Ive built a little HTPC using some old kit but the CPU doesnt quite cut the mustard when decoding HD DivX/DVD.

The mobo is an Intel D101GGC LGA775 and I currently have a Celeron D CPU in it...
http://www.intel.com/products/motherboard/D101GGC/index.htm

Now would you upgrade that to a P4 or a PentD ? I am looking at either of these:

PentD 945 3.4ghz (~£100)
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/114194/rb/27302138190

or (prefered as its cheaper)
P4 640 3.4ghz (~£55)
http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/87129/rb/27302175716

Is there any point in getting a PentD for a machine thats purely going to be doing video playback ?

Either way Ill also be sticking in another 512mb DDR400, giving me 1gb total.

never mind.

Decided to swap the mobo for a MSI one I had laying around. The MSI supports a PentD 935 (3.2ghz) that is only £50

Good choice

A dedicated card may have been a better option?
When I 1st got dvd drive about 10yrs+ ago, I bought the creative & had a dedicated decoder card with it. It Ran as good as anything does now & that was on a P90

I didnt think that such a thing existed besides the HTPC is a low profile case; sticking anything in can be a PITA

I havent seen hardware decoders for a Very long time. At one point they were built into certain ATi graphics cards but I think thats the last mention I heared of them, and that was pre-Radeon.

My guess would be that if they do still exist then they are now in the realm of specialist hardware and carry a price tag to match.

Quote from: MongooseI havent seen hardware decoders for a Very long time. At one point they were built into certain ATi graphics cards but I think thats the last mention I heared of them, and that was pre-Radeon.

My guess would be that if they do still exist then they are now in the realm of specialist hardware and carry a price tag to match.

You can get a dedicated HDTV decoder card for less than £100
If you want to watch TV Streams in HDTV (not downloaded content) like BBC HD for example, than even the beefiest PCs struggle.

  There have been plenty of articles saying that full screen HDTV is stressing most PCs performance.

Quote from: Eggtastico

Quote from: MongooseI havent seen hardware decoders for a Very long time. At one point they were built into certain ATi graphics cards but I think thats the last mention I heared of them, and that was pre-Radeon.

My guess would be that if they do still exist then they are now in the realm of specialist hardware and carry a price tag to match.

You can get a dedicated HDTV decoder card for less than £100
If you want to watch TV Streams in HDTV (not downloaded content) like BBC HD for example, than even the beefiest PCs struggle.

ive not played much with HD Content on mine yet, but i thought the AVIVO hardwar edeocders on the X1xxx series where supposed to help offload CPU time on the rig.  :\

Quote from: Beakerive not played much with HD Content on mine yet, but i thought the AVIVO hardwar edeocders on the X1xxx series where supposed to help offload CPU time on the rig.  :\

No Idea.
1x problem with Hidef stuff atm is that Cable still broadcast in mpeg 2, but sky broadcasts in mpeg 4.

As of yet, there isnt really an mpeg4 H/W card at a suitable price (your looking at well over £1k atm)

Quote from: Eggtastico

Quote from: Beakerive not played much with HD Content on mine yet, but i thought the AVIVO hardwar edeocders on the X1xxx series where supposed to help offload CPU time on the rig.  :\

No Idea.
1x problem with Hidef stuff atm is that Cable still broadcast in mpeg 2, but sky broadcasts in mpeg 4.

As of yet, there isnt really an mpeg4 H/W card at a suitable price (your looking at well over £1k atm)

just did a bit of checking, it does appear that using the AVIVO port on my X1950 allows me to iffload the entire load onto the GPU (And should be somewhat quicker at decoding), but i cant find a mention of MPEG-4.  Though I gather the 2xxx series will have hardware MPEG4 decoding.  

Quote from: Beakerjust did a bit of checking, it does appear that using the AVIVO port on my X1950 allows me to iffload the entire load onto the GPU (And should be somewhat quicker at decoding), but i cant find a mention of MPEG-4.  Though I gather the 2xxx series will have hardware MPEG4 decoding.  

but can they handle real time streams? ie a tv tuner card.
I still havent found a working solution. Longest Ive got is an unbroken stream for about 5 mins. Thats using geforce 7600GT, 2gb ram, 3gig CPU & CoreAVC Codec.

Ive played HiDef movie downloads on a 2gig 512mb ram, 9800pro without any problems.

i know some of haupagues tv cards with a mpeg2 encoder (pvr-500ish i think) onboard.
dont know if they support offloading though or if its literally for the TV signal it recieves  :shrug:

Quote from: Eggtasticobut can they handle real time streams? ie a tv tuner card.

I gather they can yeah, they supply an AVIVO cable with the card so you can input and output it, they say an "up to" 80% improvement, and do mention decoding MPEG2 in the literature.  ill take a better look when im back on the desktop, im on my phone atm.

Well I got the CPU installed (after a complete mission) and now the HD-DVD playback software has decided that my GFX card isnt up to it.

Takes the rice really and Im not sure I can even get a low profile *supported* card !

Still the other HD stuff looks much better now and the system is responsive


why do mobo manufacturers forget to mention the need for a BIOS update to support a certain CPU ? It was only by chance that I had a compatible CPU around that I could run the windows only BIOS update tool.