| Page 1 of 2 |
Horrordee
Soderator
Posts: 8872
Location: England
|
 Posted: Tue, 13th Jul 2010 11:46 Post subject: WMC 7 - External Hard Drive - Delay in spin up ? |
|
 |
Hello all
I've just bought myself a nice tasty Acer Aspire Revo, and stuck Windows 7 Ultimate on there. Great OS! I am using WMC7 as I love the TunerFreeMCE and MediaBrowser plugins.
However, I have a niggle. Say for example I'm watching a film, but decide to pause and switch to Sky for half an hour. When I return to my media centre, it pretty much instantly tells me it cannot' play the file. Now, I assume this is because the hard drive is not spinning quick enough for Windows, and thus it is unable to read the file to display the inital still image or something (remember, the movie is paused!).
What are my options here? Is there a simple fix? Or do I need to go down the route of stopping my external seagate hdd from going to sleep? If so, will this dramatically reduce the life span of the drive? It already clicks quite a bit when searching the disk (although quietens down for use).
Any advise welcome, it must be something you've all dealt with?
Cheers!
Space for rent. Contact me for rates!
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
LeoNatan
☢ NFOHump Despot ☢
Posts: 73934
Location: Israel
|
| Posted: Tue, 13th Jul 2010 13:43 Post subject: |
|
|
This sounds more like a memory issue, rather than a HDD issue... How much RAM does the machine have? If it is 1GB, this could be it.
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Horrordee
Soderator
Posts: 8872
Location: England
|
| Posted: Tue, 13th Jul 2010 14:17 Post subject: |
|
|
2gb... so i doubt it's that?
i thought it might be cos the WMC is trying to read from the USB hdd before it's ready?
Space for rent. Contact me for rates!
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
LeoNatan
☢ NFOHump Despot ☢
Posts: 73934
Location: Israel
|
| Posted: Tue, 13th Jul 2010 14:26 Post subject: |
|
|
What is the error displayed? That it can't play the file, but when you immediately go to the file and play it, it plays normally? This is very strange... I doubt it's the HDD really, this is not something that should be happening.
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Horrordee
Soderator
Posts: 8872
Location: England
|
| Posted: Tue, 13th Jul 2010 14:33 Post subject: |
|
|
Basically, when I turn back to my media centre, the screen flickers a few times, like the monitor has just been plugged in. It's pretty much immediate that I get the error.
Maybe its not the hdd but the gfx... although I'm using latest nvidia drivers.. weird!
Space for rent. Contact me for rates!
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
| Posted: Tue, 13th Jul 2010 15:02 Post subject: |
|
|
Well you could disable the power down feature temporarily to see if it makes any difference. That way you can check if this feature is what's causing the issue...
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
arw
Posts: 1281
Location: Barry - Wales - (UK)
|
| Posted: Tue, 13th Jul 2010 15:22 Post subject: |
|
|
If you got the REVO R3610 i've got the exact same setup and i havn't had any of the problems your talking about...
Do you get the error if the file is on the internal hardrive?
The latest Nvidia drivers work fine btw
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Horrordee
Soderator
Posts: 8872
Location: England
|
| Posted: Tue, 13th Jul 2010 15:37 Post subject: |
|
|
| MinderMast wrote: | | Well you could disable the power down feature temporarily to see if it makes any difference. That way you can check if this feature is what's causing the issue... |
I don't see how I can do that? isn't it built into the hdd's firmware?
And yep, R3610 -i'll do some testing with video files on the internal hdd!
Space for rent. Contact me for rates!
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Werelds
Special Little Man
Posts: 15098
Location: 0100111001001100
|
| Posted: Tue, 13th Jul 2010 15:37 Post subject: |
|
|
It might also just be MC?
Tried it with one of the (in my opinion, better) alternatives like MediaPortal or XBMC?
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Horrordee
Soderator
Posts: 8872
Location: England
|
| Posted: Tue, 13th Jul 2010 15:45 Post subject: |
|
|
I use MC cos I love Media Browser... it reads the files and downloads descriptions / pictures from the show / movie...
That and when I tried MediaPortal, my windows remote just didn't work well with it...
Space for rent. Contact me for rates!
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
LeoNatan
☢ NFOHump Despot ☢
Posts: 73934
Location: Israel
|
| Posted: Tue, 13th Jul 2010 15:47 Post subject: |
|
|
|
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
arw
Posts: 1281
Location: Barry - Wales - (UK)
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
LeoNatan
☢ NFOHump Despot ☢
Posts: 73934
Location: Israel
|
| Posted: Tue, 13th Jul 2010 16:04 Post subject: |
|
|
The only problem is, I am not sure if it is possible to use XBMC together with CoreAVC, which he needs for the 1080p videos.
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Horrordee
Soderator
Posts: 8872
Location: England
|
| Posted: Tue, 13th Jul 2010 16:07 Post subject: |
|
|
Correct iNatan!
Cant I download a windows based version of XBMC? Does it download show information etc like MediaBrowser?
MediaBrowser ROCKS!
Space for rent. Contact me for rates!
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
LeoNatan
☢ NFOHump Despot ☢
Posts: 73934
Location: Israel
|
| Posted: Tue, 13th Jul 2010 16:11 Post subject: |
|
|
Yes, XBMC has support for meta-data loading. If not MediaBrowser, then something else, but I think it does support it.
What concerns me is that XBMC basically has libavcodec built into it, which is like ffdshow basically. I am not sure if they added support for external codecs. You can always download the latest SVN build of XBMC and test it. 
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Werelds
Special Little Man
Posts: 15098
Location: 0100111001001100
|
| Posted: Tue, 13th Jul 2010 16:12 Post subject: |
|
|
No idea about XBMC, I use Mediaportal myself. Mediaportal at least works with any filter you want to use, including CoreAVC.
As for the remote, if it's a normal Microsoft MCE remote, then it's literally a matter of ticking the box in MP-Config. My normal MCE remote works fine, and my Logitech Harmony as well, both using MP's default MCE plugin, and Win7's drivers. No modded drivers or anything.
MP also does the art downloading and shit btw, it can even go as far as downloading complete series info with the MP-TVSERIES plugin
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Horrordee
Soderator
Posts: 8872
Location: England
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Horrordee
Soderator
Posts: 8872
Location: England
|
| Posted: Tue, 13th Jul 2010 16:22 Post subject: |
|
|
Is media portal going to use Windows Media Player x86 to playback files? Cos i aint installed ffdshow x86 :/
Space for rent. Contact me for rates!
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
LeoNatan
☢ NFOHump Despot ☢
Posts: 73934
Location: Israel
|
| Posted: Tue, 13th Jul 2010 16:26 Post subject: |
|
|
It will not use WMP, it will use the codecs and play the videos itself. So yeah, if MP is 32-bit, you will need ffdshow tryouts 32-bit. (CoreAVC has both 32-bit and 64-bit.)
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Horrordee
Soderator
Posts: 8872
Location: England
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Werelds
Special Little Man
Posts: 15098
Location: 0100111001001100
|
| Posted: Tue, 13th Jul 2010 16:45 Post subject: |
|
|
http://www.lmgestion.net/@en-us/4/22/60/article.asp
Use that one to disable the green button in Windows, it should still work in MP after that. Cba testing it at the moment, because fuck knows where my old MCE remote is, and the Logitech Harmony doesn't have a Green button obviously 
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
arw
Posts: 1281
Location: Barry - Wales - (UK)
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
LeoNatan
☢ NFOHump Despot ☢
Posts: 73934
Location: Israel
|
| Posted: Wed, 14th Jul 2010 04:41 Post subject: |
|
|
| arw wrote: | XBMC LIVE plays 720 flawlessly and i'm pretty sure it plays 1080 aswell..  |
It's not hardware accelerated. It's not about playing flawlessly, it's about playing it fast enough on a nettop. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Horrordee
Soderator
Posts: 8872
Location: England
|
| Posted: Wed, 14th Jul 2010 10:32 Post subject: |
|
|
OK the story gets more complicated.
I'm back to using WMC, it's just better than MP imo.
Anyway, my Acer Revo gets to my TV via a Sony audio system which decodes the signal.
If I pause a movie, then change HDMI on the audio system, and then back again, the screen flickers between 720p and 1080p before finally coming back to view at 1080p... however the video instantly says it cannot play video.
If I pause the movie for a long time, switch inputs and return, the same flickering happens but the HDD stays asleep until I press stop and then play on the remote (this seems to wake up the hdd).
If i STOP the movie, then switch off for X hours, switch inputs back then the screen comes back fine ... usually, although some times I stil get a blank screen and need to press backup a few times.
It's as if every time an HDMI monitor is connected to the machine, it flips out! Why can't it just stay outputting the signal regardless of whether a monitor has been plugged in or out? I am not bothered about power saving on a decide that peaks at 60watts, I just want it to work properly.
I'm guessing there may be a way to get the NVIDIA graphics to stop autodetecting monitors via HDMI and output a constant uninterupted stream ... does anyone know how to do this? I'm also guessing there must be a simple way to stop the external HDD from going into sleep - anyone know how to do this too?
Space for rent. Contact me for rates!
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
LeoNatan
☢ NFOHump Despot ☢
Posts: 73934
Location: Israel
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Werelds
Special Little Man
Posts: 15098
Location: 0100111001001100
|
| Posted: Wed, 14th Jul 2010 10:56 Post subject: |
|
|
Looked in the device properties for the HDD? Something along the lines of "Allow Windows to turn this device off to save power". Not sure if that'll be there or even work if it is, might also just be a feature on the HDD's internal PCB
What do you like better about MC btw? I can't say I've even bothered trying Win7's MC, because the XP/Vista ones were fucking terrible, you're so limited in the formats you can play as well as just customisation of everything.
Not having the issues you describe with MP by the way, I often leave something paused and switch to some TV channel or even turn it off as a whole, doesn't seem to have any effect on MP whatsoever. Not with the current TV, nor with the previous one (previous one is a 5 year old model, current one is..well, current, released a couple of months ago ).
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Horrordee
Soderator
Posts: 8872
Location: England
|
| Posted: Wed, 14th Jul 2010 11:01 Post subject: |
|
|
Interesting, so windows things my VGA is "another monitor". So i need to look into how to fully disable that monitor, so that my HDMI is the only one...
Bastard Microsoft making my life difficult!
And as for why I didn't like MP? My Cyberlink remote just didn't work properly on it, I got the correct plugin which didn't work. It takes quite a long time to boot up and from the looks of it, you need to manually update to get tv / movies info? MediaBrowser will grab descriptions / pictures in the background.
Space for rent. Contact me for rates!
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
garus
VIP Member
Posts: 34197
|
| Posted: Wed, 14th Jul 2010 11:21 Post subject: |
|
|
snip
Last edited by garus on Tue, 27th Aug 2024 21:27; edited 1 time in total
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
| Posted: Wed, 14th Jul 2010 11:28 Post subject: |
|
|
Is this feature something that applies only to a certain type of hardware? I had a twin monitor setup for years and not once did I experience this auto-off thing...
As for disabling one monitor, it should be a fairly easy thing to do from the screen management settings. Also Windows Key + P presents a shortcut for selecting the screen configurations.
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
LeoNatan
☢ NFOHump Despot ☢
Posts: 73934
Location: Israel
|
| Posted: Wed, 14th Jul 2010 11:32 Post subject: |
|
|
Yes, this is only for DVI/HDMI monitors, but I guess it also comes down to support from the video card. For example, try disconnecting a monitor. If you hear the "hardware disconnected" sound in Windows, it has worked out that you have disconnected/shut down one of the monitors.
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| Page 1 of 2 |
All times are GMT + 1 Hour |
