Another HTPC question

mothball_611

mothball_611

mothball_611

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22 Jul 2009
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11
Good evening,

I have a HTPC set-up as below:

Asus E35 M1-M Pro
OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C8 1333MHz
OCZ 500w Stealth Xstream
OCZ Vertex 30GB SATA-II SSD
WD Caviar Green 2TB
Samsung Blu-Ray drive
Noctua NF-S12B FLX Ultra Quiet 120mm Flexible Cooling Fan x 2
Antec Fusion Remote HTPC case

Runs Ubuntu.

I've had it for about a year and it has a problem that I've lived with.

Whenever a picture pans on the tv the image looses definition/becomes slightly pixilated. It also doesn't play Blu-Ray style MKV files with much success. The film loads but within a few seconds the audio falls out of sync with the video and the video itself starts to stutter and jump.

I've tried different resolutions and the same files/films on my gaming rig, and they play without any issues.

So I'm beginning to think it's a processing (or lack of) problem. Any takers?

I suppose a slightly more powerful system would get over these problems.

Requirements wise, the HTPC:

-must output combined video/audio through HDMI
-must be FULL HD video/audio
-any new motherboard must fit in the case I've got so mini-ITX/etc.
-new system to run Windows 8
-plays movies/music/streams off BBC iplayer and so on. No gaming.
-budget isn't an issue
-system will be connected to the tv through a home theatre amp

I appreciate going for an i7 based system would be a bit excessive so I'm thinking i5, with this motherboard:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-530-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=2071

This processor:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-360-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1275

And this cooler:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-027-SY&groupid=701&catid=2330&subcat=2350


Any ideas/tips would be appreciated.
 
I run a celeron g540
ati 5450
asus dg soundcard

my htpc plays at 1080p perfectly to my tv and sound to my sony surround sound amp is perfect
 
 
My almost identical setup consisting of the Asus E35-M1 Deluxe has no problems with 1080p mkv's or full Blu Ray rips. It's does feel underpowered when browsing xbmc with lots of fan art themes etc but in terms of playback it's perfectly fine. Presumably your motherboard and vga drivers are all upto date. I run xbmc as the front-end with Windows 8.
 
I'd imagine it will be the AMD linux drivers. have you installed any or left it with the generics?
Unless you need a full OS on it have a tried OpenELEC they have some XBMC builds made for AMD APUs.
Might be worth a try.
 
For an HTPC an trinity set up is ideal as they have enough power to easily play 1080p video.
Click to expand...

Thanks Firefly. Nice build. Interesting article. Are you running this set-up? The processor gives a refresh rate of 23.977 Hz. I'm concerned this might result in a stutter. Anything other than smooth playback at 1080p and max resolution isn't really what I'm after.

Presumably your motherboard and vga drivers are all upto date
Click to expand...

They are.

My almost identical setup
Click to expand...

May I ask what's different?

A low end AMD 5450 card, or better yet a 6450 card should take the load off your HTPC's dinky little APU.
Click to expand...

Definitely something to look at. The only thing that bothers me getting a separate video card is I'm trying to keep the cables at a minimum, hence the requirement to output audio/video through HDMI.

However.....this might do the job:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-259-AS&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1985

Unless you need a full OS on it have a tried OpenELEC they have some XBMC builds made for AMD APUs.
Might be worth a try.
Click to expand...

I'll look into that.

Thanks guys. Keep them coming!
 
May I ask what's different?
Click to expand...

My setup is as follows

Asus E-35M1-I Deluxe
4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 OCZ Platinum 1600MHz RAM
64GB Crucial M4 SSD
3x2TB WD Caviar Green HDD
450W Silverstone SFX PSU
LG Blu Ray ROM
******** Vision Media Centre Case

So as you can see it's pretty much identical to your setup. :)

As I said I have found it a little sluggish when browsing and general use but for media work (music and playing video) it's worked very well for me.

Does this pixilation occur all the time regardless of video quality and format or just occasionally? I do remember seeing something like this when I was setting my system up some time ago but I put it down to the video format and quality. It was a very poor low resolution DVD rip of 13 Assassins and it was fairly noticeable during action shots but since I've not seen anything like it.

Unfortunately you'll always notice stuttering with whatever video card you put in due to 23.976fps syncing issue. Getting a more powerful card may not always help either. This article found that the 6570 actually performed worse than the 6450 with regards to frame rate syncing although they do recommend it or the NVIDIA GT430 as both very capable cards.

Sapphire 6570:

While the 6450 was only slightly off from the required 23.976 and 24 Hz settings, the Sapphire 6570 took a little more liberty. 23 Hz gave us 23.978 Hz and 24 Hz gave us 24.002 Hz, resulting in repeated frames every 500 seconds.
Click to expand...

My previous setup consisted of an Athlon II X2 240 and a 5450 and again that worked well but there was still stuttering every now and again but it wasn't any better or worse than the "dinky" 6310 in the Hudson boards.
 
Sorry for the late reply. Running Windows 7 now, and the computer is running much better. It's even playing blu-ray and blu-ray copies without stuttering. However, it's still struggling with one particular mkv file, a copy of a blu-ray. About 5 seconds into the file playback the video stutters and the audio falls completely out of sync, just as before. This file plays well on my i7 computer/laptop, so it's probably a bad copy.

Thanks for the tips/advice everyone.
 
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