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I have an acer ph530 that output 720p. On my A3, I keep it at 720p as it looks better to me than downconverted 1080i.
On my HTPC, I always keep the output at 1280x720.
I will need to upgrade my system some to make it HDCP compatible, but I think it should be fine otherwise. I am wondering if it is easier to playback at 720p than 1080p. It seems most people here are using 1080i/1080p. Or does it not matter because the source is 1080p and still needs to be processed?
MSI PM800 pr mainboard 775
Celeron D 356 (3.33 ghz)
2GB PC2-6400 Corsair
256MB XFX Nvidia 6200 AGP via DVI to Acer PH530 720p DLP (92")
Turtle Beach riviera via optical or 6 channel analog to onkyo
1TB Hard drives via SATAs
xp pro sp2
I already have the HD DVD / BR plugin for nero
I was able to play a 5 minute scene from an elephants dream at 720 (studdered in fast moving scenes but did play as long as I didn't try and use HWA - enabling HWA with Purevideo overheated the 6200 and blue screened me)
I am thinking a 2400 xt or 2600 pro would do it. I think the CPU would be fine. apparently a sempron 2800 can run HD DVD with UVD support.
The other option would be to upgrade CPU to a 670 (pentium 4 3.8) or a Pentium D 935 (3.2). add a really cheap HDCP compliant board like an 8400.
Both would run me about the same as the AGP versions of the 2400 and 2600 are more expensive.
I am also tempted to just swap the board for an MSI with PCI-e and get a cheaper PCI-e 2400 Pro. I could probably do that for cheap.
Or option 4, replace the board and cpu with an AMD 4600 x2 (or there abouts) and add a 2400 pro pci-e. resell the board, cpu and vid card off on ebay to compensate.
The problem with the last two, is that it would probably lock me out of windows. I have had this happen on some systems before when you make too much of a change. I hate the idea of having to reinstall and put my frontend and everything back together.
On my HTPC, I always keep the output at 1280x720.
I will need to upgrade my system some to make it HDCP compatible, but I think it should be fine otherwise. I am wondering if it is easier to playback at 720p than 1080p. It seems most people here are using 1080i/1080p. Or does it not matter because the source is 1080p and still needs to be processed?
MSI PM800 pr mainboard 775
Celeron D 356 (3.33 ghz)
2GB PC2-6400 Corsair
256MB XFX Nvidia 6200 AGP via DVI to Acer PH530 720p DLP (92")
Turtle Beach riviera via optical or 6 channel analog to onkyo
1TB Hard drives via SATAs
xp pro sp2
I already have the HD DVD / BR plugin for nero
I was able to play a 5 minute scene from an elephants dream at 720 (studdered in fast moving scenes but did play as long as I didn't try and use HWA - enabling HWA with Purevideo overheated the 6200 and blue screened me)
I am thinking a 2400 xt or 2600 pro would do it. I think the CPU would be fine. apparently a sempron 2800 can run HD DVD with UVD support.
The other option would be to upgrade CPU to a 670 (pentium 4 3.8) or a Pentium D 935 (3.2). add a really cheap HDCP compliant board like an 8400.
Both would run me about the same as the AGP versions of the 2400 and 2600 are more expensive.
I am also tempted to just swap the board for an MSI with PCI-e and get a cheaper PCI-e 2400 Pro. I could probably do that for cheap.
Or option 4, replace the board and cpu with an AMD 4600 x2 (or there abouts) and add a 2400 pro pci-e. resell the board, cpu and vid card off on ebay to compensate.
The problem with the last two, is that it would probably lock me out of windows. I have had this happen on some systems before when you make too much of a change. I hate the idea of having to reinstall and put my frontend and everything back together.