DougLite's HTPC Project and questions

[DougLite]

Relevant [H]ard|Ware:

DFI LanParty NFII Ultra B (SoundStorm FTW!)
35W 2400+ Mobile Barton (2.0GHz/1.42V for now)
1GB RAM
AIW 9700 Pro
PVR-250
160GB Hitachi 7K250
NEC DVD-RW
Sony DVD-ROM
XP Pro

Yamaha RX-V1400 w/ 5.1 sound
Hitachi 65G500 65" CRT HDTV

Install was a breeze. Drivers, ATI MultiMedia Center, DVD playback software installed without a hitch. ATI HDTV support is great with one bug. Catalyst Control Center picked up my HDTV right away, and 1152x684 looks great with no overscan. However, it doesn't remember this setting on reboot and goes right back to 800x600 Any ideas what's going wrong? I'm running WHQL Cat 5.13 /w CCC - will the Omegas fix this?

DVD playback has been fabulous. I can enjoy either 480p w/ hardware acceleration, or 1440x960 FFDShow post processing. The 5.1 passthrough over S/PDIF cranks, and the audio quality is much better than what is delivered by my set top DVD player. The 2.0GHz Barton is kind of limited in terms of FFDShow power, as upscaling to 1440x960 and applying some basic noise reduction rockets CPU use into the 90+ percent range. IQ is fantastic, but can I get some of my CPU time back, and what works for you guys on FFDshow?

Gaming so far has been excellent. UT2004 looks great in 1152x648 (same res as desktop, only had to edit ini to get it work) WideScreenGamingForum made this a cakewalk.

Also, any suggestions on a PVR front end...Is SageTV worth the bucks, or should I just use one of the freebies?

I may put another PVR-250 and a pair of Samsung HDDs in it, but the rest of the hardware probably can't be changed, as I'm poor.

 

[CrimandEvil]

Nay, unless you happen to have another PVR250 laying around I wouldn't buy another one unless you can get a really good price on one.

Anyways here are the FFDShow settings and tweaks I've been using::
Relevant Hardware/Software: 2.3Ghz Mobile AXP 2400+, BFG 5700U with Zoomplayer, Dscaler5 .07, FFDshow build 20051129, VMR9 fullscreen and YV12 output/input

First some setup:

Now the settings:

And if you think you need it and your CPU is fast enough for it then you can do alittle sharpening.

With only Resize going (not too bad) I can resize to 1080 but with other filters running it's strickly 720, if I go down to 1024 then I can run 3dNoise.

Running it in 720p with just gradual denoise gives very good results by my eyes and the CPU usage isn't that bad (I believe it's something like 70%, I'd have to check).

Personally, I love SageTV for it's PVR functions. I run it with Xlobby as my frontend, I'd believe it's worth it's price but you can always DL the trail version and give it a shot yourself. I'd just suggest not judging it based on the default "Skin" (they're called STV, they're the skin/interface for SageTV) and to try it with one of the better STVs (I use the Crashless STV). If you like it I would suggest hitting up PC Alchemy for a SageTV/tuner card bundle and adding another tuner to the system, I'm a firm believer in needing three tuners to avoid any scheduling conflicts.

On the ATI issue, 5.13 is the leastest Cats right? I remember reading about several issues with them and I believe this was one of them, the solution was to roll back to the last driver set from what I remember, I use NV cards mostly so I'm just repeating what I heard/ what I can remember.

 

[IDversusEGO]

yeah, no point in getting a 250 anymore. unless you just want the more mature linux drivers.

 

[DougLite]

Wow, thanks CrimandEvil - you didn't have to do FFDshow for me

Also, thanks for saving me the bucks. I'll check out SageTV today, and if I like it I'll head over to PCAlchemy and pick up one of the bundles, then post with nay more questions/updates.

It's either that or buy more [H]ard|Drives

 

[CrimandEvil]

Wow, thanks CrimandEvil - you didn't have to do FFDshow for me

lol It's not problem, last week someone asked for settings and help with setting up FFDShow so I still had the pics uploaded.

Also, thanks for saving me the bucks. I'll check out SageTV today, and if I like it I'll head over to PCAlchemy and pick up one of the bundles, then post with nay more questions/updates.

It's either that or buy more [H]ard|Drives

More harddrives are always good. My local Best Buy has some Seagate 160 gigs for $69.99, the CompUSA seems to be having a sell on Maxtor but those includes rebates (a 100gigs for $39 and 200gigs for $59 I believe).

 

[th3 godfather]

are those ffdshow tweaks for dvd watching or for watching television?

 

[CrimandEvil]

DVD/video. I could never get it to play right with Live TV, recorded TV looks great with it though.