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considering a new miniITX

5

5aboy

Weaksauce
Joined
Sep 17, 2005
Messages
92
hi,

i know nothing about miniITX, but i think its the way i want to go.

here is what i need:

a media centre that is wireless, will decode h264 at 1080p, will receive dvb-s2 signal, and will allow output to a tv via any of hdmi, dvi, composite.


now, where do i start?

im thinking atom duo/2gb ddr2/dvb-s2 card that is half height, but which case..........or is it better to get a prebuilt system and stick a dvbs card into it?

what to do?!
 
Forgot to mention

Don't forget there are also USB DVB-S2 cards, the Technotrend S2-3600 is one of them, unless you needed a dvb-s2 card with a ci/cam slot of course (european satellite TV) ?
 
That Zotac seems like a really nice board, and the price is hard to beat for mini-itx. Looks like there's some tradeoffs the OP is going to have to decide upon though.

The Zotac has a wifi adapter, two dimm memory slots, a pci-e 1x slot, an hdmi adapter and a lot of usb ports.

It's missing a PCI slot, which the OP may need if he was going to use a pci dvb-s card. No digital spdif connector but that can be fixed with a simple spdif adapter.

Here's the Zotac manuals in case the OP's interested.
 
hi,
thanks for all the input folks - but wouldnt that defeat the whole point - using a 45w tdp cpu?

are these boards not a little too powered for me?!

sole purpose is to sit beneath my tv, play satellite hd channels to my tv, play usb and networked films tv programmes etc, record tv channels in hd.

im happy to go down the linux route too, and i have an old copy of xp32 lying around that id like to use (i want to be economical) - else i can just forget it all and buy a dreamboxHD..........but wheres the fun in that?!
 
an atom will not handle 1080p HD files at all, it can barely do 720p, so if you do want 1080p HD decoding your going to need a g45, 780g or nvidia 8200 board.
 
vertigomhs said:
an atom will not handle 1080p HD files at all, it can barely do 720p, so if you do want 1080p HD decoding your going to need a g45, 780g or nvidia 8200 board.
Click to expand...

Absolutely correct. It may work on a file here or there for a short period of time but watch a whole movie, especially a higher bit rate movie, and you will suffer stutters and even lockups. I have an intel DG45FC. It works flawlessly with HD material as Hardware acceleration kicks in. I have an e4300 at 1.8ghz and on its own, incapable of HD playback; but when paired with this chip, it easily handles.

However, if you are more advanced and are looking for things like 24fps playback today, you may suffer some problems. A few friends who have built HTPCs using this board claim the newer drivers have solved their 24fps issues; however i have seen other reports that there is still some problems. All boards have their pros and cons but i can say this one, while starting on shaky ground, has improved dramatically and makes for a great HTPC.
 
Dude, seriously. H264 material eats CPUs like they were m&m's. Yes you need something that serious for it.
5aboy said:
hi,
thanks for all the input folks - but wouldnt that defeat the whole point - using a 45w tdp cpu?

are these boards not a little too powered for me?!

sole purpose is to sit beneath my tv, play satellite hd channels to my tv, play usb and networked films tv programmes etc, record tv channels in hd.

im happy to go down the linux route too, and i have an old copy of xp32 lying around that id like to use (i want to be economical) - else i can just forget it all and buy a dreamboxHD..........but wheres the fun in that?!
Click to expand...
 
so, it would be more economical for me to buy a hp slimline, and to add a pci-e or pci dvbs card to it?!
 
5aboy said:
so, it would be more economical for me to buy a hp slimline, and to add a pci-e or pci dvbs card to it?!
Click to expand...
Depends on how much you pay for the slimline, and it depends on what motherboard chipset it uses. Many slimlines would still studder on certain HD formats...it all depends. You may want to checkout that huge HP slimline thread for more info.

Don't forget the usb DVB-S2 option i posted above, the Technotrend would be light years better than any twinhan product (sorry but twinhans are complete junk). If you go ahead and experiment with the twinhan make absolute sure you purchase from a merchant that allows easy returns...because there's a fair chance you'll be looking to return it.
 
i am currently using a pinnacle 7010ix dual dvb-s dvbt tuner and once i managed to get it working, it has worked flawlessly!

im thinking of spending ~£200 on hp slimline - intel e4400 or athlon64x2 5000, 2gb ram.

the question is - will i definately be needing a standalone graphics card, or will the onboard ones do the trick with regards to h264 decoding?
 
If you go Slimline I would definitely not suggest using the integrated graphics. However if I were you I would do some research in the Slimline thread, see which cards fit in there, and perhaps buy one yourself. You might be able to get a better deal, and if not, you would certainly be able to find a better card than what HP offers.

The integrated options are (AFAIK):

AMD: nVidia 6150
Intel: nVidia 7100

I use a GeForce Go 7100 in my laptop and it cannot, at all, play HD video. Major studdering and it just overall doesn't happen. I have a pretty decent processor too (T7300). So in short: Go dedicated graphics
 
A 9400GT I'm sure would be able to do HD playback.

EDIT:

Doing some more experimenting with it I found that my graphics adapter (GeForce Go 7200) as well as my CPU (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo mobile T7300) can play back 1080p, although it only worked on Media Player Classic without constant studdering.
 
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