[Pamel]

I need some component suggestions (primarily motherboard) for my situation described below:


I'm building an HTPC for playback on a small CRT TV, but I'm planning on getting a new HDTV in the next 5 months.


The TV can only do regular NTSC, but has composite/SVideo/component inputs. Because of other devices hooked up, I'll be forced to connect via either S-video or component. I have an old 5.1 receiver that will decode DD/DTS over coax or optical SPDIF, so I'd like to send the audio to that (although I'll only be doing 2.1 right now) digitally.


When I get the new HDTV, I only want to connect to it via an HDMI cable. I'd like audio to be handled by the receiver still. I'm thinking about rearranging things and getting a newer HDMI capable receiver so that I can do surround sound and convert analog devices (like the Wii) to go over the HDMI to the TV.



Ideally the motherboard would support S-video and have an HDMI or DVI connector to use later. There seems to be some issues with audio over HDMI, so I'm willing to wait to have all of that ironed out and switch to a different HDMI video/audio card later. If so, I'll need an probably two PCIe slots on the motherboard. I've had much more luck using video card offloading for playing back 1080p h.264 content than just using a CPU, so I'd like that if possible starting off.


I'd like to be running Windows Vista on it because the graphics scaling options (for making text big) is better, but I have an extra XP license I might use instead to keep costs down. I don't currently have any preference for playback software like MPC, PDVD, TMT, etc.


Harddrive shouldn't be a big deal as I want to primarily store stuff over the network. I will run a Cat5 cable, but for the short term I have a wireless ethernet bridge that I can use so I don't need any sort of WiFi built in.



If anyone has a suggestion for a card reader that fits in a 3.5" drive bay that only shows up as a single drive letter, I'd also be very interested in that.

 

[Servicetech571]

To be "backwards compatible" you're probably looking at a separate video card that has S-video/Component outputs. Go ahead an get the motherboard with HDMI now so you won't have to upgrade later.


I too am in the same boat for my bedroom setup. No digital inputs and flat screen Tv's are still too expensive for bedroom TV use.

 

[renethx]

There is no current mb that has composite/S-/component video outs (except for MSI Media Live DIVA, that is pricey and not good for your purpose). So you have to add a discrete video card with a 7-pin mini-DIN connector (the current standard of composite/S-/component video out in a PC graphics card).


- Athlon II X2 240/245/250

- GIGABYTE GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-US2H (a year old) or GIGABYTE GA-MA785GM-US2H (latest chipset)

- Radeon HD 4550 or HD 4670 .

 

[Smitty2k1]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Pamel /forum/post/16872401


I need some component suggestions (primarily motherboard) for my situation described below:


I'm building an HTPC for playback on a small CRT TV, but I'm planning on getting a new HDTV in the next 5 months.


The TV can only do regular NTSC, but has composite/SVideo/component inputs. Because of other devices hooked up, I'll be forced to connect via either S-video or component. I have an old 5.1 receiver that will decode DD/DTS over coax or optical SPDIF, so I'd like to send the audio to that (although I'll only be doing 2.1 right now) digitally.


When I get the new HDTV, I only want to connect to it via an HDMI cable. I'd like audio to be handled by the receiver still. I'm thinking about rearranging things and getting a newer HDMI capable receiver so that I can do surround sound and convert analog devices (like the Wii) to go over the HDMI to the TV.



Ideally the motherboard would support S-video and have an HDMI or DVI connector to use later. There seems to be some issues with audio over HDMI, so I'm willing to wait to have all of that ironed out and switch to a different HDMI video/audio card later. If so, I'll need an probably two PCIe slots on the motherboard. I've had much more luck using video card offloading for playing back 1080p h.264 content than just using a CPU, so I'd like that if possible starting off.


I'd like to be running Windows Vista on it because the graphics scaling options (for making text big) is better, but I have an extra XP license I might use instead to keep costs down. I don't currently have any preference for playback software like MPC, PDVD, TMT, etc.


Harddrive shouldn't be a big deal as I want to primarily store stuff over the network. I will run a Cat5 cable, but for the short term I have a wireless ethernet bridge that I can use so I don't need any sort of WiFi built in.



If anyone has a suggestion for a card reader that fits in a 3.5" drive bay that only shows up as a single drive letter, I'd also be very interested in that.

I think it might be a cheaper route to get a low end ATI 4xxx card instead of trying to get a motherboard with HDMI and Component (Use component, it's better than S-Video). The low end ATI card would ideally have a breakout for Component Video. It can send HDMI audio over it's DVI port with an adapter so you don't have to get a special version with an HDMI port either.


Until you hook up the card with HDMI/DVI use the digital audio out on the motherboard (almost all motherboards these days have them, and they sound just fine). Once you get an HDMI/DVI device, switch video outputs and audio outputs if applicable to your new setup.


Hope that helps you.

 

[Pamel]

Okay, so get a discrete graphics card to do the analog video. Is ATI better at configuring NTSC video? I remember fighting with settings back in the day to get the edges of the screen pulled in some so I could see the start menu, but that was a long time ago.


@renethx: I think there might be a copy/paste error on that motherboard, it looks like the same one is listed twice. I've not used AMD chips in a while as Intel seems to have had the best performance/watt lately. Does it matter which side I go with?


Does the Radeon HD 4550 allow offloading of CPU decoding?


Should I just get a case that will handle full height cards to save me potential headaches? I was looking at the HTPC ones that would likely match the width of a receiver.

 

[scorrpio]

Unless said HTPC will pull all stored content from elsewhere, I suggest a decent sized case that will be able to acccomodate extra hard drives. Once you get a taste of convenience of storing your movies on a hard drive, you'll be wanting to add more terabytes.


Do get a discrete video card like a 4550 or a 4650 with a TV-Out. Problem is, to keep costs down, most of these don't come with a component breakout. The TV-out will directly accept an S-Video cable, and many cards WILL include an S-Video to composite adapter, but if you want to run component, you'll have to buy the dongle . Get whatever budget mobo you can find - as long as it has audio with S/PDIF out, you should be fine. Eventually, you'll be using your video card's onboard sound via HDMI instead.


Oh, and do try out Windows 7. You can still download/get product key for an RC version for free till like August 20th, and it is a beautiful OS.

 

[renethx]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Pamel /forum/post/16874142


Okay, so get a discrete graphics card to do the analog video. Is ATI better at configuring NTSC video? I remember fighting with settings back in the day to get the edges of the screen pulled in some so I could see the start menu, but that was a long time ago.


@renethx: I think there might be a copy/paste error on that motherboard, it looks like the same one is listed twice. I've not used AMD chips in a while as Intel seems to have had the best performance/watt lately. Does it matter which side I go with?


Does the Radeon HD 4550 allow offloading of CPU decoding?


Should I just get a case that will handle full height cards to save me potential headaches? I was looking at the HTPC ones that would likely match the width of a receiver.

The difference is the chipset: 780G vs 785G, that is reflected in the mb model number (either one is OK for your purpose). Yes, HD 4550 offloads CPU. A 7-pin HDTV breakout cable is here . Yup a full-height case is perhaps better in that you don't have to choose low-profile expansion cards.

 

[Pamel]



Quote:
Originally Posted by renethx /forum/post/16874459


The difference is the chipset: 780G vs 785G, that is reflected in the mb model number (either one is OK for your purpose). Yes, HD 4550 offloads CPU. A 7-pin HDTV breakout cable is here . Yup a full-height case is perhaps better in that you don't have to choose low-profile expansion cards.

Somehow I looked at those model numbers several times but did not see the "5" in the second one. It looks like Newegg has deactivated that item, and Gigabyte has removed all references to it on their website (although Google still links to it and can show the cached pages) so I guess it's not an option?

I think I'll try the 4550 with that breakout cable.


If I get a full height landscape case, is there any reason to get a Micro-ATX motherboard instead of an ATX motherboard?


@scorrpio: My plan is to only have the OS in the HTPC, with all of the video/music on a server in another room somewhere. Ideally the case would be as small as possible, but if I get one that can take full height cards I don't know if it will matter.

 

[renethx]

The official release date of the new chipset 785G is late August. 785G features an improved IGP (multichannel LPCM and UVD2; plus ACC in SB), but if you add a graphics card, 780G is good enough.


A microATX case is usually an inch shorter than an ATX case (as PSU can be laid flat), so looks a bit slimmer.

 

[Pamel]

Hmmm... I do like getting the latest features, but I also hate getting burned by new hardware designs that don't quite work.


I really wish finding a cheap quality case were easier. I hate the idea of having half of the budget be the case and power supply.

 

[Pamel]

I ended up finding an old Shuttle XPC SB51G, which is a Pentium 4 with a PCI and AGP slot. I bought a GeForce 8400GS PCI card (as I couldn't find a recent enough nVidia AGP card) with the intention of using the CoreAVC with video card decoding offloading. Unfortunately the video simply did not play 1080p content smoothly, even though the CPU was hardly loaded. I'm guessing the PCI bus was being overloaded.


I switched to using the DXVA offloading in MPC-HC and it's seemed to work well enough so far. The whole system uses about 60W while idle, and 110W under load. It will suspend in seconds and come out of suspend using the suspend key on the wireless keyboard I have.


The CRT I have has component inputs, but won't do progressive video (it's pretty small and cheap). I wasn't able to get the component adapter to work with it at all, but the S-Video seems to work fine.


The system had 128MB of RAM and a CD-ROM drive in it. Purchasing a video card, 1GB RAM, and DVD-RW for it set me back ~$130 shipped. If I could go back, a GeForce 7x00 AGP might be a better choice because I have to use DXVA anyway. There isn't a lot of ventilation between the AGP slot and the side of the case though. I'm otherwise satisfied with the system, although sad that none of the components would be useful in a more powerful build. At least the video card has DVI and the motherboard has digital audio out, so the system should be useful for long enough.

 

[Pamel]

Note: CoreAVC supports decoding h.264 using CUDA on most GeForce 8x00 cards and above. The MPC-HC DXVA decoder works on a variety of ATI, nVidia, and Intel cards. I read one place that the MPC-HC DXVA decoder would work with GeForce 7x00 cards, but other webpages don't list it, so I'm not entirely sure if it would work or not.

 

[renethx]

H.264 hardware decoder has been implemented since GeForce 8500/8600 GT/GTS (PureVideo Gen 2; April 2007). An article on the decoding performance of PureVideo Gen 1 is here .