*Official* Intel G45 DG45ID microATX HTPC Motherboard Thread - Page 16

I was not sure about this motherboard because I watch lots of recorded 1080i content. Does the fact that de-interlacing and post processing are now working make this board good for 1080i content?

It does not appear to be a driver issue. DXVA2 works fine in MPC-HC using the CyberLink decoder and EVR or EVR custom renderers. I usually use the CyberLink or ffmpeg (builtin) decoders without DXVA, though.

Of course they *should* post at either SPD timings, just not either of the EPP timings without 2.2V.

For extra credit, I re-tested the memory with a P35 motherboard, and it did POST at 1.8v.
I asked crucial and they say they have a newer version of these DIMMs that run at lower voltage (2.0) that work better with problem motherboards. He also says they have tested with a G45 motherboard (didn't know which model). I've actually scheduled an RMA....

Is the drivers below the newest and best to use for XP and should I use all of them?:
BIOS Update [IDG4510H.86A] (6930KB) v. 0077

Audio: IDT* 92xx Audio Driver (22751KB)
6033.2 v1.24 8/13/2008

.
Video: Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator Driver (19736KB)
14.34.5.4973 8/10/2008

RAID: Intel® Matrix Storage Manager Driver (199KB)
8.5.0.1032 8/3/2008

LAN: Intel® PRO Network Connections Driver (107728KB)
13.1.1 7/30/2008

Intel® ME: Management Engine Interface Driver (1874KB)
5.0.0.1081 6/15/2008

Chipset: Intel® Chipset Software Installation Utility for Intel® Desktop Boards (2455KB)
9.0.0.1009 6/12/2008

After much research and planning, I am now asssembling what is shaping up to be the perfect HTPC:
- Silverstone GD02
- Seasonic SS-350ET (+80, 99% Active PFC)
- Asus P5Q-EM
- Thermalright XP-120
- Arctic Fan 12 (PWM, liquid bearing, daisy-chained)
- E8400
- 2x2GB Crucial nonbuff/nonECC
- 1TB Seagate 'cuda 7200.11

What a beautiful sight it is! But a couple things bother me:

- The mobo's book says that POST only shows on the DVI-D, and not on VGA nor HDMI. It specifically says this is a DVI-D port and is not a DVI-I. I want to see POST on either the case's display or on the projector, so it sounds like I must get a DVI-HDMI adapter block?

- The CPU heatsink fits fine under the case's center support member, but I must do some trimming to get a 25mm fan in there. Is there any way this heatsink will suffice for the E8400 without a fan? It is positioned between 1" and 2" of the case exhaust fans horizontally (2 Arctic Fan 8's), which will pull air right over the heatpipes and from the inside-top of the case.

- The only optical drive this case will take is a slim one. No big deal, I don't need a BD writer right away, and can use my IDE DVD for now outside the case. I'm sure I can put a notebook drive in there as the market matures. But if I have to use a CPU fan there is only 145mm from the front of the case to the fan. Is this potentially enough room for an optical drive?

Great build Quantum. Love the case, but I have a few questions that I would like to sort of ask everyone.

First, why the E8400 processor and not the E8500? They are only about $20 more. Is there something special about the E8400 I'm not aware of?

Also, I am still shocked with the number of people using the ASUS P5Q-EM. Everything I read about the G45 chipset reflects poor picture quality with Blu Ray. Fortunately, the source with Blu Ray is so good this can probably be overlooked but where doubt really enters into for me is the ability for this setup to use SD DVD's with ffdshow effectively. I am sure with a dedicated video card and a different chipset on the mobo this setup would crush it but I just wonder here. Can anyone help confirm one way or the other?

Note from Arcsoft:

Originally posted by ArcSoft_Jason

Okay, since Intel spilled the beans I have permission to discuss it.

We have an internal version that resolves the repeater issue. I've personally tested our internal release on the G35. It basically works. There are some things that aren't quite perfect at the moment, but PC connected via HDMI to Onkyo then via HDMI to display does not have the HDCP error, and passes 7.1 audio channels when the Intel HDMI driver is selected and properly set up in Windows Vista and 7.1 is selected in TMT's audio options.

We'll be releasing it in the near future.

I don't know where you saw that, but picture looks quite amazing to me

See the review below. There are quite a few others with similar results online. What particularly concerns me is the HQV (video) tests. They were extremely poor. I'm not nearly as concerned with Blu Ray since the source is so good but I just wonder about SD DVDs. I would ffdshow to clean them up as much as possible but it might not be enough.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/...2327138,00.asp

-Blu Rays are not interlaced so the tests are not relevant. The non-interlaced test is noise-reduction but I am sure if you want to you can do this or any other filters in software but it may not be hardware-accelerated. Software on G45 (just as on any other hardware) will decode video correctly; the HQV tests are designed to misleadingly suggest that there are platform differences in decoding compressed video.
-SD-DVDs are not HQV. You can do all sorts of post-processing in software.

It looks like these tests were done with de-interlacing and post processing disabled. Anandtech did the same. Better wait for the new drivers and apps.

all I can say is my results with upscaled-DVD's is as good as it was with 8600GT... YMMV...

how's 1080i material?

ATSC captures are also fine...

I don't disparage the HD HQV results, you just have to understand what they mean, and how it may (or may not be) relevant to your viewing.

HD Noise Reduction: reduces video noise, film grain, and noise from the compression process.
Useful: HD home video, noisy sources from broadcast/cable/satellite, badly compressed Blu-ray, people who hate film grain
Not Useful: Most Blu-ray-- well mastered

HD Video Resolution Loss: Deinterlacing of 1080i source material without letting moving objects flicker or losing resolution on non-moving objects
Useful: HD video sourced material (reality shows, concert videos, sports) from broadcast/cable/video/Blu-ray
Not Useful: Blu-ray films

Video Reconstruction aka Jaggies: deinterlacing of 1080i source material minimizing jagged edges on diagonal lines
Useful: HD video sourced material (reality shows, concert videos, sports) from broadcast/cable/video/Blu-ray
Not Useful: Blu-ray films

Film Resolution Loss: Reconstruction of original 24p frames from deinterlacing 1080i60 telecined material
Useful: Films recorded at 1080i from broadcast/cable/satellite
Not Useful: Blu-ray films, HD video sourced material (reality shows, concert videos, sports) from broadcast/cable/video/Blu-ray

HD HQV is a good benchmark for evaluating the general properties of an HD video processor, but most of it isn't relevant if you're dealing with 24p material. If you do/view a lot of recording from 1080i source, it's a much more useful benchmark.

Jim, this may be the exact information I'm looking for. As I mentioned above, I'm confident Blu Ray will look great just because the source is so good. I have more concern around SD DVD's and upscaling/post-processing and how that might look. Can you share what you have done for SD DVD's? Are you using any post-processing and if so how much?

The irony is that the G45 can't process 24p material correctly.

Nah, I usually buy the second-best as it's a better value. Very little difference from the E8500.


I am confident that the G45 is not snake-bit. Any teething issues will be sorted and it will perform as advertised.

I wouldn't make such a blanket statement. At present, something is getting in the way of stutter-free 24Hz refresh to a monitor. Transmitting 24p-source material at 60p-- while not judder-free-- works without a problem.

I just played the blu-ray disk, Superbad (hey it was the only thing I could get netflix to deliver this week ), and I can see judder about once every 20 seconds - this is 24p video stream on a 60p plasma (the dvi input only does 60p, 50p and 60i).

Player was totalmedia theather 2.6.2.121. When I turn off hardware acceleration in totalmedia, the judder no longer happens.

Did not have this problem with totalmedia when doing hardware acceleration to a geforce 8500.

I also have judder problems with some SD material (where the original content was converted from 25fps to 60fps), but only with VMC and windows media player. Problem happens on a virgin vista sp1 install with no additional codecs whatsoever (other than the motherboard drivers). I can post a clip if there is interest, since I seem to be the only one with SD content that fails like this.

News to me. My apologies. I hadn't heard anything negative on 60p yet.

Is these drivers relevant to install?

Intel® ME: Management Engine Interface Driver (Don't know what it's used for?)
RAID: Intel® Matrix Storage Manager (Only have one sata II disc)

Also where do I find the latest analogue drivers after I installed IDT92xx audio drivers?

Hey guys,

Been watching this thread for a while now and last night I picked up this motherboard.

Unfortunately I cannot get any picture when running through my Onkyo TX-SR606 receiver.

I initially did Vista 64bit set up with an LCD monitor hooked up via DVI, and later tested it with a 32 inch LCD connected via HDMI. Both worked fine including HDMI audio to the LCD although I couldn't get the HDMI connection to display at my LCDs native resolution of 1366x768, it was displayed at 1280x720.

On to the living room where the Onkyo is connected to my Toshiba 42HDX82 CRT RPTV HDTV set circa 2002. Connection is via HDMI out from the receiver to the TVs DVI input (adapter on end of HDMI cable to plug into TV)

I have a PS3 and a HD DVD player connected to this receiver already and both work fine to the TV no problems.

Here is whats happening with the HDMI output from the DG45ID:

1. When booting normally, the last thing I see displayed is the Vista progress meter and then the screen goes blank. The machine continues the boot process but I have no picture.

2. Tried booting using low resolution mode (F8 option) 640x480, I get past the progress meter and the Vista logo and get all the way to desktop and shortly after that (3-4 seconds) the screen goes blank.

3. Tried booting into safe mode and I can get into Windows and display works fine but at safe mode resolution only.

4. Tried connecting DG45ID HDMI directly to TVs DVI input and I can boot normally and have a display. Obviously no HDMI audio to receiver that way which is the whole point.

I have another XP machine connected with a Radeon 1950 Pro outputting from its DVI connector to this receiver using a DVI cable with a HDMI adapter on the end and I can output at full resolution through the receiver to TV. I tried the same thing on the DG45ID DVI output and again, no picture. (as in #1 above)

Obviously this is a bit frustrating based on the results... I know my receiver is fine because it works with the PS3, HD DVD and another PC even.

Does anyone have any ideas of what I might try next...I think I am out of luck based on what I am getting so far and for whatever reason this configuration is not going to work.

Thanks!



p.s. one final note, I installed the Intel Integrator Assistant, but...where the heck is it? Its not on the programs menu and I can't find it anywhere on the hard drive.

A few days ago I asked for a power supply suggestion because of the strange noise heard while using this board and the Antec Earthwatts 380. I was able to fix it using RMClock. Here's what I did, with an E8400 (1333 MHz FSB, 9x max multiplier = 3000 MHz max)

• CPU VIDs set to 1 V @ 6x (the lowest voltage) and 1.15V @ 9x (slightly less than the highest voltage, 1.1625 V)
• profile set to "Performance on Demand"
• in the profile, P-state transitions enabled for 6-9x
• all "Enhanced Low-Power States" turned on (pic)

Lowering the voltage is probably unnecessary. Turning on P-state transitions cut down on most of the noise. The noise is almost constant while CPU load is low if I set the CPU to only run at 9x (3.0GHz).

As far as I can tell, turning on Enhanced Low-Power States got rid of the rest of the noise.

I just got a display with 24p support, so now I'm waiting for a solution for that issue.

ArcSoft is working on a patch now that fully enables hardware acceleration on the G45 plus repeater support. The current implementation of HW acceleration in the last public build is not working correctly with the G45, hence the judder problems. I have had SD problems also.

Also, the next driver set should open up additional frequencies but not 1080P/24Hz yet. I was told the hardware is capable, the drivers are not. I am waiting on written confirmation of that statement, of course still waiting on the promised driver release also.

Anyone have any problems with colored lines and the HDMI/DVI output @ 1920x1080p60/24 on this board? lengthy description here

If it's a board issue, I'm not sure why it would start happening now... I previously used this board successfully with a different TV. However, the timings could be different (the old TV supported 30i, 59p(?), and 60p; the new one supports 24p 30i, and 60p)

The Superbad blu-ray is perhaps a good test case for this, as you can see the judder occur in the looped title menu video. The title menu video pans around some cartoons so it's pretty easy to notice. At the end of the cut, at about 62 seconds in, the video shakes back & forth before looping. You can leave it looping and the problem reoccurs reliably every ~62 seconds. With hardware acceleration turned off, playback is smooth.

This is with the 9.0.0.1009 chipset & 15.11.0.1537 graphics drivers.

I've also posted an example of judder with ordinary SD DVD material in vmc/wmp over here:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showp...&postcount=257

I've seen no reference to a g45 specific hardware acceleration fix, just a repeater fix. Do you have a pointer to an acknowledgement of a HW acceleration problem? As far as I can tell they think hardware acceleration is working. Also the SD problem applies to vmc&wmp before totalmedia is installed so waiting for arcsoft will not fix that

My DVI doesn't do 24hz itself; I need things to work at the less exotic 60hz (like it used to before I upgraded to a g45

I have been running this board for a week now and just hooked it up to my new Onkyo 705 Receiver. The display I am using currently does not support HDMI. So until I get my new Samsung 1080P I have it hooked up via DVI from the HTPC and the HDMI going to the receiver for audio.

I get no sound from the HDMI to the receiver, and have resorted to using the Optical. I thought maybe it was drivers, so went to MS page and downloaded the latest IDT driver. Before I got the new driver I swear there was a place to choose HDMI out for the audio, and now there is just Speakers, Headphone, and SPDIF.

I have come to the decision that maybe the audio wont work if there is not some kind of HDCP TV to shake with. That still doesn't explain not having the HDMI option anymore.

I could really use some help here. If it is HDCP and I hook up my new LN32A550 via HDMI it should work, right? This is not my area of expertise I am AV and Home Automation guy, but decided to use this as my HTPC.
Thanks, in advance

By Aaron Brezenski (Intel)
While I question the value of some of the HD HQV tests when evaluating Blu-ray (a topic for another time), they are in fact valid tests. My sources (I do have some-- really!) tell me that Intel's less than stellar scores are due to a player software issue: properly configured advanced de-interlacing will result in scores 20+ points higher. Still not perfect scores, but coming within the realm of workable, and my hope is that subsequent driver tweaks will improve this even further.
The rest here: http://softwareblogs.intel.com/2008/...ill-imperfect/