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cMP and HTPC

My initial aim has been to build a HTPC capable of playing 2ch music and 5.1 movies at the best possible level.

Like many others I have built a PC following cics's "The Art of Building (AOB) Computer Transports” version 0.3 and cMP Installation Guide & User Manual documents. I followed the notes closely and implemented almost all settings.

I employ a LynxTwo-B card. Through the use of Thuneau's Allocator as XO, Jack Audio Kit, J River MC and ASIO driver (with the help of a few inmates to whom I am grateful) I managed to active bi-amp my speakers for 2ch listening, although not in cMP mode. The use of ASIO is recommended by cics's notes and...well, almost everybody.

I would also like to keep the above two main speakers configuration for multi-channel listening as Front-L/R, because it would be unpractical to recable for movie playback. cMP's Installation Guide in its Sample HTPC chapter briefly mentions that "given its open architecture, cMP can be used successfully for playing movies. Excellent results have been gained using Power DVD." I have tried that unsuccessfully - I must say, however, that I was not in cMP mode.
It seems to me that all DVD/movie players around employ DirectSound whereas for the aforementioned software I require ASIO. The only player that comes close to it, and yet so far, is VLC with its supposed compatibility with PortAudio. Unfortunately - from the voice of one of the developers - "the PortAudio used in VLC might be built without Jack support. AFAIK ASIO support is also missing from portaudio used in VLC."

Does cMP manage to play movies through ASIO which is normally used in its music delivery? The fact that an ISO file is loaded into memory shouldn't make it capable of playing through ASIO...

Please give me any kind of help for reaching movie playback... Otherwise, after putting a lot of time, money and effort, I will have to give up on active bi-amping and digital XO which was one of the main reasons for building a cMP-like HTPC in the first place.

I thank you in advance for your help and, above all, for this project and everybody who put effort into it.


This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
  Atma-Sphere Music Systems, Inc.  


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