Advice on my new build plz :)

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › Advice on my new build plz :)

1 | 2

kiwijunglist

2981 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#157758 18-Aug-2008 16:05

I notice you are getting ATI Card. ATI has some disadvantages when it comes to onboard H264 decoding using DVB-T in NZ.

There is a bug with ATI decoding interlaced H264 DVB-T siginal (TV3,C4,TVNZ6+7,TVNZ Sports extra) using onboard decoding. You may need to use software decoding, however your processor is fast enough to do software decoding if you can't get hardware decoding. You only decode the H264 signal when you display the TV on your monitor, not when you are recording. So you would not get increased cpu useage when recording, just when viewing TV.

You should have no problems getting hardware accleration on non-interlaced H264/VC1 content with blu-ray & 720p/1080p H264 movies you download.

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

charley

183 posts

Master Geek

#158703 21-Aug-2008 15:08

I've built my new pc. This is what i went with.

ASUS P5Q Intel P45
Intel Core2Duo E8500 (3.16Ghz)
CORSAIR XMS2 DDR2-800 2GB dual-channel CL4 RAM
Sapphire Radeon HD4850 DUAL SLOT Card
Hauppauge HVR-2200
Corsair 520W HX PSU
Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler
Pioneer DVR-215BK Dual Layer 20x DVD+-RW SATA Black
Lian Li PC-K7B Black Midi Tower Hybrid Aluminium Case (2x 120mm front intakes, 1x 120mm Exhaust)
Hauppauge HVR-3000 (already had)

Overall i'm pretty happy. Everything is pretty quite. Temps are nice and low on all chips. The cpu is very fast. Alot faster than expected. The pc plays freeview fine. h/w acceleration works good with powerdvd 8 patch. Unfortunately one of the tuners on my HVR-2200 has gone kaput. The 2nd one is starting to play up too. Fortunately i have a HRV-3000 card so i can still watch the olympics. Oh yeah it's awesome having a 1TB drive. Space is no longer an issue :)

charley

183 posts

Master Geek

#158710 21-Aug-2008 15:23

kiwijunglist:
I notice you are getting ATI Card. ATI has some disadvantages when it comes to onboard H264 decoding using DVB-T in NZ.

There is a bug with ATI decoding interlaced H264 DVB-T siginal (TV3,C4,TVNZ6+7,TVNZ Sports extra) using onboard decoding. You may need to use software decoding, however your processor is fast enough to do software decoding if you can't get hardware decoding. You only decode the H264 signal when you display the TV on your monitor, not when you are recording. So you would not get increased cpu useage when recording, just when viewing TV.

You should have no problems getting hardware accleration on non-interlaced H264/VC1 content with blu-ray & 720p/1080p H264 movies you download.

My ATI HD4850 h.264 decoder works fine with TV3. When changing channels to C4 & TVNZ Sports extra they will sometimes go blocky. To fix that i change to TV1 then back. This is with the powerdvd 8 patch codec. The ArcSoft h.264 codec wont play those channels at all with h/w acceleration enabled. I get that green blocky look.

graemer:
amphibem:

Both are hybrid cards, the HVR3000 has DVB-T, DVB-S and analogue while the HVR2200 has DVB-T and analogue.

The HVR3000 can only use of its tuners at a time, so using either the DVB-T or DVB-S tuner you could record either the TVNZ mux (TV1, TV2) or the Mediaworks mux (TV3, C4).

The HVR 2200 can use two of its tuners at once, and can hence record of the TVNZ mux and the Mediaworks mux at the same time. The PVR150 in either case is for Prime.

Right, makes the water a little clearer...

I am putting together an HTPC to which I want to feed Sky digital, Freeview. What would you suggest for tuners? I read somewhere that Prime needs to be treated differently, but so far I get that via Sky, so am confused about that as well.

Thanks

I went with a HVR-2200. I already had a HVR-3000 so I could record from all 3 terrestrial networks. Or i could record 2 terrestrial networks and 1 analogue( e.g prime). Two cards means 2 aerial inputs so you have to split you aerial cable with a f-type slitter.

1 | 2