New to HTPC building: Intel with HT, A64 or Dual core?

[trueimage]

Basically I am new to this but not new to PC building or technology.

I have been using my modded xbox with xbmc to play my dvds and any xvid or other videos and scale them up to 720p, which is the native res of my DLP. I am using the MS HD adapter with component into the tv.

I very rarely play games now, and if I do, it will be eventually on a next gen system.

So basically I want to be able to play 720p xvid files with ac3 5.1, play 720p or bigger .ts files, and get better performance when scaling dvds. (plus the xbox dvd-rom and fan are dying i think). I will most likely be upgrading my TV to a new samsung 1080p DLP when the price is right, hopefull this calendar year or early next. so, I want a system that will be able to handle 1080i and p, and holefully be able to pop in a blue-ray or hd-dvd reader and play those too.

What is the most important component of an htpc for power... cpu or vid card?

And with the setup of an MS OS, ffdshow, zp, etc would dual core or single core, 32-bit or 64-bit be useful?

A used Pentium D 805 is about 100 USD (dual core 2.66ghz) For about that price I'm looking at an A64 3000+ or 3200+ or Pentium 4 3.0ghz or so?

Any help on the cpu would be great so I can pick one and move to selecting motherboard, ram and video.

 

[Trevante]

As far as I know, for playing hi-def content, having enough CPU power and RAM is more important. I don't think the video card makes a huge difference, as long as it can support the resolutions you want. And are you actually going to be playing files encoded in 720p resolution (1280x720) or are you just displaying your screen at 720p resolution?

As far as what kind of processor for a HTPC, I'm not sure what kind, but if you're gonna be running XP MCE, I don't think it supports 64 bit and I'm not sure if it supports dual core either.

 

[trueimage]

I'm talking about upscaling dvds to 720p and eventually 1080p, playing 720p xvids and 720p and 1080i .ts files.

I don't know if I will do XP MCE, I've seen some people just use XP Pro, I haven't thought that far ahead yet. I'm not going to be using MCE's menu system or whatever I don't think.

So for CPU I guess I am looking at a P4 with HT, I've read a lot about how ffdshow works better/faster/etc on a P4 vs AMD.

 

[ShellGuy]

p4s run very hot and there ain't much space in a sff/htpc box so keep that in mind. If you want something small and cool you may look in to a P-m machine.


will G

 

[trueimage]

what sort of cpu power do i need for upscaling and playing hd vids

 

[mikeford]

Big catch is that it looks still like NOTHING you build yourself will be getting HDCP authorization, which means no HD in a a digitial format.

Take a look on avsforum.com at the HTPC section, or http://www.htpcnews.com/

I don't thnk a lot of power is needed in the cpu, but I just play at HTPC with an All in Wonder card.

HTPC seems like a LOT of fuss for modest results right now, but its getting better.

 

[trueimage]

The dvd upscaling results with ffdshow look pretty great to me. And I was hoping to do some firewire recording off my Motorola cable box. Also, I have a lot of tv shows on dvd and I'd like to put those into xvid format and throw them all on an htpc. Any links for shoing minimum cpu for a certain resolution, or what vid card, i want to play upscaled dvds with lots of processing, with no skipping or dropped frames.

 

[mikeford]

The people that do HTPC all live at the two places I listed.

Its not a CPU thing, its a video card thing, and software and setup thing.

Its fussy enough to get working that NOBODY can tell you what to do, you have to read and then ask for help depending on what parts of what you read you mess up.