minimum via mini-itx required to play divx and dvd?

dubcat · 26 Jan 2009 at 01:59

Does anyone know what the minimum via processor on mini-itx form fact is to play divx and dvd smoothly?

dubcat · 26 Jan 2009 at 17:52

Primarily standard definition - although I still don't know what the minimum required would be to do this. If I could play high def without incurring a massive power usage and cost penalty I would definitely go for that instead though.

dubcat · 27 Jan 2009 at 10:39

I was wondering if the Nehemiah M10000 would do it - it's using only about 23w under heavy load. I don't want choppy playback though hence the question.

dubcat · 27 Jan 2009 at 14:45

I figured power draw on those 780g + AMD processor will be more than the Atom. Is that right? If that is the case it sounds like Atom may be the way to go

I'll check out the 330.

Real shame about the 1.5ghz C7 not even being able to manage video

That sucks - I thought they were way more powerful than that!

Thanks for the advice,
Dub

dubcat · 27 Jan 2009 at 14:47

Hmm according to this review the Via Nano stuff is actually faster than atom:

http://www.trustedreviews.com/cpu-memory/review/2008/08/14/VIA-Nano-vs-Intel-Atom/p6

I r confused.

dubcat · 27 Jan 2009 at 14:51

Oh another thing - if you happen to know of an Atom board that has a composite video output connector (the single phone/RCA connector for video) please do let me know. This is a really important feature so I can easily connect the mobo in to my car's AV system.

dubcat · 28 Jan 2009 at 17:39

cokecan72 said:
The Nehemiah M10000 has a hardware mpeg2 decoder built in that should help with SOME dvd playback stuff. I have one of these boards and it was fine with most vid files and dvd's i chucked at it, plus you can run it fanless if you stick a Zalman blue NB Heatsink on the cpu

so it can play most divx files no problem?

dubcat · 29 Jan 2009 at 17:14

Well to give you an idea - the average movie I would want to play on this would vary from 700mb to 1.4gb in size and would be about 90mins in length.

dubcat · 30 Jan 2009 at 02:31

entireweb said:
The cheapo (50 quid) mini itx intel atom D945GCLF board is all you need for sd xvid and divx etc.

Use the freeware media portal and you have an ultra cheap HTPC.

I tried it and had no problems streaming and playing xvids. I used an ide to CF adaptor and ran with xp and media portal on a 4gb cf. All xvids where streamed from a NAS.

It was quite a nice little system. The fans a little noisy, but I removed it an glued on a 80mm.

However I dumped the system as it wasnt up to playback of HD 1080p.

Great feedback - what are you using for HD?

dubcat · 31 Jan 2009 at 20:57

Awesome info - I think I'm just going to build two systems. One lower power SD divx capable system for in car use and another more powerful HD one for in home use.

Thanks again for the info.

dubcat · 1 Feb 2009 at 22:41

Ohhh that's the fanless one right? That's intriguing. I'm figuring in a harsh environment like a car the less moving parts the better (i.e. fan).

dubcat · 6 Feb 2009 at 23:07

Mr B - once it's built can you provide some feedback on its dvd capabilities? Also could you play a divx on it and let me know how that goes mate? I'd really appreciate it.

dubcat · 7 Feb 2009 at 02:44

Do you think SD is dead in car with 7 or 9" screens?

dubcat · 7 Feb 2009 at 02:46

V|per said:
I had the via epia m1000 1ghz cpu for a small media center, and this played almost everything i threw at it, every now and then, a dvd would start to stutter, but i'm talking like 2 dvd's out of hundreds that were tried.

CPU usage would be around 90% most of the time when playing a dvd/divx file though.

If you want to run windows update on it though, do it over night, it takes aaaaaages!

Hehe - the windows update comment made me laugh

I think i'll play it safe and go for the 1.5 atom boards.. Cheers.

dubcat · 7 Feb 2009 at 20:57

entireweb said:
Oh come on, thats a ridiculous comment. I am talking about in a home cinema environment.

sorry - was being tongue in cheek - but if you read my other posts you will see that the application is for a low power consuming media machine to play divx's in my car as well as dvd's.

Sorry though mate - i was just being cheeky

No offence meant

dubcat · 8 Feb 2009 at 21:24

Yup - You are absolutely right. Much better off making a HD one because I suppose then on the odd occasion (like when visitng friends) I can take it out of the car and connect it to a TV. I just need to be careful when designing it to allow it to be powered by in car power supply as well as 240v AC.

dubcat · 13 Feb 2009 at 23:41

Arghh.. keep up the good work Mr B. Thanks for the updates.

dubcat · 21 Feb 2009 at 14:45

Definitely still interested! So - with default drivers its rubbish but with just a driver upgrade it is working smoothly? That's awesome! Let us know how the divx works out.