DirecTV-2-PC Public Beta

[darrencp22]

Then you might want to look into your network connection or whatelse on your system is using resources. I have a 1.6Ghz AMD laptop and no problem with SD content even using my 802.11g connection.

Everything else works fine. I stream via Tversity all the time to my 360. Shouldnt have to figure this out.. should be brainless.

[rad]

I find it hilarious that in the day and age of tv we are in, people would be happy about sitting in their home next to an HDTV and watching this on a PC, sorry.

Looks like jessshaun in the post right after yours disagrees with your assesment of the product.

[rad]

Everything else works fine. I stream via Tversity all the time to my 360. Shouldnt have to figure this out.. should be brainless.

OK, you're talking about your PC being a server to your 360, where the 360 has to do most of the processing and the PC is just passing data. How is this the same as your PC needing to decode and display the MPEG4 data being passed from your HR2X?, this looks like two totally different applications.

I have an old P4 1.8 that runs WMPV11 and no problem streaming data to my PS3 but then again all it's doing is reading data from the harddrive and passing it to the NIC, the PS3's doing all the leg work.

[Jason Whiddon]

Would I have preferred that they worked on MRV then this, you bet. Someone at D* must have though that this would be a feature that would differentiate their product from other providers. As I said, some people have said they liked it, you don't, to each their own.

Like I said, this is a feature 99% of us will never use, or we'll try it once and say "hmmm, nice, not."

Not to each their own, common sense. This is probably something they sank plenty of time in to, and even after realizing it was a waste, they pushed it through as to not admit failure. Kinda like a government subsidy program.

Generally, I like everything D* does, but this is a farce and a complete waste of time.

Ill get off my soap box and let you guys enjoy HDTV on your PC

[GeorgeLV]

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a big failure to DirectTV on this.

My pc is about 1 year old. 2 gigs of memory. 3mghz processor. Pentium 4.

I dont pass what is required. There are a TON more people out there with lesser PCs than this one. This is hardly a piece of junk.

Great job developing a product not accessible to the masses.

Your PC is a piece of junk as far as mpeg4 decoding goes.

It's very conspicuous that you did not mention a graphics card specification. I'll assume you have Intel "Extreme" Graphics (what a joke) or some similar integrated entry level graphics processor.

The mpeg4 avc algorithm is very complex and processor intensive. A single core processor, even at 3ghz, can not decode it at HD resolutions without hardware acceleration from the graphics card.

My modest self-built PC (<$400 build cost), has no problem running DirecTV2PC.

My specs:

Athlon 64 X2 5200+ (2 cores @ 2.7ghz)
2 GB DDR2-800 RAM
GeForce 9600GT

The playback advisor detected that my graphics card supported hardware acceleration, and judging from the smooth playback of HD content it works great.

Edit-
I noticed you posted later:

yup.. and dont say it cant be done.. cuz i've watched HD through my PC withotu any issues. The programming is sloppy and inefficient.

I'm saying it literally can't be done. Mpeg2 is a much simpler algorithm than mpeg4 and additional many more graphics processors (even integrated ones) support basic iDCT acceleration for mpeg2. WMV HD and the streaming "HD" from network websites use proprietary algorithms that are less processor intensive. Try watching a 1080p AVC clip from QuickTime on you computer, is Apple's programming "sloppy and inefficient" as well?

[JAG72]

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a big failure to DirectTV on this.

My pc is about 1 year old. 2 gigs of memory. 3mghz processor. Pentium 4.

I dont pass what is required. There are a TON more people out there with lesser PCs than this one. This is hardly a piece of junk.

Great job developing a product not accessible to the masses.

Sorry to say darren but with purchasing this only 1 year ago it was already out dated when it was bought. I had a P4 2.8GHz PC about 4 to 5 years ago and finally threw it away this past weekend.

[charper1]

FYI to all, the PC's build spec is hardly the end all, be all in the functionality of an application like this.

[Gimpy McFarlan]

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I dont pass what is required. There are a TON more people out there with lesser PCs than this one. This is hardly a piece of junk.

+1

My 2 year old Dell does meet the qualifications. I realize it is no spring chicken of computers but it surely should be able to play video even if it isn't HD.

[Bob Nielsen]

I just downloaded it and did the advisor and my graphics card fails because I have a Nvidia 6150Se not a 7600 or above. Doe that mean I cant even try this out or use the program??

I have a built-in 6150SE on my motherboard. The advisor program failed on this, but I went ahead and downloaded the program anyway. It runs just fine (Athlon 64X2 5000+, 3 MB RAM).

[K9SAT]

Pass with flying colors here