Media Center replacement?

[goobee]

That is incorrect. The HP Z555 in my bedroom HTPC has a 6600GT. The HTPC in my living room has a GT510. The HTPC in my HT room used to run an 8600GTS/256. I have never seen stuttering from any box while watching TV at either 720p or 1080i.

Your stutter problem was possibly due to your video drivers. Or it could have been lousy weather or bad antenna placement/orientation. But it wasn't the card.

Not using OTA, DirecTV HD.

 

[rudeguy]

That is incorrect. The HP Z555 in my bedroom HTPC has a 6600GT. The HTPC in my living room has a GT510. The HTPC in my HT room used to run an 8600GTS/256. I have never seen stuttering from any box while watching TV at either 720p or 1080i.

Your stutter problem was possibly due to your video drivers. Or it could have been lousy weather or bad antenna placement/orientation. But it wasn't the card.

RAM has been a factor for me... never a GPU.

 

[Slugbait]

Not using OTA, DirecTV HD.

Now it's starting to make sense. This means you have some sort of CableCARD tuner.

My guess is that you suffered 29/59, which is primarily exposed with the stuttering you saw with the old Radeon. Truth be told, you're still suffering 29/59, you just don't see it as easily with the much more powerful card. Another option would have been to go with a low-end GT210 or GT430 (I made a typo in my previous post...I don't have a GT510, it's a GT210)...reports are that nVidia doesn't stutter because of 29/59.

It's been awhile now, and AMD still hasn't fixed their drivers, AFAIK. They probably expect Ceton or whoever to fix it on their side. Typical.

In other words, if you plugged your old video card back in and went OTA, you would see no stuttering...and OTA is far less compressed than DirecTV.

So yeah...it was your drivers.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Now it's starting to make sense. This means you have some sort of CableCARD tuner.

My guess is that you suffered 29/59, which is primarily exposed with the stuttering you saw with the old Radeon. Truth be told, you're still suffering 29/59, you just don't see it as easily with the much more powerful card. Another option would have been to go with a low-end GT210 or GT430 (I made a typo in my previous post...I don't have a GT510, it's a GT210)...reports are that nVidia doesn't stutter because of 29/59.

It's been awhile now, and AMD still hasn't fixed their drivers, AFAIK. They probably expect Ceton or whoever to fix it on their side. Typical.

In other words, if you plugged your old video card back in and went OTA, you would see no stuttering...and OTA is far less compressed than DirecTV.

So yeah...it was your drivers.

He's not using a cc tuner because DirecTV doesn't allow for that. He is either using the FireWire hack (unlikely unless he has an older model D* box) or a Hauppauge Colossus, which doesn't truly allow for watching live TV.

 

[goobee]

Indeed via Colossus. I can watch 1080i movies off the hard drive no problem but when I watch TV, it gets flaky. Putting the HD 6570 in totally killed my low wattage goal.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

The Colossus records video using H.264. Whatever video card you were using previously probably didn't have proper hardware acceleration for H.264, hence your flakiness problem. Most cc tuners and OTA tuners record a stream in their native MPEG2 or MPEG4 which is much easier for playback. iow, it's not really a Media Center issue but a hardware issue in your case.

 

[pauldun170]

question - what is the advantage of running both 7MC and XBMC ? Im curious on that one. Also what is the app that switches back and forth between everything?

7MC is very good with tuners.
XBMC is fantastic with...everything else but tuners.

I'm at work right now and its been awhile since I set up but its fairly seamless switching back and forth.

I don't know I'd recommend HULU to anyone at this point.

 

[pauldun170]

Guessing here, but I think he means to use 7MC as a TV and XBMC to watch pre-recorded videos.

As for an app that switches back & forth ... well we have Alt+Tab don't we ?

-chronodekar

The app he's talking about installs the links in the XBMC\7MC menus and allows for proper switching between the apps.

 

[Sheep]

You need a decent video card to watch high def TV. I had stuttering until I put in a HD 6570.

Not true. I was running my HTPC with a Radeon 3450 for the longest time without issue (at least issues related to the graphics card).

 

[marciap]

Nice thread necro, marciap.

If the guide doesn't download, the culprit is often the clock set to the wrong time. This seems especially possible since you say you tried fresh installs of Win7 and Vista.

Thanks, have tried checking internet clock set. I am suspicious my ISP may be at fault but don't know how, so can't call them to complain. I had this working for 3 years! NOW nothing I do fixes the problem. OK so far. upgrade to win7.... fail to download guide. downgrade back to Vista same. delete epg files per other forums. restart. no good. Turn off firewalls. no help.

OK, just for a test, bought usb tuner for one of our laptops. Same problem. Now I will take laptop to local internet cafe and see if it works there, just to see if my ISP is the problem.

So there is no good WMC replacement? Really? so sad. What do I have to do next --- go to satellite? Satellite would just give me 80 channels of stuff I don't want. Guess I am just an outlier

 

[wirednuts]

7MC + XBMC [script navi-x !!] + HULU [plus?] + NETFLIX = da bomb.

there's an app that switches back to 7MC when you quite hulu desktop or xbmc.

what's the point of having a WDTV live when a cheap refurb asus for $200-350 exists??

heck my $330 asus refurb core2Q8300 will probably still have mojo 5 years from now when 4K video is out. you can score the core2q8300 or I5 (dual core) for that much on the best buy auctions (cowboom, private auction).

throw in a small SSD for boot and antec micro fusion case and booya - good to go for 4-5 years.

until you factor in the power draw. in 4-5 years you will be able to get chips that are faster and much more efficient, which will lower your power bills.

its just the nature of the industry. its a nice idea to buy the best you can now and use it for a long time, but in reality its actually better to 'lease' your parts. buy good midgrade stuff now, and in two years just sell it and buy more current midgrade stuff. just dont do like i do and forget to sell your 'old' parts. youll be left with a pile of old gear that really isnt worth anything, and maybe it still does do the things you want but youll have to spend an extra $10 a month just to run it... so those parts just get left laying around.