Every HTPC has a story !!!

[neoonwheels]

Dont waste your money on RAM won't change a thing, get a dedicated GPU if playing all these high res high bitrate H.265 files is of any concern.

No intention of playing H.265 files. My plasma only supports only 720p. All I wanted was HD, Full HD with surround sound (All types) pass-through. That is met and so I am happy as of now hyeah:

 

[regeHA]

No intention of playing H.265 files. My plasma only supports only 720p. All I wanted was HD, Full HD with surround sound (All types) pass-through. That is met and so I am happy as of now hyeah:

Most content even now is only 720p... even on my most recent trip to US I've not seen much FHD or 4K broadcast. The only exception is Netflix, but that's a streaming service.

Considering your TV will anyway downscale everything to its native resolution of 720p, don't bother too much with FHD unless its for the future collection and/or you are planning on a TV upgrade.

Anyways HTPC is the way to go and for streaming go with Kodi and IPTV... even paid IPTV, most will be 720p and/or 1080p.

I've multiple streaming services from the likes of Chromecast and Roku, even paid ones, but nothing comes close to my HTPC + Kodi + Synology. Handles all formats, transcoding on demand, and can stream to multiple devices in home and even out of home. I've even streamed in my car while driving... sort of a novelty... but provided you have strong 3G or 4G it will even play anything transcoded on Plex.

 

[sam9s]

10 bit is useless unless you have a 10 bit monitor/tv anyways.

high end 4KUHD does, but thats just a matter of time few months and it will become a norm, anyway, with OP the normal non 10 Bit HEVC H.265 also stutters, the codec which is quite common now, even DB disks are getting ripped in H.265 these days .....

 

[sam9s]

No intention of playing H.265 files. My plasma only supports only 720p. All I wanted was HD, Full HD with surround sound (All types) pass-through. That is met and so I am happy as of now hyeah:

The tests were not for you ... or to prove you anything .....those were for me, my research, to see how the chipset performs ....

BTW your intentions of not playing H.265 is moot as it depends on the ripper/encoder what codec he chooses to compress. Say just an hypothetical situation tomorrow all the encodes started using H.265 and upload the so-called DB rips on torrents, you would not be able to play a thing .....

Ofcourse this is not going to happen over night, but slowly n slowly, H.265 is going to be the standard coded for all 4K, 1080p rips.

 

[neoonwheels]

The tests were not for you ... or to prove you anything .....those were for me, my research, to see how the chipset performs ....

BTW your intentions of not playing H.265 is moot as it depends on the ripper/encoder what codec he chooses to compress. Say just an hypothetical situation tomorrow all the encodes started using H.265 and upload the so-called DB rips on torrents, you would not be able to play a thing .....

Ofcourse this is not going to happen over night, but slowly n slowly, H.265 is going to be the standard coded for all 4K, 1080p rips.

Yes Sam, agree! But then I can always upgrade my Proc+MB and get a decent graphics card keeping everything else same :yahoo:. Beauty of modular build of HTPC hyeah:

Anyways, I hope I have been of help on the file formats. Now we know what the HTPC is capable of (And of not) !

 

[regeHA]

No intention of playing H.265 files. My plasma only supports only 720p. All I wanted was HD, Full HD with surround sound (All types) pass-through. That is met and so I am happy as of now hyeah:

Yes Sam, agree! But then I can always upgrade my Proc+MB and get a decent graphics card keeping everything else same :yahoo:. Beauty of modular build of HTPC hyeah:

Anyways, I hope I have been of help on the file formats. Now we know what the HTPC is capable of (And of not) !

For the absolute best in PQ check out madVR. It will need a powerful GPU, NVIDIA GTX and the higher the better... I've personally seen it beat $2000 AVRs and the best thing is its 100% free... though you'll need to spend on a powerful GPU.

But its the best there is... I can play 360p and 400p content (typical SD rips) and have them upscaled to any resolution provided you have the GPU and the specs.

A few places to get started with reading about it.

HOW TO - Set up madVR for Kodi DSPlayer & External Players
https://wiki.mikejung.biz/MadVR
https://wiki.jriver.com/index.php/MadVR_Expert_Guide
madVR Options Explained - Doom9's Forum
https://imouto.my/tutorials/configu...-and-also-high-performance-software-decoding/

I used it initially with JRiver, but now I prefer it with PotPlayer + CUDA decoding.

Hopefully, something to get you started on the modular upgrade path of your HTPC.

 

[akd]

You got tired, coz the way you configured your HTPC might not be optimal, 15 min to start a PC, there...there!!! that itself tells why you got tired. Even the lamest, tired and slow to the core PC (of last 10 years) does not take...maybe more then 3-5 min to start. I will throw all my PCs if anyone of it takes more than 5 sec to boot, ...8-10 at the most. With openELEC .... definitely not more than 5...anyway ...

yes, PC does not take more than 3-5 minutes to boot, but thats just like switching on a player, next is loading a disc, then anyDVD will scan the disc which sometimes takes a lot of time, then start a player, then the disc will be loaded into the player which may ask you to check internet connection for BD+ codes, then many disc menu can only be handled with keyboard and mouse does not respond to the menu, many a times full disc menu does not load automatically

now I have a few observations
1.majority of HTPC with BD drives use a series of softwares such as anyDVD,powerDVD,Bluray region tray etc., how someone is supposed to get them? in India the answer is so easy, get the pirated ones, I do not really like to use pirated softwares when spending so much for BDs

2.if one uses the HTPC for stereo (audio), now you have to change sound devices (sound card to HDMI), one of the major flaws with HTPC is there is no cost effective way of getting a second small display, for playing music switching on the TV is meaningless

there are others.....

But there are positive points as well, for instance ripping a BD to a MKV/MP4 is a fun, but again one needs softwares,by the way I am really happy to use makemkv+handbrake+mkvmerge in ubuntu

for playing a media file(jpg,mkv,mp4,avi,mpg...) a full HD TV is sufficient, its a matter of few seconds, building a HTPC needs time,patience,learning and money while for playing media files and BD/DVD discs a decent BD player is cheap,fast and plug and play option which is hard to beat, I strongly doubt how many HTPC users actually use it for functions which can not be performed elsewhere, just for playing media files keeping a PC and obviously an UPS has lost its significance

But if one makes the HTPC to perform audio playback,media player,DVD/BD playback,storage,encoding and transcoding,recording through TV tuner card,internet media streaming,high quality upscaling then it really justifies the investment

my two cents only

 

[sam9s]

Yes Sam, agree! But then I can always upgrade my Proc+MB and get a decent graphics card keeping everything else same :yahoo:. Beauty of modular build of HTPC hyeah:

yep... all you need is to add GPU

 

[sam9s]

yes, PC does not take more than 3-5 minutes to boot, but thats just like switching on a player, next is loading a disc, then anyDVD will scan the disc which sometimes takes a lot of time, then start a player, then the disc will be loaded into the player which may ask you to check internet connection for BD+ codes, then many disc menu can only be handled with keyboard and mouse does not respond to the menu, many a times full disc menu does not load automatically

nope if you have a legitimate version of PowerDVD and are playing your region BD,all you do it to pop up the disk in the drive and rest is taken care of by powerDVD. All in not more than a minute from the time PC is fully booted.

now I have a few observations
1.majority of HTPC with BD drives use a series of softwares such as anyDVD,powerDVD,Bluray region tray etc., how someone is supposed to get them? in India the answer is so easy, get the pirated ones, I do not really like to use pirated softwares when spending so much for BDs

The answer is also easy when you purchase them as well. I have purchased AnyDVD HD for like 45Euros or so dont remember, quite a few years ago ,(I think when I first created my HTPC) and that is all that was needed.

2.if one uses the HTPC for stereo (audio), now you have to change sound devices (sound card to HDMI), one of the major flaws with HTPC is there is no cost effective way of getting a second small display, for playing music switching on the TV is meaningless

I dont use my HTPC for Audio, most of us don't, combination of Rpi with USB DAC and Moode is all you need to get Audiophile grade quality, plus also serves the purpose of UPnP renderer as well.

But there are positive points as well, for instance ripping a BD to a MKV/MP4 is a fun, but again one needs softwares,by the way I am really happy to use makemkv+handbrake+mkvmerge in ubuntu

Been there!!! Done That!!! for ages (2011 I wrote this guide been doing all this since late 90s, of course with CDs and DVD not BD)

http://www.hifivision.com/articles-guides/19158-best-guide-backup-your-bluray-mkv-mp4.html

But if one makes the HTPC to perform audio playback,media player,DVD/BD playback,storage,encoding and transcoding,recording through TV tuner card,internet media streaming,high quality upscaling then it really justifies the investment

my two cents only

Nope my HTPC does just one thing and one thing only, play any God damm file thrown at it (well excluding the 10Bits, if we are going to go in to that much detail). And it also plays BDs, but I prefer my Panasonic BD 60 (hardware hacked to play any region Bluray) to play the discs. Transcoding is done via my plex, running on my ESXi Server (Check Sig - Down for maintenance ATM though) so if I need any movie on my travel, I use plex simple. Recording via TV tuner card ?????? what!! you live in late 90sss I used to do this when I was in college back in 2001 on my Pentium II. Who does that these days,(well apparently some do I guess .. ) current STB has this capability that works wonders. Media streaming well yes my HTPC can do that, but I prefer my Roku 3 or I simply download.....kaya bacha????? High Quality upscaling .. mmmmm I wonder why I would need that. SD upscaled to HD TV looks as shit as the SD itself. No 4k so no 1080p to 4K upscaling, but even when I will shift to 4K, upscaling would be one of my last priorities.

YOu missed gaming ... I have an i7 GTX 660 for that, and soon to buy SHIELD so that aspect is also covered. I have an xbox 360 (HACKED) as well and nintendo wii (HACKED AGAIN) that I play with my kid on weekends....... I also happen to have Sony PSP (HACKED as well ) for those casual handheld gaming experience .....I think I covered all:yahoo: ....

BTW love to share my HTPC on Kodi .... do watch the entire viedeo ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx7aSs0tJTI

 

[Rockfella]

There is no replacement for a HTPC. No other player can match a simple HTPC.

 

[Rockfella]

Good one. :clapping:
Hey I was a big fan of XBMO and later Kodi but I tried watching some big file movies on PowerDVD and i changed my impressions.

BTW love to share my HTPC on Kodi .... do watch the entire viedeo ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx7aSs0tJTI

 

[neoonwheels]

So finally, I got hold of some heavy media files to test on my HTPC. Good to know this thing packs a punch. Following are the details of the files tested. Every file played well by the machine. HD audio pass-through to the AVR and it showed correct stream information.

CA: Civil War, 12GB file



Wolverine: 13GB file

 

[sam9s]

^^ These are not heavy files neo even though the size makes it seems like. The first one has an over all bitate of 11.6 mbps with a meek 4.1 profile. The second one has 12.7 mbps bitrate again with 4.1 profile. Even my C2D without hardware acc was able to play 120mbps h.264 file @ 4.1profile ..

The jellyfish file you tried was the actual test and yes not saying it didn't pass, it did, and I have no doubt in saying that Athlon 5150 and AM1M-E combination has surpassed all expectations, if ergonomics is not of any concern ..

 

[neoonwheels]

^^ These are not heavy files neo even though the size makes it seems like. The first one has an over all bitate of 11.6 mbps with a meek 4.1 profile. The second one has 12.7 mbps bitrate again with 4.1 profile. Even my C2D without hardware acc was able to play 120mbps h.264 file @ 4.1profile ..

The jellyfish file you tried was the actual test and yes not saying it didn't pass, it did, and I have no doubt in saying that Athlon 5150 and AM1M-E combination has surpassed all expectations, if ergonomics is not of any concern ..

lol, I was going by size hyeah:

Yeh, Jellyfish thing in H.264 worked without issues