htpc - blue ray

[resago]

ok, I saw the blueray drive on newegg and want to build an htpc.

question is, are the current hdmi motherboards capable of delivering smooth playback?

I'm looking at a mb with the 7150 geforce chipset; 2 GB; e2400
will it work? or will I be forced to buy an addition video card?

[Brians256]

I recommend the 780G motherboards

- Gigabyte 780G mobo http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128090
- AMD X2 cpu like the 5000 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103211)
- Scythe Ninja Mini HSF http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835185046
- 4GB memory (2GB is fine though) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231122
- Antec NSK2480 case http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129034
- Hauppage MCE-PVR150 tuner card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16815116620

Note that lower power AMD CPUs are better. They have a special line of lower wattage (hand-picked) CPUs. They were just out of stock when I ordered.

[Brians256]

Pick your own keyboard, mouse and monitor. However, take note that the 780G motherboard does NOT have any analog video output. It cannot connect to a TV unless it has digital inputs. However, since you are doing BlueRay, I figure that this is not a handicap.

[ben333]

I'm back to being an Intel guy again and I'd say go with what you said. But what BrianS recommended is perfect if you don't need the power and want to save energy.

[resago]

yeah, I found the 780G's after I posted this.

unfortuneatly, it outputs only DD and DTS over HDMI and optical.
My only choice for the new HD audio is analog, and power DVD downsamples because of the retarded AACS rules.

I can either wait 5-6 months for AMD to put out a full HDMI chipset, or find some kind of patch that "fixes" powerdvd so it won't downsample when running 7.1 analog.

[Brians256]

Ah, I saw that audio SNAFU over on the AVS forums. That and the lack of DVI-A support are my two biggest problems with the 780G chipset. I didn't feel like mentioning the problem you mentioned because I didn't think that most people cared that much about HD audio over HDMI.

I'm betting that they had a hard deadline in their engineering dept and just "didn't get enough time to implement" that feature. If they let that poor fellow do it, I bet he'd love to implement it. Unfortunately, he'll probably be tasked with something that they want more, such as power management or die-size reduction via custom cells to reduce transistor count.

There are times that I don't like being in a company that is publicly owned. It's that short-term outlook that sucks.

[resago]

if anyone finds a "fix" for powerdvd, pm me.
should just be a matter of time before someone finds the JMP instruction.

[resago]

or, when a new chipset comes out, post in this thread.

[resago]

which is better 4450e or be-2400?
can someone tell me the difference?