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Need sugestion for a perfect HTPC with full HD Hardware support


digidigi

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Hello,

After tried DVBViewer and confirmed that this great application working perfect on my ordinary computer with my Tuner(s) have we desided to replace our Dreambox in the living room and get a 100% HTPC with HDMI to our Plasma 42", and run everything from DVBViewer.

 

Today I have the following HW:

- Multimedia Cabinet full size with 300w fanless power and LPT port baced LCD Display

- Internal DVD RW Player

- External USB MS XB-360 HD DVD Player

- Internal Terratec DVB 1200 C (Cable Tuner)

- Internal Terratec DVB 1200 S (Sat Tuner)

- Internal Hauppague HVR 4000 (S,S2,T Combo Tuner)

- Internal 500GB Sata HD

- Hauppauge 45btn remote

 

 

Need help with suggestion for Vista x86 (32bit) based HTPC Hardware (Max awalible power is 300W):

- "Silent" Mother Board socket 755 (Intel dual core)

- "Silent" A 100% fully supported HD compatilble Embedded or PCIe16 Graphics Card with HDMI and (MPEG2, MPEG4 processing)

- Dolby, DTS audio with SPDIF Audio out

- Best avalible Codecs for my hw to purchase.

 

B.T.W I live in Norway, but I will order from any european country if needed.

Any sugestions is welcome. :)

 

/Digi

Edited by digidigi
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DVBViewer won't support H.264 (=HD) acceleration by any hardware in vista. This is because it doesn't support EVR.

If you would use XP, I would suggest to buy a ATI HD2600XT, for example the one from Gigabyte with passive cooling. With some low noise case fan's that works realy great and cpu last on HD channels is mostly below 10%. In Vista that would only be possible with DVBViewer GE or other software... sadly.

In Vista for HD with DVBViewer Pro the best way nowadays is to buy enough CPU Power (one of the better Core2Duo's should do) and use the mainconcept H.264 Decoder in Software-Mode. For hardware acceleration the Cyberlink Decoder is the only choice (right now).

 

If you want to use SPDIF Audio out, you won't need any dolby/dts decoding abilities on the soundboard, because it will only passthrough AC3 and not decode it.

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DVBViewer won't support H.264 (=HD) acceleration by any hardware in vista. This is because it doesn't support EVR.

 

So if I install Windows XP, DVBViewer Pro will support H.264 HW Acceleration with Cyberlink (7.3 Ultra) with ATI HD 2600?

Windows XP is fine for me since the only frontend app that will run is DVBViewer.

 

Do you know if it's any near future plans to implement EVR suppport in DVBViewer?

 

/Digi

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So if I install Windows XP, DVBViewer Pro will support H.264 HW Acceleration with Cyberlink (7.3 Ultra) with ATI HD 2600?

 

Yes, it works perfectly. :)

 

Do you know if it's any near future plans to implement EVR suppport in DVBViewer?

 

There are no plans to implement EVR support. The next thing that will happen in renderer support is the own Direct3D Renderer that is developed here. If it will be possible to use Hardware Acceleration with that, is not really clear, till now. But I wouldn't suggest to wait for EVR, yet...

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Wow!!

I had a XFX GeForce 7950GX2 520M 1GB eXtreme, from a gaming PC

and installed it in my HTPC, removed Vista and reinstalled with Windows XP, latest MS updates and Nvidia drivers.

Then I installed PowerDVD 7.3 Ultimate and AC3Filter 1.46 and DVBViewer 3.9.

I use a DVI to HDMI connected to my 42" plasma and SPDIF out to my Audio system.

The rest of my HW is: Intel Core Duo E6600 (2.4 Ghz) CPU with 2GB ram.

 

For now I have only tested with my HVR 4000 DVB-S/S2, but tomorrow I should have 2xDVB-s, 1xDVB-C, 1xDVB-T and XB360 HD DVD.

The best resolution on my Plasma is 720P I tried with 1080i as well, but litle more unstable picture.

CPU load on MPEG2 is 15%-20% and 25-35% on HD channels, they all are encrypted.

 

Anyway, the dreambox is out from our living rom now, and my HTPC is installed and works just perfect!

 

Thank you all for your Tips!!

 

/Digi

Edited by digidigi
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I would recommend Vista32+DVBViewerGE with EVR+8600GT or better GTS+FW 163.69 WHQL+PowerDVD Ultra.

This is gonna be the best solution i think.

You don't need to buy passive graphics cards; active ones are always better and they don't make noise.

Just try to choose silent CPU cooler and silent power supply.

BTW, you may select one of them as audio filter for SPDIF output:

MS MPEG-1/DD decoder or AC3 Filter.

Nowadays, i watch h264 HDTV on my LG TV and Onkyo receiver without any problem with %1-4 CPU usage.

(Connections DVI to HDMI cable and SPDIF cable)

Edited by ricabullah
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  • 2 weeks later...
You don't need to buy passive graphics cards; active ones are always better and they don't make noise.

 

I disagree on the video card noise. It can be very high and require an aftermarket cooler replacement.

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