"Kings of Multimedia Playback" HTPC card shootout

[thilanliyan]

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/htpc-graphics-cards.html

 

[Chapbass]

Hmmm, looks like 5570 then, unless someone else sees something that I don't. (for a dedicated HTPC, not for gaming).

 

[Lonbjerg]

Hmmm, looks like 5570 then, unless someone else sees something that I don't. (for a dedicated HTPC, not for gaming).

From the conclusion:

The midrange HTPC solutions – ATI Radeon HD 5600/5500 and GeForce GT 240 – seem to offer the right balance between features and power

 

[Outrage]

And this...

Based on the scores achieved by the evaluated graphics cards in the HQV 2.0 Blu-ray and DVD benchmarks, ATI Radeon HD 5700/5600/5500 graphics cards offer the best video processing quality in both formats.
Although Nvidia GeForce GT 240 provides top-notch DVD playback, it somewhat disappoints in Blu-ray playback and competes only against low-end or morally outdated solutions.

 

[ViRGE]

Normally I don't have a problem with XBit's articles, but that was a really awful article. The only thing they looked at for quality were HQV scores, and even those are suspect. They have the 5700 outscoring the 5600, except when you look at the subscores they're all over the place.

But the 5700 series and the 5600 series have the same UVD decoder and are capable of the same processing effects. Really they should be equal, and even in the worst case the 5700 should never be losing to the 5600 in any test, which it does. HQV is a subjective test, but usually this isn't a problem if you've had some training with it.

 

[Cookie Monster]

Its rare to see a double post from not just an elite member, but from a super moderator elite member!

Anyway, I agree with Virge. This article seems to be rushed imo, compared to say AT's reviews on HTPC related stuff. The latter does a more indepth review that really covers the pros and cons of the competing products really well.

 

[Matt84]

Normally I don't have a problem with XBit's articles, but that was a really awful article. The only thing they looked at for quality were HQV scores, and even those are suspect. They have the 5700 outscoring the 5600, except when you look at the subscores they're all over the place.

But the 5700 series and the 5600 series have the same UVD decoder and are capable of the same processing effects. Really they should be equal, and even in the worst case the 5700 should never be losing to the 5600 in any test, which it does. HQV is a subjective test, but usually this isn't a problem if you've had some training with it.

I would put this down to ATI's driver settings under Catalyst Control Center. If "Enforce Smooth Playback" is enabled (Default) post processing and deinterlacing features get enabled/disabled on the fly. The drivers have a nasty habbit of disabling features even though the card you have has more than enough grunt to run them.

For example on my 5570 with "Enforce Smooth Playback" enabled I get no post processing and no Vector Adaptive deinterlacing at 1080p. As soon as I untick that box I can turn everything on except "Mosquito Noise Reduction" and it shows my card running at about 70% utilisation and no perceived dropped frames.

My point is maybe in some cases the 5600 has some features turned off compared to the 5700 and sometimes for some strange reason the opposite happened too.

 

[ZimZum]

I would put this down to ATI's driver settings under Catalyst Control Center. If "Enforce Smooth Playback" is enabled (Default) post processing and deinterlacing features get enabled/disabled on the fly. The drivers have a nasty habbit of disabling features even though the card you have has more than enough grunt to run them.

For example on my 5570 with "Enforce Smooth Playback" enabled I get no post processing and no Vector Adaptive deinterlacing at 1080p. As soon as I untick that box I can turn everything on except "Mosquito Noise Reduction" and it shows my card running at about 70% utilisation and no perceived dropped frames.

My point is maybe in some cases the 5600 has some features turned off compared to the 5700 and sometimes for some strange reason the opposite happened too.

Good advice for CCC settings for video playback. Ripped from another forum.

I consider 7 things in ATI CCC are a must for best PQ that re-creates displayed image as close as possible to the source image, as the creators intended them to be.

IN ATI CCC
1. disable Edge-enhancement
2. disable De-noise
3. disable 'Enforce Smooth Video Playback'
4. disable automatic de-interlacing, and set the slider bar to vector adaptive, confirm vector adaptive de-interlacing using 1080i cheese slices stress test.
5. set underscan to 0%
6. drive your panel/projector at native resolution
7. match output refresh rate to input source material frame rate ( as long as panel/projector supports the refresh rate )

On Panel/projector ( ideal if panel is 1080p native resolution )
8. set overscan to 0% on panel/projector.
9. disable all forms of image processing on panel/projector, eg Edge-enhancement, sharpness, De-noise, motion flow, DNIe, etc...