Hacking Windows7 MediaCenter

Sometimes you just need a single Directshow filter, say an MKV splitter to use with the default Windows 7 codecs. Should you install a codec pack when all you need is a single splitter? Absolutely not! Maybe you just need an x64 video decoder capable of hardware acceleration. There’s no reason to download something you don’t need to get the functions you want from your current filter setup.

What you do need, is to get acquainted with a little resource on Sourceforge where you can download stand alone filters used in the popular Media Player Classic – Homecinema media player. This resource includes practically any splitter or decoder you might need in single serving sizes. No need to download that complete codec pack to get a single filter!

Finding the right filter for your needs can be slightly cryptic but not too difficult. First you should choose the correct platform, x86 or x64, or be sure to download and register both versions for maximum compatibility on x64 systems. You should be able to discern the type of filter from the filename of each download (especially if you’re looking for something specific). For instance, MPCVideoDec is the video decoder used in Media Player Classic which is capable of DXVA (GPU hardware acceleration).

Getting your filter registered can be slightly more difficult. You will need to extract the file to a location on your hard disk then open an elevated command prompt. To get an elevated command prompt simply open your start menu and type “cmd” then press ctrl-shift-enter. Once inside type the following: “C:\Windows\system32\regsvr32 FILELOCATION”, replacing FILELOCATION with the location of the extracted file. For registering x64 filters do the same except use: “C:\Windows\sysWOW64\regsvr32 FILELOCATION”.

To uninstall a previously installed filter follow the same steps to launch an elevated command prompt then enter “C:\Windows\system32\regsvr32 /u FILELOCATION” or “C:\Windows\sysWOW64\regsvr32 /u FILELOCATION” depending on the version.

Those are all the steps to download and install individual filters from the Media Player Classic – Homecinema project for use in your DirectShow setup. As long as no errors occurred during the process the filters should be installed and ready to use.

Need more? Take a look at Clearing Up the Codec Confusion for a more complete guide to setting up your codecs and filters!

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Tagged As: codec, graphstudio, install

Although programs like GraphStudio can help us find out what’s going wrong during the playback of our media files, it isn’t really the easiest way to fix the problems.This is where a program like Radlight’s Filter Manager can come in handy. Unfortunately, this tool is no longer in development so no x64 version exists but an x86 version can be found for download here.

Using Filter Manager we can set the merits of DirectShow filters allow us to control what filters are loaded for certain file types. Each time a media file is loaded Windows will search for the filter with the highest merit capable of playing the file. Windows will then use that filter to playback the file. In the case of video files it will do this for both the video and audio streams. Using Filter Manager we are able to set the video stream to one codec such as FFDShow and the audio to another such as AC3Filter.

Once you’ve downloaded Filter Manager, simply extract the zip file to a folder on your hard disk. Running Filter Manager for the first time can be a little overwhelming with so many options. The main thing to look for is the section under the General tab for DirectShow Filters. This will provide a list of all the DirectShow filters installed on your machine.

From here setting the merit values of the DirectShow filters on the system is easy. Locate the filter that needs to have the merit level changed and select it in the list. Below the list of filters is a number of options including a dropbox with available merit values. Select the proper value from the list and press “Set Merit Value”. A system restart may be required before settings will take effect but many time simply restarting the media player will do the trick.

Here we also see that Filter Manager can provide a number of other options for customizing the codecs on the machine. Registering of new DirectShow filters is also extremely easy using Filter Manager, just press the “Register” button and select the file to register. Selecting a filter from the list and pressing “Unregister” will do the opposite, unregistering the selected filter. You can even access the particular codec settings by pressing the “Property Page” button.

It may take some effort but using Filter Manager in combination with GraphStudio you’ll be able to get your codecs straightened out to perform just the way you’d like them to.

For even more on codecs in Windows 7 and Media Center check out this article on Clearing Up The Codec Confusion.

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Tagged As: codec, graphstudio, install, programs, windows 7

This is the second part of a guide on using AC3Filter in Media Center to control SPDIF volume. A common problem among Media Center users with an external digital receiver using SPDIF for output. AC3Filter can solve this problem by controlling the gain on the SPDIF stream before sending it through to the receiver. Now that we have AC3Filter working in Media Center by following this guide, lets get AC3Filter settings ready to control the volume level.

Access AC3Filter’s configuration from the start menu. The first setting to change will be the number of speakers in your setup. Using the drop down box select the correct speaker setup for your system. Then enable SPDIF output to enable AC3Filter to output a digital stream via SPDIF.

Next go to the “Mixer” tab and in the options box make sure that Auto Matrix is selected. Expand Stereo will enable stereo streams to be output as full surround. Normalize Matrix and Voice Control will balance volume output among all the channels and during large volume changes in the stream. You can also control the Bass Output Cutoff from this panel.

Finally, we have to allow the AC3Filter to output a modified SPDIF stream. To do this go to the SPDIF tab and uncheck all SPDIF pass-through options. Pass-through tells AC3Filter to send an unaltered stream directly to the receiver, turning these off allows AC3Filter to alter the gain which will simulate volume changing. If this doesn't work you can try to send a PCM signal through your soundcard or disabling the AC3 Encoder, though in many situations this can break DD and DTS encoding depending on your hardware. Differences in sound card hardware and recievers will alter the viability of this hack.

That should be all there is to enabling your Media Center to control the volume of SPDIF output using AC3Filter! If you experience any problems make sure that AC3Filter is the preferred codec using this GraphStudio guide. More options on enabling AC3Filter to be the preferred codec can be found under the System tab in the AC3Filter configuration.

Troubles, successes, or experiences with AC3Filter you want to share? Leave note in the comments below!

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Tagged As: ac3filter, codec, graphstudio, spdif, windows 7

There are many choices in the world of codecs (used to play back video and audio on the pc). One of the most popular is FFDShow. While there is already a guide on using FFDShow Audio in Media Center there is the other half to consider as well: FFDShow Video. While we are able to get FFDShow audio to work in all parts of the Media Center including live TV, FFDShow Video isn’t quite as forgiving.

While you can’t use FFDShow Video in live or recorded TV on Media Center, it is possible to use it for just about anything else. The video side of FFDShow offers a wide range of compatibility for playing back the most popular video file formats. It also offers the ability to fine tune and adjust the video output to get the best quality picture.

Getting FFDShow to play your movies in Media Center is relatively simple. Just download the latest FFDShow tryouts (and x64 SVN if you’re running Windows 7 x64) and install the package(s). If your movie collection includes MKV files, follow the directions in this guide for MKVs with FFDShow.

Once installed FFDShow should take over playing your media back in most situations. You can double check using this guide on checking codecs with Graphstudio. If for some reason FFDShow has not taken over playing your video files, increase the merit of the codec from the video decoder configuration in the start menu. Slide the control all the way to the right, apply the settings and recheck Graphstudio to confirm this worked.

Once FFDShow Video is handling the video output it’s time to tweak the settings from inside the video decoder configuration. This can be found in the start menu under FFDShow and FFDShow64, choose the appropriate one for your system. Configuring both is a good practice to normalize playback all around for your system if you run an x64 version of Windows. Once inside you can see a slew of available options.

Some of these options can use quite a bit of processing power (cpu) and currently FFDShow doesn’t support video hardware acceleration (and likely never will). If you have the horsepower to handle it, however, you can improve the quality of all your compressed videos to some extent.

The settings in the video portion of FFDShow will, to some degree, be subjective. Each user will have to adjust settings to find what works best for their preferences and hardware. Typically, users will focus on post processing, picture properties and blur & noise reduction. These three settings pages can improve the sharpness and contrast of videos in many cases.

Post processing can be used to decrease the amount of blocking (the appearance of pixilated areas) by selecting the checkbox in the navigation pane or the top of the settings page. This filter will require a lot of processing power, however, with the amount of power required being dependant on the resolution of the video. Using post processing on high definition content is recommended only for the highest spec’d machines.

Picture properties can be used to do basic color correction. You can increase or decrease the gamma, brightness and contrast as well as correcting the colors of your output. Adjusting luminance gain and offset can refine the contrast and brightness respectively improving the output quality of videos that seem washed out or dull. Adjusting the gamma can improve the brightness of the video. There is also a full compliment of controls for adjusting the color output.

Blur and noise reduction can help to clear up any unwanted noise or static in the picture from compression.  You can also find controls to soften the picture which can be helpful if the video has pixilation around the edges of objects. If the opposite is the problem and the video isn’t clear enough, enabling the settings under the sharpen option can clear it up.

Hopefully this short guide has gotten you on your way to using FFDShow Video for your movies and videos in Media Center. Much of the process will be fine tuning each setting to get the best picture from your hardware and also suited to your tastes. Look for more on FFDShow and other codecs in the future on Hack7MC.

Have any tips on FFDShow settings? Let us know in the comments below!

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Tagged As: codec, ffdshow, graphstudio, matroska, mkv

At times installing codecs for all your music, movies and what have you seems to be 30% science, 70% voodoo. Fortunately, there is a way to double-check our brew to make sure it’s running the way we originally intended.

GraphStudio will allow you to load your media files and show you the codecs being used to render it. It will show your every DirectShow codec, filter and post-processor in-between you and your files. Best of all it’s free and available for download in both x86 and x64 versions on RadScorpion’s blog.

Using GraphStudio is fairly straight forward for basic checking of your codec settings. Load your media files by going to the menu “File > Render Media File..” After a few moments you will receive a graph displaying all the processing your file is undergoing between execution and being rendered.

You are also able to adjust the properties of your codecs, simply right click on the codec you wish to adjust and select properties. If there are any properties that are able to be edited you can adjust and save them from this window. This properties window will also display the input and output variables before and after the selected codec which can be good for troubleshooting things such as audio channels.

Through the basic controls on the menu strip you can even view the before and after results of your settings changes. This gives you the perfect opportunity to fine tune your codec’s settings until you get the best picture and audio results for your setup.

Unfortunately, as of this point GraphStudio doesn’t add an easy way to edit which codecs are used for your media files, just the properties of the currently assigned codecs. Though you can edit filter merits through the “Filters > Manage Favorites” dialog it’s certainly not convenient or intuitive. Other programs like Filter Manager offer a much better interface for editing which codecs are loaded for each file type and will be covered in future articles.

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Tagged As: codec, graphstudio, matroska, mkv, programs, windows 7