Guide to Building a HTPC, Workstation and Server - Page 83

How about the AMD platforms? I have been hearing the new 790Gx w/ SB750 is going to be a nice addition for HTPC's. Why the 4850 and not 4870? Just curious there. When and what will allow PAP, is that still in developement phases? I am hoping to future proof a few months here, so if and when HD audio is really passed through to my onkyo, i can really enjoy the movie. Thanks again!!!!

Interesting reading. I think I see the way I want to go. OK, So does the HD 4850 support PAP or not? I can not find that information? Do I need to goto a product such as:
"- ASUS Xonar HDAV1.3
- Auzentech Auzen X-Fi HomeTheater 7.1
- Intel G45 (according to archibael"

I use HDMI to pass through all video and audio to my onkyo. I will go with the 4850 as it seems to have the best ability at HD playback. I guess I will keep it in the intel family after that. I do have the intel E8400, not a bad chip so far. Do I go with a board built in HDMI port, a HDMI port on the HD 4850 or another solution? Do I need the audio card, or will HD 4850 support PAP and pass through the audio? Sorry for the questions, It does make for interesting reading as fast as technology is turning. Thanks!

How does the HD 3870 compare the 4850 for HTPC use?
Thanks in advance

It being the new HTPC

Also if I keep having problems with the SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 3450 losing sink with the TV is there another resonable card you would recomend?
Thanks again for all your help!

Thanks again renethx.
I have a chance to buy a CPU/MB combo
deal locally for $250. (Q9450 + ECS GF7050VT-M)
There's also a local sale for Q6600 for $190.
I wasn't thinking about the Q9450 but after seeing
this $250 deal I'm thinking Q6600 or Q9450 ?
MB which comes with it is probably useless
and I'll still buy GA-EP45-DS3R($160) OR Asus P5Q-E($170).

This is probably a decision I have to make..
but given these prices and the 45nm MBs mentioned here,
do you see Q9450 adding more value/performance
to my system ?

OK. So I guess the only real way I can do this is this. Purchase a 4850 which will give me better then the sound I have through my 2600HD. Then purchase the ASUS Xonar HDAV1.3 or Auzentech Auzen X-Fi HomeTheater 7.1 to bypass PAP (Sort of speak).

From what I read, PowerDvd will release version 9 sometime in the next few months. Which unlocks the true sound of HD. Or I can use the above mentioned sounds cards to bypass (sort of speak), the PAP issue. What truly sucks is, if you go with cyberlink you lose HD-DVD. If you go with TMT you lose the ability to play Blu-Ray from ISO. I tried WinDVD, and you also lost Blu-Ray play back from ISO. Choices seem to narrow as you sort out what you want to do. Thanks again Renethx

Huh? They all play BluRay from ISO. You just mount the ISO with DaemonTools.

ISO playback will always be possible since it looks identical to a real disc.

No they do not! WindDVD 9 does not do that, it stops immediately if AACS is not present. I confirmed that with their tech support before I was issued a refund. TMT, I just did not know, I had heard it did the same thing. So the catch is to get HD-DVD to play, which way do you go?

I am almost finished with my HTPC, but I am not sure what the best software is out there to rip blu-ray discs to my hard-drive. Any recommendations?

Case Silverstone LC17-B
Power Supply AeroCool Zerodba 620W
Video Card 512MB Zotac nVIDIA GeForce 8800GT Amp!
MotherBoard ASUS P5K3 DELUXE
CPU Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300
RAM CORSAIR 4GB(2X2G) DDR2
Hard Drive Barracuda 7200.11 SATA 3Gb/s 500-GB Hard Drive
Sound Card HT OMEGA CLARO 7.1 Channels 24-bit 192KHz PCI
Blu Ray LG GGC-H20L combo Blu-Ray/HD DVD player

TMT plays HDDVD just fine.

If WinDVD9 doesn't play non-AACS BD (which has nothing to do with ISO's), then that's a fault in their software. I can create non-AACS BD's from my camcorder, and all BD-playing software should play then fine. If they don't, the software is falt out wrong.

Any issues you have are not related to ISO's. ISO's are transparent to software and look like physical media.

AnyDVDHD + ImgBurn + DaemonTools = ISO

-or-

eac3to + Haali + mkvtools = mkv/flac

How does the 780G chipset perform in the SD HQV tests when used with a 9550 phenom or tri-core? I was hoping post-processing might be improved enough to warrant going without the 4850 video card.

Once i burn a blu ray with AnyDVD can I extract the main movie only, then create an iso of that??? Otherwise its using to much space in my hard drives

If so, will my HTPC still read it like its an acutal blu ray?

You don't burn with AnyDVDHD, you just remove the AACS. See my post above for the tools to burn, and better to do a search for more details.

Yes, TMT (for example) will play the extracted movie, but it will obviously be missing menus and extras. If you keep the entire ISO, it's just like popping the BD in a drive. In terms of size, you'll only save about 30% of the total space (e.g. 28GB vs 40GB).

Sorry, a few more questions:

1) If you want to do ffdshow post processing (upscaling and whatnot) then does having an HD4850 really matter? Would an IGP do just as well?

2) Or is the quality of the HD4850 hardware upscaling good enough? (I'd rather not have to fiddle with ffdshow if I can get the HD4850 to do just as good in hardware.)

3)Does better hardware deinterlacing matter if you're only watching blurays, mkvs, dvds, and avi's? Aren't those already deinterlaced? (or maybe I'm totally wrong here)

Thanks!

DVDs and AVIs can benefit from good deinterlacing. Although if you have a good TV, you'll get pretty good deinterlacing from the TV, and might not see a big improvement with the video card.

Upscaling is about the same across all the current generation of gfx cards and IGP's.

Is the upscaling at least comparable to what we can get from ffdshow? If not, then should I be spending money on a better CPU and use an IGP?

(Sorry for the basic questions, just trying to get a handle on what a minimum build with the best upscaling would be -- why buy an HD4850 if you're not even going to use the hardware acceleration, right?)

Not sure what you're asking? Are you asking if the software deinterlacing/upscaling that ffdshow does is comparable to what a 4850 does in hardware?

If that's your question, then no, the 4850 does a lot better than any software-only solution, but the end result will depend a lot on what you watch and what TV you have.

Thanks to renethx I've picked the parts for
my system. Before I order, I hope you can look
over these parts and make any comments or
suggest any last minute changes..
(I hope I got the Memory picked right)

CPU = Intel Quad Q9450
MB = Asus P5Q-E
Memory = CORSAIR TWIN2X4096-6400C5 4GB(2x2) DDR2 PC6400
Video = XFX PVT84JUSD4 Geforce 8600 GT
Case = Antec Sonata 3 with 500W PS
DVD/Blyray = TBD (SATA)
HD = Seagate SATA 750.
Misc = 120mm Fan for cooling HDs in Sonata3.

As always I highly value this feedback.

Ren, I read a good portion of you guide and I think its great. I wish i knew of this thread when i built mine a while back. Thanks for your help...

For my question...

I want an above avg system to play back blu-ray/hd-dvd over hdmi. Is this overkill? My budget is about 1200 or so.... No games, no other major applications.

AMD Phenom 9600 Agena 2.3GHz
GIGABYTE GA-MA770-DS3
ASUS Radeon HD 3650
---------------------------------------
Currently, at 1400 bucks (tax/ship)
Silverstone LC20-B ATX
8 gigs pc6400 (2x2 x 4)
1TB HD
Vista Home Prem 64bit
LG Blu-ray/HD DVD-ROM & 16X DVD±R DVD Burner
SeaSonic S12 II SS-380GB ATX12V 380W Power Supply (do i need my power?)
Media card reader (TBD)

My other question is Fan for CPU...my goal is quiet, system. My previous expereience, i have always brought the wrong fan for cases. Can you recommend something for this case and processor?

4 gigs should be good but newegg has a combo which makes the first 4 gigs damn cheap so i figure i'll max out the system.

I struggled with AMD vs Intel. I have a Phenom 9300 and love it so I went back to it.

Again, thanks for your expert advice...