Are you using the i3+h55 to build a NAS? Can give tips on building a NAS with transfer rate more than 70 megabytes/sec over a gigabit LAN, for storing movies, music collections, photos and BlueRay rips?

Of course not using i3+h33 as a NAS. It will be over powered. Atom is a good option but sadly most atom board only have 2 sata port.

785g mobo does come with a built in graphic?
Actually, getting an AVR is part of the whole so-called masterplan....coz will need it for my other input..i.e. ps3, byond, 360...
So, will that actually affect the htpc mobo that i need to select? i thought audio output, coaxial/optical/equiv is standard?

785G come with Integrated Graphic Processor optimized for HD video. However, it is unable to pass uncompressed multi-channel (8 channel) LPCM audio over hdmi and also can't pass TrueHD or DTS-HD audio over its HDMI output, either. So, if 5.1 audio channel is enough for you, I believe this is a good AMD mobo chipset.

You also include an AVR in your masterplan so I assume you want to take advantage most of Blu-ray technologies. In that case, either you buy cheap mobo and buy ATI 5000 series or go all the way to i3+h55/h57. Both combo can provide you with good support for HD video and also HD audio bitstreaming.

AFAIK, coax and optical can't carry the high def audio on plain dts and dolby digital.

This I quote from AVForums.com
"Due to bandwidth issue, both can only support stereo pcm. Normal DD/DTS is fine over optical/coax but the HD audio tracks such as uncompressed 5.1 pcm/dolby TrueHD can only be carried over HDMI or (5.1/6.1) analogue output. "

i was going for785g route already. I thought once you have the built in optical/coaxial output, you are OK already.
if that is the case, can i just get an external sound card and have that whatever TrueHD/DTS-HD capability.
5.1 is ok by me....TrueHD/DTS-HD is not 5.1?

Asus have one model Asus HDAV 1.3 which cost around RM500. But this card, if I'm not mistaken also can't decode HD audio instead like Ati 5000 series and i3+H55, it just passes the signals through to your A/V receiver.

I'm sorry that I give you wrong explanation before. I mean 5.1 is via audio analogue connection not through hdmi cable. 785g only support 2-channel LPCM.

For HD audio details, better you ask in Audiophile because lots of sifu there.

Asus HDAV 1.3 doesn't decode HD audio? Sure or not?

i think it's done on the software side, by a decoder like the ffdshow audio decoder.
go into ffdshow audio decoder config, check the codes page.
by default ffdshow uses libavcodec to decode trueHD stream.

i might be wrong though, since i've never played any truehd stuffs on mine.yet.

You're absolutely right, use MPC-HC and FFdshow using libavcodec build 3267 to decode TrueHD stream

There are some alternatives product from china for keyboard + mouse.

http://www.tomtop.com/mini-wireless-pc-key...91b_p10961.html
http://usb.brando.com/lenovo-mini-wireless...58c034d015.html
http://www.tomtop.com/2-4G-Wireless-Mini-K...09B_p10332.html

I bought this model but the trackball is not good. Have lots of problems wit it.
http://usb.brando.com/usb-2-4ghz-rf-wirele...78c034d015.html

This post has been edited by megatrox: Mar 22 2010, 06:35 PM

I'm not certain. May be I got confuse with the slim version.

So, Asus HDAV 1.3 doesn't do hardware decode of HD audio?

HD audio decoding are done on the software level. it's not done by the pc hardware, but by the pc software playing the video stream.
and most of the time audio-aware people don't like this to happen. they want the AVR to do all the decoding using the avr's high performance DAC and DSP.

i think you still don't understand all this jargon

That's why I said Asus HDAV 1.3 doesn't decode the HD audio instead it passthrough the audio and let the AVR do the decoding.

Yup, I'm not those audio-ware poeple because my pocket is not big enough .

that's right. the card did not anything complicated job but most important is the hardware enabled to passthrough. this is most valuable of card as Asus need pay dobly/dts.
why other onboard HDMI unable to do so because of the PAP. this is what we want and always discuss HD Audio Bitstream. and we need HDMI HD AVR.
we don't want the software decode but let the AVR do the job which are better. If you're not planning to have the HD AVR then no point you have passthrough card.

ffdshow+mpc-hc just a software to enable you to read the HD video and HD Audio, other commercial software will be TMT that bundled by Asus.
Asus Slim version card are exactly same with normal Asus PCIe card. Slim just only using PCI and remove all analog feature. cheaper of course.

let's forgot about Asus, dude...... now ATI 5xxx series already can handled, PDVD also can support together. personally still prefer ffdshow+mpc-hc.

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Added on March 22, 2010, 10:22 pmif you're fine with 5.1 and no plan to upgrade 7.1 or TrueHD/DTS-HD. no need to get external sound card.
for example onboard ATI 4xxx motherboad or NVIDIA nForce 730i / GeForce 9300 Chipset. there are able to do 5.1 already.
if you want low budget, no need to add-on card for that....

TrueHD/DTS-HD MA have both 5.1 and 7.1 standard. it's depend on the movie studio producer.

This post has been edited by djlah: Mar 22 2010, 10:22 PM

The HDAV 1.3 features Protected Audio Playback Systems (PAPS) and is full Advanced Access Content System (AACS) certified. Combined with Asus version of Arcsoft's TMT (currently TMT3), the HDAV 1.3 will decode DTS-MA and Dolby TrueHD. Without those standards your Blu-Ray audio will be downsampled to 48khz/16bit audio aka DVD quality and lose the bit-for-bit lossless quality.

This post has been edited by ganaz-x: Mar 23 2010, 10:27 PM

If as said the ati 5XXX can do TrueHD/DTS-HD bitstream.....it will be done thru HDMI right? any card that can offer thru optical/coaxial? This upgrade can always be done later right?
And it means, you will need TrueHD/DTS-HD capable AVR?

yes, you're right. just forgot about optical/coaxial.....if you're interested on TrueHD/DTS-HD MA.
you can add the ATi 5xxx series later when you have TrueHD/DTS-HD capable AVR.
what AVR are you using now?

Now is a quite old denon, no DI. Planning to get ones with DI. Guess i have to re-think of the plan lah. Might as well get those with that capability...but later lah...

in this case, just build your htpc with onboard coxial/optical first motherboard to connect your old denon. buy 1 coxial/optical cable. if still expensive for you then downgrade to audio jack-rca. strictly stereo only.

to save cost also, temp. using onboard video. then select your preferred htpc chasis and psu. select the right processor & ram.
hdd and odd easy to take decision. settle!

use this 1st. later add on your ATi 5xxx series card & buy new AVR and also get ready hdmi cable

Hi guys.. i have about 5TB of .mkv movies that are spread over four SATA Hard drives. Is there any method of storing these hard drives (plus a few more in the future probably) in a way that my PC can access them all at once? Something that can swap in/out hard drives often would be ideal...doesn't have to be hotswap...coldswap will be fine.

Currently i am using a cheapo hard drive dock that allows me to hookup only one drive at a time.

Storing these drives internally is not an option as these drives are occasionally shared with my dvico player in the other room so opening cases often would be a hassle. tq