User experience with AMD 780G and MediaPortal (1 Viewer)

[pilehave]

wow... huge thread. Ive read through and there's a lot of complexity here.

For people who have this chipset and are using it to play 1080p in mediaportal

- Is it worth buying?

The reason I ask is because the responses seem failry mixed, and there remain a few issues people are battling with.

For people using it, would you recommend 780g as a viable hd graphics option for MP?

In the end it comes down to what you need. 1080i feedback has been pretty negative, but on the other hand, if you only need BluRay/HD-DVD support and perhaps some PROPER encoded MKV's, well, then the chipset is fine.

Subtitles in MKV's are (as far as I know) only available by using the CPU, so no hardware-acceleration here...

Using an 4850e with my board I get ~35% CPU on 1080p MKV's with software and 10-15% with hardware. Not that bad

 

[ny888]

I have the S2HP motherboard. I've installed the latest ATI HDMI Audio Device Driver - R2.13. When I go to Control Panel->Sound, It still says the HDMI is not plugged in. I'm running Vista x86 - video is fine but no sound thru HDMI.

Any ideas? Help !

UPDATE: fixed - was a setting in the BIOS.

 

[kszabo]

Would you recommend 780g as a viable hd graphics option for MP?

Yes. But if you need 1080i, you need a Phenom (for better deinterlacing)

 

[ny888]

I have another issue with my S2HP board running Vista x86 with MP 1.0. In Bios, I have sleep set to S1. In power settings, I have it set up to never sleep nor hibernate. It is connected to a Sony Bravia LCD.

It seems when I turn off the TV, and then come back, the screen is black. No amount of keyboard pressing or remote pressing will get the picture back. The computer is clearly still on, I can see the HDD light on intermittenly.

Is there another setting I need to do with this board? It seems if I turn off the TV, the HDMI handshake is gone and is causing my problem. This did not happen previously on an Asus P5 board.

Yes. But if you need 1080i, you need a Phenom.

Will an add-on graphics card be a viable alternative to phenom, like an ATI 4850?

 

[kiwijunglist]

I have another issue with my S2HP board running Vista x86 with MP 1.0. In Bios, I have sleep set to S1. In power settings, I have it set up to never sleep nor hibernate. It is connected to a Sony Bravia LCD.

It seems when I turn off the TV, and then come back, the screen is black. No amount of keyboard pressing or remote pressing will get the picture back. The computer is clearly still on, I can see the HDD light on intermittenly.

Is there another setting I need to do with this board? It seems if I turn off the TV, the HDMI handshake is gone and is causing my problem. This did not happen previously on an Asus P5 board.

Yes. But if you need 1080i, you need a Phenom.

Will an add-on graphics card be a viable alternative to phenom, like an ATI 4850?

This is the EDID handshake failing. Apparently it is fixed with one of the later version of driver.

 

[ny888]

This is the EDID handshake failing. Apparently it is fixed with one of the later version of driver.

Thank you. I have installed 8.12 of CCC which appears to be the latest Vista driver but issue is there.

I've logged a ticket with ATI - waiting for response.

 

[kszabo]

Will an add-on graphics card be a viable alternative to phenom, like an ATI 4850?

Yes, even a 4350 would be enough for 1080i (as far as I read the tests). It is about the video ram bandwidth, not the GFX power. Standalone video cards have enough bandwidth, onboard GFX must use the RAM controller of the CPU. AMD X2 does not have enough bandwidth for decent deinterlacing of 1080i, a Phenom have HT3 and therefore enough.

Onboard GFX with sideport memory does ot help because 1080i needs 512 MB video ram, and sideport motherboards have max. 128 mb -> RAM will be used through CPU

 

[hoborg]

Can anybody post some 1080i example for testing ?

BTW - if somebody is thinking about new GPU, i suggesting ATI 4550, is best for HTPC you can get now (fanless, low profile, full DXVA support).

 

[jo16v]

Will an add-on graphics card be a viable alternative to phenom, like an ATI 4850?

Yes, even a 4350 would be enough for 1080i (as far as I read the tests). It is about the video ram bandwidth, not the GFX power. Standalone video cards have enough bandwidth, onboard GFX must use the RAM controller of the CPU. AMD X2 does not have enough bandwidth for deinterlacing of 1080i, a Phenom have HT3 and therefore enough.

Onboard GFX with sideport memory does ot help because 1080i needs 512 MB video ram, and sideport motherboards have max. 128 mb -> RAM will be used through CPU

Kszabo, I think you are misleading a bit. Yes it is true that with 780G integrated and 64x2 (dual core) you cannot get Vector Adaptive hardware deinterlacing, but for many Motion Adaptive will be enough.

 

[ny888]

Yes it is true that with 780G integrated and 64x2 (dual core) you cannot get Vector Adaptive hardware deinterlacing, but for many Motion Adaptive will be enough.

Can you explain the difference between the 2 methods? Thanks.