Old PC - new HTPC?

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richms

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#440379 16-Feb-2011 18:35

MooPoo: I never said anything about HD.

All I want to do is to watch some divx movies I have on my tv.

You never said anything about not being HD, and that would be what most people expect for a home theater these days.

If you are only dealing with low res 350 meg TV shows etc then anything from the last 10 years will be fine, so long as you avoid junk like the SD ram era P4 machines which are too slow to do anything. Even SD H.264 will work on a 3GHz P4 machine with no hardware offloading.

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PhillyG

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#440586 17-Feb-2011 10:12

I recently setup an HTPC for my parents bach. Just chucked in an ASUS HD4350 to an old PC and built with windows 7, disabled unneeded services and installed media browser for the movies. Plays HD content without any issues. The video card cost $67.85 from PB Tech

vinnieg

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#440604 17-Feb-2011 10:44

PhillyG: I recently setup an HTPC for my parents bach. Just chucked in an ASUS HD4350 to an old PC and built with windows 7, disabled unneeded services and installed media browser for the movies. Plays HD content without any issues. The video card cost $67.85 from PB Tech

Is that the PCIe or AGP card? Because I heard the AGP 4350 had HD decoding disabled

- kiwijunglis has it right, just use the live XMBC boot. install to HDD and don't run any windows on it. It'll make it too slow for Win7 and a standalone XMBC Live build would be best

You'll be fine with most DivX movies and even some 720P MKVs on the old GX270 with a 2.8/3ghz processor($20-30 off Trademe) or just use the generic box

And if you wanted HD in the future, I'd recommend upgrading, no point paying the 70-100 for a 7600 AGP off Trademe when you could put that money into a future upgrade

I have moved across the ditch. Now residing in Melbourne as a VOIP/Video Technical Trainer/Engineer.

PhillyG

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#440606 17-Feb-2011 10:48

I used the PCIe card. Also getting sound thru Hdmi on it too

vinnieg

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#440619 17-Feb-2011 11:19

PhillyG: I used the PCIe card. Also getting sound thru Hdmi on it too

Yeah, the PCIe card of that model is definitely a good choice

I have moved across the ditch. Now residing in Melbourne as a VOIP/Video Technical Trainer/Engineer.

PANiCnz

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#440620 17-Feb-2011 11:24

PhillyG: I used the PCIe card. Also getting sound thru Hdmi on it too

Not exactly applicable for an old p4 with an agp slot. seriously think before you post

PhillyG

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#440624 17-Feb-2011 11:35

PANiCnz:
PhillyG: I used the PCIe card. Also getting sound thru Hdmi on it too

Not exactly applicable for an old p4 with an agp slot. seriously think before you post

http://www.hisdigital.com/un/product2-498.shtml

The HD 4350 is available in AGP. I just happen to use the PCIe version.

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kiwijunglist

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#440625 17-Feb-2011 11:36

original poster doesn't want to play HD, just divx/SD movies, so no need to buy hardware. Best software for an older PC is to either download the linux bootable XBMC CD or fresh format of Win XP Pro SP3 then install XBMC. If the linux version works it will be a lot faster.

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

kiwijunglist

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#440627 17-Feb-2011 11:39

http://xbmc.org/download/

Download the "Live" version, which is a bootable .iso then burn the .iso image onto a cdrom using cd burning software than can read .iso images

eg. http://www.imgburn.com/

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

PANiCnz

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#440662 17-Feb-2011 12:37

PhillyG:
PANiCnz:
PhillyG: I used the PCIe card. Also getting sound thru Hdmi on it too

Not exactly applicable for an old p4 with an agp slot. seriously think before you post

http://www.hisdigital.com/un/product2-498.shtml

The HD 4350 is available in AGP. I just happen to use the PCIe version.

Good luck finding it in nz if you do it would cost more than a new ATV2. Even newegg in the usa don't stock these. Once again think before you post.

Xbmclive plus existing hardware is the best option for the op.

kiwijunglist

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#440671 17-Feb-2011 12:51

+1 you would be mad to buy a new AGP card for an old computer just to get hardware acceleration, also those AGP cards that do dxva are a bit buggy.

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

richms

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#440714 17-Feb-2011 13:59

IMO you would be mad to buy anything for a PC that old now. Even getting ram for a DDR2 based machine is a bit nuts.

Richard rich.ms

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