Is this enough for 1080 H264 (mkv)?

M

mrand01

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 22, 2002
Messages
341
about to pull the trigger on a new HTPC...first off, here are my goals:

1. Emulator box
2. 1080p MKV (almost always h264 video content...i think)
3. Stream music / other media (i'm assuming the 1080p mkvs are the most intensive)
4. Play blu-ray / hd-dvd discs
5. 7.1 sound (going to Onkyo TX-NR905 via HDMI)
6. As quiet as possible

So...here are the specs:

OrigenAE S21T Case
EVGA Geforce 9300 Mobo
PCP&C 370W Power Supply
Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 65W
2GB GSkill DDR2-800
LG BD/HD-DVD Combo drive
Asus Xonar HDAV 1.3 HDMI Sound Card
Scythe Ninja-Mini HSF
Some quiet fans

Is this enough to what I want?

Thanks,
MR
 
You need about 1.8GHz dual core CPU to play 1080p x264 assuming the PC is doing nothing else.
Anything above 2.2GHz should have no problem with a burdened system.
Your CPU is 2.5GHz and I'm sure you will clock it a little too as that produces very little extra heat if you leave the voltage alone or decrease it.
Overclocking a bit and reducing the voltage will keep noise and heat down while getting free performance!
It should be fine without though :)

If the movies are encoded correctly they can be accelerated with the gfx card
When gfx acceleration is enabled, movies that can use it will be accelerated, the others will use the CPU.

Awesome HTPC system, the HDAV 1.3 and Onkyo 905 completes it (I'm using the 875 and its amazing!).
What speakers and sub are you using?
 
Fronts are Polk Audio LSI15
Center is the Polk Audio LSIC
Rears are pieces of crap (they're next, a pair of LSI9s)
Sub is a 15" Adire Audio Brahma in a custom ported box powered by a Crown XTI1000 (it bumps HARD)
 
Wow, you have me soundly beat, that should be gorgeous!

I'm running Biwired Mission 754 fronts (for a big well controlled sound) with Acoustic Energy - Aegis tweeters to match the centre/surrounds, they fitted unmodified.
Awesome combo that brings a first class 10 year old speaker back to life.
AE Aegis Centre, AE Aegis Evo 3 Rears.
(theres something about the AE AEGIS EVO range sound that I really like, really mellow while being very clear, easy listening)
B&K Monolith + REL Strata II subs hooked up from front speaker live terminals for better sound timing and better matched harmonic response.
(LFE channel turned off, LFE fed to front speakers)

For infrasonic frequencies, I'm using a Quake 10B (new model) sofa shaker + 500W amp which is pretty amazing.
http://www.earthquakesound.com/quake10.htm
(old model is still on sale but looks the same)
It is great for some music but theres much music that it does not mix so well with.
There is a delay of about 1/5 second to set up the vibration and transmit it through the seat, this doesnt lend itself well to some beats.
For movies and gaming it is an experience to be had !

I cant imagine how good your setup sounds.
Do you know your subs in room response?
 
Somnambulator said:
if it's going from PC to digital receiver why do you need a sound card?
Click to expand...

The HDAV 1.3 is more than a normal soundcard, it is the only solution that allows PC's to play the high definition sound tracks unmolested on Blu Ray movie disks.

OP, you may be interested to know there is an analogue daughterboard for your soundcard.
I'm not sure which will have the best DAC (amp vs soundcard) but I favour the soundcard.
The opamps can also be replaced to suit your own taste.
May be worth a look.

I'm running analogue from my Prelude (with standard op amps) as it sounds a bit better than the DAC in my Onkyo 875 fwiw.
 
wouldnt going analog not allow me to use TrueHD and all that jazz? I thought w/o the HDCP link the audio would be downsampled
 
mrand01 said:
PCP&C 370W Power Supply
Click to expand...

This is the only real problem I have with your setup: You can get PSUs with more power and are a bit quieter for the same price:
$50 - Corsair 400CX 400W PSU
$55 - Antec Earthwatts 430W PSU
 
mrand01 said:
wouldnt going analog not allow me to use TrueHD and all that jazz? I thought w/o the HDCP link the audio would be downsampled
Click to expand...

The HDCP link is for video protection only but when you get no video, unfortunately you get no audio as well as a bi-product.
High Def audio uses a Protected Audio Path (pap) which is not present in the Windows OS so must be provided by another means.
Luckily Asus stepped up to the mark with the HDAV 1.3 soundcard and driver.


I dont believe analogue will be limited when playing protected audio but it does need checking up on.
I havent heard any mention that it cant be used for protected Hi Def audio, but equally I havent heard specific mention that it can.

The criteria for allowing playback of protected audio tracks is that a protected audio path must be present.
It is still compliant when using analogue as it has to use the pap too, it goes through the exact same circuits. The audio signal which is fed to the HDMI encoder will also get fed to the cards DAC for simultaneous output.
I can only imagine it not working if the pap chain must be terminated by an AV amp and not a soundcard.
As the amp will already be connected via HDMI anyway, this shouldnt even matter as the criteria is fulfilled.

So it should work (and it better had because I'm saving for one to use with analogue).
I'll keep my eye out for more info.

Edit:
I read in CrimandEvils link (post #13) that only one audio output can be enabled at one time as part of the copy protection spec.
So it looks like it will work fine with whichever output method you choose.
 
Last edited:
Nenu said:
The HDAV 1.3 is more than a normal soundcard, it is the only solution that allows PC's to play the high definition sound tracks unmolested on Blu Ray movie disks.
Click to expand...
However, thanks to the arcane and as-yet unimplemented encryption requirements of HDCP and PAP, no existing graphics cards are up to this task. Hence, the HDAV1.3: A $250 solution to a $10 problem.
Click to expand...
LOL

http://www.silentpcreview.com/Xonar_HDAV

I really wouldn't suggest going down this road since it's a very expensive and nearly useless road.
 
CrimandEvil said:
LOL

http://www.silentpcreview.com/Xonar_HDAV

I really wouldn't suggest going down this road since it's a very expensive and nearly useless road.
Click to expand...

Agreed, its ridiculous that it costs so much to comply with PAP/AACS.
Sadly this is the only solution for PC and I havent heard that any graphics cards will get a PAP so it looks to be down to separate soundcards to give PCs high Def Blu Ray sound.

There is a silver lining though that helps a bit, its a superb analogue soundcard, has a 192KHz 24bit DAC, has replaceable op-amps and adds xvycc extended colour space that many TVs support.
Unfortunately there is no media available to use the extended colour space yet unless you make your own with a Sony camcorder so not much use, but hey its xvycc ready :)
 
You know, you could just remove AACS from whatever content you have and not use any crap like PowerDVD that forces downsampling when PAP isn't present...
 
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