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I'm no expert, but I'd hazard a guess to say that neither RAM nor video card will help you with your problem. Throw CPU at it. I play 1080 on my system stutter-free with onboard graphics, but I'm sporting an E6750 CPU to power it. I used to have 1GB of RAM, but threw an extra 1GB in it as a hand-me-down when I upgraded another system. The 1GB was fine when I had it, though.
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Nov 11, 2008 08:38
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My old htpc was a Opteron 170 with 1.5gigs of memory and it handled it just fine. Hell when I ran XP on it It ran fine with 1gig of memory. You need the memory if you are going to do side jobs like edit video or serve files but for playback the 2gigs you have now are just fine. I would get a better video card. You'll be surprised how much it will make a difference, at least if you are trying to watch video in a vmr mode. If you don't care, then see if your software can run in overlay which basically any card should be able to handle. In my experience, a Geforce 6600GT was fine with 720p but unusable at resolutions after that. an 8500GT was good for progressive material only and a 9600GT had zero problems. If you do replace the mainboard, an 8300 is fine too, although its not as smooth as the 9600GT was in 1080i content, but it is watchable.
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Nov 11, 2008 16:53
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I'm in the market to build a new HTPC. Right now I have old HTPC: Asus A7N8E-X Delux mobo (it has digital optical out) Athlon XP-2600 Processor 1.5 gigs of DDR RAM Antec Earthwatts 350 ATX Case (it's a nice case, I can reuse it) GeForce 6200 A-LE (HDCP compliant) Win_TV HVR-1600 (Right now it's doing nothing, but I think I can use it for IR control) Windows XP Pro This setup works ok, but I'm wanting to get into HD content, so I think I need to upgrade. Here are my primary needs: 1) DVD playback 2) Netflix watch it now 3) Streaming media via Hulu 4) Downloaded files 5) Maybe Blu-ray, if it will work reliably. 6) I don't have cable, and probably won't be getting it, but maybe I should plan for it. So, I'm thinking I'd like to get a copy of Vista Basic for the MCE, and then build a new system, reusing my case and PS. I've reading over this thread, and I'd like to figure out what I should buy to maximize my money and functionality. I'd appreciate any tips on what I could reuse or if I have to buy a whole new system.
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Nov 11, 2008 21:24
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Maybe your tuner and the case, but everything else will likely need to be replaced nowadays. Vista Premium is the one with MCE btw, not basic. Most onboard video is good enough for HD video nowadays, so look for 780g, Nvidia 8200/9300 and P45 mainboards as a reference. Most people will say to skimp on the processor, but personally I feel that you should get something that will handle HD on its own just in case it can't be accelerated by your video card. Either way you can still get by with a cheap processor like a 5200+ or some Pentium Ds (although its recommended if you go with a 780g you get a Phenom for better post processing.
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Nov 11, 2008 22:05
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I just ordered the Asus P5N7A-VM, which is I believe the first available motherboard using the new nVidia 9300 IGP. Avsforum seems to believe it is more powerful than the G45 boards, and less buggy. It is hopefully quite powerful, because I'm hoping I can throw in an ancient Pentium D 930 and be able to have the IGP play h264 smoothly. Originally I was just going to go for a cheaper board and an E7200 or something, and not have to deal with the apparant pain of dealing with getting HA working. But the idea of not needing to buy a new processor is quite appealing, so I'll give this a shot. If it doesn't work, I guess I'll buy the E7200 anyway, and I'm out $30 on the extra I paid for a modern mATX board.
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Nov 12, 2008 22:33
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My next question revolves around remote controlling an HTPC. I have a Win-TV HVR-1600 running on my Windows XP Pro HTPC. It has a dongle for an IR remote, and even comes with one, but it doesn't really do anything. What are my options for a universal remote that I can buy and some software that can utilize it? If I could have some kind of macro software that can talk to the remote, I can use it for controlling my PC, right? As it is now, I have a bluetooth keyboard and mouse that I use. I'd like to use a universal remote. Plus, I'm buying a new TV and reciever, so I want to get something that will work in the long run.
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Nov 14, 2008 00:32
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dfn_doe posted:Most of the hidef sets I've seen have provisions for both optical SPDIF in and/or RCA analog stereo in to go along with hdmi and some logic in the menus to switch between "hdmi/digital/analog/auto" for at least one of the hdmi ports. Also the parent post to which you are replying neglects to acknowledge that hdmi almost always implies HDCP protected path and the availability of full res protected content playback, while DVI doesn't have the same near-guarantee. The Sony STR-DG920 does not allow HDMI Video + Optical audio, as I found out to my own loss today. Went through an 'online analyst' and phone support both just to make sure. It's just ridiculous that it's not an option since i just want the audio to be routed to the speakers, and the hdmi video to be passed through, but apparently for that I have to have the HDMI bypass the receiver. Just dumb. On that note.. can anyone recommend a low-profile card that can do 'true' hdmi? I have to fit this in a Shuttle case, so huge fans or excessive height or length are all a no-no.
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Nov 14, 2008 01:28
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Pahalial posted:The Sony STR-DG920 does not allow HDMI Video + Optical audio, as I found out to my own loss today. Went through an 'online analyst' and phone support both just to make sure. It's just ridiculous that it's not an option since i just want the audio to be routed to the speakers, and the hdmi video to be passed through, but apparently for that I have to have the HDMI bypass the receiver. Just dumb. I'm a bit confused by your post, isn't the STR-DG920 a receiver? I was talking about HD TV sets, not receivers. And I'm not entirely clear why you'd want your stereo receiver to even have the hdmi signal routed through it if you want to pass it the audio via optical spdif.
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Nov 14, 2008 04:17
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Jerk McJerkface posted:My next question revolves around remote controlling an HTPC. I use a Logitech Harmony remote and it's pretty useful if a bit of a battery-hog. [the backlight on mine sometimes stays on for no reason and drains the battery if I don't notice] The thing can even learn from other remotes if there's no profile for your dongle. Also, every button on the thing is programmable. edit: or you could just get a Wii-remote and a bluetooth dongle.
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Nov 14, 2008 06:03
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xeper posted:I use a Logitech Harmony remote and it's pretty useful if a bit of a battery-hog. [the backlight on mine sometimes stays on for no reason and drains the battery if I don't notice] Thanks for the tips. I'll check out the Harmony. So, basically, having the IR dongle for my tuner card allows me to us pretty much any IR remote, right?
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Nov 14, 2008 12:57
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xeper posted:[the backlight on mine sometimes stays on for no reason and drains the battery if I don't notice] I've switched to a bit more flexible MX-810, but before that I was using a Harmony and like it ok. The software is a pain in the rear end to use, but they're making improvements there. Since I haven't been using the Harmony, it's been sitting in my entertainment center. I swear to god we'll be sitting there watching a movie and the backlight will just come on out of nowhere. No loud bass thumps or anything. Jerek McJerkface posted:Thanks for the tips. I'll check out the Harmony. So, basically, having the IR dongle for my tuner card allows me to us pretty much any IR remote, right? Yep! Also, check out EventGhost for all your software and scripting needs. There's a learning curve, but otherwise it is awesome.
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Nov 14, 2008 16:06
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dfn_doe posted:I'm a bit confused by your post, isn't the STR-DG920 a receiver? I was talking about HD TV sets, not receivers. And I'm not entirely clear why you'd want your stereo receiver to even have the hdmi signal routed through it if you want to pass it the audio via optical spdif. It is. For simplicity, basically - All the equipment is in a small hutch off to the left, cables go into the wall and back out to the wall-mounted TV for cleanliness. The HTPC is a newer addition, so running another HDMI cable through the wall would be a pain in the neck. Also I haven't gotten around to the Harmony remote yet, so it'd be another remote to switch between input devices. (and frankly i don't see why the receiver can't just let me assign inputs properly)
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Nov 14, 2008 17:54
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Can anyone think of a way to get my roommates (and myself) in the habit of turning off the TV and stereo when we're done using it? With a traditional set up there is always sound/picture coming through the TV to remind you to turn it off - even a TiVo defaults to live TV when it is idle. But with an HTPC you just walk away when you're done using it and everything remains on without bothering anyone. Are LCD TVs smart enough to power themselves off when idle? My crt is not but I am in the market for an LCD right now so maybe that would solve half my problem.
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Nov 14, 2008 18:30
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ynotony posted:Can anyone think of a way to get my roommates (and myself) in the habit of turning off the TV and stereo when we're done using it? With a traditional set up there is always sound/picture coming through the TV to remind you to turn it off - even a TiVo defaults to live TV when it is idle. But with an HTPC you just walk away when you're done using it and everything remains on without bothering anyone. The way my harmony remote is setup is that I hit the power button on the harmony when I'm done watching a movie and it turns my receiver and TV off and puts my computer into a sleep mode.
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Nov 14, 2008 19:54
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How do i get my 8800gts working with my samsung hdtv, properly? The desktop is bigger than the tv, so its cutting off the start menu, and about an equil size area from every edge. The desktop resize thingy doesnt do anything.
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Nov 16, 2008 14:03
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VTS posted:How do i get my 8800gts working with my samsung hdtv, properly? Do you have any overscan options? Try messing with that.
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Nov 16, 2008 19:43
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I was at the store today and saw one of these: http://www.asus.com/999/images/products/2211/2211_l.jpg quote:ASUS Essentio CS5110, the reddot 2008 winner, is not only with the slim and stylish appearance but also the future specs and powerful graphic performance. I'm now torn between this and a Mac mini. I love OS X but at the same time have no major objections to using Vista. I'm leaning towards the Mac mini as I dig the integrated experience of Front Row for music, DVD and photos - it works straight out of the box. I guess I simply expect there to be a higher probability of issues with running Windows Media Center (I have heard of XBMC). Video review: http://cnettv.cnet.com/2001-1_53-50004442.html KingEup fucked around with this message at 11:19 on Nov 19, 2008 |
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Nov 19, 2008 09:15
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strayan posted:I was at the store today and saw one of these: What store? What's the price?
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Nov 19, 2008 19:01
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OnlineComputer.com.au T33-T38, Level 1 Capitol Square 730-742 George Street Sydney, NSW 2000 AUD $799.00 Intel Core2 Duo E2220 2.4Ghz, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD, nVIDIA Geforce 8600M GT 256M, Bluetooth, Wireless, LAN, DVD SuperMulti, Vista Home Premium KingEup fucked around with this message at 22:47 on Nov 19, 2008 |
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Nov 19, 2008 22:43
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I decided to see if my current PC could handle the killa sample, and it stutters insanely on it. I built it at the beginning of this year, and the parts aren't terrible, so I can't see why it's stuttering so bad. Intel C2D E8400 4gigs of DDR2 800 ram GA-P35-DS3L Intel mobo I'm using Haali/ffdshow and for video settings I seem to have: Post processing with automatic quality control turned on Deband at 1.2 Blur & NR with gradual denoise - 40 The settings don't even seem to be that bad, and from looking at my CPU usage it hovers around 60-65%. Beyond using CoreAVC, what are my options to play this smoothly?
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Nov 20, 2008 02:14
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That's pretty odd since it plays fine on my htpc which has an E8500 in it using ffdshow(no postprocessing). If everything else plays fine, I really wouldn't worry about it much. That clip is badly encoded and also a ridiculously high bitrate.
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Nov 20, 2008 02:24
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evilalien posted:That's pretty odd since it plays fine on my htpc which has an E8500 in it using ffdshow(no postprocessing). If everything else plays fine, I really wouldn't worry about it much. That clip is badly encoded and also a ridiculously high bitrate. Looking at it some more, what really stutters is more the audio. The zoom is slow enough and the birds small enough that I can't really tell if the video is stuttering. It might be the audio is making me think the video is starting to stutter too. Would my use of integrated audio be a part of the problem? Just checked the video statistics through MPC. I'm apparently getting ~15.5fps, 0 dropped frames, and a jitter of about 25-30 ms. I don't fully understand it, but it doesn't seem very good considering the video is supposed to be 24fps, and this attempt was with all post processing settings off. I mainly started doing this because another 1080p video had slight audio desyncing after a while, and I had to "reset" the playback to resync them again.
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Nov 20, 2008 02:46
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blahz posted:Looking at it some more, what really stutters is more the audio. The zoom is slow enough and the birds small enough that I can't really tell if the video is stuttering. It might be the audio is making me think the video is starting to stutter too. Would my use of integrated audio be a part of the problem? That makes it sound more like an audio codec issue than anything else. I'd try updating all relevant codecs (probably just ffdshow).
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Nov 20, 2008 03:17
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Can somebody recommend me a case, motherboard, and CPU for a system that will play 1080p content? Like everybody else, I'm looking for something cheap. Here is my currently system that seems to play 1080p content just fine: * Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe * Opteron 160/165 (not sure) * 2 GB RAM * nVidia 8400 (not sure, but it supports HDCP and DirectX acceleration for HD content) * Vista MCE It seems to play everything (including 1080p content but I haven't tried crazy stuff like the killa sample) but I'm thinking about repurposing this box as a home server and buying new equipment for a new HTPC. So, what is the cheapest CPU that I could get away with for 1080p content assuming my video card supports DirectX acceleration? Also, what is a nice looking (and cheap) case for a HTPC? I'd like to someday add a BluRay drive and I'd also like something thin and perhaps in black  I can probably find a motherboard easy enough but any recommendations would still be greatly appriciated!
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Nov 21, 2008 13:11
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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130206 http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=Media_Live_DIVA_5.1&class=npc I got my 5 channel on board amp running, I can't believe how good the sound is. I will post a informal review sometime later this week but this is the motherboard to get for the HTPC. I have replaced my receiver now with this motherboard.
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Nov 22, 2008 03:03
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Jorsh posted:Do you have any overscan options? Try messing with that. got new drivers, and tried it in a different HDMI slot (tv has 3) and its now working. woo! The Nvidia desktop resize is the overscan.... looks like the drivers are just flawed. yep, driver issue, tried the hdmi slot it was in originally, and it now works too VTS fucked around with this message at 18:58 on Nov 23, 2008 |
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Nov 23, 2008 18:53
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Kreez posted:I just ordered the Asus P5N7A-VM, which is I believe the first available motherboard using the new nVidia 9300 IGP. Avsforum seems to believe it is more powerful than the G45 boards, and less buggy. If you could please let me know how this mobo worked out for you, as I just ordered one too and I'd love to here some impressions on it.
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Nov 24, 2008 05:59
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cocaine mountain posted:If you could please let me know how this mobo worked out for you, as I just ordered one too and I'd love to here some impressions on it. There have been complaints about the heat of the thing on AVS. When I didn't have any fans running except the stock intel CPU cooler, the heatsink was way too hot to touch. Never crashed though. Now that it's in an actual case though with a fan blowing air around, it's lukewarm, so no issues there. So yeah, I'm not doing anything fancy with it, just streaming 720p stuff over ethernet once every couple days, but it's been flawless.
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Nov 25, 2008 06:27
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xeper posted:edit: or you could just get a Wii-remote and a bluetooth dongle. Could you elaborate more on this? Would it control the mouse? If so, this would be perfect for me... I have an IR remote but sometimes need to get up to get my wireless mouse into range if I need to click 'restart' or something...
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Nov 25, 2008 17:51
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TraderStav posted:Could you elaborate more on this? Would it control the mouse? If so, this would be perfect for me... I have an IR remote but sometimes need to get up to get my wireless mouse into range if I need to click 'restart' or something... Just google for Wiimouse. It's a bit of a pain to get setup, and it kept blue screening my XP Pro install (and it won't work well on vista if at all), but it's definitely doable and pretty neat too.
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Nov 25, 2008 20:32
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So I've been out of the loop for awhile. Let's say one wants to build a very quiet, very powerful, very low power usage machine, and most importantly somewhat low cost machine. What are the best cpu/board/ram combos to look at? Decoding 1080p is a definite requirement, not so much games though.
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Nov 26, 2008 15:32
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Without telling us what you mean by all that, you could be asking for the holy grail. The first suggestion is to pick 3 of the 4 requirements you list. Relax your requirements somewhat (that is, a few less "very"s) and you might have a starting point to work from.
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Nov 27, 2008 00:39
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Rereading I suppose it is a bit vague, sorry about that. ~ $300 for cpu/mobo(onboard vid, preferably hdmi)/ram - able to decode 1080p - quiet as all hell
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Nov 27, 2008 01:10
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EC posted:Rereading I suppose it is a bit vague, sorry about that. You could even throw in a lower powered E2xxx CPU, since the G45 should be able to handle everything on it's own. If you're not quite as anal as that, pairing a G45 or an nVidia 9300 chipset with an ancient LGA775 CPU someone has lying around is much cheaper (and what I did!) and works just as well for strictly decoding. The old Pentiums run really hot, and the 9300 runs hotter than the G45 (though it's more powerful at DXVA) so cooling would probably need to be a bit noisier.
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Nov 27, 2008 04:29
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Nvidia recently announced the release of the Video Decode and Presentation API for Unix. Essentially, it allows for offloading of MPEG1/MPEG2/x264/VC1 decoding to the GPU. http://http.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/vdpau/doxygen/html/index.html There is already a patch in the trunk of MythTV to enable VDPAU output support, and there is work being done in mplayer/libavcodec as well. There have been reports from people that their CPU usage on decoding high-bitrate x264 content going down to as low as 5-10%! Obviously the nvidia drivers as well as the software implementations are very early on at the moment, but it looks promising If you are considering going towards a linux-based HTPC platform, this is a good reason to do so. You can get passively-cooled nvidia 8300 cards for like 30 bucks. Paired with a low-power cpu/mobo combo, you can build out a low-cost, low-noise box that will be powerful enough to handle HD content, which until now has been only in the realm of C2Duo or better hardware. http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=13109 http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=123095
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Dec 1, 2008 01:34
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Unless the card based 8300s are just like the 8300s built into mainboards, I would strongly go with something 8600gt based or better. While my 8300 mainboard is fine with 1080p, a similar system with an 8500gt struggled with deinterlacing content unless it was SD content. I had to resort to using ffdshow to force software deinterlacing, which drove processor usage through the roof. I later moved up to a 9600gt and it was golden, but a 8600gt should be just as good. If you are looking for quiet, an 8300 mainboard, any X2 processor should be good. I have a Phenom 8650 in mines and its complete overkill. The only time you need a phenom in a htpc is if you are going to use a 780g based board as it provides better post processing support due to a bigger ht bus.
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Dec 1, 2008 17:50
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How does this build look? $ 69.99 APEVIA Black SECC Steel / Aluminum X-MASTER-BK/500 ATX Media Center / HTPC Case - Retail $ 82.99 Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80571E5200 - Retail $119.99 ASUS P5N7A-VM LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 9300/nForce 730i HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $ 21.99 Kingston 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory Model KVR800D2N5/2G - Retail $ 99.99 Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31000340AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM $ 24.99 SAMSUNG 22X DVD Burner Black SATA Model SH-S223F - OEM Total: $420  I'm mostly going to use this for traditional media playback on a 720p TV. It'd be nice if it was future proofed to handle 1080p/Bluray down the road. I'm looking to keep it around $500, so this is really good for me. One concern is the combo mobo/graphics card. I want to use XMBC for this, which doesn't offload processing to the GPU (yet), so an especially bulky card doesn't matter. Will that CPU be enough or should I go with a higher model? Also, should I get my own heat sink/fan for the CPU? edit: Bumping to the E8400 be another $80, so it'd be $500 total. I'll likely do that. Randomosity fucked around with this message at 17:21 on Dec 2, 2008 |
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Dec 2, 2008 16:38
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Randomosity posted:How does this build look? I have the exact case and my only regret is that since it doesn't fit in my media center it is hidden behind it.  Splurge and get the E8400. Can't speak to the motherboard but i'm sure it's fine.
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Dec 2, 2008 16:59
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TraderStav posted:I have the exact case and my only regret is that since it doesn't fit in my media center it is hidden behind it. With XBMC in it's current state, the E5200 is borderline for 1080p content. I suspect you might run into dropped frames on higher bitrate stuff. 720p won't be a problem at all. Randomosity, if you can swing the upgrade to a E8400, it is pretty much guaranteed to run anything in XBMC.
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Dec 2, 2008 17:10
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If you do go for the E8400, there's not really any point in paying extra for the motherboard, since it's capabilities (though not it's heat output!) will go unused. Unless you plan on doing DVR stuff or whatever, which you didn't mention in your post.
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Dec 2, 2008 18:15
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