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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > The HTPC Thread - Dont buy an HTPC
 
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lignicolos
Dec 6, 2001

 I have a question about video output. I built a HTPC using an nvidia 7600gt video card connected to my TV via component. I do not have an HDTV but a regular SDTV. My problem is that I could not figure out a video resolution that looked good on my TV.

XBMC on my xbox outputs at 720x480 on component and looks great (for non-hd), so I attempted to set my HTPC to that res, and it looks like rear end. Also, I couldn't figure out a way for it to take up the whole screen per say, there was a lot of black area around the edges, yet my xbox doesn't have this probem. What is the xbox doing to its video output that my HTPC won't do?

* # ¿ Mar 22, 2007 06:05
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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 16:55
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lignicolos
Dec 6, 2001

Heners_UK posted:

Ok all, I'm specing out my HTPC (and storage solution as well for that matter). To make life easy, the nitty gritty of it is here in spreadsheet glory: http://j.mp/oVZr3W

Total price is higher than I would like at $499

I'm basing it around the Zotac ZBOX-ID41-U (Zotac's Product Page - NCIX's Product Page).

My main question is around that Intel Atom D525 Processor and NVIDIA ION GPU, I've been reading the horror stories in the thread, but for every one I have plenty of people saying the opposite. Are we reasonably certain it will do 1080p playback?

Second question, anyone actually have a Zotac box and want to reflect on your experience?

Third, and I feel very relevant question, do you think the approach of having a large amount of external storage like that is a good thing? I'm not finding having a separate NAS as useful, as I'm still using uTorrent for downloads, and there's nothing I do on the NAS that a properly configured Win 7 box can't do... I may as well consolidate both... is there something I'm not considering?

I have a Zotac ZBoxhd-nd22 and I'm really happy with it. I run Win 7 Ultimate x64 and it has no problems playing 720p and 1080p content as long as the ION is doing the decoding. I use xbmc for this. Since flash has hardware acceleration now, YouTube content plays just fine too.

I also run my torrent, usenet, and other file-sharing programs on it. I have a 1TB USB2 drive hooked up to it that I keep all my media on.

I tried the xbmc live disc one time, and it's performance was even better than what i'm getting under windows. I've considered installing Ubuntu and seeing if xbmc performs better under it, but my external is NTFS and I don't know how well ubuntu would support reading and writing to it.

* # ¿ Jul 18, 2011 03:39
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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Inspect Your Gadgets > The HTPC Thread - Dont buy an HTPC