Question Regarding Client HTPC Hardware

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1gkar

722 posts

Ultimate Geek

#23561 2-Jul-2008 19:05

I have a client HTPC in my bedroom & it was originally setup for normal analogue & *.mkv media playback. Now I'm gettin' the urge to upgrade it for FreeviewHD media playback as well. It has an AMD Sempron 3000 & onboard Nvidia 6150 video.

Will upgrading to an 8500GT card suffice? And when playing media across your local network, does the actual playback happen on the client, or main HTPC end? So I'm asking, do the specs for a client machine, for H.264 playback, need to be similar as for the main unit? Thanks.

Silverstone LC14 HTPC Case/Intel E4600 CPU/GA-EP35-DS3 MOBO/Asus EN9500GT graphics/2GB RAM/total 2TB HDD space/HVR-2200 & 2X 150MCE tuner cards/LG GGC-H20L BD Drive/MCE2005/Mediaportal/TVServer 1.1.0Final/LG 55"3D LED-TV/Denon AVR-1803 receiver/X1 projector

eXDee

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#142346 2-Jul-2008 20:39

For a fairly low spec processor i'd go for an 8600 just in case, silent of course. Its only $20 or so extra i think?
Anyway, you have a 8500GT in your other box, pull that out temporarily, stick it in this one and form your own opinion on it.

Decoding happens on the machine that is viewing the video. i.e. you can have your TV Server with no graphics card at all and sit in your basement, and it just sends out the video data to the clients which decode it and display it, hence the need for h264 video cards in each.

sbiddle

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#142356 2-Jul-2008 21:20

The only other thing to factor in is the connection - if you are using WiFi you may find it's not quite fast enough for H.264 content!

1gkar

722 posts

Ultimate Geek

#142369 2-Jul-2008 21:53

Thanks for the comments. It was in line with my understanding. Just wanted confirmation before I invested in hardware upgrades.

@sbiddle, no everything is hardwired. Air is good for one thing: breathing.

@eXDee, I'm am thinking of doing exactly that: putting my present 8500Gt into my client HTPC & buying an 8600GT for my HTPC.

Am open to make & model options, though Nvidia only. Not interested in re-doing my OS, again after the PC issues I've just come out of. & please don't post stating you can easily install ATI onto an existing XP install: it would make a Tui ad -'yeah, right'.