Guide to hardware selection | Page 3

Build a HD PC

Something I found on the NVidia Support site :

http://download.nvidia.com/downloads/pvzone/Checklist_for_Building_a_HDPC.pdf




To achieve "BEST" experience with HD content.

 

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Thanks, was just looking for nvidia cards, quite useful

 

On-board graphics

Maybe worth raising here but ive seen an intel 950 on board vga run 1440x900 quite well, that was with a decent cpu and 2gb ddr2
only downside is that it wont do 1366x768, just not implemented in any vbios/driver that i can find
onboard vga is generally passive and would seem an ideal solution for 70% of htpc users but unless it supports the most common panel res there is.........
any one know of any micro atx boards that do 1366x768?

 

Did you check out the ones based on integrated nvidia graphics? They are supposed to be better suited to video acceleration than intel solutions, and I am wildly guessing that they will support 1366x768 like all stand-alone nvidia cards do.

-k

 

Nah had already invested in matx case n intel cpu cant seem to find nforce board in 775 format
but next time might give it a go
regrds
mdb

 

UPDATE TO ORIGINAL POST

Just thought I might add an update for HD/1080p/blu-ray support. The graphics card list doesnt

distinguish which cards are not suited to blu-ray & the newer hardware-encoding cards. Also, the

PSU information needs to be linked to the choice of GPU, which is an important factor to consider

when selecting power rating and # of 12volt rails.

"Tests at www.silentpcreview.com shows that even the most power-thirsty systems doesnt

consume more than 200W at full load" - some low-end HTPC GPUs now need at least 350 watts

- 512meg ram not relevant if running vista
- max 300gb hard drives (?)
- dx 9 graphics cards ; only really relevant for for xp
- dual or single core omits current processor technology

-------

Blu-Ray hardware Requirements
http://www.cyberlink.com/stat/bd-support/enu/system-requirement.jsp

(jist of the article)
CPU - 3ghz single core or faster
Video ram - 256 meg or more
System ram - 1gb or more
Video card-
Nvidia - 7600gt or higher
ATI - HD 2400 or higher

INTEGRATED

Given recent advances in integrated graphics, this means the Nvidia 8200/8300/9300/9400 integrated

chipset motherboards are looking like a good prospect for blu-ray. 790 gx may also be worth

looking at.

Arguably a 780g integrated will do it, but re MP use, I would suggest a scan through here
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/htpc-projects-42/migration-amd-690g-780g-40706/
if considering one

On the 9300/9400, this ASUS motherboard (ASUS P5N7A-VM ) recently got an excellent wrap for HTPC use on Extremetech
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2333126,00.asp

ATI and NVIDIA SYSTEMS

ATI

ATI offer a system called Unified Video Decoder (UVD) which is designed to take the load off CPU

when playing back High-Def Video. Its incorporated into:

HD2000 series
HD3000 series
HD4000 series

**only the HD4000 series has UVD2, which takes full advantage of Blu-ray functionality with dual-

stream, picture in picture (PIP) capabilities, including full decode of VC-1, H.264 and MPEG-2

NVIDIA

Nvidias on-board GPU decoding technologu is PurevideoHD, which is available on

8000 series
9000 series
GTX series (260, 280, ***)

**only the 9000 and GTX series support full decode of VC-1

more here, including Intel decoding technology :
http://nwgat.wordpress.com/2008/11/29/video-cards-for-hardware-decoding-of-blu-ray-disc/

and here
https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/...basic-overview-gpu-hd-video-processing-48888/

Theres an really good article at TomsHardware.com that compares NVIDIA vs ATI HD on HD Decoding

Compares:
780G (integrated)
8200 (integrated)
HD2400 (discrete)
8400GS (discrete)

And throws into the mix [single core 3.2ghz /vs/ dual core x2 5400]

RESULT:
in their test the single-core cpu was not up to the task
See the article for the lowdown on integrated vs discrete on ati/nvidia

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/graphics-blu-ray-video,2030.html

------------------------

CONCLUSION
Nvidia 9400/9500GT or ATI 4550/4650 is probably the best way to go as an 'ideal' HTPC card for Blu-Ray playback on a machine not intended to be used for gaming.

NOTE:
CyberLink BD Advisor is a downloadable application which will scan existing hardware and notify of any upgrade requirements for blu-ray support
http://www.cyberlink.com/prog/bd-support/diagnosis.do

-- does not provide 'degrees' of viability - just a pass/fail output on a number of specific criteria

 

One qestion:

Is conceptronic remote control MCE compatible with mediaportal?

I know that conceptronic use ehome driver but i don't know if this remote is compatible with MP

 

Just wanted to add that more RAM can be useful if you want to make a ramdisk for timeshifting, which will eliminate the HD access while watching TV.

 

RAM for Initial Build

So, with this setup, is 1gb fine, or would performance increase with more?

The docs say MP v1.0 needs 1gb, but I don't know if that is plenty or not.

HP Pavilion a320n (AMD Athlon 2800+ 2.08Ghz), 1024MB
ATI 9600xt AGP 128mb
Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1600 - 1183 - MCE Remote and eHome USB IR Receiver/Blaster
ChainTech AV-710 PCI Audio (VIA Envy24-HTS based with optical S/PDIF)

WinXP MCE2005 with SP2 on C:,
Envy24 5.40a, ATI Catalyst 8.12, ATI-CyberLink DVD Decoder
RAdmin2, Acronis10, Criticals, DotNet 1.0, 1.1, 2.0.
MCE2005 Update Rollup-2, WMP 11, WinTV 6.x (CD4.6a), TitanTV
MediaPortal 1.0, mc2xml (TVGuide), S-Video Capture
- Followed Goose's Codec Install Guide -
ffdshow_beta6_rev2527_20081219.exe (Generic Stable)
Haali Media Splitter v1.9.42.1 (01-2009)
QT Lite and Real Alternative Lite
VSFilter (Direct VobSub)

Nothing is running in the Windows background (like Windows Defender or Anti-Virus). With this old second-hand PC, I'm trying to squeeze out as much power as I can. I'm not going to do BluRay ... just DVD and MPEG2, XVid ... stuff like that, usually from the hard-drive.

 

I ran MP on a 2.4ghz p4 with 1gb in XP and it was great. No problems at all for sd playback (no good for hd).