Newbie Needs Assitance Building A HTPC For Australian Use! (1 Viewer)

anything

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April 20, 2005
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the biggest problem in Australia is getting a program that can do HD TV. Mediaportal wont do 9 or 10 HD properly and most others wont either. So your stuck with the Fusion or DNTV Live software which doesnt have a front end.
 

Taipan

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  • February 23, 2005
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    anything said:
    Mediaportal wont do 9 or 10 HD properly.....
    I disagree - using the Zulu HD DxVA Decoder in MediaPortal works fine for me on all the HD channels..... :)

    The nVIDIA Video Decoder is not too good on some HD material, though - so I think the issue with HD is more to do with the particular video decoder than it is to do with MediaPortal itself.
     

    Maz78

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    January 6, 2006
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    Cool. Thanks for the info. Now... FINALLY. My last question is:

    I've also found one of the MSI boards:
    http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_detail.php?UID=702

    This one has 7.1 audio, all the video connectors by the look of it, and 3 PCI slots in a Micro ATX board. I'm guessing if I wanted to have the "Spatial De-Interlacing" function, I would just install an addition 6600 series video card, and stand alone Sound card for that to handle the sound processing correct?

    In the meantime, I'm guessing this mb, with a decent tuner card and CPU would be more than sufficient for watching / recording TV? My onyl concern still is on the 1080i HD side, and as long as I have the 6600 card, I should be fine correct? BTW: What would be the minimum spec AMD CPU you would want for this setup?

    :D
     

    Taipan

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    Maz78 said:
    What would be the minimum spec AMD CPU you would want for this setup?
    To give you some idea, I have an AMD Athlon XP 2400+ with an ATI 9550, and using the Zulu HDTV DxVA video decoder with 1080i (channel 9 HDTV), the CPU% is around 60%.

    Using the nVIDIA on SD, the CPU% is around 15%.

    So, I would suggest that anything equivalent to, or better than what I have, would be fine.... :)
     

    Marcusb

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    I noticed it does NOT feature "Spatial Temporal De-Interlacing". I still haven't quite understood that feature
    Funny, I always thought that was what made the Tardis bigger on the inside than the outside...


    Here is the Albatron board I mentioned earlier:http://www.gamedude.com.au/prod_show.php?art_no=mbALkm51pv.

    Don't worry too much about the 6600 at this stage, as long as the board you get has the 6150 built in or the ATi x200 then try it out. If you aren't happy then upgrade to the 6600.
     

    Maz78

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    January 6, 2006
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    Marcusb said:
    I noticed it does NOT feature "Spatial Temporal De-Interlacing". I still haven't quite understood that feature
    Funny, I always thought that was what made the Tardis bigger on the inside than the outside...


    Here is the Albatron board I mentioned earlier:http://www.gamedude.com.au/prod_show.php?art_no=mbALkm51pv.

    Don't worry too much about the 6600 at this stage, as long as the board you get has the 6150 built in or the ATi x200 then try it out. If you aren't happy then upgrade to the 6600.

    Cool, thanks for the link and the info people! I think I might just try the MSI board I posted earlier.
    http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_detail.php?UID=702

    Pity there aren't really any full sized ATX boards with all 6150 and all audio options onboard (Not that I've found). Can anyone confirm? I'm only asking as I'll probably go with a Silverstone LC-10 full size case.

    Thanks again!
    :D
     

    Tharsis

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    December 28, 2005
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    I'm a p4 with a LC10M, and have the project mostly completed.

    I can also confirm no problems with ANY hd channels locally. The EPG took a while to get right but is now working 98% right (minor issue, probably something I did).

    One thing I would highly recommend is an aftermarket CPU cooler like the Zlaman, the LC10 is a quiet enough case but the cpu fans from intel suck for noise output.

    The other thing is, as the Hauppage tuners are fully supported stick to those. I tried others, didn't really have any specific problems it just seems to work that much better with MP and these cards. Just fitted it last night and it went in and is now working like a dream. Though i'm mostly talking about analog capure of foxtel here. I use a compro for the HD capture, slow to change channels but not unbearable.

    I use a projector for the display so I don't have to worry about output beyond the normal VGA DB15 connector.

    I have an older Intel motherboard as well that has everything I need onboard, there must be someone who has most things onboard in the AMD line. Looked at ASUS ?
    something like the
    http://au.asus.com/products4.aspx?modelmenu=2&model=766&l1=3&l2=15&l3=210 Though still not full ATX.

    One last tip, spend time tweaking XP before you fire up the MP setup, that extra prep time getting windows out of it's own way really pays off in the long run, faster boot times and no cpu time wasted on services designed for corporate PC use.
     

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