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HTPC video card

T

twolves06

Member
Of course we all know htpc's don't require top of the line cards especially if you're a non gamer. Well I'm building a new system (opteron 146, epox 9npa+ultra, 2x512 corsair xms so far) and can not decide on a card. I use ffdshow which is very cpu intensive but also produces flawless video. Therefore I'm wondering if I should just get a cheap card or go for hardware acceleration. Opnions?
 
Originally posted by: twolves06
Of course we all know htpc's don't require top of the line cards especially if you're a non gamer. Well I'm building a new system (opteron 146, epox 9npa+ultra, 2x512 corsair xms so far) and can not decide on a card. I use ffdshow which is very cpu intensive but also produces flawless video. Therefore I'm wondering if I should just get a cheap card or go for hardware acceleration. Opnions?
Click to expand...


HTPCnews, check it out, excellent resource on the subject.
 
both would be great cards at your resolution. if 1080p is in your future, I would go with the x1600.
 
The best video performance as of Catalyst 5.13 (that is free btw) vs. inferior Pure Video that you need to pay for. X1600 is the better card for an HTPC.
 
Thanks for the replies. I was already leaning towards the x1600 due to the hardware acceleration but I just read that ATI is coming out with some sort of new driver package which is supposed to blow purevideo out of the water. Am I making this up???
 
The new drivers from NVIDIA are supposed to enable h.264 on the 6xxx series.

Purevideo tops AVIVO at this point in terms for video playback quality.

Also to run H.264 on ATI cards you do need to pay IT'S NOT FREE. From what I have read the X1600 has trouble even with 720P

The NVIDIA drivers provide a lot of options for custom resolutions and TV output.
 
You might be able to get a passively cooled 6600GT and any effects you will achieve through ffdshow will trump whatever NVIDIA or ATi comes up with. But if you use those and ffdshow, you might be in a better boat. I have Purevideo, WinDVD and Power Dvd codecs for mpeg2, and the up-conversion through ffdshow is incredible.
I also use a 6600GT. Nvidia is supposed to introduce h.264 acceleration in the near future as well, if I am not mistaken.
Happy viewing.
 
I use ffdshow which is very cpu intensive but also produces flawless video. Therefore I'm wondering if I should just get a cheap card or go for hardware acceleration. Opnions?
Click to expand...

Thats a good question. I've not seen a comprehensive review done of ffdshow vs purevideo or AVIVO.

For DVD's, AVIVO took the upper hand by a large margin over Purevideo and all but the highest end standalone products...very impressive.

For HD MPEG2 and other formats that would require hardware acceleration like WMV HD, H264 and other MPEG4 based compression, I've not seen any kind of comprehensive, side by side comparison. I know its possible to achieve steller results with most modern cards and a somewhat powerful CPU with the exception of HD H264.

I know I've had issues with h264 harware acceleration with my x1800 cards using the cyberlink decoders, so they are certainly not ready for primetime at this point. They've been very good with their decoders to this point, so I expect that to improve. It will be definately interesting to see how Nvidia's purevideo performance/solution will be, it does sound to be impressive, especially on lower end cards, which would be of interest to the HTPC enthusiast.

For hardware, the 10 bit color of ATI's new cards are something you can not take full advantage of at this point, but the Xilleon TV encoder for analog TV-out is the same they use on the STB's, so if TV out is important, that could be something to consider.

Same with 2xDual Link DVI on ATI's top cards, if you need it, its unmatched, if you don't...its unnecissary, but perhaps more flexible going forward. The top Nvidia cards run cooler/quieter than the top ATI cards out of the box..also a consideration.
 
My FFDSHOW vs. PureVideo assessment. Haven't tried latest Avivo yet. Even with my setup, there's no need for GPU Acceleration, when you can have much better image quality via the CPU (at least for DVD's). When Blue Ray and HD-DVD finally come, H.264 acceleration in GPU may change things tho...
 
Originally posted by: ST
My FFDSHOW vs. PureVideo assessment. Haven't tried latest Avivo yet. Even with my setup, there's no need for GPU Acceleration, when you can have much better image quality via the CPU (at least for DVD's). When Blue Ray and HD-DVD finally come, H.264 acceleration in GPU may change things tho...
Click to expand...

So, your source materials for those screenies is DVD? You are using WMP10 and Nvidia Decoders in XP...do you have a screenshot of the purevideo panel decoding the DVD's? The PQ for Purevideo looks very poor by comparison, but a few static screenies for a few selected scenes is tough to get the whole picture. I'd like to see how ffdshow does in HQV Video Benchmark.
 
How did you get the nvidia to look that poor? It looks sharp when I use my 7800GT and nstantmedia as my DVD player. Yours looks totally blurry.

Still, I think x1600 is better for the OP's setup.
 
Originally posted by: rbV5
Originally posted by: ST
My FFDSHOW vs. PureVideo assessment. Haven't tried latest Avivo yet. Even with my setup, there's no need for GPU Acceleration, when you can have much better image quality via the CPU (at least for DVD's). When Blue Ray and HD-DVD finally come, H.264 acceleration in GPU may change things tho...
Click to expand...

So, your source materials for those screenies is DVD? You are using WMP10 and Nvidia Decoders in XP...do you have a screenshot of the purevideo panel decoding the DVD's? The PQ for Purevideo looks very poor by comparison, but a few static screenies for a few selected scenes is tough to get the whole picture. I'd like to see how ffdshow does in HQV Video Benchmark.
Click to expand...

Yes source material is 480i DVDs upscaled to 1920x1080, FFDSHOW with ZoomPlayerPro and WMP10 w/ NVidia Decoder, default settings. Try FFDSHOW for yourself, you'll become a believer also 😉

P.S. I tried to acquire the HQV benchmarks but no luck on a free one 🙁

 
Originally posted by: Hikari
How did you get the nvidia to look that poor? It looks sharp when I use my 7800GT and nstantmedia as my DVD player. Yours looks totally blurry.

Still, I think x1600 is better for the OP's setup.
Click to expand...

all settings are default in PV panel. ffdshow post processing incurs lanczos algorithm scaling AND sharpening, both something PV does not do. you should try it for yourself, you will be amazed at what you're missing.
 
Originally posted by: ST
Originally posted by: rbV5
Originally posted by: ST
My FFDSHOW vs. PureVideo assessment. Haven't tried latest Avivo yet. Even with my setup, there's no need for GPU Acceleration, when you can have much better image quality via the CPU (at least for DVD's). When Blue Ray and HD-DVD finally come, H.264 acceleration in GPU may change things tho...
Click to expand...

So, your source materials for those screenies is DVD? You are using WMP10 and Nvidia Decoders in XP...do you have a screenshot of the purevideo panel decoding the DVD's? The PQ for Purevideo looks very poor by comparison, but a few static screenies for a few selected scenes is tough to get the whole picture. I'd like to see how ffdshow does in HQV Video Benchmark.
Click to expand...

Yes source material is 480i DVDs upscaled to 1920x1080, FFDSHOW with ZoomPlayerPro and WMP10 w/ NVidia Decoder, default settings. Try FFDSHOW for yourself, you'll become a believer also 😉

P.S. I tried to acquire the HQV benchmarks but no luck on a free one 🙁
Click to expand...

I use ffdshow already, and have for some time, for mainly MPEG4 decoding and post-processing.

 
Originally posted by: ElFenix
the 1600 does acceleration. it'll keep the chop down on h.264 content
Click to expand...

But the 6600GT can do 1080p with dedicated PureVideo proc while the X1600 is limited to 720p due to shader speed, am I wrong?
 
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