Core i7, i5 & i3 LGA1156 Processors Thread: Clarkdale Supports HD Audio Bitstreaming! - Page 112

I agree with jakmal i3 is a good choice for a HTPC. I recently built my second i3-530 HTPC that has replaced my older e8500/nVidia GT9600 based HTPC. I have watched TV at both 24 and 60 Hz and for my me and my family we go back to 60 Hz. I guess my family and I just don't have "golden" eyes or maybe it is just that I watched 60 Hz for 50 + years . Anyways for me the big thing was less hardware means less heat means less problems. New HTPC: Intel i3-530 (stock heatsink & fan)/intel BoxDH55TC mobo/4 GB G. Skill DDR3 1600 RAM/intel M25 SSD 80GB/Moneual MonCaso 320B case/LG BH08 BD/DVD 8X BD-R Write Optical Drive/Enermax Liberty 400W PSU/3 SilenX iXtrema 40mm case fans/Win 7 x64

Thanks guys, I appreciate your input. I had been fixated on 24 fps output, but you both make a good point that it doesn't have to be that way. I can start at 60Hz and then if there does end up being a software/driver fix for 23.976, I can switch. I'm not so particular about the look of 24 vs. 60. As long as there are no dropped frames or stutter, I'll be a happy guy.

Also think I'll move to an Intel SSD and Windows 7. Looks like a busy weekend ahead!

Where are you from EU (pal land) or US (ntsc land).
I´m from seden and i CAN NOT STAND more then 2-3 minutes watching 23,976hz on 60hz.

My advice is to test and watch 1 or a couple off movies (23,976hz) in 60hz and see if you can watch it.
Choose a movie with long nice sweeping panoramic scenes or some movie with much driving to best see the ugly jerky,stuttering picture.

just a note: intel's 60 is also true 60 fps, not the standard 59.94. You will still have dropped or repeated frames, they just wont be as noticeable since it is at a higher frame rate. (each dropped frame is shorter).

The plot thickens! I'm basically an NTSC guy living in a PAL country (Singapore). I will watch a couple 23.976hz films at 60hz and see what they look like.

I'm starting to think that I should do the upgrade, but include a cheap 5XXX video card and just be done with it.

That makes perfect sense to me, but I guess I was hoping that they had somehow gotten the pulldown correct to hit 60 frames exactly. I guess not.

besides the 24p issue, I think there's still the driver crash and freeze frame issue during playback of video content. This happens every once in a while where video playback will blank out and Windows will default back to non-Aero and then a few seconds later, be back to normal again and video playback resumes. This issue seems like it's beyond the gpu and something to do with the Nehalem architecture as someone using a P55 chipset and discrete graphics experiences the same issues.

Perhaps this might solve the issue you are describing.

Thanks Andy o... got the HDMI Detective... best $100 I've every spent (well... not really... but pretty damn close)!

it's not a complete system freeze as described in that kb, but rather just a graphics issue causing a blackout of sorts. all other functions remain working.

I have never had this issue - have been watching about 4 movies(mostly BD's with a few DVD's) a week since May on a i3-530. Win7x64/TMT3 .185 BD playback/MPC-HC DVD playback/MyMovies3.16 & latest drivers from intel.

Why not do the upgrade without the 5XXX card, test to see if intel graphics works for you...if you like it then your done, if not then buy a ATI 5XXX card .

I recommend this as well. When I built my core i5 HTPC I also bought a low profile 5450, but after setting up and testing out the i5 I was happy enough that I just sold the 5450 before even opening

Just curious, if you did install a ATI 5XXX graphics card in a fully functioning i3-530 system would you have to disable intel graphics in BIOS? Do you need to uninstall the intel graphics driver? What about the MEI driver?

Nope and nope. Well, at least, I didn't have to. And the MEI is still present, just not used. This is on a Gigabyte H57/USB3 motherboard with an i3-530...

Guys you don't have any chance except using a Giga if you want to use an hybrid system.

Two options if you have a mobo except Gigabyte:

1) PCI only
2) iGPU only

_ _ _ _ _ _

And we get more Sandy Bridge information care of Anandtech. Methinks we need a new thread now.

@renethx
Wanna do the honors?

Wow, thanks for pointing that out. I hadn't seen the article yet. Huzzah!

renethx is on vacation, I think.

How much memory do you have?

I've been struggling for the past few days to get bitstreaming working on my Core i3 530 machine. I have connected HDMI out to my Denon AVR-1610 alongside a DVI connection to a Dell 2007WFP. The HDMI out on the Denon isn't connected to anything - my intent is to get video over DVI and bitstream audio to the AVR until I get myself a larger display with HDMI. Is this setup expected to work?

I have installed the latest drivers as well as the Intel ME package. MB is a Gigabyte GA-H55M-USB3 with F8 firmware. I have tried with MPC-HC+ffdshow tryout and with a PowerDVD 10 trial.

HDMI indicator lights up on the AVR and I am able to output multi-channel PCM, AC3 and DTS, but not TrueHD or DTSMA.

I just tried DXVAChecker (not sure if it's relevant for Intel) and it doesn't list ModeH264_VLD or ModeVC1_VLD - just ModeVC1_IDCT.

Any suggestions?

- Naveen

I am not sure this will work with the DVI in the chain it may cause it to downsample to PCM. Try it without the video (DVI) connected and see if you get proper bitstreaming.

Is it possible to bitstream DD+?

TrueHD and DTS Master HD works fine through mpc-hc/ffdshow but an MKV with a DD+ soundtrack won't bitstream, ffdshow just decodes the track to PCM.

BTW, when playing around with the decoded stream I changed the Windows Speaker setup to 5.1. This used to cause issues with 7MC not working properly, but this might have been taken care of in the latest driver as 7MC worked fine in 5.1 config.

/Anders

Not sure about ffdshow, but it works from commercial sw players (PDVD/TMT).

I think that ffdshow can bitstream DD+ with the Xonar. I know it doesn't work with my Core i5, not sure about the ATI 5xxx or the NVidia 460. TMT also doesn't bitstream DD+ on my system but it does work perfectly with DTS-HD and TrueHD although I haven't tried PowerDVD 10

Thanks for the suggestion. I won't be able to test that until I get myself a HDMI supported display. The alternative is to use a HDMI<->DVI adapter, but I'm not sure how well those work.

The only other concern currently is the HDMI cable I am using - it shipped with a Samsung upscaling DVD player, so I'm not sure if it's HDMI v1.3 compliant and if it is interfering in some way.

In the meantime, I am thinking of setting up a fresh Windows 7 install since my current XP installation is pretty old.

- Naveen

Thanks Andy & salacious. Sounds like my config is not the issue then. Given how rare DD+ is anymore I guess it's on nobody's priority list to fix.

I just have a few old HD-DVDs with DD+ soundtracks but it's easy enough to convert to e.g. flac or DTS with eac3to.

/Anders

What I was suggesting was to start a BD movie playing, set it play the HD audio and then pull the DVI cable off and see if you get the HD audio bitstreaming. This would tell you that the DVI cable is the issue and not something else or if it still doesn't play then it is probably not the DVI.

Win 7 install would certainly be an upgrade and may help .

Thought so, but I couldn't muster the courage to pull out the DVI cable from a live (new) system. What I did try was to setup a vnc server, boot the machine with just the HDMI connection, connect over vnc and try playing a file - still didn't work.


It did! Boy, was it good to see the blue light on the receiver (though I'm sure I'll be cursing it later on since there doesn't seem to be a way to turn it off!) I'm not quite sure what exactly did the trick: whether it was Windows 7, the fresh install or the drivers. This time, I decided to simply use the drivers on the motherboard disc. What's also strange is that bitstreaming didn't work with PowerDVD 10 and TMT3 - only with ffdshow. Perhaps the DVI output is somehow interfering like you said.

But hey, it's enough evidence that the HDMI board and HD decoding is working well on my receiver which is what I was after. I'll worry again when I get myself a bluray drive.

Thanks again.

- Naveen

some pioneer receivers had issues with dd+ not sure what you have though...

I have an Integra 9.8 preamp/processor.