HD4850 & Freeview terrestrial

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charley

183 posts

Master Geek

#24548 27-Jul-2008 13:59

What's ATI's HD 4850 card like for NZ freeview terrestrial decoding? Does it perform better than the HD3870 card?

Also is the issue with changing channels from one stream to another (eg 720p to 1080i - TVNZ to TV3) resolved yet with these ati cards after the powerdvd update?
I preferr ATI's tv out to Nvidia's but wont get the ATI x.264 decoding card if it doesnt work properly with NZ freeview terrestrial.

P.s The price of the HD4850 looks very attractive at around $300.

ASUS P5Q Mobo / Intel Core2Duo E8500 (3.8Ghz) CPU / CORSAIR DDR2-800 2GB RAM / Sapphire HD4850 (Dual Slot Cooler) Graphics Card / Hauppauge HVR-2200 / Hauppauge HVR-3000 / Corsair 520W HX PSU / Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB Hard Drive / Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler / XP PRO w/SP3 / DVBViewer / GB-PVR

charley

183 posts

Master Geek

#153983 4-Aug-2008 12:09

Anyone here yet that can confirm whether or not HD4850's hardware decoder works with nz hd freeview?

tia,
charley

eXDee

4033 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1070

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#154053 4-Aug-2008 16:24

That's an overkill card for just media applications, you'd only buy one if you're going to game too.

I'll test the samples now and post some shots of CPU usage.

edit: just did one sample, takes too long. Tried using Arcsoft totalmedia but Media Player Classic doesn't like it.

Specs:
e8500
4850
2gb ram

charley

183 posts

Master Geek

#154334 5-Aug-2008 14:41

Cool so it works. What pvr apps did you get the H.264 hardware decoder working in?

p.s This is my main pc which i use for games as well. Sorry for the confusion.

eXDee

4033 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1070

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#154363 5-Aug-2008 16:08

This is my main computer, i was using Media Player Classic - Home cinema to test out the codecs. Haven't installed Mediaportal yet, but if i can get the rest of the media centre bits tonight i'll link it up to the mediacentre and try then as well.

Apparently Arcsoft's h264 codec is more ATI friendly than PowerDVD so it will be interesting to try that one out.

shermanp

357 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 36

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#154413 5-Aug-2008 18:23

I never had any luck with the Arcsoft codec with my 3650.

However the LATEST PDVD8 codec and Catalyst 8.7 is working perfectly

charley

183 posts

Master Geek

#158696 21-Aug-2008 14:48

I bought myself the Sapphire Radeon HD4850 DUAL SLOT Card. The h/w h.264 decoder works good with the powerdvd 8 patch. CPU never goes above 10% when watching nz terrestrial freeview. Temps are around 45-49 degrees celcius when watching freeview and the fan is very quite. Runs max at 25%.

Arcsoft's codec with h/w acceleration enabled caused problems with channels TVNZ SPORT EXTRA, C4 and the Kordia channels. Got the green blocky look. Disable h/w accel and all channels look fine.

As for output on tv i'm currently only using composite. Looks good most of the time. The colour of faces look wierd at times. Has that blushing look. My 29" crt tv supports component so i'll get a 5m component cable. Hopefully that'l lfix that problem? Not sure what brand though? The prices vary alot. Any advice?

Would this Manhattan component cable be good enough for my setup?
http://www.computerstore.co.nz/CA-3RCA-59-5.aspx