Yet another Decoder problem

[Goffy84]

Getting ready to throw the shiny new htpc out of the window soon.

running a 6600gt with P IV 3000, gig of ddr2 ram, so should be able to handle a lot. hi-def sources were a little jerky so i tried out the pure video trial. Vast improvement in picture, esp 720p sources, pure video doesn't support my Realtek sound (still couldn't get dolby digital after hours of fiddling).

At this point i decided to remove pure video but all went wrong. i now cant play any video at all in mce or wmp. i downloaded the decoder checking app from the windows site and it says i have no decoder installed at all.

i have un-installed powerdvd 6 as wel as downloading ffdshow and tried re-installing purevideo, still nothing shows in the checking app. And there was me thinking these were video decoders?

any advise would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance

[evolution400]

Try installing windvd decoder if your having issues with nvidia.

[lisag]

The nvidia trial version may not allow you to uninstall and re-install, hence now not working. Only option is to try a different codec or buy the nvidia one. Are you suing spdif out to amp? What are the problems with the sound?

lisa

[Goffy84]

i am using the spdif out to my amp and i couldn't get it to allow Dolby Digital output.

Last night i tried a reinstall of powerDVD, and also WinDVD7 trial, the checking application still says i have no mpeg2 decoders installed.

i then decided the best plan would be a system restore to last week, before i first tried Pure Video.

Now it's really gone wrong. Both Power DVD and WINDVD 7 will play dvd's back (with dolby digital) but media center and MCE will not play anything at all. no video, tv, or music - nothing.

[lisag]

I suggest - uninstall and re-install the video card drivers, and if it is still broke, maybe a clean install?

lisa

[Goffy84]

its always good to know you have a plan lisa,
The comp is only a few weeks old and has nothing on it that needs saving so a full re-install is the plan i was starting to hatch. i have e-mailed the company who built the computer to see where i stand with my warrenty if i do a re-install because it was all set-up and knowing what im like i can prob even manage to mess up a fresh install

[lisag]

I did a fresh install on my mce machine this week, mainly because I was getting no sound from the centre speaker, and the more I tried to fix it, the worst it got!
Two and a half hours from format to completion, but that included downloading and installing all the windows updates and it did resolve all the problems, so, good luck!

lisa

[evolution400]

You guys are crazy have you not thought of using Norton ghost ?
I have a 36gb raptor drive as my system HDD then a 250gb SATA for all my videos, TV etc
Once I setup everything and was happy there weer no bugs at all I cloned the system HDD straight to DVDR my system drive now its fully installed only uses about 6gb of space so when you use norton ghost with maximum compression it will fit on once DVDR.
I experimented the other day messing about with everything fooked it all up popped in my ghost DVDR and boot disk within 20 mins I had a fully working system the same as before

[Goffy84]

hadn't heard of norton ghost before. i think once i do get my machine set up again it will be the highest on my priority list.

cant think of a better option than a re-install to get me out of my current mess though

[lisag]

Originally Posted by evolution400

You guys are crazy have you not thought of using Norton ghost ?
I have a 36gb raptor drive as my system HDD then a 250gb SATA for all my videos, TV etc
Once I setup everything and was happy there weer no bugs at all I cloned the system HDD straight to DVDR my system drive now its fully installed only uses about 6gb of space so when you use norton ghost with maximum compression it will fit on once DVDR.
I experimented the other day messing about with everything fooked it all up popped in my ghost DVDR and boot disk within 20 mins I had a fully working system the same as before

Yes, good point - I have thought of it, but never got round to actually doing it! There is 'ntbackup' as part of xp which I have played with but it seems to take so long that I thought I may as well do a format and clean install... Will Norton Ghost 100% get rid of any rogue files that may be hidden on the system?

[deksawyer]

"Will Norton Ghost 100% get rid of any rogue files that may be hidden on the system?"

No. All it does is create an exact image of the source you are backing up - so if there's something that's not quite right now, you then do a back up and then a restore somewhere down the line, the problem will still exist.

It's common practice to create 2 images - the first on a fresh install with nothing more than basic drivers, then a second when you have everything installed and hopefully working perfect (not a word often used in conjunction with MCE, but you know what I mean).

I have a, cough, wink wink, 'dodgy' copy, but actually bought a genuine copy of Ghost 9 from ebay for around £11 all in earlier today............

D.

[Goffy84]

£11 to save me this much trouble. i think it should ship as standard with an OS as tempramental as MCE.

the new plan then is a full re-install followed by norton ghost.

[lisag]

Hi,

Yes I meant if MCE is all messed up and you do a restore from a ghost copy, could there still be rogue files on the drive from the previously broken version of MCE..... or...... do you format the drive before restoring from ghost?

lisa

[evolution400]

Originally Posted by lisag

Hi,

Yes I meant if MCE is all messed up and you do a restore from a ghost copy, could there still be rogue files on the drive from the previously broken version of MCE..... or...... do you format the drive before restoring from ghost?

lisa

No ghost actually clones a disk so if your happy with your current setup clone it to DVDR then no matter what you do to your system delte the windows DIR put about 50 codec on there etc
As you know "clone" means to do a full 100% copy this is done sector by sector so when you restore its guaranteed to be 100% the same as your clone.
I use this regular as part of my job I clone servers and desktop PCs on a regular basis.

[lisag]

OK, thanks - interesting, I will have a look into that...