Issues with a new HTPC

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Hyper_Psycho

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Mar 26, 2002
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Hey everyone

Recently I built a HTPC for my parents.

Its running a Sempron at 1.9 ghz with 1 gb of ram
There is a GeForce 6150 SE on board that steals 128mb of ram
Its running Win xp pro and two SATA segate 7,200 barracudas.

Right now I'm having some issues:

1. I connected the computer to the TV with a VGA cable. The TV won't utilize all of the pixels on the screen. The tv is 60A3000 Sony Bravia 60in (60A3000). I can run 1920x1080 resolution but there is about an inch of black border surrounding the screen. Is there a way to fix this?

2. The computer lags when it plays 1080 videos. The only ones I have tried are the quicktime trailers since they are running 1080. When I'm running 720 trailers there is a lesser lag, but it is still present. What would be the best way to get rid of this issue. Is rendering HD content more stressful on the video card or processor? If more money is to be thrown into the computer, what would be a good purchase? The motherboard has a PCI express x16 slot so I could put a nice little video card in there.

Would both of these solutions be fixed if I get a HDMI capable video card? Any suggestions are appreciated.
 
Upgrade the processor to about a Athlon 64 or a X2 and it will be alot faster.
 
The border is probably put there by your TV. Mine does that; I can either run it through HDMI and get 2" chopped off all around the screen, or I can use the VGA port and it will scale it to avoid overscan, but add a small black border at the same time. I just ignore it.

As for the stuttering, that's pretty standard fare for old computers. A Pentium D or Athlon X2 is really mandatory for minimum HD playback. Some people on HDBits claim they can do it with an Athlon XP and tons of optimizations, but I call shenanigans on that.
 
jojo1224 said:
Upgrade the processor to about a Athlon 64 or a X2 and it will be alot faster.
Click to expand...

Go with an X2 (shit, they're like only $10 more then a regular single core) and get a video card.

That 6150SE[/i] is just the regular 6100 series chip with a TV out support added in but not the really useful things like MPEG2 acceleration.

Video is choking on the system because your CPU is so lowend, I've got a 2.2Ghz A64 single core and it's able to playback 720p content just fine but still chokes on 1080 stuff (and I'm only talking about the downloadable stuff; BR and HD DVD are just going to rape my 2.2 if I was using the onboard video).

The video thing is a manufacture implimented limitation of the VGA port (usually referred to as "PC input" or something like that). They do it to make sure that your PC doesn't break the TV even though theres nothing different between your TV or something like a VGA capable DVD player or any other CE device with VGA outputs. The moral of the story is to use something else if you can; component would work all the same.
 
Well upgrading the processor is an issue given that the system was purchased a week ago. Would it be safe to say that if I upgrade the video card with some $100 PCI 16x card I could get lagless 720 playback? If so, what card should I get? Would increasing the memory to 2 gigs help? I mean it seems ridicules that a computer cannot play 1080 stuff at 1.9ghz!!!
 
Hyper_Psycho said:
Well upgrading the processor is an issue given that the system was purchased a week ago. Would it be safe to say that if I upgrade the video card with some $100 PCI 16x card I could get lagless 720 playback? If so, what card should I get? Would increasing the memory to 2 gigs help? I mean it seems ridicules that a computer cannot play 1080 stuff at 1.9ghz!!!
Click to expand...

Video card won't help you. CPU is where you need the help. Try to return the CPU and spend the extra $10 on an X2. Or, if you've got $100 for a video card, spend $80 on an X2 and pocket the rest.
 
InorganicMatter said:
Video card won't help you. CPU is where you need the help. Try to return the CPU and spend the extra $10 on an X2. Or, if you've got $100 for a video card, spend $80 on an X2 and pocket the rest.
Click to expand...

So what processor should I get. I would need to return the CPU back sometime very soon.... and if I can trade it in, what should I go for?
 
Hyper_Psycho said:
So what processor should I get. I would need to return the CPU back sometime very soon.... and if I can trade it in, what should I go for?
Click to expand...
We just told you; get an X2. It's up to your budget which X2 to get but it's pretty safe to say that you should be able to get a 3800+ at the very least.
 
I should note that the lag only shows withe quicktime trailers. I tried DLing some WMV stuff from microsoft at 1080 and had no lag problems whats so ever. Is there some standard uncompressed file out there that would give a good idea if the computer could run 1080 or not.
 
Hyper_Psycho said:
I should note that the lag only shows withe quicktime trailers. I tried DLing some WMV stuff from microsoft at 1080 and had no lag problems whats so ever. Is there some standard uncompressed file out there that would give a good idea if the computer could run 1080 or not.
Click to expand...
You need a better CPU, period.
 
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