Hello  ArcSoft_ Jason.

Truly dissapointed to read your reply regarding arcsoft's attitude towards  mkv playback issues.

Been into pc's and technology all my life, along with music , video and games, and these being my main areas of interest/hobbies I spend a lot of both money and time on them.

I'd like to think i have a good eye for detail, what's quality and what's not.  This said , I don't buy  expensive product for the reason that "expensive is better", I'm neither a "brandname" freak.

A product I purchase must do what it's supposed to, and do so well.

Recently starting to build my hometheater system, and thus the reason for this reply, I received my Denon AVR 3310 2 weeks ago.

This being the foundation of my system, I needed a way to PROPERLY connect to my PC .

My computer is my main source of media, BluRay R/W, HD DVD drive,  a bunch of backups and even more mkv and HD  video files.

Now wanting to take full advantage of my receiver my old setup with spdif/optic cables just dont work.

I needed an component with the possibility to send both  audio/video via hdmi  from my pc to the receiver. It would also need to support the newest HD sound tracks, and playback of HD DVD audio/video.

I have MS Xbox 360 Elite with the HD DVD player addon, but since my graphics card and HDMI cable cost more  than these two combined I'd like to use my computer for HDDVD playback

2 options available, Radeon HD5xxx not being an alternative, Auzentech or Xonar.

Xonar HDAV 1.3 Slim is the cheapest, but it does what's it's supposed to, deluxe version and others just HAVE to mess with the picture, giving you all these SPLENDID sideeffects.

I  don't need altering of signals other from that of GPU and/or  receiver and a minimum of privileged selected filters/plugins.

At this point I've not even heard about TotalMedia.... .

Ended up buying the Xonar HDAV Slim,  Why  ? :

The ONLY reason i bought the Xonar instead of  AUZENTECH X-FI HOMETHEATER HD was that TMT(Xonar) support MKV/H.264/etc, supported HD DVD BS.  and Cyberlink PowerCrap DVD (Auzentech) doesn't .

Not actually purchased TMT3PT. yet, used the version bundled with the card, and the newest download from asus, but never quite fancied oem's so this is coming of next paycheck.

HOWEVER..... Imagine my surprise... Bundled version of TMt doesnt support mkv, newest dl from asus, 3.0.something, support mkv /badly/ but HDDVD bitsreaming is removed.

Windows media player, free, with fx CCCP and HAALI, free,  does a better job with mkv .

My screen is suffering of flickering lines, and picture quality is bad, even vlc does a better job.

Hence my disappointment towards your reply.

There are so many software products that concentrate on dvd & br playback, because thats what people wants.. Right..

For dvd and br playback I'll use my 800 $ Sony BD player, but as said previously I need my pc to perform these tasks as well, including wider playback support.

The xonar makes it physically possible, and TMT should/does provide the software support.

If your marketing department thinks mkv should be a non prioritized feature but still marketed , they're not only wrong but lying to the customers.

If you really want TMT to stand out and reach a bigger group op consumers, and thus increasing profit and reputation, you should put a bigger effort into these "non standard" formats.

The only reason I can think of why mkv and other hd codecs is "unpopular /non-priority " is the movie industry and its affiliates and lawyers.

 They so desperately need to hang on to poor distributing methods to maintain control and keep the cash flowing the way they want, with minimal effort and cost. The consumer is just dumb cows to be milked, without the right of opinion or decision.

 But face it,  hd downloads  and streaming etc.  is only going to get bigger, and software companies , like arcsoft, and movie studios alike will/is losing grounds to "pirates",  open source codecs and network media streamers .

Not to change the subject or spam with other hardware manufacturers products, but if TMT doesnt get better, and the new Popcorn Hour is all it's supposed to be, I'll be giving away my yet to purchase license of TMT 3 PT , selling my xonar and go for the popcorn hour. I would expect this to actually do what it says, and more.

They're marketing department is on the right track, yours is NOT....

All the best.

Awaiting a reply regarding better mkv support, and HDDVD bitstreaming.