[mike 01hawk]

So, I'm building my HTPC, version 2. This go around w/ the GIGABYTE GA-G31M-ES2L ( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128357 ) so I can have wake-on-usb support (sorry ZOTAC GF9300-A-E LGA). I already have a 5450 to pair with it since the mobo doesn't have an HDMI out.


Anyhoo... the Gigabyte comes with an Intel GMA 3100 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_GMA#GMA_3100 ) and I'm playing a BR Rip and surfing the nets just fine w/ my E5200 CPU.


No stutter.


How soon we forget STBs were playing HD just fine back in what.... 2002?

 

[comixguru]

Yeah, you really need to look at what your current hardware can do before replacing it. My 4 year old Asus 6150 board with 1GB DDR2 533 RAM and Athlon 3800 just using IGP actually handles most ripped Blu-ray just fine at 1080i or 720p. On XP none the less. At first this was just holding me over, but more and more, this is enough. I decided to toss in a $50 CPU upgrade recently, but it was mostly to transcode SD content quicker (looks like it sped it up by ~40%). To read these forums, it may appear you need Windows 7 HP, ATI5XXX or Intel Clarkdale system to make HD a reality.


Now, if you are starting out new, I think it makes sense to go for a more HD spec system. And of course, it is can be quite fun to upgrade a system and see it scream along.

 

[vladd]



Quote:
Originally Posted by comixguru /forum/post/18201408


To read these forums, it may appear you need Windows 7 HP, ATI5XXX or Intel Clarkdale system to make HD a reality.

Only if you want to bitstream HD audio. Graphics cards have been playing HD video for quite a while. My first graphics card for HD recorded TV was a GeForce 5200 (right around 2002).

 

[bighick]

My first card was the 5200 too

dang that card sucked couldn't even play counter-strike.

 

[whiteboy714]

lol I had the 5200 also, it actually just died not too long ago. I use that old pc as a server.

 

[comixguru]



Quote:
Originally Posted by vladd /forum/post/18201446


Only if you want to bitstream HD audio. Graphics cards have been playing HD video for quite a while. My first graphics card for HD recorded TV was a GeForce 5200 (right around 2002).

There's more to is than HD audio, though. Depending on how far back you are, what sorta content you have, there's other stuff. How about PIP Blu-ray content? How about BD-Live stuff? 24 fps? BTB, WTW? Deinterlacing?


The key thing keeping me from jumping up to more current stuff is that I have a pre-HDMI receiver and I'm not ready to upgrade. Like with PC HD video/audio, things on that front are changing rapidly. More for less all the time there.

 

[candre23]

I think what this really shows (as I often tell people) that once you have a halfway decent CPU, the GPU is irrelevant. Even a cheap dual-core Celeron like the E3300 is plenty capable of 1080p h.264 playback in software. And while it might be more efficient power-wise to decode video in hardware, it's much less of a hassle to just let your CPU do it.

 

[vladd]



Quote:
Originally Posted by comixguru /forum/post/18203804


There's more to is than HD audio, though. Depending on how far back you are, what sorta content you have, there's other stuff. How about PIP Blu-ray content? How about BD-Live stuff? 24 fps? BTB, WTW? Deinterlacing?

My point was that you do not need 5xxx or Clarkdale to play HD content. They are only needed to bitstream HD audio content. And the reason it took so long to get that capability had more to do with the MPAA than with the technology.

 

[ilovejedd]



Quote:
Originally Posted by candre23 /forum/post/18205451


I think what this really shows (as I often tell people) that once you have a halfway decent CPU, the GPU is irrelevant. Even a cheap dual-core Celeron like the E3300 is plenty capable of 1080p h.264 playback in software.

So true. I'm actually amazed that the Atom 330 was almost capable of playing 1080p VC-1 (Fast & Furious Blu-ray rip). The Celeron Wolfdales are really great value for the money, same with the Athlon II Regors.

 

[pixelation]

Happens all the time. I have a P4 with IGP GMA 900. Which lots of people will say it is PoC. It plays 720p H.264 mkv smoothly.


I have a IGP GeForce 7150, it plays back 1080i OTA over 1080p TV with a 2.2GHz C2D just fine, with shows recording in background. Plays 1080p BR rips fine using VLC. Lots of people will be screaming when they hear the 3 letters 'I', 'G', 'P'.

 

[ilovejedd]



Quote:
Originally Posted by pixelation /forum/post/18206127


I have a IGP GeForce 7150, it plays back 1080i OTA over 1080p TV with a 2.2GHz C2D just fine, with shows recording in background. Plays 1080p BR rips fine using VLC. Lots of people will be screaming when they hear the 3 letters 'I', 'G', 'P'.

The GeForce 7150 is actually fairly decent as IGP's go (especially when compared to Intel's past offerings). I have a GeForce 7050 board and amazingly, it actually works better with PSX emulation (ePSXe + Pete's OpenGL2) than a computer with a Sapphire Radeon HD4550. Sure the HD4550 was faster, but some scenes had artifacts so I'm chucking that down to NVIDIA having better OpenGL2 implementation.

 

[pixelation]

Correction: I actually meant GeForce 7100. It is a step down from the 7150.