Popcorn hour A-210 or WD TV live Plus

[Kittu]

For ATI entrylevel cards,a good 400w SMPS is sufficient(5450 with 19w)-
Radeon HD 5450 vs Radeon HD 5550 Performance Comparison Benchmarks @ Hardware Compare
I am using 400w with 5570 with no issues.I have Intel C2D E7500 which consumes around 60w.AMD CPU will need more power like venkat have.

Video(720p) from 5570-
http://www.hifivision.com/home-thea...card-vs-radeon-5xxx-series-12.html#post231879

Does your card decode all audio formats , when connected to AVR ? or do you use different players for different formats to play ?

 

[spirovious]

Does your card decode all audio formats , when connected to AVR ? or do you use different players for different formats to play ?

ATI cards doesnt decode all formats as nvidia(which can even decode Divx),it supports for H.264, VC-1, MPEG-2, and Adobe Flash-
ATI Radeon HD 5570 Graphics
GeForce GT 240

I use vlc,PowerDVD10,MPCHC & ARC totalmedia5.
Now vlc detects the video form & accordingly decodes OR does Hardware accelaration.Same with powerDVD & Totalmedia.

MPCHC needs additional filters like ffd,hali for decoding.Some of the formats are decoded by MP itselfs.Then need to read some guide-
How to configure FFDShow and ReClock for bitstreaming HD audio ? Mai Sun's Blog
How to config ffdshow and reclock for HD audio, - Doom9's Forum

 

[naren2512]

Venkat sir,

Thanks for sharing the link for tomshardware.com it really has a lot of good information on the Graphic cards.

I did some reading on the site and based on their analysis and my budget have shortlisted below two Graphics Cards

1) Sapphire AIT Radeon HD 5570 - comes for 55$ or 2475 INR
2) Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 5770 - comes for 103$ or 4635 INR

On Tomshardware while reading the reviews etc I found below link that has comparison of a few GCs including the above two for the HTPC usage.

The Kings of Multimedia Playback: Contemporary HTPC Graphics Cards Reviewed. Page 9 - X-bit labs

Now the 5770 and 5570 both seem good to me :

5770 consumes more power than 5570, requires bigger heat sink and hence makes it more noise (around 5 times noisier ) thus 5570 seems better here

5770 seems faster at processing than 5570 - however I think this becomes important for gaming but for HTPC both should be good.

5770 seems to have better picture quality than 5570.

My questions are :

1) For movies / HTPC in your opinion will 5570's picture quality be good enough or there will be noticeable difference between 5570 and 5770

2) If the answer for above is yes then does the PQ difference justify the price difference between the two cards ( price diff is approx 2200 INR)

3) I read in one of the post by you that your HTPC has 5770 - Do you experience any noice or heat problem while watching movies?

Thanks for your help in advance.

Regards,
Naren

 

[naren2512]

Dear Friends,

In addition to my question on the Graphics Card in my last post above, I have one more question and it pertains to the Blu ray drive / writer.

I was thinking of buying a blue ray R/W instead of a blu ray drive/ reader.

There is a " LG Blu-ray Burner Super Multi " available for 100$ on below link

Newegg.com - LG Black 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 16X DVD+R 12X DVD-RAM 10X BD-ROM 4MB Cache SATA Internal Blu-ray Burner Super Multi WH12LS30 LightScribe Support - Blu-Ray Burners

I am little confused after reading one of the review on newegg.com which is as following :

-------------------
Pros: Very quiet and fast with no issues with typical CD, DVD or BD media (burning). Responsive and works smoothly with Cyberlink software; much better than my older DVD burner and other software.

Cons: Will not read Bluray movie disc ... says I need a DVI connection, HD video card, (which I have) etc. Suspect Cyberlink wants one to purchase their more expensive software ... bummer!

Other Thoughts: For my purposes, it does exactly what I purchased it for ... burns large masses of data on BD discs ... quickly. Burned and verified ~13 Gigs of data in less than 12 minutes. If you want to watch Bluray movies; I suspect you will have to fork out $$$ for more capable software? Since I watch Bluray movies on a home entertainment system ... its not an issue for me (home office). Again, I believe its software ..,. not LG.
Quietest burner I ever purchased ...
------------------

I am failing to understand why any drive / writer should need separate paid drivers to play movie in it.

1) Has any one heard of any blu ray writers not being able to play movies? and usually dont we get the drivers free with blue ray writers?

2) Does the "LG Blu ray writer" on above link looks VFM else can you suggest any other model ?

Sorry for the long post and thanks to have been patient enough to read it and for your help

Regards,
Naren

 

[venkatcr]

1) For movies / HTPC in your opinion will 5570's picture quality be good enough or there will be noticeable difference between 5570 and 5770

For HTPC purposes the 5570 should be sufficient. Only gaming needs more GPU.

3) I read in one of the post by you that your HTPC has 5770 - Do you experience any noice or heat problem while watching movies?

I am assuming your HT room will be air conditioned. I have not faced any issues with my HTPC / GPU for the last about one year. Touch Wood.

Cheers

 

[venkatcr]

1) Has any one heard of any blu ray writers not being able to play movies? and usually dont we get the drivers free with blue ray writers?

I don't understand what the writer is talking about. There are a few issues with Blu-Ray drives and Blu-Ray discs.

1. Unlike Blu-Ray players, Blu-Ray drives in PC are controlled by software for region control. You are allowed to change the region 5 times, after which the region is permanently locked. But, since this is a software control, there are simple ways of handling this.

2. Nearly all the production houses constantly change the protection methodology as they release new movies. So a player that was set say, last year, MAY not read protected discs released this year. Again, in PCs, this is easily remedied.

3) Does the "LG Blu ray writer" on above link looks VFM else can you suggest any other model ?

I have been using a LG Blu-Ray player in my HTPC for about a year with no issues. There are other members such as Kapvin who are also using LG players.

Cheers

PS, regarding step down transformers, please consult with Mumbai members to find out who in Mumbai make good step down transformers. I do believe there are a few good models and they have been mentioned in HFV a few times.

Cheers

 

[spirovious]

+1 to Venkat,5570 is really made for HTPC as it is low profile.5770 is powerful & is must have for gaming.If you go for 5770,it will do all necessary job,but may occupy extra slot.

LG has good hardware & are reliable.I went for asus with lower cost-
Amazon.com: ASUS Internal 4x Blu-Ray Reader SATA Optical Drive BR-04B2T (Black): Electronics

 

[naren2512]

Hi Venkat / Spiro,

Thank you both for helping me decide on the Graphics card and Blue Ray Writer.

I finally went with the "Sapphire HD 5570" and it cost me 65 $ + % 5 $ shipping ( earlier i had mentioned 55 $ but that was without HDMI out) , placed the order yesterday so hopefully if the delivery happens by Thursday then I will receive it next week additionally i also bought monoprice HDMI cable for connecting the GC with AVR and shall try to purchase the 1 TB WD my passport HDD and 400 watts SMPS from Grant Rd / Mumbai.

For the Blue Ray writer I have kept it on hold for now as my bro's friend coming this week end cant carry it so will buy it at a later date when some one else is flying from there to India.

Once again thanks and really appreciate your help to have guided me into right direction, I think it saved me money that i would have paid otherwise on multi media player and also this will put my computer to use which is mostly powered off for like weeks together

Have a great day ahead.

Regards,
Naren

 

[spirovious]

Congrats Naren, it was good that you did not place order for the 5570 other one which has Display port instead of HDMI.Hope you will love it.

 

[spirovious]

Hi Venkat / Spiro,

I finally went with the "Sapphire HD 5570" and it cost me 65 $ + % 5 $ shipping ,
Naren

Indian price reduced & with warrenty Rs.3799-
Sapphire ATI PCI-E Cards Radeon HD 5570 - 1GB, Compare and Buy latest ATI-AMD Online in India: bitfang.com