New 780G HTPC live-hdtv issues

Forums › Home Theatre (including HTPC and EPG Collector) › New 780G HTPC live-hdtv issues

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kiwijunglist

2926 posts

Uber Geek

#221851 4-Jun-2009 23:37

if you want you can lower the cpu multiplier and keep cpu @ 2.5Ghz
let me know if it makes a difference
you could also bump the FSB up more

I am currently running FSB @ 275 with HT=1375
CPU is still @ the same (lower multiplier)
Ram is running at 440Mhz
VGA core is 600Mhz

I dont have sideport memory so i have no comment on that

You might not see increase in speed because with sideport memory you might not be accessing the shared memory for video ram as much.

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

kiwijunglist

2926 posts

Uber Geek

#221852 4-Jun-2009 23:37

beware temperature probes can be inaccurate on some boards/cpu

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

dale77

292 posts

Ultimate Geek

#221856 4-Jun-2009 23:56

kiwijunglist: if you want you can lower the cpu multiplier and keep cpu @ 2.5Ghz

let me know if it makes a difference

you could also bump the FSB up more

I am currently running FSB @ 275 with HT=1375

CPU is still @ the same (lower multiplier)

Ram is running at 440Mhz

VGA core is 600Mhz

I dont have sideport memory so i have no comment on that

You might not see increase in speed because with sideport memory you might not be accessing the shared memory for video ram as much.

I may well pull that multiplier down, we'll see how things go. My RAM is rated at 4-4-4-12 at 400MHz so I'm happy with that, this is an HTPC after all :-)

I still have imperfect live-tv, which is why I'm trying to remove hardware from the equation by ensuring everything is running as full-speed as possible. It is very likely that I need to improve my signal somehow.

HTPC: Antec Fusion 430, Gigabyte GA-MA78GPM-UD2H F7, AMD X2 4850e, Sapphire 4670 1GB, Corsair 4x1Gb, Adata 128Gb SSD, WD10EARS Green, LG GGC-H20L Blu-ray, Hauppauge NOVA TD-500, Logitech z-5500, Logitech Harmony 525, Samsung LA40B530 1080p, Vista Premium-32 SP2, Catalyst 10.12(Facelift preview), Mediaportal 1.2.3+OneButtonMusic, AC3Filter, Cyberlink Powercinema 6 codec, BLU-RAY: Samsung BD-F7500

dale77

292 posts

Ultimate Geek

#223802 10-Jun-2009 23:14

224 FSB was too ambitious (at least with stock voltages). I saw a couple of wierd glitches in MediaPortal and sure enough Prime95 failed pretty quickly.

So, I've backed off to 200 with a 12x multiplier to give 2.4GHz and 400MHz RAM. Still running 600MHz on the HD3200. With this setup Prime95 gives CPU temps of ~47C after 30 minutes.

Software wise, mediaportal 1.0.2 seems fine, with the exception of xmltv, which is broken. For some reason xmltv cannot download the xmltvnz url that worked fine in 1.0.

Nety

2584 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#223828 11-Jun-2009 06:24

Sorry but can I just ask why??!

It is a media centre isn't it? A gaming machine where you want the best possible performance OK have done so myself but on a media centre you want it to run as COOL as possible so that the cooling can run as quiet as possible. You don't need the performance in a media centre.

I while ago I went through the exercise of under volting the CPU in my media centre which meant that it ran cool enough for a passive CPU cooler. Still kept stock speeds.

Media centre PC - Case Silverstone LC16M with 2 X 80mm AcoustiFan DustPROOF, MOBO Gigabyte MA785GT-UD3H, CPU AMD X2 240 under volted, RAM 4 Gig DDR3 1033, HDD 120Gig System/512Gig data, Tuners 2 X Hauppauge HVR-3000, 1 X HVR-2200, Video Palit GT 220, Sound Realtek 886A HD (onboard), Optical LiteOn DH-401S Blue-ray using TotalMedia Theatre Power Corsair VX Series, 450W ATX PSU OS Windows 7 x64

dale77

292 posts

Ultimate Geek

#223843 11-Jun-2009 07:53

Nety: Sorry but can I just ask why??!

It is a media centre isn't it? A gaming machine where you want the best possible performance OK have done so myself but on a media centre you want it to run as COOL as possible so that the cooling can run as quiet as possible. You don't need the performance in a media centre.

I while ago I went through the exercise of under volting the CPU in my media centre which meant that it ran cool enough for a passive CPU cooler. Still kept stock speeds.

Indeed. Although in this case the media centre is doing one thing that takes a LOT of grunt, namely h.264 decoding.

The key thing for me is to try and maximise the weakest link in the h.264 performance chain. Hence you will notice that I just downclocked the CPU to obtain a 40Mhz increase (80MHz effective) in main memory speed. This is because it is the graphics (HD3200) which is doing the hard work and it shares main memory once it overflows the 128Mb sideport RAM.

Bringing the main memory up to full DDR2-800 may help push all those pixels around a bit smoother.

elkano

160 posts

Master Geek

#223856 11-Jun-2009 08:47

I'm hoping one of the new energy efficient CPU's from AMD will solve my problems.
Basically I was very keen on the 4850e/5050e until the new x3 705e phenom II became available, now I'm just waiting for a few more reviews. At 65W, I'm hoping there will be good price/performance and power consumption will stay minimal. Also, being phenom II it will unlock the additional rendering benefits the Athlons don't include.

http://www.driverheaven.net/reviews.php?reviewid=784&pageid=1

kiwijunglist

2926 posts

Uber Geek

#223863 11-Jun-2009 09:12

@dale77 - if you want to speed up further you can use the packed textures hack for mediaportal, this reduces mediaportal texture useage and will lessen the overflow from the sideport memory. Just search packed texture hack in mediaportal forum.

@elkano - maybe more cost effective to just replace the video card rather than changing the cpu?

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

elkano

160 posts

Master Geek

#223868 11-Jun-2009 09:28

kiwijunglist:

@elkano - maybe more cost effective to just replace the video card rather than changing the cpu?

Thanks for the advice. I'm actually looking at doing some light gaming too so I think the CPU increase may be beneficial as well as a video card update. In fact, the phenom X2 550 BE may also be another option (higher clock rate) but need to properly check things out when decent 705e reviews come out.
Basically I want performance to play the games at 1280 X 720 res while staying as energy efficient as possible- becoming more realisitic with the new hardware releases.

smbunn

107 posts

Master Geek

#224150 11-Jun-2009 21:15

Just to get back on theme a little, what has everyone managed to get running successfully with the HD3200 chipset?
I have Media Portal running under Windows 7 RC x64 using PowerDVD8 codec and ATI 9.5 Windows 7 x64 drivers.
This looks good on all Freeview channels EXCEPT TV3. Now I suspect this is down to de-interlacing since CPU use is below 10% on all channels including TV3.

Any tips to gett this working reliably?

julianz

117 posts

Master Geek

#224152 11-Jun-2009 21:42

I have MediaPortal (about the last SVN drop before 1.0.2 came out) working nicely under Vista Ultimate 32-bit. I'm using Catalyst 9.4 I think, and PDVD 9. It all works sweet except after MP has been on for a few days it starts to get a bit ragged when watching long shows, so it needs to be quit & restarted every now and then.

I started with just an HVR-2200 but have since added a PVR-150 to take the analog input from the Sky STB, Morning Computer are selling the PVR-150 with remote and blaster for $50 at the moment so that'll do nicely!

kiwijunglist

2926 posts

Uber Geek

#224164 11-Jun-2009 22:06

i think 4670 sounds good for what you need.

HTPC / Home automation (home assistant) enthusiast.

dale77

292 posts

Ultimate Geek

#224203 12-Jun-2009 00:30

smbunn: Just to get back on theme a little, what has everyone managed to get running successfully with the HD3200 chipset?
I have Media Portal running under Windows 7 RC x64 using PowerDVD8 codec and ATI 9.5 Windows 7 x64 drivers.
This looks good on all Freeview channels EXCEPT TV3. Now I suspect this is down to de-interlacing since CPU use is below 10% on all channels including TV3.

Any tips to gett this working reliably?

Some people have problems with MP after 1.0.1+ and 1080i interlacing. Reverting to 1.0 might fix TV3.

In my case, all freeview channels are fine, TV3 being the best. Vista 32, MP 1.0.2, Powercinema 6 codec, ATI 8.12.

dale77

292 posts

Ultimate Geek

#224659 13-Jun-2009 17:10

kiwijunglist: @dale77 - if you want to speed up further you can use the packed textures hack for mediaportal, this reduces mediaportal texture useage and will lessen the overflow from the sideport memory. Just search packed texture hack in mediaportal forum.

Interesting. http://forum.team-mediaportal.com/improvement-suggestions-46/do-we-really-need-packed-textures-55616/

Applied the ugly hack.

elkano

160 posts

Master Geek

#228975 28-Jun-2009 17:28

Hey guys,

anyone had experience with windows 7 MC and the radeon HD 3200?
I'm trialing win7 MC but at the moment I'm getting issues decoding several channels (tvnz sport extra..).

what combination of drivers are people using? Currently I'm on ATI 9.6 drivers, no CCC installed.

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