[User 29008]

I think we all know the only 1080p test we care about is the killa sampla. Trailers generally aren't encoded at too high a bitrate anyway.

Well, if you enjoy watching that killa sample all day, fine with me.
I just tested two regularly encoded 1080p movies. Still no problems in sight.

boba

[g0dders]

Well, if you enjoy watching that killa sample all day, fine with me.

I think the point is that sample is about the toughest bit of h264 you're ever going to have to decode. So if that works, you can be pretty sure you're not going to encounter problems later.

If you're happy with the possibility that some movies are going to stutter in busy scenes, then fine, don't bother. (Personally I would find it very hard to actually enjoy a movie if I knew it was dropping frames - I'd spend the whole time trying to work out how to fix it )

[BLKMGK]

I think the point is that sample is about the toughest bit of h264 you're ever going to have to decode. So if that works, you can be pretty sure you're not going to encounter problems later.

If you're happy with the possibility that some movies are going to stutter in busy scenes, then fine, don't bother. (Personally I would find it very hard to actually enjoy a movie if I knew it was dropping frames - I'd spend the whole time trying to work out how to fix it )

Bingo! Because you see until I bumped my CPU up I WAS dropping frames in some movies! Not just super high bitrate movies either but movies *I* encoded from HD-DVD and BD disks. Usually action movies, movies with lots of foliage seemed the worst and the Bird Scene, encoded by me from HD-DVD, was indeed one of the ones that had issues! That's a REALLY rough scene.

Apple Trailers? Cake. Can play them all day long and could before I bumped CPU clockspeed too. They are not terribly demanding near as I can tell. They do however look freakin' great so by all means try encoding an entire movie and see how it looks. Bottom line is it's up to you as to what's acceptable but please don't try to sell others on the "good enough" when more than one of us has found out otherwise - people reading this are often making purchasing decisions based on what's posted here.

Thread title is Best Hardware... My philosophy is to not try to cut corners and end up wishing I'd spent a little more but not spend stupid money. Do it right the first time, set it and forget it. If that means an extra $100 then I will do it, this device supports my entetainment so it's worth it.

Yes, XBMC code is getting better for decoding, yes "someday" we'll see video accel in drivers. Now go read the developer threads where they're working on that and judge how long it's likely to be! I'm using my system now, not months or a year from now. ATI is having issues opening up that hardware module, NVIDIA isn't even trying, closed source drivers haven't done it. ATI may have to try to use less optimized pieces of hardware to accomplish it - we're already doing it on the CPU.

BTW - just played back my encode of Bird Scene. Is from Disk 1 of the BBC Earth series right near front. 24Mbits/s on my encode and both cores pushed up past 50%. No, I don't think that means I have CPU to spare either! Killa sample peaks at over 40Mbits/s and over 60% CPU by comparison.

[harryzimm]

Thread title is Best Hardware... My philosophy is to not try to cut corners and end up wishing I'd spent a little more but not spend stupid money. Do it right the first time, set it and forget it. If that means an extra $100 then I will do it, this device supports my entetainment so it's worth it.

I agree. I've got a shuttle xpc SN68SG2 with a nvidia 8400gs and a amd x2 5600 windsor overclocked @3.2ghz and i still drop frames in some 1080p video.The killa sample drops around 480 frames and the framerate sinks to a minimum of 18fps. Fair enough 95% of 1080p content i can play but the 5% i cant drives me nuts. What i should have done is bought a intel 775 xpc with a E8400. Lesson learned, for you guys looking to buy hardware go intel and nvidia all the way its worth the extra cash any day of the week.

ps I've clocked at 3.4ghz and still drop frames in the killa sample.

[onesojourner]

I have been looking into upgrading my old box. AMD seems like the way to go for the price. Here is what I am looking at. I already have an earthwatts (430) power supply, case and 1 gig stick of ddr2.



ASUS M2A-VM AM2 AMD 690G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

ZOTAC ZT-86TEG2P-FSR GeForce 8600 GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Windsor 2.4GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor Model ADO4600CZBOX - Retail

Total is under 175 after the rebate on the video card.

I will mostly be playing h.264 at 720p though so I am hoping my current set up will do it.

[jkrellner]

Well, I am happy to report GREAT SUCCESS with my new PC. With a new case (and easier to deal with front panel connectors), I had it up and running within minutes. Loaded Luigi's LiveUSB 2.0 onto my USB stick and away I went. What the developers have done is INCREDIBLE.

So, with the components below and no extra overclocking (the 9600 GT Sonic is already overclocked a little), I can report the following:

1. Killa Sample plays beatifully -- no visible dropped frames. How can I tell for sure if it is dropping any (not discernable by just watching)?? I would like to have the comfort of knowing that it isn't in fact dropping any.

2. I am Legend trailer plays great, too. This trailer had one spot that would send my other computers into tizzies and that was about 15-20 seconds in, when it shows all the people crowded into the checkpoint by the bridge. This configuration sailed through beautifully.

So while this configuration is definitely not the cheapest way to go, it buys you great peace of mind knowing you can play whatever's out there. Between Newegg and ZipZoomFly (thanks BLKMGK), I kept it under $900 with the only reused parts being a keyboard and mouse. You could probably go with less for the video card, but I could not resist the ports on the 9600 GT Sonic [2 Dual-Link DVI, 1 HDMI and one "Display" port].

Now, on to figuring out how to get the touchscreen functional...

[ShortySco]

If you press the "i" key on your keyboard, it brings up a display with dropped frame count. I often drop a few frames at the begining of play or when i pause/ff/rw i believe this is normal

I guess bringing up the stats does itself use some CPU cycles (cant be significant though?) so i guess there may be another way to gt the "true" performance from the log or something.

Shorty

[jkrellner]

If you press the "i" key on your keyboard, it brings up a display with dropped frame count. I often drop a few frames at the begining of play or when i pause/ff/rw i believe this is normal

I guess bringing up the stats does itself use some CPU cycles (cant be significant though?) so i guess there may be another way to gt the "true" performance from the log or something.

Shorty

Cool, I'll check that out when I fire it up tomorrow. Thanks!

[odinb]

Anyone have any thoughts on this one?
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Acer-AX12...tDetail.do

Seems like one only has to add SPDIF (http://www.cesell.com/product.php?produc...t=0&page=1) and an HDTV 5500 (http://www.pchdtv.com/) for am yth TV PVR and XBMC for everything else. This after upgrading from Vista to Linux/Ubuntu ofcourse.

Have a friend that wants an easy box, and fell a little hesitant to recommend this one due to the AMD CPU, otherwise I think it looks good HW-wise for a HTPC.

Is it recommended to stay off AMD CPUs? Anyone tried this box, and knows how/if it will run the killa-sample?

[jkrellner]

The E8400 is golden...

Every video I play shows "1" dropped frame. Killa Sample is the most CPU-intensive and it only draws 68% CPU usage (on each core) at its highest point. Anybody looking to build a machine should definitely fork over the $$$ for the E8400. It is a beast.

[Haohmaru]

Great to read that you doesn't have any dropped frames with your config but I don't understand how is it possible beacouse a lot of ppl have dropped frames with the same CPU.
It's true you are the first I see reporting with a 9xxx Nvidia card but most of the ppl have a 8500 Gt or 8600 Gt with an E8400 and still have Issues.

[jkrellner]

Great to read that you doesn't have any dropped frames with your config but I don't understand how is it possible beacouse a lot of ppl have dropped frames with the same CPU.
It's true you are the first I see reporting with a 9xxx Nvidia card but most of the ppl have a 8500 Gt or 8600 Gt with an E8400 and still have Issues.

I don't know why that would be. The only thing not mentioned in my sig is that I have no HDD; this is running from Luigi's LiveUSB 2.0.

I thought the general consensus here is that the E8400 is what you need to avoid dropped frames. Do others with the processor have more than 1 dropped frame in any video? Without overclocking? If so, it must have to do with the nVidia 9600 GT Sonic, which is overclocked by default.

[Razor_109]

Great to read that you doesn't have any dropped frames with your config but I don't understand how is it possible beacouse a lot of ppl have dropped frames with the same CPU.
It's true you are the first I see reporting with a 9xxx Nvidia card but most of the ppl have a 8500 Gt or 8600 Gt with an E8400 and still have Issues.

I'm running an E8400

No dropped frames here.. Even KillaSample plays without dropping frames. And my onboard video is kinda sucky (nvideo 7100) ;D but the CPU makes up for it i guess.

I say, when you drop frames with E8400 something is setup wrong. Tried like almost _all_ kinds or 1080p mkv's and none drop frames, when playing most of the 1080p the CPU load is +/- 60%. KillaSample has a top cpu load of 85%.

If you look in other treads i wrote you have to make sure you dont have any post-processing enabled (brightness, gamma, contrast...) those will make the CPU choke

[BLKMGK]

I am not running an E8400 but am instead running an older 65nm CPU clocked to about the same speed as the E8400. As soon as I neared that speed (and updated XBMC) I was able to play Killa with no dropped frames. I even bumped CPU, tested, then bumped again and could see the numbers of dropped frames going down so I knew it was all CPU related. Lastly, I found that newer versions of XBMC played smoother - I could "see" the code improving over time. When I first did this I would still get a frame or two dropped, now none at all and CPU usage is reported pretty low. I do not know at what speed you could go and not get dropped frames, I do recall someone with a 7x series vid card and a CPU clocked to my speed having issues awhile back but with code improvements maybe that has changed. I suppose I could slow my CPU down and retest until I found dropped frames but meh, it works!

A big advantage of the 45nm CPUs is heat. My 65nm is certainly going to get warmer than the newer ones. I have a 45nm E8400 in my desktop cranked to 3.8Ghz and it actually runs pretty cool. If there's much of a cost savings to be had with a slower 45nm CPU I'd consider that and overclock it but honestly I do not think there's much savings to be had. BTW I do post process via XBMC on lower rez stuff, the CPU doesn't even seem to notice it. If the devs wante dto pile on a ton of post processing options I'm all for it. (lol)

[cejstrup]

Did you try pressing "i" on the keyboard and watch the "dropped frames" variable?

Shorty

I did and there was some dropped frames. Around 200 or so

I've just replaced the CPU due to heat issues and dropped in a E7200 instead. It had the same amount of dropped frames.

Then I decided to try and overclock it to see if the drops would disappear. And they did

It can run 3.16GHz stable without even increasing the voltage and it's still a lot cooler than the E6600. This CPU rocks


Here's my setup for playing back the bird sample without frame drops:

CPU: Intel E7200 overclocked to 3.16GHz
GFX: GeForce 7100 GS
Mobo: MSI G965 Neo2