Need help viewing HR HDTV!

hey to anyone who is able to help...

this is the first time i've ever downloaded an hr hdtv file instead of the
regular (the most recent numb3rs), and i can't figure out how to watch it!
normally i watch things in vlc, but for some reason when i try this in vlc the
sound is there but the image is in black and white and repeats itself 4 times
across the screen (kinda hard to explain), i guess a bit like
|video|video|video|video|. i tried the file in wmp and it works, except i have a
very slow computer and using wmp makes the a/v out of sync, so this is why i've
been using vlc. i've never before had a problem with any of the non hr files,
so if anyone could please point me in the direction of fixing this it would be
really helpful! worst case scenario i could redownload the non hr version, but i
wanted to try the better resolution for once!

thanks!!

hey... thanks for the tip, but i'm pretty sure thats not the problem. i think i
may have over exaggerated a bit. the reason things run so slow on wmp is because
my computer doesn't have enough to juice to run the program. i've never had a
problem watching anything else before (including dvds), so i figure there must
be something wrong with my vlc configuration or something. i tried reinstalling
it but that did nothing.

any more suggestions?

thanks again!

haha thanks tvfan, but i'd really like to watch the hr stuff if someone can help
me out!

first check that everything is up to date (vlc, ffdshow, ac3filter etc). if
you're unable to watch it in wmp without sync issues due to the speed of your
pc then something is amiss. try media player classic, less overhead than wmp.
also i'm pretty sure vlc uses ffdshow internally for xivd so i don't really see
how it could be doing it any better than wmp can unless you're using a crappy
old build of ffdshow.

yup! everythings up to date. ill try mpc... good idea. i dont know what ffdshow
is, all i know is that vlc works much faster than wmp on my computer... wish i
could explain it! ill definitely try mpc, but i guess you have no clue why it
would be doing that on vlc eh?

i'm pretty sure vlc uses libavcodec internally (which is what ffdshow is based
on too) but can't find anything to back that up so it's mostly guesswork at
this point.

ffdshow is a direct show filter that can handle things like xvid/divx/h264 and
so on. if wmp can play the file then chances are you've got ffdshow or the xvid
binaries installed. mpc will use the same installed codecs too, vlc defers to
internal ones.

so then vlc doesnt come with the proper internal filters to play hr.hdtv stuff??

and any way i could get a hold of them if that is what youre saying?

it does, the only difference between hr.hdtv and the normal hdtv files is
bitrate and frame size, the codec is still the same. the problem with vlc
having an internal decoder is that it has to be upgraded to upgrade the
decoder. if you use a directshow player (wmp, mpc, zoom, etc) you can upgrade
the decoder independantly, although i'd expect the latest release of vlc is
pretty up to date. did you check if the release was nuked?

you can get nightly (or close to) builds here htt p://www.ffdshow.info/ . i
usually grab clsid's builds.

i would try and download mpui (based on mplayer) because it has silly low
ammounts of resources it eats (with vlc i have around 20% load with mpui i got
like 1%) - its worth a try just google it (it has all codecs included and needs
no install even)

ok, hr's not only have better quality video they also have 5.1 surround sound
built into the file.

if you go into the audio tab and into audio device i think and select sterio
it should work, sometimes it can switch back after when an advert break should
have been

i'm a retard.

hey thanks to everybody who replied!

basically my processor is a piece of crap soldered onto a bigger piece of crap 🙂

more specifically its an amd athlon 1.20 ghz with 304 mb of ram. all the sound
and graphics cards are built in to the motherboard, so i assume they too are
crap. theyre made by sis, and i'm looking in my device manager and i'm not sure
what to list. under display adapters theres sis 630/730 and under sound, video
and game controllers theres:
-audio codecs
-legacy audio drivers
-legacy video capture devices
-media control devices
-mpu-401 compatible midi device
-sis 7018 audio driver
-standard game port
-video codecs

obviously all of those arent necessary but i included them all for the sake of
completeness.

thanks again for all your help!

yeah...it's time for an upgrade 🙂

it will run okay with 256mb or 512mb ram but it really needs at least 768 to run
at a decent pace, especially if you have a processor 1 gig or better and you
have on board video. on board video will suck your ram dry if you are trying
watch hr and above. aydin's right, you really need a video card. you can disable
the onboard if you put in a card, that will give you extra ram from the getgo.

oh i agree totally. i just meant minimums...and 256 just ain't it. :giggles: