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Card Recommendations for Media PC

cavemanoc

cavemanoc

cavemanoc

Soldato
Joined
23 Mar 2005
Posts
3,975
I've finally taken the plunge and bought a beautiful new 42" Panasonic 1080p Plasma. I will be running everything through my PC. So I need a new GFX card capable of upscaling DVDs and driving the Panasonic. I'd also like a tv card that's capable of running my virgin card (dvb-c?). I'll be installing the Toshiba SD-H802A 2.4x HD-DVD ROM when it comes into stock. Ideally I'm looking to run a near silent system, and hopefully I will be able to re-use the DD Maze 4 that's on my current ATi x800 GTO2. I'm not planning to play games, but it might be nice to have the option ;)

I'd like any suggestions for the GFX card in three bands: £50ish, £100ish, £150ish. And anything else I've missed?

Cheers
 
What do you guys think of the Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT Ultimate Silent 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI

It's silent, and should have enough grunt for some basic gaming (BF2 etc...) It says it 'supports' ATi Avivo - does that mean it has the hardware onboard to decode HD/Blu-Ray? It also says it has HDMI built in, but I can't see it on the picture - I'd rather have the HDMI cable than a DVI-HDMI if possible. Is this the card for me, or is there a better one out there?
 
cavemanoc said:
What do you guys think of the Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT Ultimate Silent 256MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI

It's silent, and should have enough grunt for some basic gaming (BF2 etc...) It says it 'supports' ATi Avivo - does that mean it has the hardware onboard to decode HD/Blu-Ray? It also says it has HDMI built in, but I can't see it on the picture - I'd rather have the HDMI cable than a DVI-HDMI if possible. Is this the card for me, or is there a better one out there?
Click to expand...
if your running vista the hd hardware decoder would work;...

it comes with a dvi to hdmi adapter then u plug your hdmi cable in that, it'll carry sound and picture.
 
Unless you want to play games on it, you won't need anything more than a passive X2400Pro. :)

IMO that is the card to get right now for a HTPC.
 
I've had good results running an 8500GT in mine, but I believe the 2400 and 2600 have slightly better media capabilities.
 
To be fair, youll have far less hassle getting a C2D and overclocking it slightly to play HD material, than trying to get it all working on a GPU. Ive been down that route and its very hit and miss as to what gets accellerated and what doesnt. h264/x264 in an MKV container, forget it. BluRay/HDDVD with PowerDVD 7.3 and Vista, yes.

Depends what material you want to accellerate but my 2400PRO is sitting in its box currently as I dont have Vista yet and I couldnt get it working with accelleration in XP.
 
Hello,

I’ve got a 46” 1080p LCD TV, I was worried about BlueRay / HD playback so I built a cheap PC as a Media Centre…However, I tried my main PC (8800 GTS no video acceleration playback) on the 46” and loved playing games on the massive screen! I have not moved the main PC back.

I watched the BlueRay of Die Hard 4 this weekend, think the file is 41GB. The film played perfectly on my C2D @2.5, I’d therefore (CPU willing) get the best gaming graphics card you can as any recent C2D will decode the films for you…and you will love playing games on a large screen.

The below all play brilliantly.

h264/x264, MKV (Windows media player)

BluRay/HDDVD with PowerDVD 7.3
 
Thanks for the hints/advice. I'm coming at it from a slighly different angle - my processor is more than capable of coping with the decoding of HD material - just thought it would be nice to have a purpose built bit of kit (GFX card) rather than relying on my Opti. I am more interested in the upscaling side of the house - want to be able to watch my old DVDs in all their techno-enhanced glory on the new screen - as well as any other SD material (cable etc...). I understood that cards such as the HD2400 and 2600 could do this and improve the image quality greatly? That's what I'm really after - and the dvb-c card that seems to be impossible to get in this country - not sure why the providers are so retentive about where you 'stick their cards' - though I have a few suggestions ;)

(I will have to give the h264/x264, MKV encoded stuff a whirl to make sure though - does anyone have any links to legal clips that use it?)
 
cavemanoc said:
Thanks for the hints/advice. I'm coming at it from a slighly different angle - my processor is more than capable of coping with the decoding of HD material - just thought it would be nice to have a purpose built bit of kit (GFX card) rather than relying on my Opti. I am more interested in the upscaling side of the house - want to be able to watch my old DVDs in all their techno-enhanced glory on the new screen - as well as any other SD material (cable etc...). I understood that cards such as the HD2400 and 2600 could do this and improve the image quality greatly? That's what I'm really after - and the dvb-c card that seems to be impossible to get in this country - not sure why the providers are so retentive about where you 'stick their cards' - though I have a few suggestions ;)

(I will have to give the h264/x264, MKV encoded stuff a whirl to make sure though - does anyone have any links to legal clips that use it?)
Click to expand...
yes the 2x00 series does upscale dvds/media and improve the image quality
 
gareth170 said:
yes the 2x00 series does upscale dvds/media and improve the image quality
Click to expand...

MPEG2 I would assume, but not mpeg4 (divx/xvid)? Dont really understand how this would work as whatever codec/media player you use would need to be coded to pass the video onto the gfx card for upscaling before output. Unless I have it completely wrong :D Just like for DXVA (UVD2) you can only use PowerDVD as its the only software licensed with the correct code for Total Bit Offload.

Also, codecs like FFDSHOW do a fantastic job at upscaling/sharpening or just about any filter you could imagine.
 
As stated earlier I have a 8800 GTS 640 and it does not have pureview (or whatever it is). However, via PowerDVD 7.3 Ultra DVD’s are upscaled brilliantly, there is no comparison between a standard DVD player and the PC, so I assume the DVD is upscaled via software using the CPU?

I was tempted to swap my 8800 GTS for a 8800 GT based purely on the pureview, now I know my PC can handle HD I don’t think I’ll bother…

I know I’m deviating from the OP but I’m just trying to stress that any Graphics card will make DVD’s look a great deal better.
 
ssmacc said:
As stated earlier I have a 8800 GTS 640 and it does not have pureview (or whatever it is). However, via PowerDVD 7.3 Ultra DVD’s are upscaled brilliantly, there is no comparison between a standard DVD player and the PC, so I assume the DVD is upscaled via software using the CPU?

I was tempted to swap my 8800 GTS for a 8800 GT based purely on the pureview, now I know my PC can handle HD I don’t think I’ll bother…

I know I’m deviating from the OP but I’m just trying to stress that any Graphics card will make DVD’s look a great deal better.
Click to expand...

That's col - I didn't realise that there were software options available to do the upscaling - I will probably still get a new gfx card - as it also gives me the chance to change my loop out and get rid of the Pelts ;) Must say I'm leaning more towards the 2600 simply as it would be nice to have the option to do some gaming - might wait to see how the little HD3800 performs/costs and then make my decision - the HD DVD player I'm waiting for still has no ETA so I guess I've got time :(
 
The latest nVidia XP drivers support acceleration for 8500/8600. Presumably they also support the 8800GT which has purevideoHDv2 (the 8800GTX/GTS don't).

If you want something quiet there is a passive 8600GTS
 
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