I don't see a difference in video playback between Pentium DC 5200, Core 2 Duo E7xxx and E8xxx. Check this post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=15194709#post15194709). If you can afford, E8400 is a good choice. Similary 2GB memory is enough for a pure HTPC, but you can choose 4GB.

Thanks for the reply. Reading in that thread you state that the E5200 is not good for encoding. Would the E8xxx series be better or should I opt for a quad core? Not that I will do alot of encoding but I may want to put some of my kids movies on the disk so they don't kill the originals.

Thanks for the reply. Reading in that thread you state that the E5200 is not good for encoding. Would the E8xxx series be better or should I opt for a quad core? Not that I will do alot of encoding but I may want to put some of my kids movies on the disk so they don't kill the originals.

I doubt it's "not good" for encoding... What he probably means is that it's not as performant as the other one.. (i.e. takes some more time to do the job), but for ocasional encondig it's more than enough I think....

I just built my first HTPC (and computer in general) and thanks to all the info here, I successfully built it. I have a few small problems that I am discovering as I go. When I listen to music in iTunes, the audio seems to do something that I don't know how to explain. At the beginning of each song AND at times when the music slows then starts up hard again, the volume goes noticeably up and then it seems as if the computer brings the volume back down to the normal level. My system specs:

-Asus 780g MicroAtx M3A78 EM Motherboard which has Radeon HD Audio and HD3200 on board
-AMD 5000+ 2.6 Ghz Brisbane
-4GB Crucial DDR2
-1.5 TB Seagate

Any ideas? Thanks!

Hello all, I was wondering if someone can provide insight into my first HTPC venture. I'm saying goodbye to my Oppo DV-983H and was wondering what kind of DVD playback I can expect from my HTPC. The graphics card i'll be using is a Sapphire 100265L Radeon HD 4830 512MB 256-bit connected to a Pioneer PDP-5010 plasma display. I also couldn't find any information on the 4830 outputting 1080p24 for DVD playback. Any idea on the video processing capabilites of these cards? I'm looking for better performance than what my Panasonic BD50 and Xbox 360 currently provide. Thanks in Advance.

Actually you don't have to worry about NB temperature with the Antec case. Please read this post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=15136042#post15136042), and this post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=15279538#post15279538).

- Zalman CNPS8700 LED
- Noctua NH-C12P (only 1 cm clearance; a user posted nice pictures here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=14742238#post14742238) [mb is different] and his advertisement (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=14703295#post14703295).)
Update

Somebody reported this (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=15338887#post15338887). The Zalman cooler is not good for this mb.

Thanks for the reply. Reading in that thread you state that the E5200 is not good for encoding. Would the E8xxx series be better or should I opt for a quad core? Not that I will do alot of encoding but I may want to put some of my kids movies on the disk so they don't kill the originals.
Ripping DVDs without transcoding does not require CPU power. If you want to transcode, say from MPEG-2 to H.264, then I recommend a quad-core (twice faster than dual-core), otherwise a dual-core is enough.

Ripping DVDs without transcoding does not require CPU power. If you want to transcode, say from MPEG-2 to H.264, then I recommend a quad-core (twice faster than dual-core), otherwise a dual-core is enough.

Encoding and Transcoding can be two different things, you can transcode with Transcode 360 or Vader's Transcoder in Vista Media Center on the fly to play back DVD Vob's on the extenders. This does hit the CPU but I've had both running on a laptop with an Intel Celeron M !!

If you want to encode files manually say from Blu-ray to MKV or VOB to WMV or something like that then you would be better off with a quad core CPU.

If you rip your DVD's to MPEG2 or re-mux them to a DVR-MS container, then Media Center and the extenders natively will playback MPEG2 / DVR-MS. That's assuming your using Windows Media Center ?

If my memory serves me correctly, that model had issues reading dual layer discs so they quit production of it. Newegg has had a good deal on the LG GGC-H20L drive making it not much more expensive than the Lite-On DH-401S-08. I was able to get mine for $99 a couple days ago. Haven't tried it yet, but reviews for it are good.
Thanks for the help - I've put one on order - it was more like $120 @ Newegg now, but still cheaper than anywhere else. Here's hoping to play BluRays again!

(Thanks to renethx for confirming this too - sorry, haven't figured out how to multi-quote yet)

Encoding and Transcoding can be two different things, you can transcode with Transcode 360 or Vader's Transcoder in Vista Media Center on the fly to play back DVD Vob's on the extenders. This does hit the CPU but I've had both running on a laptop with an Intel Celeron M !!

If you want to encode files manually say from Blu-ray to MKV or VOB to WMV or something like that then you would be better off with a quad core CPU.

If you rip your DVD's to MPEG2 or re-mux them to a DVR-MS container, then Media Center and the extenders natively will playback MPEG2 / DVR-MS. That's assuming your using Windows Media Center ?
Yep, the term "transcoding" is used in a variety of meanings (check Transcode at Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcode) :)). In one sense (as in my previous post) it involves decoding the original data to an intermediate format (i.e. PCM for audio or YUV for video) and then encoding the resulting file into the target format. This process usually takes a very long time (so I recommend a quad-core for this purpose).

"Ripping" is different. It's just copying audio or video content to a hard disk (with or without transcoding/re-encoding). Ripping without transcoding/re-encoding is relatively easy for any processor and finishes quickly.

BD to MKV many people are doing is just ripping/demuxing video and audio in HDD without transcoding video (but perhaps transcoding HD audio format to FLAC) and remuxing them into mkv (takes < 2 hours).

Are there any mobos for AMD AM2 that support HD audio AND video via onboard HDMI? I want a HTPC system that has minimum cables coming out, and currently, every other piece in my system (Receiver, TV, PS3, DVD) uses only HDMI.

Thanks!

Hello all, I was wondering if someone can provide insight into my first HTPC venture. I'm saying goodbye to my Oppo DV-983H and was wondering what kind of DVD playback I can expect from my HTPC. The graphics card i'll be using is a Sapphire 100265L Radeon HD 4830 512MB 256-bit connected to a Pioneer PDP-5010 plasma display. I also couldn't find any information on the 4830 outputting 1080p24 for DVD playback. Any idea on the video processing capabilites of these cards? I'm looking for better performance than what my Panasonic BD50 and Xbox 360 currently provide. Thanks in Advance.

Bumb...

Anyone have any DVD playback experience with these cards? I want to pull the trigger on this system today :D. Just for kicks, I attached my notebook PC to my home theater last night via HDMI and output the resolution to 1920 x 1080. My notebook uses a Radeon HD3650. I was surprised by the PQ, it was noticeably better than my Xbox 360, it looked remarkeably close to my Oppo 983. It was really late at night so I didn't have time to run an ABT test disc or any other torture tests.

All these tweaks assume you use the ATI DVI-HDMI adapter. Colorspace/levels may be different between the ATI dongle and a generic dongle.

Ok, I now have it setup with the mfg supplied DVI-HDMI dongle and HDMI cable to my TV. Now "Pixel Format" shows up as a selectable option in CCC. Now I'm confused because the colorspace descriptions don't directly match what we're talking about. There are 4 settings:

YCbCr 4:4:4 Pixel Format
YCbCr 4:2:2 Pixel Format
RGB 4:4:4 Pixel Format Studio (Limited RGB)
RGB 4:4:4 Pixel Format PC Standard (Full RGB)

So - I'm expecting I should set it to YCbCr -- but what does the 4:4:4 -vs- 4:2:2 mean? Which would you expect I should use?

I'm looking to build a cheap pure playback HTPC.

My current gaming PC is
E8400
2g ram
GA-EP35C-DS3R motherboard
Diamond HD4850

I have been using this as my HTPC but want to move it down to an office. It also has a Silverstone DS351? 5 drive raid server w/ 5 1TB drives. I also have 3 extra 1TB drives.

I would like to be able to put the 3 1TB drives and the silicon image raid card that controls the DS351 in the new HTPC and be able to play HD video.

So I'm looking for a mobo w/ optical audio out, an IGP w/ HDMI out the ability to raid 3 1TB drives and run the additional silicon image card for the DS351.

Don't need a case or dvd, just CPU, power supply, mobo and ram.

Will be running purely MediaPortal using the integrated LC10M IR in conjunction with the SoundGraph Imon IR controlling software w/ harmony remote.

Here is what I plan to buy:

Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 Wolfdale 2.8GHz
Scythe SCMNJ-1000 80mm Sleeve "NINJA MINI" CPU Cooler
GIGABYTE GA-E7AUM-DS2H LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 9400
A-DATA 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB
AVerMedia AVerTV Combo PCIe
LG Black Blu-ray/HD DVD-ROM & 16x
Antec Fusion Remote Black

Software:

Mediaportal
PowerDVD

Main uses are:

Watch bluray movies
Back up bluray to mkv or iso (no encoding)
Watch/record tv with comcast qam (I just have basic cable)
Watch all my old dvds stored on network drive

Questions:

Will I be able to passively cool the cpu? I’d like this to be as quite as possible.
This will be my first experience with bluray in an htpc, and I just want to make sure that this system will be able to back up blurays in a reasonable amount of time (1-2 hrs).
I have an Onkyo sr606. Based on everything I’ve read, my understanding is that 7.1 channel lpcm via hdmi will be no problem…just want to make sure.
Any other potential problems?

Thanks

I just built my first HTPC (and computer in general) and thanks to all the info here, I successfully built it. I have a few small problems that I am discovering as I go. When I listen to music in iTunes, the audio seems to do something that I don't know how to explain. At the beginning of each song AND at times when the music slows then starts up hard again, the volume goes noticeably up and then it seems as if the computer brings the volume back down to the normal level. My system specs:

-Asus 780g MicroAtx M3A78 EM Motherboard which has Radeon HD Audio and HD3200 on board
-AMD 5000+ 2.6 Ghz Brisbane
-4GB Crucial DDR2
-1.5 TB Seagate

Any ideas? Thanks!

Sorry to bump, but I've Googled this and couldn't find anything. Thanks!

I come across this 2008 Gpu guide at anandtech and in that article it mention that for 1080p24hz playback, geforce 9500 is better than ati 4670. If I want to use my HTPC to play HD recorded tv broadcast and blue ray, does it mean that it is better to get nvidia 9500? I'm really confused about this. Are all HD content need to played at 24hz? Here is the link to the article:

http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=3479

Ok, I now have it setup with the mfg supplied DVI-HDMI dongle and HDMI cable to my TV. Now "Pixel Format" shows up as a selectable option in CCC. Now I'm confused because the colorspace descriptions don't directly match what we're talking about. There are 4 settings:

YCbCr 4:4:4 Pixel Format
YCbCr 4:2:2 Pixel Format
RGB 4:4:4 Pixel Format Studio (Limited RGB)
RGB 4:4:4 Pixel Format PC Standard (Full RGB)

So - I'm expecting I should set it to YCbCr -- but what does the 4:4:4 -vs- 4:2:2 mean? Which would you expect I should use?
CCC shows only the color spaces the display supports, and usually (but not in every case) the display automatically changes color space according to the video signal. n:n of 4:n:n indicates chroma subsampling. A brief explanation is here (http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=chroma+subsampling&i=57460,00.asp). Prior 8.11, there was no color space choice and only YCbCr 4:4:4 was sent with the ATI dongle.

Are there any mobos for AMD AM2 that support HD audio AND video via onboard HDMI? I want a HTPC system that has minimum cables coming out, and currently, every other piece in my system (Receiver, TV, PS3, DVD) uses only HDMI.
GeForce 8200/8300 is the only IGP for AMD that supports multichannel LPCM overh HDMI. Bitstreaming Dolby TrueHD/DTS-HD Master Audio is not supported.

Bumb...

Anyone have any DVD playback experience with these cards? I want to pull the trigger on this system today :D. Just for kicks, I attached my notebook PC to my home theater last night via HDMI and output the resolution to 1920 x 1080. My notebook uses a Radeon HD3650. I was surprised by the PQ, it was noticeably better than my Xbox 360, it looked remarkeably close to my Oppo 983. It was really late at night so I didn't have time to run an ABT test disc or any other torture tests.
I don't own 4830, but perhaps you can expect the same PQ as 3650/4670/4850.

oops... never mind

I'm looking to build a cheap pure playback HTPC.

My current gaming PC is
E8400
2g ram
GA-EP35C-DS3R motherboard
Diamond HD4850

I have been using this as my HTPC but want to move it down to an office. It also has a Silverstone DS351? 5 drive raid server w/ 5 1TB drives. I also have 3 extra 1TB drives.

I would like to be able to put the 3 1TB drives and the silicon image raid card that controls the DS351 in the new HTPC and be able to play HD video.

So I'm looking for a mobo w/ optical audio out, an IGP w/ HDMI out the ability to raid 3 1TB drives and run the additional silicon image card for the DS351.

Don't need a case or dvd, just CPU, power supply, mobo and ram.

Will be running purely MediaPortal using the integrated LC10M IR in conjunction with the SoundGraph Imon IR controlling software w/ harmony remote.
Basically any system at page 85 should good for your purpose except for a couple of mbs (ASUS M3N78 PRO, M3N72-D that lacks an optical S/PDIF port). Do you need onboard RAID 5? MicroATX mb or ATX mb (for lots of expansion cards)? In general a discrete graphics card is better than IGP.

Will I be able to passively cool the cpu? I’d like this to be as quite as possible.

I have an Onkyo sr606. Based on everything I’ve read, my understanding is that 7.1 channel lpcm via hdmi will be no problem…just want to make sure.
Any other potential problems?
Passive cooling is no problem. A good system.

I come across this 2008 Gpu guide at anandtech and in that article it mention that for 1080p24hz playback, geforce 9500 is better than ati 4670. If I want to use my HTPC to play HD recorded tv broadcast and blue ray, does it mean that it is better to get nvidia 9500? I'm really confused about this. Are all HD content need to played at 24hz? Here is the link to the article:

http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=3479
You are not required to play movies at 24Hz, although 24Hz is the natural refresh rate for movies shot at 24fps (actually most movies). Quite a few people don't see the difference between 60Hz and 24Hz.

CCC shows only the color spaces the display supports, and usually (but not in every case) the display automatically changes color space according to the video signal. n:n of 4:n:n indicates chroma subsampling. A brief explanation is here (http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=chroma+subsampling&i=57460,00.asp). Prior 8.11, there was no color space choice and only YCbCr 4:4:4 was sent with the ATI dongle.

This alone makes the 4xxx series cards worth the price of admission. :)

Does the EVGA 113-YW-E115-TR support DTS Connect/DD Live? Can anyone confirm or deny it?

It's official, I prefer the PQ of the HD3650 outputting from my notebook PC over that of my Oppo DV-983. I don't understand how this is possible. Wow, I can't wait until my new build is complete, I'm excited to see what the 4830 can do. The 4830 also supports 7.1 over hdmi (dongle). This is sooo much fun :).

I still haven't run any tests discs, my observations were done by the naked eye.

This is not a real big concern of mine, but something that if I could do for a reasonable cost would be nice to have.:cool:

My main display (Sharp LC-45GX6U) only accepts a resolution of 1920x1080@60p. I have DirecTV and they have started making 1920x1080@24p material available.

Is there a reasonably priced card that I could add to an HTPC that would take a component, DVI or HDMI input at 1080 24p and through some software program scale it to 1080 60p on the fly?

thanks,
Murray

This is not a real big concern of mine, but something that if I could do for a reasonable cost would be nice to have.:cool:

My main display (Sharp LC-45GX6U) only accepts a resolution of 1920x1080@60p. I have DirecTV and they have started making 1920x1080@24p material available.

Is there a reasonably priced card that I could add to an HTPC that would take a component, DVI or HDMI input at 1080 24p and through some software program scale it to 1080 60p on the fly?
If the content is encrypted, perhaps there is no way to do so. Otherwise, check here (http://www.google.com/search?q=site:www.avsforum.com+HDMI+capture).

I want the thank renethx for all of the input he has put into this, and other, threads. With just a couple of variations of his recommended system, here is the system that I'm having shipped to my house:

Antec New Solution NSK2480 Black/Silver
A-DATA 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Scythe SCMNJ-1000 80mm Sleeve "NINJA MINI" CPU Cooler - Retail
AMD Athlon X2 4850e 2.5GHz Socket AM2 45W Dual-Core Processor Model ADH4850DOBOX - Retail
LITE-ON Black 4X Blu-ray DVD ROM SATA Model DH-4O1S-08 - Retail
GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2HP AM2+/AM2 AMD 780G HDMI Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
HIS Hightech H467QT512P Radeon HD 4670 IceQ Turbo 512MB

I went with the Antec 2480 case, in order to get the 4670, instead of the 4550. The main reason for this is my concern for gettting the best SD playback I can get. I also wish there was an option on the case for a black front, rather than silver. My other components are black. I guess if it really bothers me, I could try painting the front black (if anyone has suggestions on doing this, or has done this before, please let me know).

I also went with the Antec 2480 instead of the Fusion, because I've already dealt with a case that had a touch screen. That ended up being a waste of money (the OrigenAE X15e). Once I upgraded to Vista, I couldn't even get the touch screen drivers to work. I didn't put much effort into this, though, since I rarely if ever used the touch screen. I know the Antec Fusion doesn't have a touch screen, but the VFD display and the "volume" knob. But from what I read, the display is too bright, and once you get down to it, you're rarely ever going to use the VFD or knob.

As you can see, I decided to go with a Blu Ray player. I'm crossing my fingers on this, since I've been reading recent reports of the Lite-on having problems. And, I have no Blu-Ray discs (currently) to even try this out. I'll have to borrow some friends discs to see whether I wasted the extra $70+ for a supposedly better picture.

As a final note, I just hope that my cable company doesn't go to SDV anytime soon. Another incompatible (with Vista) technology that just throws a wrench into an otherwise nice workable system.

Hi I've been luking in this thread for over a month learning a great deal and I'm finally ready to make the plunge on my first HTPC.

I’d like to create a system that can play Blu Ray, upscaled DVD and 1080i home video (from Cannon HV20) on my Samsung 52” A650 LCD TV. Currently have a Sony receiver that can accept surround sound via digital or optical input. I plan on ripping the Blue Ray and DVD’s to hard disk and playing via Media Player Classic.

No gaming on this system but I would like to use it for video editing / encoding so I’m willing to up the CPU specs to help this. The unit will live in my living room so low noise is a consideration and available space limits me to the mini ATX form factor.

I was leaning towards a mid range system based on Core 2 Duo E7400/E8500, ASUS P5Q-EM and HIS H467QT512P Radeon HD 4670 due to it’s ability to handle Blu Ray and post processing well. I have a few questions on the mid range systems.


1) Since my receiver can only accept Dolby Digital sound is there any reason to consider a GeForce 9400/9500 GT based system? It seems like the main reason to go 9400/9500 over a Radeon HD 46XX system is for 7.1 sound output via HDMI.

2) If I got a newer receiver in the future and went with a non NVIDIA system is my only option to support TrueHD/ DTS HD to add a sound card?

3) If I went with a faster CPU does that negate the need for the HD 4670 or is the onboard video not going to look good even with a better CPU?

4) Any reason to favor Intel vs AMD or is this just a personal preference?

Ok, so we decided on the components for our htpc. My buddy already built his, and was installing some software. One of the progs. he installed was Power DVD. Turns out that we can't play HD-DVD discs with that, as from what I found, they removed support for it... So... what can I use for HD-DVD playback?? :confused:

I want the thank renethx for all of the input he has put into this...

I would like to thank him as well, I work in the Home Theater industry and know a great deal about that side of things but was feeling a little uneasy about stepping into the HTPC world, atleast until I found this thread. Thanks renethx!! I'm now building a Multimedia/HTPC to mate with our HT system. It isn't my first build but I've never built one for this purpose. I needed a central place for my wife and I to store our music, photos and home videos. For work/hobby purposes, I also need reference quality DVD playback for screening, that's why I've been making such a big deal about DVD playback.

Here's what's on it's way:

APEVIA Black Aluminum X-MASTER-BL HTPC Case W/500W Power Supply
OCZ Fatal1ty Edition 8GB (4x2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
GIGABYTE GA-MA770-DS3P AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard (Optical out, Coaxial out, 8 Channels of Audio)
AMD Phenom 8750 Toliman 2.4GHz Triple Core Processor
XIGMATEK EP-CD901 92mm Sleeve CPU Cooler
SAPPHIRE 100265L Radeon HD 4830 (HDCP & 7.1 Audio)
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD753LJ 750GB
nMEDIAPC HTPCKB-B - Wireless Mini Keyboard with Track Ball & Remote
SAMSUNG DVD Burner with LightScribe (Blu-ray already in HT System)
ASUS Black 18X DVD-ROM SATA DVD-ROM Drive
Nippon Labs ICR-BB All-in-one USB +eSATA Card Reader
Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-950Q hybrid video recorder
Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit

I have been a part of many threads and this one is very well laid out and very informative. Well done renethx. If my 4830 has a hard time sending 7.1 to my Denon 3808CI I'll drop you a line :).

Basically any system at page 85 should good for your purpose except for a couple of mbs (ASUS M3N78 PRO, M3N72-D that lacks an optical S/PDIF port). Do you need onboard RAID 5? MicroATX mb or ATX mb (for lots of expansion cards)? In general a discrete graphics card is better than IGP.

How many posts per page are you set at (since for me this thread ends on page 84 :D).

I would prefer onboard raid 5 but it isnt' absolutely necessary (I can leave my 3 extra 1TB drives in my gaming PC downstairs which has onboard Raid 5 and just access them through the network.)

The case to be used is a silverstone LC10m which takes a regular ATX board I believe.

As for discrete vs integrated I just want to put out video over HDMI and audio over optical. If the onboard processor is enough to handle HD video that would be fine with me.

I've got my gaming computer for advanced tasks.

I'm looking at the A-Data 2gb / EVGA 113-YW w/ integrated 9300 HDMI and E5200 combo ($240 total on newegg).

How much power supply do I need? Can I get by with a $20 Antec 350W power supply?

I would like to get by on about $300 w/ the above parts and the tower case + CPU.

I’d like to create a system that can play Blu Ray, upscaled DVD and 1080i home video (from Cannon HV20) on my Samsung 52” A650 LCD TV. Currently have a Sony receiver that can accept surround sound via digital or optical input. I plan on ripping the Blue Ray and DVD’s to hard disk and playing via Media Player Classic.

No gaming on this system but I would like to use it for video editing / encoding so I’m willing to up the CPU specs to help this. The unit will live in my living room so low noise is a consideration and available space limits me to the mini ATX form factor.

I was leaning towards a mid range system based on Core 2 Duo E7400/E8500, ASUS P5Q-EM and HIS H467QT512P Radeon HD 4670 due to it’s ability to handle Blu Ray and post processing well. I have a few questions on the mid range systems.


1) Since my receiver can only accept Dolby Digital sound is there any reason to consider a GeForce 9400/9500 GT based system? It seems like the main reason to go 9400/9500 over a Radeon HD 46XX system is for 7.1 sound output via HDMI.

2) If I got a newer receiver in the future and went with a non NVIDIA system is my only option to support TrueHD/ DTS HD to add a sound card?

3) If I went with a faster CPU does that negate the need for the HD 4670 or is the onboard video not going to look good even with a better CPU?

4) Any reason to favor Intel vs AMD or is this just a personal preference?
HD 4xxx also supports 7.1 audio over HDMI.

- 9400 or 9500 GT: guaranteed (?) 24p playback
- HD 4670: better post-processing

Currently there is no solution for bitstreaming TrueHD/DTS-HD MA except the two HDMI sound cards.

PQ and CPU are irrelevant. A more powerful CPU does encoding faster. Check a x264 HD Benchmark result here (http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Reviews/Print.aspx?ArticleId=24211). A problem of the current AMD quad/triple core processors is high power consumption. Phenom II 45nm is released on January 8, 2009, which is better in this regard (and faster of course).

Ok, so we decided on the components for our htpc. My buddy already built his, and was installing some software. One of the progs. he installed was Power DVD. Turns out that we can't play HD-DVD discs with that, as from what I found, they removed support for it... So... what can I use for HD-DVD playback?? :confused:
PowerDVD 7.3 and TMT. Or hack PowerDVD 8 (?; here (http://www.google.com/search?q=%22powerDVD+8%22+%22HD+DVD%22+vista)).

I would prefer onboard raid 5 but it isnt' absolutely necessary (I can leave my 3 extra 1TB drives in my gaming PC downstairs which has onboard Raid 5 and just access them through the network.)

The case to be used is a silverstone LC10m which takes a regular ATX board I believe.

As for discrete vs integrated I just want to put out video over HDMI and audio over optical. If the onboard processor is enough to handle HD video that would be fine with me.

I've got my gaming computer for advanced tasks.

I'm looking at the A-Data 2gb / EVGA 113-YW w/ integrated 9300 HDMI and E5200 combo ($240 total on newegg).

How much power supply do I need? Can I get by with a $20 Antec 350W power supply?

I would like to get by on about $300 w/ the above parts and the tower case + CPU.
Yep, 350W is enough.

PowerDVD 7.3 and TMT. Or hack PowerDVD 8 (?; here (http://www.google.com/search?q=%22powerDVD+8%22+%22HD+DVD%22+vista)).

Thanks for the reply! I've seen Windvd 9 plus + bluray that also supports both formats. Is that not too good?

On the first response, why is it pdvd 7.3 AND TMT?

Thanks!!!

Thanks for the reply! I've seen Windvd 9 plus + bluray that also supports both formats. Is that not too good?

On the first response, why is it pdvd 7.3 AND TMT?
WinDVD is fine.

"or" is the correct conjunction.

renethx, does the Radeon 4000 series support DTS/DD with the included drivers/software or is additional software required? Thanks in advance.

renethx, does the Radeon 4000 series support DTS/DD with the included drivers/software or is additional software required? Thanks in advance.
DD/DTS is supported with the ATI HDMI Audio driver supplied by Realtek. What you need is just set up your audio decoder correctly.

DD/DTS is supported with the ATI HDMI Audio driver supplied by Realtek. What you need is just set up your audio decoder correctly.

Sounds easy enough, thanks.

HD 4xxx also supports 7.1 audio over HDMI.

- 9400 or 9500 GT: guaranteed (?) 24p playback
- HD 4670: better post-processing



At the moment I have mainly DVD so SD PQ is important. How is the PQ of SD on 9400/9500 GT - as good as a decent DVD player?

Phenom II 45nm is released on January 8, 2009, which is better in this regard (and faster of course).

Looks like the Phenom II imay not be generally available till at least Feb. Do you know if this will work with existing motherboards?

At the moment I have mainly DVD so SD PQ is important. How is the PQ of SD on 9400/9500 GT - as good as a decent DVD player?

Looks like the Phenom II imay not be generally available till at least Feb. Do you know if this will work with existing motherboards?
Yep, 9400/9500 GT offers decent DVD playback, but HD 4670 is better IMO.

Most current mbs work with Phenom II with BIOS update. Check the manufacturer's website for the compatibility with a specific mb.

Newegg has the LITE-ON DH-401S-66 DVD drive (OEM) on a "shell shocker" deal today. Is this a good drive?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106273

Ben

nVidia Cuda and ATI Stream promise vastly improved render times for transcoding video. For those of us accustomed to waiting hours for complex video editing projects to render, this will be a real boon.

Here's a link (http://www.dvhardware.net/article31227.html)to a discussion of the kinds of improvements we may be able to expect with Acrsoft TM, Cyberlink PowerDirector and, I've read elsewhere, Adobe Premiere.

I bought an ATI 4850 card for my HTPC, because I read about this capability some time ago. I haven't had a big video editing project for a while, but the next one should go a lot quicker when it's time to render.

I finished my HTPC and I have been very happy with everything except one item and it is sort of a big one. I have been using a PS3 for BluRay playback until my HTPC could be built. I always thought the image was quite good but I was hoping to improve on it with a HTPC. What has me very surprised is that the PS3 appears to offer better video quality with BluRay movies than the HTPC and based on how I have them connected you would think it would be the other way around. Below are a few details:

HTPC:
Zotac Geforce 9300 mobo
4 gigs of A-data Ram
E8400 Core2Duo processor
Vista Premium
WD 640 gig hard drive

The HTPC uses DVI out directly to my projector (Sanyo PLV70). My screen size is 106". I have to use component out on the PS3 because the projector is not HDCP compliant. I also have to use AnyDVDHD to playback movies on the HTPC for the same reason.

I have used PowerDVD 7.0 and just purchased Arcsoft's TMT. I have adjusted every display setting that I can with the projector as well as nvidia's control panel and still nothing rivals the level of detail being produced by the PS3 watching the same movie. I have Hdw acceleration enabled via TMT. I have all the latest drivers. I am stumped! The gamma and black level and mostly the overall ability to see detail is simply better with the PS3. I have calibrated both inputs and sources with DVDs like Avia but watching the same movie and switching back forth displays a significant difference in quality.

The only thing I can think of that might be the issue but I think it is a long shot is the fact that I am using the onboard video with the Zotac. It doesn't stutter at all and is just as smooth as the PS3. Has anyone seen this type of issue before? Would moving to something like an ATI HD4850 offer better image quality of at least on par with what I'm seeing with the PS3? Any guidance is appreciated.

Hi,

sorry if this question has been asked before. Here is my current situation.

I have a PC desktop and is currently connceted to the tv. I also have several external WD harddrive. My question is can i used my existing components on my PC to build the htpc? and also, can i used my currently external hard drive to build the media server storage? i do plan to used alot of storage space to save my movie files. also, final question, does it have to be two separate system? htpc and media server? could it be combined into one unit? sorry, im total new to this and this is very complicated stuff to me. I appreciated everyone's patient and understanding.

I finished my HTPC and I have been very happy with everything except one item and it is sort of a big one. I have been using a PS3 for BluRay playback until my HTPC could be built. I always thought the image was quite good but I was hoping to improve on it with a HTPC. What has me very surprised is that the PS3 appears to offer better video quality with BluRay movies than the HTPC and based on how I have them connected you would think it would be the other way around. Below are a few details:

HTPC:
Zotac Geforce 9300 mobo
4 gigs of A-data Ram
E8400 Core2Duo processor
Vista Premium
WD 640 gig hard drive

The HTPC uses DVI out directly to my projector (Sanyo PLV70). My screen size is 106". I have to use component out on the PS3 because the projector is not HDCP compliant. I also have to use AnyDVDHD to playback movies on the HTPC for the same reason.

I have used PowerDVD 7.0 and just purchased Arcsoft's TMT. I have adjusted every display setting that I can with the projector as well as nvidia's control panel and still nothing rivals the level of detail being produced by the PS3 watching the same movie. I have Hdw acceleration enabled via TMT. I have all the latest drivers. I am stumped! The gamma and black level and mostly the overall ability to see detail is simply better with the PS3. I have calibrated both inputs and sources with DVDs like Avia but watching the same movie and switching back forth displays a significant difference in quality.

The only thing I can think of that might be the issue but I think it is a long shot is the fact that I am using the onboard video with the Zotac. It doesn't stutter at all and is just as smooth as the PS3. Has anyone seen this type of issue before? Would moving to something like an ATI HD4850 offer better image quality of at least on par with what I'm seeing with the PS3? Any guidance is appreciated.

With a 106" display I would recommend getting a larger video card, the HD4850 or 4870 should fair much better.

I finished my HTPC and I have been very happy with everything except one item and it is sort of a big one. I have been using a PS3 for BluRay playback until my HTPC could be built. I always thought the image was quite good but I was hoping to improve on it with a HTPC. What has me very surprised is that the PS3 appears to offer better video quality with BluRay movies than the HTPC and based on how I have them connected you would think it would be the other way around. Below are a few details:

HTPC:
Zotac Geforce 9300 mobo
4 gigs of A-data Ram
E8400 Core2Duo processor
Vista Premium
WD 640 gig hard drive

The HTPC uses DVI out directly to my projector (Sanyo PLV70). My screen size is 106". I have to use component out on the PS3 because the projector is not HDCP compliant. I also have to use AnyDVDHD to playback movies on the HTPC for the same reason.

I have used PowerDVD 7.0 and just purchased Arcsoft's TMT. I have adjusted every display setting that I can with the projector as well as nvidia's control panel and still nothing rivals the level of detail being produced by the PS3 watching the same movie. I have Hdw acceleration enabled via TMT. I have all the latest drivers. I am stumped! The gamma and black level and mostly the overall ability to see detail is simply better with the PS3. I have calibrated both inputs and sources with DVDs like Avia but watching the same movie and switching back forth displays a significant difference in quality.

The only thing I can think of that might be the issue but I think it is a long shot is the fact that I am using the onboard video with the Zotac. It doesn't stutter at all and is just as smooth as the PS3. Has anyone seen this type of issue before? Would moving to something like an ATI HD4850 offer better image quality of at least on par with what I'm seeing with the PS3? Any guidance is appreciated.

I have a PS3 and 2 HTPCs. As far as I'm concerned, image quality is comparable. I suspect, if you're having problems with brightness and contrast (and thus "picture quality" differences), a Radeon 4850 would go a long way toward resolving your issues. I have 4850s in both my HTPCs. You can set the 4850 to display video or PC levels, whereas most video cards don't allow that. Couple that with HDMI audio and you have a near perfect HTPC solution. Smooth playback of Blu-ray is assured with the 4850.

You can set video output levels in the Catalyst Control Center, version 8.12. Before that version, the 4850 forced video levels if you used the HDMI dongle. It's a great feature on a video card, and long overdue.

I have a PS3 and 2 HTPCs. As far as I'm concerned, image quality is comparable. I suspect, if you're having problems with brightness and contrast (and thus "picture quality" differences), a Radeon 4850 would go a long way toward resolving your issues. I have 4850s in both my HTPCs. You can set the 4850 to display video or PC levels, whereas most video cards don't allow that. Couple that with HDMI audio and you have a near perfect HTPC solution. Smooth playback of Blu-ray is assured with the 4850.

You can set video output levels in the Catalyst Control Center, version 8.12. Before that version, the 4850 forced video levels if you used the HDMI dongle. It's a great feature on a video card, and long overdue.

Thanks Joe.

Does anyone know if the ATI cards can do custom resolutions like 1360 x 768 without installing something like Powerstrip? Nvidia allowed for this some time ago but I'm not sure if ATI did as well.

Hi,

I am planning to build my HTPC soon.. I have a few questions I hope someone can kindly answer:

1) Do I need an add-on sound card, if my motherboard, for example GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD5, supports audio via S/PDIF In/Out port? I noticed the Recommended Systems on page 85 don't have sound cards..

2) What would be a better pick in terms of audio compatibility? I would be using my HTPC mostly for listening to music and watching movies.. I am a little confused after reading the thousands of posts in this forum.
What would be "better" in your opinion, in terms of ease of use and sound quality... the ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series or NVIDIA GeForce 9400 chipset??? Are both using HDMI to output sound, with the actual sound coming from soundcard or motherboard?

3) Since i've been out of the loop, how is Vista Ultimate x64 doing? Would I be better off with the x32?

Right now, I plan for the following setup.. will change this most probably.. any comments?:

Case Antec Fusion Remote Black
PSU Corsair VX450W CMPSU-450VX
CPU INTEL CORE 2 DUO E6750 2.66GHz 4MB L2 CACHE LGA775 1333MHz FSB
Heatsink ASUS P5P2-8M B2W/VR GUARD LGA775 CPU Heatsink
Fan ARCTIC COOLING ACFZ7PRO FREEZER 7 PRO CPU HSF
Memory CORSAIR TWIN2X4096-6400C5 4GB DDR2 2X2GB PC2-6400 DDR2-800 CL 5-5-5-18 240PIN Kit
Graphics Undecided
HDD 1TB Seagate Barracuda
SW Windows Vista Ultimate

Any responses would be highly appreciated.
Happy holidays.

BR//M

Hi,

sorry if this question has been asked before. Here is my current situation.

I have a PC desktop and is currently connceted to the tv. I also have several external WD harddrive. My question is can i used my existing components on my PC to build the htpc? and also, can i used my currently external hard drive to build the media server storage? i do plan to used alot of storage space to save my movie files. also, final question, does it have to be two separate system? htpc and media server? could it be combined into one unit? sorry, im total new to this and this is very complicated stuff to me. I appreciated everyone's patient and understanding.
Whether you can use existing components depends on each component and your goal of HTPC (want to play BD movies, mkv files, SD only etc.). If you need only a couple of HDDs for storage, then one system may be enough. Otherwise you may want a dedicated server.

Hi,

I am planning to build my HTPC soon.. I have a few questions I hope someone can kindly answer:

1) Do I need an add-on sound card, if my motherboard, for example GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD5, supports audio via S/PDIF In/Out port? I noticed the Recommended Systems on page 85 don't have sound cards..

2) What would be a better pick in terms of audio compatibility? I would be using my HTPC mostly for listening to music and watching movies.. I am a little confused after reading the thousands of posts in this forum.
What would be "better" in your opinion, in terms of ease of use and sound quality... the ATI Radeon HD 4800 Series or NVIDIA GeForce 9400 chipset??? Are both using HDMI to output sound, with the actual sound coming from soundcard or motherboard?

3) Since i've been out of the loop, how is Vista Ultimate x64 doing? Would I be better off with the x32?

Right now, I plan for the following setup.. will change this most probably.. any comments?:

Case Antec Fusion Remote Black
PSU Corsair VX450W CMPSU-450VX
CPU INTEL CORE 2 DUO E6750 2.66GHz 4MB L2 CACHE LGA775 1333MHz FSB
Heatsink ASUS P5P2-8M B2W/VR GUARD LGA775 CPU Heatsink
Fan ARCTIC COOLING ACFZ7PRO FREEZER 7 PRO CPU HSF
Memory CORSAIR TWIN2X4096-6400C5 4GB DDR2 2X2GB PC2-6400 DDR2-800 CL 5-5-5-18 240PIN Kit
Graphics Undecided
HDD 1TB Seagate Barracuda
SW Windows Vista Ultimate
Audio requirement depends on your audio system. Let me know details of your system. In general, unless you want bitstreaming new HD audio formats (Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD MA), you don't need a sound card. S/PDIF or HDMI from the mb or the graphics card is enough. An (only) advantage of 64bit OS is that it supports memory > 4GB. In general you find more codecs for Windows Media Center with 32bit for a while (but important only when you want to play every media files within Windows Media Center).

Yep, 9400/9500 GT offers decent DVD playback, but HD 4670 is better IMO.

Most current mbs work with Phenom II with BIOS update. Check the manufacturer's website for the compatibility with a specific mb.


Thanks for the advice. I think I will go for a E8500 based system for the moment and look for a i7 in the future for my encoding needs.

I have already have a PC and want to turn it into a HTPC. Its a mid range build.

Motherboard: Gigabyte DS3L
Proc: E6750 (3.2 GHz)
Video: 8600 GT with dual DVI
Audio: Sp/DIF or coaxial. onboard.

I use Onkyo SR 606 reciever with Polk RM 6750 5.1 Speakers.


Initially I was thinking of building a different HTPC computer and then looking at cables at monoprice I saw these two items below and now I am thinking of using my current PC to power my monitor and TV.

35 Foot DVI to HDMI cable. (http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10231&cs_id=1023102&p_id=2753&seq=1&format=2)

35 Foot Digital Audio Cable. (http://www.monoprice.com/products/product.asp?c_id=102&cp_id=10236&cs_id=1023603&p_id=3976&seq=1&format=2)

I wanted to connect my computer to the TV and the LCD monitor at the same time since I have dual DVI input on the back. I was wondering with such long wires will there be any dropoff in audio or video quality?. Any other recc'd on wires to use that might work better.

I plan on running XBMC on my HTPC setup. Last issue left is how to handle the remote control issue. Any recc'd on any RF remote controls that can work from a different room since the CPU will physically be a room adjacent to the TV.

Or should I buy a long USB wire and a USB port and set that up in the TV room. The longest wire I saw on monoprice was 15ft, is anything longer not feasible?

Any help will be much appreciated.

Thanks.

Audio requirement depends on your audio system. Let me know details of your system. In general, unless you want bitstreaming new HD audio formats (Dolby TrueHD, DTS-HD MA), you don't need a sound card. S/PDIF or HDMI from the mb or the graphics card is enough. An (only) advantage of 64bit OS is that it supports memory > 4GB. In general you find more codecs for Windows Media Center with 32bit for a while (but important only when you want to play every media files within Windows Media Center).

Thanks a lot renethx.. I have been spending the good part of today reading your posts on multiple threads! My setup will be the following:
- Denon 889 AVR (supports TrueHD)
- Energy Take Classic 5.1 Speakers in main zone
- Pair of Energy in Wall speakers in the kitchen, and one in the bathroom.. this will be Zone 2
- Samsung 7series 46"

The setup can be seen here:
http://i39.tinypic.com/1gpz85.jpg

As you can notice from my equipment, I am not the biggest audio buff :) Actually, this will be my first real setup ever. What I would mostly want is a good HTPC to listen to music around the house... watch movies (DVD, Divx, Blu-Ray), but it doesn't have to be the best quality. In any case, from what I have read, True HD is not yet available in HTPC's. I am wondering if one of your Mid-Range HTPC's would be sufficient for my needs... the only issue i'm having is trying to figure out if I should stick with a good MB and use the on-board graphics card, or if I should go with a separate one.

I am really confused as to whether Radeon or GeForce would be better for what I need. I read your thread about using GeForce graphics card with Audio on the GeForce motherboard, but I think that might be overkill for me. Do you think, for what I will be using the HTPC for, to be able to stick to the on-board graphics card on the MB? Would Radeon be a good choice for me?

I don't mind spending a few extra $$$$$ if the end setup will be simpler to set up and easier to use.

Again, I really appreciate all your direct and indirect help :)

BR//M

Thanks a lot renethx.. I have been spending the good part of today reading your posts on multiple threads! My setup will be the following:
- Denon 889 AVR (supports TrueHD)
- Energy Take Classic 5.1 Speakers in main zone
- Pair of Energy in Wall speakers in the kitchen, and one in the bathroom.. this will be Zone 2
- Samsung 7series 46"

The setup can be seen here:
http://i39.tinypic.com/1gpz85.jpg

As you can notice from my equipment, I am not the biggest audio buff :) Actually, this will be my first real setup ever. What I would mostly want is a good HTPC to listen to music around the house... watch movies (DVD, Divx, Blu-Ray), but it doesn't have to be the best quality. In any case, from what I have read, True HD is not yet available in HTPC's. I am wondering if one of your Mid-Range HTPC's would be sufficient for my needs... the only issue i'm having is trying to figure out if I should stick with a good MB and use the on-board graphics card, or if I should go with a separate one.

I am really confused as to whether Radeon or GeForce would be better for what I need. I read your thread about using GeForce graphics card with Audio on the GeForce motherboard, but I think that might be overkill for me. Do you think, for what I will be using the HTPC for, to be able to stick to the on-board graphics card on the MB? Would Radeon be a good choice for me?
If you already own an Intel CPU, then mATX mid-range Intel/Intel is a good system. TrueHD/DTS-HD MA bitstream is already available with a HDMI sound card (ASUS Xonar HDAV1.3). But you'd better wait for the revision of the card (support for 24p) if you want to take this route.

If you already own an Intel CPU, then mATX mid-range Intel/Intel is a good system. TrueHD/DTS-HD MA bitstream is already available with a HDMI sound card (ASUS Xonar HDAV1.3). But you'd better wait for the revision of the card (support for 24p) if you want to take this route.

I don't have a CPU yet :) This is a completely new system. Does this change your recommendations?

I don't have a CPU yet :) This is a completely new system. Does this change your recommendations?
Then AMD/AMD low-end/mid-range is another choice. But Intel 45 nm processer (Pentium Dual-Core E5xxx, Core 2 Duo E7xxx, E8xxx) is the best CPU in performance/power consumption.

Then AMD/AMD low-end/mid-range is another choice. But Intel 45 nm processer (Pentium Dual-Core E5xxx, Core 2 Duo E7xxx, E8xxx) is the best CPU in performance/power consumption.

Ya, I lean more towards the Intel CPU's.
How would the following sound (ATX Intel/Intel Mid-Range):

* CPU: Core 2 Duo E7400 2.80GHz Socket 775, $133.
* CPU Cooler: ZEROtherm BTF90, $35 (after rebate).
* Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3P Intel P45 chipset ATX,
* Memory: A-DATA ADQVE1A16K DDR2-800 2 x 1GB Kit, $25.
* Graphics Card: HIS H467QT512P Radeon HD 4670, $80 (after rebate).
* HDD: Western Digital WD6400AAKS 640GB SATA, $70.
* PSU: Corsair VX450W CMPSU-450VX, $57 (after rebate).
* Case: Antec Fusion Remote Max, $182.

How bad would the graphics be without the graphic card? What if I keep the graphics card and use the S/PDIF Out on the motherboard.. would that be a good option? I never heard an optical out, so I don't know how it would sound in comparison to LPCM.

Ya, I lean more towards the Intel CPU's.
How would the following sound (ATX Intel/Intel Mid-Range):

How bad would the graphics be without the graphic card? What if I keep the graphics card and use the S/PDIF Out on the motherboard.. would that be a good option? I never heard an optical out, so I don't know how it would sound in comparison to LPCM.
That's an excellent system (obviously :)). The mb does not have onboard graphics. S/PDIF supports only stereo LPCM, DD and DTS because of the bandwidth limitation, while HDMI (from the current Radeon HD 4xxx cards) supports multichannel LPCM, DD and DTS. As your AVR supports HDMI, you should use HDMI for both video and audio.

Hi all,

brand new to this whole HTPC thing so I apologize for the newbieness of this post. I had been trolling the web looking to purchase a prefab setup, but google lead me to this exhaustive thread hours ago. I admit, after reading 30 or so pages, I realized the level of the discussion to be much above my head and figured I'd just suck it up and admit to being ignorant and see what people have to say......

I'm looking to seriously upgrade home theater eq n the near future. Currently, have an Onkyo TX-SR501 receiver which came with Onkyo speaker set, and a Sharp Aquos 32inch LCD 720p TV with NO digital tuner (4 year old set). Will be upgrading to a 7.1 receiver set (likely something Onkyo ala HT-S6100 or HT-S7100 and a new TV with 1080p capability in the 40-50 inch range).

Other equipment that I have is a Macbook Pro and a Canon HF-100 camcorder which records in AVCHD codec. Besides that have a 300$ toshiba notebook with a WD 250GB harddrive external with divx movies and mp3s, and a pioneer 111d burner which takes care of my xbox 360 backups. Have about 400 dvds in case after case.

What I would like to be able to do:

1. Be able to edit and create both standard def DVDs and high def DVDs with the footage from my camcorder and burn them to discs
2. Be able to place divx/mp3 files in a central, easily accessible location that will allow them to be played to the new AVR/TV setup, as well as streamed to other rooms later on
3. Rip those 400 DVDs to a/multiple hard drives, be able to watch and organize them in a fashion, and put the dvds away into storage
4. Don't plan on gaming since have x360
5. Would like to begin experiencing blu-ray, so would like the capability to play BR discs as well as view rippe Blu-ray high def content.
6. Plan on subscribing to HD cable in the future (as opposed to just basic right now) and would like to be able to watch HD channels that I subscribe to without needing to rent the box from the cable company

I Guess what i'm looking for is a suggestion as to which suggested set-up to use, as well as whic of the other essential components to get (the keyboard/os/tuner, etc.)....

I know it's a serious newb thing to ask......bt any tips/pointers?

thanks in advance.....

I am a newbee o this forum, but have been reading this thread and especially page 85 for several days now. Thank you renethx for all the work that went into this. I am interested in building a HTPC with a Blu-ray player for playing back my ~380 DVD collection (after I rip it). My problem is that my current display (Samsung 46" DLP) and my AVR can only handle Component inputs. (will be rectified as budget allows). Is there a way to produce component out from any of the reference systems or do I need to add a different video card?
Also is the a way to date-stamp to sections/lines in page 85 to show a history of update of the components?

ati 4670 and nvidia 9600 allow component out using the special svideo out

BHH

renethx, you said this "An (only) advantage of 64bit OS is that it supports memory > 4GB. In general you find more codecs for Windows Media Center with 32bit for a while (but important only when you want to play every media files within Windows Media Center)."

I was going to get Vista 64 bit for my htpc. What will I not be able to play under WMC?

Thanks.

I'm looking to seriously upgrade home theater eq n the near future. Currently, have an Onkyo TX-SR501 receiver which came with Onkyo speaker set, and a Sharp Aquos 32inch LCD 720p TV with NO digital tuner (4 year old set). Will be upgrading to a 7.1 receiver set (likely something Onkyo ala HT-S6100 or HT-S7100 and a new TV with 1080p capability in the 40-50 inch range).

Other equipment that I have is a Macbook Pro and a Canon HF-100 camcorder which records in AVCHD codec. Besides that have a 300$ toshiba notebook with a WD 250GB harddrive external with divx movies and mp3s, and a pioneer 111d burner which takes care of my xbox 360 backups. Have about 400 dvds in case after case.

What I would like to be able to do:

1. Be able to edit and create both standard def DVDs and high def DVDs with the footage from my camcorder and burn them to discs
2. Be able to place divx/mp3 files in a central, easily accessible location that will allow them to be played to the new AVR/TV setup, as well as streamed to other rooms later on
3. Rip those 400 DVDs to a/multiple hard drives, be able to watch and organize them in a fashion, and put the dvds away into storage
4. Don't plan on gaming since have x360
5. Would like to begin experiencing blu-ray, so would like the capability to play BR discs as well as view rippe Blu-ray high def content.
6. Plan on subscribing to HD cable in the future (as opposed to just basic right now) and would like to be able to watch HD channels that I subscribe to without needing to rent the box from the cable company
For a video editing+HTPC machine, look at the ATX high-end/premium Intel/Intel systems at page 85. You can replace the graphics card with the cheaper Radeon HD 4670 card used in the mid-range system. Or you may want to separate a video editing machine from a HTPC. You still need a STB to watch HD premium channels as these channels are encrypted (see the TV tuner section at page 1). You can record them in PC via component video, though (read the same section). For a server, look at Home Media Sever at page 85. For 400 DVDs you don't need an expensive server case, a tower case (e.g. Antec Twelve Hundred) with a couple of 1TB HDDs should be enough. Ripped HD contents require lots of storage space, however. So plan carefully. A possible OS is Windows Home Server or unRAID.

I am a newbe to this forum, have been reading this thread, especially page 85 for several days. I want to build an HTPC with Blu-ray player, to serve up my ~380 DVD collection (after I rip it). My problem is, that my current display as well as my AVR will only accept Component inputs. (I will be upgrading both in the future as budget allows).
Any system with Radeon HD 4xxx supports component video. (The HIS HD 4670 card does not come with a component cable, so you have to buy it.)

I was going to get Vista 64 bit for my htpc. What will I not be able to play under WMC?
I don't know. You can play any file that, say, ffdshow tryouts x64 supports.

renethx, Joe Clark recommended that I upgrade my video card (currently using onboard graphics via Geforce 9300 mobo) since I have seen a disparity in video quality between my PS3 and newly built HTPC. I've heard good things about the ATI HD4850 but there seems to be quite a few manufacturers. I just on newegg that the ASUS model has come way down in price and I was considering it, however, I noticed in each case you recommend the HIS model. Is there something special about the HIS model over the others that I should consider spending a bit more money for or all the HD4850's essentially the same? Thanks for any help.

renethx, Joe Clark recommended that I upgrade my video card (currently using onboard graphics via Geforce 9300 mobo) since I have seen a disparity in video quality between my PS3 and newly built HTPC. I've heard good things about the ATI HD4850 but there seems to be quite a few manufacturers. I just on newegg that the ASUS model has come way down in price and I was considering it, however, I noticed in each case you recommend the HIS model. Is there something special about the HIS model over the others that I should consider spending a bit more money for or all the HD4850's essentially the same? Thanks for any help.
For video playback, HD 4670 is enough, and HIS HD 4670 is a very quiet card. Another option is PowerColor HD 4670 (even quieter).

That's an excellent system (obviously :)). The mb does not have onboard graphics. S/PDIF supports only stereo LPCM, DD and DTS because of the bandwidth limitation, while HDMI (from the current Radeon HD 4xxx cards) supports multichannel LPCM, DD and DTS. As your AVR supports HDMI, you should use HDMI for both video and audio.

so with this Radeon HD video card, I should be able to send both Audio/Video through the HDMI cable to my AVR? Sorry if i'm not catching the point here, but how does the audio go to the video card? again.. thanks for all the explanation :)

For video playback, HD 4670 is enough, and HIS HD 4670 is a very quiet card. Another option is PowerColor HD 4670 (even quieter).

Thanks renethx. Any reason why HIS instead of another brand like ASUS? Has this just been your own personal experience? I wouldn't think the difference between the two would be all that great but I just don't know. Thanks again.

so with this Radeon HD video card, I should be able to send both Audio/Video through the HDMI cable to my AVR? Sorry if i'm not catching the point here, but how does the audio go to the video card? again.. thanks for all the explanation :)
The Radeon HD GPU has its own HD audio controller. It acts just like a sound card or onboard audio codec as far as audio is concerned.

Thanks renethx. Any reason why HIS instead of another brand like ASUS? Has this just been your own personal experience? I wouldn't think the difference between the two would be all that great but I just don't know. Thanks again.
ASUS and GIGABYTE 4670 cards are notorious for loud fan noise and uncontrollable fan speed. I don't own either of them, however.

Hi all,

brand new to this whole HTPC thing so I apologize for the newbieness of this post. I had been trolling the web looking to purchase a prefab setup, but google lead me to this exhaustive thread hours ago. I admit, after reading 30 or so pages, I realized the level of the discussion to be much above my head and figured I'd just suck it up and admit to being ignorant and see what people have to say......

I'm looking to seriously upgrade home theater eq n the near future. Currently, have an Onkyo TX-SR501 receiver which came with Onkyo speaker set, and a Sharp Aquos 32inch LCD 720p TV with NO digital tuner (4 year old set). Will be upgrading to a 7.1 receiver set (likely something Onkyo ala HT-S6100 or HT-S7100 and a new TV with 1080p capability in the 40-50 inch range).

Other equipment that I have is a Macbook Pro and a Canon HF-100 camcorder which records in AVCHD codec. Besides that have a 300$ toshiba notebook with a WD 250GB harddrive external with divx movies and mp3s, and a pioneer 111d burner which takes care of my xbox 360 backups. Have about 400 dvds in case after case.

What I would like to be able to do:

1. Be able to edit and create both standard def DVDs and high def DVDs with the footage from my camcorder and burn them to discs
2. Be able to place divx/mp3 files in a central, easily accessible location that will allow them to be played to the new AVR/TV setup, as well as streamed to other rooms later on
3. Rip those 400 DVDs to a/multiple hard drives, be able to watch and organize them in a fashion, and put the dvds away into storage
4. Don't plan on gaming since have x360
5. Would like to begin experiencing blu-ray, so would like the capability to play BR discs as well as view rippe Blu-ray high def content.
6. Plan on subscribing to HD cable in the future (as opposed to just basic right now) and would like to be able to watch HD channels that I subscribe to without needing to rent the box from the cable company

I Guess what i'm looking for is a suggestion as to which suggested set-up to use, as well as whic of the other essential components to get (the keyboard/os/tuner, etc.)....

I know it's a serious newb thing to ask......bt any tips/pointers?

thanks in advance.....

Let me throw out an idea here and see what you and renethx think about it. I broke my own rule last week and bought one of the new Gateway PCs - the FX6800-01. (Ordinarily I build my own high end PCs.) It's a Core i7 system with a Radeon 4850 video card. It has 4 cores and 8 threads, which should plow through HD video editing. According to some reviews I've read, it outperforms older Intel QuadCore Extreme machines in many areas. When the video editing software fully supports ATI Stream (http://www.dvhardware.net/article31227.html), complex renders from your Canon HF100 should be dramatically faster with a 4850/Core i7 doing the job. I haven't done a big video project since I got the Gateway, but I have the Canon HF10 (functionally identical to your camcorder) and the render times with AVCHD can be painful, depending on what kind of video you shoot and the complexity of your edits.

This box has room for 2 more SATA drives that just plug into the front, along with 6 RAM slots (only 3 GB standard). I'm going to reserve the drives for HD editing, not general storage. Realistically, you'll still need something like Windows Home Server, or better still, unRAID.

The basic config costs $1,249 - that's a lot of computing power for a really reasonable price. Add up the costs for individual components and it's hard to figure out a way to build your own for less. You'd need to replace the drive that comes with the machine with a Blu-ray drive. I have an LG. Add PowerDVD 8 Ultra to that mix (and maybe PowerDirector 7 for editing) and you have a more-than-respectable media creation and playback machine for less than it would cost you to build your own.

So if I am not a big gamer, would I be better off by going with the GIGABYTE GA-E7AUM-DS2H GeForce 9400 MB.. instead of going with the Radeon HD 4XXX Video Card? After reading some more posts, it seems that this would be sufficient for basic HTPC usage (listen to music, watch blu-ray movies, etc.)... although going with the Radeon, the cost would be a few hundred $ more, which is not a big issue. If I understand correctly, both will require a single HDMI output from the HTPC for both audio/video...

At this point, I am stuck between those two solutions... I guess I need a push in either direction and I will pull the trigger.

A key thing for me would be a quiet system, and I'm guessing I could achieve this easier by going the mATX route with the 9400 MB?

So if I am not a big gamer, would I be better off by going with the GIGABYTE GA-E7AUM-DS2H GeForce 9400 MB.. instead of going with the Radeon HD 4XXX Video Card? After reading some more posts, it seems that this would be sufficient for basic HTPC usage (listen to music, watch blu-ray movies, etc.)... although going with the Radeon, the cost would be a few hundred $ more, which is not a big issue. If I understand correctly, both will require a single HDMI output from the HTPC for both audio/video...

At this point, I am stuck between those two solutions... I guess I need a push in either direction and I will pull the trigger.

A key thing for me would be a quiet system, and I'm guessing I could achieve this easier by going the mATX route with the 9400 MB?
Radeon HD 4xxx is better than GeForce 9400 in SD picture quality. MicroATX vs ATX depends on how many expansion slots you will need in future. An ATX case supports more HDDs, and is bigger of course. The graphics cards in the low-end/mid-range systems I mentioned at page 85 are very quiet. If you go with mATX, the low-end AMD/AMD system is perhaps the best performance/price.

Add PowerDVD 8 Ultra to that mix (and maybe PowerDirector 7 for editing) and you have a more-than-respectable media creation and playback machine for less than it would cost you to build your own.

I don't mean to take this thread down a different path but I do think it is pivotal to the discussion. Joseph, I noticed you said PowerDVD 8 Ultra and not Arcsoft TMT. I thought Arcsoft had gained a solid following because it was the best for BluRay playback but I have a friend that has said differently. Is there any reason why you chose to mention PowerDVD over TMT here?

renethx, I'm just curious, which do you use for BluRay playback?

I don't mean to take this thread down a different path but I do think it is pivotal to the discussion. Joseph, I noticed you said PowerDVD 8 Ultra and not Arcsoft TMT. I thought Arcsoft had gained a solid following because it was the best for BluRay playback but I have a friend that has said differently. Is there any reason why you chose to mention PowerDVD over TMT here?

renethx, I'm just curious, which do you use for BluRay playback?

I have little experience with TMT. PowerDVD works well for me, so I stick with it. I like PowerDirector, too, for casual editing (Adobe Premiere for heavier lifting), and they seem to play well together in my system.

I did just get a copy of the OEM of Total Media Extreme with a Hauppauge 1212 HD recorder. I haven't used it nearly as extensively as PowerDVD, although I did notice that an iso I burned from a project I worked on recently wouldn't play in PowerDVD, but the original folders did play in TME.

I'd like a comparison, too, of these products. Maybe a different thread has more info?

BTW, the Hauppauge is a great little device (now that I've gotten past some initial installation issues). I use it to archive Dish 622 HD material that I didn't get around to recording with the R5000 or MyHD.

I finally purchased the Gigabyte 4670. Yes, it's fan is loud, but it's difficult for me to pass it with $20 rebate and free shipping. My main purpose to get this new card is for SD post-processing and transcode with Stream, but so far results for niether one is satisfied.

For the SD post-processing, it seems my cheap Philips upconversion dvd player do a better job. Is there anything I need to enable the post-processing feature? I'm using TMT plug-in in vista media center to play the dvd.

For the transcode with Stream, yes it is fast. Take about 6 mins to convert a 30 mins SD TV recorded with VMC in Ipod profile, when compare with 32 mins with the nero 9. However, the quality of the Stream converted files is so bad. Probably need another software update from AMD before it is usuable.

So finally, I think I will go with the following, which should make for a quiet and sufficient system for me:


Case: Antec Fusion 430
PSU: N/A - Built into Case
CPU: INTEL CORE 2 DUO E7300 2.66GHz 3MB L2 CACHE LGA775 1066MHz - is this overkill?
Heatsink: ASUS P5P2-8M B2W/VR GUARD LGA775 CPU Heatsink
Fan: ARCTIC COOLING ACFZ7PRO FREEZER 7 PRO CPU HSF
Memory: G.SKILL F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ PC2-8000 4GB 2X2GB DDR2-1000 CL5-5-5-15 240PIN Dual Channel Memory Kit
Media Reader: LG GGC-H20L BLACK DVD-RW WITH BD & HD DVD READ, SATA, BLACK, RETAIL
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-E7AUM-DS2H - any recommendations of an alternative?
Graphics: N/A - Built into MB
HDD: SEAGATE 1000GB BARRACUDA 7200.11 SATA-NCQ 3.5LP 7200RPM 32MB 3GB/S or WESTERN DIGITAL 1TB GREEN 7200RPM 16Mb CACHE SATA II.... which is quieter in your opinion?
SW: MICROSOFT OEM WIN VISTA ULTIMATE 32-BIT DVD ENGLISH ..... expensive... but hope it's worth it...



any recommendations or changes you would do to this system?

renethx, you said this "An (only) advantage of 64bit OS is that it supports memory > 4GB. In general you find more codecs for Windows Media Center with 32bit for a while (but important only when you want to play every media files within Windows Media Center)."

I was going to get Vista 64 bit for my htpc. What will I not be able to play under WMC?

Thanks.

If you want to play mp4 and mkvs you will need to do the registry hack. Also, MyMovies is a good add in or you can do the DVD hack. I have x64 on my HTPC and can play all files now (mostly 1080p mkvs and vob)

I have just upgraded my HTPC to the following spec:
- Gigabyte MA78GM (780g chipset motherboard)
- AMD 5050e X2 Energy Efficient
- Scythe Mini Ninja
- 2gb RAM
- Enermax Modu82+ 525w
- 500gb Seagate, 160gb Seagate
- 2x TV cards
- 1x 120mm exhaust
- Small mini tower, on its side (desktop style)

I am now getting crazy low temp readings, which really can't be right. With my old Socket A XP2400 i was getting 50c idle, and couldn't enclose the case fully as it always overheated. Now with the 5050e i am getting readings from Speedfan of 24c idle, 35c load.

I am considering going passive with the CPU cooler, but first i want some opinions on the temp readings as they seem a bit unbelievable. However, the case is cold to the touch, whereas with the old system it was always hot...

I am just a bit confused by this! :)

renethx or Joseph Clark, I just received the Sapphire HD4830. Aside from the dvi to hdmi adapter that comes in the box, are there any other attachments beyond the obvious audio connections to my AVR necessary to achieve audio over hdmi. When I heard you guys talking about dongle's I thought there was another cable that was necessary. I'm such a HTPC newb :o.

renethx, I'm just curious, which do you use for BluRay playback?
I use both. You'd better try both. TMT trial (http://rapidshare.com/files/155298896/arcsoft_totalmediatheatre_engintro.exe.html) (not sure if the latest update 2.1.6.128 (http://www.arcsoft.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1417) can be applied to it). You may be able to find a trial version of PowerDVD 8 Ultra (supporting BD playback) somewhere.

I finally purchased the Gigabyte 4670. Yes, it's fan is loud, but it's difficult for me to pass it with $20 rebate and free shipping. My main purpose to get this new card is for SD post-processing and transcode with Stream, but so far results for niether one is satisfied.

For the SD post-processing, it seems my cheap Philips upconversion dvd player do a better job. Is there anything I need to enable the post-processing feature? I'm using TMT plug-in in vista media center to play the dvd.

For the transcode with Stream, yes it is fast. Take about 6 mins to convert a 30 mins SD TV recorded with VMC in Ipod profile, when compare with 32 mins with the nero 9. However, the quality of the Stream converted files is so bad. Probably need another software update from AMD before it is usuable.
Stay away from TMT. It's the worst commercial player for DVD. Microsoft MPEG-2 Video Decoder is better. You need to apply "UseBT601CSC"="1" to the registry. Launch CCC and try to change AVIVO settings (detail enhancement, denoise etc.).

Stream and CUDA are not ready yet. I would wait for applications supporting DirectX 11 (Windows 7) and OpenCL.

So finally, I think I will go with the following, which should make for a quiet and sufficient system for me:


Case: Antec Fusion 430
PSU: N/A - Built into Case
CPU: INTEL CORE 2 DUO E7300 2.66GHz 3MB L2 CACHE LGA775 1066MHz - is this overkill?
Heatsink: ASUS P5P2-8M B2W/VR GUARD LGA775 CPU Heatsink
Fan: ARCTIC COOLING ACFZ7PRO FREEZER 7 PRO CPU HSF
Memory: G.SKILL F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ PC2-8000 4GB 2X2GB DDR2-1000 CL5-5-5-15 240PIN Dual Channel Memory Kit
Media Reader: LG GGC-H20L BLACK DVD-RW WITH BD & HD DVD READ, SATA, BLACK, RETAIL
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-E7AUM-DS2H - any recommendations of an alternative?
Graphics: N/A - Built into MB
HDD: SEAGATE 1000GB BARRACUDA 7200.11 SATA-NCQ 3.5LP 7200RPM 32MB 3GB/S or WESTERN DIGITAL 1TB GREEN 7200RPM 16Mb CACHE SATA II.... which is quieter in your opinion?
SW: MICROSOFT OEM WIN VISTA ULTIMATE 32-BIT DVD ENGLISH ..... expensive... but hope it's worth it...



any recommendations or changes you would do to this system?

Has anyone compared the Seagate and WD side by side? I own both, but different generations so it's an unfair comparison. I am leaning more towards seagate just because the warranty is longer.. any thoughts? I will pull the trigger on WD if its quieter - all your sample HTPC's are running WD :D

So finally, I think I will go with the following, which should make for a quiet and sufficient system for me:


Case: Antec Fusion 430
PSU: N/A - Built into Case
CPU: INTEL CORE 2 DUO E7300 2.66GHz 3MB L2 CACHE LGA775 1066MHz - is this overkill?
Heatsink: ASUS P5P2-8M B2W/VR GUARD LGA775 CPU Heatsink
Fan: ARCTIC COOLING ACFZ7PRO FREEZER 7 PRO CPU HSF
Memory: G.SKILL F2-8000CL5D-4GBPQ PC2-8000 4GB 2X2GB DDR2-1000 CL5-5-5-15 240PIN Dual Channel Memory Kit
Media Reader: LG GGC-H20L BLACK DVD-RW WITH BD & HD DVD READ, SATA, BLACK, RETAIL
Motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-E7AUM-DS2H - any recommendations of an alternative?
Graphics: N/A - Built into MB
HDD: SEAGATE 1000GB BARRACUDA 7200.11 SATA-NCQ 3.5LP 7200RPM 32MB 3GB/S or WESTERN DIGITAL 1TB GREEN 7200RPM 16Mb CACHE SATA II.... which is quieter in your opinion?
SW: MICROSOFT OEM WIN VISTA ULTIMATE 32-BIT DVD ENGLISH ..... expensive... but hope it's worth it...

Pentium Dual-Core E5200 is enough. E7xxx is not overkill though.

WD10EACS is the quietest drive (according to StorageReview.com).

Now with the 5050e i am getting readings from Speedfan of 24c idle, 35c load.
24c may be too low. I don't trust the readings entirely. Passive cooling is no problem. I don't worry about temperature unless it goes beyond 70c.

renethx or Joseph Clark, I just received the Sapphire HD4830. Aside from the dvi to hdmi adapter that comes in the box, are there any other attachments beyond the obvious audio connections to my AVR necessary to achieve audio over hdmi. When I heard you guys talking about dongle's I thought there was another cable that was necessary. I'm such a HTPC newb :o.
The bundled DVI-HDMI adapter and a HDMI cable are all what you need.

Pentium Dual-Core E5200 is enough. E7xxx is not overkill though.

WD10EACS is the quietest drive.

Cool. Thanks for the quick response!
Do you have any other recomendation equivalent or better than GIGABYTE GA-E7AUM-DS2H? I can't seem to find this MB locally from my usual suppliers..

Cool. Thanks for the quick response!
Do you have any other recomendation equivalent or better than GIGABYTE GA-E7AUM-DS2H? I can't seem to find this MB locally from my usual suppliers..
There is no better mb. An alternative is MSI and ASUS.

My upgrade to the new AMD system has not only given me a virtually silent machine, but also cut power consumption down from 150w to 90w!

Hi renethx.
May I ask why you dont grant the 9500gt the same 24hz capabilities as the 9400 and 8300 in this (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=127253&stc=1&d=) chart? According to this (http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=3479) it should be just as good, no?

(to everybody: )
My problem is I just cant decide which gpu to pick. Proper 24hz playback is very important for me, but I also want to do the occasional gaming. That rules out the 9300/9400 and I dont think the 9500GT will be that satisfing in that aspect either.
But the 9600 (and of course every faster nvidia aswell) uses way too much power in idle for an (my) economical built. And the 4670 (the card I'd love to get) apparently "sucks" in 24hz, like all ATIs.
But thats another thing: Everybody talks about about the ATIs not being able to perform flawless 24hz, but its hard to find out how people fix this, or what they are doing to avoid that "micro-stutter". And what is AMD saying about this? will they fix it with future drivers (although I sure wont buy a gpu card based on a promise about future drivers)?
How bad is it really? I mean, if it was a real issue, how can one suggest a ati gpu for any htpc built at all?

Any links to sites talking about the ati 24hz stuff (I havent found a lot about this anywhere) and recommendations what gpu to get would be highly appreciated.
My guess is Ill have to settle for a 9500GT :( . Which brand would you guys suggest? I read the gigabyte is 1,0/1,0 sone (idle/3D). Way too loud compared to a HIS 4670 with 0,2/0,5 sone for example.

Cheers and thx for any reply you may have on this topic.

I use both.

Both, really? For even just BluRay playback? I'm sorry, I'm just really curious why you would feel the need to use both? Thanks.

Hi renethx.
May I ask why you dont grant the 9500gt the same 24hz capabilities as the 9400 and 8300 in this (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=127253&stc=1&d=) chart? According to this (http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=3479) it should be just as good, no?

(to everybody: )
My problem is I just cant decide which gpu to pick. Proper 24hz playback is very important for me, but I also want to do the occasional gaming. That rules out the 9300/9400 and I dont think the 9500GT will be that satisfing in that aspect either.
But the 9600 (and of course every faster nvidia aswell) uses way too much power in idle for an (my) economical built. And the 4670 (the card I'd love to get) apparently "sucks" in 24hz, like all ATIs.
But thats another thing: Everybody talks about about the ATIs not being able to perform flawless 24hz, but its hard to find out how people fix this, or what they are doing to avoid that "micro-stutter". And what is AMD saying about this? will they fix it with future drivers (although I sure wont buy a gpu card based on a promise about future drivers)?
How bad is it really? I mean, if it was a real issue, how can one suggest a ati gpu for any htpc built at all?

Any links to sites talking about the ati 24hz stuff (I havent found a lot about this anywhere) and recommendations what gpu to get would be highly appreciated.
My guess is Ill have to settle for a 9500GT :( . Which brand would you guys suggest? I read the gigabyte is 1,0/1,0 sone (idle/3D). Way too loud compared to a HIS 4670 with 0,2/0,5 sone for example.
You are correct. In general GeForce 9 Series is excellent in 24p playback. Among 9 Series discrete GPUs, 9500 GT is best suited for HTPC. Among 9500 GT cards, the ASUS card (the one in my recommendations) is very quiet (I own it). I guess not every user of HD 4xxx notices micro-stutter at 24p or plays movies at 24p at all; for these people, multichannel LPCM or PQ might be more important.

Stay away from TMT. It's the worst commercial player for DVD. Microsoft MPEG-2 Video Decoder is better. You need to apply "UseBT601CSC"="1" to the registry. Launch CCC and try to change AVIVO settings (detail enhancement, denoise etc.).

Stream and CUDA are not ready yet. I would wait for applications supporting DirectX 11 (Windows 7) and OpenCL.I'm a little confused. In the post previous to this one you say you use both and now you recommend staying away from TMT. Which DVD programs were you referring to with the word "both" ... Arcsoft TMT and PowerDVD?

I'm a little confused. In the post previous to this one you say you use both and now you recommend staying away from TMT. Which DVD programs were you referring to with the word "both" ... Arcsoft TMT and PowerDVD?
TMT is more or less not a DVD player but a BD/HD DVD player (at least right now) as the developer admitted:

ArcSoft Forum - No HW Acceleration for DVDs with Radeon cards? (http://www.arcsoft.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=1109)

DVDs do not have performance issues on the typical system which is the main reason for the HWA requirement, so supporting that on DVDs has not been prioritized to this point. The CPU with our software renderer handles it fine.

DVD playback working fine in MP is another reason it wasn't prioritized. The focus of TMT is HD formats.

(We're aware of the arguments for why DVD playback and HWA support are still still of value even if they aren't the primary purpose. It's all about priorities and DVD playback hasn't been up to .125.)

(Deinterlacing/post-processing can't be done just by CPU power, of course. See the ffdshow sticky.)

There are issues with how to phrase the questions in a way that matters.
A question asked the way you phrase it would pretty clearly indicate that DVD's are still very common. We know that 100% probably watch DVD from time to time. So asking that question is of no value.

How many users don't have access to MP or some alternative player to play DVDs? That's probably 0%. So asking that question would support our position that there's little value in us adding support.

Probably the closest we could get to extracting the proper bit of info is a question like: If you could only have one of the two, would you prefer ArcSoft concentrate on improving Blu-ray playback or concentrate on improving DVD playback?

I think the answer to that question would be overwhelmingly in favor or Blu-ray.

In the 10 months we've had this product available at retail, I think we've improved a lot, but I still don't think we can relax and say we're way ahead of the competition and filling all our users needs regarding HD playback. So we continue to prioritize that. That doesn't mean DVD is getting no resource investment--you guys have seen the various announcements in that regard already--but that the lion's share has (rightfully, we hope) gone to HD.
Since ver. 2.1.6.126 HA for decoding and processing have been working, but PQ is still subpar (imo).

Are you guys doing any setting adjustments for your discrete GPU after installing (I have the 4670) or just plugging it in and playing?

Are you guys doing any setting adjustments for your discrete GPU after installing (I have the 4670) or just plugging it in and playing?

+1. I've been wondering this as well.

I am also new to HTPC. I looked at the recommended systems on pg. 81 and am leaning towards low end Micro AMD system. Here is what i am looking to do, please let me know if that system would be appropriate:

Watch Blu-Ray and HD-DVD
Back up all my DVD on hard drive
Watch downloaded movies (divx,xvid,264)

Also i am having trouble locating the recommend case on Newegg, is there another case that would work

I am also new to HTPC. I looked at the recommended systems on pg. 81 and am leaning towards low end Micro AMD system. Here is what i am looking to do, please let me know if that system would be appropriate:

Watch Blu-Ray and HD-DVD
Back up all my DVD on hard drive
Watch downloaded movies (divx,xvid,264)

Also i am having trouble locating the recommend case on Newegg, is there another case that would work

I just used the Antec Fusion Black 430 case with built in IR for my last build, got it from newegg, unfortunately it is $30 more then when I purchased (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129030). It comes with a PSU. Both my HTPCs are the Micro AMD systems w/ 4670 GPU which work well, use them to play all my Blu Ray / HD DVD movies and 1080p mkvs.

I am also new to HTPC. I looked at the recommended systems on pg. 81 and am leaning towards low end Micro AMD system. Here is what i am looking to do, please let me know if that system would be appropriate:

Watch Blu-Ray and HD-DVD
Back up all my DVD on hard drive
Watch downloaded movies (divx,xvid,264)

Also i am having trouble locating the recommend case on Newegg, is there another case that would work

Check out the HTPC offerings from Apevia. They can be found for under $80.00 and come equipped wirh a 500 watt power supply. I ordered this case originally but needed something that was 17" wide so I went with a Silverstone case.

http://apevia.com/Products_Level3.asp?CID=1&CID2=3&CID3=0

I am also new to HTPC. I looked at the recommended systems on pg. 81 and am leaning towards low end Micro AMD system. Here is what i am looking to do, please let me know if that system would be appropriate:

Watch Blu-Ray and HD-DVD
Back up all my DVD on hard drive
Watch downloaded movies (divx,xvid,264)

Also i am having trouble locating the recommend case on Newegg, is there another case that would work
Should be good. The case supports up to two HDDs. You can find it at many retailer (here (http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=Antec+NSK1480&cid=14363180049612136101&scoring=p#ps-sellers)).

Ok, a simple question
My current HD HTPC plays OK unless the bitrate of my lossless VC1/Flac mkv backups rises above 17 MBsec. bitrate.
Alas my mobo died today after an effort to overcome the afore mentioned issue with overclocking.
So I'm on the crossroads for a new mid range system. What should it be?
Intels Core2 Duo or AMD Phenom.
Als both recommended cpu's (Phenom 8750 and Intel E7400) are not available in stores next Saturday (I don't want to wait for a delivery next year).
So it's either the Phenom 8650 or the E 7300, because the price leap to the next models in store is really too large.
The disadvantage of Intel is that I have to avoid a P45 chipset, since that one causes alot of trouble with my expected buy of the Asus HDAV sound card.
For the rest of my stuff, I already have a Ati Radeon 4670 and am very pleased with it.

Any advice here?

Let me throw out an idea here and see what you and renethx think about it. I broke my own rule last week and bought one of the new Gateway PCs - the FX6800-01. (Ordinarily I build my own high end PCs.) It's a Core i7 system with a Radeon 4850 video card. It has 4 cores and 8 threads, which should plow through HD video editing. According to some reviews I've read, it outperforms older Intel QuadCore Extreme machines in many areas. When the video editing software fully supports ATI Stream, complex renders from your Canon HF100 should be dramatically faster with a 4850/Core i7 doing the job. I haven't done a big video project since I got the Gateway, but I have the Canon HF10 (functionally identical to your camcorder) and the render times with AVCHD can be painful, depending on what kind of video you shoot and the complexity of your edits.

This box has room for 2 more SATA drives that just plug into the front, along with 6 RAM slots (only 3 GB standard). I'm going to reserve the drives for HD editing, not general storage. Realistically, you'll still need something like Windows Home Server, or better still, unRAID.

The basic config costs $1,249 - that's a lot of computing power for a really reasonable price. Add up the costs for individual components and it's hard to figure out a way to build your own for less. You'd need to replace the drive that comes with the machine with a Blu-ray drive. I have an LG. Add PowerDVD 8 Ultra to that mix (and maybe PowerDirector 7 for editing) and you have a more-than-respectable media creation and playback machine for less than it would cost you to build your own.
__________________
Joe Clark
I would like to say Happy Holidays to everyone on this forum, and thanks to Joseph Clark and renethx for their replies to my initial post. I don't know if I'll choose the pre-fab route or the self-build that renethx is suggesting, but I'm leaning more self-build, since it's soooo much more gratifying and it's something I've been wanting to get into and do, but never have really had the time or money until now.....

That said, I wanted to know if there was more of a primer somewhere on this site, or anywhere else, that kind of introduced the concept of HTPCs, what they're capable of, and when you start to think of using a server instead of having everything sitting in the HTPC. I also am a complete newbie in terms of understanding the differences between the operating systems, so a primer to read up those would be awesome too....

thank you again for being patient, I'd like to read up, but just want to have more "directed" reading if you will instead of plowing through threads looking after being led there by google.....

Oh, I also wanted to ask Joe, what software do you use when you're editing clips from your HF10? I've been using my wife's macbook pro with iDVD on it, someone at work had also suggested final cut express, and someone else had mentioned the adobe premier program. My wife would love it if I would pick up the Adobe CS4 design collection and add in premium, but it's a pricey purchase and I'm really just learning how to use the camera (got it a few months ago for our baby and have been more busy with baby than figuring out the camera). I'd love to be able to burn standard Def DVDs for family, but also string together high def videos for ourselves at home. Is the rig you mentioned (the gateway) enough to accomplish this? and do you have a suggestion for a website/forum/FAQ that would be useful for a newbie like me to look at to appreciate what potential the camera actually offers?

What software gives you guys best results for playing back:

- SD DVDs
- Blu-ray Discs
- HD-DVD discs
- Ripped/downloaded content

:confused:

What are the names of the settings you have to choose if you want DVD's to:

1) Maintain their original resolution (black bars and all if the display's bigger) and not be streched to fill the screen
2) Be truly upscaled and not simply "streched"

Thanks!! :cool:

Oh, I also wanted to ask Joe, what software do you use when you're editing clips from your HF10? I've been using my wife's macbook pro with iDVD on it, someone at work had also suggested final cut express, and someone else had mentioned the adobe premier program. My wife would love it if I would pick up the Adobe CS4 design collection and add in premium, but it's a pricey purchase and I'm really just learning how to use the camera (got it a few months ago for our baby and have been more busy with baby than figuring out the camera). I'd love to be able to burn standard Def DVDs for family, but also string together high def videos for ourselves at home. Is the rig you mentioned (the gateway) enough to accomplish this? and do you have a suggestion for a website/forum/FAQ that would be useful for a newbie like me to look at to appreciate what potential the camera actually offers?

I'd suggest you start off smaller than CS4 for your video projects, if you're new to this game. It can be overwhelming. Cyberlink PowerDirector allows you to produce both standard DVD and Blu-ray compatible high definition DVDs. You'll kick yourself later if you don't capture your child in HD, though your relatives will probably want regular DVDs for a while.

The software that I use on a regular basis includes:

1. Adobe Premiere CS3 with the Cineform Prospect HD plug-in. I convert the AVCHD (or HDV) clips to Cineform intermediate, then edit them. Adobe has a wide variety of ways of exporting your finished video. You can export to Adobe Encore to burn DVDs, or export HD to After Effects to create MPEG2 compliant DVD files. The CS3 suite (and CS4) has a real bear of a learning curve, though.
2. For casual editing (home and family stuff that I don't need to spend a huge amount of time on), PowerDirector 7 Ultra handles HD and DVD creation. The learning curve is significantly less steep, though the capabilities are much more limited. It's definitely easier and far cheaper, and it will probably give you almost everything you want.
3. PowerDVD 8 Ultra for playing back movies.
4. ImgBurn for burning files to DVD (freeware). The very cool thing is that you can burn HD from your camcorder to regular DVDs (not the expensive Blu-ray discs) and play them on a Blu-ray player, or, of course, on a computer.
4. tsMuxer for creating Blu-ray folders (and disc structure) easily.

The Gateway is perfect for these kinds of projects. I just finished upgrading it the last few days to 9 GB of RAM and added a couple of hard drives (striped RAID0 for video editing - Cineform requires it).

As for video tutorials, Cyberlink has several on their web site (http://directorzone.cyberlink.com/pdr/), many by users who utilize the software a lot more extensively than I do. Check out the Flash and video tutorials listed on the right side of the page. PowerDirector 7 also has smart rendering modes that don't require you to re-render most video coming from the Canon.

I don't want to get into a Mac/PC thing here, but I find a lot more tools (commercial and, especially, free) for creating video (especially HD) on the PC. I used to teach with Macs at a university here in the midwest, but I've felt for a long time that the PC is a lot more fun and opens a lot more doors for enjoying HD video than the Mac. I think that's pretty clear from the wealth of information in this thread.

I was looking for the post from sneals2000 about building your own PC, if you decide to go that route, but I couldn't find it. It's within the last couple of months in this thread, if you want to search. It's a good basic tutorial on building your own machine. Again, though, a pre-built machine might be best if you're new to the PC, or if you just want to concentrate on learning the software, and not worry about all the hardware stuff. I'm already using the Gateway for watching Blu-ray movies in my home theater. It fit right in with my unRAID servers and my other Vista box. I don't know when my next big project will be, but I have no doubt it will edit video better than any machine I've ever owned.

Good luck, and Merry Christmas. :)

Merry Christmas everyone. I am working on my christmas HTPC right now and its turning into a nightmare.

So I went ahead and built the AMD/Nvidia High end Mtx build. Got all the pieces a day b4 christmas and didnt notice that instead of the 9950 cpu they sent me the 9850 cpu.

Thats just the beginning. So I finally put everything together, (the case is ridiculously tight) and Im elated, the thing actually turns on.

Now for the finishing Stroke, I try and install vista X64 oem and my HTPC hangs on the installation screen. Ive tried everything I can find on the net but nothing helps. Ive taken out ram, tried another disk. played around with the Sata settings, changed the boot order..........Nothing seems to work.

ReneTHX, Please save me. I know this is not exactly your build but what am I doing wrong. it seems like vista does not want to run on this rig. It hangs during the initial setup screen, right b4 it ask for the country of origin.

Just to put my doubts to bed I have successfully installed xp and everything worked Fine. This is giving me nightmares now bc I can't find a resolution to the problem

Someone, Any expert Please Help....'

Thanks again and Merry Christmas

Ok, a simple question
My current HD HTPC plays OK unless the bitrate of my lossless VC1/Flac mkv backups rises above 17 MBsec. bitrate.
Alas my mobo died today after an effort to overcome the afore mentioned issue with overclocking.
So I'm on the crossroads for a new mid range system. What should it be?
Intels Core2 Duo or AMD Phenom.
Als both recommended cpu's (Phenom 8750 and Intel E7400) are not available in stores next Saturday (I don't want to wait for a delivery next year).
So it's either the Phenom 8650 or the E 7300, because the price leap to the next models in store is really too large.
The disadvantage of Intel is that I have to avoid a P45 chipset, since that one causes alot of trouble with my expected buy of the Asus HDAV sound card.
For the rest of my stuff, I already have a Ati Radeon 4670 and am very pleased with it.
The mid-range AMD/AMD is not bad (the only disadvantage is relatively higher power consumption).

Merry Christmas everyone. I am working on my christmas HTPC right now and its turning into a nightmare.

So I went ahead and built the AMD/Nvidia High end Mtx build. Got all the pieces a day b4 christmas and didnt notice that instead of the 9950 cpu they sent me the 9850 cpu.
Which system are you building, microATX or ATX?

Which system are you building, microATX or ATX?

MicroATX.....

Thanks

Does it matter that Im using the 9850 instead of the 9950?

I think Ive isolated the problem down to either the ram (vista likes 2gig Installs) or my Sata drives. Ive heard some people make a partion, but that sounds a little confusing.

Have you heard of this problem B4?

Does it matter that Im using the 9850 instead of the 9950?

I think Ive isolated the problem down to either the ram (vista likes 2gig Installs) or my Sata drives. Ive heard some people make a partion, but that sounds a little confusing.

Have you heard of this problem B4?
9850 vs 9950 does not matter (performance difference is little). So your mb is ASUS M3N78-EM, right? I recommend to do two things:

- Update BIOS. You will need a flopply disk drive or USB flash memory. Please consult your manual 2.1.2 ASUS EZ Flash 2 utility.

- Run Memtest86 (http://www.memtest86.com/) or Memtest86+. Download a bootable ISO and burn it in a blank CD-R (or you can use a floppy disk). Usually a single pass is enough (takes ~1 hr for 2GB memory).

- After updating BIOS and if memory is no problem, then enter the BIOS setup and select Main > Storage Configuration > SATA Mode Select [AHCI] (in SATA mode you can use only three internal SATA ports). Then save BIOS change and restart the system. Then enter BIOS setup and change boot order (Px-[your DVD drive name] first).

- Somehow if you can't update BIOS (e.g. you don't have a floppy drive or USB flash memory), try to install Vista in SATA mode (use only red SATA ports of the mb). You can change to AHCI later.

- Also try to install OS with one stick of RAM.

I am planning to build a microATX mid-range intel/intel system based on the recommendations on page 85. One of my needs is to connect the HTPC to 2 monitors - TV monitor and a PC monitor. I would like to use TV for DVD/Blu-ray movies and the PC monitor for browsing. I see that I can connect to the TV using an HDMI port. My question is, can I connect to the PC monitor using a VGA cable and be able to switch between these monitors? If yes then what hardware will I need to accomplish this? I haven't purchased the PC monitor yet. Your help is much appreciated.

I am planning to build a microATX mid-range intel/intel system based on the recommendations on page 85. One of my needs is to connect the HTPC to 2 monitors - TV monitor and a PC monitor. I would like to use TV for DVD/Blu-ray movies and the PC monitor for browsing. I see that I can connect to the TV using an HDMI port. My question is, can I connect to the PC monitor using a VGA cable and be able to switch between these monitors? If yes then what hardware will I need to accomplish this? I haven't purchased the PC monitor yet. Your help is much appreciated.
I think you mean DVI (digital) by "VGA" (= analog D-sub 15 pin). You can use analog, but using digital is recommended unless your monitor accepts only analog. Yes, you can switch between them by hotkeys. Please read this post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=15223873#post15223873).

Yes, I meant DVI for the PC monitor. I will try your suggestion. Thanks a lot!

hey guys, i've got a question regarding the geforce 9400 motherboards.
i asked in the gigabyte thread for that board but nobody seems to know, or just didnt read my question. so here's the thing, i'm about to build me a new HTPC an was thinking of getting a board with the 9400 chip on it, my question is, can that gpu hardware accelerate the decoding of any H.264 encoded movie? specificly can it HA mkv's with a high 5.1 profile with more then 4 ref frames? cause no other gpu seems to be able to. and if it cant i need a bigger cpu then the 7200.
thanks for the help

9850 vs 9950 does not matter (performance difference is little). So your mb is ASUS M3N78-EM, right? I recommend to do two things:

- Update BIOS. You will need a flopply disk drive or USB flash memory. Please consult your manual 2.1.2 ASUS EZ Flash 2 utility.

- Run Memtest86 (http://www.memtest86.com/) or Memtest86+. Download a bootable ISO and burn it in a blank CD-R (or you can use a floppy disk). Usually a single pass is enough (takes ~1 hr for 2GB memory).

- After updating BIOS and if memory is no problem, then enter the BIOS setup and select Main > Storage Configuration > SATA Mode Select [AHCI] (in SATA mode you can use only three internal SATA ports). Then save BIOS change and restart the system. Then enter BIOS setup and change boot order (Px-[your DVD drive name] first).

- Somehow if you can't update BIOS (e.g. you don't have a floppy drive or USB flash memory), try to install Vista in SATA mode (use only red SATA ports of the mb). You can change to AHCI later.

- Also try to install OS with one stick of RAM.


Finally finally, Got it working this morning. I had to rip out the HD and install windows from another motherboard I had Laying around. After it loaded up half way I swapped back the drive and finished the install. Vista must not like this mother board at all.

ReneTHX thanks for all your help. I just started tweaking the setting to get everything right. If I could only figure out how to use remote to do anything other than power off the system, everything would be perfect. Also I have yet to get the LCD to work on the case, all it does is light up.

This build was great and I Learned so much, Thanks again renethx

Hi Renethx,
I realized that my trusty old HTPC is running on 6 year old equipment which to say the least is a bit outdated . I will add the specification to the end here but asking a bit of advice.
I recently puchased a Dell Inspiron 530 with a quad core Intel q6600 and 3gb of RAM and have updated with the following:
Video with an ASUS EAH4670.
Optical Drive: Blu-Ray with GGC-H20LK

I would like to do to 2 things or at least try...
1. Move guts of the Dell into the LC17 case can be done? Is it something that would be recommended?
2. The Asus is loud. What would you recommend to replace the fan on that video card?


OLD:
Motherboard: Asus P4P800 Deluxe | Proc: Intel P4 2.8Ghz Northwood | Memory: 1GB DDR | HDD: 4 x Seagate 400GB, 2 x Seagate 750GB, 2 x Seagate 1.5TB | OS: Windows XP Pro SP2 | Video: MSI GeForce FX5900XT |Capture: (1) HDHR, (1) DVico Fusion GOLD | Remote:FireFly | SW: Beyond Media Basic, Intervideo Windvd 7, RealVNC | Monitor: Sony 40v2500 | Case: Silverstone LC-17

Hi Renethx,
I realized that my trusty old HTPC is running on 6 year old equipment which to say the least is a bit outdated . I will add the specification to the end here but asking a bit of advice.
I recently puchased a Dell Inspiron 530 with a quad core Intel q6600 and 3gb of RAM and have updated with the following:
Video with an ASUS EAH4670.
Optical Drive: Blu-Ray with GGC-H20LK

I would like to do to 2 things or at least try...
1. Move guts of the Dell into the LC17 case can be done? Is it something that would be recommended?
2. The Asus is loud. What would you recommend to replace the fan on that video card?
If the mb does not use proprietary connectors (front panel etc.), the transition should be very easy. Zalman VF900 (several people are using it with EAH4670).

Can someone help me with the wiring for the fusion remote max. Hopefully someone here has managed to do what I want to do!
I am trying to get the wires connected right where in the manual it starts a section called Connecting the Switches and LED.
#1 is ok - connected the RESET SW no problem to the motherboard.
#2 seemed ok but I have two conectors labelled POWER SW, one with red and black wires and one with black and white wires. Which one connects to the motherboard and what do I do with the other one? Also can someone explain the note that goes with #2 in the manual.

BTW I am using a GA-MA790GP-DS4H mobo.
Hope someone can help. Thanks.

Renethx,

Somehow the referenced page number (p. 85, right?) for you latest recommendations doesn't show up for me. I wonder if some block of posts were deleted or something. Can you please provide a post number where you last updated your recs?

Thanks,
dKK

Renethx,

Somehow the referenced page number (p. 85, right?) for you latest recommendations doesn't show up for me. I wonder if some block of posts were deleted or something. Can you please provide a post number where you last updated your recs?

Thanks,
dKK

Page numbers depend on your settings for how many posts per page. It's on page 43 for me.

It's post numbers 2521-2525; hope that helps!

Part 1 (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=14239742&postcount=2521)
Part 2 (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=14239742&postcount=2522)
Part 3 (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=14239742&postcount=2523)
Part 4 (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=14239742&postcount=2524)
Part 5 (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=14239742&postcount=2525)

Page numbers depend on your settings for how many posts per page. It's on page 43 for me.

It's post number 2521; hope that helps!
Thanks!

Can someone help me with the wiring for the fusion remote max. Hopefully someone here has managed to do what I want to do!
I am trying to get the wires connected right where in the manual it starts a section called Connecting the Switches and LED.
#1 is ok - connected the RESET SW no problem to the motherboard.
#2 seemed ok but I have two conectors labelled POWER SW, one with red and black wires and one with black and white wires. Which one connects to the motherboard and what do I do with the other one? Also can someone explain the note that goes with #2 in the manual.

BTW I am using a GA-MA790GP-DS4H mobo.
Hope someone can help. Thanks.
They seem to have a problem handling different versions of their own products, at least with respect to documentation... Although I have the Antec Fusion 430, you seem to have the exact same problem I faced trying to understand the cabling...

White/black POWER SW coming from the on/off button on the front should be connected to the 2 pins made available on the inside of the front just behind the display/IR sensor.

Red/black POWER SW coming from the display/IR should then be connected to the motherboard.

This wiring allows on/off to be controlled both from on/off button and IR (logically ORed in the display/IR unit).

That being said, I got so frustrated by not being able to turn the display completely off, so I ended up connecting the white/black POWER SW directly to the MB, and disconnecting power to the display/IR module. IR/display will then of course not work. I don't mind, since I really wanted a normal PC in a quiet enclosure, that matches other AV equipment style.

For some more details on this, see http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=966864 and http://www.xpmediacentre.com.au/community/other-hardware-vista/25185-antec-fusion-case-connector-confusion.html

Thanks for the hint. I will investigate more but after a quick look I cannot see 2 pins on the front panel. I can't understand why if it connects to the IR why did they bring it out with all the rest of the wires. At least I am not the only one wo has had trouble with this. The manual was obviously written by a dyslexic 8 year old.

Update: OK. I am a bit more awake now....sure enough I see the two pins to connect the extra White/Black POWER SW connector to! Thanks for the help.

Hi Guys and Gals,

I've been reading this thread with interest. I think i've decided on the specification i want for the HTPC and thought I'd post here for any comments.

Motherboard ASUS P6T Deluxe
Intel 920 i7 processor
3GB Corsair Ram
Asus 4670 HD 512MB Graphics Card/Gainward HD 4870 Golden Sample Edition 1GB GDDR5 DVI HDMI
Maxtor 500GB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm *32MB Cache*
Coolermaster Silent Pro 700W Modular PSU - Single 12V Rail with 50A
A Silverstone Case
Vista 64-bit Home Premium
XONAR HDAV1.3 Deluxe
Blu-Ray DVD drive

My aim for the machine is to be able to play games and HD movies and use photoshop on large files. However with a graphics card with a Native HDMI output is the Xonar Required?

Regards

Nick

so, i built my new htpc:
Antec NSK2480 Desktop case + Antec Multimedia Station Elite
GigaByte GA-E7AUM-DS2H
Intel Dual Core E5200
Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 1TB
Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X4096-6400C5/G 4GB Kit 800Mhz

apart from display and sound problem once connected via HDMI to my sony lcd tv (I'm trying to run it under kubuntu), I'm quite disapointed with noise level of the case, and hdd is vibrating so adding noise...which better case would you recommend? thanks

Just to finish off my own problem - I now have everything connected up and so far eveyrthing powered up fine with the display working. No o/s yet though. My initial impression is that everything is very quiet.

I’m planning to build a Home Media Server, and I stumbled onto this forum a few months ago (great community here). Here’s the dilemma, My main priority is disk space to backup my SD-DVDs, HD-DVDs, pictures, pc's, etc. as well as expandability. So, I’ve decided to go with the NORCO 4020 case and Windows Home Server for the OS. However, I’m just not sure which motherboard graphics card etc. to go with. My server will be mounted on the opposite side of the wall from my home theater, so I would like to just run an HDMI cable from the server to my home theater, and use it as a HTPC as well. I would hope that the wall will provide enough noise dampening to insulate my theater from the noise from the server. So with that in mind, I’m not sure if I should go with the hardware recommended on page 85 for the server build, or go with the hardware for the mid-range ATX platform instead. Also, is that information still up-to-date or is there an alternative I should consider? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Renethx,

Somehow the referenced page number (p. 85, right?) for you latest recommendations doesn't show up for me. I wonder if some block of posts were deleted or something. Can you please provide a post number where you last updated your recs?

Thanks,
dKK

I know this was answered, but I wanted to point out that ANY Renethx post has a link to the latest recommends in the signature portion at the bottom - one click access.

Just another way that renethx makes life easier. Thanks renethx!

My aim for the machine is to be able to play games and HD movies and use photoshop on large files. However with a graphics card with a Native HDMI output is the Xonar Required?
If you are content with linear PCM, you don't need Xonar. If you want Dolby TrueHD/DTS-HD MA bitstreams, you will need it. BTW many reported that the ASUS 4670 card is not quiet.

so, i built my new htpc:
Antec NSK2480 Desktop case + Antec Multimedia Station Elite
GigaByte GA-E7AUM-DS2H
Intel Dual Core E5200
Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000 1TB
Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X4096-6400C5/G 4GB Kit 800Mhz

apart from display and sound problem once connected via HDMI to my sony lcd tv (I'm trying to run it under kubuntu), I'm quite disapointed with noise level of the case, and hdd is vibrating so adding noise...which better case would you recommend? thanks
Did you identify the source of the loudest noise? That could be the case fans, the CPU fan, or the PSU fan. I recommend to do:

- Connect the case fans to the mb fan connector and control the fan speeds (use a Y cable and SpeedFan; read this post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=15194481#post15194481)). Or replace the case fans like this (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=14742238#post14742238).
- Control the CPU fan speed with SpeedFan
- Replace the PSU fan or replace PSU by a quieter one (e.g. Corsair CX400W CMPSU-400CX).
- Read this article (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article75-page2.html) to reduce HDD vibration. Or replace HDD by a quieter one.

I’m planning to build a Home Media Server, and I stumbled onto this forum a few months ago (great community here). Here’s the dilemma, My main priority is disk space to backup my SD-DVDs, HD-DVDs, pictures, pc's, etc. as well as expandability. So, I’ve decided to go with the NORCO 4020 case and Windows Home Server for the OS. However, I’m just not sure which motherboard graphics card etc. to go with. My server will be mounted on the opposite side of the wall from my home theater, so I would like to just run an HDMI cable from the server to my home theater, and use it as a HTPC as well. I would hope that the wall will provide enough noise dampening to insulate my theater from the noise from the server. So with that in mind, I’m not sure if I should go with the hardware recommended on page 85 for the server build, or go with the hardware for the mid-range ATX platform instead. Also, is that information still up-to-date or is there an alternative I should consider? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
- CPU: Athlon X2 2.5GH or higher
- MB: GA-MA78G-DS3H
- Graphics card: HD 4550 or HD 4670

You'd better check if your applications are compatible with Windows Home Server. IIRC PowerDVD does not run on WHS, for example.

Cool thanks this is a really useful guide and forum for helping me get motivated again to build my own HTPC

Thanks again! I let you guys know how it turns out.

renethx

Last question promisie. So I set up my build in hybrid sli mode and I would like to push audio from the HDMI port from the mother board. but the only drivers I can get working are the Nvidia drivers not the Realtec drivers. The only reason I am complaining is bc I cant get the Nvidia drivers to play the audio from any of my High def movies.

When I go to sound devices I can actually see the test bar moving up and down but no audio gets to speakers.

Thanks for any suggestions you can bring my way.

Phil

renethx

Last question promisie. So I set up my build in hybrid sli mode and I would like to push audio from the HDMI port from the mother board. but the only drivers I can get working are the Nvidia drivers not the Realtec drivers. The only reason I am complaining is bc I cant get the Nvidia drivers to play the audio from any of my High def movies.

When I go to sound devices I can actually see the test bar moving up and down but no audio gets to speakers.
The latest NVIDIA HDMI audio driver is 1.00.00.33 (included in the nForce driver 15.24). Realtek audio has nothing to do with NVIDIA HDMI audio. They are independent of each other.

So you click the "Test" button and you can see the bar move up and down, but you can't hear sounds from the speakers, right? A possible cause is your receiver is not correctly configured. Check it again. Don't forget to select DD and DTS in Properties too. Click the "Test" button and see if you can hear DD/DTS sounds.

ok


With the Nvidia driver I can only get stereo quality sound. With the realteck I was getting way better. When I highlight the option to test DTS with the Nvidia driver I get an error message stating that this Has been disabled.

Thanks for all your help

edit....The highest sample rate I can choose from is 16bit and this is with the .33 drivers

Just to finish off my own problem - I now have everything connected up and so far eveyrthing powered up fine with the display working. No o/s yet though. My initial impression is that everything is very quiet.
One more question for someone about the Remote Fusion Max case. I noticed the VFD display is on all the time even though I switch the case power off (all the other fans turn off as expected). I have not loaded the o/s or drivers yet. Is this the expected behavior? At the moment the only way to switch the display off is to switch the power off to the power supply.

In case anyone else needs to know - I had a reply from Antec. They say that the display will not be on always once the driver software is installed.

Hi all,

So I've built my HTPC with more or less the recommend specs for the mid range micro-atx. But after a week of running it it no longer boots up!

When I turn it on the fans run for a couple seconds, then stop, then start again. But never is there any output to the display. No beeps either.

Any suggestions?

I've removed everything and reassembled and still nothing... Down the the bare CPU/Mobo/RAM and still no output so I assume one of these is fried/defective...

The mobo is P5Q-EM and the CPU is E8500.

Hi all,

So I've built my HTPC with more or less the recommend specs for the mid range micro-atx. But after a week of running it it no longer boots up!

When I turn it on the fans run for a couple seconds, then stop, then start again. But never is there any output to the display. No beeps either.

Any suggestions?

I've removed everything and reassembled and still nothing... Down the the bare CPU/Mobo/RAM and still no output so I assume one of these is fried/defective...

The mobo is P5Q-EM and the CPU is E8500.
Did you clear CMOS?

Did you clear CMOS?

How do I do that?

And can you explain how that could help? Just trying to understand what's going on...

Thanks.

Edit: Clearing the CMOS, is that erasing RTC Ram from the manual?

Clearing the CMOS, is that erasing RTC Ram from the manual?
Yeah, Clear RTC RAM. Manual page 1-28.

If you are content with linear PCM, you don't need Xonar. If you want Dolby TrueHD/DTS-HD MA bitstreams, you will need it. BTW many reported that the ASUS 4670 card is not quiet.

Many thanks, would the graphics card do the upscaling instead of the zonar then? Any other recommendations on the graphics card?

Regards

Nick

What software gives you guys best results for playing back:

- SD DVDs - TheaterTek (TT)
- Blu-ray Discs - Total Media Theater (TMT)
- HD-DVD discs - Total Media Theater (TMT)
- Ripped/downloaded content - TheaterTek (TT)

:confused:

What are the names of the settings you have to choose if you want DVD's to:

1) Maintain their original resolution (black bars and all if the display's bigger) and not be streched to fill the screen
2) Be truly upscaled and not simply "streched"

Thanks!! :cool:

- SD DVDs - TheaterTek (TT)
- Blu-ray Discs - Total Media Theater (TMT)
- HD-DVD discs - Total Media Theater (TMT)
- Ripped/downloaded content - TheaterTek (TT)

Vista Media Center

-Unleashing Microsoft Windows Vista Media Center (http://www.amazon.com/Unleashing-Microsoft-Windows-Vista-Center/dp/0789736713/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1228621950&sr=1-1)
- List your VMC best plugins here... (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1032611)

DVD

- Built-in player with the build-in decoder (or change it with Vista Media Center Decoder utility (http://mediacenterexpert.blogspot.com/2006/07/vista-media-center-decoder-utility.html))
- DVD Shrink or DVD Fab for ripping
- Vote for your favorite RIPPER! (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1002316)
- help ripping dvd collection for the first time (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1085903)
- How to enable the DVD Library in Windows Media Center on a Windows Vista-based computer (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/930526)
- How To Set Up a DVD Library in Windows Media Server (http://www.paraesthesia.com/archive/2008/09/12/how-to-set-up-a-dvd-library-in-windows-media.aspx)

BD

- TMT or PDVD
- AnyDVD HD (or DVDFab HD Decrypter) with or without ImgBurn for ripping
- My Movies (http://www.mymovies.dk/)
- MyMovies and WHS (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=14918868#post14918868)

MKV

- HD to mkv .....the options are endless!!!! (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1033822) (creating your own mkv files)
- Playing MKV files through VMC (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1023720)
- Is Hardware Acceleration (HA) possible for MKV in Vista Media Center (VMC)? (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1035600)
- Getting hardware accel working in VMC (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1070439)
- How To Guide: Full DXVA (Hardware Accel) in Vista Media Center for 1080p MKV's (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1096447)

MediaPortal: Another great front end.

- MediaPortal Install Guide (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1092168)

Renethx, one other question I'm not getting....

The card I chose and bought, is a Radeon HD4670, one of the reason s is for the post processing capabilities for upscaling SD DVDs.

From what I've been reading, the card should do hardware post processing, while options such as ffdshow, all the players, etc. do the post processing through software. So, first of all I assume hardware post processing is better, but how do I choose this instead of software?? Do I have to enable/disable something in particular? Is there really no sense in even using ffdshow in my case? (with a hardware post processing capable card).

As you can see I'm pretty confused as to what I have to use for each case and with my hardware (don't put specific programs if it's too much but maybe generics? i.e.: filters, codecs, nothing, change something in catalyst or whatever, etc.)

Just in case, this is the relevant hardware:

CPU: E5200
Ram: 2GB
GPU: Sapphire HD4670, 512MB
Drive: LG combo drive (BR & HD-DVD)
Connected through HDMI adapter to a 42" LG TV, 720p
Desktop resolution currently set at 1360 x 768

Thanks!!!
:cool:

Many thanks, would the graphics card do the upscaling instead of the zonar then? Any other recommendations on the graphics card?
Yes. I like HIS 4670 (my recommendation at page 85).

From what I've been reading, the card should do hardware post processing, while options such as ffdshow, all the players, etc. do the post processing through software. So, first of all I assume hardware post processing is better, but how do I choose this instead of software?? Do I have to enable/disable something in particular? Is there really no sense in even using ffdshow in my case? (with a hardware post processing capable card).

As you can see I'm pretty confused as to what I have to use for each case and with my hardware (don't put specific programs if it's too much but maybe generics? i.e.: filters, codecs, nothing, change something in catalyst or whatever, etc.)

Just in case, this is the relevant hardware:

CPU: E5200
Ram: 2GB
GPU: Sapphire HD4670, 512MB
Drive: LG combo drive (BR & HD-DVD)
Connected through HDMI adapter to a 42" LG TV, 720p
Desktop resolution currently set at 1360 x 768

Thanks!!!
:cool:
Hardware deinterlacing, inverse telecine and upscaling are automatic (unless you disable the in CCC). You can adjust denoise, edge enhancement and dynamic contrast in CCC. All these options should be available through a DXVA 2.0-compliant application player. The registry tweaking "UseBT601CSC"="1" is necessary.

For DVD the most common solution is VMC or WMP11 (Microsoft MPEG-2 Video Decoder). Any DirectShow player with ffdshow Video Decoder (libmpeg2.dll) is also good. For BD, use PowerDVD or TMT.

This thread is amazing! The hardware guide was very helpful, but I feel like I'm overlooking something in my own planning for what I want to build. :confused:

Long story short, I thought I'd build a NAS-type computer out of older hardware in another room, and have it send the media to my Xbox 360. After much fiddling with Mythbuntu, I was 70% successful in getting this done but it falls flat on some music files, and can't deal with x264 HD content over the network unless I spend days converting it to mp4 and drop the audio to 2 channels. Note with Mythbuntu I wasn't using any DVR abilities - just UPNP to the xbox from a central media store.

I find losing any kind of audio unpalatable, and in finding all the tedious and cumbersome workarounds to make x264 over 4GB in size playable on the 360 - this has kickstarted my urge to build a proper at-the-tv HTPC. I simply don't want to deal with patching together something, when I can be spending that time enjoying the media instead! :rolleyes:

I don't know which HTPC build would meet the specs I've got floating in my head. In all my searching and reading, most of what I want falls into a NAS category, but what I want to do seems to skim enough into other things that I don't know what hard rules I should follow in piecing together this HTPC.

Environment:
Direct connect to LCD HDTV, hdmi inputs
Wireless network to two laptops - Macbook, and PC Laptop
Repurposed desktop computer (athlon xp 1800+) running as NAS*
*would like to get rid of this computer

Requirements:
* easy to use. That means one remote if possible (harmony), no video converting, etc. I used to build computers for a few years so I'm fairly knowledgeable with basic hardware, but my wife doesn't have the patience. :eek:
* serve as a NAS for documents, ISOs, and computer (laptop) backups - Mac and PC
* serve up HD content to the TV, or over the network either from hd or disc
* music server (primarily itunes)
* media server (digital photos)
* estimating 1TB in size
* 5.1 DTS capable

Optional: DVR capability, send/receive torrents (optional for security reasons - will continue use of old desktop computer for this if necessary).

The plan was to use an external HD like the WD or Seagate USB drives to back up the whole thing on a weekly basis. I don't want to put all my eggs in one basket so to speak without having a backup regimen in the planning.

1. From my list of requirements, am I missing anything? Is there an obvious solution that I'm simply not getting, or is this the norm for HTPC things?

2. If I'm not missing anything, am I correct to assume that any of the low-end HTPC builds in this guide would suffice? Where are the minimum standards (eg, discreet GPU over integrated because of x) I should hold to for something like what I'm building?

3. I've played around with mythbuntu and found it ok, though I'm a fish out of water with Linux. I'm a PC kind of guy. With the requirements, is there a better OS alternative?

Any help on the subject would be greatly appreciated! :cool:

I am looking at building something along the lines of one of the low-end AMD systems. I plan to start out using the box for audio/video playback and web surfing and later add a capture card.

Like everyone else, I have a few questions for renethx or some of you other knowledgeable folks.

1. In the low-end AMD/AMD system, is the 4450 graphics card necessary? I was under the impression that the onboard 3200 would work fine.

2. Is the 5050e cpu still a good one to go with? The 5050e, 5200+, 5400BE, and 5600+ are all about the same price. I do like the lower power consumption of the 45w cpu. Is there a big performance hit in not going with one of the other chips?

3. Is there any Linux support yet for the hardware decoding (hope that was the right term) capabilities of the current on-board HD GPUs? I would prefer to run something like Mythbuntu instead of Vista.

4. If I am not going to be gaming, is spending a little more to get an Intel E5200 and a board with either Intel 4500 or Nvidia 8300/9300 graphic worth it? Will I see a performance increase?

5. If I want to add a bluray drive down the road, will a 5050e with the on-board 3200 or a seperate 4550 be able to play it in 1080p at full resolution? If not, what should I be looking at as a minimum?

Thank you for the help.
-Kevin

I have a Gigabyte 790GX motherboard, but having problems with the graphic. I'm therefore considering buying a dedicated graphic card, and need some help.

I'm using the HTPC in a dualscreen mode, so it's need to work well in this aspect. Panasonic plasma connected with HDMI and a small LDC screen connected with either VGA or DVI (doesn't really matter which).

Then I need to be careful with watts. I have heard ATI 4350 and 4550 only max 25W. Is that correct? What about ATI 4670?

The HTPC is used only for movies, SD and HD. Any recommendations? Stability is important of course. It also needs to be passively cooled.

I have built my htpc according to this thread and am about to attempt the final hook ups in my new theater. My HTPC has the Xonar, HIS 4670 and a Yamaha RXV 3800 in my component rack. What would be the best hdmi cable order. The video card has the dual DVI outs. Should I go from the Xonar to the Yamaha, and the video card to the projector(with the DVI to HDMI dongle) ?? The projector is an Epson 1080 UB with 2 hdmi imputs and component in.

-
You'd better check if your applications are compatible with Windows Home Server. IIRC PowerDVD does not run on WHS, for example.

I didn't think much about this originally, but after letting it sink in overnight this is actually a big issue. I assumed I could use WMC or XBMC to play my stored DVDs and HD-DVDs. But after researching this today, it doesn't look like either will play nice with WHS. Any suggestions? I was pretty set on using WHS for its simplicity and the backup features, but at this point I'm open to any suggestions that will keep this in one box.

Yeah, Clear RTC RAM. Manual page 1-28.

Clearing the RTC RAM did the trick! Thanks!

Yeah, Clear RTC RAM. Manual page 1-28.

I used my newly built HTPC yesterday, E5200 CPU, Gigabyte Ga-g31m-s2c MB (built it yesterday, not my first, built many PCs before -not specific HTPC), and today it wouldn't boot up either... Tried inserting another processor (E4600) from another machine and it did not boot up either (works fine in that other machine: Intel DG31PR motherboard)... I left just the CPU, MB and RAM in and nothing. I'm not sure my case is the same but I will try this tomorrow. If it is, is there a reason why this happens?, and what does clearing the RTC RAM do? In my case, I tried also placing the CPU of the HTPC (E5200) in the MB of the PC I took the test CPU from (the DG31PR MB)and it did not boot up either.... so I'm not sure it's the same case, or if the CPU could have gotten damaged? :confused:

Help! :(

I am looking at building something along the lines of one of the low-end AMD systems. I plan to start out using the box for audio/video playback and web surfing and later add a capture card.

Like everyone else, I have a few questions for renethx or some of you other knowledgeable folks.

1. In the low-end AMD/AMD system, is the 4450 graphics card necessary? I was under the impression that the onboard 3200 would work fine.

2. Is the 5050e cpu still a good one to go with? The 5050e, 5200+, 5400BE, and 5600+ are all about the same price. I do like the lower power consumption of the 45w cpu. Is there a big performance hit in not going with one of the other chips?

3. Is there any Linux support yet for the hardware decoding (hope that was the right term) capabilities of the current on-board HD GPUs? I would prefer to run something like Mythbuntu instead of Vista.

4. If I am not going to be gaming, is spending a little more to get an Intel E5200 and a board with either Intel 4500 or Nvidia 8300/9300 graphic worth it? Will I see a performance increase?

5. If I want to add a bluray drive down the road, will a 5050e with the on-board 3200 or a seperate 4550 be able to play it in 1080p at full resolution? If not, what should I be looking at as a minimum?
A couple possible options are:

- HD 3200+5050e is good for BD playback, but poor for deinterlacing if it concerns you. No multichannel LPCM.
- HD 3200+7750 is good for both progressive and interlaced contents. No multichannel LPCM.
- HD 4550+5050e is good for both progressive and interlaced contents and supports multichannel LPCM.
- GeForce 9300/9400+E5200 is good for both progressive and interlaced contents and supports multichannel LPCM.

5050e consumes the least power. I don't see any problem in playing back HD contents.

I have a Gigabyte 790GX motherboard, but having problems with the graphic. I'm therefore considering buying a dedicated graphic card, and need some help.

I'm using the HTPC in a dualscreen mode, so it's need to work well in this aspect. Panasonic plasma connected with HDMI and a small LDC screen connected with either VGA or DVI (doesn't really matter which).

Then I need to be careful with watts. I have heard ATI 4350 and 4550 only max 25W. Is that correct? What about ATI 4670?

The HTPC is used only for movies, SD and HD. Any recommendations? Stability is important of course. It also needs to be passively cooled.
Power consumption at Idle/video playback is roughly

- HD 4350/4550: 10W/15W
- HD 4670: 20W/30W

You'd better avoid HD 4350 (not good for post-processing). I don't see a good passingly cooled card. You need to buy a retail cooler.

Renethx--

I want to thank you for this guide. I used to build custom PC's years ago and gave up on it because it's become quite overwhelming all of the options we have! I ended up building the "High End" system (Intel / Intel) purchasing everything through newegg. (with ASUS P5Q-EM board.)

The case was a bit more expensive than you had listed, no biggie. It's a pretty cool case. I didn't realize that I got 8gb of RAM, so I ended up wiping Vista x86 and loaded 64bit (strangly enough x86 reported 8GB ram installed, any clue on that??)

I'm still trying different front-end softwares, looking for the perfect one. Every one has their pros and cons. Crazily enough WMP11 seems to be the best bet with the Vista codec pack or CCCP, unfortunately windows MCE doesn't like MKV files unless I load the 64bit vista codec pack but then video and audio are all out of sync and it goes nuts.

One other gripe... the Ninja Mini CPU cooler... man what a monster! What sucks is that it didn't like to stay mounted in the holes, it would keep popping out of the board. The only place to mount the fan to it was towards the CDROM bay, although the fan had to rest on top of the chipset heatsink. I'm tempted to use the OEM intel fan that came with the CPU. Why did you specify this fan / heatsink? Is it better for overclocking? How do I overclock this thing? If I decide to not overclock, is the stock OEM Fan sufficient?

One more thing. I couldnt' for the life of me get 1080p to my Sharp 52" Aquos LCD. After days of messing around, I finally tried a new HDMI cable and it works fine. I can use 1920 at 60hz now.

Thanks again bud-

I have built my htpc according to this thread and am about to attempt the final hook ups in my new theater. My HTPC has the Xonar, HIS 4670 and a Yamaha RXV 3800 in my component rack. What would be the best hdmi cable order. The video card has the dual DVI outs. Should I go from the Xonar to the Yamaha, and the video card to the projector(with the DVI to HDMI dongle) ?? The projector is an Epson 1080 UB with 2 hdmi imputs and component in.
Note that Xonar does not support 24p. So:

- 24p: Connect one DVI port of HD 4670 to the display via a DVI-HDMI adapter and HDMI cable. Connect the other DVI port of HD 4670 to Xonar, then Xonar to the receiver. Use extended desktop mode and send the secondary desktop to Xonar.

- Otherwise connect one DVI port of HD 4670 to Xonar, then Xonar to AVR, then AVR to the display (and speakers).

Hello everyone! I must first say thank you to all that have been posting their advice and experiences in this thread! It has been a lot of reading and trying to understand! Needless to say, I am about to start building my first HTPC (have built systems before though) since my wife gave me money to start this for Christmas. Basically all I am wanting to do is watch movies through the HTPC, record some TV shows, and watch movies that I have copied/burned onto the HDD's. This is the list of components that I have come up with:

AVERMEDIA Avertv combo HDTV pci express tv tuner (white box)
ATI Radeon HD 4670 512MB ddr3 HDMI & DVI
GIGABYTE GA-MA78G-DS3H AMD 780g chipset ATX form factor
ATHLON X2 7750 2.7G - Black
OCZ OCZ2VU8004GK 4gb kit (2gb x 2) pc2-6400 800mhz
LITE-ON Black 4X Blu-ray DVD-ROM 12X DVD-ROM 32X CD-ROM SATA
CoolerMaster eXtreme Power 500W Power Supply : RP-500-PCAR
Antec Advanced Super Mid Tower Case

The AVR that this is hooking up to is an older Sherwood RD-8601 and a older Sony Wega (KV-40XBR700), neither of which have HDMI. Since this is the case, I will be using component out of the Sapphire ATI card, and the SPDIF out of the mobo. What I am wondering is if the picture will look good for Blue-Ray at 1024i (since the most that I can get for the Sony is 1080i and 480p - no 720p) and how will it sound using the onboard sound? I do understand that since I am using the onboard sound I will be using LPCM and that I will be limited to DD/DTS 5.1 (or DTS Neo if I remember reading that correctly). The only thing that I need to do is make sure that any codecs for sound are using the LPCM format, correct? This is to allow the receiver to decode the data coming in.

Please let me know if I am off the mark somewhere or if you all can see any issues with the setup that I am looking to build. Thanks everyone for the help!!!

Sincerely,

Herbie

I didn't think much about this originally, but after letting it sink in overnight this is actually a big issue. I assumed I could use WMC or XBMC to play my stored DVDs and HD-DVDs. But after researching this today, it doesn't look like either will play nice with WHS. Any suggestions? I was pretty set on using WHS for its simplicity and the backup features, but at this point I'm open to any suggestions that will keep this in one box.
Vista (Home Premium or Ultimate) is practically the only OS for HTPC (aside from XP and Linux). Then software RAID is excluded. You may use HDDs as single disks or you may add a RAID controller card for hardware RAID. GA-MA78G-DS3H has a PCIe x4 slot, but then two of the three PCIe x1 slots are disabled. GA-MA790GP-DS4H has two PCIe x16 slots both of which work at x8 (one for graphics and the other for RAID controller). RAID is not backup. So you have to think about that too.

But you can build a dedicated small HTPC at a less cost than a RAID controller card itself. :)

One other gripe... the Ninja Mini CPU cooler... man what a monster! What sucks is that it didn't like to stay mounted in the holes, it would keep popping out of the board. The only place to mount the fan to it was towards the CDROM bay, although the fan had to rest on top of the chipset heatsink. I'm tempted to use the OEM intel fan that came with the CPU. Why did you specify this fan / heatsink? Is it better for overclocking? How do I overclock this thing? If I decide to not overclock, is the stock OEM Fan sufficient?
I think Ninja Mini is a relatively compact retail cooler. :) A great advantage of Ninja Mini for HTPC is that you can go with passive cooling. If you hate it, you can use the stock cooler.

Hello everyone! I must first say thank you to all that have been posting their advice and experiences in this thread! It has been a lot of reading and trying to understand! Needless to say, I am about to start building my first HTPC (have built systems before though) since my wife gave me money to start this for Christmas. Basically all I am wanting to do is watch movies through the HTPC, record some TV shows, and watch movies that I have copied/burned onto the HDD's. This is the list of components that I have come up with:

AVERMEDIA Avertv combo HDTV pci express tv tuner (white box)
ATI Radeon HD 4670 512MB ddr3 HDMI & DVI
GIGABYTE GA-MA78G-DS3H AMD 780g chipset ATX form factor
ATHLON X2 7750 2.7G - Black
OCZ OCZ2VU8004GK 4gb kit (2gb x 2) pc2-6400 800mhz
LITE-ON Black 4X Blu-ray DVD-ROM 12X DVD-ROM 32X CD-ROM SATA
CoolerMaster eXtreme Power 500W Power Supply : RP-500-PCAR
Antec Advanced Super Mid Tower Case

The AVR that this is hooking up to is an older Sherwood RD-8601 and a older Sony Wega (KV-40XBR700), neither of which have HDMI. Since this is the case, I will be using component out of the Sapphire ATI card, and the SPDIF out of the mobo. What I am wondering is if the picture will look good for Blue-Ray at 1024i (since the most that I can get for the Sony is 1080i and 480p - no 720p) and how will it sound using the onboard sound? I do understand that since I am using the onboard sound I will be using LPCM and that I will be limited to DD/DTS 5.1 (or DTS Neo if I remember reading that correctly). The only thing that I need to do is make sure that any codecs for sound are using the LPCM format, correct? This is to allow the receiver to decode the data coming in.
Not good as digital, but still should be watchable.

S/PDIF from the onboard audio codec (stereo LPCM, DD, DTS) can practically handle every audio format. PowerDVD (retail) and TMT have a built-in DD or DTS encoder so that every audio format is encoded into DD or DTS. AC3Filter has a DD encoder that can be used with many DirectShow players.

A couple possible options are:

- HD 3200+5050e is good for BD playback, but poor for deinterlacing if it concerns you. No multichannel LPCM.
- HD 3200+7750 is good for both progressive and interlaced contents. No multichannel LPCM.
- HD 4550+5050e is good for both progressive and interlaced contents and supports multichannel LPCM.
- GeForce 9300/9400+E5200 is good for both progressive and interlaced contents and supports multichannel LPCM.

5050e consumes the least power. I don't see any problem in playing back HD contents.

Let me make sure I have a couple of things correct. Doesn't deinterlacing only pertains to watching or recording over the air broadcast? Also, if I am recording an OTA broadcast, can I record then deinterlate later (not while I'm watching)? So when I do play the video, it is progressive.

As for as multichannel LPCM, I plan on running the audio out of the on-board sound directly to my 7.1 receiver. Since I am not sending the audio over the HDMI, do I need to worry about this? Is the audio multichannel LPCM provides better than using analog?

Thanks again,
Kevin

Hey All,
I am looking for recommendations on a video card for my HTPC. Here is my current setup:

PSU: Antec Earthwatts 430
HD: WD 640AAKS
Optical Drive: LG Blu-Ray/HD-DVD Combo Drive
PC: AMD Athlon X2 BE-2400
Cooler: Arctic Cooler 64 PRO
MB: Asus M3N72-D

My mobo has Hybrid SLI and I would like to take advantage of that by using an Nvidia graphics card, but do you think I should just go with an ATI video card like the HD4670 that has been recommended throughout this thread? I am mainly going to be using this PC for viewing Blu-Ray/HD-DVD videos and other movies or shows that I download.

Let me make sure I have a couple of things correct. Doesn't deinterlacing only pertains to watching or recording over the air broadcast? Also, if I am recording an OTA broadcast, can I record then deinterlate later (not while I'm watching)? So when I do play the video, it is progressive.

As for as multichannel LPCM, I plan on running the audio out of the on-board sound directly to my 7.1 receiver. Since I am not sending the audio over the HDMI, do I need to worry about this? Is the audio multichannel LPCM provides better than using analog?

Thanks again,
Kevin
Interlaced contents are mainly SD/HD TV programs excluding film-based contents (live or recorded). Film-based SD/HD TV programs and film-based DVD movies are also interlaced, but fundamentally different from "video". What you need is not "advanced deinterlacing" but "inverse telecine" or "pull-down detection". I think HD 3200+5050e is pretty good for inverse telecine (but PQ is still considered poor by many).

If your receiver does not support HDMI, you don't need multichannel LPCM.

Hey All,
I am looking for recommendations on a video card for my HTPC. Here is my current setup:

PSU: Antec Earthwatts 430
HD: WD 640AAKS
Optical Drive: LG Blu-Ray/HD-DVD Combo Drive
PC: AMD Athlon X2 BE-2400
Cooler: Arctic Cooler 64 PRO
MB: Asus M3N72-D

My mobo has Hybrid SLI and I would like to take advantage of that by using an Nvidia graphics card, but do you think I should just go with an ATI video card like the HD4670 that has been recommended throughout this thread? I am mainly going to be using this PC for viewing Blu-Ray/HD-DVD videos and other movies or shows that I download.
Hybrid SLI actually consists of two different functions: GeForce Boost (boosting IGP gaming performance by adding a similar low-end discrete graphics) and Hybrid Power (use a discrete card for gaming and use IGP for everything else to save power). Unless you already have GeForce 8400 GS or 8500 GT and you want to increase IGP 3D performance slightly, GeForce Boost is not worth considering. On the other hand, if you want to use a high-end card (GeForce 9800 GT or higher), Hybrid Power is useful to save power.

If you are not interested in gaming, these features are pretty useless. Athlon X2 AM2 processor is not bad, but AM2+ is better for IGP. If you are going to add a discrete card, an ATI card may be a better choice. Some may prefer IGP for HDMI audio+a discrete GeForce graphics for better 24p support to ATI.

A couple possible options are:

- HD 3200+5050e is good for BD playback, but poor for deinterlacing if it concerns you. No multichannel LPCM.
- HD 3200+7750 is good for both progressive and interlaced contents. No multichannel LPCM.
- HD 4550+5050e is good for both progressive and interlaced contents and supports multichannel LPCM.
- GeForce 9300/9400+E5200 is good for both progressive and interlaced contents and supports multichannel LPCM.

5050e consumes the least power. I don't see any problem in playing back HD contents.

Hi all , im about to build a new htpc, but im insure about club 3d radeon 4830 +5050e or club 3d radeon 4670 + 5050e , the diference is just 30 euros. Iwanted a his 4670 but costs almost the same as radeon 4830(-+25). Which one should u go? If i buy radeon 4830 do i need a fast processor? I use my Htpc for movies, music, sometimes i burn to DVDs (avi to dvd files) and im also planning to use this one as game machine ( i dont play at all but my wife want a playstation ), what should u advice??? thanxx in advance:D can someone explain what a hell is HT3.0 and what give that to htpc system?

Hi all , im about to build a new htpc, but im insure about club 3d radeon 4830 +5050e or club 3d radeon 4670 + 5050e , the diference is just 30 euros. Iwanted a his 4670 but costs almost the same as radeon 4830(-+25). Which one should u go? If i buy radeon 4830 do i need a fast processor? I use my Htpc for movies, music, sometimes i burn to DVDs (avi to dvd files) and im also planning to use this one as game machine ( i dont play at all but my wife want a playstation ), what should u advice??? thanxx in advance:D can someone explain what a hell is HT3.0 and what give that to htpc system?
For gaming 4830 is a better choice (obviously). You may get better fps with a faster processor.

HT is the bus protocol connecting chipset (and IGP) to CPU/memory controller. Faster HT is better in video playback with IGP (because of better communication between IGP and memory). If you use a discrete card, this is not important for video playback (although it may affects 3D performance).

For gaming 4830 is a better choice (obviously). You may get better fps with a faster processor.

HT is the bus protocol connecting chipset (and IGP) to CPU/memory controller. Faster HT is better in video playback with IGP (because of better communication between IGP and memory). If you use a discrete card, this is not important for video playback (although it may affects 3D performance).
Thanxx for ur answer
Im going to use Phenom II in future , but im waiting for reviews about how they (will) perform , did u ever tested a Club 3D 4830 ? Are the cards really quiet? I im unable to find reviews about that specific one:D. Let me see faster HTT doesnt have impact in normal pc work , like email, internet etc??

Did you identify the source of the loudest noise? That could be the case fans, the CPU fan, or the PSU fan. indeed, case fans are not the most silent. my normal pc is done in an Antec P180, i replaced case fans for scythe fans, i will do that in my htpc. I also think I have to replace the CPU cooler, the intel one is quite noisy. about the PSU, I wanted to avoid to buy one, wanted to keep the costs not too high.I recommend to do:

- Connect the case fans to the mb fan connector and control the fan speeds (use a Y cable and SpeedFan; read this post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=15194481#post15194481)). Or replace the case fans like this (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=14742238#post14742238).
- Control the CPU fan speed with SpeedFan
- Replace the PSU fan or replace PSU by a quieter one (e.g. Corsair CX400W CMPSU-400CX).
- Read this article (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article75-page2.html) to reduce HDD vibration. Or replace HDD by a quieter one. under linux, speedfan is not supported, i think?

About HDD, does it have to be vertical or horizontal? I always thought it was better to have them horizontal.

thanks

did u ever tested a Club 3D 4830 ? Are the cards really quiet? I im unable to find reviews about that specific one:D. Let me see faster HTT doesnt have impact in normal pc work , like email, internet etc??
No.

Slower HT is enough for email and Internet. Higher HT may affects applications that require fast traffic of a large amount of data between memory and chipset (e.g. gaming).

under linux, speedfan is not supported, i think?

About HDD, does it have to be vertical or horizontal? I always thought it was better to have them horizontal.
SpeedFan is a Windows program.

Better for what, quietness or lifetime? I haven't heard of difference.

I've been tweaking my new HTPC a bit lately. I've been using the onboard graphics of a Geforce 9300 motherboard. Anyway, I've come across a feature in Nvidia's control panel that is new to me called Dynamic Contrast Enhancement. Based on the name and what it does with the resulting image I can only assume it looks at each frame of video and adjusts the contrast to what the driver thinks it should be.

It seems to work pretty well but I'm curious whether others are using this to improve picture quality or is there a reason it should be avoided?

I am giving some thought to buying an ATI HD4850 video card. Does ATI and this card have Dynamic Contrast Enhancement or is it only something found with Nvidia?

I did some searching on the forums but was surprised that I couldn't find detailed discussions around this since it appears to alter picture quality so significantly.

Let me make sure I have a couple of things correct. Doesn't deinterlacing only pertains to watching or recording over the air broadcast?


No - it is relevant to 1080i Blu-rays and SD DVDs as well.

Anything encoded in 1080i or 480i (even if from a progressive source) will need to be de-interlaced. Film (or 24p/25p video sources) will need to be reverse pulled-down (sometimes called inverse telecine) whilst native 50i/60i video content will need avanced high-quality de-interlacing (such as vector adaptive)


Also, if I am recording an OTA broadcast, can I record then deinterlate later (not while I'm watching)? So when I do play the video, it is progressive.


The de-interlacing is a function of replay with most solutions - you de-interlace as (or just after) you MPEG2/H264/VC-1 decode.


As for as multichannel LPCM, I plan on running the audio out of the on-board sound directly to my 7.1 receiver. Since I am not sending the audio over the HDMI, do I need to worry about this? Is the audio multichannel LPCM provides better than using analog?


Most on-board DACs and audio systems on PC motherboard sound solutions are pretty poor (noisy, low quality design etc.) - so HDMI avoids the quality drop caused by the analogue chain. However analogue can still deliver good quality results.

Note that Xonar does not support 24p. So:

- 24p: Connect one DVI port of HD 4670 to the display via a DVI-HDMI adapter and HDMI cable. Connect the other DVI port of HD 4670 to Xonar, then Xonar to the receiver. Use extended desktop mode and send the secondary desktop to Xonar.

- Otherwise connect one DVI port of HD 4670 to Xonar, then Xonar to AVR, then AVR to the display (and speakers).
thank you very much!!

Hybrid SLI actually consists of two different functions: GeForce Boost (boosting IGP gaming performance by adding a similar low-end discrete graphics) and Hybrid Power (use a discrete card for gaming and use IGP for everything else to save power). Unless you already have GeForce 8400 GS or 8500 GT and you want to increase IGP 3D performance slightly, GeForce Boost is not worth considering. On the other hand, if you want to use a high-end card (GeForce 9800 GT or higher), Hybrid Power is useful to save power.

If you are not interested in gaming, these features are pretty useless. Athlon X2 AM2 processor is not bad, but AM2+ is better for IGP. If you are going to add a discrete card, an ATI card may be a better choice. Some may prefer IGP for HDMI audio+a discrete GeForce graphics for better 24p support to ATI.


I think I may just go with which ever card I can get a deal on, either a 4670 or 9600/9800gt card. My current display does not support 24p so I am not too concerned with that feature. Also my current receiver does not support HDMI but I will be upgrading once I find a good deal on a newer receiver. Thanks for the info.

Just wondering if there are any other options in the case of a mini mobo other than the intel g45

need to build like 4 of them to share media around the house from my small 6tb server of br.mkv rips and music?

thank you

I'm way behind the curve now...thinking of replacing a very dated 754 platform HTCP...

Basic Needs and Priorities
HDTV (with time-shifting),
Blu-ray playback
Compatability with DTS-HD and Dolby TrueHD (for future addition of Xonar or similar)
Audio Quality
Picture Quality

Questions:
1. PQ of Blu-ray plaback as compared to PS3:
Can I get reasonably close with any of the low-end or mid-range graphics cards (GF8300, HD4550, HD4670 or 9500GT)?
If not, what would I have to get for comparable picture quality?
Are there noticeable PQ differences in these cards?

2. PQ of HDTV as compared to MyHD:
Been using the MyHD card (MDP-120) for a few years, and the PQ is noticeably superior to the output of my 6600GT (i.e., I can easily compare playback of .TS files). In fact, even DVD playback through the MyHD card is better than any SW player I've used with the 6600GT or my prior ATI.
So, I'm left wondering, Could the graphics cards in the low and mid systems (with the AVerMedia, or some other tuner) equal the MyHD in picture quality?

Thanks for the input.

Just wondering if there are any other options in the case of a mini mobo other than the intel g45

need to build like 4 of them to share media around the house from my small 6tb server of br.mkv rips and music?
Popcorn Hour A-110 (http://www.popcornhour.com/onlinestore/index.php?pluginoption=catalog&task=info&item_id=10&main_id=0&category_id=)? (I haven't used it.)

Tried Pop 110, PQ nice (good chipset) but definitive problems with sources out of standard, a bit slow and worst of all reliability problems (2 RMAs). On the other hand it might be less stressfull/enoyable than htpc:)

Tried Pop 110, PQ nice (good chipset) but definitive problems with sources out of standard, a bit slow and worst of all reliability problems (2 RMAs). On the other hand it might be less stressfull/enoyable than htpc:)

Have had a PCH-A100 for a year now. Best AV kit I've ever purchased.

Plays DVD ISOs/VIDEO_TS well with full menus, and with the assistance of TSPE, TSMuxer and TSRemux at various times I've been able to play H264 off-air TS recordings with no problems. MPEG2 stuff needed no fiddling at all - and pretty much every WMV and DIVX or MP4 file I've thrown at it has played fine.

MP3 replay is the worst aspect of it - but the video performance is first rate - and it has proper 23.98p and 59.94p output.

Did you identify the source of the loudest noise? That could be the case fans, the CPU fan, or the PSU fan. I recommend to do:

- Connect the case fans to the mb fan connector and control the fan speeds (use a Y cable and SpeedFan; read this post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=15194481#post15194481)). Or replace the case fans like this (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=14742238#post14742238).
- Control the CPU fan speed with SpeedFan
- Replace the PSU fan or replace PSU by a quieter one (e.g. Corsair CX400W CMPSU-400CX).
- Read this article (http://www.silentpcreview.com/article75-page2.html) to reduce HDD vibration. Or replace HDD by a quieter one.
I was reading this post and I wondered about the case fans I have in my antec case. They have external switches for speed control (I have it set to low speed) and come with 4 pin molex connectors. I have these connected to the power supply at the moment. Am I better off connecting these to the motherboard 4 pin sys-fan header and using speedfan? If so, is there some sort of adapter to go from the 4 pin molex to 4 pin fan header. I assume the 4 pin molex will not fit on the mobo header. I haven't tried it in case I screw something up.

Thanks

About to buy parts for my media server and looking at the GIGABYTE GA-MA78G-DS3H as per the guide.
I plan to use the 6 on board SATA ports with 1.5 TB drives and probably something like UNRAID, I have no need for HW RAID. This system will only serve music, video and home automation functions. I see that add in RAID cards are suggested and none of the on board SATA is used.

Is there some reason the on board ports should not be used ?

TIA...

Questions:
1. PQ of Blu-ray plaback as compared to PS3:
Can I get reasonably close with any of the low-end or mid-range graphics cards (GF8300, HD4550, HD4670 or 9500GT)?
If not, what would I have to get for comparable picture quality?
Are there noticeable PQ differences in these cards?

2. PQ of HDTV as compared to MyHD:
Been using the MyHD card (MDP-120) for a few years, and the PQ is noticeably superior to the output of my 6600GT (i.e., I can easily compare playback of .TS files). In fact, even DVD playback through the MyHD card is better than any SW player I've used with the 6600GT or my prior ATI.
So, I'm left wondering, Could the graphics cards in the low and mid systems (with the AVerMedia, or some other tuner) equal the MyHD in picture quality?

Thanks for the input.
Basically there is no noticeable difference of PQ between PS3 and the latest GPUs in HTPC (low-end to high-end, ATI and NVIDIA) in BD playback. In a sense playing back BD movies (decoding the contents faithfully to the original and sending them to the display in 1:1 pixel mapping) is the easiest task for any HTPC (apart from proper support for 24p and HD audio). I don't use MyHD, so leave the second question to other people.

I was reading this post and I wondered about the case fans I have in my antec case. They have external switches for speed control (I have it set to low speed) and come with 4 pin molex connectors. I have these connected to the power supply at the moment. Am I better off connecting these to the motherboard 4 pin sys-fan header and using speedfan? If so, is there some sort of adapter to go from the 4 pin molex to 4 pin fan header. I assume the 4 pin molex will not fit on the mobo header. I haven't tried it in case I screw something up.
Use

- 4pin - 3pin Fan Power Adapter (http://www.bestbyteinc.com/Cables_&_Misc._Accessories/Power_Cables,_Fan_Cables/4pin_-_3pin_Fan_Power_Adapter_*not_for_general_use!*/Page_1/CBL-FAN-43B.html) x 2
- 3pin Female - Dual 3wire / 3pin Male Fan Power Adapter (http://www.bestbyteinc.com/Cables_&_Misc._Accessories/Power_Cables,_Fan_Cables/3pin_Female_-_Dual_3wire__x__3pin_Male_Fan_Power_Adapter/Page_1/CBL-FAN-3D3.html) x 1

I see that add in RAID cards are suggested and none of the on board SATA is used.
That's not correct. Look at the 15TB (16 HDD) System at page 85, for example. If you don't use any onboard SATA port, you can connect only 12 HDDs.

- Supermicro AOC-SAT2-MV8: 8 ports
- PROMISE SATA300 TX4: 4 ports
- Onboard SATA: 6 ports
- Total: 18 ports

Use

- 4pin - 3pin Fan Power Adapter (http://www.bestbyteinc.com/Cables_&_Misc._Accessories/Power_Cables,_Fan_Cables/4pin_-_3pin_Fan_Power_Adapter_*not_for_general_use!*/Page_1/CBL-FAN-43B.html) x 2
- 3pin Female - Dual 3wire / 3pin Male Fan Power Adapter (http://www.bestbyteinc.com/Cables_&_Misc._Accessories/Power_Cables,_Fan_Cables/3pin_Female_-_Dual_3wire__x__3pin_Male_Fan_Power_Adapter/Page_1/CBL-FAN-3D3.html) x 1

hey thanks renethx and rmmeli, i was wondering how to do this as well!

do we still need to set the manual speed switches? (to High maybe?)

Basically there is no noticeable difference of PQ between PS3 and the latest GPUs in HTPC (low-end to high-end, ATI and NVIDIA) in BD playback. In a sense playing back BD movies (decoding the contents faithfully to the original and sending them to the display in 1:1 pixel mapping) is the easiest task for any HTPC (apart from proper support for 24p and HD audio). I don't use MyHD, so leave the second question to other people.

That's very valuable information...If the latest GPU's can produce PS3-level picture quality (which my 6600GT obviously could not) then probably a reasonable guess is that they can do really clean HDTV as well. I think I may be ready to jump on board with one of the Low or Mid systems - I'll probably just follow the recipe without substitutions.
(Hmm...I'm wondering what I can get for my Playstation still under warranty.)

Your contributions here are amazingly authoritative by the way...

hey thanks renethx and rmmeli, i was wondering how to do this as well!

do we still need to set the manual speed switches? (to High maybe?)
Set to High and control the speeds with SpeedFan.

Happy New Years, everybody. To start off the new year, I'm thinking of building a simple htpc. This guide (and other threads) are great, but a bit overwhelming. First, my goals:

1. Stream internet media (ie. Hulu, Joost, etc...)
2. Play Blu Rays.
3. Surf the net.
That's about it. I don't need 1080p or anything but 2 chan sound. This is going to be hooked up to an upstairs TV only, no receiver.

Here's the part list that I've come up with:

Memory- G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122)

HD- a 1tb Samsung HD that I already have lying around. (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152102&Tpk=samsung%201tb)

MoBo- GIGABYTE GA-E7AUM-DS2H LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 9400 HDMI (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128363)

CPU- E5200 Wolfdale (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116072)

Blu-Ray Drive- LG GBC-H20LI (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp;jsessionid=A4OGJQVYQOTINKC4D3EFAGY?skuId=8844655&st=blu-ray&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1208562591968)

Case- Antec Aluminum Veris Fusion Black 430 Micro ATX Media Center (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129030)

I'm not wedded to any of these parts, so any suggestions are appreciated! I may pick up a cheap Hauppauge tv tuner but I don't need any pvr capabilities. Please let me know what you think! Thanks.

Alright after quickly reading p43 to p87 I have come up with a couple questions of my own. Granted I might have missed the answers in my reading, but I will throw them out there anyway.

If I got a GeForce 9300/9400 mb and also installed a NVidia 9800GT, GTX 260, GTX 280, or another discrete NVidia graphics card wouldn't that be the best of both worlds so to speak? I would have perfect multi-channel LPCM and also a better card to handle post-processing.

I have read many many times that the ATI 4850 gives the best post processing, but there are very random issues with stutters and lip-sync issues.

I intend on pairing the 9300/9400 with a Q9550, E8500, or i7920 depending on reviews.

Would this work?

Hello everyone and happy new years.
I've been thinking of getting a new compuer since I've been using the current one for about 8 years and I'm not satisfied with it anymore.
(It will not be used for games,as for that I have my PS3.However I will expect it to be able to run games as an O.K. quality)

My goals are:
1.Using many softwares/programs at the time(For instance:Torrent,IE,burning,watch a movie,msn and convert a file)

2.Disply HD movies in high quality.

3.Burn blu-ray movies.

I allocated a limit of 1350$ for the overall computer
That's what I've come with so far:

NZXT TEMPEST Crafted Series CS-NT-TEM-B Black Steel (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811146047&Tpk=n82e16811146047) price:134$

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD753LJ 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152100&Tpk=n82e16822152100) price:91$

SAPPHIRE 100259-1GL Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102801&Tpk=n82e16814102801) price:292$

SeaSonic SS-500ES 500W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151040) price:82$

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory – Retail (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122&Tpk=n82e16820231122) price:49$

ASUS P5QL PRO LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131329&Tpk=n82e16813131329) price:104$

LG Black 6X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 6X Blu-ray DVD-ROM 4MB Cache SATA Internal Blu-ray Burner 6X Blu-ray Disc Burner & HD DVD-ROM Drive Model GGW-H20LK – OEM (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136155&Tpk=n82e16827136155)
268$
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz 12MB L2 Cache LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor – Retail (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115041&Tpk=n82e16819115041) 390$

OCZ OCZTVEND2 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - Retail (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835202007&Tpk=Vendetta%202) 60$

subtotal:1473$

Since this price is 120$ more than the original limit I've been adviced to reduce the graphic card to HD4850 cause I don't need a HD4870 if I'm not gonna play any games.
Due to my lack of knowledge about that I couldn't decide which HD4850 to choose,and hope you'll be able to help me with that:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=hd4850

Any other suggestions are appreciated as well.
Thanks in advance for any help.

*BTW, it's gonna be connected to a 20.1 " monitor of dell which supports HDMI(think it's called somthing like wf2700).

Hello everyone and happy new years.
I've been thinking of getting a new compuer since I've been using the current one for about 8 years and I'm not satisfied with it anymore.
(It will not be used for games,as for that I have my PS3.However I will expect it to be able to run games as an O.K. quality)

My goals are:
1.Using many softwares/programs at the time(For instance:Torrent,IE,burning,watch a movie,msn and convert a file)

2.Disply HD movies in high quality.

3.Burn blu-ray movies.

I allocated a limit of 1350$ for the overall computer
That's what I've come with so far:

Have you considered a core i7 system? A 920 will outperform that build, and leave you lots of room to upgrade in the future rather than buying one of the highest socket 775 cpus. You also mentioned you won't play games but have one of the best video cards...

Happy New Year, everybody!

Please let me know what you think! Thanks.
Looks fine. BTW most BD movies are 1080p.

Alright after quickly reading p43 to p87 I have come up with a couple questions of my own. Granted I might have missed the answers in my reading, but I will throw them out there anyway.

If I got a GeForce 9300/9400 mb and also installed a NVidia 9800GT, GTX 260, GTX 280, or another discrete NVidia graphics card wouldn't that be the best of both worlds so to speak? I would have perfect multi-channel LPCM and also a better card to handle post-processing.

I have read many many times that the ATI 4850 gives the best post processing, but there are very random issues with stutters and lip-sync issues.

I intend on pairing the 9300/9400 with a Q9550, E8500, or i7920 depending on reviews.
So you are thinking of 24p? Yes, you can get perfect 24p+post-processing+7.1 LPCM with GeForce 9300/9400+GeForce 9500 GT or higher. But you will need two separte cables for audio and video. Another option is a HDMI sound card+GeForce 9500 GT or higher, a sound card supporting 24p does not exists yet though.

Since this price is 120$ more than the original limit I've been adviced to reduce the graphic card to HD4850 cause I don't need a HD4870 if I'm not gonna play any games.
If you don't play games, then HD 4670 or HD 4550 (in the single display mode) is enough. You could spend money on Core i7 920 instead (CPU is cheaper than Q9550, but mb and DDR3 memory is much pricier.)

Have you considered a core i7 system? A 920 will outperform that build, and leave you lots of room to upgrade in the future rather than buying one of the highest socket 775 cpus. You also mentioned you won't play games but have one of the best video cards...

If you don't play games, then HD 4670 or HD 4550 (in the single display mode) is enough. You could spend money on Core i7 920 instead (CPU is cheaper than Q9550, but mb and DDR3 memory is much pricier.)


From my understanding of your posts the HD4850 is not necessary since It wont be used for games,but as I buy this computer now it will stay with me for a long time and may even be passed to my younger brothers one day.

We have our PS3 but I still expect from the PC to run most of the games with medium quality at least.With that being said, which video card will fit my needs the best?
You both reccomended a core i7 920 I apologize for my lack of knowledge but I have no clue what that is.What are the differents between the weo?
Having all that said what parts(prefer with a link attached)would you use for my needs?

From my understanding of your posts the HD4850 is not necessary since It wont be used for games,but as I buy this computer now it will stay with me for a long time and may even be passed to my younger brothers one day.

We have our PS3 but I still expect from the PC to run most of the games with medium quality at least.With that being said, which video card will fit my needs the best?
You both reccomended a core i7 920 I apologize for my lack of knowledge but I have no clue what that is.What are the differents between the weo?
Having all that said what parts(prefer with a link attached)would you use for my needs?

IMHO, if you plan to pass it on to them "some day", chances are that when that day comes, even that 4850 will be way obsolete.. no point in spending on that now if you're not gonna use it...

From my understanding of your posts the HD4850 is not necessary since It wont be used for games,but as I buy this computer now it will stay with me for a long time and may even be passed to my younger brothers one day.

We have our PS3 but I still expect from the PC to run most of the games with medium quality at least.With that being said, which video card will fit my needs the best?
You both reccomended a core i7 920 I apologize for my lack of knowledge but I have no clue what that is.What are the differents between the weo?
Having all that said what parts(prefer with a link attached)would you use for my needs?
"Medium quality" is not enough, resolution is also important. 4670 can handle every current games at 1280x1024 with medium quality. As for 4850 vs 4670, you'd better read professional reviews (google with keywords "HD 4670" and "review").

Core i7 is a processor of new microarchitecture. It is much better than Core 2 Quad/Extreme in several areas including video editing. Again google with "Core i7" and "review".

What is best software to use for managing ripped DVDs? (MCE Vista or VLC??)? Does it allow placement into multiple catagories? What format should they be ripped to? What ripping software is best to use?

IMHO, if you plan to pass it on to them "some day", chances are that when that day comes, even that 4850 will be way obsolete.. no point in spending on that now if you're not gonna use it...

If that's so than i belive I'll go for the HD 4670 than instead.
"Medium quality" is not enough, resolution is also important. 4670 can handle every current games at 1280x1024 with medium quality. As for 4850 vs 4670, you'd better read professional reviews (google with keywords "HD 4670" and "review").

Core i7 is a processor of new microarchitecture. It is much better than Core 2 Quad/Extreme in several areas including video editing. Again google with "Core i7" and "review".

I found some reviews but still can't come to a decison which one to choose and what are the differents between them.

Would this one be the best to choose out of core i7?:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202

Out of the HD 4670 which one will be the best to choose?:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=hd+4670

Dear Renetx

First of all I would like to say a big thank you for all the informtion provided in yor threat as well as a great and happy new year 2009. Given your guidlines I am thinking of ceating a hTPC as follows:

THERMALTAKE VF7001BNS DH101 MEDIA LAB BLACK
INTEL CORE 2 DUO E8500 3.16 GHZ LGA775 - 1333 FSB - BOX
OCZ OCZ2T800C44GK 4GB (2X2GB) PC2-6400 800MHZ TITANIUM EDITION DUAL CHANNEL KIT
ASUS P5Q-EM
INNOVATOR LPK9 450W POWER SUPPLY
THERMALTAKE A2450 CYCLO 120MM BLUE PATTERN FAN

Objectives

1. High Quality Music Play
2. High Qulity Movies Play
3. Very little to nil gaming

I would like to know your opinion on this setup and moreover please specify the following:

1. I have an Denon AVR 2308. Does this forgo the requirement of a Media Center such as the 7001 and can use something simpler (i.e. 7000 or any other simpler box)?
2. I am not using a graphics and sound card since very good ones are on the Motherboard. Agree???

Please comment on my setup and let me know if I can do any vital changes or on the other hand remove somthing that is possibly not required

Thank you in advance

Mke

What is best software to use for managing ripped DVDs? (MCE Vista or VLC??)? Does it allow placement into multiple catagories? What format should they be ripped to? What ripping software is best to use?
Check this post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=15235811#post15235811). My Movies allows one-level categories. I think many people rip DVD just in the original format (i.e. MPEG-2) as HDDs are cheap enough.

If that's so than i belive I'll go for the HD 4670 than instead.


I found some reviews but still can't come to a decison which one to choose and what are the differents between them.

Would this one be the best to choose out of core i7?:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202

Out of the HD 4670 which one will be the best to choose?:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=hd+4670
920 is the i7 processor you should get.

I like HIS Hightech H467QT512P.

Given your guidlines I am thinking of ceating a hTPC as follows:

THERMALTAKE VF7001BNS DH101 MEDIA LAB BLACK
INTEL CORE 2 DUO E8500 3.16 GHZ LGA775 - 1333 FSB - BOX
OCZ OCZ2T800C44GK 4GB (2X2GB) PC2-6400 800MHZ TITANIUM EDITION DUAL CHANNEL KIT
ASUS P5Q-EM
INNOVATOR LPK9 450W POWER SUPPLY
THERMALTAKE A2450 CYCLO 120MM BLUE PATTERN FAN

Objectives

1. High Quality Music Play
2. High Qulity Movies Play
3. Very little to nil gaming

I would like to know your opinion on this setup and moreover please specify the following:

1. I have an Denon AVR 2308. Does this forgo the requirement of a Media Center such as the 7001 and can use something simpler (i.e. 7000 or any other simpler box)?
2. I am not using a graphics and sound card since very good ones are on the Motherboard. Agree???
If you want save some money, you can go with Core 2 Duo E7xxx or Pentium DC E5xxx. 7001 has a built-in IR receiver that is a nice feature for HTPC (otherwise you have to attach a USB IR receiver). You don't need a discrete graphics card or sound card. HDMI from the motherboard carries both video and audio.

920 is the i7 processor you should get.

I like HIS Hightech H467QT512P.

OK,thank you very much mate.I appreciate your help and it saved me some funds as well :).
Going through that and over all the posts, this is what I've come with:


NZXT TEMPEST Crafted Series CS-NT-TEM-B Black Steel price:134$

SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD753LJ 750GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s price:91$

HIS Hightech H467QT512P Radeon HD 4670 IceQ Turbo 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161252) price:110$

SeaSonic SS-500ES 500W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC price:82$

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory – Retail price:49$

ASUS P5QL PRO LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail price:104$

LG Black 6X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 6X Blu-ray DVD-ROM 4MB Cache SATA Internal Blu-ray Burner 6X Blu-ray Disc Burner & HD DVD-ROM Drive Model GGW-H20LK – OEM
268$
Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor - Retail (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202) price:360 $

OCZ OCZTVEND2 120mm Rifle CPU Cooler - Retail 60$

subtotal:
1258$

I'll make the order soon so if anyone has last-moment changes please do so ASAP.

Thank you very much renethx

If you don't play games, then HD 4670 or HD 4550 (in the single display mode) is enough. You could spend money on Core i7 920 instead (CPU is cheaper than Q9550, but mb and DDR3 memory is much pricier.)

I've been using this new Gateway FX6800-01 i7-based computer for a couple of weeks now. It's an excellent HTPC. I use it with an LG Blu-ray drive (connected via USB2) and PowerDVD 8 Ultra. The $1,250 price makes it an easy way to get into an i7 system, and it was kinda nice for a change not to have to worry about building it myself. It has some nice touches, such as a media card reader, touch controls for media playback, no-fuss front bays for plugging in two extra SATA hard drives. It's quiet and has a Radeon 4850. I did update to the latest Catalyst drivers to get support for PC/Video level signal control.

I haven't done a lot of video work yet, but encoding is faster on the i7 than on my Core2Quad 9450 at the same clock speed (2.66 GHZ). It comes with only 3GB of RAM, but it's a 64bit machine, so that's like 4GB on a 32bit Vista box, since the video card and other system overhead don't eat up any 32bit address space. I did just add another 6GB of RAM to the 3 that came with the system, so I expect many of my video encoding/transcoding times to improve even more dramatically.

It was the best Christmas present I got. :D


Edit: I use a $30 Pinnacle Vista Media Center remote to control PowerDVD. No need for additional drivers - just plug it into a USB port.

G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory – Retail price:49$

ASUS P5QL PRO LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail price:104$

Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor - Retail (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115202) price:360 $
A problem is that Core i7 requires a completely new platform. :) You need an Intel X58 chipset motherboard and DDR3 SDRAM memory, both are pricey right now. For example,

- MSI X58 Platinum (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130216), $262 (This is the cheapest X58 mb, but is very nice.)
- G.SKILL F3-10666CL9T-6GBNQ (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231223), $183 or G.SKILL F3-10666CL9D-4GBNQ (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231190), $106 if you think triple channel is overkill.

A problem is that Core i7 requires a completely new platform. :) You need an Intel X58 chipset motherboard and DDR3 SDRAM memory, both are pricey right now. For example,

- MSI X58 Platinum (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130216), $262 (This is the cheapest X58 mb, but is very nice.)
- G.SKILL F3-10666CL9T-6GBNQ (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231223), $183 or G.SKILL F3-10666CL9D-4GBNQ (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231190), $106 if you think triple channel is overkill.


Well,you should have mentioned that earlier, now I have to change the whole platform again.Or shell I just stay with the original processor which supports the memory card that I'd put and requires no change?
Buying these two instead of the original ones will cost much more.

My main display will only accept 1920x1080 @60p. When getting the components for my HTPC, are there any configurations that would have a hard time converting a 24p blue ray dvd to 60p so I could watch it on my display? I am not sure what software I would use yet for blue ray playback, but I want to make sure my hardware is sufficient to be able to handle the refresh rate conversion from 24p to 60p.

thanks,
Murray

Well,you should have mentioned that earlier, now I have to change the whole platform again.Or shell I just stay with the original processor which supports the memory card that I'd put and requires no change?
Buying these two instead of the original ones will cost much more.
Yeah, I told you that.
If you don't play games, then HD 4670 or HD 4550 (in the single display mode) is enough. You could spend money on Core i7 920 instead (CPU is cheaper than Q9550, but mb and DDR3 memory is much pricier.)
If your budget is tight, another (much cheaper) option is

- CPU: Core 2 Quad Q6600, $228 (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017)
- MB: GIGABYTE GA-EP43-DS3L, $98 (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128347)

Q6600 is the best selling quad-core processor and is moderately good for multi-tasking, video editing and encoding. If you want, you can overclock it to 3.0GHz easily that is equivalent to Q9550 in performance. For your reference, x264 HD Benchmark (http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=520) results (frames per second at transcoding a 720p MPEG-2 clip to H.264):

- E8500: 9.5 fps (this is dual-core)
- Q6600: 13.7 fps
- Q6600@3.0GHz: 16.9 fps
- Q9550: 16.7 fps
- i7 920: 22.9 fps

If you do lots of encoding, i7 may be worth considering even if it costs much more.

are there any configurations that would have a hard time converting a 24p blue ray dvd to 60p so I could watch it on my display?
No. Every current GPU can play BD movies at 60Hz easily.

My main display will only accept 1920x1080 @60p. When getting the components for my HTPC, are there any configurations that would have a hard time converting a 24p blue ray dvd to 60p so I could watch it on my display? I am not sure what software I would use yet for blue ray playback, but I want to make sure my hardware is sufficient to be able to handle the refresh rate conversion from 24p to 60p.

thanks,
Murray

You dont need anything special. The refresh rate from your video card is by default going to be 60hz @ 1920x1080. However, this can and will cause some juddering if your TV does not do a good job of doing 3:2 pulldown.

Yeah, I told you that.

If your budget is tight, another (much cheaper) option is

- CPU: Core 2 Quad Q6600, $228 (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017)
- MB: GIGABYTE GA-EP43-DS3L, $98 (http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128347)

Q6600 is the best selling quad-core processor and is moderately good for multi-tasking, video editing and encoding. If you want, you can overclock it to 3.0GHz easily that is equivalent to Q9550 in performance. For your reference, x264 HD Benchmark (http://www.techarp.com/showarticle.aspx?artno=520) results (frames per second at transcoding a 720p MPEG-2 clip to H.264):

- E8500: 9.5 fps (this is dual-core)
- Q6600: 13.7 fps
- Q6600@3.0GHz: 16.9 fps
- Q9550: 16.7 fps
- i7 920: 22.9 fps

If you do lots of encoding, i7 may be worth considering even if it costs much more.


The i7 sounds very inticing and like the best choice but since it has to run with highly expensive momory cards and doesn't support the one that I'd put(fron my understanding of what you'd said)I'd rather stick to the first processor and just gonna change the video card to the one you recommended unless you have a solution for the processor cause the i7 seems like the one that'd fit my needs perfectly.

So you are thinking of 24p? Yes, you can get perfect 24p+post-processing+7.1 LPCM with GeForce 9300/9400+GeForce 9500 GT or higher. But you will need two separte cables for audio and video. Another option is a HDMI sound card+GeForce 9500 GT or higher, a sound card supporting 24p does not exists yet though.

Awesome! Thanks. Seems like the best solution at the moment since the sound card issues haven't been sorted out yet! I appreciate the help!

You dont need anything special. The refresh rate from your video card is by default going to be 60hz @ 1920x1080. However, this can and will cause some juddering if your TV does not do a good job of doing 3:2 pulldown.Thanks to both renethx and you. I do have one more question -- why does the TV have to do 3:2 pulldown? If the video card is sending out a signal at the TV's native resolution, why would the TV have to do any processing? Isn't the 3:2 pulldown being done in the HTPC by the video card / cpu?

thanks,
Murray

I have upgraded my HTPC to use a Gigabyte MA78GM motherboard, and am using the onboard sound. I am sure that with my old system and the MAudio Revo 5.1 the sound was a LOT better. I don't think i am imagining that, but i might be! It sounds quite tinny now.

The HTPC is connected to my Cyrus amp via a QED 3.5 > Phono cable.

I am getting tempted to remove a tv card and put the MAudio back in, but its a lot of effort if i am only imagining it was better before :D

Does anyone have any thoughts on the sound with this Gigabyte board?

[edit] this is for music by the way :)

Is there any difference in quality between having a sound card that encodes everything to DTS or using AC3Filter to encode to DTS?

Hello,

I'm a new member, and wasn't sure If I should post in this existing thread for a lot of questions or start my own thread.

I've started my own, but if people prefer replying here that's fine too. I'll be monitoring both threads.
Other link: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1102983

-------

Hello, I’d like to build a HTPC, fairly simple to start, with the intention of upgrading later on. I’ve read the threads but am not very familiar still, so have a lot of questions, please bear with me. Thanks!

So, the most important thing about my HTPC is the budget, I have just purchased parts for two core i7 systems, so don’t really have a lot of funds available towards my HTPC, so the cheaper the better. With that said, this HTPC won’t be doing any gaming whatsoever.

The main use of this HTPC will be playback of 1080p MKV files with high bitrates (15-18MBps), DVDs and DivX/XviD files. That’s it for now. Eventually I’ll add in a BluRay player and TV Tuner, so the motherboard/processor/case I buy now, has to support that in the future. Even though I’d prefer it as the cheaper the better, I don’t want it so cheap that it’ll barely play the MKV files, I want to enjoy these on my new 46” 120HZ TV that we bought. I don’t want to deal with lagging audio, or stuttering video. The 1080p MKV playback must be very smooth.

I also currently have a ATA-133 HDD, and a IDE DvDRom that I’d like to use as to cut costs and not having to purchase a SATA HDD and a DVDROM. So it’d be nice if the motherboard supported at least 1 IDE channel. It seems however that most mATX motherboards don’t.

Another concern is that my father has a lot of relics hooked up to the TV (2 DVD players, and 3 VCRs!!) So our component cables and RGB cables are very limited. This means that the HTPC will have to be connected via HDMI. We currently don’t have a receiver or fancy speakers since our Home Theater is a work in progress, so for the speakers will be the TV’s speakers for now, but obviously the HTPC that I build will have to support something much better for when we do get a nice speaker system installed.

As far as software goes: I don’t mind using either Windows XP (32bit, or 64bit, or Media Center edition) or Vista Ultimate (32bit or 64bit). I have CoreAVC Professional and PowerDVD8 Ultra along with Nvidia PureVideo HD and I can get ATI Avivo too…


That’s the summary, and now the questions…
So the most important question is, what motherboard and processor shall I get that will give me great flawless 1080p playback while keeping in mind my future expandability concerns? I know a lot of people swear by the 780G chipset but from what I read at AnandTech (I can’t link due to 3 post requirement, but I’ll edit this portion with a link once I get my 3 posts. For now, the title is: The IGP Chronicles Part 2: AMD 780G vs. Intel G45 vs. NVIDIA GeForce 8200) : they say:


24 fps Playback: Perfect on NVIDIA

The AMD 780G/790GX results were very choppy at times; even when they seemed smooth we experienced audio sync problems.

The only platform that can properly handle 24 fps output is NVIDIA's GeForce 8200/8300. It just works.

8-channel LPCM

We've been talking about 8-channel LPCM for quite a while now, if you want to know what this is consult our article on the topic. Currently the Intel G35/G45 and NVIDIA GeForce 8200/8300 chipsets support 8-channel LPCM output via HDMI. AMD continues to trail with 2-channel LPCM output on their chipsets. However, they are offering 8-channel LPCM support on the HD 4xxx series of video cards.

And then the final quote from their conclusion

The drawback for us is the lack of multi-channel LPCM HDMI audio output and not so great 1080P/24 fps playback capabilities. If these items are not important to you, then the 780G would probably be at the top of our list. Of course, these problems can be solved with an inexpensive HD 4550 or HD 4670 video card but that completely throws off the price advantage over the Intel platform.


So, I know one of the huge advantages to going AMD is the cheap prices, but I don’t want to go cheap if it means it won’t play back my files flawlessly, or go cheap and end up having to spend more on a graphic card. So what motherboard/processors do you guys suggest in this case?

Second main problem is the actual players. As mentioned before I have PowerDVD 8 Ultra, CoreAVC Pro. However, as far as I know PowerDVD8 Ultra doesn’t play MKV files, unless you rename them to .avi and if they’re renamed to avi, then the subtitles in the MKV (now renamed to .avi) don’t work. It was suggested that I get Nvidia PureVideo HD to enable the offloading of the decoding to the GPU, but it was also recommended that I get Media Player Classic – Home Cinema and not use PowerDVD8 to watch my MKVs. Am I missing something? PowerDVD8 Ultra enables the offloading to the GPU thanks to Nvidia PureVideo HD… but won’t play the MKV files, and if I rename them, then I lose the features (subtitles) of the MKV. However if I use MPC-HC, then there’s no more offloading being done, despite me having CoreAVC Pro, PowerDVD8 Ultra, and Nvidia PureVideo HD installed??

Finally: The case, I’d like a relatively cheap case that still looks nice. One of the key features of the case must be the sheathed optical drive panel. I’d also prefer to have the power supply included to ensure that the one I get actually fits properly without issues. I checked the list of cases provided in the HTPC guide, and the only one that really stood out was the nMedia cases with stealth drives, they seemed fairly cheap, however they claimed a PS was included, and when I went to several online resellers to check… PS not included.

Thanks.

I hope to get a lot of insightful responses so I can expand my knowledge, appreciate it!

Could someone please compare the power consumption and/or heat generated by the low-end AMD and Intel HTPC builds recommended by renethx? I'm trying to decide which route to go and don't have any allegiance to either brand.

Also, I don't really understand the "HDTV picture quality" ratings in the chart in renethx's post. Intel/Nvidia is rated excellent, as is AMD/AMD - how do you arrive at this rating? Is it a noticeable difference on a 46" lcd display? I will be playing HD stuff and also lower quality xvids - if there's a difference in how one or the other displays, it may make a difference.

Finally, can anyone comment on the noise level from the stock CPU coolers on either the AMD or Intel? Just wondering if that $30 Shuriken is necessary.

Could someone please compare the power consumption and/or heat generated by the low-end AMD and Intel HTPC builds recommended by renethx? I'm trying to decide which route to go and don't have any allegiance to either brand.

I have a basic AMD system:
- Gigabyte MA78GM
- AMD X2 5050e (energy efficient)
- Ninja HSF
- 2gb RAM
- 2x Seagate HDDs
- 2x TV cards
- 525w Enermax Modu82+ PSU

I am seriously impressed with how cool it keeps and how quiet it is. I have no fan on the Ninja, and the 120mm case exhaust is on min rpm. The case is cold to touch, and cold air is blown out the exhaust. My old Socket A AMD system ran so hot i couldnt put the side on the case, and still needed loads of fans.

So in my system, i have 1 fan in the PSU, and 1 exhaust fan. These are barely audiable, the only real thing i can here is the HDDs.

Energy consumption wise, i plugged it into my energy monitor and is was reading around 80-90w.

Are the Nvidia or ATI PCI-E cards preferred now? No gaming, just DVD and Blu-Ray playback. HDMI out etc.

Thanks to both renethx and you. I do have one more question -- why does the TV have to do 3:2 pulldown? If the video card is sending out a signal at the TV's native resolution, why would the TV have to do any processing? Isn't the 3:2 pulldown being done in the HTPC by the video card / cpu?
IIUC, yup, 3:2 pulldown is done by GPU, a 3:2 sequence of frames (60 or 60/1.001 = 59.94 frames per second) is sent to TV so that TV itself does not do 3:2 pulldown. Some TVs accept 24Hz signals, do 3:2 pulldown and display at 60Hz. In either case "judder" is inevitable (because of 1 extra frame per 5 frames). Many recent TVs accept 24Hz signals, do 5:5 pulldown and display at 120Hz so that there is no judder.

Just a quick question.. up to today (jan 2 2009), which is the best combo?

AMD/ATI or Intel/NVidia?

Thanks

Just a quick question.. up to today (jan 2 2009), which is the best combo?

AMD/ATI or Intel/NVidia?

Thanks

Intel/ATI.

I have upgraded my HTPC to use a Gigabyte MA78GM motherboard, and am using the onboard sound. I am sure that with my old system and the MAudio Revo 5.1 the sound was a LOT better. I don't think i am imagining that, but i might be! It sounds quite tinny now.

The HTPC is connected to my Cyrus amp via a QED 3.5 > Phono cable.

I am getting tempted to remove a tv card and put the MAudio back in, but its a lot of effort if i am only imagining it was better before :D

Does anyone have any thoughts on the sound with this Gigabyte board?

[edit] this is for music by the way :)
Perhaps almost nobody in this forum uses onboard analog audio. Most use S/PDIF (if onboard audio is used) and leave digital-analog conversion to an AVR or a pre-pro that would produce much better sounds. Onboard analog may be good for cheap PC speakers.

i have 9850BE, i want to know what intel cpu = AMD 9850BE?

Is there any difference in quality between having a sound card that encodes everything to DTS or using AC3Filter to encode to DTS?
IIRC AC3Filter does only DD encoding. In general DTS is considered better than DD (1.5Mb/s vs. 640kb/s).

Could someone please compare the power consumption and/or heat generated by the low-end AMD and Intel HTPC builds recommended by renethx? I'm trying to decide which route to go and don't have any allegiance to either brand.

Also, I don't really understand the "HDTV picture quality" ratings in the chart in renethx's post. Intel/Nvidia is rated excellent, as is AMD/AMD - how do you arrive at this rating? Is it a noticeable difference on a 46" lcd display? I will be playing HD stuff and also lower quality xvids - if there's a difference in how one or the other displays, it may make a difference.

Finally, can anyone comment on the noise level from the stock CPU coolers on either the AMD or Intel? Just wondering if that $30 Shuriken is necessary.
Power consumption at idlea/BD playback (mATX low-end systems):

- Intel/Intel: 55W/75W
- Intel/NVIDIA: 55W/70W
- AMD/AMD: 55W/75W
- AMD/NVIDIA: 95W/140W (well, I will change the mb to something else soon)

"HDTV picture quality" is based on HD HQV Benchmark. It measures how well the GPU does deinterlacing (for contents shot with video cameras), inverse telecine (for films) and denoise. Poor deinterlacing can be noticed with any display.

The stock cooler is not so noisy at idle and video playback if you control fan speeds well. I recommend to try it first (so I wrote the Shuriken cooler is optional).

Are the Nvidia or ATI PCI-E cards preferred now? No gaming, just DVD and Blu-Ray playback. HDMI out etc.
ATI is the only card with true HDMI audio. NVIDIA is S/PDIF pass-through only from the onboard audio of the mb.

Just a quick question.. up to today (jan 2 2009), which is the best combo?

AMD/ATI or Intel/NVidia?

Thanks
Are you talking about IGP?

i have 9850be, i want to know what intel cpu = amd 9850be?
Q6600 in performance. Q6600 runs cooler than 9850.

Hello, ...
So what's your question in short?

Power consumption at idlea/BD playback (mATX low-end systems):

- Intel/Intel: 55W/75W
- Intel/NVIDIA: 55W/70W
- AMD/AMD: 55W/75W
- AMD/NVIDIA: 95W/140W (well, I will change the mb to something else soon)

"HDTV picture quality" is based on HD HQV Benchmark. It measures how well the GPU does deinterlacing (for contents shot with video cameras), inverse telecine (for films) and denoise. Poor deinterlacing can be noticed with any display.

The stock cooler is not so noisy at idle and video playback if you control fan speeds well. I recommend to try it first (so I wrote the Shuriken cooler is optional).

Which was the benchmark program again? is it freely available to test my system?

Regarding the guy who asked AMD/ATI or Intel/Nvidia, I actually got Intel/ATI... did I screw up somewhat?? :confused:

Which was the benchmark program again? is it freely available to test my system?

Regarding the guy who asked AMD/ATI or Intel/Nvidia, I actually got Intel/ATI... did I screw up somewhat?? :confused:
HD HQV Benchmark. Available from HQV (http://www.hqv.com/benchmark.cfm).

Intel/NVIDIA etc. means chip/chipset in my recommendations. Chipset may or may not include GPU. So you mean Intel/Intel with an ATI graphics card by Intel/ATI? A discrete graphics card (ATI or NVIDIA) can be used with any chip/chipset with no problem.

HD HQV Benchmark. Available from HQV (http://www.hqv.com/benchmark.cfm).

Intel/NVIDIA etc. means chip/chipset in my recommendations. Chipset may or may not include GPU. So you mean Intel/Intel with an ATI graphics card by Intel/ATI? A discrete graphics card (ATI or NVIDIA) can be used with any chip/chipset with no problem.

Right, I meant Intel/Intel on the MB/CPU combo (E5200 CPU on a G31 based Gigabyte MB), with a discrete ATI based card (Sapphire HD4670)

I decided to get a 9800GT over the HD4830, I got a great deal on the 9800GT and I wanted 1080p24 support. The 9800GT supports audio over HDMI via the spdif header on the motherboard, however, it doesn't seem to be working. I'm using an Asus motherboard which already has hdmi and optical out onboard. In order to get the HDMI audio to work on the 9800GT via the spdif connector do I have to disable the onboard HD-Audio in the bios settings of my MB? This is getting confusing :o.

P.S. I am able to get sound via the motherboard audio connections, just not the graphics gard, I've double checked all connections.

HD HQV Benchmark. Available from HQV (http://www.hqv.com/benchmark.cfm).



Hmmm.. when to HQV, but it's buy only, though it was either free r trial at least (doesn't make too much sense for just a one or two time use to actually buy the thing...), and even then their buy system's down... :S

So what's your question in short?

I think his main question is what is the cheapest solution that can play high bitrate (15-18MBps) 1080p MKV files that may or may not be Level 4.1 spec. I was wondering the same thing which was why I was following his question. Can the low-end AMD/AMD recommended system paired with a HD 4670 handle all 1080p MKVs with smooth playback.

I decided to get a 9800GT over the HD4830, I got a great deal on the 9800GT and I wanted 1080p24 support. The 9800GT supports audio over HDMI via the spdif header on the motherboard, however, it doesn't seem to be working. I'm using an Asus motherboard which already has hdmi and optical out onboard. In order to get the HDMI audio to work on the 9800GT via the spdif connector do I have to disable the onboard HD-Audio in the bios settings of my MB? This is getting confusing :o.

P.S. I am able to get sound via the motherboard audio connections, just not the graphics gard, I've double checked all connections.
The settings for S/PDIF pass-through from a GeForce card's HDMI port (perhaps with a DVI-HDMI adapter) is exactly the same as those for S/PDIF from the mb rear panel. No further configuration is required.

If HDMI audio does not work, check the settings of your receiver.

Hmmm.. when to HQV, but it's buy only, though it was either free r trial at least (doesn't make too much sense for just a one or two time use to actually buy the thing...), and even then their buy system's down... :S
Which ATI card do you have? I tested most GPUs.

I think his main question is what is the cheapest solution that can play high bitrate (15-18MBps) 1080p MKV files that may or may not be Level 4.1 spec. I was wondering the same thing which was why I was following his question. Can the low-end AMD/AMD recommended system paired with a HD 4670 handle all 1080p MKVs with smooth playback.
Well Athlon X2 4850e 2.5GHz and Pentium Dual-Core E5200 2.5GHz can handle 1080p MKV files at max bitrate > 30Mbps with no problem. The latest ffdshow Video Decoder is very nice for H.264.

Which ATI card do you have? I tested most GPUs.

Sapphire HD4670 512MB PCI-E :rolleyes:

Sapphire HD4670 512MB PCI-E :rolleyes:
100 out of 100.

The settings for S/PDIF pass-through from a GeForce card's HDMI port (perhaps with a DVI-HDMI adapter) is exactly the same as those for S/PDIF from the mb rear panel. No further configuration is required.

If HDMI audio does not work, check the settings of your receiver.

Thanks, I'll give it another shot when I get home. I know the receiver is setup correctly, I recieve bitstream and LPCM via other HDMI components without issue. I also tried directly into the display and didn't get any sound there either. I'm going to double check the connection to the MB, maybe I mix-matched the ground/spdif connection.

100 out of 100.

Nice. I guess I won´t have issues then :D

You had mentioned to me before that to take advantage of the hardware post-processing capabilities of these cards, that most players have settings for that (like PDVD, WINDVD, etc.). Does that mean that I SHOULDN'T use stuff like ffdshow and just use the settings of the different programs I use? :confused: