken the plunge yet?.havent got TrueHD yet,but working on it.:

Using SPDIF bypasses the audio problem as it is your amp doing the audio decoding.
But by using SPDIF you won't be able to use any of the lossless audio (which is sortof the who point of not using PDVD)

The "for sale" version is exactly the same as the free version

Well, I've now watched Apocalypto (from disk) and 3:10 To Yuma (rip, run through Tsremux to only keep the PCM track) via Arcsoft, and I've had no problems with it at all. There was no audio channel swtching (using analogue outs), there were no issues playing the titles in question. The only thing I can comment on was that Yuma stuttered on 2 occassions, but that could have been the HDD itwas playing from, or an error introduced in the rip or the remux process.

As these Blu-Rays don't DTS-HD audio tracks then it won't have the problem.

 

[rfielder]

I installed Totalmedia on one of my HTPC computers last night.

When run, it causes the system to reboot.

Guess this one is not a winner. Yet.

The system is pretty generic, and pretty stable.
Intel motherboard
Visiontek HD2600 Pro AGP video
2Gb RAM
P4 2.8Ghz CPU
1 SATA hard drive
2 IDE hard drives
LG GGC-H20L SATA optical
Two Plextor IDE optical drives
Samsung 17" LCD monitor

This is my test system for hidef - it is set up to play hidef, but once things work, the changes are moved to the HTPC that is attached to the TV for actual viewing.

I do not want to chance putting this application onto the main HTPC. I do have another PC that is dedicated to TV capture - SD using BTV and an ATI TV Wonder 650. That might be worth a try, but a back up of that system using Ghost would need to be done first.

Too bad, I am running into a few issues with PowerDVD Ultra and some Blu-Ray discs, as mentioned by others here, and it would have been great to find an alternative.

 

[digitalfreak]

FYI - From the Vidabox guy on AVSForum:

Hello all,

I wanted to give you an update on some things.

1. We have finally tested an X-fi prelude and have found the same issues with analog output as many of you have reported. Our observations are pretty much the same as sarah99 had summarized a couple of pages back except that we are also seeing issues with dolby Digital AC3 on BD titles. We have reported the issue and we will hopefully have a fix soon.

2. I noticed that many of you are saying that SPDIF only outputs stereo instead of DD or DTS. This was a bug that we discovered a while ago has been fixed with our version and should be fixed with the retail version soon.

3. Arcsoft has informed me that they run 2 to 3 weeks behind on bug fixes for released versions. So many bugs that you have been experiencing may have been fixed already and the next update should fix it. The VidaBox version will have implement bug fixes as they are fixed. Meaning, you will always have the most up to date version with VidaBox.

4. VidaBox will be offering a 15 trial of their version of the Arcsoft player.

5. I have confirmed with Arcsoft that they primarily test with NVIDIA graphics cards. That is probably why those of you using NVIDIA graphics have had better luck. I'm afraid that those of you using ATI graphics might not have as great of an experience with Arcsoft. ATI in general is not very good with working with 3rd party support (our experience and Arcsoft) and that has been the main reason why they haven't been able perfect support for ATI graphics. NVIDIA is fantastic with 3rd party support and hence the better compatibility. Please don't beat me up on this. I'm just presenting information so you can make educated decisions.

This thread is moving very fast. Please forgive me if I have not answered one of your questions. Please repost your question if I have and I will answer it if I can.
__________________
Sergio D
VidaBox, LLC

 

[SamuriHL]

Well that's interesting. Any idea when VidaBox will release their version? That at least sounds promising more or less.

 

[cocazulu]

Does that mean they've added full nVidia support in Vista?

BD+ support seems to still be in the blu?

 

[digitalfreak]

Well that's interesting. Any idea when VidaBox will release their version? That at least sounds promising more or less.

Dunno about the demo, but their full version is scheduled for 01/25/08. Hopefully the date will stick this time, though I'm betting it will since Arcsoft finally got around to releasing their version.

 

[peterbus]

Dunno about the demo, but their full version is scheduled for 01/25/08. Hopefully the date will stick this time, though I'm betting it will since Arcsoft finally got around to releasing their version.

Well you have my juices flowing,if sarah99 and digitalfreak are keeping us up to date with their info then there may be light at the end of the tunnel.is there hdd playback on the retail version of total media?8)