Guide for HTPC

Grimley said:
Answers yes, but you may have to overclock. From my own personal experience, my old E6600 struggled with blu-ray & no hardware acceleration.

minimum GPU to go for is this

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...3 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail

you could get away with an older ATi card 2*** or 3***, but those only do 2 channel PCM through its HDMI adaptor. 4*** cards do up to 7.1.
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Blu-ray discs & all 1080p MKV/WMV format files play absolutely fine here on an E2180 through an old nvidia quaddro nvs290. CPU usage sits at around 20% at most! This obviously provides no hardware acceleration. There really is no need for all of these huge specifications which seem to get thrown around.
 
Jez said:
Blu-ray discs & all 1080p MKV/WMV format files play absolutely fine here on an E2180 through an old nvidia quaddro nvs290. CPU usage sits at around 20% at most! This obviously provides no hardware acceleration. There really is no need for all of these huge specifications which seem to get thrown around.
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+1

I've seen these huge specs for 1080p branded everywhere and in reality they are going overboard.

As i have shown my onboard ATi X1200 and E2140 (overclocked to 2.6Ghz but still only minimum spec) play 1080p .mkv's perfectly and this includes at 24Hz, 50Hz and 60Hz.

As GazD has his PS3 for BluRay playback, he only wants to play .mkv's on his HTPC and a E6300 will be more than capable of that. As no PC hardware can decode TrueDTS HD Audio (I know Asus think they can but in reality it cant do 24Hz and is very buggy) its pointless getting a powerful spec pc to run files that dont need it AND even when that is possible you still will not need a powerful CPU as a dedicated hardware soundcard will be taking care of the audio meaning less stress on the cpu.

If you are going to get a new GPU anyway then i would recommend this: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showp...B DDR2 TV-Out/DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail
Its Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 3450 Silence 512MB DDR2 TV-Out/DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express).
Why? Because its only £32, runs passive, Built-in HDMI and 5.1 surround audio and can cope with 1080p HD
 
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Just as a test mate, i have just fitted a bd drive to a very mediocre system i have spare here, its a 1.8Ghz Core2Duo, with 1GB ram (single stick), 666mhz bus (i think), Geforce 7300 PCIE gfx card (about £15 worth!).

BD and 1080 MKV both play absolutely smoothly, with the cpu sitting at around 25% rising to 45% in heavy scenes. This is with the latest powerdvd and core AVC codec.

Virtually anything half modern should cope.
 
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Thats good news then, my HTPC should cost less that originally thought, majority of cash will be spent on case and mobo. I will use the said GPU, then put a higher spec one in when games start appearing that I want to play, same can also be done with the CPU I guess.

Thanks for the help guys.
 
hi photoshop,

fantastic guide!

I haven't looked at mediaportal since 2006ish, it wasn't very stable then at all. My how the project has grown! You inspired me to try the latest version, and it rocks! Especially the TV series plugin, it so much easier to navigate than MCE.

Anyway, I have a favour to ask! I'm following your guide about and it talks about adding the Tv logo's in the top right of the screen (NBC, Divx etc etc) but I cant find the TVlogos folder in the monochrome 2.4 folder.

Where did you get yours?
 
Oxy said:
hi photoshop,

fantastic guide!

I haven't looked at mediaportal since 2006ish, it wasn't very stable then at all. My how the project has grown! You inspired me to try the latest version, and it rocks! Especially the TV series plugin, it so much easier to navigate than MCE.

Anyway, I have a favour to ask! I'm following your guide about and it talks about adding the Tv logo's in the top right of the screen (NBC, Divx etc etc) but I cant find the TVlogos folder in the monochrome 2.4 folder.

Where did you get yours?
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Thats a good point. Indeed there is no logos folder in 2.4. You'll have to grab an earlier version and take the TV logos from that. Im still using version 2.1 i think
 
this is a great thread! i saw it on the avforums too, it's down to you that i managed to get mediaportal to launch via the green button on the mce remote, and got the the my tv series plugin up and running too - so thanks for that! :D finally replaced my panasonic 28" crt with a panasonic 42" px80 plasma, being delivered on tuesday next week! can't wait!
 
atomiser said:
this is a great thread! i saw it on the avforums too, it's down to you that i managed to get mediaportal to launch via the green button on the mce remote, and got the the my tv series plugin up and running too - so thanks for that! :D finally replaced my panasonic 28" crt with a panasonic 42" px80 plasma, being delivered on tuesday next week! can't wait!
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Appreciate that, thanks. Enjoy it mate :)
 
does this (moving pictures) work with .iso files?

edit: in answer to my own question, it doesn't look like it...you can add the daemon tools virtual drive as a removable source, mount the .iso, let it do it's thing by pulling down the stuff from the imdb, and whilst the .iso is still mounted it will play it... but if you then unmount the .iso this (moving pictures) wont re-mount it... which makes sense since your not referencing the .iso, your referencing the virtual drive. a shame, that!

edit: to be fair, whilst this (moving pictures) does look very good, the built-in imdb/filmstrip feature is pretty good. granted, it doesn't give you a synopsis of the film or anything (unless i have missed this) but the coverart in the filmstrip view does still look pretty swish.
 
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atomiser said:
does this (moving pictures) work with .iso files?

edit: in answer to my own question, it doesn't look like it...you can add the daemon tools virtual drive as a removable source, mount the .iso, let it do it's thing by pulling down the stuff from the imdb, and whilst the .iso is still mounted it will play it... but if you then unmount the .iso this (moving pictures) wont re-mount it... which makes sense since your not referencing the .iso, your referencing the virtual drive. a shame, that!

edit: to be fair, whilst this (moving pictures) does look very good, the built-in imdb/filmstrip feature is pretty good. granted, it doesn't give you a synopsis of the film or anything (unless i have missed this) but the coverart in the filmstrip view does still look pretty swish.
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I think the latest one can do it.
 
These few bits arrived the other day, just waiting for the case to arrive then can build my 2TB HTPC. Got all the software/apps/customization already sorted on my laptop so hoping it is plain sailing getting everything working :D
IMAG0021Medium.jpg
 
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