djOS Posted April 19, 2007 Posted April 19, 2007 Well Lad and Lasses, I finally got around to ordering the upgrade components for my MediaCenter PC tonight - Im Moving to Adelaide in 4 weeks and Im going to sell (if possible) my Home Theater with the house (sans the HTPC) so i have something to record and watch DTV + Channel BT content et all while staying at my parents house etc. AnyHoo, my current Spec is as Follows: AMD AthlonXP 2500+ 1GB DDR400 RAM ATI Radeon 9550 256Mb DNTV Live! LP HDTV PCI Tuner SoundBlaster Audigy4 80GB Segate CE HDD DVD/CD-ROM SilverStone LC-17 HTPC Case XP Media Centre Edition 2005 ICE Guide and ICE PIMP and my MediaPC looks exactly like this. The parts I ordered tonight are as follows: AMD Athlon64 X2 4200+, Dual-Core 2.2Ghz 1MB Cache2 Socket AM2 (65W) MSI K9AGM2-FHI (integrated HDMI v1.3 with HDCP via Radeon x1250 on-board & HD Audio) ThermalTake Golden Orb II CPU Cooler, CL-P0220, 17dBA Geil PC2-6400 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel Kit, 2.0GB(2x1.0G), 5-5-515 2x Western Digital, 400GB, Caviar SE16, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB (Configured in RAID 0) Pioneer DVD Burner, DVR-212BK, SATA Interface, Black, 8x/18x Dual/Single OEM 2x DigitalNow DNTV Live! Dual Hybrid S2 TV Card, PCI-E , Dual DVB-T / Analog TV MS O/S Windows Vista Home Premium Edition, 32Bit, DVD Version, OEM I Imagine I'll get the components around mid next week and I will hopefully able to find some time on the weekend to perform the Upgrade. All up the items cost me (inc Delivery to Melb from Sydney) only $1,552 - not Bad for what will be a Quad HDTV tuner, Dual Core, 800GB beast!
Owen Posted April 20, 2007 Posted April 20, 2007 Unfortunately HDMI 1.3 is pointless as that system will be inadequate for HDDVD and BluRay, which are the only sources that require HDCP. The performance of the on board graphics will be a big limitation on quality and stutter free display of any HD source.
swordfish805 Posted April 20, 2007 Posted April 20, 2007 Unfortunately HDMI 1.3 is pointless as that system will be inadequate for HDDVD and BluRay, which are the only sources that require HDCP.The performance of the on board graphics will be a big limitation on quality and stutter free display of any HD source. Maybe he just wants the convenience of one HDMI cable rather than a tangle of wires?
djOS Posted April 20, 2007 Author Posted April 20, 2007 Maybe he just wants the convenience of one HDMI cable rather than a tangle of wires? Exactly, I have no intention of even using it as a DVD player either, it's a Prime functions are Quad HDTV PVR + Music and Channel BT content storage & playback.
Owen Posted April 20, 2007 Posted April 20, 2007 Does the HDMI port on the PC support audio? If so in what formats? Maybe you will have to use a “tangle of wires” (one wire actually) to get digital audio output to a receiver.
djOS Posted April 20, 2007 Author Posted April 20, 2007 Does the HDMI port on the PC support audio?If so in what formats? Maybe you will have to use a “tangle of wires†(one wire actually) to get digital audio output to a receiver. yes it does, which is why I was waiting for this board as it will pass thru LPCM, DD, DTS and all the various versions of these formats thru HDMI - it fully complies with HDMI v1.3 according to AMD.
AndrewWilliams Posted April 21, 2007 Posted April 21, 2007 Let us know how the x1250 goes. I've looked at an x1600 and it does a brilliant job for HTPC use. I have to say that the drivers (despite being far too bloated) are more stable than the nVidia 8800 drivers on my HTPC. nVidia's Vista drivers are a complete embarrassment. ATI is probably the way to go - they couldn't be any worse that's for sure. I'm not sure if either ATI or nVidia support Vista's DXVA 2.0 yet though.
LukeF1503559517 Posted April 21, 2007 Posted April 21, 2007 Ive been looking for a mobo like this for ages. Cheer Djos, good luck with the HTPC.
Owen Posted April 21, 2007 Posted April 21, 2007 If you just want something that will work, most modern video cards will do that, hell even my old Radeon 9600 Pro works, however if you want the best quality and playback smoothness, forget cheap cards and integrated solutions, they just don’t cut it. The 8800, buggy drivers or not still provides head and shoulders better picture quality then any cheaper solution, there is just no comparison. Most people probably would not get too worked up about the improvement, but I have found the 8800 to offer the biggest improvement in quality I have seen in 7 years of HTPC use. For those on a budget, nVidias new 8500 and 8600 cards seem like the perfect option. They promise equal or possibly even better quality then the 8800 at a very affordable price. They are also the first cards to offer full hardware acceleration of h.264 video for BluRay and HDDVD, so that high end CPU’s are not required. The jury is still out on how well the 8500-8600 cards perform in practice as they are only just appearing, so we will have to wait and see. ATI is sure to respond with some new models soon as well, as the existing X series cards are getting stale.
djOS Posted April 22, 2007 Author Posted April 22, 2007 Considering I can play 720p H.264 content now on my AthlonXP 2500+ with Radeon 9550, I would say that my new system will play all H.264 content without any difficulty at all.
AndrewWilliams Posted April 22, 2007 Posted April 22, 2007 You'd probably play most content OK but some scenes would grind to a halt on that PC. I have a H264 720p recording of BBC's Planet Earth and one scene where an enormous flock of birds take off drops loads of frames on my old PC (Athlon 64 3800+ & x850) CoreAVC uses far less CPU than any other H264 decoder but according to a lot of people over at Doom9, it 'cheats' when it comes to decoding and doesn't do certain things that are in the H264 spec. I don't really think that the 8800 is that good - I think it's more of a case of previous nVidia cards being so bad. nVidia cards have always sufferered from chronic posterization. It's even visible when playing a DVD on an Xbox (which happens to have a GeForce 3 chip) Don't get me wrong though...The 8XXX series are king at the moment.
djOS Posted April 22, 2007 Author Posted April 22, 2007 Try a player/codec with full DXVA support, I use the WinDVD 8 Platinum codecs in Media Center and this works fine for me. Btw, Im not going to waste $800 on a graphics card that doesn't support HDMI in full, apparently the soon to be released R600 series from ATi will have on-board HD Audio to ensure they are fully HDMI v1.3 compliant.
Owen Posted April 22, 2007 Posted April 22, 2007 I don't really think that the 8800 is that good - I think it's more of a case of previous nVidia cards being so bad. nVidia cards have always sufferered from chronic posterization. It's even visible when playing a DVD on an Xbox (which happens to have a GeForce 3 chip) Don't get me wrong though...The 8XXX series are king at the moment. The old Geforce 3 cards where dreadful things and did suffer chronic posterization, I replaced mine with a Radeon 9700 and 9600Pro which where much better. The 9600 Pro was replaced by an nVidia 6600GT which was a significant improvement in overall image quality over the Radeon, (although posterization was not better), and the 6600GT was replaced by a 7800GTS, which was not really any better as far as picture quality was concerned but 1080i deinterlacing and playback smoothness where much better. The 7800 has been replaced by an 8800 and I can’t get over how much better it is. Much better colour, much less artefacts, much better deinterlacing and scaling. It was worth every cent of the $770 I paid and more. People are prepared to spend thousands extra on a display that provides that level of improvement in picture quality, so it was good value in my book.
Owen Posted April 22, 2007 Posted April 22, 2007 Btw, Im not going to waste $800 on a graphics card that doesn't support HDMI in full, apparently the soon to be released R600 series from ATi will have on-board HD Audio to ensure they are fully HDMI v1.3 compliant. Why would you want to route sound to the TV? Surely you would want to use a decent sound system which will require a separate cable.
djOS Posted April 22, 2007 Author Posted April 22, 2007 Why would you want to route sound to the TV?Surely you would want to use a decent sound system which will require a separate cable. Well If you check my HT Site, you'll see that I have a HDMI equipped AVR which then connects to a Gefen HDMI 2x2 Switch allowing all my gear to be viewed on either my Plasma or Projector. Once I've moved to my folks place Adelaide in 3.5 weeks, I'll be buying a 32" LCD to use with my MediaPC until I find a place to rent for 6 months - when I move in I'll relegate the LCD to a bedroom TV with an Xbox360 as a MediaCenter Extender.
Owen Posted April 22, 2007 Posted April 22, 2007 All I can say is good luck with your integrated X1250 graphics, your going to need it. An X1600 is generally considered the minimum spec for 1080, and even then it will be marginal. If you are happy running overlay you can probably get away with it.
djOS Posted April 22, 2007 Author Posted April 22, 2007 All I can say is good luck with your integrated X1250 graphics, your going to need it.An X1600 is generally considered the minimum spec for 1080, and even then it will be marginal. If you are happy running overlay you can probably get away with it. The x1250 (AMD 690G chipset) is actually an updated x700 with the AVIVO features built in and no discrete RAM - considering my 9550 currently does all I ask of it in the video dept, the x1250 will be fine for my needs. Check the specs in the 690G link: Motion Video Acceleration Features# Enhanced MPEG-2 hardware decode acceleration # MPEG-4 decode support # Hardware acceleration for WMV9 playback # Supports top quality DVD and time-shifted SDTV/HDTV television playback with low CPU usage which is all I need, like I said before my needs are primarily for a HD Quad tuner PVR with MP3 & DiVx playback. PS. Quit being so bloody negative, Im in the IT industry and know how to research my PC component purchases - It's what I do for a living!
byte-me Posted April 22, 2007 Posted April 22, 2007 [*]2x Western Digital, 400GB, Caviar SE16, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB (Configured in RAID 0) I Imagine I'll get the components around mid next week and I will hopefully able to find some time on the weekend to perform the Upgrade. All up the items cost me (inc Delivery to Melb from Sydney) only $1,552 - not Bad for what will be a Quad HDTV tuner, Dual Core, 800GB beast! Nice setup mate. Can I ask why you would not spend the extra few bucks initially to go 500GB drives? Doing it now is only a few dollars more and gives you extra space in the long run.
hired goon Posted April 23, 2007 Posted April 23, 2007 G'day, I dunno much about Vista and its Media Centre functionality, so please excuse my n00biness, but how stable is the Media Centre functionality in Vista vs XP MCE? Is there functionality in XP MCE that is not available in Vista? Or vice versa? Any DRM issues, etc? And what's the hardware support like? Why would one choose Vista over XP MCE? --Geoff
Owen Posted April 23, 2007 Posted April 23, 2007 The x1250 (AMD 690G chipset) is actually an updated x700 with the AVIVO features built in and no discrete RAM - considering my 9550 currently does all I ask of it in the video dept, the x1250 will be fine for my needs. Check the specs in the 690G link: which is all I need, like I said before my needs are primarily for a HD Quad tuner PVR with MP3 & DiVx playback. PS. Quit being so bloody negative, Im in the IT industry and know how to research my PC component purchases - It's what I do for a living! Sorry for my negativity mate, I did not mean to upset you. I just remember the problems I had getting what I consider good performance out of higher grade video systems then what you are considering, but that was with 1080i mpeg2 video and a 1080 display. Film (progressive) source 1080i was generally not a big problem, but true interlaced 1080i definitely was. Nothing short of a 7800 worked for me, but my display and requirements are different to yours. The spec’s of the video system mean nothing, it’s real world performance that matters, but if your old system worked acceptably for your use you should no problems with the new setup. I suppose my comments are to worn people reading this thread that cheap solutions have their limitations, and as long as people understand those limitations it’s all good.
kiwimeat Posted April 24, 2007 Posted April 24, 2007 Djos, I'm very much at a similar stage to you but I went Intel not AMD. I have my MC outputting native 720p@50Hz to my Fujitsu over HDMI (via my AVR) – which all worked first time. Now this isn’t 1:1 pixel mapping but I could only get interlaced output at 1360 x 768 using the ATI Catalyst 7.3 control panel. More research required. But I was very impressed that it just worked over HDMI into my AVR then to my PDP. Last Night I got Digital TV and the EPG running – remarkably easily. Quality is good, Dolby Digital is working too. Next up is Optus Digital. My Dvico Fusion MCE Remote isn’t playing ball – it works sort of (yes I installed the Dvico IR Transceiver software) so I figure I may as well get the MS MCE Remote....but I need a wireless keyboard. Need to decide which one. Motherboard = Intel DG965WHMKR Processor = Intel C2D e6420 CPU Fan = Zalman 9700NT Memory = 2 GB PC6400 DDR2. Case = Antec Solo PSU = Antec NeoHE 430W Graphics = Gecude X1300 with HDMI out Hard Disks = 2 x Samsung SATA 400GB (already had the drives) DVD = Pioneer DVD212 SATA Tuner #1 Digital = Dvico DVB-T Dual Tuner Tuner #2 Analog for Optus Digital = Hauppage PVR-150 Operating System = Vista Ultimate
djOS Posted April 24, 2007 Author Posted April 24, 2007 Nice work Kiwi, you've done most of what I intend to do!
djOS Posted April 24, 2007 Author Posted April 24, 2007 Sorry for my negativity mate, I did not mean to upset you.I just remember the problems I had getting what I consider good performance out of higher grade video systems then what you are considering, but that was with 1080i mpeg2 video and a 1080 display. Film (progressive) source 1080i was generally not a big problem, but true interlaced 1080i definitely was. Nothing short of a 7800 worked for me, but my display and requirements are different to yours. The spec’s of the video system mean nothing, it’s real world performance that matters, but if your old system worked acceptably for your use you should no problems with the new setup. I suppose my comments are to worn people reading this thread that cheap solutions have their limitations, and as long as people understand those limitations it’s all good. No worries Owen, I suspect that the older drivers were the main cause of your difficulties - I've found ATi Catalyst 6.8+ to be excellent and that applies to the 7.x series.
Recommended Posts