Need a HTPC card to play Bluray and etc

U

ugemeistro

Weaksauce
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Jun 11, 2007
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i have a Intel G3258 and a ASUS H97I Plus with 4GB DDR3 1600 (single chip). I'm planning on getting another 4GB chip (picked up a patriot viper xtreme today for $27 with a 7MIR) and i'm running Linux Mint and the video is okay for playback. It isn't running slow even with the OS running on a USB stick (plan on getting a 250GB m.2). I have an old ULTRA XCONNECT 500w PSU.

Long story short, Due to a lack of finances right now, what's a good card that won't pixelate on hi bit rate movies and playback 720p or higher (both online and bluray/dvds) TIA
 
I'm running a Radeon HD5450 in my HTPC and it's decoding blurays without any problems
my guess is that any card from both AMD and nVidia launched after my HD5450 can do the job fine
 
Are you having problems playing HD video or is this a precautionary thought? Intel HD graphics is more than adequate for that. Try with the OS on the m.2 drive first.
 
rive22 said:
Are you having problems playing HD video or is this a precautionary thought? Intel HD graphics is more than adequate for that. Try with the OS on the m.2 drive first.
Click to expand...

Just a new system build, 1st Intel since the P2, had a FM2 A10 before i stupidly tried a Dell Venue Tablet...I'm now running Win 10 Enterprise Evaluation on a 320GB HDD, video seems better, still learning BIOS on this ASUS. Should I try increasing the RAM for on board video? It's at 128MB right now.
 
A few years back after messing with Bluray on my HTPC, I went ahead and just got a standalone Panasonic player.
There were only 2 programs for playback, PowerDVD and Total Media Theater. I had both and they'd work for most discs but then a new movie comes out with new DRM and sometimes the updates for the apps would break the program, causing you to re-install and trying to update again.

I use my HTPC for everything but Bluray.
 
Zepher said:
A few years back after messing with Bluray on my HTPC, I went ahead and just got a standalone Panasonic player.
There were only 2 programs for playback, PowerDVD and Total Media Theater. I had both and they'd work for most discs but then a new movie comes out with new DRM and sometimes the updates for the apps would break the program, causing you to re-install and trying to update again.

I use my HTPC for everything but Bluray.
Click to expand...

for the most part an actual bluray player is much easier and usually loads faster too. I rarely use my media center to watch blurays now, I usually just throw them in my xbox one as it seems to be quick and work fine.
 
I'm not worried about the software for the Blu-ray/DVD. This is going to be for the living room and i have a Sony BR in the bedroom that will stream the content on my network drive.

Is there anything else I need to complete my HTPC?
 
so i just tried to change from auto gpu RAM to 512MB and my ASUS board would reboot with error check until i reloaded original BIOS specs. GRRRRRR!! Now I wish I had the money for that GT740 (sighs)
 
ugemeistro said:
Is there anything else I need to complete my HTPC?
Click to expand...
A new PSU ASAP. That particular Ultra PSU wasn't that good of a PSU. Considering that PSUs degrade over time, I would highly recommend a new PSU be your first upgrade before that Ultra kills the PC. You don't need much:
$40 - Corsair 430CX V2 430W PSU
 
ugemeistro said:
so i just tried to change from auto gpu RAM to 512MB and my ASUS board would reboot with error check until i reloaded original BIOS specs. GRRRRRR!! Now I wish I had the money for that GT740 (sighs)
Click to expand...

Doesn't matter unless you're going to play video games. Default VRAM shou;d be more than enough for video playback.
 
Dangman said:
A new PSU ASAP. That particular Ultra PSU wasn't that good of a PSU. Considering that PSUs degrade over time, I would highly recommend a new PSU be your first upgrade before that Ultra kills the PC. You don't need much:
$40 - Corsair 430CX V2 430W PSU
Click to expand...

Thanks
 
ugemeistro said:
Blu-ray and 720p playback is a bit pixelated ...
Click to expand...

Have you tested the videos on another system (TV, tablet, SOMETHING)? Perhaps your videos are just crappy compressed blockfests?

And where are you getting this "720p" video from? Youtube? Netflix? Torrentz? I can't read your mind :)

Also, did you actually install the Intel video drivers? You won't get acceleration without them.

If you have them installed, you can try playing around with picture settings in the Intel HD Graphics Control Panel.
 
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ugemeistro said:
Blu-ray and 720p playback is a bit pixelated ...
Click to expand...

My ancient laptop with amd dual core 2.1 and ati HD4200 plays blu rays just fine at 720p. Now to be honest i always convert them to at least dvd9 sized files cause the only way to get them on the laptop is via usb or network. A full sized blueray file might bog it down i guess and i imagine thats how your playing yours?
 
defaultluser said:
Have you tested the videos on another system (TV, tablet, SOMETHING)? Perhaps your videos are just crappy compressed blockfests?

And where are you getting this "720p" video from? Youtube? Netflix? Torrentz? I can't read your mind :)

Also, did you actually install the Intel video drivers? You won't get acceleration without them.

If you have them installed, you can try playing around with picture settings in the Intel HD Graphics Control Panel.
Click to expand...

720p on any video player online, espn, youube, etc..yes i installed them

I just picked up a Windows 8 Pro, eff Windows 10 for now...thanks for all the help tho
 
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