Author Topic: Share your HTPC Setup (Read 345302 times)

jello900 · « **Reply #1410 on:** Apr 29, 2008 at 10:06 PM »

Guys with 32" lcd, ano reso gamit nito for your htpcs? cant figure out whats the best reso to use eh

STRIKER · « **Reply #1411 on:** Apr 30, 2008 at 12:21 PM »

i think all tv's have diff native reso. so set it on whatever your tv is.
whats important is that the circles if icons, letter "O", and other round objects remain round and not flat/elongated.

michbern · « **Reply #1412 on:** May 03, 2008 at 11:18 AM »

Quote from: otepsy on Apr 22, 2008 at 04:29 PM

Question: I'm planning to build HTPC but my big concern is about the audio, if i will buy a soundcard with analog and digital out, i'm thinking to use the analog out instead of the digital out, correct me if i'm wrong coz what am i thinking is because i will connect it to my HK-AVR135 only and to think that the decoder of my AVR is up to DTS only so if i connect it via digital the receiver will decode the audio, but if i connect it to analog the computer will decode the audio in much higher than the receiver. Am I right?

Baka maguluhan kayo:

Sound Card Digital Out -> AVR Digital In = AVR will decode the audio (Paano kung DTS HD MA yung i-play like the HD r*ps the audio will be downgraded to DTS only)

Souncard Analog out - > AVR Analog In = The PC will decode the audio (So if i have the right codecs ang ma-re-recieve nag AVR is the the right Audio track kasi nadecode na sya ng PC and yung AVR will just Amplify it.

Tama ba itong naiisip ko?

anyone knows the answer to this? mas maganda ba analog ang out.. as of now Digital out yung gamit ko.. meron din sya point of having the pc decode the audio.

otepsy · « **Reply #1413 on:** May 03, 2008 at 11:25 AM »

oo nga tagal ko na naghihintay ng sagot mga gurus... pls enlighten me.. Thanks...

dyerds · « **Reply #1414 on:** May 03, 2008 at 11:36 AM »

Quote from: otepsy on May 03, 2008 at 11:25 AM

oo nga tagal ko na naghihintay ng sagot mga gurus... pls enlighten me.. Thanks...

Haven't try it yet because I have no time tweaking my htpc and I am not a guru on this. Mga Master nasan na po kayo? Ako rin kasi naghihintay...

neil3504 · « **Reply #1415 on:** May 05, 2008 at 10:51 AM »

My Setup

MSI 945P
Pentium D 3.2 GHz
Geil DDR2 667MHz 4x1GB
Radeon HD2600XT
2 80GB HD SATA
1 160GB HD SATA
1 120GB HD SATA
Z-5500
Vista Ultimate
HEC 550 watts

40" Samsung LCD TV 1080p Full HD - SOON

I am able to play 720p and 1080p (MKV Files) flawlessly with this setup.

michbern · « **Reply #1416 on:** May 05, 2008 at 12:36 PM »

will a pentium 4 2.4ghz be able to play 720 and 1080p files?

STRIKER · « **Reply #1417 on:** May 05, 2008 at 01:25 PM »

Quote from: michbern on May 05, 2008 at 12:36 PM

will a pentium 4 2.4ghz be able to play 720 and 1080p files?

i think you can.... provided you have a dedicated hd video card to carry the load. a card that has enough memory and bit to do the job. having at least 1gb of ram to assist your processor with its chores.

if i am not mistaken spec of your card should be something like.... 256mb and 256bit

neil3504 · « **Reply #1418 on:** May 05, 2008 at 01:34 PM »

@michbern

are you referring to MKV files?

I was able to play 720p files using my other PC with this setup. Not sure about 1080p files though.

P4 2.6GHz
768MB DDR
Radeon 9250 128MB VC

glacierfrost · « **Reply #1419 on:** May 07, 2008 at 10:00 AM »

If you have the new ati cards that have UVD it should be able to play 720p files even if your pc is p4 2.4ghz. I have p4 3.0ghz and the cpu load when playing 720p files is less than 20% (I think it is even less than 10%). Before getting the HD3450, my cpu usage is more than 50%.

glacierfrost · « **Reply #1420 on:** May 07, 2008 at 10:20 AM »

Quote from: michbern on May 03, 2008 at 11:18 AM

anyone knows the answer to this? mas maganda ba analog ang out.. as of now Digital out yung gamit ko.. meron din sya point of having the pc decode the audio.

I think digital should be better because HT AVRs usually have better DACs than PC sound cards.

michbern · « **Reply #1421 on:** May 11, 2008 at 12:45 AM »

@glacierfrost: what is a UVD?

@striker: im using an old board.. i think it can also fit in a agp x8 video cards. is there any that uses the slot and HD ready?

@neil3504

especially the 1080p.. I can only play like 20 secs then the video lags from the audio

im using a P4 2.4ghz
1 gb RAM
and a Asus 128mb video card.

neil3504 · « **Reply #1422 on:** May 11, 2008 at 11:39 AM »

I had the same problems with 1080p before. Then i switched to HD2600XT w/ UVD (universal video decoder) made a little tweak on my ZP settings. CPU usage went down from 100% to 20-50%. All of the video processing was done by the VC.

You can try coreavc as your h.264 decoder, it can lessen the load of the CPU but not as much as UVD.

amalvar · « **Reply #1423 on:** May 12, 2008 at 01:13 PM »

just a question.

i'm using my htpc with my toshiba 32' lcd tv (native resolution of 13** x 768).

my current resolution (xp setting) for my htpc is 19** x 1080.

watching videos is great.. but for xp use, surfing the web, etc.. the text is really small (thin)..

how do i address this problem? should i just set up htpc at 1020 by 768 resolution?? or would my playback for my 720p and 1080p .mkv, .avi, etc. files be affected? or would this "hd files" play better if i set my resolution lower?

advise please.

thanks!

leomar · « **Reply #1424 on:** May 12, 2008 at 01:58 PM »

Quote from: glacierfrost on May 07, 2008 at 10:00 AM

If you have the new ati cards that have UVD it should be able to play 720p files even if your pc is p4 2.4ghz. I have p4 3.0ghz and the cpu load when playing 720p files is less than 20% (I think it is even less than 10%). Before getting the HD3450, my cpu usage is more than 50%.

i think even without the uvd, P4 comps can now play 720p or 1080p files...
I discovered that yesterday when i installed and experimented with powerdvd8 ultra with all the addons...

from the mkv files converted to vob, for instance apocalypto, when just playing the mkv file using wmp classic my cpu peaks up to 80%-99%. but when i played the same hd file, now in vob, in powerdvd8 my cpu load does not exceed 25% with all other apps open like azureus, mozilla etc

so i think there is hope for older pcs to play hidef, the solution powerdvd8 ultra

my setup:
P4 3ghz prescott @ 3.4ghz
MSI 865PE Platinum
Twinmos 2x512mb 400ddr
Sapphire X1950 Pro

danrd · « **Reply #1425 on:** May 12, 2008 at 03:10 PM »

Quote

so i think there is hope for older pcs to play hidef, the solution powerdvd8 ultra

Tried this one bro and the PQ is outstanding. Far better than MPC. Problem is its audio decoding. My 5.1 files plays only 2 channel audio. :'(

leomar · « **Reply #1426 on:** May 12, 2008 at 04:31 PM »

Quote from: danrd on May 12, 2008 at 03:10 PM

Tried this one bro and the PQ is outstanding. Far better than MPC. Problem is its audio decoding. My 5.1 files plays only 2 channel audio. :'(

nabasa ko nga somewhere sir ung feedback niyo about this... ginamit niyo ung PDVD8 for mkv files diba? tinatry ko ding iplay ung mkv file sa PDVD8 kaso hindi yata supported e... with the vob files, kaya niya naman i pass through spdif ung DD sir... pero since 2.1 lang ung PC speaker ko at malayo ung receiver ko sa PC hindi ko na try via pc to receiver connection...

paano mo nga pala sir napagana ung mkv file sa PowerDVD8?

aXXo · « **Reply #1427 on:** May 12, 2008 at 06:26 PM »

will post my HTPC setup later..

amd phenom 9500
gigabyte 780g (hdmi connection)
2gb ram
1.5 terabyte of hdd (full of mkv files 720p, 1080p)
dvdrw
focus nemesis 901 casing
32 inches sammy
klipsch pm 5.1

Alfie · « **Reply #1428 on:** May 12, 2008 at 07:18 PM »

OT: wow ha

AxxO

di' ba reserved na iya'n handle name na iya'n
Ikaw din' kaya baka masama ka pa sa sina-sabi nang tunay Axxo na Flamer/Pretender....

chariol · « **Reply #1429 on:** May 12, 2008 at 07:51 PM »

my setup

abit ip35-e
intel quad core 9300
4 gig xms corsair ddr-800
seagate 320
seagate 500
powercolor 2600xt ddr4
asus dvd writer
22" samsung 225bw
toshiba 46x3500 full hd.
onkyo 605 with wharfedale speakers.

glacierfrost · « **Reply #1430 on:** May 13, 2008 at 10:29 PM »

Quote from: amalvar on May 12, 2008 at 01:13 PM

just a question.

i'm using my htpc with my toshiba 32' lcd tv (native resolution of 13** x 768).

my current resolution (xp setting) for my htpc is 19** x 1080.

watching videos is great.. but for xp use, surfing the web, etc.. the text is really small (thin)..

how do i address this problem? should i just set up htpc at 1020 by 768 resolution?? or would my playback for my 720p and 1080p .mkv, .avi, etc. files be affected? or would this "hd files" play better if i set my resolution lower?

advise please.

thanks!

I don't think PQ would be affected by playing it in 13**x768. Even though your set accepts 1080p it cannot fully display all the pixels so basically it downconverts the 1080p to 720p. But if you insist, you might want to try and change into bigger fonts.

glacierfrost · « **Reply #1431 on:** May 13, 2008 at 10:55 PM »

Quote from: michbern on May 11, 2008 at 12:45 AM

@glacierfrost: what is a UVD?

UVD is universal video decoder. It is developed by ati to play hidef formats through the video card. It takes to load off the cpu and outs it in the video card. The video card is more efficient in decoding because it is designed to do that specific task. I'm not sure if you can find agp video cards with uvd. Most of the places I've checked doesn't have it. Look for hd26xx series or hd3xxx series video cards.

dyerds · « **Reply #1432 on:** May 13, 2008 at 11:11 PM »

Sir glacier, does this mean that those latest video cards has this uvd? If my video card has uvd does this automatically do the decoding or I have to set it first.

leomar · « **Reply #1433 on:** May 14, 2008 at 12:40 AM »

before upgrading your vc, try PowerDVD8 Ultra first... kapag hindi gumana, upgrade na

glacierfrost · « **Reply #1434 on:** May 14, 2008 at 12:18 PM »

Quote from: dyerds on May 13, 2008 at 11:11 PM

Sir glacier, does this mean that those latest video cards has this uvd? If my video card has uvd does this automatically do the decoding or I have to set it first.

Yup almost all of the latest ati video cards have uvd. Nvidia also has its version of uvd called purevideo hd. You have to set hardware decoding first. Hardware acceleration cannot work if the software does not support it. I'm using mpc home cinema and so far all of the 720p mkv files I've tried works with it. You could also try powerdvd as leomar suggested or other software player. Try kmplayer or media player classic w/ ffdshow or w/ coreavc.

Even though my P4 3ghz could play all 720p files with no problems. What really got me to upgrade is because when my cpu is stressed to 50% it turns the cpu fan to full blast. The fan noise in my PC is too loud and too distracting for me, and really takes away the joy of watching movies.

danrd · « **Reply #1435 on:** May 14, 2008 at 08:21 PM »

Quote from: leomar on May 12, 2008 at 04:31 PM

nabasa ko nga somewhere sir ung feedback niyo about this... ginamit niyo ung PDVD8 for mkv files diba? tinatry ko ding iplay ung mkv file sa PDVD8 kaso hindi yata supported e... with the vob files, kaya niya naman i pass through spdif ung DD sir... pero since 2.1 lang ung PC speaker ko at malayo ung receiver ko sa PC hindi ko na try via pc to receiver connection...

paano mo nga pala sir napagana ung mkv file sa PowerDVD8?

Sorry for this late reply bro. Just change the extension names of the file from .mkv to .wmv.

dyerds · « **Reply #1436 on:** May 14, 2008 at 08:33 PM »

@glacier

I'm already using K-lite as recommend in another thread wo far it works perfectly naman w/ the mkv files I downloaded. I just want to try lang yung sinabi nyo about uvd because I'm using Inno3d 9600gt at tama kayo it features purevideo hd. I just don't know how to do it lang.

glacierfrost · « **Reply #1437 on:** May 15, 2008 at 12:25 PM »

Quote from: dyerds on May 14, 2008 at 08:33 PM

@glacier

I'm already using K-lite as recommend in another thread wo far it works perfectly naman w/ the mkv files I downloaded. I just want to try lang yung sinabi nyo about uvd because I'm using Inno3d 9600gt at tama kayo it features purevideo hd. I just don't know how to do it lang.

Try to search how to enable dxva on purevideo hd. In mpc home cinema just make sure that dxva is checked then your good to go.

Clondalkin · « **Reply #1438 on:** May 15, 2008 at 12:38 PM »

Here are my thoughts:

I do appreciate everybody’s itch to use hardware decoding for MKV playback but so far, the most reliable and flexible way is still through a powerful CPU (a.k.a. dual core CPU or equivalent) with lots of memory and a good software decoder (like The KM Player).

This week, I just upgraded my graphics card to an HD3870 (from 8600GTS, originally 7600GT). Result; nothing significant as far as playback quality of anything MKV in my hard drives. This implies that my previous set-up with the 8600GTS was more than sufficient even for heavy 1080p contents. Since I am a very light PC gamer already, I feel I just wasted money on this upgrade.

However, there is quite a nice reduction in CPU load for playback of original HD DVD through the MS Xbox360 add-on drive. For reference, the 7600GT was borderline 100%, 8600GTS was steady at around 50-70% while the HD3870 manages 20-30% (under Vista and with lots of background processes including Norton Internet Security 2008, and endless torrents).

I’ve been reading about the MPC HC project (Media Player Classic Home Cinema) as very promising in terms of accessing the GPU power (somehow) but I’ve also read some playback/settings/compatibility limitations that experts are still trying to work out when using this player. So at the moment, I’d rather wait it out. But for those using P4 class CPUs or equivalent, it seems that MPC HC is really the best way to go, unless The KM Player can’t handle the content. Converting MKV to VOB using MKV2VOB in order to playback using PowerDVD is another good option assuming the resulting 2-channel audio is acceptable. Once the file is converted to VOB, it becomes a DVD format data hence very light on the CPU and can also take advantage of hardware decoding. Not everyone is comfortable with the demux, conversion, mux sequence though.

Here’s what I keep in my PC for multimedia applications for the time being:

1.   Cyberlink PowerDVD 7.0 Ultra for HD DVD, and DVD playback, hardware decoding enabled of course.
2.   Daemon Tools as DVD emulator.
3.   The KM Player for MKV (VLC Player as back-up) Ver. 1428. Personal favorite video renderer is Halli renderer (subjective).
4.   Windows Media Player 11 for AVI (with FFDShow and AC3Filter) and network file sharing with the Xbox360.
5.   MKVToolnix for playing around with MKV files.

I try other media players (and there is quite a lot of good options really) out of curiosity and they work quite well, but my needs are fully covered by the above applications already.

jerix · « **Reply #1439 on:** May 15, 2008 at 12:59 PM »

With the readings in this thread, i am now developing the interest of building an HTPC which i intend to use as an alternative while prices of bluray is still painful to my pocket. In fact since march, I have only five blurays.

To those who just built an HTPC can you kindly recommend the BASIC hardware i need, please. I only need the CPU. I will use my AX100 as my monitor. Will a 20k budget be enough?