Linux or not to Linux ( ati vs Nvidia )
#1
Question 
Hey Folks,
Long time user of XBMC with BackRow as a skin on my 32inch tube tv. But finally, I will be joining the 21st century and purchase a Samsung LED tv very shortly, and with it I'm upgrading my HTPC.

Right now I'm using a Pentium 4 with an 7600gs card with Sabayon linux as the OS, and everything has been running beautifully. Now since I'm an old guy, I go by the saying if it ain't broke don't fix it, So I'm really behind the times of the recent developments of XBMC. I haven't upgraded, do nightlies or anything since I got this setup up and running 3- 4 or 5 years ago. ( the addon concept sounds great and so does the upcoming Eden release )

So I love Eskro's "First HTPC" post and "which group" are you guide, but holy freaking 60+ pages, I was dreaming the forum colours some nights. And Poofyhairyguy's reccomendations are a great start, but for a guy who's been out of touch for a while it's hard to follow some of the lingo on some of the threads. Google can only take you so far. It would have been nice to see the minimum needs required for each group, but that's for other night on this forum.

So here's my problem that I can't find the easy answers to.
I would like to stay with linux ( sabayon install running xbmc ), so from alot of threads about video cards, you have to go with a nvidia card. But then you find some posts that say macroblocking happens only with nvidia cards. But is it specific to certain cards or to all nvidia cards? Why?
Then you find some posts that say nvidia cards have this thing called VDPAU (which ATI cards don't have) and is a good thing? Right?? For LED tv?
Then with alot of threads talking about video cards, why isn't the size of the tv a consideration when reccomending video cards?

And lastly and slightly off topic, I'm a group 5 kind of guy, so I'm assuming 1080p movie is Bluray, but then I find a few posts that says XBMC cannot play bluray. So how do you guys watch bluray movies?

I know, and I apologize for the long post, but I'm going bonkers.

What I have ready for my build:
Antec fusion black case
Intel E8400 cpu ( will it be fast enough to do 1080p? )
2gig ram
Synolgy NAS for media ( and I'm really really considering using an SSD for the OS in the HTPC. Eskro's fault)
and a 47inch LED.

Thanks
D
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#2
I'll help out where I can Smile

danzer Wrote:So here's my problem that I can't find the easy answers to.
I would like to stay with linux ( sabayon install running xbmc ), so from alot of threads about video cards, you have to go with a nvidia card.
This is correct, don't use ATI on Linux. Don't even dream about Intel! I love xbmc on Linux, but I do miss Netflix Sad

danzer Wrote:But then you find some posts that say macroblocking happens only with nvidia cards. But is it specific to certain cards or to all nvidia cards? Why?
I'll have to defer to others. I've never seen macroblocking - though my eyesight is poor and I'm very tolerant of visual artifacts.


danzer Wrote:Then you find some posts that say nvidia cards have this thing called VDPAU (which ATI cards don't have) and is a good thing? Right?? For LED tv?
Right, vdpau = good! It's hardware acceleration of mpeg video. ATI supports DXVA2, which is mostly equivalent - and xbmc supports that too. So both vendors have hardware acceleration under xbmc - though as stated above ATI and Linux don't play nicely.

danzer Wrote:Then with alot of threads talking about video cards, why isn't the size of the tv a consideration when reccomending video cards?
Good question, I don't know.

danzer Wrote:...then I find a few posts that says XBMC cannot play bluray. So how do you guys watch bluray movies?
As you know xbmc plays DVD's nicely (discs, .iso's, and VIDEO_TS folders), with menus and everything. It does not do this for Bluray. I suspect it's coming via libbluray, but I have no idea if/when that will be. What xbmc can do is play ripped bluray video. Most people are ripping their BD's to mpg4 in .mkv format, which xbmc slices through like warm butter Smile

good luck
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#3
1080p is a resolution.
Blue Ray is a way to deliver that. There isn't a way to play BlueRay DISKS. But those disks can be ripped to another format: H.264. It's like ripping a DVD to xvid or divx.

VDPAU is a way to speed up playing H.264. Not sure what your background is but it's kind of like an enzyme.
High resolution H.264 requires a very fast CPU.
Or, you can use the video card (Nvidia) and you really don't need a fast CPU.
Code:
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON `xbmc_%`.* TO 'xbmc'@'%';
IF you have a mysql problem, find one of the 4 dozen threads already open.
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#4
Alright, thanks you guys.
I use makemkv for my dvds already, so I can use that to play Bluray. No biggie.
So last night I found a post where it described more about the VDPAU stuff, and found out it's only on 8XXX series cards and up. My card was the 7600 so I never knew about this anyways.

Still would like more info on the macroblocking issue that pops up sometimes with nvidia video card threads.

And I never did mention the video cards I was looking at. Most of the posts refer to a GT 210, GT 430, or the GT 520. all can be had within $10 of each other.
So a GT 210 can only play 2d 720 and 1080p content?
A GT 430 and GT 520 can both play 3D 1080p content?
Or like darkscout mentioned can you use the fastest CPU ( theoretically speaking ) out there with a gt210 and play 3D 1080p? Or it doesn't work that way?
I like the 520 card only for the lower temps and power consumption values I see. But if there is a better card that you guys recommend out there then I'm all for it.
Thanks again for all the info.
Still learning and catching up.
D
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#5
Howdy,

I've never seen any macroblocking or other video issues with setups in my sig. The faster rig does show slightly better performance...2-3 instances in a movie when I might notice stutter vs 6-8 for the atom330.

I think the e8400 + a GT430 would work very well.

As far as VDPAU is concerned all you need to do is dload and install latest drivers from Nvidia and it comes with all the requisite drivers for video acceleration.
If I helped out pls give me a +

A bunch of XBMC instances, big-ass screen in the basement + a 20TB FreeBSD, ZFS server.
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