My Review of Arcsoft, and a few notes about my setup that might help you.

[Jeremy Duncan]

– If you use the LG Combo drive, and use the included Powerdvd. When you first install the software and you then put in a movie it will ask you to update.
I get only one update option. I read downloading the latest version helps.

– If you use a ati video card and you want to use uvd for hd, then you should use the 7.7 drivers from ati.
I manually set these registry [b][u]string [/u][/b]settings:
“TrDenoise”=”0”
“UseBT601CSC”=”1”
“VForceMaxResSize”=”2800000”
“SORTOverrideVidSizeCaps”=”2800000”

[url=http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=969601]Link to how I did this.[/url]

– If yo use a ati card with realtek hdmi audio, you need to go here to download the realtek driver: [url=http://www.realtek.com.tw/downloads/downloadsView.aspx?Langid=1&PFid=24&Level=4&Conn=3&DownTypeID=3]ATI HDMI Audio Device[/url]

– I did a comparison, and found that you would need a equivalent or better than the Intel E6400 or better.
List of cpus that can handle sw only hd movie playback;
[url=http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2003028163853573089][img]http://aycu06.webshots.com/image/39485/2003028163853573089_th.jpg[/img][/url]

[url=http://www23.tomshardware.com/cpu_2007.html?modelx=33&model1=877&model2=884&chart=441]Link to test[/url]

But with Profile 1.1 and Profile 2, the cpu requirements will be a lot more I understand.
So keep this in mind. What is good enough for profile 1 may stutter when you upgrade to the newer profiles.
Even if you don’t use the features these new peofiles give, it will still tax your cpu.

– Registry tweaks to speed up your pc. [url=http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=9956039#post9956039]Link[/url]

– Last I saw. Cyberlink was banning hd movie playback if slysoft was used.
So you may need true hdcp equipment if you need to use the latest cyberlink patch.
Also, with profile 1.1, it will not play if aacs is not being used.
So having hdcp hw may become a nessessity.

– Arsoft and windvd have hd movie sw in the works last i saw.

– You need to manually set the hw deinterlacing in cyberlink.
Go to the configuration screen, video, advanced, smart deinterlacing.
Some of the options in the “Perform HW Deinterlacing” box will be a jumble of letters and numbers.
If you don’t chose the right one, your hw deinterlacing will be subpar.
You need to open a deinterlacing test pattern with cyberlink, open the configuration while the pattern is playing in cyberlink, and try the various choices in the “Perform HW Deinterlacing” box.
I recommend the hqv disk, with the pattern that has a circle with a bar rolling clockwise in it.
This surprised me, because I had to fiddle with this, and I tested two different pc’s and the spot the be deinterlacing in the “Perform HW Deinterlacing” box was different, totally.

– In XP to get the hdmi audio using powerdvd ultra.
Go to: Control Panel, Sound, Speakers, Advanced. Set it to 5.1.
Then go to the audio tab and set the default device to the ati hdmi.
Then in PDVDU, set for 6 channel output.
Then in the movie itself, select the HD audio track, either though it’s setup menu or though the right-click menu of PDVDU.

[url=http://allyoucanupload.webshots.com/v/2000584478079987856][img]http://aycu35.webshots.com/image/40274/2000584478079987856_th.jpg[/img][/url]

– I open the Cyberlink Hi Def suite, and choose if I want to play blu ray, sddvd, or hddvd, and it works out fine.

– I calibrate my monitor for high definition using these free disks: [url=http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=948496]Link[/url]
Instructions:
i use the blu ray disk.
– In the first chapter, there is a brightness test. Brightness for monitors means Black.
You do not want ANY whiteness past 16.
– For the contrast pattern. Contrast means white when talking about monitors.
You do not want the entire screen white. You want to see some darkness in the 233 and 234 contrast bars. If possible the 235 bar too.
You do not want blackness in the 236 or higher contrast bars, but there may be some in order to get the blackness in the 233 and 234 contrast bars.
– Next is the saturation and hue patern. It’s got a box flashing withing a rectangle bar.
You need the blu glasses to set the inner bar so it’s blended into the outer bar that’s containing it.
[url=http://costore.com/thx/productenlarged.asp?peid=87&pid=930793]THX Optimizer Glasses[/url] View the web page with IE.

It’s best to calibrate the brightness and contrast befor calibrating the hue and saturation. The calibrate the hue first, saturation second, the hue third.

– If your thinking about buying a new monitor for this.
Make sure it has hdcp.

Make sure it either, does 720P, or 1080P.
You do not want a 1366×768 monitor if your going to use hdmi.
Reason is it will be blurry if it gets a 720 or 1080 signal from the hdmi, underscan or overscan and it’s grief.

– My equipment is a e6600 cpu, a dell 530 pc, a lg combo drive and free cyberlink player with it, a 32″ lcd 1080p tv, vista 32 bit, hdmi to tv, 1 gig ram, old sata hard drive. It uses about 200watts max.

If you get a new pc and equipment, buy something called [b]Kill a watt[/b].
Plug your new pc in, and choose watt, VA.
VA shows the true power used, a watt can be less than or equal to voltage amps.
Make sure your pc psu has enough juice, see if the va stays below what your psu is rated at.

I tested this rig with a E2140, and both blu ray and hd dvd played fine. CPU peaked at a low 60%.

_______________My Review of the Arcsoft TotalMedia Theater Software.________________

– The program starts, then you click play, or right click and select setup.
The setup menu is very straight forward. Not complicated at all.
– There’s no button to choose root menu, when you right click the opening screen.
– It doesn’t automatically open where you closed the disk, if you close the movie part way then open it back up again.
It starts from the beginning.
You need to set it to resume where you left in the setup.
– There’s a taskbar on top of the player, and on the bottom. Once the movie starts.
Move the mouse to the top of the player to see the top task bar, and click the screen to see the bottom task bar.
– It’s not easy to skip trailers. because of the lack of a root menu option, you need to click ff to skip the trailers.
– It uses a different color scheme than the powerdvd ultra does.
I know this because i carefully calibrated my cyberlink’s hue and saturation, and the arsoft player uses a different hue and saturation calibration.
This shows it’s using a different color scheme, maybe a different renderer.
– I tested using vista 32 bit. it used about 700MB once playing, total ram use. And about 25% of my E6600cpu.
It uses dxva 2.0 on my 2600Xt card.
– I set detail_def to 100, in the registry where I set the other registry tweaks I mentioned above.
If I use no detal enhance it looks a bit plain.
– With the detail enhance, and the other registry tweaks, and the newer color of the arcsoft. It seems ultra realistic. Very beautiful.
I tested Arctic tale (hd dvd), The Rock (blu ray), Reservoir Dogs (blu ray), A Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy (blu ray).
All worked fine.
To my eyes. It seemed better than the powerdvd experience.
– I only use the pc speakers I got from Dell, with the subwoofer. So I can’t say how those fancy dancy 7.1 sounds like or things like spdif. Edit. I just tested hdmi sound from the ati card to my lcd tv and it worked fine with the arcsoft sw. 🙂
– I sit 46.5 inches from my 32″ lcd tv. Three times the height of the screen. And it looks very nice.

Here’s a link to the trial version I used for this test.
[url=http://”http://www.arcsoft.com/products/totalmediatheatre/”%5DLink%5B/url%5D

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