[ELPIRATA]

First of all allow me to start saying that my budget is really really short. I've made my Home Theater of scraps and as such I know that I can't expect much of it.

Still, to this day I've used a simple Sempron (462) with 768RAM and a FX5200, with the onboard 5.1 audio. At the moment its connected to 3 separate amps/receivers via analog, each doing 2 channels. What can I say, is not perfect, but sounds great. Doesnt sound amazing, but its what I have and I like it.

Early this year I got, I guess the system's crown, a Sony Projector (VPL-HS51A), 720p native, and some 720p content I got from the internet, avi files, look great. I can taste the difference.

Problem is, anything MKV or the H264 stuff, can't handle it, and I know, its asking too much of my current system.

Recently, a client of mine, decided to throw away a Dell Precision 370, which far as I got, they categorize it as a workstation. It comes with PCI-Ex16 slot with at the moment a Nvidia Quadro NVS285 (which I guess is a lot better than my fx5200), has a small sata drive 40gb and only 512RAM.

The video card comes with this unique connector that then plugs to either a DVI or VGA cable that has 2 connectors for use. For the moment, and for testing, I plugged it to the projector via the VGA input (as Im using the HDMI to connect to the actual Sempron via DVI). I did a test with 720 content mkv and it does it better than the Sempron, but is not something that you would consider playable.

So, here comes the question....

What PCI-E card would I need for at least doing 720p stuff?

Its my hope to be able to get one of those LG HD/Blu combos for the PC and I was wondering if it will work with the 'whatever' card is suggested on the last question.

I remember reading a lot of config suggestions on this site, I think, not sure where I got the thread, but it had a lot of suggestions for HTPC's starting with dual cores, so hence my question, this P4 is single core.

If a PCI-E can help me at least see 720 content... is a good start. I do know that eventually will have to move to a better hardware solution, but meanwhile, budget is short.

Thanks in advance...

ELP

[thepharcyde]

Hey there, it's all down to if you can use hardware acceleration to offload the job from the CPU to Gfx card. I have upgraded from a P4 3.4 with a AGP Nvidia 6800. It played 720p no issues, but my setup did not allow hardware acceleration so struggled with 1080p.

Card wise if your setup allows HA will be an ATI HD xxxx of somekind. I have a HD3200 which is onbuilt on my MOBO
Give it a go at least, no harm in trying

[Theydon Bois]

The CPU is used to handle 90%+ all of Tims MKVs (the other 10% would be ones that have been encoded by you or someone you know and have HA enabled) and no video card will help.

The CoreAVC codec does help improve file based mkvs though.

The GPU handles hardware encoded mkvs as well as optical based HiDef files.

Edit: Read Mickwalls performance thread for a more detailed explanation.

[ELPIRATA]

Reading Micks thread, and trying to understand it. Thanks both for the reply.

@Thepharcyde: I'm a huge Nvidia fan but I have been considering the ATI HD series. I remember reading that nvidia cards from series 7 upwards had HD decoding capabilities, and those below didnt, which would apply for both my 5200 and urs 6800 (though the 6800 I have a feeling it wasnt the cheapest from them, usually is the 6200).

@Theydon: I read also your own website about your own project. Nice reading. I'm kind of confused by your reply though, Tim's MKV... what are those? I dont do encoding, havent tried yet. But so far, 720p avi's work on my current system and thus should work flawlessly on the P4, but the 720 H.264's on mkv dont run at all in my current system (sempron) and the P4 struggles mightly.

and no video card will help

To which one applies this, the 10% or the 90%? I'm intrigued honestly.

In Micks.. I noticed that it says that both HD or Blu dont get more than 6% hardware acceleration, at least is what Im understanding so far. This is the way Im heading towards as well, since the blu/HD combo drive is cheap and looks like I may be able to get it, 2 or 3 months I guess.

Another thing I noticed on the Micks performance graph is that aside of HD/Blu on the S3, the CPU usage % is slightly higher than with a good GPU. Of course, a Core 2 Duo and a P4 are very different. But is it really saying that without GPU it can still produce watchable fps on each of those options?

Keeping in mind my low budget, I was noticing these 2 cards on newegg.com.

First is the nvidia, MSI Geforce 9400GT
Newegg.com - MSI N9400GT-MD512 GeForce 9400 GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

I like that it has HDMI, has twice the memory of the ATI solution I list next. It also have DVI and VGA, though the VGA is not really a problem, since I favor HDMI and then DVI (doh to myself). This one is priced at $39.00.

The ATI, Radeon HD 2400XT
Newegg.com - Video Cards, Video Capture Cards, ATI Video Cards, Video Graphic Cards, Computer Video Cards, TV Card

This card doesnt have HDMI, its VGA/DVI/S-Video, its $5 cheaper, but has the nice HD ring to it.

I dont know, but the nvidia card looks better Would the nvidia be a bad choice?

ELP

[ELPIRATA]

Cheaply made and runs way too hot. heatsinks attached hapharardly, making the card overheat very quickly, causing screen corruption, BSOD, etc.

I guess I didnt read the user reviews directly from newegg.com. It runs hot and dies. The nvidia card... users praise it, I realize is not a high powered card, since the price usually says it all, but the HDMI port....

[ELPIRATA]

Wish Mick or somebody had done something like that but using a Pentium 4 as the base, the dual core cpu is out of the question for now.

ELP

[ELPIRATA]

Hummm, should I also mention that I use VLC? So far it works great with what I have, but all these talks about codecs and powerdvd and that... confuse me. I like VLC a lot. Anyone else here use it?

[thepharcyde]

Originally Posted by ELPIRATA

Hummm, should I also mention that I use VLC? So far it works great with what I have, but all these talks about codecs and powerdvd and that... confuse me. I like VLC a lot. Anyone else here use it?

I use Windows Media Player Classic. Not a fan of VLC never been able to get it to work.

[Theydon Bois]

Originally Posted by ELPIRATA

@Theydon: I read also your own website about your own project. Nice reading. I'm kind of confused by your reply though, Tim's MKV... what are those? I dont do encoding, havent tried yet. But so far, 720p avi's work on my current system and thus should work flawlessly on the P4, but the 720 H.264's on mkv dont run at all in my current system (sempron) and the P4 struggles mightly.

To which one applies this, the 10% or the 90%? I'm intrigued honestly.

Sorry, in Theydon speak mode. Tim's = Tim Berners? Lee as in the bloke who made the internet. So, what I was saying in a really round about way is mkvs found on the internet. Why so obscure? As referances to 'Tim's' mkvs are best not to be discussed, as a Mod will start to edit posts or close threads.

90% of mkvs are NOT hardware encoded, meaning they are reliant on the CPU and are helped by the codec CoreAVC.

10% of mkvs ARE hardware encoded, and will be given a performance by a GPU. My point was that you can only ensure that your mkv is hardware acclerated if you do the process yourself.

[ELPIRATA]

Thanks for the clarification Theydon.

I'm now looking for information on that CoreAVC thingie. Now, I can say that on one of my recent tests, the 720 that has no hardware acceleration, did put my P4 2.8 to knee lol, it was at 95-100% of usage.

I have a couple of questions though. Does the memory ammount help with the decode process? This system only has 512MB, if it had more ram, say, 1 or 2 gigs, would it help it ease the pain?

Its becoming obvious that Im going to need a better CPU, so the other question I have is... what is the lowest of both worlds (Amd and Intel) that I can go with that can do 1080 unacelerated files?

I do want to get a blu/HD combo drive, which are somewhat cheap for the PC (seen them at $150).

I like the Amd dual cores, since they are cheaper than intel's (at least compared to the core 2 duos). Lowest Amd dual core that I'm hoping to get is the 5000, or the 4850e, will any of these be able to do 1080?

ELP

[ELPIRATA]

2 or 3 hours ago I downloaded the CoreAVC trial. I was a lil bit confused about their webpage, but I downloaded it and installed it and to say the least... Im IMPRESSED.

All of the struggling performances of the 720's were played flawlessly. At some point decided to copy to the hard drive one of the 1080 demo files and at the same time I was playing whatever 720 I had, and there wasnt stutterings and such.

During play I launched the task manager and went to the performance tab and it was doing it at 55-60% instead of the 85-95% reported earlier. I can only wonder how it will do when get the memory to 1gb.

Once finished copying the 1080 demo decided to give it a try, I thought that at least I should get a slideshow more frequent than the one frame for every 2 to 5 seconds I was getting. Of course, it didnt playback perfectly, but it was quite reasonable, with loss of frames here and there, but most of the landscape shots were really a sight. Whenever there was action.. it would drop frames, but still, this is a HUGE irmprovement.

What made me try this codec (aside of Theydon's suggestion) was that the specs on one of the reviews were.. a simple Amd64 3200+, I thought to myself that a P4 2.8 should be in the range of that.

Now, Theydon, they have 2 packages for sale there. One that doesnt support interlacing and the one that does it. I dont know why would I use interlacing but I could see there was mention about DVB and other stuff that I thought it might come handy in the future.

So, I guess I'll be burning lamp hours on this beautiful 720p projector using the trial

Many thanks.

ELP

[Bossworld]

Haven't really got the time to read through, but i've got a P4 630 (3ghz, 2mb cache) with 2GB of ram, and a Geforce 8500GT (does hardware decoding of some HD codecs), and the one file I have to test brings the cpu use down to 5%. Doesn't work so well on the Apple quicktime trailers though because the hardware acceleration doesn't kick in