Our area recently went through the digital switch over, making it possible to receive Freeview HD. I splurged on a new LCD TV with a Freeview HD decoder built in. Happily after the switch over, the HD channels came through loud and clear.
I therefore decided to grab a USB HD tuner for my HTPC. I duly grabbed a PCTV 290e USB DVB-T2 tuner.
The system it is in is a 3 year old machine based around the GA-MA78GM-S2H motherboard with an Athlon 4850e X2 CPU. I am just using the onboard HD3200 graphics. It has 2Gb of RAM and runs Windows 7.
I got the board way back when for two reasons. One to get onboard decoding of Blu rays, and secondly to get a low power machine that could live in an enclosed cabinet. Both of these criteria were fulfilled brilliantly by the CPU/Motherboard combo.
Now, fast forwards to the arrival of the 290e. The PC is fine for reception of SD channels, but it really struggles with HD material. It seems to be just on the edge of its performance. For instance the video can run fine for a few seconds, and then it stutters badly for a couple, and then back to fine, and then ... You get the idea. Task manager reports CPU usage around 80%.
Incidentally, it records perfectly happily without dropping any frames. I can copy the recorded files onto my desktop machine (Core i7-780, 4Gb, AMD 6870) and they play back perfectly fluidly. Annoyingly, I can also use the MC-TVConverter software to losslessly convert the recordings into a transport stream file, which the HTPC plays back fine (minus the audio which is something of a problem). it's just when viewing 7mc, whether recordings or live tv, that the stuttering occurs.
I did some testing, by popping my 6870 card into the HTPC. Hey presto, smooth viewing of BBC HD et al in 7mc. However the image began to pixellate from time to time (particularly it seemed on pans). I understand that may be driver related. Nevertheless the actual frame rate is fine, and CPU usage drops to 20-30%.
I wondered for a start if the onboard GPU was actually assisting with the hardware decoding. I turned off Hardware Acceleration and, using the onboard HD3200, CPU usage went straight to 100% and the video went completely to choppy town.
I have the following results:
i7-870 + 6870 = perfect HD TV
4850e X2 + 6870 = perfectly smooth video, but some pixellation
4850e X2 + HD3200 = unwatchable stuttering.
There seems to be to be a massive difference between the UVD decoding in the HD3200 and the 6870. Is this to be expected? Is the more modern card even better at lifting the load from the CPU? I would have guessed, before testing, that one UVD hardware decoder would be much the same as another, but that does not seem to be borne out.
So it seems I have to decide between a new GPU and a new CPU. Heat IS a major factor with this build, so I can't just throw a 6870 at the problem even if money was no object.
The fastest CPU that the board supports, with the same 45W power consumption as the 4850e is the Athlon X4 610e. Ebay prices are about £50. Alternatively I could drop in a replacement for the onboard graphics chipset. I have no recent experience with the video decoding abilities of the low end of the AMD/Nvidia ranges. Would a modern, sub £50, GPU have the same h264 hardware decoding abilities as the 6870?
So there it is. Would an Athlon 610e with the HD3200 onboard video handle HDTV, or would the 4850e handle it with a discrete, low power, new GPU?
Anyone have experience solving this particular dilemma before?
(BTW - all bios/chipset/GPU drivers are up to date - blu rays at 1080p showed massive corruption before I flashed the onboard VIDEO bios).
Cheers muchly for any sage advice,
I therefore decided to grab a USB HD tuner for my HTPC. I duly grabbed a PCTV 290e USB DVB-T2 tuner.
The system it is in is a 3 year old machine based around the GA-MA78GM-S2H motherboard with an Athlon 4850e X2 CPU. I am just using the onboard HD3200 graphics. It has 2Gb of RAM and runs Windows 7.
I got the board way back when for two reasons. One to get onboard decoding of Blu rays, and secondly to get a low power machine that could live in an enclosed cabinet. Both of these criteria were fulfilled brilliantly by the CPU/Motherboard combo.
Now, fast forwards to the arrival of the 290e. The PC is fine for reception of SD channels, but it really struggles with HD material. It seems to be just on the edge of its performance. For instance the video can run fine for a few seconds, and then it stutters badly for a couple, and then back to fine, and then ... You get the idea. Task manager reports CPU usage around 80%.
Incidentally, it records perfectly happily without dropping any frames. I can copy the recorded files onto my desktop machine (Core i7-780, 4Gb, AMD 6870) and they play back perfectly fluidly. Annoyingly, I can also use the MC-TVConverter software to losslessly convert the recordings into a transport stream file, which the HTPC plays back fine (minus the audio which is something of a problem). it's just when viewing 7mc, whether recordings or live tv, that the stuttering occurs.
I did some testing, by popping my 6870 card into the HTPC. Hey presto, smooth viewing of BBC HD et al in 7mc. However the image began to pixellate from time to time (particularly it seemed on pans). I understand that may be driver related. Nevertheless the actual frame rate is fine, and CPU usage drops to 20-30%.
I wondered for a start if the onboard GPU was actually assisting with the hardware decoding. I turned off Hardware Acceleration and, using the onboard HD3200, CPU usage went straight to 100% and the video went completely to choppy town.
I have the following results:
i7-870 + 6870 = perfect HD TV
4850e X2 + 6870 = perfectly smooth video, but some pixellation
4850e X2 + HD3200 = unwatchable stuttering.
There seems to be to be a massive difference between the UVD decoding in the HD3200 and the 6870. Is this to be expected? Is the more modern card even better at lifting the load from the CPU? I would have guessed, before testing, that one UVD hardware decoder would be much the same as another, but that does not seem to be borne out.
So it seems I have to decide between a new GPU and a new CPU. Heat IS a major factor with this build, so I can't just throw a 6870 at the problem even if money was no object.
The fastest CPU that the board supports, with the same 45W power consumption as the 4850e is the Athlon X4 610e. Ebay prices are about £50. Alternatively I could drop in a replacement for the onboard graphics chipset. I have no recent experience with the video decoding abilities of the low end of the AMD/Nvidia ranges. Would a modern, sub £50, GPU have the same h264 hardware decoding abilities as the 6870?
So there it is. Would an Athlon 610e with the HD3200 onboard video handle HDTV, or would the 4850e handle it with a discrete, low power, new GPU?
Anyone have experience solving this particular dilemma before?
(BTW - all bios/chipset/GPU drivers are up to date - blu rays at 1080p showed massive corruption before I flashed the onboard VIDEO bios).
Cheers muchly for any sage advice,