Upgrade to support HDTV, HDDVD & Blu-Ray

[dman_lfc]

Hi All,

I'm trying to gather some information about some hardware projects i'm involved in.
You as a user of MediaPortal and part of this fine community I hope you can help me out.

So my question to you is in the form of this poll.
Please consider answering as best you can.
If you need further clarification then please don't hesitate to ask.

Please take into consideration that your CPU% should be as low as possible and I'm sure you want a quiet system too.

Many thanks for your support.

[deebo]

8500gt already on its way

gigabyte 8500gt passive+hdcp

and i wouldnt really even need that, my current htpc has the cpu power to decode 1080p h264 but the integrated gf6150 cant push the data to the screen, resulting in frameskips and alot of jitter/freezes

[xemumanic]

I agree with deebo, the 8500/8600 cards make the decoding almost a non-issue, if you have a CPU from the past 2 years or so. So I think the issue now becomes how do you get that content. Either a Blu Ray or HD-DVD drive, or HDTV tuner card.

Personally, I plan to rebuild my HTPC, and all I really need to do, besides a HD tuner and a BRD/HD-DVD drive, is the CPU/RAM/Mobo combination.

EDIT: I didn't know until later that the reason for this thread and vote is to get data for some new decoding card? I'm all for that, that would make it easier to build a low power, quieter HTPC, if there was a dedicated decoding chip. Too bad I can't change my vote.

[Spragleknas]

Two polls?

ref. http://forum.team-mediaportal.com/up...1.html?t=23841

[dman_lfc]

ooops deleted

[Spragleknas]

The reason why we're asking is that we have an option to implement a H/W decoding solution that will require you not to have to upgrade at all in most cases.

All you will need is a spare PCI or PCIe x1 slot.

So please have a look at this poll and let us know your strategy for the next generation of video and audio quality.
[forum link]
Just a bit about the hardware decoding solution. It will be capable of decoding VC1, MPEG-2, H.264, DivX & Xvid video streams with most audio.
So if you have a high CPU% decoding any of these at the moment in standard or high definition then it may be a solution for you.

Sounds interesting!!!

[Elconejo]

It would be nice if there could be a hardware sollution that upscales to HD (1080p). So the analoge tunercards, for example, would look much better on the HD-tv.

[RaDiKal]

Originally Posted by Elconejo

It would be nice if there could be a hardware sollution that upscales to HD (1080p). So the analoge tunercards, for example, would look much better on the HD-tv.

A bigger, faster, CPU and ffdshow is what I use to scale up and clean up content.

[benboy]

I would of thought my biggest expense would be in getting an HDCP supported monitor and graphics card.

Unless of course I were to do the evo demux and rebuild method, but then that isnt really native support.

[mpfrank]

I am planing to replace my EN7600GS with 8600GT (purevideo HD support). Rest of my HTPC is up to date and powerful enough and won't need an upgrade.
In my Silverstone case there is no more space for additional HW-accelerator card. Not PCI and not PCIe. All slots are busy (two tv cards, CI module in PCI slot, WLAN card, PCIe graphic adaptor).

Working codec solution would be more helpful for me than HW solution for decoding.

mpFrank