Two questions, fitbrit. I'm honestly just curious.
Why do you use AC3Filter, when FFDSHOW includes a perfectly capable AC3 decoder? What does AC3Filter provide that FFDSHOW's "dolby digital" decoding does not?
Similarly... Why do you use CoreAVC Pro? Are you on a particularly old machine, and need the additional MPEG-4 AVC (H264) decoding prowess, or is it a quality-based need?
I use AC3filter because I find it easier to use and adjust (especially audio sync) compared to the ffdshow settings. If I'm using a gyroscopic mouse to navigate, I prefer the interface of AC3 filter. That's all really. I use ffdshow for non AC3/DTS sources and I find the interface a bit too small for HTPC use.
I like CoreAVC because it just works a LOT better than ffdshow for h264 material. I have a decent dual core 2.4 GHz Opteron 180. NO, I haven't overclocked it, mostly because my lovely motherboard isn't that good at it. However, even with the latest ffdshow, I find that it chokes on 1080p material, but CoreAVC runs very smoothly. I will test a theory I have, and check to see whether Cool'n'Quiet is selected in the BIOS; this may be throttling my HTPC for serious decoding.
When I first got into the whole HD HTPC thing back in November, I had so many issues and was in codec hell. Now that I've got things working well in MC12, I'm really cautious about what I install on my HTPC.