[Schlotkins]

Good morning:


I am in the process of planning a move from a PS3/Cable box setup to a HTPC (eventually with a cablecard setup). At this point, I've been able to plan around without much capital investment, but it's either go for it or abandon time. My current thought process on the setup is:


Core i3(low power)

ATI 5570 (lowest power card w/ all features and support for 24p)

4 GB ram (enough RAM)

Some quality motherboard

some quality case

Bluray/DVD player: PowerDVD 9 Ultra

Windows 7 MC w/ Mediabrowser


My other hardware is a Pioneer 5070 and a Denon 2807 (last one BEFORE support for HD bitstreaming so I'd be outputting LPCM). I plan on controlling with harmony remote.


I have Gigabit throughout the house so I am planning on having a RAID5 setup in another room w/ Bluray, HDDVDs (converted to BD ISOs) and DVDs as well as past recordings.


Here are my questions/concerns:


1) First, any issues with the setup I'm planning?

2) Can I achieve 95% of my PS3 PQ on this setup?

3) Any idea what I would output to my TV? Can windows switch automatically between 24p and a different resolution? I don't think my TV can take in 60p.

4) I'm assuming with windows MC and PowerDVD integrated this would be pretty WAF friendly no?


I think that's about it. Thanks so much for your thoughts.


Chris

 

[joe531]

Your choices for the setup seem fine, but to be honest, I wish I had just upgraded the hard drive in my PS3 and used it as my media center.


Setting up my HTPC and getting it to work right was one of the worst experiences I've ever had with a PC. It still doesn't work just right.

 

[Schlotkins]

Thanks Joe. I was close to doing that but decided to go this route.


The only thing I don't know is I assume HTPCs are always setup through HDMI now. So, if I run WMC7 and I watch 1080i HD, what gets outputed to my plasma? According to the manual, it can only take 1080i/60 or 1080p/24.


Thanks,

CHris


EDIT: Let me rephrase: Can I hookup an HTPC running Windows MC7 through my HDMI?

 

[etheesdad]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Schlotkins /forum/post/18178803


s,

CHris


EDIT: Let me rephrase: Can I hookup an HTPC running Windows MC7 through my HDMI?

Yes. You can output 1080 with multi-channel audio through hdmi


Im pretty sure the Clarkdale does 24p and audio bitstreaming through its own graphics processor. You may want to check that, but If im correct that would make the dedicated GPU you're considering, redundant.

 

[Schlotkins]



Quote:
Originally Posted by etheesdad /forum/post/18179409


Yes. You can output 1080 with multi-channel audio through hdmi


Im pretty sure the Clarkdale does 24p and audio bitstreaming through its own graphics processor. You may want to check that, but If im correct that would make the dedicated GPU you're considering, redundant.

Great -thanks. I read that Clarkdale isn't doing 24p quite right... I hope they fix it before I purchase.


Just so I'm clear, I can run windows over HDMI @ 1080p24, which my TV can take. Of course, almost all of my BDs are authored at 1080p24 so that's great. I guess my questions about resolution are the following:


If I play a BD authored at 1080i (For example, I create a BD disc structure using a US recorded TS file), what happens? Does PowerDVD change my resolution to 1080i60? 1080p30 (those are the same right)? Then when it's done, does it go back to 1080p24?


I guess my question is how does all of this get handled in terms of switching resolution that my PS3 just 'handles'?



I should note my Pioneer 5070 an only do 1080i60, 720p60 and 1080p24 over HDMI and I'm trying to figure out how to use HDMI properly


Thanks for any help!

Chris

 

[ArtosDracon]

HTPCs use a fixed resolution and refresh rate, if you have it set to 1080p24, it will output everything as 1080p24 unless you manually switch to another resolution or refresh rate. The 5570 does great at de-interlacing 1080i content to 1080p30 or 1080p60. I haven't personally seen it scale from 1080i to 1080p24, but I imagine it can do it well enough. You will however want to double check the specs on your projector though, as it strictly taking 1080i60 or 1080p24 is more than a little bit odd IMHO.

 

[BartMan01]



Quote:
Originally Posted by joe531 /forum/post/18178695


... to be honest, I wish I had just upgraded the hard drive in my PS3 and used it as my media center...

I would buy another PS3 (or Xbox for that matter) as a media center, but they don't play back anything I really care about. Seems ironic that it is easier to play back pirated content on these devices than it is to play back purchased content (in original quality with menus intact) ripped to a server.


Plus with a CableCard setup, you lose the terrible DVRs that you are limited to by your provider.

 

[Schlotkins]



Quote:
Originally Posted by ArtosDracon /forum/post/18180876


HTPCs use a fixed resolution and refresh rate, if you have it set to 1080p24, it will output everything as 1080p24 unless you manually switch to another resolution or refresh rate. The 5570 does great at de-interlacing 1080i content to 1080p30 or 1080p60. I haven't personally seen it scale from 1080i to 1080p24, but I imagine it can do it well enough. You will however want to double check the specs on your projector though, as it strictly taking 1080i60 or 1080p24 is more than a little bit odd IMHO.

Thanks for the note. I actually have a plasma. It's a few years old now so it's not as flexible as some of the newer TVs unfortunately. It seems like I should be able to get it to work OK though. I may just run the setup interlaced as my TV is actually good about coverting 1080i60 -> 1080p24 and then 1080i60 would work properly.


Thanks,

Chris