SlySoft Player?

[cybrsage]

It doesn't know how many speakers you have. Your receiver knows this. SlyPlayer notifies your receiver how many channel the source has.
E.g. with a 2 channel track your receiver "knows" that it can do Dolby Prologic (or whatever), with 5.1 it can expand to 7.1.
Other players (e.g. TMT, PowerDVD7&8 ) don't do this when using LPCM, so you have to manually set the computer to 2 channels in control panel when playing back stereo (dolby surround) tracks. Very, very annoying.

I understand. Yeah, receiving blank channels is very annoying.

Since I have a 6.1 system, if the source sends 7.1, the receiver will simply PLIIx it (since I have that turned on) and make it 6.1. If it is 5.1, it does the same...but 6.1 it will play natively.

Sounds good to me.

 

[cybrsage]

Not completely decided yet. Playback of the movie, sure. But we're probably unwilling to painfully implement iHD (or was it called HDi?) for menus on a dead format. But never say never... if the Chinese HD-DVD clone kicks off...

Menus are a highly rated item in WAF. No pretty menus means no extra cash flowing towards the HTPC.

 

[James]

Menus are a highly rated item in WAF. No pretty menus means no extra cash flowing towards the HTPC.

Just don't show off using HD-DVD. Pick a Blu-ray disc instead.

 

[w1seman]

I don't know why people are still sticking so much to HD-DVD playback capabilities.
30 % of the complaints regarding the ASUS Xonar bundled version of TMT are revolving around missing bitstreaming with HD-DVD playback.

HD-DVD is dead and over, if you have still some discs, how often do you really need them any more?

I too have still some HD-DVD's flying around but I only watch one of them from time to time, its Batman Begins.

Instead of implementing bells and whistles in Slyplayer James should rather implement bitstreaming for the ASUS Xonar HDAV!

 

[DMD]

You can download a beta version for testing?

 

[DigiMagic]

I am so not upgrading to PDVD 9 (or WDVD 10)

Just to confirm, for us a minority without HDMI-audio capable hardware - we will get full unprocessed audio on analog 192/24 7.1 outputs of a soundcard?

 

[James]

I am so not upgrading to PDVD 9 (or WDVD 10)

Just to confirm, for us a minority without HDMI-audio capable hardware - we will get full unprocessed audio on analog 192/24 7.1 outputs of a soundcard?

Yes, if your soundcard (driver) supports it.

 

[James]

I am so not upgrading to PDVD 9

I certainly wouldn't do that, with or without SlyPlayer on the horizon.

 

[SamuriHL]

I don't know why people are still sticking so much to HD-DVD playback capabilities.
30 % of the complaints regarding the ASUS Xonar bundled version of TMT are revolving around missing bitstreaming with HD-DVD playback.

HD-DVD is dead and over, if you have still some discs, how often do you really need them any more?

I too have still some HD-DVD's flying around but I only watch one of them from time to time, its Batman Begins.

Instead of implementing bells and whistles in Slyplayer James should rather implement bitstreaming for the ASUS Xonar HDAV!

Um, I have over 30 HD DVD's. Trust me, I watch them a lot.

 

[cybrsage]

Just don't show off using HD-DVD. Pick a Blu-ray disc instead.

...please lengthen your post to 10 characters...

 

[cybrsage]

I don't know why people are still sticking so much to HD-DVD playback capabilities.
30 % of the complaints regarding the ASUS Xonar bundled version of TMT are revolving around missing bitstreaming with HD-DVD playback.

HD-DVD is dead and over, if you have still some discs, how often do you really need them any more?

I too have still some HD-DVD's flying around but I only watch one of them from time to time, its Batman Begins.

Instead of implementing bells and whistles in Slyplayer James should rather implement bitstreaming for the ASUS Xonar HDAV!

ASUS crippled HD-DVD on their version of TMT as it plays just fine on the retail TMT (albeit without bitstreaming). That is why people are complaining...the functionality already existed but it was taken away.

If there was a program which made it easy to convert a HD-DVD disc to Blu-Ray AND keep the menus, then it would be a non-issue to me.

 

[w1seman]

ASUS crippled HD-DVD on their version of TMT as it plays just fine on the retail TMT (albeit without bitstreaming). That is why people are complaining...the functionality already existed but it was taken away.

If there was a program which made it easy to convert a HD-DVD disc to Blu-Ray AND keep the menus, then it would be a non-issue to me.

Btw. is there a possibility to convert a HD-DVD to Blu-Ray that contains a DolbyTrueHD track by keeping it a TrueHD track on the BD too?
All versions of guides I saw so far ended up with Dolby core only!?

 

[Fernando]

Let me clarify things for GPU support. It's a bit complicated.

We will support both DXVA2 (Windows 6) and DVXA[1] (Windows 5). We will not support CUDA, Stream (CTM) or OpenCL as it doesn't make sense. If your GPU supports CUDA/CTM it always supports DXVA. But not the other way round. And talking about "CUDA is faster than DXVA" is kinda nonesense as both interfaces are combined and I don't care if one is 1 picosecond faster than the other.

And by the way: SlyPlayer will not run under Windows 95 .. Windows Me. First I need DirectX 7 (or above) and second a working and stable kernel. You can't playback on Windows 9x anyway for speed reasons.

* Windows 5 = Windows 2000, Windows Server 2000, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 ; Windows 6 = Windows Vista ; Windows Server 2008 ; Windows Seven

 

[SamuriHL]

Pretty good reason to upgrade to Vista/Windows Server 2008/Windows 7 if you haven't done so already.

 

[honeybrain]

Native VMC Playback

Does SlyPlayer support native VMC Bluray playback with ISOs?

 

[BurnerHEAD]

And by the way: SlyPlayer will not run under Windows 95 .. Windows Me.

Great to hear that. So some people have to face the facts that their systems are outdated.

BurnerHEAD

 

[Fernando]

Does SlyPlayer support native VMC Bluray playback with ISOs?

What is VMC? Vista Media Center? (ehome)

Well, I'm a Microsoft enthusiast but that application is the most crashy app to my knowledge. Even worse then PowerCrash 7/8. So I can't really tell now. It's easy to implement but I don't wanna be responsible for those non-related ehome crashes.

 

[DukeOfUrl]

Yeah, send me the $150 instead.

You said you weren't the marketing guy, but here's an idea for you: Offer everyone here who ponies-up the $150US an alpha-testing chair, fully *months* ahead of beta release. I'll bet you get 40-50 takers anyway. Still not enough to hire a coder, but think about it--you could afford a better grade of booze at happy-hour, and maybe reduce the hangovers enough to make a difference re: release dates! :agree:

All I need is that the player works on my 64bit XP Pro. Doesn't have to *be* 64-bit, just has to bloody *work* on my system! That's all I need. And this chair. And this thermos...

 

[Fernando]

Interesting. I tried that for free and only got 20.

 

[mpgxsvcd]

In view of Slyplayer coming eventually, can you at least advise me as to whether I should buy the Asus 1.3 card or the upcoming Azuntech card?
Thanks

The Auzentech card does not exist and probably will not exist until 3rd quarter of this year if it ever exists.

Bottom Line:

1. If you want bitstreaming right now then buy the HDAV card. That is your only option for bitstreaming currently.

2. If you want bitstreaming but can wait 3-6 weeks then the ASUS slimline card will be available. That will do 24p as well as full bitstreaming support.

3. If you just want undownconverted LPCM right now then start ripping your discs to lossless FLAC and buy a cheap ATI 4XXX series card.

4. If you want bitstreaming, 24p, Vista Media Center integration, auto selecting PCM specs(ie: 96 KHz, 7.1 channel), and bug free operation then you will need to wait for SlySoft, ArcSoft/ASUS, or CyberLink/Auzentech to do the impossible(Make a perfect HDMI solution) or wait for eternity whichever one comes first.

Here is a good explanation of what everything does today.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=15242282#post15242282