HTPC HD setup for 1080P

[conradv]

Hi,

 

I have lately bought a Samsung 46 LCD Full HD 1080P television to connect to my HTPC. The problem that I have is that when receiving HD channels such as Luxe HD I have 100% cpu usage. I know that my current video card is not up to the job to decode HD and so this is my question.

 

Which video card do you suggest to play Full HD 1080P properly without having high cpu load? The card should prefable be AGP since my mobo does not have pci-e. I have read the other threads which mention the ATI 2600XT video cards but my german is not that polished What is your verdict about this card?

 

Thanks

 

HW:

CPU Athlon 64 3500+

Ram: 1GB

Current VGA: Nvidia FX5500

Mobo: AsRock 939 AGP

Hard Disk: Samsung 160gb

[stephjdf]

Hi,

 

I have lately bought a Samsung 46 LCD Full HD 1080P television to connect to my HTPC. The problem that I have is that when receiving HD channels such as Luxe HD I have 100% cpu usage. I know that my current video card is not up to the job to decode HD and so this is my question.

 

Which video card do you suggest to play Full HD 1080P properly without having high cpu load? The card should prefable be AGP since my mobo does not have pci-e. I have read the other threads which mention the ATI 2600XT video cards but my german is not that polished What is your verdict about this card?

 

Thanks

 

HW:

CPU Athlon 64 3500+

Ram: 1GB

Current VGA: Nvidia FX5500

Mobo: AsRock 939 AGP

Hard Disk: Samsung 160gb

 

With a Radeon 2600XT or a Radeon 2600pro you will be able to watch any HD-content with very little cpu usage. Even a passive cooled Radeon 2400pro or XT or any AGP-card of the 3xxx-series can do this job quite well. For decoding software i recommend powerDVD 7 ultra with latest patch applied.

 

hope i could help you..

 

regards

[fritzmeier5]

Hello,

 

you can also use the last Update from Nero Ultra. It Supports also hardwareaccleration with my Sapphire Ultra 2600 XT (passiv). To activate the hardwareaccleration for the filter look in the option settings from ShowTime. In DVBViewer you have to activate in DirectX Nero Video Decoder or System Default.

 

It works fine with the last Driver from ATI.

 

By the way. Nero comes with a lot of more features as PowerDVD Ultra and it is cheaper and the upgrade policies are better. By Cyberlink you have always to pay for every product separate, they are already included in Nero Ultra. One example if you Upgrade from PowerDVD 7 Deluxe to 8 Ultra you have to pay nearly the full price. Nero comes with a discount of 35%.

 

Oh, by the way ATI prefers Nero => ATI H.264

 

Beste Regards

 

Fritz

Edited April 8, 2008 by fritzmeier5

[sr71]

Hello,

 

you can also use the last Update from Nero Ultra. It Supports also hardwareaccleration with my Sapphire Ultra 2600 XT (passiv). To activate the hardwareaccleration for the filter look in the option settings from ShowTime. In DVBViewer you have to activate in DirectX Nero Video Decoder or System Default.

 

It works fine with the last Driver from ATI.

 

By the way. Nero comes with a lot of more features as PowerDVD Ultra and it is cheaper and the upgrade policies are better. By Cyberlink you have always to pay for every product separate, they are already included in Nero Ultra. One example if you Upgrade from PowerDVD 7 Deluxe to 8 Ultra you have to pay nearly the full price. Nero comes with a discount of 35%.

 

Oh, by the way ATI prefers Nero => ATI H.264

 

Beste Regards

 

Fritz

 

 

I would recommend a Saphire HD 3850 with passive Heatsink. It is sold for approx. 140EUR.

Do the job well with HDTV/Blu Ray and older games as well.

For Blu Ray one thing I don't like is the content protection. YOu can not have a dual disply configuration as it is not allowed

(at least for me PowerDVD complained). As one connection to my 20" TFT has no hdcp enabled. Really a pitty. But I think sonner or later there

might be fixes to make also tohis configurations work or all monitors will soon have this content protection (and jsut buy new stuff and dump the

old parts - as industry likes us to do).

[fritzmeier5]

YOu can not have a dual disply configuration as it is not allowed

 

Hmmm, I can clone and expand (with different resolutions) 2 monitors with the last CCC and ATI driver.

 

Best Regards

 

Fritz

[conradv]

Thanks everyone for your fast response. I will get an ATI 2600 and will keep you updated.

[fritzmeier5]

Hello,

 

It Supports also hardwareaccleration with my Sapphire Ultra 2600 XT

 

I don`t know what maked me believe that it works. It doesn`t work. So Nero doesn`t support hardwareaccleration. The same for CoreAVC 1.6.5. It works with PowerDVD 8.

 

Best Regards

 

Fritz

[w8andc]

I've installed NERO 8.

In ShowTime video options "hardware accelaration" checked ON.

 

RedLight DirectShow Filter Manager used to set merit of cyberlink H.264 decoder to "do not use" and the Nero HD video decoder to "preferred".

 

After a restart of the system I checked DVBViewer.

The Nero HD video decoder is not shown in de DirectX options of DVBViewer in the H.264 decoder section.

The cyberlink H.264 decoder is still shown and can be selected and used in DVBViewer. Although the changed merits for both decoders.

If I choose "system default" the Nero video decoder HD still is NOT used. Cyberlink decoder stays on !!!

 

What do I oversee?

 

How can you manage to use Nero vidio decoder HD in DVBViewer? (please --> exact steps)

Edited April 10, 2008 by w8andc

[fritzmeier5]

You have to change the merit of the Nero video decoder (the one without "HD"), too.

 

You wouldn't not see the decoder in DVBViewer, but he should be able to chouse with the Sytem Default. But as I wrote abouve, I was wrong, it is not possible to use hardwareaccleration with Nero.

 

Best Regards

 

Fritz

[conradv]

Thanks everyone for your feedback. Now i can view Luxe TV HD without a glitch. The only problem I have is that DVBViewer does not make use of hw acceleration for mkv files using cyberlink. Do you know of any solutions?

 

Thanks

Edited May 7, 2008 by conradv