Advice for Half-Height HD/HDCP Card for HTPC

[gte619n]

Hey guys,

I've searched through the forums and have a question. I currently have an HTPC in a 2U case running Boxee. I'm using the onboard graphics card to do HD over VGA to my TV. While it works and it's ~ok, I'm wondering if I'm missing something.

Will adding a dedicated card give me better quality? I assume it will give me much more tweaks that I can use to tune my picture, but is there a big difference? (FWIW, I do notice the machine choking on 1080p content) Will sound output work? Will the card offload all video processing off my processor?

Can someone recommend a good half-height video card that will output HD Tv/Bluray over HDMI to my television? I'd also like to be able to watch HDCP content as well as output sound.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Termie]

There are plenty of cards that would improve your system. The AMD HD5450 is a good choice at $40 (or $25 after rebate): http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150469.

It will give you picture and sound over HDMI, and will do a reasonably good job with bluray. Should also help unload the processor for 1080p content.

The general consensus is that the 5570/5670 are slightly more capable due to their greater processing power, but they are significantly more expensive ($70-$80), so the difference may not be worth it to you.

This article sums up the findings: http://www.anandtech.com/show/3601/the-final-word-on-the-best-radeon-htpc-card

 

[gte619n]

Perfect! That's for the link to guide as well. I'm not really too familiar with any sort of post processing things, so it sounds like the 5450 will be great.

Thanks again!