TotalMedia Theatre Discontinued

[IT Troll]

TotalMedia Theatre, arguably the best Bluray software for Windows, has been quietly discontinued by ArcSoft. No mention of it on their website, no longer supported software and downloads have been removed, even for existing customers.

I am a long term user of TMT and this is a sad day indeed. I am afraid to say it is another nail in the coffin for Media Center as this reduces its ability to be a complete, one box, home theatre solution.

[totitoti25]

I agree with IT Troll, Media Center its been dying for quite some time now. The truth its that MCE was made for MP3, DVD and ATSC MPEG2. The revamp it received in Win7 it added AVC native support which I have been exploiting ever since.

All these Bluray third party addons are good and Total Media Theatre from Arcsoft was the best one of all. I have tried just about every way possible to make MCE better. The truth is that WTV files are the best format to view your videos. Native support it just always works. I have been making my own WTV files (AVC & AC3) and that's as good as it will ever get.

DTS, DTS-HD, Dolby True HD, MVC....they will never play as good as an WTV file.

While playing an WTV file you can fast forward or rewind, browse your collection while still viewing the video. Quickly browse your tuners, see what's recording jump to broadcast. Pause live TV then jump to a specific episode of a season you want.

When you start using MKV, TS or a third party bluray players. It seems seamless integration but its not! you can't quickly browse your guide then go back to bluray.

Conclusion, even though its sad to see TMT gone, I suggest get used to making or transferring your Bluray and DVD collection to WTV files (ToDVRMS) and use Recorded TV HD. Get used to having a AVC & AC3 collection. If anyone has a better idea please let me know.

[IT Troll]

That is an interesting approach, but I have some reservations with adopting WTV. I feel it is a little too platform specific and as we know that platform is not going to be here forever. When I have ripped discs in the past, I have gone for MP4 or MKV so that they can be played on tablets and other media players as well.

Does WTV support any of the Blu-ray HD audio standards or is AC3 the best it can do? Also what about 3D? Without these you are missing a lot of what Blu-ray can offer.

I would be interested to hear though if it is possible to add subtitles and additional audio tracks to WTV files which can then be selected through the standard Media Center interface.

[Woody]

It is a real shame that TMT has been discontinued, I only brought a copy of this a few weeks ago and it makes a brilliant addition to WMC.

Unfortunately, WMC is effectively dead, commercially.. ..it is now only available as a purchase  add-on in Windows 8 (and then only in the Pro edition) and  it is virtually unchanged from the Windows 7 version. I think part of the problem is that in Sky et al., offer so much pay-per-view content these days that people go down that route. Daft really as these services are costly and the content streamed at low quality. In addition,  new TVs can also stream from NAS devices etc., which is a further 'nail in the coffin' for WMC.

Interesting about WTV files, but I tend to agree with IT Troll, I prefer formats that are not platform specific, as you can use them on other devices.

PS I still have my TMT install file if anyone needs a backup (obviously you will need your own key).

[totitoti25]

Benefits of WTV (Windows TV Files)
- Native support, no third party codecs, seek, frame by frame rewind and fast forward,
- Metadata contained within the video file
- Can browse the guide, MCE guide, while playing the video
- If you press and continue to press FF or REW you get a preview of the video as you search for the exact point on the video then press play and will take you straight there.
- Just works flawlessly

The Bad?? its not future proof, it stayed stuck in AVC, MPEG2 and AC3.
- No DTS-HD, Dolby True HD, MVC, H.265 support
- Only supported inside Win7, Win 8 and Vista with TV pack installed

For those concerned about format specific, tools such as MC-TVConverter, VideoReDo or TMPGEnc 5 can remux it to any format you want.

You can use VideoReDo to input your MPEG2 recordings, remove commercials and output straight to AVC-WTV and will automatically transfer the Metadata from the original file. Yes, its that easy! look at the picture attached.

Yes, VideoReDo can input your Blurays and output AVC-WTV files or your MKV (if AVC and AC3 inside the MKV it will remux as fast as your Hard Drive can transfer). If you don't have VideoReDo, you should buy it. Worth it every penny just as Recorded TV HD and My Channel Logos.