Ongoing HTPC Motherboards with HDMI (2 Viewers)

[funkstar]

And on TomsHardware: AMD's New 780G Chipset : AMD 780G Chipset- Full-HD Playback with a Sempron

Basically, don't bother puting a powerhouse CPU in it if you are using it as a media PC. a nice cool dual core will handle anything you throw at it because of the in built graphics.

 

[kszabo]

I am waiting for a good 780G Motherboard:

- µATX
- CPU core voltage controll with at least 4 phases
- FireWire onboard
- Sideport memory for the onboard GPU (at least 128 MB)
- full audio support through HDMI

All these are technically possible and exist, just no mainboard manufacturer realised this in one MoBo untill now. I guess we must just wait.

EDIT: and Windows XP compatibility (not like the 780G chipset which works only with Vista with full feature support)

 

[Justchill]

that will be available... someday, but never on a 780G board I guess..

 

[mascot]

And on TomsHardware: AMD's New 780G Chipset : AMD 780G Chipset- Full-HD Playback with a Sempron

Basically, don't bother puting a powerhouse CPU in it if you are using it as a media PC. a nice cool dual core will handle anything you throw at it because of the in built graphics.

I would say - don't bother with a powerhouse CPU if you plan to play nothing but blu-ray/HDDVD or DVD.

x264 1080p can't be hardware accelerated if they're not Level 4.1 encoded.

Without hardware acceleration you can't playback a high bitrate bluray disc even with a Intel Q6600.

With full hardware acceleration you can play bluray discs using a AMD Sepmron BE-1100 single core. No problems at all.

For x264 1080p movies with high bitrate I would recommend atleast a 2.5 ghz dual core.

---

I have no problems whatsoever with this card allthough I havent tried bluray playback yet. ~45% CPU load on heavy x264 1080p .mkv files.

Idle temp is around 37-40 degrees celcius on the CPU with scythe mini ninja (without fan on it) in antec fusion chassis with tricool fans on LOW (both of them.) Havent had one crash taht required reboot yet. No blue screens or nothing. Very stable for me, htpc is on 24/7 w/o any issues. Havent tried 100% load on CPU for some time, but gonna try soon to check the temp.

What software can I use to log the temp while pushing CPU load to 100% for a couple of hours to test?

I'm still having problems with overscan in 1920x1080 at 24 hz though. Would like to fix that since movie material has alittle stutter in 60 hz on my Pioneer plasma (looks like the NTSC dvd pulldown issue we've used to during DVD days.)

Catalyst 8.3's "scaling" settings is disabled in 24 hz but enabled and working in 30,60,50 hz... annoying! I hope the fix it soon or I will have to hassle with powerstrip, wich I cant even run because I dont know what ati drivers/components I need to uninstall.

What u ened to do to be able to run powerstrip with this setup?

I'm also gonna do the 3.1ghz only my stepping overclock tonight. works great according to numerous tests out there with almost same temp and very stable even at 3.3-3.4ghz.

HDMI audio - have installed the drivers for realtek hdmi audio and theyäre enabled but I get no sound, only from analogue outs. what is needed to activate it?? it's works according to some...?

/edit

I've now got the help I needed from avsforum. Pioneer 1366x768 plasmas CAN Indeed be 1:1 pixelmapped to 1366x768 even though everyone keeps telling you it can't.. So, now I have to start the hassle again with Powerstrip timings... duh!

But I'm sure 1366x768 at 23.976hz (71.928 hz) will look just beautiful!

 

[Justchill]

- What OS are you running btw? VISTA? Are you able to put it in standby and wake it with the remote? And how do you do that?

- What codecs do you use for movie playback? Are 720p x.264's Hardware accelerated + how do they look?

- For temp logging, try core-temp; not sure if that works for AMD.. Can't you do it with speedfan /easy tune?

- Can DIVX/XVID be hardware accelerated?

 

[funkstar]

I would say - don't bother with a powerhouse CPU if you plan to play nothing but blu-ray/HDDVD or DVD.

x264 1080p can't be hardware accelerated if they're not Level 4.1 encoded.

I actually don't have a clue what that means

I don't have any HD footage at the moment (got 7 HD-DVDs on their way though) and haven't played about with any encoding either. I just need to figure out the best way of playing HD-DVD footage without an HD-DVD drive connected to my MediaPortal boxes

 

[gibman]

So let me get this straight.

In order to have full HW accel. on h264 contents one have to install vista ?
XP is no go ?

/gibman

 

[Paranoid Delusion]

In order to have full HW accel. on h264 contents one have to install vista ?
XP is no go ?

That;s everything i have read is saying, no h264 dxva for xp, conspiracy theory going through head here, sounds similar to creative crippling there drivers to not get there audigy cards working correctly with Vista.

 

[gibman]

Thats what we call a showstopper where I come from.

There shouldnt be any issues with DXVA + XP on any other 3xxx based board I take it ?
ATI HD 3650 looks good.

/gibman

That;s everything i have read is saying, no h264 dxva for xp, conspiracy theory going through head here, sounds similar to creative crippling there drivers to not get there audigy cards working correctly with Vista.

 

[tourettes]

Thats what we call a showstopper where I come from.

There shouldnt be any issues with DXVA + XP on any other 3xxx based board I take it ?
ATI HD 3650 looks good.

I always have though that h264 acceleration relies on DXVA2, and thats not available on XP.