What specs do I need for a HD MCPC? (1 Viewer)

[Zasurus]

Hi I currently have an old PC as my mcpc and although it works it is very slow so can't really fast-forward normal 300mb/hour videos and forget even playing HD videos!

SO I am looking at getting a new pc to replace this. BUT I want it so I can fast-forward 1080p videos without any trouble (for the future) and maybe recording 1 HD channel at the same time. What specs would you recommend as I can't seem to find any specs anywhere. Or even a link to a pc you have got that you know will do this.

[edit] For example would "AM2 ATHLON 64 3800 DUAL CORE X2 CPU nFORCE 6 nVidia" with say 1gb ram cut it? [/edit]

Thanks

Zas

 

[mbuzina]

According to existing info on the forum: yes, probably.

But there are already many detailed descriptions of the requirements, so do a search.

 

[revs]

If you are lucky, then a lot of the decoding can be done by the GFX card - that way the CPU doesnt have to do as much.

I have a AMD 64 3000+ (Single core), with 1Gig of ram and a Nvidia 6600GT card. Im using NVidia PureVideo drivers that allow me to use the graphics card to decode tv and dvd's (Hardware acceleration). I can play pretty much anything on this.

 

[Klept]

Hi I currently have an old PC as my mcpc and although it works it is very slow so can't really fast-forward normal 300mb/hour videos and forget even playing HD videos!

SO I am looking at getting a new pc to replace this. BUT I want it so I can fast-forward 1080p videos without any trouble (for the future) and maybe recording 1 HD channel at the same time. What specs would you recommend as I can't seem to find any specs anywhere. Or even a link to a pc you have got that you know will do this.

[edit] For example would "AM2 ATHLON 64 3800 DUAL CORE X2 CPU nFORCE 6 nVidia" with say 1gb ram cut it? [/edit]

Thanks

Zas

Has little to do with CPU and MUCH to do with a wicked fast GPU on your Video card. I'm at 500mhz GPU, and 1000mhz ram on my 6600gt. I would suggest atleast that much. When I am recording HDTV with the Pure Video codecs, my CPU utilization is at about 30%.

My machine specs:
MediaPortal Version: Version 0.2.2.0
MediaPortal Skin: Blue Two Wide
Windows Version: Windows XP sp2
CPU Type: Intel Pentium D 3.0ghz
HDD: WD 500gig
Memory: 500MB DDR2
Motherboard: MSI PM8PM-V
Motherboard Chipset: Via
Motherboard Bios: MSI (Latest as of Mar 2007)
Video Card: MSI GeForce 6600GT (AGP 8x)
Video Card Driver: NVIDIA VGA Driver 72.12 for Win XP/2000
Sound Card: Realtek ALC655 6 channel S/W audio codec.
Sound Card AC3:
Sound Card Driver: Latest from MSI
1. TV Card: ATI Theater 650 PRO
1. TV Card Type: DVB-T (Dual ATSC, NTSC)
1. TV Card Driver: 6.14.10.231
MPEG2 Video Codec: Nvidia Pure Video
MPEG2 Audio Codec: MPA
Satelite/CableTV Provider:
HTPC Case: Silverstone Tek LC11
Cooling: 6 Internal 20- DB Fans
Power Supply: Modded ThermalTake 430Watt (Modded for Lowprofile case)
Remote: ATI Remote Wonder
TV: LG 42in Plasma TV
TV - HTPC Connection: DVI to HDMI

 

[Klept]

If you are lucky, then a lot of the decoding can be done by the GFX card - that way the CPU doesnt have to do as much.

I have a AMD 64 3000+ (Single core), with 1Gig of ram and a Nvidia 6600GT card. Im using NVidia PureVideo drivers that allow me to use the graphics card to decode tv and dvd's (Hardware acceleration). I can play pretty much anything on this.

lol - you typed this as I was typing mine.

 

[Zasurus]

Thanks everyone for the replys so quick!

Has little to do with CPU and MUCH to do with a wicked fast GPU on your Video card. I'm at 500mhz GPU, and 1000mhz ram on my 6600gt. I would suggest atleast that much. When I am recording HDTV with the Pure Video codecs, my CPU utilization is at about 30%.

What about decoding the HD recording afterwards. I download most of my video's and the trouble I get is fastforwarding. Whats yours like at fastforwading HD? Does it look like it is playing really fast so you can work out where exactly it is in the video or is it only displaying a new frame every few seconds?

Regards,

Zas

 

[Klept]

Thanks everyone for the replys so quick!

Has little to do with CPU and MUCH to do with a wicked fast GPU on your Video card. I'm at 500mhz GPU, and 1000mhz ram on my 6600gt. I would suggest atleast that much. When I am recording HDTV with the Pure Video codecs, my CPU utilization is at about 30%.

What about decoding the HD recording afterwards. I download most of my video's and the trouble I get is fastforwarding. Whats yours like at fastforwading HD? Does it look like it is playing really fast so you can work out where exactly it is in the video or is it only displaying a new frame every few seconds?

Regards,

Zas

Just depends on how fast I fast-forward. If I go at 2x it's easy to tell where I am in the program. Obviously at 32x it skips big chunks of time. It doesn't actually speed up the video to 32x. It's perfectly useful for me.

 

[Klept]

I download most of my video's and the trouble I get is fastforwarding.
Zas

That can also be contributed to poor encoding of the video initially. If they don't set keys they you don't have them to fastforward to. Test a good, known video out in another player and be sure you can "Seek" then test it in MP.

 

[Zasurus]

That can also be contributed to poor encoding of the video initially. If they don't set keys they you don't have them to fastforward to. Test a good, known video out in another player and be sure you can "Seek" then test it in MP.

Thanks I will look into all that.

Zas