Running a HTPC on a P4

relitz · Post by **relitz** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 7:02 am

I have an old P4 computer lying around, it is a P4 2.0GHz, not sure on what core it is, with 512MB RDRAM.

Is it possible to use this as a HTPC if I buy a decent AGP graphics-card for it? I'm not going to play HD material, mostly DVD-quality and/or XviD.

If possible, what is a good enough AGP graphics-card that I can use and is avalible in stores? It has a Radeon 9200SE which I'm guessing won't be good enough.

If not possible, what are the system requirements for showing DVD-movies?

Lots of questions there, hope you guys can help!

// Anders

EDIT: If I'm going to buy an AGP card I will most likley buy a used one, so no need for it to be avalible in stores.

tehcrazybob · Post by **tehcrazybob** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 8:12 am

Even with your current video card, that computer will have no trouble playing standard-definition movies, including DVDs. On the other hand, there's no video card in the world capable of allowing it to play HD content.

relitz · Post by **relitz** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 8:27 am

Okey, thanks.

Are there any AGP cards with HDMI? It would be great so that I can run sound a video on the same cable.

protellect · Post by **protellect** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 9:55 am

Any video card with a DVI port can use a DVI->HDMI converter to output video to HDMI

If you meant "Are there any AGP cards that can do HDMI with sound"

There are none that I know of.

bonestonne · Post by **bonestonne** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 10:03 am

i had a similar computer running a while ago, i still have it except not the 9200SE anymore, i gave that to my sister. thing is, 512mb isn't much when it comes to HD playback. that, and RDRAM was only around for a short period of time because it was just too expensive.

what socket is your CPU?

i have trouble getting a socket 478 P4 2.8 with 1gb of DDR266 to play HD without screaming away.

speedkar9 · Post by **speedkar9** » Wed Dec 31, 2008 12:41 pm

bonestonne wrote:i had a similar computer running a while ago, i still have it except not the 9200SE anymore, i gave that to my sister. thing is, 512mb isn't much when it comes to HD playback. that, and RDRAM was only around for a short period of time because it was just too expensive.

what socket is your CPU?

i have trouble getting a socket 478 P4 2.8 with 1gb of DDR266 to play HD without screaming away.

No need for HD:

relitz wrote:I'm not going to play HD material, mostly DVD-quality and/or XviD.

Your P4 with 512MB RAM and the 9200SE card will be fine for DVD playback. No need to spend extra money on a dead end AGP card. You can use S-video (or DVI) and SPDIF to take the video/audio to your TV/ receiver. Even a simple 1/4" stereo to RCA converter from the dollar store will allow you to hook up 2 channel audio from the computer's sound card to the TV inputs directly.

relitz · Post by **relitz** » Thu Jan 01, 2009 4:49 am

protellect wrote:Any video card with a DVI port can use a DVI->HDMI converter to output video to HDMI

If you meant "Are there any AGP cards that can do HDMI with sound"

There are none that I know of.

I did mean if there are any AGP cards that can do HDMI with sound, but if there are none I'll just have to do without.

speedkar9 wrote:Your P4 with 512MB RAM and the 9200SE card will be fine for DVD playback. No need to spend extra money on a dead end AGP card. You can use S-video (or DVI) and SPDIF to take the video/audio to your TV/ receiver. Even a simple 1/4" stereo to RCA converter from the dollar store will allow you to hook up 2 channel audio from the computer's sound card to the TV inputs directly.

Ok, thanks for the information.

Navvie · Post by **Navvie** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 2:56 pm

Whilst Microsoft recommends a minimum of 3.0GHz Pentium4 for 1080p.

With hardware assist from an FX5200 should make it possible on your system.

Sound.. well, I dunno about that.

MythTV recommends a minimum of an "NVIDIA graphics card and the equivalent of a around an AthlonXP 2000+".

I had some success (although admittedly not HD material) with MythTV on a Sempron 2800 (2.0GHz) and it ran fine.

It will really depend on what codec is used to encode the HD material you're trying to watch.

HTH,
Mike.

hybrid2d4x4 · Post by **hybrid2d4x4** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 5:17 pm

I've got a 6600GT and it definitely doesn't provide any hardware acceleration, and I also had a FX5200, and that thing can't even drive dual-displays in windows at resolutions of 1680x1050 and 1080i (underscanned), so expect absolutely no help from older video cards.

On the bright side, the humble Celeron 2.2 GHz I use in this PC does any standard definition content (mostly XVID, but also MPEG2) without breaking a sweat. My old P4 2.4B (533FSB, 512KB cache) could almost do 720P but the audio would lose sync, so you'll have no luck with HD on that rig.

As for HDMI-audio, you can technically get an AGP Radeon 3000 series (such as the 3650), and most come with HDMI out which does support 2 channel LPCM or 5.1 AC3 streams from DVDs,etc, which can be passed through. The limitation with the 3000 series is that it doesn't do 7.1 LPCM- only the 4000 series does, but doesn't ship in AGP flavors. Frankly, you shouldn't even be considering paying a huge premium for an AGP card just to run your Audio on the same cable as Video. The HDMI audio support in the 3000 series is identical, if not worse than most modern motherboards' optical/coax output.

Navvie · Post by **Navvie** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 5:43 pm

hybrid2d4x4 wrote:I've got a 6600GT and it definitely doesn't provide any hardware acceleration, and I also had a FX5200, and that thing can't even drive dual-displays in windows at resolutions of 1680x1050 and 1080i (underscanned), so expect absolutely no help from older video cards.

The MythTV wiki disagrees with you.

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/index.php/XvMC for more information.

However, the OP did state that he wouldn't be using it for HD stuff.

--
Mike

hybrid2d4x4 · Post by **hybrid2d4x4** » Fri Jan 02, 2009 10:08 pm

Oops, probably should have added a disclaimer that my HTPC experience is only applicable to WinXP, and technically I shouldn't have said that it doesn't provide "any HW acceleration" since I did try the "PureVideo" analog of the XvMC you linked. However, this "hardware acceleration" didn't provide any significant CPU usage or Image Quality advantages that I could see when compared to other codecs such as FFDshow and an old version of Cyberlink, which are software-only.

If you or anyone else can demonstrate that something like a FX5200 or 6600GT can accelerate a 720p x264 in an .mkv container on an old system like my HTPC using this XcMC, then I'll switch to Myth in a heartbeat... (especially now that I don't have the X-Fi in this machine anymore, which never got along with linux)

EDIT: Oops again! I wan't reading carefully enough. XcMC only supports MPEG-2, which is the least common HD encoding format, so looks like there will be no such luck for me unless that Intel group pulls a rabbit out of their hat...

Navvie · Post by **Navvie** » Sat Jan 03, 2009 5:59 am

I can't demonstrate my HTPC doing anything at the moment, it currently lies in pieces as I was rather disappointed Vista didn't/doesn't support my PVR-350 tv tuner.

I played with MythTV for a very, very long time - made longer as I had no Linux experience when I decided I wanted a HTPC/PVR! Originally on a P3 450MHz just to see how/if it would work. And it worked brilliantly for SD stuff once you'd spent a lifetime with .conf files in ee setting it all up.

I will go HD... but all the time my 44" SD TV is working perfectly, I can't justify throwing it out.

--
Mike.