Hi Def HTPC Help (1 Viewer)

[dicki]

Hi All,

Its time for me to buy a new HTPC and i have been looking at a system that can handle FreeSat and Bluray. The problem is i have been out of the hardware game for a long time (my current system is an old AMD XP1700) and i know the world has moved on!

I am looking for advice on a system which will fulfill a few key requirements.

1: It must be low power. It will be on 24/7 so ideally will idle with very little power drain.

2: It must have optical audio out.

3: It must have DVI/HDMI AND S-Video

4: It must have enough CPU and graphics horse power for 720p output to a projector

5: It must have at least one of each of a DVB-T and DVB-S2 TV cards

6: It must play nicely with mediaportal

I have been looking with interest at the new integrated motherboards on the market, in particular the Nvidia 8200 based ones. does anyone have any experience?

I don't need case advice, it will end up wedged in a cupboard in an old server cube. PSU advice would be welcome though.

If anyone has experience of what hardware is required on the satellite dish front as well that would be excellent? i am hoping to be able to get away with one of those cheap sky dishes such as Satellite dishes for Sky Digital. Sky Digital LNB. Satellite Superstore UK. Cheap Sky mini dish. Big discounts. Sky LNB... or would it be a lot better to get a motorized dish?

i know i am asking a lot so thanks in advance for any help!

Dicki

 

[bolders]

Hi M8

Ive just upgraded my system to cope with HD playback. Ive fitted it with an AMD 4450e CPU which is 2.3GHz and only 45watts coupled with a Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H 780G Socket AM2+ motherboard (has ATI 3200 onboard video). This board has optical out, HDMI/DVI (but not both together) and VGA although i cant remember if it has S-video. This board has been good for me but others have had problems. However it is an ATI board - I guess you are a Nvidia man although it the 8200 based boards appear to have a similar spec from what i have read.

For bluray play back I use HW decode (using Power DVD 7) and the onboard video has plenty of power for this (cpu load at about 30%). I believe the Nvidia 8200 should give equally good results.

For HD rips I use the CoreAVC codec (software encoding) and again I have enough CPU grunt to cope with this. Most rips playback at between 30% - 50% with the exception of a 1080p rip that i have which is in wmv format and runs at about 70% load (this still plays perfectly).

I would of prefered the 4850e chip which is also a 45watt chip but runs at 2.5GHz (they did not have this in stock when I placed my order and I needed it quickly).
I would definately recommend a dual core CPU of at least 2GHz minimum incase you have some HD stuff that you cant decode in hardware. An intel core 2 chip will perform even better than the AMD chip at the same clock speed so a similar speed intel chip will do the job fine (the onboard intel graphics are not great at the moment tho).

Don't really know about DVB-S cards but I have a hauppauge Nova T 500 (dual DVB-T) card that gives excellent picture quality - I did have some major issues with BSODs with this card at first but this has been resolved and now its brilliant . See the folowing link for more info.

https://forum.team-mediaportal.com/hardware-selection-help-62/dual-dvb-t-card-tv-server-41158/

I also brought an Enermax modu82 425Watt PSU for the new system - I primarly brought this PSU to reduce system noise (it is unbelievably quiet) but it has turned out to be an excellent PSU in general. It looks fantastic, build quality is very good, its modular so cable mess is kept to a minimum, it is very efficent and not too expensive (mine was about £60). I will definately use these for future PC builds (not just for media PCs).

I cant help with satellite dish requirements as I have never used one :sorry:.

There are plenty of other options but I have personally had good results with the items I have listed.

hope this helps

bolders

 

[dicki]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply,

It sounds like a similar system to the one i am planning.

I was looking at the nvidia chipset because it appears to have a lower power consumption than the AMD one. i am also keeping half an eye on linux compatibility and nvidia seems to have the upper hand there (though this definitely takes a back seat to all my other requirements).

the 4850e was the chip i was looking at too, it seems to have the best performance/watt for my purposes.

I'm not sure on the power requirements for bluray and dvb-s cards, i was hoping to get away with a slightly smaller supply but the modern 82+ rated supplies seem to be very efficient even under low power drain.

is there anyone using an nvidia 8200 based board around?

Thanks

Dicki

 

[bolders]

Hi

With regards to power consumtion, I believe my media PC only uses about 100 - 150watts (I will do some power tests later and reply back). The only reason I have got a 425Watt PSU is becuase it doesnt get as hot, thus the fan never spins above about 500rpm, making it practically silent.

 

[dicki]

what kind of load is put on a system if it is simply used as a tv server?

i ask because there might be the possibility of making a very low power system to use as an always on TV server and having a seperate front end which is only powered on when i want to watch TV.

I assume that recording an HD stream is just a matter of writing it to the harddrive, the cpu doesn't really get involved because the stream is already compressed?

dicki

 

[bolders]

Hi dicki

Sorry I havent provided any power consumption figures yet but Ive been a bit tied up lately. I will try and get some measurements made this weekend.

bolders