System requirements for HDTV with MediaPortal (3 Viewers)

[sxt173]

I tried viewing some of the 1080p videos off of MS's site on my 42" 1080p. When playing directly in WMP11, choppy to very choppy. Does still scenes great though

When playing through MP, pictures totally break up or in one case, it split the picture into four frames with different colors.

My setup:
ASUS MB
NVIDIA 4200ti
MP 0.2.2
Intel P4 2.2Ghz
2.5 GB Ram

What I am thinking of is to upgrade to a Sapphire Radeon x1600 Pro HDMI.
What do you guys think? If this doesn't solve my problems, I may have to think about overclocking CPU (which I don't want to do) or possibly switching MB/CPU combo to 3+GHz

Update: ATI just announced a CableCard tuner at the following address. This combined with a Sapphire x1600 HDMI Pro could be the ultimate setup for cable/subscriber HDTV!!!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/08/atis-tv-wonder-digital-cable-tuner-announced/#comments

 

[pannivas]

A very good article although it’s missing a Codec section. No matter if you have high or medium or low end hardware you will still need the best available decoders for the right job (i.e. MPEG2, MPEG4, H.264, x264, AC3 sound)

Currently HD comes in 2 ways, either from a SAT/Cable broadcast stream or from an HDDVD/Blu-Ray device. Broadcast streams have lower bidrates because providers need to save bandwidth so that they can have more HD channels over one transponder. On the other hand HDDVD and Blu-Ray have higher bidrates.

HD content that comes from a broadcast channel it either comes in MPEG2 or H.264 currently only available in EU countries if I am not mistaken. As Tech Geek already mention on his OP H.264 is more resource intensive due to its higher compression methods thus it requires much more powerful hardware than MPEG2.

HD content coming from HDDVD or Blu-Ray devices the next generation DVD formats comes in three different codecs. VC-1 which by the way is an MS codec and only used in HDDVD at the moment, MPEG2 and H.264. The first generation HD movies are all encoded with MPEG2 and some VC-1, but recently studios stared using the match newer and better H.264 codec. Again here the same rules for hardware apply. You will need a much more powerful system to decode H.264 HD DVD movies than VC-1 and MPEG2 encoded HD DVD movies. Recent reviews from Anandtech site have shown that even a mid range Intel Core 2 Duo CPU (Currently Intel Core 2 Duo CPUs are the faster Desktop processor in the market) with the latest video cards in the market have difficulties decoding H.264 HDDVD/Blu-Ray movies. See reviews below for more information
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2890 (HD-DVD Playback)
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2886 (Blu-Ray H.264 playback)
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2874 (NVIDIA and ATI HDCP video cards)

Please note the following decoders work for me whereas for some others a different solution is preferred.
Hardware Specifications
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 (2.4Ghz, 4MB L2 cache)
Motherboard: Asus P5B Deluxe.
Memory: 1GB of DDR800
Video Card: Currently Gigabyte 6600 will be using LeadTek 7900GS Stock OC soon.
Audio: Onboard soundmax (which I hate), waiting for my AuzenTech HDA X-Plosion 7.1 DTS
I do not use a Tuner as TV where I live SUCKS.

1) For MPEG2 HD decoding I use NVIDIA’s PureVideo decoder. If you have an NVIDIA 6xxxx or 7xxxx series PureVideo will utilize the hardware acceleration feature which basically uses GPU power to offload some of your CPU load when decoding MPEG2 HD content files, it also gives a much better PQ. Have in mind that this does not support hardware acceleration for VC-1 or H.264 encoded movies. For the two above you will need a 7xxxx series NVIDIA video card with the newer NVIDIA PureVideo HD software, currently included in the latest 7xxxx series Forceware drivers if I am not mistaken. Also have in mind that NVIDIA PureVideo greatly relays on the GPU clock speed. The faster the clock speed of your video card the better job it will do offloading your CPU.
2) H.264 and x264 decoding. I use CoreAVC. Currently the best solution out there and its also multithread and any good Intel/AMD Dual Core CPU should have no problem of decoding 720p/1080i or 1080p H.264/x264 movies. I haven’t yet tested the NVIDIA’s PureVideo HD yet as I am still waiting on my new 7900GS video card. I will give some feedback once I do but I highly doubt that it will be a better solution than CoreAVC at the moment. Check the above reviews from Anandtech site for HDDVD and Blu-Ray H.264 decoding as the hardware needed to decode those are much higher than what you need to decode recorder TV H.264 streams. Also I do not believe that as time goes by that H.264 will need less CPU/GPU power to decode its content as movie studios and TV service providers will use much higher compression methods for the obvious reasons. Better compression means smaller file size less bandwidth used for the TV service providers, less space used on HDDVD/Blu-Ray devices. On the other hand I do believe that H.264 codec is on its first generation and probably in the future better second and third generation codecs will show up.
3) For sound I currently use AC3 filter. Haven’t yet found anything better than it.

Please have in mind that both NVIDIA PureVideo and CoreAVC are NOT freely available. If you need an all in one free solution you might want to try FFDshow although I wouldn’t recommend it. You might get away with FFDshow MPEG2 build in support but I highly doubt that FFDshow can do a good job with H.264/x264 content.

 

[Tech Geek]

I don't have time to incorporate everything but I'll make some quick additions based on your comments. Thanks for the info!

 

[Tech Geek]

I tried viewing some of the 1080p videos off of MS's site on my 42" 1080p. When playing directly in WMP11, choppy to very choppy. Does still scenes great though

When playing through MP, pictures totally break up or in one case, it split the picture into four frames with different colors.

My setup:
ASUS MB
NVIDIA 4200ti
MP 0.2.2
Intel P4 2.2Ghz
2.5 GB Ram

The 4200ti is going to be a problem. The CPU might handle hi-def as long as we're not talking H.264.

What I am thinking of is to upgrade to a Sapphire Radeon x1600 Pro HDMI.
What do you guys think? If this doesn't solve my problems, I may have to think about overclocking CPU (which I don't want to do) or possibly switching MB/CPU combo to 3+GHz

Update: ATI just announced a CableCard tuner at the following address. This combined with a Sapphire x1600 HDMI Pro could be the ultimate setup for cable/subscriber HDTV!!!

http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/08/atis-tv-wonder-digital-cable-tuner-announced/#comments

Just an FYI, the X1600 is the LOWEST card that might handle H.264. The review I just read placed the NVidia equivalent slightly faster in their tests.

And as for the ATI CableCard tuner, even though they produce an internal card it still plugs into the USB2 connector and just uses the card slot for power.
NOT what I really cared for but it would do the job.

 

[sxt173]

thanks for the advice on the video card. Think I may have to invest in a top-line card.

Just trying to decide on just an upgrade or a full rebuild... or (not likely) dropping money on a new media PC just so I can have CableCard ;(

again, thanks for advice!

 

[mdbarber]

well i have all but the 1080p panel (if some one is willing to donate ill test it for free
anyway just built a htpc using
asrock 845 based microatx mb
intel 345celeron (3gh)
1gb ddr2 single stick
wd 160mb hdd sata
s/h xfx nvidia6600gt
case was bout £35 and cheap nec dvdr 20
whole lot came to bout £300 and plays 1920x1080p on my lcd perfect no glitching no lag
the lcd is only 1366x768 so i guess theres some downscaling goin on there somewhere but as mb/cp cost bout £70 cant beat it
i say perfect but out of my small collection of hd movies (6) only one plays right but sure thats codec issues,,im still workin on it
redrds
in my experience if it runs xp it sure as hell shud run any media task

mdb

 

[classico]

Where can I buy/download the Nvidia Purevideo HD? I can only find the standard Nvidia Purevideo decoder

 

[dman_lfc]

To get PureVideo HD you need...

1. A HDCP capable Nividia card
2. 93.71 drivers or later
3. A PureVideo capable decoder. (i.e. latest Nvidia PureVideo for MPEG-2 & WMV-HD or certain versions of CyberLink PowerDVD 7 for H.264)

DMAN

 

[Tech Geek]

Just for the record... 1080i wasn't what I had difficulty with. It was SD resolution stuff. I don't know if it's the amount of compression or scaling the image that my X1300 card can't handle. Other people seem to have had the same difficulties.

I just purchased an ATi TV Wonder 650, a 3400+ cpu and a 1950 based video card so my HD woes should be over once the parts arrive.

I was going to try an X1650 card that was around $55 after rebate but they sold out right before I checked out and I had to go back and pick something else.

I'd like to try one of the passively cooled cards by Gigabyte to see if they work with HDTV. Anyone have any experience with these?
http://www.gigabyte-usa.com/FileList/NewTech/old_vga_newtech/tech_20051018_silent2.htm

 

[Tech Geek]

Well, NewEgg had more stock of the 1650 model appear so I ordered one of those as well. If it won't work for HDTV I'll put it in my desktop box and retire the X1300 cards to servers or something less demanding.
As soon as I can play with the different configurations I'll post the results.

The 1650's memory clock and core clock are higher than the passively cooled X1300's and faster than what I calculated would be required for HDTV memory bandwidth wise. It's just a question of whether or not the graphics chip can render fast enough. I'm sure the 1950GT will be overkill but I might also run a PS2 emulator on one box so I'll use it's power one way or another.