[lanzorg]

Hello everyone.

I want to buy a little htpc and I can't choose between Intel and AMD.

The htpc must handle any of these videos.

- 4K videos
- 3D videos
- Hi10p videos
- DTS-HD audio

I know that amd fglrx driver is shit but the oss one is better and can use vdpau.

But vdpau is really a great thing? If yes why? And should I buy htpc with amd i-gpu or intel i-gpu?

I saw this little box in a store, should it handle all my needs?

ZOTAC ZBOX nano AQ01

- AMD A4-5000 4 Cores 1.5GHz
- AMD Radeon HD 8330

[FernetMenta]

There is no hw decoder which can do Hi10p, hence you need a CPU with enough grunt. This is something in the range if Zotac ID67.

[lanzorg]

I know we can't use hw decoder with hi10p videos.
So the CPU is powerful enough for hi10p video?

Another question, is it better to use hw decoder or not for best quality?

I need a computer to play everything very well with xbmc on manjaro.

You sure this htpc can do the trick? I'm impressed by the price only USD 260 without ram and HDD.

[noggin]

You don't detail what format your 4K and 3D content is in, and whether you need DTS-HD to be decoded or bitstreamed.

4K is now becoming available in HEVC as well as AVC. AVC can be hardware-accelerated, HEVC is currently software only. The HEVC stuff I'm watching at 2160/59.94p is pushing a Quad Core i5-3570K Ivy Bridge CPU to the max (it is benchmarking 66fps in ffmpeg - so would be expected to drop frames once you have other stuff running). 24p content should be OK on a CPU of this power, and possibly a less powerful one as it is dealing with fewer than half the number of frames a second. It's still very CPU intensive though.

3D can be carried in a number of formats - Full res SBS/TAB 3840x1080 AVC / 1920x2160 AVC (and I believe the 720p equivalents), half-res SBS 1920x1080 AVC or TAB 1280x720, 2 x 1920x1080 MVC etc. AIUI MVC is currently really limited to Windows and external players as there is no internal MVC support in XBMC.

DTS-HD decoding is also limited to Windows and external players I believe, but DTS-HD bit streaming for external AVR support is near-universal these days on AMD, nVidia and Intel platforms. (It's now the norm not the exception to be able to bitstream HD audio over HDMI in Linux, and in most cases Windows - though there are issues with the Windows Bay Trail HDMI audio drivers that prevent it currently on that platform)

[lanzorg]

I've got only half-res SBS 3D video files in AVC at the moment.

I haven't got any 4K HEVC videos.

But I've got a lot of Hi10p anime videos.

For DTS-HD, only bitstreamed.

[fritsch]

Are you aware, that AMD's UVD is not able to decode anything > 2048x1152? Only the absolute newest chips don't have that limitation anymore.

[lanzorg]

So no 4K video playing with the Zotac ID67? Or only with hw acceleration?
What you advice me as built-in htpc?

[FernetMenta]

So no 4K video playing with the Zotac ID67? Or only with hw acceleration?
What you advice me as built-in htpc?

ID67 is an Intel system: i3-4010U. This box will easily cope with everything you mentioned.

[lanzorg]

Sorry I would say the nano AQ01.

[FernetMenta]

Sorry I would say the nano AQ01.

The AQ01 does not match your requirements

[Qefx]

It seems like the AQ01 is starting to support 4K videos? I saw one test (which is new) and not several month old where they compared several boxes (for example also the gigabyte brix) and 4K seems to run. At least they did´nt say that it run badly or not at all. Can someone confirm that?

[writzthecat]

Dunno if anybody can help me but i also want to buy an AQ01.

Can i watch under Win 8.1 with Kodi 1080p Hi10P Animes with the AQ01 without freezes and lags ?

Thank you for your helping.

br

Writz