Networking between Yamaha 671 and HTPC ?

[mav]

Evening folks !

I have some noob questions so kindly bear with me. It's been months that I have been using the setup but only now am I digging in deeper to get the max out of my AVR. I am using a Yamaha 671 AVR connected through HDMI to the PC which runs on Win7. The PC comprises of nvidia geForce GT 430 graphics card, Gigabyte G41MT-S2P motherboard, 1TB hard drive, 4 GB RAM. My Broadband is MTNL Mumbai and am using the 450TC1 WiFi router/modem that was provided alongside. I have created a LAN connecting my AVR and the PC through the router and fortunately it was a simple enough procedure involving plugging in the respective cables to the LAN ports.

Now my questions are regarding security. Should I name my LAN to be Home/Work Or Public? I am sharing the contents on my PC including Music, Videos and Pictures and don't want any loophole in the setup as the PC is connected to Internet and torrents 24.7 !

I am using Windows Media Player to share the content on my PC with the AVR so should I be making some changes in the sharing options therein to make it further secure?

This also brings me to a related question- The Yamaha 671 can access the music files stored on my PC which are mostly MP3 and flac files and it is playing them quite nicely so should I let the AVR play my music or should I play music through my PC using foobar/VLC ? What would be better as far as quality of music being rendered goes?

Also the AVR is showing the the Video/ movie files and pictures stored on my PC but they are greyed out- I cant play them using the AVR. What gives?

Thanks in advance !

 

[vaibhavyagnik]

1. Name it as Home. Get a good antivirus + Firewall, do not port forward your router unless required, if you have to do it absolutely (torrent etc,) then keep the number of ports limited.
2. No you dont. chances of malware entering PC from AVR is NIL and Malware in PC would not affect AVR so no worries on that front
3.As far as i can tell, in both cases its like you are bitstreaming your music to AVR. its the AVR that is doing the processing. so choose what ever you like, wont make any difference in my opinion
4. The movie container format/video codec/audio codec must not be supported by avr

 

[haisaikat]

I agree with vaibhab on all fronts. However there is another thread running on this forum which says that there may be improvements in music playback if you playback from PC using upsampling softwares

http://www.hifivision.com/media-streaming-players/23837-16-44-1-vs-24-96-higher-sample-rates.html

 

[Gijo George]

Hi mav
Have you tried connecting your htpc > Yamaha 671 > TV through hdmi? Did you have any problem with audio? Was the display on the tv going beyond the edges? Just asking coz I'm facing problems with audio and display when my PC is connected vide hdmi cable to tv through my yamaha 863.
Thanks

 

[mav]

Hi mav
Have you tried connecting your htpc > Yamaha 671 > TV through hdmi? Did you have any problem with audio? Was the display on the tv going beyond the edges? Just asking coz I'm facing problems with audio and display when my PC is connected vide hdmi cable to tv through my yamaha 863.
Thanks

Hi Gijo !

Thats exactly the thing I was wondering about. I have attached the htpc > Yamaha 671 > LCD Monitor through HDMI. Recently the display has started stretching beyond the edges and I had to go to the nvidia control panel to customize the res to 1862X 1068. I have no problem with the audio however.

Whats the issue with your audio output?

Cheers !

 

[mav]

I agree with vaibhab on all fronts. However there is another thread running on this forum which says that there may be improvements in music playback if you playback from PC using upsampling softwares

http://www.hifivision.com/media-streaming-players/23837-16-44-1-vs-24-96-higher-sample-rates.html

Thanks mate but the thread that you pointed at hardly has any posts.. may it be some other thread?

@ vaibhavyagnik: Thanks mate ! So if I set the LAN as 'Home' there is no way anyone else using the Broadband can access with my PC.. I mean its secure from anyone from the MTNL broadband tapping into my LAN? The reason for me asking this is I was using Reliance Broadband prior to this and could see various others user's PC connected to the same LAN provided by Reliance when it would have made a hub in my apartment complex.

I am using the standard Windows firewall alongside Avast and utorrent is the only application which is using a forwarded port. Might this crate a problem?

 

[captainrizal]

There's another problem when connecting HTPC to projector via Yamaha RXV 371 using HDMI cable. The picture becomes blurry and sometimes it disappers altogether. I didn't have sound or video problem when connected to LCD.

 

[Gijo George]

Hi Gijo !

Thats exactly the thing I was wondering about. I have attached the htpc > Yamaha 671 > LCD Monitor through HDMI. Recently the display has started stretching beyond the edges and I had to go to the nvidia control panel to customize the res to 1862X 1068. I have no problem with the audio however.

Whats the issue with your audio output?

Cheers !

Lucky you. My display is still stretched

As said I don't get any audio out through HDMI. In the manage audio devices menu I don't see a Realtech HDMI output. It shows Realtech digital and digital (optical). I don't think the former is hdmi. From your post I'm convinced about the fact that we get audio out from the hdmi from the graphics card. I was told by the local graphic card vendor that the graphic card will not output audio

I'll remove the graphic card on Monday and see if I can get A/V from the HDMI out on my motherboard. Asus P8H67V. If that works I think I'll have to have a word with the vendor.

 

[manniraj]

Hi mav
Have you tried connecting your htpc > Yamaha 671 > TV through hdmi? Did you have any problem with audio? Was the display on the tv going beyond the edges? Just asking coz I'm facing problems with audio and display when my PC is connected vide hdmi cable to tv through my yamaha 863.
Thanks

Hi George

I have the same problem ever since I got my rx-v571 receiver connected thru to the tv by hdmi. Now when I adjusted the resolution/desktop resize it keeps flickering every 5 minutes. I am not sure what do i do with this. I have a nvidia gt440 card which works perfectly if connected directly to the tv.

Thanks

 

[mav]

@ gijo: My card is GT 430 and its rendering both audio/video through HDMI just fine so yours being GT 440 should do it too. I suspect it has something to do with sound drivers. you would have to disable Realtek audio drivers. When I click on Realtek HD audio manager in the system tray it pops up with a blank page saying no Audio device has been plugged.

In device manager when you click on sound,video and game controller option what do you see? If you see realtek you would have to disable/delete it. In my case all I have is nvidia High Def Audio.

If this doesn't help then maybe spriovious from our forum might be able to shed some light. He corrected some settings on my HTPC when he had come over for auditioning my setup.

Here are some screenshots of the settings when you click on the 'sound' tab in control panel.

Hope this helps !

@manniraj: maybe this thread might help:
http://www.hifivision.com/television/13381-help-connecting-my-laptop-hdtv-via-avr.html

 

[Gijo George]

@ gijo: My card is GT 430 and its rendering both audio/video through HDMI just fine so yours being GT 440 should do it too. I suspect it has something to do with sound drivers. you would have to disable Realtek audio drivers. When I click on Realtek HD audio manager in the system tray it pops up with a blank page saying no Audio device has been plugged.

In device manager when you click on sound,video and game controller option what do you see? If you see realtek you would have to disable/delete it. In my case all I have is nvidia High Def Audio.

I disabled the Reatech drivers in the sound, video and game controller.

By gijogeo at 2012-02-25

 

[vaibhavyagnik]

Thanks mate but the thread that you pointed at hardly has any posts.. may it be some other thread?

@ vaibhavyagnik: Thanks mate ! So if I set the LAN as 'Home' there is no way anyone else using the Broadband can access with my PC.. I mean its secure from anyone from the MTNL broadband tapping into my LAN? The reason for me asking this is I was using Reliance Broadband prior to this and could see various others user's PC connected to the same LAN provided by Reliance when it would have made a hub in my apartment complex.

I am using the standard Windows firewall alongside Avast and utorrent is the only application which is using a forwarded port. Might this crate a problem?

No. Its perfectly secure. The thing is when windows asks what is the type of network say home or public, it sets the security accordingly. If you say home network, security between your computer and other devices which are connected to YOUR router is low. It in no way, affects security between your router and other users on MTNL broadband. That security depends on the configuration of your router. so if you have just port forwarded only utorrent then only that port will be open. Other ports will be blocked by your router and hence no body from outside will be able to access your devices which are BEHIND the router.
Your configuration is perfectly fine.