Topic: Unofficial HTPC users thread: Tips, Tricks, and everything HTPC

[Clondalkin]

I dont know about AMD based systems but as for C2D powered ones, I have not noticed any effect on playback by any background processes since I started using C2D running on Vista Home Premium in early 2007 with NIS installed.  The latest NIS is actually too light and quiet, making me feel rather suspicious if it's actually running.

As for activities/applications that affect playability, that would include NLE and transcoding because they are so CPU resource intensive.  Also contiguous access of the HDD at full speed (as in the case of file management) where the same playback file is stored can be disturbing to the media player and the torrent speed.  However, torrenting on its own does not affect playback because the transfer of data is not that fast to use up all available bandwidth (Ive seen torrent DL speeds nearing 10MB/sec which is really fast on its own, but still significantly slower relative to USB2.0 and ESata transfer rates).

[Clondalkin]

thanks bro, that would mean a new pc.  The only parts i can use from this existing desktop is the tower case & dvdrom drive   

Keep the old system as is and stick with 720p and SD avi. 

When the time comes, just build an entirely new system from scratch.

[Dowals]

thanks. a new system would cost 12K, so i'll probably keep this one for now 

[Clondalkin]

thanks. a new system would cost 12K, so i'll probably keep this one for now 

Kung meron lang TALAGA sanang 7K na NMT or media player na kasing reliable ng PC ne.      Hopefully the new ones.

[ninjababez®]

a new system would cost 12K, so i'll probably keep this one for now 

YES, thats the best thing to do now. 
your mobo does not seem to support C2D's 
and it has an agp slot and DDR1, so it means 2-3 technologies back na sya and that's too far behind ..

btw if it does accept c2ds (for some reason), youll have a bottleneck on the RAM part .. hth

[Dowals]

Unfortunately, my 5 year old foxconn mobo died on me a few days ago, i now have a legit reason for the upgrade 
my newly resurrected desktop:

mobo: Emaxx ANF82HD-Pro GF8200 (new)
procie: Athlon II X2 240 2.8ghz (new)
hdd: 40gb ide (recycled)
ram: 1gb kingston ddr2 667 (recycled)
psu: generic 500W (recycled)
dvdrom: LG ide (recycled)

I had low hopes of 1080p playback due to the limited ram & the ide hdd.  I have tried an episode of Band of Brothers 1080p, playback seems to be flawless in my limited testing.  It's running on XP, kmp + CoreAVC 

[Clondalkin]

Unfortunately, my 5 year old foxconn mobo died on me a few days ago, i now have a legit reason for the upgrade 
my newly resurrected desktop:

I had low hopes of 1080p playback due to the limited ram & the ide hdd.  I have tried an episode of Band of Brothers 1080p, playback seems to be flawless in my limited testing.  It's running on XP, kmp + CoreAVC 

Uy this is very impressive Dowals.   Nice job!

[Dowals]

Uy this is very impressive Dowals.   Nice job!

thanks bro, but i've been itching to get another 1gb ram & a new sata hdd 

[av_phile1]

Unfortunately, my 5 year old foxconn mobo died on me a few days ago, i now have a legit reason for the upgrade  
my newly resurrected desktop:

mobo: Emaxx ANF82HD-Pro GF8200 (new)
procie: Athlon II X2 240 2.8ghz (new)
hdd: 40gb ide (recycled)
ram: 1gb kingston ddr2 667 (recycled)
psu: generic 500W (recycled)
dvdrom: LG ide (recycled)

I had low hopes of 1080p playback due to the limited ram & the ide hdd.  I have tried an episode of Band of Brothers 1080p, playback seems to be flawless in my limited testing.  It's running on XP, kmp + CoreAVC  

Video playback is more CPU intensive, not so much on RAM. 1GB is just fine.   You can verify that with the Windows Task Manager while playing a video file.  Just don't run complex apps in the background or concurrently when playing.  I only have 1Gb RAM and an old 2.4 Ghz dual core processor running XP sp2.  1080p movies files play just fine even on a full 1080p monitor.  No dedicated video card.  

Then get a 500GB or 1TB hdd.

[Dowals]

@av_phile1: upgraded the 1gb kingston to a 2gb Geil Dual Channel & i got a 640gb WD green which i partitioned to 160gb (OS), the rest was for storage

i saw a spare enclosure for the 40gb ide, pang emergency backup, kaya lang napaka laki   

[ninjababez®]

@av_phile1: upgraded the 1gb kingston to a 2gb Geil Dual Channel & i got a 640gb WD green which i partitioned to 160gb (OS), the rest was for storage

i saw a spare enclosure for the 40gb ide, pang emergency backup, kaya lang napaka laki   

why not use the 40gb ide as you OS drive?

[Dowals]

bro ninj, i need bigger space for OS to accommodate the gb hungry games that my son likes to play

[ninjababez®]

anyone here using the "special recipe", aside from me and Clondalkin?
notice some pixelation on some new mkv downloadables (e.g. moon, inglorious basterds*, gforce*HDEX)?
cant tell if theyre the same encoders since my inglorious basterds does not say who encoded it (katamad hanapin )checked hdbits and found out that im not the only one having the issue, 2 na kami ..
anyways, since these new downloadables run fine on media player classic, i just use it (mplayer classic) to play "incompatible" mkvs.

[Dowals]

mobo: Emaxx ANF82HD-Pro GF8200 (new)
procie: Athlon II X2 240 2.8ghz (new)

bought a Palit 9500GT 1GB DDR2 for my son's gaming, i've noticed that PQ is inferior compared to my ATI based pc, is there a special tweak this for card? this is our first nVIDIA card   

[Clondalkin]

bought a Palit 9500GT 1GB DDR2 for my son's gaming, i've noticed that PQ is inferior compared to my ATI based pc, is there a special tweak this for card? this is our first nVIDIA card   

So it's still true?   Nvidia is fast but ATI is beautiful? 

But Bro, I think the 9500GT would not in any way be at par with your HD4770. 

Anyway, just make sure to install the latest driver from Nvidia site instead of the one stored in the CD that came with your 9500.

[Dowals]

way too far from the HD4770 bro, very noticeable in playing Call of Duty 4 MW

I will try to get the latest driver from nVIDIA

[Dowals]

question regarding PSUs

I'm using a Hec WinPower+ 550W connected to a (realible) 500W AVR, is this ok? Higher rated psu connected to a lower rated AVR?

TIA 

[ninjababez®]

question regarding PSUs

I'm using a Hec WinPower+ 550W connected to a (realible) 500W AVR, is this ok? Higher rated psu connected to a lower rated AVR?

TIA 

may peak ratings naman yung mga voltage regulator bro eh.
bihira yung rig umabot ng ganyan consumption ng constant 

[Clondalkin]

question regarding PSUs

I'm using a Hec WinPower+ 550W connected to a (realible) 500W AVR, is this ok? Higher rated psu connected to a lower rated AVR?

TIA  

Ideally, your circuit protection should be rated higher than your protected equipment.  

But in reality, your PC (based on your configuration) would not consume higher than 500W even during heavy 3D gaming.    Since the PSU would only draw as much line power it needs to supply the requirements of the PC at any given time, and if your AVR is reliable, your present set-up should be safe enough.

[Dowals]

thanks ninja & clondalkin

 

[paquito_chips]

anyone using this? -- http://www.pinoydvd.com/index.php?topic=75666.msg776554#msg776554

if this has been posted some pages ago re: my questions below, please point me to that page. may nahanap din ako similar topic sa geektonic site but i want to reaffirm with you guys na rin.

i already pm'd glacierfrost pero his last post was 2008 pa (boss glacier, reply ka rin dito).

i have my tv in the living room.  my plan is to have my htpc tucked away in another room para malinis tingnan sa sala.  i can't afford to buy those long (5 meters & up) hdmi cables that would reach the other room.  i would rather have that liberty of splicing and crimping a cat5/6 cable and extend it to the htpc. also, if the pc would be transferred to another room, it would be pretty easy to setup the cat5/6 cable run along the walls.

2 q's:

1. baka may alam kayo kung san pwede makabili nito locally. how much kaya?

2. to those who tried it, is there really no loss to the quality when viewing HD movies? 

thanks.

[ninjababez®]

anyone using this? -- http://www.pinoydvd.com/index.php?topic=75666.msg776554#msg776554

if this has been posted some pages ago re: my questions below, please point me to that page. may nahanap din ako similar topic sa geektonic site but i want to reaffirm with you guys na rin.

i already pm'd glacierfrost pero his last post was 2008 pa (boss glacier, reply ka rin dito).

i have my tv in the living room.  my plan is to have my htpc tucked away in another room para malinis tingnan sa sala.  i can't afford to buy those long (5 meters & up) hdmi cables that would reach the other room.  i would rather have that liberty of splicing and crimping a cat5/6 cable and extend it to the htpc. also, if the pc would be transferred to another room, it would be pretty easy to setup the cat5/6 cable run along the walls.

2 q's:

1. baka may alam kayo kung san pwede makabili nito locally. how much kaya?

2. to those who tried it, is there really no loss to the quality when viewing HD movies? 

thanks.

why not pm TOY 01, he can order it online for you. 

[obelix]

why not purchase sa ebay?

[paquito_chips]

why not pm TOY 01, he can order it online for you. 

why not purchase sa ebay?

uy. pwede! salamat mga bossing! 

[av_phile1]

bro ninj, i need bigger space for OS to accommodate the gb hungry games that my son likes to play

It's always a good idea to have a physically separate HDD just for OS and page filing.

Also a good idea to have a physically separate HDD for your kid's gaming.  The reasons escape me at this time as I read about it years ago.  I think it has something to do with the amazing things your kid can do with the PC that could one day ruin the HDD so that all your data in it could be lost forever.    I have my music files in a separate physical drive and has saved me worries in the past when the HDD containing the OS crushed irreparably.  It happened when my son was playing Doom.  It just froze then went blue and couldn't get rebooted.  I hate to think what I would have done if all my music files went with it.  It's even more unthinkable when it comes to HD movies that took so long to rip or download.   That's why I also have a separate hdd exclusive to movie files.

[Clondalkin]

But the thing is, with 500GB, 640GB or even 1TB HDD becoming the standard primary drive for PCs, you'd never be able to fill that much capacity with OS and applications.

All my desktops have 500GB primary drive with just one primary partition.   No problem at all. With SATA tech, practically plug & play nalang ang HDD (not the OS but the access to other files contained in the drive through multiple PCs) - all you need is a dock.

[Dowals]

I was actually thinking about that that issue the other day. I have partitioned the 640gb, one for OS & the rest for son's school stuff & some avi files.

I have a separate hdd for the more important files

[Clondalkin]

Tip.

There have been many complaints about blocky playback of some new encodes/titles when using CoreAVC as codec.

A very effective solution is to switch to FFDShow for movies exhibiting such issues.  Hence keep this codec as well as CoreAVC installed in your PC.  The switching between these codecs is quite straightforward and the two of them do not seem to conflict with each other.    Do note that CoreAVC is still observed to be more efficient especially when playing high bitstream files, but, and there is a but, FFDshow rendering appears to be more vibrant in terms of color; so it's up to you to decide which codec to set as default.

Internal codecs of software players may also solve the blocky IQ under CoreAVC but 1080p movies may stutter badly in case your CPU is not powerful enough.

So just remember that it's not the file. It's the codec.

[av_phile1]

But the thing is, with 500GB, 640GB or even 1TB HDD becoming the standard primary drive for PCs, you'd never be able to fill that much capacity with OS and applications.

All my desktops have 500GB primary drive with just one primary partition.   No problem at all. With SATA tech, practically plug & play nalang ang HDD (not the OS but the access to other files contained in the drive through multiple PCs) - all you need is a dock.

I was thinking more about older hard drives.  those with 120GB or 180GB which you can still get in many shops selling second hand PC parts.  What I have is a legacy one from an old PC I had back in 2004. 

[air ween]

guys, repost ko lang po.. salamat po sa mga magrereply..

hello po.. its been awhile since i last posted here sa thread.. my last post as far as i can remember was when i asked for an advise if ill be getting this units:

22 inch AOC LCD Monitor
q6600 intel quadcore 2.4ghs for every core
geforce 9600gt 1ghz
2gb ddr2 RAM
gigabyte motherboard
320 sata drive
HEX Power Supply

for 20k, which I did but we settled 25.. now, balak ko na sya ibenta.. i will be including an original OS (Windows Vista Home Premium), additional 2g DDR2 RAM and an external DVD writer. mga magkano ko po kaya sya pwede ibenta? I settled with E-great nalang kasi and I'm planing to buy a laptop nalang to free-up space sa room. actually nanghihinayang din akong ibenta pero gusto ko talagang maglaptop nalang eh since di ko naman namamaximize yung power nya for gaming, since may ps3 naman ako and more on browsing/downloading lang, or as HTPC..
thanks po sa magiging inputs. Wink