[MTBottle]

I am converting a PC to a HTPC.

Specs:

AMD Athlon(B) XP 3200+ @2.20 GHz 400 MHz front side bus

1.5 gig of PC2700 DDR1-333 SDRAM

CHAINTECH AV-710 sound card w/ optical output to my Denon reciever

Currently video intigrated into mobo

AGP 8x video slot only (no PCI-E)


I have a Hitachi 1080i RPTV w/ component input only. I want to run component out of my PC to the reciever to the RPTV.


I had my mind set on the;

BFG Tech BFGR78256GSOC GeForce 7800GS 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 AGP 4X/8X Video Card (newegg Item=N82E16814143046)


but It doesn't show a component output and recently I have been reading that the ATI AGP X1600 and X1650 cards may be better than the NVIDIA AGP cards


I know this PC is probably not going to be able to play HD DVDs(would be nice tho), but I would like to upconvert DVDs and play some OTA HD content if possible.

What video card do you recomend? I don't want to put too much money into basicly a dead format card, but I am open to any AGP card that will work for me.

Also recomendations for a tuner card (HD and analog) would be apreciated.

 

[sharangad]



Quote:
Originally Posted by MTBottle /forum/post/0


but It doesn't show a component output and recently I have been reading that the ATI AGP X1600 and X1650 cards may be better than the NVIDIA AGP cards

An AGP 7600 GT should suit you fine I think. 'tis equivalent in gaming performance to the regular 7800 GS but cheaper.

 

[MTBottle]

Thanks for the reply.

Actually right now the 7800GS is about $20 less than any 7600GT in AGP I can find. Is the 7600 GT a better card than the 7800GS? I am not a gamer, it will be used for video reproduction only.

Thanks

 

[lsarver]

Careful: the AGP version of the 7600GT does not support all of the video features that the PCIe version does--notably inverse telecine (reverse pulldown) and bad edit correction. (See nVidia's comparison table .)

 

[MTBottle]



Quote:
Careful: the AGP version of the 7600GT does not support all of the video features that the PCIe version does--notably inverse telecine (reverse pulldown) and bad edit correction. (See nVidia's comparison table.)

What Card do you recomend?

How important is HDCP compliance rihgt now?

 

[lsarver]



Quote:
Originally Posted by MTBottle /forum/post/0


What Card do you recomend?

How important is HDCP compliance rihgt now?

I'm in the same boat as you. I was shopping for a newer AGP card when I came across that table. It stopped me cold. I wonder if it's not smarter just to replace the mobo. So far, I've done nothing.


Edit 1: Any HTPC built now should use a C2D mobo, which will certainly support PCIe. There is a sticky here detailing mobo choices.


Edit 2: See page 2 of this document from nVidia for graphics card recommendations.


In a parallel project, I was spec'ing a normal HTPC from scratch. When that stopped being fun, I discovered a less expensive, less fussy, nearly-turnkey solution: a Mac mini (first Mac). Since I'd like it to last for a while (and handle H.264), I'm waiting for the refresh to C2D and Leopard.


As for HDCP, that depends on whether you plan to play protected material. My opinion has changed just recently: both HD-DVD and BD have been cracked. When a disk is ripped, the copy protection is stripped out. It plays like any other high-bitrate file. Nothing special required. To play the disks themselves, I'd probably use a stand-alone player rather than a PC, for the better audio support.

 

[MTBottle]

Thanks for the links!

Right now I am not going to build a new PC (change mobo). I Just want something good that I can get by with until I figure out if the HTPC thing is really for me. Don't know what to do right now.

 

[StanF]

I have a 7600GS and it works perfectly with OTA HD channels. I am not using the component outputs, but the adapter comes with the card. I bought the Gigabyte version with the passive cooler.


In general, Nvidia cards run cooler (7600) than the equivalent ATI cards (X1600). As a good indication of this, consider that the 7600 cards do NOT need an extra power connector, but the X1600 typically does. Also, see comparisons on Xbitlabs.

 

[MTBottle]

After looking around some more I think I will just go back to my original plan and get the 7800GS IF I CAN FIGURE OUT IF I CAN OUTPUT TO COMPONENT.


Does anyone know how to get component out of the BFG Tech GeForce 7800GS OC Video Card. It doesn't have an adapter in any of the pictures I have seen. Can I use an s-video adapter? A VGA >component cable? Please help

 

[MKANET]

That table is actually very incorrect; at least for the 6600GT AGP display adapter. I am successfully using Inverse Telecine, Edge Enhancement, hardware accelleration on H.264, and WMV files (all on 1080p files). Actually, without those extended functions, I seriously doubt I would use my display adapter! Maybe, there's another table that has correct information we could refer to??

Quote:
Originally Posted by lsarver /forum/post/0


Careful: the AGP version of the 7600GT does not support all of the video features that the PCIe version does--notably inverse telecine (reverse pulldown) and bad edit correction. (See nVidia's comparison table .)

 

[Karyk]



Quote:
Originally Posted by mkanet /forum/post/0


That table is actually very incorrect; at least for the 6600GT AGP display adapter. I am successfully using Inverse Telecine, Edge Enhancement, hardware accelleration on H.264, and WMV files (all on 1080p files). Actually, without those extended functions, I seriously doubt I would use my display adapter! Maybe, there's another table that has correct information we could refer to??

I wonder if it varies by manufacturer for the built-by cards?

 

[Gary McCoy]

See this: http://www.nvidia.com/page/purevideo_support.html


Folks, before you go trashing nVidia's table of features, remember this: nVidia produces the GPUs but not the video boards. The table represents the features in the reference board design that nVidia furnished the OEMs who are producing the video board hardware you can actually buy.


Any given OEM can produce a video board that either uses the reference design unchanged, or deletes some of the features of the reference design, or adds features not on the reference board that the GPU never-the-less supports. The last two cases represent alternatives where the features in the table do not match the actual video board hardware.


The OEMs often do not support the video boards they produce with software for more than about a year - in fact many don't do so at all, they just produce reference style hardware and pass on the nVidia software unchanged. But if you have a board with features that were not on the reference design, and then at a later date "upgraded" to the standard nVidia drivers or application, you probably lost support for the extra features on your board.


Similar considerations apply to laptop graphics and desktop motherboard graphics based on those same GPUs. However in these cases no reference hardware design exists and some of the features are also dependant upon the CPU chipset features of the same motherboard. Therefore the driver software and graphics applications for the embedded graphics chips tend to be strictly proprietary and only a subset of the features shown in the nVidia table are implemented on such designs.


Gary

 

[MKANET]

Hey Gary, just an FYI:


I don't know if you remember, but older Nvidia reference design comparison tables actually had some of those display cards (including mine) as supporting those extended features (Ie, reverse pulldown, EE, hardware accelerated WMV). I actually just found out that mine also sucessfully accelerates H.264 videos very well (which wasn't posted before in older tables).


2) I only use Nvidia drivers... non-OEM. Actually, if I don't use the drivers/updates which are needed for these extended features, the features just don't work for me.


Now, I'm worried if I upgrade to another AGP card, I wont have these features anymore. I just thought everyone has these features who had Nvidia AGP cards 6600GT and newer.


EDIT: OOps (cant find the embarrassed smiley face), I saw you comparison chart. I am guessing maybe I dont have reverse pulldown for HD content. I didn't pay attention that closely to this feature. But, all others were very visible..... I take everything back!!!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gary McCoy /forum/post/0


....But if you have a board with features that were not on the reference design, and then at a later date "upgraded" to the standard nVidia drivers or application, you probably lost support for the extra features on your board.



Gary

 

[sharangad]



Quote:
Originally Posted by mkanet /forum/post/0


That table is actually very incorrect; at least for the 6600GT AGP display adapter. I am successfully using Inverse Telecine, Edge Enhancement, hardware accelleration on H.264, and WMV files (all on 1080p files). Actually, without those extended functions, I seriously doubt I would use my display adapter! Maybe, there's another table that has correct information we could refer to??

The IVTC tickbox in the nVidia control panel merely enables all supported purevideo features in any DXVA based player. This is particularly relevant for MPEG-2 stuff.


Trying the HQV DVD benchmark in something like PowerDVD without ticking the IVTC option in the new control panel will produce a low HQV benchmark score. This does not mean the 6600 GT supports HD MPEG-2 IVTC.

 

[sharangad]



Quote:
Originally Posted by MTBottle /forum/post/0


After looking around some more I think I will just go back to my original plan and get the 7800GS IF I CAN FIGURE OUT IF I CAN OUTPUT TO COMPONENT.


Does anyone know how to get component out of the BFG Tech GeForce 7800GS OC Video Card. It doesn't have an adapter in any of the pictures I have seen. Can I use an s-video adapter? A VGA >component cable? Please help

The 7600 GT has component output. The 7800 GS is basically a 6800 GT board with the pin compatible G70 chip in it. Since no 6800 GT supported component output it follows that no 7800 GS will support component. They just come with an S-Video output.


In terms of raw performance, the 7600 GT is equivalent to the 7800 GS but with better video output options including one dual link DVI port.

 

[lsarver]



Quote:
Originally Posted by MTBottle /forum/post/0


Thanks for the links!

Right now I am not going to build a new PC (change mobo). I Just want something good that I can get by with until I figure out if the HTPC thing is really for me. Don't know what to do right now.

You're welcome!


I understand you perfectly: I'm in the same position. I really like trying to s-t-r-e-c-h the hardware I've already got.


The problem with the shoestring approach in this case is that you may never "figure out if the HTPC thing is really for" you, because it takes a pretty hefty PC to do justice to a lot of the video available. If all you want to do is browse photos and stream music, no problem. If you want to just watch ordinary DVDs--without any paricular enhancement--ditto. But if you want to post-process ordinary DVDs (for, say, a large screen) or watch true HD material, the system requirements escalate. Sure, everybody knows this. But the point is that trying to "get by" on last-generation hardware may only frustrate you and persuade you to abandon the project prematurely. (I've experienced this a couple of times since about 2000.)

 

[lsarver]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Karyk /forum/post/0


I wonder if it varies by manufacturer for the built-by cards?

Good point. Most likely, it does. Just as motherboard manufacturers can enhance their product's capabilities by supplementing the chipset with other onboard controllers (VIA, Adaptec, JMicron, Promise, etc., etc., etc.) and custom BIOSes.


In that case, the tables would describe "reference" boards.


Edit: Sorry, Gary, I'm slow.