View Full Version : Windows 7 Essentials
Matblack
29-10-2009, 10:06
I did a clean install of W7 last night on my new drive
I'm trying to keep it relatively uncluttered, so far I have put the following on
iTunes
VLC Media Player
Lightroom - still need to copy over my pics and Lightroom backup files
7 Zip
PKR
And thats about it, I'm using Live Mail at the moment and God forbid IE as a browser :shocked:, I'll put Chrome and/ or Firefox on soon.
Just wondered what other people use?
I need a video player which will output 5.1 sound tracks to S/PDIF or I need to change some settings in VLC or get a codec or something, also VLC doesn't seem as crisp as in Vista and I think I used somthing else to output the video but I'm stuffed if can remember what and how I did it :confused:
Anything anyone can't live without that I should get?
I'll put Office on at somepoint too.
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Matblack
29-10-2009, 10:34
Bit of a cop out but I think I'll bung this selection on there tonight with the settings this chap has used :)
Don't really need the front end though, just the player and the right codecs :)
http://www.projecthtpc.co.uk/htpc_software08.html
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NokkonWud
29-10-2009, 11:58
I use the K Lite Mega Codec Pack and output 5.1 over S/PDIF and use Media Player Classic Home Cinema edition.
StandaloneStack2 might be something you'd like on Windows 7. I think it's a superb little tool.
Matblack
29-10-2009, 12:12
I use the K Lite Mega Codec Pack and output 5.1 over S/PDIF and use Media Player Classic Home Cinema edition.
I have a good recollection of what a pain it was to get Dolby 5.1 pass through with Vista, it took me hours to get it right and in the end the only thing which seemed to work was a cracked version of PowerDVD.
I'm hoping that the solution outlined in the link above will work for me as I am also outputting to a reciever and want that to be able to handle the DD and DTS feeds.
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NokkonWud
29-10-2009, 12:23
It's really simple, takes about 5 seconds.
Open ffdshow audio from the taskbar when a video is playing and scroll down to 'output', then check the dts box and make sure you're outputting over 5 speakers.
Del Lardo
29-10-2009, 18:03
Microsoft Security Essentials. Not perfect but it's free and has a much smaller impact than AVG or Avast while doing the same job.
I can tell there will be 'See You In Court' over that one in due course. Oh well.
Just have to decide whether I should switch when my three year NOD32 license expires early next year.
LeperousDust
29-10-2009, 20:46
Panda Cloud looks interesting (for netbooks at least :)
Also instead of installing the big k0lite codec bloated pack, just install ffdshow, its all you really need, maybe matrasoka splitter as well. Job done and much less messy in the way of codecs!
NokkonWud
30-10-2009, 01:19
CCCP > K-Lite for me :)
I used to use that, but everything went tits up last time and K-Lite sorted it, so went with the latter this time round, but I agree, when working it's a cracking pack.
Del Lardo
30-10-2009, 01:24
I can tell there will be 'See You In Court' over that one in due course. Oh well.
Just have to decide whether I should switch when my three year NOD32 license expires early next year.
Why? It's not installed as part of the OS and you have to download it from MS to use it. It's not like they pimp it either, I'd not heard of it until it was mentioned no another forum.
Why? It's not installed as part of the OS and you have to download it from MS to use it. It's not like they pimp it either, I'd not heard of it until it was mentioned no another forum.
For no other reason than because they can. EU bureaucrats have to earn their crust somehow. Rather off-topic, this though.
Stan_Lite
30-10-2009, 08:31
CCCP > K-Lite for me :)
Same here. Used to always use K-Lite but something didn't work for a while and I switched to CCCP and everything works just dandy.
One App I always install fairly early in any new installation is Microsoft Synctoy - absolutely suberb and invaluable app. CCleaner is another app I always install and I prefer Foxit reader over adobe reader for PDFs - much smaller.
Matblack
30-10-2009, 10:24
Well the renderers that come with KMPlayer aren't very good! Will need to install and set up FFDShow I think as that looked very nice on Vista.
I finally managed to find the setting to send sound through to the reciever unadulterated I'm presuming that now I've done that that none of the other Audio settings (of which there are hundreds) won't do anything when playing back DVD style files although I probably need to set something up for Xvid etc.
Watched Moon last night which sounded good but looked very blocky without any upscaling, will get on to this later.
I used Synctoy on Vista to back up my music and Lightroom stuff and will do so again as i makes life a lot easier :)
Have installed AVG for anti-virus, I heard a few negatives about MS's offering regarding not picking up threats :/
MB
after you went and got LR, I last night found that adobe are giving away the v3 Beta, free until April 2010!
Matblack
30-10-2009, 21:53
I hate to say it but I'm actually using the Windows Media Centre at the moment, it picked up the S/PDIF straight off and the picture is better than either of the two players I've tried, I could probably improve on it with FFD but its just fine as it is for the time being, shame it won't detect ISOs but nothings perfect :)
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