1080p playback hardware (1 Viewer)

[ejtje]

Hello all,

I have tried to get MP play 1080p (.mkv) on my current PC but my pc is not good enough to do that. So i was curious what hardware will be able to do this?

For example do i need a quad core processor?
Or do i need at leased 4GB ram memmory?
And last be not least what kind of videocard do i need?


maybe people can give me there working system spec.


Thx, E

 

[Wizzing]

I use a AMD Athlon II X2 235e / 2.7 GHz Energy Efficient processor. This is not a very fast processor, and even slow Atom processors can handle full HD. The real important thing is the videocard, the videocard has to help decode the HD-files. I use 2 Gb of ram. If u wanna know more check "My System". A quadcore is overkill for a simple HTPC.


I use an onboard videocard, the ATI 4200 wich is good enough to help decoding. So every ATI Radeon wich is newer/faster (4000/5000 series) than this one will work (with propper codec installation).


EDIT:
I see u have a AMD Athlon XP 1600+, thats about equal to an intel Atom system. U have very little ram, I don't know the minimum but I guess 1 GB is the minimum you need. I would not upgrade this system but buy a new system. Buy an AMD combination, those are good and cheap. Buy a motherboard with the 785G chipset, those have the ATI Radeon 4200 onboard, which is good for full-HD. Buy a cheapass AM3 processor & 2GB Ram and u have a nice starter set.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/low_end_cpus.html

 

[ejtje]

Tnx for your post.

I hava also a AMD atlhon 64 3500+ procesor, with a Asus 6600GT silent video card (256Mb), and 1Gb memory but that's also not good enough for full HD (1080P) playback.
Maybe if I first try a beter videocard and 2GB of memory it will work.

A nother question: What kind of HTPC case are you using, I want to buy a silverstone LC20B that supports Full ATX mother boards. Because I want to re-use my "game" pc's hardware.

 

[Terra]

I hava also a AMD atlhon 64 3500+ procesor, with a Asus 6600GT silent video card (256Mb), and 1Gb memory but that's also not good enough for full HD (1080P) playback.
Maybe if I first try a beter videocard and 2GB of memory it will work.

My current PC also has a AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Singlecore CPU, 1GB RAM and it plays 1080p just fine. However, that's only possible if your H264 decoder uses DXVA and your videocard supports DXVA.

I use a MSI N9500GT-MD512Z/D2 (MSI N9500GT-MD512Z/D2, GeForce 9500 GT, 512MB DDR2, VGA, DVI, HDMI, PCIe 2.0 (V133-006R) Preisvergleich bei Geizhals.at Österreich) in my HTPC.

 

[ejtje]

Ok great! tnx for your post. So i will try using my AMD 3500+. But first i have to buy a new videocard. Any suggestions for a good videocard.

A nother question: are there good passive cooled videocards that support DXVA? Or has someone any tips for actieve but silent cooled videocards?

Tnx E

 

[Terra]

I would buy a Nvidia Video Card and not a ATI, based on my experiences. I tried to use DXVA with a ATI RADEON HD 4350 512MB DDR2 but it did not work very well. I saw lots of green blocks and sometimes there was no picture at all. Now with my Nvidia card everything works.
Just my 2 cents, there are a lot of people with ati video cards in the forum.

The video card I posted is passive cooled and there are a lot more. However all passive cooled video cards have a huge cooler on the front or the back, you need to check if the card fits in your case.

 

[Wizzing]

A nother question: What kind of HTPC case are you using, I want to buy a silverstone LC20B that supports Full ATX mother boards. Because I want to re-use my "game" pc's hardware.

I have this case: the thermaltake dh-101

This one is full ATX. So chill installation. Building a HTPC is more work then building a normal desktop, but this one has good working space. I have the version with the lcd and buttons, this one is about 200 euro's so rather expensive. There are also versions without the display for about E120.- or so. > problem is that mediaportal hasn't yet got good support for this display but in the future it will.


About the videocard. Do u have a PCI-E slot? or an AGP. If u have PCI-E u have a lot of possibilities. The problem Terra described sounds like a bad codec combination. Most people don't have problems with ATI, just as most people don't have problems with Nvdia. I alwasy use Nvidia on my Intel based systems and ATI on my AMD systems.

If u have a pci-e slot then this one is very nice. The Ati Radeon HD4670 with passive cooling. Most full ATX HT cases will fit a passive graphic card. The only problem is that some pci/pci-e slots cannot be used sometimes.. so do you research what slots you need of your motherboard. If you wanna use next-gen audio formats like True-HD etc. you be better of with an 5000 series videocard.. but thats a whole nother story.


Dutch webshop link:
Sapphire Radeon Hd 4670 Ultimate Edition Grafische Adapter Radeon Hd 4670 Pci Express 2 0 X16 512 Mb Gddr3 Digitale Vi :: Azerty

 

[Terra]

Maybe it's destiny, but I owned 2 ATI Videocards in my life, and I returned both because of faulty video playback. One card created a bluescreen after watching 20 Seconds of divx/xvid movies (problem was confirmed by ATI and many users) and the other one I mentioned was not able to play H264 files with DXVA. There's also a Thread in the ATI Forums about problems with DXVA (AMD Game Forums - DXVA (H264 hardware acceleration) doesn't work after standby or hibernate on HD 4200)

In addition NVIDIA GPUS are able to decode H264 files with other resolutions than 720p and 1080p. So, thats why I will never recommend any ATI cards But maybe I was just unlucky, I tried to get it to work a couple of days and returned it.

 

[Wizzing]

Mmmm lol the post u link to is someone with exacly the same motherboard as me. I also have a integrated HD4200 in my HTPC. I hadn't had any problems yet, but when I do I now know were to look . I see that the problem is fixable with other drivers.. so it won't be a big problem.
I still believe u were unlucky. If those card would suck in general they won't be advised by so many 'best buy' guides and by experts. Im no expert. I just recently started building a new HTPC... but learned a few things on my way.

 

[ejtje]

Tnx for your post.

So i will have to buy a better videocard en more memory and also 2 big harddisks. En then start testing. If i test it working i will buy a HTPC case and a new PC for gaming, because I'm using my current game pc (yes it is old).

Greetings E