HTPC Setup Question...

[DigitalCancer]

So, I bought a new small setup and was curious if it was enough power...I know you don't need a ton of good processor so..setup is as follows currently.

AMD Sempron 140
Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H (yes, this can and does unlock my sempron 140 to an Athlon II 4400)
x2 1GB DDR2
400w PSU
x2 160GB SATA
DVDRW
Int. HD4200
54G WiFi on 12MB cable (transfers on network around 1.8MB avg which seems to slow, but I think it's about right)

My issue...I have this hooked into a 46" Samsung via HDMI on the INTEGRATED HD4200 on the board..works nicely but, I'm running it at 1280x720 due to streaming content being a little 'jittery' on 1080p res...but that could be the effects of the crappy 54g wireless I'm running w/ 3 bars, lol.
Now...I've moved some content to the 2nd 160GB drive and the video seems to be jittery when it's in full-screen.
The Sempron should be enough to run it shouldn't the content right? Just some dvd rips, at 720p??

EDIT: it's running Vista Ult. w/ all current updates as well and my MEDIA Center WILL NOT UPDATE! ^_^

 

[txlonghorn]

I have a MA78GM-US2H (integrated HD3200) with AMD e5050 setup for my HTPC running Vista Ultimate. I don't use MC. I use XBMC instead. For ripped DVD playback, I had some problems with "tearing" using older Catalyst driver and default XBMC settings. Right now, I run the latest XBMC and Catalyst. With the correct settings, I have no problem playback ripped DVD, even when the DVD iso is on another server being streamed over 54G WiFi.

I think your hardware is enough to playback DVD smoothly. You just have to play with the driver and software settings. I remember it was a PITA. I spent almost a week fiddling with settings until I got it right.

 

[DigitalCancer]

I have a MA78GM-US2H (integrated HD3200) with AMD e5050 setup for my HTPC running Vista Ultimate. I don't use MC. I use XBMC instead. For ripped DVD playback, I had some problems with "tearing" using older Catalyst driver and default XBMC settings. Right now, I run the latest XBMC and Catalyst. With the correct settings, I have no problem playback ripped DVD, even when the DVD iso is on another server being streamed over 54G WiFi.

I think your hardware is enough to playback DVD smoothly. You just have to play with the driver and software settings. I remember it was a PITA. I spent almost a week fiddling with settings until I got it right.

I appreciate the input...I assumed this system would run nicely for the little that I'm running on it. I mainly use Media Player Classic (Satsuki codecs) to play the files and PowerDVD for the ISO's. I would like to use Media Center, but...it doesn't work right and doesn't have the file support that I need, haha.

 

[Chapbass]

I appreciate the input...I assumed this system would run nicely for the little that I'm running on it. I mainly use Media Player Classic (Satsuki codecs) to play the files and PowerDVD for the ISO's. I would like to use Media Center, but...it doesn't work right and doesn't have the file support that I need, haha.

Why not try XBMC? What files are you looking to support? Also, does this MB have room for a pci-e card (sorry, I'm awfully lazy right now, its late). If so, how about the new ATI 5450 I believe it is. Something like 50 bucks and you get gpu offloading of HD codecs, TrueHD/DTSMA sound over hdmi, etc. Might not be a bad investment.

 

[DigitalCancer]

Why not try XBMC? What files are you looking to support? Also, does this MB have room for a pci-e card (sorry, I'm awfully lazy right now, its late). If so, how about the new ATI 5450 I believe it is. Something like 50 bucks and you get gpu offloading of HD codecs, TrueHD/DTSMA sound over hdmi, etc. Might not be a bad investment.

I was debating a separate card, it does have pcie. This is a dedicated living room pc, the only games it see's are SNES/N64 emu's, lol. I assumed the 4200 would handle this and even 1080p on a 46" just fine, but...I might be wrong, I dunno. Think it could be the vid card causing this? I can easily turn the processor into an X2 4400 if needed which is nice but it goes from 45w to a 65w processor then.

 

[Chapbass]

I was debating a separate card, it does have pcie. This is a dedicated living room pc, the only games it see's are SNES/N64 emu's, lol. I assumed the 4200 would handle this and even 1080p on a 46" just fine, but...I might be wrong, I dunno. Think it could be the vid card causing this? I can easily turn the processor into an X2 4400 if needed which is nice but it goes from 45w to a 65w processor then.

Being able to offload the video processing would be an excellent move, IMO. the card isnt expensive, is passively cooled, wouldn't put stress on the processor, and youd get the HD codecs for video through HDMI if you want.

I'll see if I can find those graphs of video cards offloading decoding vs not.

EDIT: Heres one: It's a little old, but the theory still is the same, and they used some faster processors than the one youre using (and a slower one). Worth a look. Any of the modern video cards can do even more than this (like audio, as mentioned). The 8800 series, btw, doesn't support GPU offloading, which is why the CPU utilization is so much higher.

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=3047


edit2: Wait, you're just playing back standard dvd content? I would think that your proc should be enough for that, but don't look to go to actualy HD. Honestly, I would still grab a video card for expandability and just to be safe reasons, but thats just me.

 

[kalrith]

Well, the problem could be the video card, the cpu, or software-related. I have a BE-2300 running at ~2.5 GHz with a 9500GT, and it plays everything I throw at it flawlessly. One of the hardest things for these setups is 1080i, and OTA 1080i is one of the most frequent things I play.

I would think that playing a 720p DVD rip in 720p would be really easy, and I see no reason that your setup can't do that. I have heard of the HD3200 integrated video cards requiring an AM2+ or AM3 processor for deinterlacing, but since you're not doing that, I'm not sure why it's not working.

BTW, if you shop around, you can get a good HTPC video card for cheap. I paid something like $17 shipped after rebate for a silent 4550 that I just haven't gotten around to installing yet.

You should open task manager before playing a DVD rip and see what the cpu usage is at. If it's close to 100%, then try to overclock the cpu and see if it's still there. I use CrystalCPUID on mine to undervolt it and underclock it to 1.2 GHz at idle and increase the voltage and overclock it to ~2.5 GHz once the cpu usage increases. It uses 45-50W at idle.

Also, I know it might put more strain on the system, but you'll almost always get the best picture from a PC by using the native resolution in dot-for-dot mode (usually called PC mode). i.e. A 720p DVD rip will look better if the computer is set to 1920x1080 resolution instead of 1280x720 resolution.

 

[alyarb]

the integrated radeon 4200 on your 785G board is just as capable as the Radeon 5450 of offloading video decoding from the CPU. It isn't working for you because you aren't using a proper DXVA-supported decoder/player. You have a perfectly capable system and do not need to add any more hardware to play video. You need to get your software configured properly. If you want to do everything within windows media player, there are plenty of GUI-driven codec pack installers that will configure everything for DXVA. For GPU-accelerated flash video decoding, you need to update your flash player to version 10.1.

For standard-def or DVD, your CPU by itself has far more power than you need to play that video. If you are still experiencing tearing, then something with your video drivers or media player is configured incorrectly. If your drivers and programs are not configured properly, upgrading to a 5450, 5750, 5850 will not solve your problem.

 

[Chapbass]

No kidding, the 4200 can do video decoding? How about that. I don't follow integrated cards much (as you can tell), so thats nice to hear.