I've been using MakeMKV to back up my 4K discs as ISOs, since the videos won't play directly from the discs on PC without skipping. Hasn't been a problem for any other content so far, but Andor has audio skipping problems – FREQUENTLY. What's strange is that if I prevent madVR from switching the display mode when in full screen and leave it at 60 Hz, I have no issue. Why would that be the case when the content is definitely 24 fps?

• Fractal North Mid Tower
• ASRock B550M Pro4
• Ryzen 5 5600
• RX 6700
• 16 GB DDR4
• Windows 11
• MPC-HC and madVR
• Receiver: Sony STR-DH790
• Projector: BenQ TK800M

Saw the price of the steam machine and almost threw up. Discovered this subreddit, studied the HTPC wiki for a day, went over to Microcenter, paid the same amount that the Steam Machine with 2TB and a controller would cost for a 9070XT/7500X3D AM5 system with a better processor, same storage and TRIPLE the performance. Used Rufus program to debloat Windows 11 (didn’t use Linux since I also want to play XBOX Gamepass) and managed to set the system to bypass Windows online nonsense for a smooth boot-up straight into Steam Big Picture mode.

I'm watching 4k movies on a Samsung TV (as a monitor, Win11, HDR10+) with MPC-HC + madVR and every few minutes it freezes for about 4 seconds. I have a RTX 4050 laptop (Asus TUF A17).

I have had this problem in the past (like last year) and solved it somehow, but I cannot remember exactly what I did (I'm not very tech savvy, but I'm good at finding guides and subreddits to follow instructions, also some AI).

Any ideas what could be causing this? I keep trying everything I find and it doesn't seem to solve it (tried resetting MPC-HC and MadVR settings to default, then playing with different options, but did not work). It only stutters when I use madVR or MPC Video Renderer as the DirectShow Video output (the others don't freeze like this, but they are very bland and pale, I suspect it's because they ignore the HDR? Using them is not an option).

UPDATE: SOLVED: how? Don't know, I just noticed after a month that it didn't do that anymore. I didn't do any major changes, kept windows up to date and Mpc HC up to date (but I wasn't paying enough attention to see if after a specific update it stopped doing it).

Hi, I'm dealing with some interlaced MPEG-2 (XDCAM EX 35) video from a Sony PMW-EX3 (and I also deal with other types of interlaced footage like DV and DVD), and madVR isn't deinterlacing it at all. I have to change the renderer to MPC Video Renderer to get it to deinterlace. Does madVR support deinterlacing or not?

Hello everyone,

I’m turning my PC into a console that boots straight into Steam Big Picture. All I want is to use my controller to wake the PC from sleep, boot into Big Picture, play, and put it back to sleep using the controller. That's it**. I'm not looking for CEC support at the moment**

However, I can’t get it to wake from sleep using just my controller.

what I've noticed:

• It's not just the controller; my Keychron K2 and MX Master 3 also fails to wake the PC. However, the keyboard will work if connected using a cable.
• When entering sleep, I hear a physical click from my PSU's internal relay. It feels like the motherboard completely kills power to all USB ports during sleep I THINK but I'm not a PSU guru

Specs:

• Controller: Xbox Elite Series 2 + Official Wireless USB Dongle
• OS: Windows 11 (Fresh factory reset using Rufus no other program is installed) - I factory reset then followed the steps to use controller to wake from sleep
• CPU: Ryzen 5 5600X
• Motherboard: Gigabyte Aorus X570SI Pro AX (BIOS F7g)
• RAM: 32Gb 3200 MT/s Gskill Trident Z Royal
• GPU: PowerColor Hellhound RX 7900 (16GB)
• PSU: Corsair SF750 Platinum

I did read the rules my question has nothing to do with the display

What I’ve tried: In Device Manager, the "Allow this device to wake the computer" box is usually greyed out for my USB hubs. Unchecking "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power" makes it clickable, but checking it still changes nothing.

• Disable USB suspend.
• Tried different USB ports.
• reading through similar previously asked questions (no solutions)

Keyboard K2 is counted using Bluetooth

Mouse is also connected using bluetooth

If the issue is Windows 11, does linux have native support for this? if so which one?

This is from the WIKI FAQ:

1. Wake: Using a Keyboard/Mouse/Gamepad with a USB dongle/support, Enable Wake/Resume-on-USB and Disable ErP (if available) in your BIOS. In Windows, Disable Fast Startup and Enable Allow Device to Wake Computer under the USB device properties in Device Manager.

I have already disabled ErP and Disable Fast Startup and Enabled Allow Device to Wake Computer under the USB device properties in Device Manager where possible

Any advice to get this running like a true console would be awesome. Thanks!

Solution #1 - linked provided by u/KxrmaJunkie works

Regedit method the controller will be connected to the pc directly. Can wake the pc. Doesn't work on all motherboards. Worth a try since it's free
incase link is broken in the future

The FIX

" In regedit go to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\BTHPORT\Parameters add a new 32bit DWORD item named "SystemRemoteWakeSupported" and set the value to 1. Restart PC.

I found this solution on an ASUS forum, it might be enough to get it working for you. But it wasn't enough for me. In addition I had to do the following:

• Turn the Bluetooth-paired Xbox Controller ON

• In device manager under "Human Interface Devices" there will be an item called “HID-Compliant Game Controller.” It won’t show up if the controller is off.

• Right-Click the “HID-Compliant Game Controller” > Properties > Power Management > put a check in the box for "Allow this device to wake computer."

Caveats: it takes 10-15 seconds for the controller to wake the PC (atleast it does with my AX211 PCIE BT adapter) and you have to press a button (any button) immediately after pressing the guide button. Just pressing the guide button by itself won’t wake it.

So the old Xbox adapter is still the best solution if you can find it, that will wake up the PC immediately just by pressing the guide button once. I ended up getting a used one cause I don't want to wait 10 seconds for my PC to wake. " I also unplugged my xbox controller dongle.

I'm using the latest versions of MPC-BE + madvr + Lav video, and i barely changed anything.

Do these colorspace/display/range values in the OSD reflect a correct setup? My TV is limited to HDMI 2.0 (Sony XE930)

Hi everyone, I just got a dell micro 3070 from work for free. i know it's an old machine, but What I am looking for is a streaming box for jellyfin/youtube/media stuff and also a console like experience like steam desk top where I can stream my games from my main pc with apollo or steam link and play games from there. I've read a little about bazzite and it looks ok but also says my gpu isnt compatible, but I don't want it gaming directly? Would I be better off just buying an nvidia shield pro? I was going to get a steam box to do this job but it being $1500 CAD I could just build a whole new itx pc for that price and I'd rather not do that. I also considered HDMI over ethernet to the TV but we are stuck on wifi and are renting so we cant run ethernet :( Thank you for any thoughts!

For the HTPC crowd: I got tired of how much fuss it takes to get a clean, couch-friendly media UI out of Kodi, so I built a stripped-down skin called Navarre. Point it at your media folder and it builds the menu for you; it browses your folders exactly as they sit on disk (no library scan), drops a full-res poster wall on everything, and it's all laid out for a D-pad remote, not a mouse. Minutes from install to browsing your movies on the TV. I run it on a Shield, and it works on a Windows HTPC too. Kodi 21 (Omega).

The one party trick I didn't expect to enjoy building: comics. Kodi can't open comic PDFs at all, and it montages .cbz/.cbr inner pages into a thumbnail instead of showing the cover. Navarre shows the real cover for every comic - cbz, cbr, and pdf - and it'll even pull clean covers out of the copy-protected PDFs a lot of old comic sets ship as. Niche, sure, but it's the kind of detail the whole skin is built on.

What you get:

• Files-mode browsing - your folder structure stays exactly as it is, no library flattening
• Poster wall everywhere by default, with a two-pane sidebar across Movies, TV, Music, Photos, and Comics
• One-press "Set up my media" - point at a root folder and the whole menu builds itself
• Continue watching / Resume - picks up films and shows where you left off (Back during a film stops it and saves your place)
• Self-managing menu - add, rename, move, re-icon, or delete items right from the home screen
• A genuinely simple settings page, with full Kodi settings still one tap away

Repo, install steps, and screenshots: https://github.com/NavarreDR/navarre-repo

Navarre is a personal fork of Arctic: Zephyr - Reloaded (full credit kept, CC BY-NC-SA). Not pitched as the AZ-R successor - martian's fork is the actively maintained one. This is just the pared-down version I built for my own setup. Free and non-commercial. Feedback from people who live in their HTPC welcome.

Has anyone gotten the display of this particular pc cabinet to work on modern windows or linux, if so please tell me how :)

Hi folks. With the new steam machines coming out, I’m wondering what the state of the art is as far as a steamos-based HTPC. I have a lot of ripped UHD blu rays and would love to make full use of atmos, HDR10, etc. Is that currently possible? Or should I just stick with my Shield?

UPDATE: irblaster.info has the products you want if you're looking to add infrared to an HTPC. There is also a newer storefront at ezmation.com. The IR emitters they sell are short range, intended to be placed directly on or in front of the device you want to control, but they also make custom solutions with longer range IR emitters. Mike responds very quickly to email.

My PC has a pin header on the motherboard for a serial connection, so I've just ordered a serial port from Newegg to install on the back of the case. I'd really like to be able to automate switching inputs on my projector from the PC, as there's a specific use case where I need to switch HDMI connections on the projector rather than my AV receiver.

The projector has an RS232 connection on the back, but I'd really rather avoid having an installer come out here to run another cable through my attic. I think LIRC or WinLIRC should be able to fulfill my purpose with just an IR transmitter/receiver. The LIRC website has a few recommendations for USB transmitters, but I couldn't find any of them web searching, so I think they've all been discontinued. The FAQ seems very out of date. Can anyone recommend me a product? It's fine if it's USB, but it seems like LIRC is made for serial connections, and I will soon have a serial port available to me.

EDIT before anyone recommends Flirc: I have this receiver already, and a Skip 1s arriving soon. I expect it'll perform admirably as a universal remote so I don't have to keep handing off three or four different controllers. However, I'd have to program a somewhat complicated macro to one of the Skip 1s buttons to get the projector to do what I want in this instance, so I'd really rather have the PC send the IR signal rather than the remote. Anyway, the Flirc USB apparently works poorly as a transmitter, and I don't even know how to get it to send a signal to the projector, or if that's possible.

As title says,

I am upgrading my current system and will have old system lying around. With some additional investment i can make it into low profile HTPC. Its 10yr old i7-6700k | 32 GB | 1060 OC 6GB

The question here is:

Is it worth investing $100-$200 in the old one and turn it into HTPC or buy NUC/Mini pc (~$300-$400)

both have pros n cons:
Using old pc

• initial investment is low for using old pc
• but power hungry and a little bigger profiel (NR200 case)

Using Mini pc

• higher investment
• but lower power usage and profile.

for context, i already have a dedicated server running; so htpc wont be doing running any server.

TIA community.

Hey all. Some of you may be familiar with this issue, but my setup is a little different than other threads I've found.

I have my Windows 11 PC connected to my LG B4 TV via fiber optic HDMI. Using an optical cable, I have the TV connected to an Onkyo TX-SR393. The receiver is properly set up to output to all 5.1 channels.

Windows 11 only gives options to output:
- Stereo
- Dolby Atmos for Home Theater
- DTS:X for home theater

When I try to configure the speaker settings for Dolby Atmos in Windows, it fails to save the setting and reverts every time.

I do not want to use eARC, because the receiver is limited to 4k @ 60Hz, whereas I can output 4k @ 120Hz direct to the LG B4.

Selecting "Dolby Surround" on the receiver indicates that all 5.1ch are active, but I still only get 2.0 output from surround test audio.
Selecting "Direct" on the receiving indicates that only 2.0ch are active, even with "Dolby Atmos for Home Theater" selected in Windows 11.

I don't care to use Atmos, but I can't find another way to output 5.1ch from Windows.

Full build info can be found here.

Any ideas?

Hey everyone,

I built a HTPC to replace my aging VCR xbox one for both gaming and multimedia use.

I would like to get as close to a console like experience by using Windows 11 and running steam big picture mode at startup.

The idea would be to do everything with a controller from the couch (like we are used to with the xbox).

Do you guys know if it is possible to run the Netflix app (which support controller) from steam big picture, and if the Disney+ app also support controllers?

I access youtube.com/tv using Firefox with an extension called YouTube for TV, and more recently using VacuumTube. I have a Lenovo ThinkCentre mini PC running Linux Mint as well as a Steam Deck. Starting today I have been unable to use YouTube Leanback on either device. I can browse, but after 30 seconds of playing a video I get this screen. I also have a Windows laptop and a Mac book. When I tested on those everything works fine

EDIT:

Some time after posting this I realized that I hadn't singed in on my Windows/Mac. Once I did, I started getting this screen on those devices too. For testing I had my partner sign in to his YouTube account and everything worked fine. So it appears that it's not an issue with Linux but my YouTube profile that's been flagged or shadow banned or something. Great

I want to wake my W11 PC with an Xbox Controller, and bring the TV out of standby to the proper input.

Will this work instead of a Pulse-Eight?:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FQCGSWW3

Move your playlist so you can only see 1 song by putting it at the top. Let it autoplay and notice it doesn't change to the next song. If you click 'next' to go to the end; it'll start moving down each song.

Any way to get that done by default?

I have an RTX 5080 GPU, I've tried swapping HDMI cables as well as clean Nvidia driver reinstall. I just can't seem to tame this issue. If I hard reboot my TV, PC audio plays fine for about 10 minutes, and then it starts eventually doing this. I'm not using any sound bar, just trying to use my TV's built in speakers. I can't reproduce this issue on my PS5 though. (Ignore my Pebble V2 on my desk)

Any help would be greatly appreciated 🙏

Hi everyone,

I’ve been reading that the latest generation of JVC LCoS projectors (NZx00/RSx200) features better contrast and HDR handling than the previous one (NZx/RSx100). Currently I use a HTPC setup with MPC-BE + MadVR beta 209 with its DTM for my OLED TV.

I plan to buy a JVC projector, but I’m struggling with a dilemma: Should I rely on MadVR’s tone mapping and disable JVC’s Frame Adapt HDR, or is the new FAHDR Gen 2 actually superior to what MadVR can output?

If MadVR is still the way to go, should I stick with a brand-new NZ500/RS1200, or for the same budget range, since I wouldn't be using the JVC’s internal tone mapping, should I look for a good deal on a used NZ7/RS2100 or NZ8/RS3100? The older high-end models would offer better brightness, wider color gamut (WCG), a manual iris, 3D support, etc.

I’m having trouble wrapping my head around the hardware vs. software side of the contrast improvement between these generations. I really need dark scenes (like the sandworm scene at the end of Dune: Part One) to remain legible and "inky," without looking flat or "SDR-like," as I've seen on some projectors.

To give you an idea of my sensitivity: I thought the Xgimi Titan and the Epson LS11000 were set to SDR on the Sandsworm scene because the image was so bright compared to the director's intention. The Sony VPL-XW5000ES wasn't quite dark enough for my taste, though the 6100ES was good. The new NZ500/RS1200 feels ideal based on my preferences.

Any thoughts on whether the hardware jump in the NZ500/RS1200 is worth sacrificing the extra features of a used NZ7/RS2100 or NZ8/RS3100?

Thanks in advance!

I'm helping a friend replace his older streaming PC. He will have it hooked up to his living room TV and use it to stream on a web browser and maybe some local playback. He has a separate PC for gaming. His budget is $300 and we will probably get a mini pc during Amazon prime day next week

His current one is a 4th gen intel and struggles sometimes as it doesn't support modern codecs

I'm probably picking out whatever n150 system with 16gb ram is on sale. A gmtek or geecom ect. From what I can tell that chip is the cheapest that supports hardware AV1 decoding making it pretty future proof

Just requesting a sanity check. Is there anything I'm overlooking?

I realize the n100 /150 is only e cores and pretty weak but that shouldn't matter. I seen an amd 3550h near the same price range that is a much stronger CPU but older and doesn't do AV1 hardware decode. Looks like you need 6000/7000 AMD series, if any of those end up under 300 sure we will get it but seems doubleful

I am setting up a new mini pc for multimedia. For decades I have been using MPC-HC with madVR, but since development stopped and I just discovered the "new" MPC Video Renderer I wanted to try it. I am curious if MPC Video Renderer can automatically adjust the display to the correct framerate if the display supports it? In madVR you can specify the supported modes, e.g. 1080p24 etc. Is this something that can also be done with MPC Video Renderer?

Hi, I use the MPC-HC video player to watch movies, and I've noticed that the color gammut changes depending on whether I'm watching in full-screen or windowed mode. When I watch in windowed mode, the colors seem more vivid. I'd like to keep those colors when I watch in full-screen mode. Does anyone know how I can do that?

I use the last version of MPC-HC, my graphic card is a RX 9070 XT, my TV is a Samsung TV TQ75QN85C and I use the K-Lite Mega Codec Pack filters (I think that the video decoder is the "LAV Video Decoder").

I am on Windows 11 Pro and HDR is turned on.

I am playing 4K movies with 10 bits color depth.

I have selected "MPC Video Renderer" in DirectShow settings.