Software - Latest Config - MediaPortal With KMPlayer - Part I

After my experiences with my original configuration in 2007 and reading the different requirements and problems from
many people, I wanted to come up with a very simple HTPC build to get people up and running with minimal fuss.

One of the main requirements of HTPC's appears to be to play any movie media file. This can be one of the more difficult
aspects to achieve as there are so many encoders, decoders, codecs, filters, renderers etc. out there. Also note, that
there isn't one build that will suit everyone. For example, some people love to tweak the picture quality to its limits,
others just want something up and running quickly that just works with minimal effort. This configuration to suit the latter
peson well, but does offer to option to tweak the system further if required.

The reason I have chosen to use KMPlayer, is its very easy to configure, comes with its own filters/decoders, has loads of
options, and makes troubleshooting problems a lot easier.

I'm not going to go into too much detail here, keep it simple and to the point so its easy to follow.

This is exactly every setting and piece of software I have installed and changed from a fresh install of Windows Vista.
In each case, the latest version was obtained from the vendors website.

Software Used:

Windows Vista 32-bit

Motherboard Chipset Drivers
Graphics Drivers
Audio Drivers
KMPlayer
CoreAVC Pro
Haali Media Splitter
Daemon Tools
MediaPortal V0.2.3.0

This was a brand new hard disk, so BIOS was set to boot from the DVD drive and go into the Vista install process. This is
the simplest and fastest Windows install yet, with minimal effort.

1) HTPC is connected to router via ethernet cable for internet access

2) Install latest motherboard chipset drivers from NVIDIA website
3) Install latest graphics drivers from NVIDIA website
4) Install latest audio drivers from the Abit website

5) Turn off the Vista Aero in Appearance settings - This is just talking up resources when we wont be using the windows interface anyway. I found it had a
negative impact on video performance. Some video looked like it dropped frames, so is mostly likely due to the onboard 6150 graphics not being powerful enough, but we wont be
needing Aero anyway.

6) Install KMPlayer
7) Install CoreAVC
8) Install Haali Media Splitter - Untick all options during install:

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 Haali Media Splitter Install Options

9) Once these are installed open up KMPlayer

10) Right click in the player window and goto:
11) Options ---> Preferences General --->Playback---Work Priority
12) Tick Enable SuperSpeed and Goto:
13) Filter Control--->Decoder Usage--->Internal Video Decoder
14) Untick H.264 and AVC1:

KMPlayer Settings for Internal Video Decoder

15) Filter Control--->Decoder Usage--->External Video Decoder

16) Set H.264 Video and AVC1 Video to System Default
17) Click the "c" next to H.264 and this should display the CoreAVC settings
18) Tick Preferred decoder and click Close
19) Still within the KMPlayer settings Goto:
20) Filter Control---->Splitter
21) Select System default for Matroska and Goto:
22) Filter control---->Source Filter--->The Rest tab
23) Tick Matroska
24) Click Close which will save the settings

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 KMPlayer Settings for Haali Splitter

Using CoreAVC and Haali splitter appears to give the best performance with H.264 video encoded in .mkv files. That is why the settings above are used.

If you are using the SPDIF optical out to get Dolby Digital (DD) and DTS sound do the following:

25) Play a movie which you know has either DD or DTS sound
26) During playback right click in the window and Goto:
27) Filter--->AC3Filter and tick Use SPDIF and tick DD and DTS
28) Click Apply and OK.

Settings used within AC3Filter

The next thing to set is the Video Renderer. This is accessed through:

29) Right click in the KMPlayer window and Goto:

30) Video (Renderer)
31) Choose Overlay Mixer

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 I noticed on my configuration that using Overlay Mixer gives the best performance. The actual video renderer you use depends on the hardware setup you have. In my case I was
experiencing a dark picture with H.264 .mkv files and blown out, bad quality picture with divx .avi files. This was down to me using the VMR9 video renderer.

I wont expand on this, in this guide because it really is a huge subject and there is a vast amount of information on video
renderers, colourspaces and display configurations around the internet. The simple method is to:

32) While playing different movie files via KMPlayer, cycle through the video renderers to find out which one gives you
the best picture quality and performance for YOU. For me this was the Overlay Mixer. The main choices to cycle
through are: Overlay Mixer, VMR7, VMR9, Haali Renderer. See which suits you best.

Before you continue from this point make sure all your movie files play smoothly through KMPlayer. If they dont, read
through the guide again and make sure all the settings are set as stated. You can even reset KMPlayer to default settings
to start again.

Tip: While playing an .mkv file in KMPlayer press the Ctrl+Tab keys to bring up the file info. COREAVC should be displayed
as the Video decoder and you should get the Haali Media Splitter Icon in your taskbar.

Part II >
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 Software - Latest Config - MediaPortal With KMPlayer - Part II
To turn this HTPC into something that can be operated from your sofa, we need an interface which is easy to navigate and
is visable at a high resolution. For this, I have chosen MediaPortal as it has a clean, fast GUI and offers the options we
need to configure this project correctly.

1) Install the latest version of MediaPortal from the MediaPortal website - You can leave the default options ticked
2) Once installed go into Mediaportal setup from the icon on your desktop and Goto:
3) General and tick "Start MediaPortal in Fullscreenmode and Goto:
4) General--->Skin
5) Select the BlueTwo Wide Skin and Goto:
6) Movies --->Movie Folders and setup the location to which folders your movies are kept

Now we need to set KMPlayer as the external player so it launches through MediaPortal, Goto:
7) Movies--->Movie Player
8) Tick external player and enter in the path to the location of KMPlayer

MediaPortal Config Settings for Movie Player

9) Still in Media Portal Settings Goto:

10) DVD---->DVDPlayer
11) Tick Use External Player
12) Enter in the path namme for KMPlayer
13) In Parameters enter: /DVD

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 MediaPortal Config for DVD Player

Next we need to use a utility called Daemon Tools in order to playback image files such as .iso:
14) Install the latest Daemon tools from their website
15) During Install Unitck any reference to installing 3rd party/sponsor software and read wizard carefully
16) Once installed right click the demon tools icon in the taskbar and Goto:
17) Options and turn off AutoStart and Secure Mode

Next, we need to set MediaPortal to use to use Daemon Tools. So that once you click the movie in MediaPortal it will
automatically mount the image and play directly in KMPlayer:
18) Enter MediaPortal Setup from the icon on the desk and Goto:
19) General--->Daemon Tools
20) Tick "AutoMount .iso files"
21) Enter in the path for Daemon Tools
22) Enter in the Virtual Drive letter (you can find this by right clicking Daemon tools icon)
23) Enter the Drive number (you can find this by right clicking Daemon tools icon)

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 MediaPortal Settings for Daemon Tools: Your Settings May Differ

& Make sure all the file types you will be playing are added to within MediaPortal Setup:
24) Movies--->Movie Extensions. I added .hdmov

MediaPortal Settings, added your Movie file types

When you play a movie, you want KMPlayer to launch in fullscreen mode:

25) Open KMPlayer and right click in the player window and Goto:
26) General
27) Tick "When starting Tab and set screen status to FullScreen"

Finally, when you put in a DVD or mount an .iso you dont want Windows autostart to appear:

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 28) Open Windows Control Panel
29) Go into AutoPlay
30) Untick "Use AutoPlay for all media and devices"

All Done!

These are all the software and settings I have on my setup, and it works perfectly. If you use these settings, or have some
suggestions, it would be great to hear about it in our Forum!

Software - Final Tips >

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