Aaron Ledger

[Aaron Ledger]

Household implies everyone’s viewing and “watching” might even include things like when people are doing other things primarily but have the TV on so this stat could be reasonable. If it is a household of four with a couple of kids and a couple TVs, it is easy to see 9.25 hours a day.

[Aaron Ledger]

Of all these releases, The Pacific seems the most compelling to me. I haven’t seen it, but Band of Brothers is in my collection and a huge favorite of mine.

[Aaron Ledger]

I don’t think the equation is really as simple as the MSOs just being able to offer content straight-up outside of bundles. The networks give different pricing based on how it is bundled to the MSOs. The networks also force universal carriage in their content deals so it would be impossible for the MSO to unbundle. Of course, the MSOs could try to negotiate away universal carriage and I’m sure the networks would oblige at the right price.

[Aaron Ledger]

Somehow I knew you were already that “industrious person”  ;). I’m hoping that I can be thankful later this month for my InfiniTV and now tuner sharing  :).

[Aaron Ledger]

Nice writeup and tool Mikinho!

If I understand correctly, there is no real intelligence behind what tuner is chosen by the network clients so that is why you are recommending disabling shared tuners on the host HTPC?

If this is true, it seems some industrious person could write an app to handle this more gracefully.

[Aaron Ledger]

[quote=”shadymg”]
I can’t believe in this day and age, with the technology the way it is, that we don’t have A-La-Carte cable. Seriously, it’s insulting. There’s absolutely no other industry that works this way. Oh, you want X service, that’s fine, but that only comes with Y, Z, M services in a package as well for more money.
[/quote]

I think the reason why though is that pricing is much more attractive to consumers when bundling. It’s also not necessarily the MSOs fault either as content producers also like to bundle their offerings to the MSOs so they can hit their different target demographics. The business is rather complex compared to buying many other goods and services.

[Aaron Ledger]

Media Center Studio is supposed to make that an easier process although I can’t speak from experience as I’ve not been compelled to switch from the default–yet.

[Aaron Ledger]

[quote=”Mikinho”]
[quote=”swoon”]
Too bad this is about 1500 miles away from me!
[/quote]

Pshhh, I did the drive straight when I moved from SD to Houston!
[/quote]
Yes, but you are superhuman. A mere mortal such as myself could never accomplish such a feat.

[Aaron Ledger]

Too bad this is about 1500 miles away from me!

[Aaron Ledger]

Thanks for mentioning this. It totally escaped my radar and I usually like Frank Darabont stuff.

[Aaron Ledger]

[quote=”shadymg”]
ROFL!!!! ok, so full disclosure…i’m not exactly sure why i chose BttF over Aliens….i’m definitely a much bigger Alien fan (in case you couldn’t tell from my previous picks). Maybe i’m just trying to keep you all on your toes? 🙂
[/quote]

Your choice is understandable considering that the Alien Anthology is simply not complete without AVP.

[Aaron Ledger]

[quote=”htpc_user”]
[quote=”Meester.Rip”]
Wouldn’t setting the master to 0 be mute? If I am connected via optical should I have the master audio set to 0, e.g. in Media Center would the icon in the top right be at 0 or mute and the amp would control the volume.
[/quote]

It doesn’t matter what the level is in Media Center when using digital out.  The actual volume of the sound is going to be the same regardless of the number Media Center displays.  Unless you do hit the mute button, then of course the sound will mute.
[/quote]

For bitstreaming, I know this is the case. For PCM, I believe the volume control does have an effect.

[Aaron Ledger]

[quote=”Meester.Rip”]
Wouldn’t setting the master to 0 be mute? If I am connected via optical should I have the master audio set to 0, e.g. in Media Center would the icon in the top right be at 0 or mute and the amp would control the volume.
[/quote]

0dB is actually unity gain. Decreasing the signal level would be a negative decibel value. The zero you are thinking of is 0%.

[Aaron Ledger]

[quote=”Mast3rL33″]
I have known some people to set their reciever to a specific volume level and then use MC to control volume sent to the reciever.
[/quote]

This is a good way to get sub-optimal sound quality when using analog output. Optimal sound quality for Windows 7/Vista is setting the master volume level to 0dB and letting an amp do the volume adjustments. To see the volume in decibels, you must open up the speaker properties, click on the Levels tab and right-click to select the decibels option.

[Aaron Ledger]

[quote=”jameson_uk”]
The major issue with HTPC display calibration is that things are not static.
The choice of codec and renderer can affect what is displayed.
I have a 9400 IGP and if output is set to 16-235 for video and I play a 16-235 video then you would think that output would just be at 16-235 it does not work.   At various points the video is converted from/to 16-235 / 0-255 and what actualy happens when playing back video with the output set to 16-235 results in the renderer assuming the input is 0-255 and converting this to 16-235 (giving you washed out blacks and grey whites).  Setting the output to 0-255 means I actually get 16-235 out for a 16-235 source.

To make matters more complicated things can be different for HD (Rec 709) and SD (Rec 601) material as well as proteted path material.   In order to get correct black levels when using TMT I need to set the output to 16-235 to get 16-235 output (even though in MPC etc I need to have output set to 0-255 to achieve the same….)

This is all measured on a meter on a set calibrated to 16-235 from another source (stand alone bluray player)

I am guessing you will address some of these issues in part II?
[/quote]

The color space issue was addressed to some degree in this guide. It is unfortunate that there are sometimes inconsitencies in how different software packages, drivers and hardware deal with video levels. Fortunately, we have test patterns to allow us to identify and correct those issues.

It would be ideal to have separate calibrations for viewing Rec. 709 and Rec. 601, although if you have to choose one, choose the one for the type of content you watch most. Alternately, you could create different calibration picture modes on your display for each. You could also do this to deal with any inconsistencies you are finding in your hardare/software.

Are you also using the latest version of TMT along with current Nvidia drivers? I understand that at one point, there was a problem with levels in TMT. Last I checked on a Clarkdale GPU outputting full-range RGB, I was seeing consistent levels with MPC and TMT using AVS HD 709 pluge pattern.

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