Ongoing HTPC Motherboards with HDMI (1 Viewer)

[kszabo]

I've ordered it as well should receive it today or tomorrow. (gigabyte version)

Don't like having to install vista, one bit though :[
So I might just try it, see how it goes and then revert back to XP.

I´ve read a test, it showed that HybridCrossFire and HW-Acceleration worked only in Vista, not XP. It was an early driver though. But as I know the 690g support under XP from ATi... There is a chance that the 780G stuff will work as it should only with Vista.

 

[infy]

yes that's why I installed VISTA. This mainboard has some amazing HD decoding, but only when used in VISTA. Has nothing to do with drivers. It has something to do with DXVA. ( DirectX Video Acceleration - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ).
Vista supports DXVA 2.0 and xp doesn't.

But I already regret installing the damn OS. Trying to get the MCE remote to work properly in mediaportal...

 

[KimBOlesen]

Hi

Any of these motherboards there have HDMI with HDMI-CEC (Consumer Electronics Control) built in ? Could be nice to be able to control Mediaportal from "Viera Link"

 

[kingnubian]

Hi, i bought GA-MA78GM-S2H yesterday - windows installed and works, i connected with TOSHIBA 37X3000PG /full hd/ with HDMI cable - everything works well, but when im turn off tv and turn on again i have no screen displayed again, i need to restart, the same if i turn on when tv is off after turn on tv i didnt see.

Any ideas?

In the Catalyst driver options make sure the "Force Tv Detection" option is checked.

 

[mascot]

I've decided to go with the nvidia MCP78 based board. 780g will NEVER support anything but 2 channel audio through HDMI, while the MCP78 with geforce 8200 has support for truehd and dts-hd ma etc through HDMI in 7.1 channels. Also the north bridge on the Gigabyte GA-MA78MG-S2H is reported to be very, very hot according to alot of people, atleast on the current a12 builds (might be fixed on a13 builds but those are not around yet.)

80+ degrees celcius in idle and almost 90 degrees reported on full load for a few hours. Not to my liking.

I won't be using the HDMI because I'm going to connect the analogue ports straight to a 7-channel amp and powerered subwoofer but until I get my new poweramp (sold the old 5 channel one recently) I need some audio through tv speakers.

The hardware acceleration with geforce 8200 are qual to the hd3200 in 780g.

The Gigabyte board has firewire and eSata wich is great but no HDMI audio and hot north bridge + some problems with driver according to some people does enough to make me pick the Asus M3N78-HDMI fpr my HTPC instead.

It lacks firewire and eSata but has the advantage of heat reduced and full hd audio through HDMI.. I will need it temporarily until I get the new poweramp and you never know what might be the case in the future, I might get a reciever to decode truehd etc instead. I need to connect my Nindendo wii somewhere to get the audio so a reciever with decoders for the new sound formats might still be the case.

Good news is that Power DVD 8.0 is out officially in the end of this month with no audio downsampling ie full hd audio delivery through HDMI aswell as analogue and they also put back the playback from HDD function lacked in the later Power DVD Ultra updates!

I will build next week... dying to get my hands on the rig now!!

 

[kszabo]

Mascot, thanx for your nice and thorough report "nVidia vs. ATi". Interesting point is the HDMI audio support, I did not know about this.

But who says that the NB of the 780G is hot? I guess the nVidia will be even hotter. I did not find any reports. The Asus version of the 780G has much bigger heat sink on the NB as the Gigabyte, this shows that some are having concerns about this.

Systems with 780G have about 150W power consumption under full load (CPU, RAM, everything together). The 780G NB is built with 55nm technic. it means it need less power than the Intel or nVidia pedants. Where should the big heat come from then? I don´t believe it is a problem. The smart guys reporting hot NBs are using a wrong tool maybe to read out Temps (like my Asus Pundit Barebone with 690G chipset gives totally false Temp measurements with the Asus tool, I have to manually configure Speedfan to get the right temps).

A good compromise: use HybridCrossFire with a 40 € ATi 3450HD passive cooled. Without load the onboard GFX shuts down, under full load you get a performance boost of 2x with the IGP. Low power consumption of Northbridge, great 3D performance if needed. And you profit from the dedicarted Video-RAM of the card (speed and RAM for OS spared)

 

[Justchill]

I've decided to go with the nvidia MCP78 based board. 780g will NEVER support anything but 2 channel audio through HDMI, while the MCP78 with geforce 8200 has support for truehd and dts-hd ma etc through HDMI in 7.1 channels. Also the north bridge on the Gigabyte GA-MA78MG-S2H is reported to be very, very hot according to alot of people, atleast on the current a12 builds (might be fixed on a13 builds but those are not around yet.)

80+ degrees celcius in idle and almost 90 degrees reported on full load for a few hours. Not to my liking.

I won't be using the HDMI because I'm going to connect the analogue ports straight to a 7-channel amp and powerered subwoofer but until I get my new poweramp (sold the old 5 channel one recently) I need some audio through tv speakers.

The hardware acceleration with geforce 8200 are qual to the hd3200 in 780g.

The Gigabyte board has firewire and eSata wich is great but no HDMI audio and hot north bridge + some problems with driver according to some people does enough to make me pick the Asus M3N78-HDMI fpr my HTPC instead.

It lacks firewire and eSata but has the advantage of heat reduced and full hd audio through HDMI.. I will need it temporarily until I get the new poweramp and you never know what might be the case in the future, I might get a reciever to decode truehd etc instead. I need to connect my Nindendo wii somewhere to get the audio so a reciever with decoders for the new sound formats might still be the case.

Good news is that Power DVD 8.0 is out officially in the end of this month with no audio downsampling ie full hd audio delivery through HDMI aswell as analogue and they also put back the playback from HDD function lacked in the later Power DVD Ultra updates!

I will build next week... dying to get my hands on the rig now!!

Mascot, how is the combo VISTA - MEDIAPORTAL? Have you got any experience with it? Have you tried the VISTA Mediacenter?

Is 7.1 audio over HDMI really that important? Don't you need like an expensive receiver for that?

 

[kszabo]

Is 7.1 audio over HDMI really that important? Don't you need like an expensive receiver for that?

For people concerned about TrueHD Audio through HDMI:

Auzen HDMI 1.3 board PICs & Info!!

Buy a board what you want, put this PCI card into the PC, connect the HDMI output of Motherboard with the HDMI-in of this card, it will add the audio stream to it whatever you want.

 

[kingnubian]

I wish it was available now and for a good $$$$.

 

[mascot]

Mascot, thanx for your nice and thorough report "nVidia vs. ATi". Interesting point is the HDMI audio support, I did not know about this.

But who says that the NB of the 780G is hot? I guess the nVidia will be even hotter. I did not find any reports. The Asus version of the 780G has much bigger heat sink on the NB as the Gigabyte, this shows that some are having concerns about this.

Systems with 780G have about 150W power consumption under full load (CPU, RAM, everything together). The 780G NB is built with 55nm technic. it means it need less power than the Intel or nVidia pedants. Where should the big heat come from then? I don´t believe it is a problem. The smart guys reporting hot NBs are using a wrong tool maybe to read out Temps (like my Asus Pundit Barebone with 690G chipset gives totally false Temp measurements with the Asus tool, I have to manually configure Speedfan to get the right temps).

A good compromise: use HybridCrossFire with a 40 € ATi 3450HD passive cooled. Without load the onboard GFX shuts down, under full load you get a performance boost of 2x with the IGP. Low power consumption of Northbridge, great 3D performance if needed. And you profit from the dedicarted Video-RAM of the card (speed and RAM for OS spared)

Asus 780g board M3Axx HDMI has only 5.1 sound support.

Well, I have no idea if the MCP78 based boards are hot as the 780g Gigabyte one.
All I want is to be safe for the future. If I get a reciever with truehd and dts hd in the future I would want the sound support in HDMI on my motherboard.

I've decided to go with the nvidia MCP78 based board. 780g will NEVER support anything but 2 channel audio through HDMI, while the MCP78 with geforce 8200 has support for truehd and dts-hd ma etc through HDMI in 7.1 channels. Also the north bridge on the Gigabyte GA-MA78MG-S2H is reported to be very, very hot according to alot of people, atleast on the current a12 builds (might be fixed on a13 builds but those are not around yet.)

80+ degrees celcius in idle and almost 90 degrees reported on full load for a few hours. Not to my liking.

I won't be using the HDMI because I'm going to connect the analogue ports straight to a 7-channel amp and powerered subwoofer but until I get my new poweramp (sold the old 5 channel one recently) I need some audio through tv speakers.

The hardware acceleration with geforce 8200 are qual to the hd3200 in 780g.

The Gigabyte board has firewire and eSata wich is great but no HDMI audio and hot north bridge + some problems with driver according to some people does enough to make me pick the Asus M3N78-HDMI fpr my HTPC instead.

It lacks firewire and eSata but has the advantage of heat reduced and full hd audio through HDMI.. I will need it temporarily until I get the new poweramp and you never know what might be the case in the future, I might get a reciever to decode truehd etc instead. I need to connect my Nindendo wii somewhere to get the audio so a reciever with decoders for the new sound formats might still be the case.

Good news is that Power DVD 8.0 is out officially in the end of this month with no audio downsampling ie full hd audio delivery through HDMI aswell as analogue and they also put back the playback from HDD function lacked in the later Power DVD Ultra updates!

I will build next week... dying to get my hands on the rig now!!

Mascot, how is the combo VISTA - MEDIAPORTAL? Have you got any experience with it? Have you tried the VISTA Mediacenter?

Is 7.1 audio over HDMI really that important? Don't you need like an expensive receiver for that?

No. a 500 euro Onkyo is available for example.

Is 7.1 audio over HDMI really that important? Don't you need like an expensive receiver for that?

For people concerned about TrueHD Audio through HDMI:

Auzen HDMI 1.3 board PICs & Info!!

Buy a board what you want, put this PCI card into the PC, connect the HDMI output of Motherboard with the HDMI-in of this card, it will add the audio stream to it whatever you want.

No PCI slots free

2 x DVB-S2 cards in PCI slots. Should be a PCI-Express card if I'm gonna be able to use it.

Regarding mediaportal and vista I have no idea. Does it work properly?