HTPC CPU / Motherboard

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tlink
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Joined: Fri Mar 11, 2005 6:59 am

HTPC CPU / Motherboard

Post by tlink » Fri Mar 11, 2005 7:11 am

I'm currently using a stock 1 GHz Dell with a Panasonic AE700 projector for home theater. Love the combination except: (1) the Dell isn't quite fast enough to play Windows HD WMV files, and (2) it is a bit too noisy for home theater.

Microsoft indicates that a "3.0 GHz processor or equivalent" is needed to play 1080p high definition video files. I'm thinking of an Antec midtower as the case, with a full-size ATX motherboard. I could use advice on a CPU / cooler and motherboard that (1) offer the capacity to play HD WMV files, and (2) also would be quiet enough to allow viewers to enjoy the film. Recommendations appreciated ...

sthayashi
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Post by sthayashi » Fri Mar 11, 2005 7:55 am

An Athlon 64 3200+ should be good enough for doing 1080p. At least in theory.

Virtually any Socket-939 motherboard should also work for you. Read the recommended pages for interesting heatsink/fan combinations.

GrahamGarside
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Post by GrahamGarside » Fri Mar 11, 2005 9:37 am

a 3ghz or equivelant won't play 1080p HD wmv files, I can attest to this as my 3400+ A64 plays the video ok, but the sound skips and sounds choppy
the best way to play HD video is to get a video card which supports hardware decoding, such as nvidia's 6XXX range, though not a 6800 based card as these have problems with purevideo being broken.
Go for a socket 939 pci-e board, a 3000+ winchester and a Geforce 6200 turbo cache.
For the cooler you can't go wrong with a thermalright XP-90/120

sthayashi
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Post by sthayashi » Fri Mar 11, 2005 9:40 am

Hmmm.... I had the opposite problem last night playing it on my underclocked Athlon XP 2400+. The sound was perfect, but the video was choppy.

GrahamGarside
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Post by GrahamGarside » Fri Mar 11, 2005 10:07 am

depends on what software you play it with, windows mdia player plays the sound fine and the video choppy for me, but other software plays the video fine and the sound mucked up

Chris.Day

Post by Chris.Day » Fri Mar 11, 2005 1:46 pm

I have perfect playback of both 720p and 1080p WMV-HD sample videos on my system:
Athlon XP 2600+ Barton
Abit NF7-S2G
1GB PC2700 RAM
Radeon 9800 Pro
Audigy 2 ZS

I had a phase with this board where L2 cache became disabled (long story) and it was no longer able to play even the 720p samples without stuttering. So L2 cache is very important for WMV-HD, in which case the 512K on the Barton may be helping me - I don't have any acceleration on the Radeon active so it's done purely in software. CPU load is 55-80% for 1080p.

I get similar performance on my iDEQ200N system:
Athlon XP 2500+ Barton
Biostar iDEQ200N (M7NBA)
512MB PC2700 RAM
nVidia GeForce4MX IGP
nVidia SoundStorm APU

In fact I only realised that something was up with my NF7-S2G board (no L2 cache) because the WMV-HD samples failed to play correctly, and CPU load was constant 100%. The 720p samples would "sort of" play but even they had 100% CPU usage and would quickly lose A/V sync.

I was suprised that both systems were able to decode without problems, and with reasonable CPU usage. Perhaps it is a combination of decent sized L2 cache, and a sound card which provides hardware DirectSound acceleration?

tlink
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Post by tlink » Fri Mar 11, 2005 3:46 pm

Sounds as though it is not solely a matter of CPU speed, but CPU speed plus a combination of other factors. If I start with a reasonable CPU, then perhaps I could work on the other elements.

tlink
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Post by tlink » Sat Mar 12, 2005 5:43 pm

I tried the altbinarieshdtv site - very helpful ... thanks!

The matter of codecs appears to be a mysterious art. I have been using the NVIDIA codec for DVD playback.

Is there a way to check which codecs are floating around the system?

Tibors
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Post by Tibors » Sat Mar 12, 2005 6:17 pm

Start | Settings | Control Panel | Sounds and Multimedia | Hardware (tab) | Video Codecs (list item) | Properties (button) | Properties (tab)

Don't know if that are all codecs on your system though.

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