(haisaikat) My 3D Slim HTPC cum Region Free Blu-Ray Player

Audiolab 7000CDT CD Transport
spirovious said:
Did you get another bracket for larger cabinate?I got for low profile extra.
Click to expand...

Yes I have got an extra for larger cabinet, it is on the pic in my first post on this thread where I have placed the GPU alone on the table.

So in all this came with 3 brackets 2 low prfile brackets attached by default one having DVI and HDMI and the other having VGA and the third one is full which if you want to use have to refit on the card and remove the other two.

Are you planning to upgrade? Or you want the high profile bracket only?
 
Actually for HTPC duty, the nvidia 440 GT low profile from MSI is a far better choice than the ATIs simply because it allows you to run lavcuvid and madvr while with ATI you are limited to using the EVR. Having tested both the ATI 6570 and this card, I find the image quality of the NVIDIA solution to be significantly superior. Plus this particular card costs just 4000 rupees.
 
Hi reignofchaoes, have you tested with 3D videos and BD playback (not just BD rips)?

The reason I went for HD6670 were

1. It has GDDR5 memory as compared to slower GDDR3 in GT440 which in my opinion will give me extra mileage if I upgrade to 3D projector or TV in future and will give me better BD playback support, no offence I did not have the chance to test them side by side.

2. HD6670 is single slot as compared to MSI GT440 Low Profile which occupies 2 slots and this is a concern while accomodating inside slim cabinets.
 
reignofchaos said:
Actually for HTPC duty, the nvidia 440 GT low profile from MSI is a far better choice than the ATIs simply because it allows you to run lavcuvid and madvr while with ATI you are limited to using the EVR. Having tested both the ATI 6570 and this card, I find the image quality of the NVIDIA solution to be significantly superior. Plus this particular card costs just 4000 rupees.
Click to expand...

+1 to that. Even I have the onboard ATI graphics which was not looking great on my tv with video. So as per sam's thread just ordered zotak gt440 and disabled the onboard gpu. Now playing videos just look so stunning. I have installed Potplayer with madvr/lavcuvid and any kind of video format plays so superbly with very less dependance on the cpu and the decoding/processing everything happens on the gt440.

Thanks
 
haisaikat said:
Hi reignofchaoes, have you tested with 3D videos and BD playback (not just BD rips)?

The reason I went for HD6670 were

1. It has GDDR5 memory as compared to slower GDDR3 in GT440 which in my opinion will give me extra mileage if I upgrade to 3D projector or TV in future and will give me better BD playback support, no offence I did not have the chance to test them side by side.

2. HD6670 is single slot as compared to MSI GT440 Low Profile which occupies 2 slots and this is a concern while accomodating inside slim cabinets.
Click to expand...

No I did not test 3D since I don't have a 3D display. However I see no difference as to why it will be any different. Also all that matters is the card can do 1080p60 without loading the CPU for 3D. The ram really doesn't matter in video processing. It only matters for games.

Yes the GT 440 is slightly wide but honestly its not that big a deal. Even my tiny ISK 310 can fit it.
 
reignofchaos said:
However I see no difference as to why it will be any different. Also all that matters is the card can do 1080p60 without loading the CPU for 3D. The ram really doesn't matter in video processing. It only matters for games.
Click to expand...

Is is the same battle of GDDR5 vs GDDR3 where I chose GDDR5 going by its lower power consumption and faster speed as compared to GDDR3.

Moreover I think unless its is imported from abroad like me both would come near around the same prince if purchased locally(?).

Regarding single slot vs dual slot think of it not from ITX cabinets where your fusion mobo has only one room of expansion slot (although 4X) but for small sized micro atx cabinets like mine with m-ATX mobos someone may be interested to add a 2nd pci sound card later on where the availability of a close slot is of immense help.

Again I think I am not going into a battle of justifying which one is better but in my opinion for HTPC use I chose the more powerful one in near around the same budget keeping in mind the unknown future.
 
Hi Everyone,
Here are a few screenshots from my HTPC running XBMC 11 Eden Beta 2 (over Windows 7), some are screenshots of the settings page whereas there are some screenshots of playing the Blu Ray Disc of The Dark Night using XBMC's native playback support, however this version of XBMC still does not support BD Menu. There are also a few XBMC settings page screenshots.

I have also installed following suggestions Total Media Theater 5 and Power DVD 11 (PDVD 11) mainly to allow BD playback with HD Audio something which XBMC is still not doing















I am using Windows Media Center as the other software apart from XBMC to get BDs played via Total Media Theater 5 (TMT5) .This is because I am having some issues of getting this done from within XBMC. When Windows Media Center Runs, it automatically becomes integrated with Power DVD 11 or TMT5 since both these two softwares runs their own services at the background to provide this feature to clients like Windows Media Center.
Given below are a few photos (sorry had issues with taking screenshots hence had to take photos using my cell phone, hence photos are a little blurry at places) of the Windows Media Center giving options for TMT5 and PDVD11 and then subsequent playback using them. Note that PDVD11 many a time takes ages to load BDs where TMT5 excels. All settings of TMT5 that are accessible from otherwise TMT5 UI are also available from withing Windows Media Center including the BD Menu (both Standard BD Menu as well as TMT5 native BD Menu although both does the same thing). Remote is supported all throughout out of the box.

BD Playback via TMT5 of course has the advantage of supporting HD Audio (one photo is also there from my Denon) but it fails to adjust the TV's refresh rate to match content frame rate which XBMC does.

















 
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hi haisaikat, congrats. your htpc looks very nice.
I have a doubt--do these htpc's decode hd audio or do they just passthrough?b'coz my onkyo surround amp can only support lpcm(hdmi 1.1v)-- which means it needs to be decoded by the source.
i have a dual core @2ghzprocessor+ MB: Biostar G31D-M7 + 1gb ram + samsung bd writer. does addding a graphics card with inbuilt ram/ separate ram + ice remote should do? or i need to buy more/replace stuff? pls. advise. thanks.
 
^^. HTPC will decode hd audio to lpcm so you can use your old AVR. XBMC is very friendly when it comes to setting audio.

Adding a graphics card is recommended because in most case the onboard gpu will not be capable to play HD movies and blu-ray disks and 3D. The low cost card that supports 3D and hd audio passthrough is GT520.
 
hello saikat...help me please..
my old p4 system need to be changed.
now i am planning to have a system for blu ray backup.

my main aim is downloading only and blu ray ripping....no game..no blu ray disc playback..

will core 2 duo/amd phenom X2 and acording mobo+extrnal graphic card be okay for that.....
or higher processor+mobo is needed??
 
Your config is just fine for blu ray backup and rips using core2duo. Even encoding to lossy format etc will also work. Hiowvwer if you want faster encoding then you might go for higher cpu only but that will never help you speeding up of encodingless backups of bds. Also your gpu will not be of much help in either of these 2 cases and hence go with
Onboard gpu alone

Why not buy a capable mobo with enough sata ports and add bd rom / writer for future nas upgradation options.

Sent from my Galaxy Pro Duos via Tapatalk
 
Forgot to add. If downloading is the main purpose then you might also go for greener mini itx options

Sent from my Galaxy Pro Duos via Tapatalk
 
PSU was so so, went kaput after 7 to 8 months. Actually my space was so cramped at top especialy (1 - 2 mm gap) that the heat from processor was not getting out properly and the interior was getting overheated to 65 to 75 degree celcius. During this time one day the psu stopped working but it ran 10+ hours continuously, got it replaced by a similar one at 300 to 400 INR that is working fine so far. Also for heating I attached two quality fans of Thermaltake after which now the temperature hovers in the range of 40 celcius mostly which is acceptable. PSU (old or new) are silent but the two thermaltake fans cause some noise which cannot be heard when you start movie or song. But trust me at the price point I think zebronics has made a real vfm cabinet.
 
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