[Koadan]

Hi,

Im running Windows Vista Ultimate with 3 Gigs of RAM and a 2.4GHZ AMD Dual Core Processor along side an ATI All-in-Wonder x1900 XT. The problem is I just bought the XBOX 360 HDDVD drive for use on that computer and it wont play movies because it is not an HDCP compliant video card. I also tried running the drive on my other Vista Ultimate machine and found that the X1600 in that computer would play HDDVDs, but barely. I found that by decreasing my resolution it would play a little more smoothly, although it never played perfectly.

What I need is one (or dual) video cards that have good Vista drivers, enough power to run HDDVDs at 1080i on a DLP TV via HDMI or DVI, and of course that complies with HDCP. I have considered buying dual X1600 512mb cards but I am not sure this would handle Vista and an HDDVD without any hiccups. Please leave your suggestions, but try to keep it under $400 total and let me know how the Vista support is.

Thanks for all your suggestions and comments!

 

[The White Wizard]

Do you use this machine for gaming at all? Or is it more of a dedicated htpc? Also, you mentioned dual cards, does your machine support crossfire? I'm asking because with a budget of 400 dollars you could pretty easily have the best of both worlds, that is, a gaming and media center. If you just want HD decoding capabilities, however, you can get one of the newest generation that will almost entirely offload the HD video decoding to the GPU for

 

[Koadan]

I wont be using this machine for much gaming. My motherboard is capable of doing crossfire, so do you think I would get better performance from a crossfire system or just an HD2X00 Video card? Thanks for the post and all of the help!

 

[utee05]

You could also look into getting a video card from the latest ATI video cards in the HD38xx series. I just picked up a HD3870 and will be installing it this weekend. The HD3870 will run you from $220-$250 while the HD3850 will run you from $180-$200. Both have 512mb of RAM and will be able to offload a ton of your CPU while playing HDDVDs. The HD3850 does come in 2 forms, either a 256mb or 512mb versions.

 

[brianley]



Quote:
Originally Posted by Koadan /forum/post/12899597


I wont be using this machine for much gaming. My motherboard is capable of doing crossfire, so do you think I would get better performance from a crossfire system or just an HD2X00 Video card? Thanks for the post and all of the help!

Crossfile won't be of any use for HTPC - a single HD2x00, 38x0 or Nvidia 8600 /8800 series will be fine.


If no gaming, the 2x series will work. If gaming, then you'll need to step up to one of the other options

 

[DjPiLL]

I would get a HD3870. I just got one from Powercolor and it seems like a really nice card. Played a chapter from Transformers HDDVD on my 4200+ PC and it looked real nice.