intel dual core e5300
gigabyte ep35-ds3r
2 gb ddr2 ram
a few hdd
ati hd5450
powerlogic 450w trupower

hdmi to pioneer avr to 50" plasma
playback using mediabrowser calling tmt3 plugin, lpcm decompression. no idea why noise reduction and deblocking is there, but it's there.

the screen is using just fit scale thus no need overscale (overscale set at 100%)

i'm surprised nvidia didn't implement hd audio bitstream till the last few models. ati have demo mode where half screen have processing and another half no processing. i like the one with some post processing. but that's just me.

if you don't mind the lack of bitstreaming, by all means get the nvidia. as long as you're happy hehe

nope. just the screen.
if i use 16:9 ratio then yes i need to lower the overscan. but the fonts are messed up. not in any way sharp. like a failed, anti-aliased gone wrong

'just fit' makes the font as sharp as an lcd monitor. and my eyes are telling me that movies are also sharper.

you're gonna have to wait. will only be back home mid next week.

i still can't quite grasp the idea of this reclock. care to explain?

AFAIK bitstreaming over ndivia GC are still glitchy at the moment. read that some managed to make it work, with some quirk here and there.

high bitrate PCM as in multichannel FLAC inside MKV wrapper. hard to find such video utilizing such arrangement. if 2 channel FLAC (audio) are concerned, you might wanna try something like foobar2000 with WASAPI plugin.

never searched for it. maybe you would wanna try xbmc as it supports WASAPI natively.
i'm happy enough with multiple programs for different usage. xbmc for mkv. foobar for music. mediabrowser for bd

though one could be configured for all function, each have their own advantages so i stick to multiple programs

XBMC can't properly read BDMV folder information.

quoted from the thread itself:

mediabrowser with tmt3 plugin don't have all 3 problems. thus my reason to use mediabrowser for my bd collection.

1st and foremost, never (ever) skimp on power supply. especially when you're gonna be running the htpc for prolonged period of time.
if you don't have the budget for an uber expensive one, get a cheap trupower psu like the huntkey 450W selling for RM150 (or so) in garage sales. or issit RM120? can't remember.

i've used that cheap trupower psu for quite a while powering my 10 hdd without problem. won't consider trying such stunt with a cap ayam psu.
tho 10 hdd is the max that i would advice anyone (all 5400rpm) for that huntkey.

and 2nd, do consider ATI 5 series GC as those support hd bitstream. saves for an upgrade later on.

3rd, if you don't game on the htpc, you don't need high clockspeed. i myself am running e5300 and works fine with high bitrate bd (even with software decoding).

4th, again if you don't game on the htpc, 2gb is more than enough.

i've researched quite a bit for an upgrade. finally bought a used 560W silverstone st56 for RM150 (used by prev owner for about 9 month and still have more than 2 years warranty). comes with 6 SATA power and 6 IDE power. and 30A max rail for 5V (when others have a rating of only 24A for 5V).
fits my bill for lots of hdd support which required lots of power connector and beefy 12V and 5V rail.

though i would advice others to consider a modular PSU like the seasonic for RM300-ish. fanless PSU is more often than not too pricey for the spec that they deliver. and i doubt anyone would ever hear the PSU fan with all the bombs and guns exploding during the movie.

but hey it's just my opinion.
from someone running more than 10hdd in his htpc together with a dedicated GC, soundcard, 3 fans and stuck inside a wooden cabinet.

IMHO it wouldn't make much sense. the entire computer in itself are running on a switching power regulator. which most audiophile consider as the worst possible power source available (considering that some are running from SLA battery for a clean power).

some would want to separate the DC fan from their entire system and put it as far away as possible. some could hear the difference. i, on the other hand, could not. but that might be caused from my entry level speaker system hehe

i could not justify the complexity of doing such stunt. as the cost of going fanless is too high considering that media player with really good DAC are selling for well under RM500. they have no fan, running on a regulated power (audiophiler classify as better than switching PSU) and have no component emitting noisy RF inteference (like inside a computer case).

1. yes

2. i reckon ati 4 series GC could do multichannel LPCM passthrough. in essence, LPCM is just decoded HD audio streams. so if you don't really need the gaming capabilities of the newer cards, 4850 is enough to enjoy HD audio on your current system. and unlike HD audio -> analog -> multichannel analog input on the AVR -> speakers topology, LPCM is bit perfect representation of the HD audio (without intermediate conversion to analog signals).
get yourself something like TotalMedia Theater 3 Platinum, and set the TMT3 output Mix to Uncompressed LPCM. or configure MPC-HC to convert to LPCM (which is a whole lot harder to do than going TMT3)

in which i would really like to avoid haha
my eyes got problem watching those fake color from the LED tv operating in dynamic mode displayed on the shelves.

but alas, won't hurt to try. maybe i'll install it once i reach home tonight (if i'm not lazy hehe)

yes you can. you can lock programs to display on which monitor.

i used to. just put the xbmc shortcut in the startup folder inside start menu.

seems that there's a few ways to correct this. the easiest should be from the automatically hide the taskbar settings, run xbmc with the '-fs' switch, start in remote (whatever that means) or use the startup delayer.
google turns up this with the first few result points to some suggestion.

i wouldn't know for sure as i don't use xbmc exclusively anymore.

the thing with htpc is, there's no best solution as the spec could be tailored made to fit one's need. (nearly) any spec nowadays would be able to handle movies, music and pictures flawlessly.
if you have no technical knowhow to build a pc, you gonna problems building the htpc. in that case zino might be better. but if you're concerned about heat output, noisy fan, power usage and the such, a core i3 or nvidia ion with atom cpu might be better.

and if you're just not a technical guy and don't wanna burden yourself with the configuration (which could be quite complex), a media player like the dune might be just the thing for you.

thanks to you for bringing up ReClock to me, i'm now successfully using it on top of my tmt3, resampling all my movie track to 24bit/96kHz on the fly during playback.
SOUNDS ABSOLUTELY AWESOME compared to bitstreaming at 24bit/48kHz. much more detail with better accuracy/sound projection. and made the video playback super smooth. a whole lot smoother than ATI's enforce Cinema Smooth hardware implementation. never video playback have been this smooth on my system.

though i'm running on ATI 5450. will try it out on a friend's system (core i3) once i visit back his place.

if i were you, the first i'd do is to reinstall back the drivers (since you mention that it only goes haywire after installation of the drivers). remove all the drivers first then just install the graphics driver (and not the ATI Control Center, ATI HDMI audio driver and anything else). then install the hdmi audio drivers, then everything else one by one (reboot after each one). just to pinpoint which of the drivers that are making all the fuss.

could be that the resolution or the refresh rate incorrectly set. could be a lot of things.

i'm running hd5450 in my lc17. fit's just fine.

together with 13 hdd.
and an ATX mainboard. regular atx that is, not mini, not micro atx.

you can't bitstream hd audio from optical out. well not multichannel hd audio anyway. there's not enough bandwith from an optical connection.

well that is an answer, but (no offence) not a correct one.

with all due respect, twtang are currently running an i3 and already posted what could be the best answer thus far regarding i3 decoding performance.


and from experience building and configuring a few htpc running on i3 (all bitstreams hd to an avr) i'm inclined to comment.
1. i3 does support dxva acceleration. if it's any important. else the i3 have enough processing power to software decode. and ati currently have the cheapest card that supports hardware acceleration and hd bitstream. forget about nvidia ion.

2. picture quality should have no issue if the cpu is capable enough to software decode. nvidia ion which are usually paired with atom cpu are rubbish in this sense. if should in any way hardware decoding are compromised, then ion gonna have a problem. IMO go with ion only if you want an absolutely lowest power consumption. core i3 with its 32nm architecture have a good compromise with power usage.

that's strange. i reckon an i3 would not hit 50% usage when decoding hd.
but since i don't have any i3 with me i'm gonna leave it to someone who does. IIRC (when i was assembling the i3), cpu usage only hit 25-30% when running software decode.

well maybe i'm wrong anyway.

dunno. well maybe. wait i'll search....


yeah it's 64bit with 512mb ram.