Advice needed for HTPC upgrade to support Full HD

decorativejunk

Hi Guys ,

Here is what i have at the moment .. which plays 720p rips just fine using kmplayer.. other players give problems..

so here is the config :
==================================
Hipermedia HMC-2K53A-A3 case

---

http://www.trustedreviews.com/motherboards/review/2007/03/22/MSI-K9AGM2-FIH/p1

---

AMD Athlon X2 4850e 2.5Ghz (2x 512KB L2 cache), 45watts TDP

---

4GB DDR2-800 PC2-6400 CL4 (2x2GB) High performance low latency DIMMs

---

1TB Samsung Spinpoint F1 (model. HD103UJ), 7200RPMs, 32MB cache, Hard disk -
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/hdd/productmodel.do?group=72&type=61&subtype=63&model_cd=249&tab=fea&ppmi=1155

---

1 Optical Slimline DVD-burner (model. AD-7630A) from Sony Optiarc, patched for Multiregion - http://www.sony-optiarc.us/en/products/slim-line-drives/ad-7590a

---

1 Satellite DVB-S2 SkyStar HD 2 PCI card from Technisat - http://www.technisat.com/index4986.html?nav=PC_products,en,76-215

---

Input/Output ports
Front: 2x USB 2.0, 1x Firewire (6-pin, 1394 port), 2x audio ports (speaker/headphones, mic in), 1x S-Video.
Back: 1x HDMI (1.2 protocol, compliant with 720p/1080i/1080p, with HDCP 1.1, so Blu-ray ready, just needs a Blu-ray slimline drive to go with it, and proper software too), 1x VGA, 2x PS/2 (Keyboard and mouse), 4x USB 2.0, 1x Firewire (6-pin, 1394 port), 1x Gigabit Ethernet RJ-45 port, 1x coaxial optical, 1x S/PDIF, 7.1 channel audio output with supplied cable.

---

Additional:
Built-in graphics IGP ATI Radeon x1250 with up to 512MB shared memory.

===========================


now .. as i said.. i don't face any problem with 720p rips but with 1080p rips.. its just get choppy video .. gets stuck ..


so my main requirement is to upgrade the system to play full HD .. i really like the case as it almost of DVD player size n a slient one..

please suggest that what all i need to upgrade in the system..

and since I m up to it.. would like to add a Blue ray writer as well..

I would really appreciate any suggestion given for the upgrade.

cheers
Prans

kaisersose77

If it was for videos and music only i'd go for an acer revo or asrock 330 and put xbmc linux on it. They play 1080p mkv's no problem and have a brilliant interface (search youtube). But xbmc doesnt support blu ray or tv tuner.

bazwaldo

Check the processor usage when doing playback. If its not near 100% its likely the gfx card. If it is near 100%, then dxva must be off as the gxfx card should be doing the work. The spec seems good enough all round.

decorativejunk

Hi Bazwaldo ,

Thanks for ur comment. i did check the CPU its almost 100% when i am playing a 1080p mkv . and i get out of sync video and then it gets stuck.. so even i feel as u said my graphics card is not powerfull enough to process 1080p rips... and i tried looking for option to enable DXVA but as there is no official driver for this ATI graphics card on window 7 i did not get that option. at the moment i using microsoft default WDDM driver..

can u suggest a good graphics card which will compliment this Motherboard..? i m planning to install a HD graphics card.. does that make sense...??

bazwaldo

TBH I'm not sure so I can't help much. For HD TV go with nvidia as the ATI cards have issues with h.264 content from some sources.