# HDMI pass through playing .mt2s files



## Zeitgeist (Apr 4, 2009)

I have a HTPC machine w/Windows 7 -- and use WMC, WMP, VLC player, etc.

I was surprised when I wanted to play some .mt2s files how relatively hard it was to play them in a way that the native HDMI audio was passed to my AVR to be decoded.

I found that PowerDVD 10.0 would do it - and it does with my video card -- but surprisingly it only supports about 5 different cards.

Has anyone else run into the snag of passing HDMI audio on a Windows HTPC/PC?

I naively thought that Windows Media Center/Player would handle it well.


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## looneybomber (Sep 20, 2006)

I use Total Media Theater and it plays my .mt2s files fine, along with the mkv's, avi's, etc... It also has a good GPU accelerator or whatever it's called, so even my 38GB file of Avatar doesn't cause my computer to even think of lagging.

If you find you have problems with PowerDVD, take a look at TMT.


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## rmalak (Apr 10, 2010)

I use TMT also, but only for blu-ray playback. Everything else is played through MPC-HC and ffdshow. I have never had any issues with .mt2s files with either program. I would stay away from PDVD if at all possible.


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## Zeitgeist (Apr 4, 2009)

rmalak said:


> I use TMT also, but only for blu-ray playback. Everything else is played through MPC-HC and ffdshow. I have never had any issues with .mt2s files with either program. I would stay away from PDVD if at all possible.


Thanks to both of you for recommendations of alternatives.

PDVD was not my first choice - as I think it's junk.... I just didn't see many programs out there that passed the HDMI through as multichannel.

VLC Player and WMP play mt2s perfectly fine - but it just downmixes the audio to stereo. I guess I would have thought that Windows Media Center would have had native support.

I'll have to check those apps out. Thanks!

ffdshow looks pretty promising...


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## rmalak (Apr 10, 2010)

Yeah ffdshow is awesome if you get one of the new copies. When paired with MPC-HC and setup it will bitstream all audio from your HTPC up to and including the new lossless formats. It's the fewest programs that I have found that will basically play anything.


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## Zeitgeist (Apr 4, 2009)

Cool - Thanks again.

I seriously under utilize my PC/HTPC.

Most of the time I'm using it for REQ or running Spectrum Lab to look at LFE waterfalls.


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## wbassett (Feb 8, 2007)

Mark me down as another Total Media Theater convertee!

I used to use PowerDVD but it was having trouble playing my HD DVDs and Blurays. When I bought my Hauppauge PVR 1212 it came with Total Media Extreme (which includes Total Media Theater) and TMT plays everything! It doesn't choke on HD DVDs or even the newest Blurays and it passes audio over HDMI just fine for me.


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