*Official* Ivy Bridge for HTPCs Thread - Page 8

I never had stability issues with my two ASUS boards (a Z77 in my HTPC and a Z68 in my workstation PC), so considering its 100% stable for me, there is no "more stable" a Intel board can offer.

NEWS:
1. Intel released a test driver that fixes (almost completely) the 42s PAL bug
http://communities.intel.com/message/174270#174270

2. I have tickets open with INtel suport wrt DH77EB and 23p
http://communities.intel.com/message/174442#174442

and last but not least:
3. Intel is spoiling their reputation wrt onboard NICs:
http://communities.intel.com/message/174381#174381


Re Asus boards:

I don't get better than 23.973 (depends on how you 'measure' it) on my Asus P8Z77-V or dh67gd board. My understanding is it's still a platform issue, and it won't get better than that, whatever board maker you choose.
And I like(d) the Intel boards for their HTPC specific choice of components (like babgvant said), but I also found that the 7 series Media-boards, let's say came out a bit too pre-mature. Dunno if this will be a tendency or a one-time glitch.
The 3 new NUCs have lost all HTPC specific features already, and the NICs...??? see above.
Edited by Robin Mitra - 12/5/12 at 7:05am

I remember you mentioning an issue with UEFI earlier. Was that a different system?

In general motherboards from all major OEMs are decent; each has their own trade-offs, horror and success stories. It's great that you are happy with your boards, but not everyone shares that experience.

That is correct. Refresh rate precision should be the same (roughly) on all 7 series PCH. The EB is broken.

My setup is somewhat non-standard, and i more blame Intels GPU drivers for my issues. In my multi-GPU setup, after installing Intels GPU driver all i get was bluescreens, but only when installed in UEFI. Apparently a common issue when reading Intels support forums, but none of the proposed fixes worked for me. But its been fixed by now, i can't tell if the fix is in a newer GPU driver, or a BIOS update, or the MEI update... but it works now. Recently reinstalled Win7, thought i would give UEFI another shot, and it worked.

Was just an annoyance, not an issue really. Not sure how i benefit from having Windows installed in UEFI mode rather then legacy bios mode...

I think it's pretty much that PC boots faster.

I had the same experience when I was trying to report a bug with their Z68 chipset that I reproduced with 2 different motherboards. The Intel Support agent says that their drivers have no bugs.

just an update
Like I said, the new driver _almost_ fixes the issue. However, there still is a glitch after the first 40-42s (or should I say the first 1000 frames?), then sometimes another 'smaller' glitch after the next 40s.

So, while this fix is 'pretty good', it looks as if some initial values were not good enough (uninitialized?) for this kind of stream, and that got fixed. However, after the 'first collection phase' something switches in the processing chain, and that is still visible.
I dunno how it's actually done, but I am kinda guessing from the analogies to the stream processing SW I do for a living.

Guys,
I'm trying to show someone from Intel support the 23p issue on the DH77EB. How do you get MPC-HC screen captures with the CTRL-J stats overlaid ? ALT-I doesn't do so. Or do I need a specific build or something. I just pulled some random but recent build, added latest LAV and optionally madVR. Everything is working as expected, except I didn't expect this to be a non-easily-googleable secret.

Thx for any pointers.

Install the directx runtime and use EVR-CP.

Yes I did that. What I meant to say, is CTRL-J is showing the stats, but ALT-I isn't capturing them, only the actual video frame. Did miss something on that directx install?

Just use print-screen, the screenshots features in MPC-HC are not meant to capture the OSD.

Wow, not to have thought of that ...
Thanks.
Now let's see what Intel support makes out of it.

Got an email from Intel support today, confirming that this (lack of 23p Hz Refresh rate) is a design limitation of the DH77EB. It will not be fixed by a either a a BIOS fix or a workaround.

Does that affect all boards for the Ivy Bridge CPUs?

No. Other boards work as expected.

Also I pinged someone at Intel about this, still waiting for confirmation.

Thanks, that was what I was hoping you would say.

I recently upgraded my HTPC to an Ivy Bridge i3 and have a strange problem with audio. Everything bitstreams fine( DD, DD+, DTS, DD HD, DTS MA), but if I'm sending just a regular old PCM stream, such as when listening to music, the volume is super quiet. I need to turn up the receiver to +18dB just to hear it. Regular movie watching volume is -15dB to -10dB.

Does anyone else have this issue?

I think I have the fix listed in my faq.

Check the volume settings on your PC. If you're using Windows 7+ also check the per application volume in the mixer.

Link?

Windows 8 Pro w/ Media Center

Volume is at 100 for everything. What's really weird is that it will be fine for one CD and then get really quiet for the next. Same with Netflix. One TV episode is fine, the next is super quiet.

My FAQ is relatively large. Look for this section...

"The volume on playback seems low. Can I fix this?"

http://assassinhtpcblog.com/?page_id=2

Thanks. I'll try that when I get home. Right now all of the enhancements are disabled.

Just some more info, if I downgrade to the Microsoft audio driver, everything works fine but I lose the HD bitstreaming. I've got a support ticket with Intel as well, so we'll see where that goes.

Changing the delay on the loudness didn't help.

Assassin, have you had any issues with your Ivy Bridge systems?

Does anyone happen to know how good/bad 23p is on the Asrock Q77m-vPro?
Seems like a pretty perfect (Intel-based) HTPC board, if uAtx is OK for you.
Other than that, it would also make a pretty nice Home server once the HTPC gets replaced.

In my experience the value of 23Hz is pretty constant throughout the chips/chipsets. Are you OK without a HDMI port? (You will have to use a DVI-HDMI or DP-HDMI adapter.)

What's wrong with dp? I thought in practice it's the same as HDMI but you have to buy an additional adapter to bribe these guys.
Unless , of course, audio bitstreaming (hd audio formats) stops working via DP. Does it?.

Nothing wrong with DP. You just need a *passive* DP-HDMI adapter. Then DP = HDMI in every sense (the chip/chipset sends HDMI protocol over DP). This is also true for DVI: DVI = HDMI in every sense. (BTW SNB supports 2 x HDMI, IVB supports 2 x HDMI + 1 x DP simultaneously.)
Edited by renethx - 3/29/13 at 6:01am

Hmm.. just found this in the DH77EB manual:

1.5.2.6 Integrated Audio Provided by the HDMI and DisplayPort
Interfaces
The HDMI and DisplayPort interfaces from the PCH support audio. Table 7 shows the
specific audio technologies supported by the PCH.
Table 7. Audio Formats Supported by the HDMI and DisplayPort Interfaces

Audio Formats...................................HDMI.............DisplayPort
AC-3 - Dolby* Digital...........................Yes.....................No
Dolby Digital Plus.................................Yes.....................No
DTS-HD*...........................................Yes.....................No
LPCM, 192 kHz/24 bit, 8 Channel............Yes....................Yes

Dunno if that is referring to the internal decoder or to pass thru. If this is some kind of limitation of the PCH or the Intel drivers..... No Idea. Since I have a DH77EB I'll test this for my use case (BD/mkv playback via Lav/MPC-HC) and DVD/wtv via built in WMC.

I'm guessing that Audio limitations on DP, if any, would also apply to the Q77 chipset on the Asrock board.
Edited by Robin Mitra - 3/29/13 at 7:14am