Win 7 Media Center + WMA 10 Pro + SPDIF

OK, so I've been working on a couple issues with my Media Center PC for about a week now. I have to say, MC7 is by far better than any other media center I've used. But I've run into a few issues I'm not too happy with.

I encode all my movies in WMVHD format so the kids can watch movies either the xbox 360 or on the HTPC. This gets me away from having them fight about who gets to watch what and when, they each get what they want.

So with MC7 it plays absolutely everything I've tried; WMVHD, DiVX, DVD...

DTS and Dolby Digital movies both output via SPDIF to my Yamaha receiver, play perfectly.

Now the problem; I encode my WMVHD's in WMA Pro 10 5.1 surround... my receiver does not nativly decode this, so i've always in the past used either FFDshow or AC3filter to "recode" the WMA Pro 10 to DD 5.1.

Well, this no longer works in MC7. I have applied numerous hacks from hack7mc.com (superb site BTW) and can get AC3Filter to load perfectly for everything except... WMVHD files. It works for mp3's, DVD's, DiVX, and Live TV.

If I load GraphEdit and have it render a WMVHD file, the flow looks correct, File --> DMO WMA Decoder --> AC3Filter --> Default Sound Device.

I've posted on numerous sites, but not come up with anything that actually works...

Latest thing I've tried is renaming the WMADMOD.DLL, but then nothing plays... even with FFDshow and AC3filter loaded... I also know that Windows 7 (along with Vista) actually have moved to a new "filter set" that is no longer DirectShow, it's now called WMF or Windows Media Foundation. I have yet to find any filters that have moved to this new format.

Choppy 1080 Streaming to a Xbox 360

Copied from: http://thegreenbutton.com/forums/thread/308476.aspx

I made these changes, and my stuttering dissapeared instantly.

Network issues with NIC

Enable flow control(I know you did this already)
Disable autotuning (netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=disabled)

Turn off the following settings for NIC
Ipv6
Link Layer Topology Discovery Mapper I/O driver
Link-Layer Topology Discovery Responder

Take a look at this article. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929707/en-us

One of the most frequent complains about Windows Vista is the Multimedia Class Scheduler. The is an enabled-by-default component that prioritises multimedia applications and tasks such as video and music playback.However, when multimedia tasks are active, MCS will throttle down the global network bandwidth to around 10,000 packets per second. On high speed links like 100Mbps full duplex and 1000Mbps LAN connections that doesn’t use Jumbo Packets, the throttling may be significant drop network throughput. In Vista SP1, Microsoft added the ability to change the packet per second limit of the MCS, or completely disable it. Here’s how:

1. Press Windows key and R simultaneously.

2. Enter “regedit” (without the quotation marks) and press enter.

3. Using the tree on your left, navigate to the following branch:

Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ Multimedia\SystemProfile

4. Double click on “NetworkThrottlingIndex“.

5. To disable completely, enter FFFFFF with base hexadecimal.

6. To let say, 100,000 packets through per second, enter 100000 with base decimal.

7. Click Ok and restart your computer.

Note: This works only on Windows Vista operating systems with SP1 installed or later (I made this change on Windows 7)