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The black bars are coz most of the current movies have 2.35/39/40:1 aspect ratio and all current gen LCDs are 16:9 (1.85:1) aspect ratio LCDs, so you will have small black bars. UNLESS the movie is native 16:9. XBMC provides you the information which aspect ratio the movie is .... check the snap below

20111204183205.jpg


Run a movie that has 16:9 ratio or 1.85:1, and you should not see the bars.

But one thing I am surprised it that bars taking 50% .... thats too much, maybe because of your display resolution ..... not sure.

Also setting XBMC resolution to your display native resolution is what is suggested. (which I guess you already have done).

Soldering anything on the board is not advisable, and frankly I dont think they have a provision for anything of that sort.

If your mobo does not have optical it should atleast have Coaxial, so you can atleast get DTS, DD via your AVR. If it doesnt either, upgrade your board or use the conventional RCA cable to connect the TV speakers directly ...... :)
 
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sam, looking at the fusion platform, do they support 3D, on all the specs nowhere they are saying if it is 1.3 or 1.4 HDMI. I did see another thread which says that the Asus BRazzo version has 1.4, if 3D is not good will it help if I install a 3D Graphics Card in the 4x speed slot on this boards?

Another option I said was my Pentium dual core processor and ASUS P5G41M-LX mobo that I already have, so will that be able to pull 3D if I isntall 3D graphics card later on?
 
Few things you need to be clear, for that I will quote my post again that I made in your thread only to make it clear what 3D requirments are AFA PC goes.

There are couple of varients of 3D floating around. The original is called the Frame Sequential 3D, that is present on all original 3D BDs. You need a proper BD player that supports 3D BDs or ISOs (frame sequential) to be able to play 3D. (apart from the 3D capable TV ofcourse)

Another common and effective 3D is the SBS (Side-by-Side), that may or may not be derived from original 3D BD, as any movie can be converted to SBS 3D. Most of the 3D movies floating around in mkv are SBS 3D. The advantage is that, you dont need a 3D capable player to play these files, any normal media player/computer can play it, including a normal 2D DB player. (all you need is a 3D TV that can render SBS format (which mostly do, in todays scenario))
How ever 3D ISO and disks are complete frame sequential 3D movies and can only be played on proper 3D capable media/disc players.

For SBS 3D you dont need HDMI 1.4. 1.3 just does fine, however for 3D BDs or ISO (frame sequential) you need HDMI 1.4 capable player.
Click to expand...

Thread of this post ...

http://www.hifivision.com/blu-ray-d...rders/21775-some-queries-blu-ray-players.html

So Fusion will definitely support SBS format as it only needs, HDMI 1.3 ...... Not sure if the the GPU on Fusion platform will have the juice to play full frame sequential 3D ISOs. Even intel's HD3000 graphics are not stable while playing frame sequential ISOs. A dedicated GPU like GT440 which has HDMI 1.4 is recommended for frame sequential ISOs.
 
sam9s said:
Few things you need to be clear, for that I will quote my post again that I made in your thread only to make it clear what 3D requirments are AFA PC goes.



Thread of this post ...

http://www.hifivision.com/blu-ray-d...rders/21775-some-queries-blu-ray-players.html

So Fusion will definitely support SBS format as it only needs, HDMI 1.3 ...... Not sure if the the GPU on Fusion platform will have the juice to play full frame sequential 3D ISOs. Even intel's HD3000 graphics are not stable while playing frame sequential ISOs. A dedicated GPU like GT440 which has HDMI 1.4 is recommended for frame sequential ISOs.
Click to expand...

I remember the earlier post, however my question was two folds
1. Will the 3D BDs be playable on Fusion all by itself, I am not sure if the HDMI version is 1.4 or 1.3
2. I will provide an example here, if I put GT440 on my fusion board (4x PCIe on a 16x slot) will it be able to pull 3D BDs? Same question for my intel based dual core mobo that I mentioned in my earlier thread which has a 16x pcie slot and if I put GT440 in that will it be able to pull 3D BDs (from BD Rom if attached) or for 3D BDs it is a must have to keep minimum i3 or i5 processor (and supporting mobo) since I read in another post here that GPU power matters more than CPU in graphics rendering in HTPC.
 
novice-akki said:
Other thing is my motherboard doesn't have an optical out on the rear I/O panel but on closer look at motherboard it seems there's a provision for S/PDIF connector which can be soldered, have you seen something like this and is it possible ?

TIA
Click to expand...
You need a SPDIF Header
Using it myself. The black end of the header plugs into motherboard pins. Be VERY careful about polarity when plugging onto the motherboard
 
haisaikat said:
I remember the earlier post, however my question was two folds
1. Will the 3D BDs be playable on Fusion all by itself, I am not sure if the HDMI version is 1.4 or 1.3
2. I will provide an example here, if I put GT440 on my fusion board (4x PCIe on a 16x slot) will it be able to pull 3D BDs? Same question for my intel based dual core mobo that I mentioned in my earlier thread which has a 16x pcie slot and if I put GT440 in that will it be able to pull 3D BDs (from BD Rom if attached) or for 3D BDs it is a must have to keep minimum i3 or i5 processor (and supporting mobo) since I read in another post here that GPU power matters more than CPU in graphics rendering in HTPC.
Click to expand...

Fusion (E350 as an example) has enough on board GPU power to play all HD content A and V and I am sure 3D SBS as well. However I could not find anywhere which HDMI it supports. So on the safer side yes putting up a GT 440 on the board (but only on x16) should be able to play 3Ds. There is not enough mention on any online forums or reviews that it needs i3 or i5. E350 has a dual core 64bit CPU which should be enough to play 3D, as its more of a GPU task to render then CPU. In worst case the CPU utilization would increase, but I dont think it would simply not play the 3D FS content if a dedicated 440 is supplied.
 
sam9s said:
Fusion (E350 as an example) has enough on board GPU power to play all HD content A and V and I am sure 3D SBS as well. However I could not find anywhere which HDMI it supports. So on the safer side yes putting up a GT 440 on the board (but only on x16) should be able to play 3Ds. There is not enough mention on any online forums or reviews that it needs i3 or i5. E350 has a dual core 64bit CPU which should be enough to play 3D, as its more of a GPU task to render then CPU. In worst case the CPU utilization would increase, but I dont think it would simply not play the 3D FS content if a dedicated 440 is supplied.
Click to expand...

But now that there is the caveat of 4x GPU slot on the fusion, I think unless some forum member tries out the same there would be risk involved in investing it. Do you think my dual core pentium with the ASUS mobo (ASUSTeK Computer Inc. - Motherboards- ASUS P5G41T-M LX) will be able to pull the 1.4 based 3D BDs, i am not sure what specifics to look in the mobo specs to get this playback ensured apart from the GT440 GPU.
 
^^ All the CPU does is decode the H.264/Divx files, apart from ofcourse loading the file on RAM, opening the application etc, the job for rendering the image is on the GPU, so any low end CPU (like yours except, may be celeron dual cores) should be sufficient to play the FS 3D files. You would feel the difference in application taking time to open the 3D files, etc, but once its loaded on to VRAM it should be fine. I would suggest to go for 2GB DDR5 version of 440, just to be on the safer side. (though it might be a bit expensive).

Also hope you have Core2Duo dual core CPU and not Pentium Dual core. Though even Pentium dual core should be sufficient, if its C2D then it completely eradicates the risk.

You mobo is just fine, more then sufficient. Even I have a P5B mobo and it still rocks. Yes CPU I have is C2D (HTPC I am talking about) and not the pentium dual core, which might make a difference in the performance.
 
sam9s said:
^^ All the CPU does is decode the H.264/Divx files, apart from ofcourse loading the file on RAM, opening the application etc, the job for rendering the image is on the GPU, so any low end CPU (like yours except, may be celeron dual cores) should be sufficient to play the FS 3D files. You would feel the difference in application taking time to open the 3D files, etc, but once its loaded on to VRAM it should be fine. I would suggest to go for 2GB DDR5 version of 440, just to be on the safer side. (though it might be a bit expensive).

Also hope you have Core2Duo dual core CPU and not Pentium Dual core. Though even Pentium dual core should be sufficient, if its C2D then it completely eradicates the risk.

You mobo is just fine, more then sufficient. Even I have a P5B mobo and it still rocks. Yes CPU I have is C2D (HTPC I am talking about) and not the pentium dual core, which might make a difference in the performance.
Click to expand...


Thank you sam for your suggestions. the other day I was looking at another article (below) and was disheartended by my own specs.

What are the recommended CPU requirements to Blu-ray/Blu-ray 3D Disc titles and TrueTheater 3D on my computer?-Search resource for your product

However what I am going to do now is buy the GPU and a BD Writer and install it on the desktop and then test the BD Playback with existing 2GB RAM. I think my processor is Intel Duar Core and not Core2Due, I hope the GPU will help overcome the limitation of the processor. Once all works fine then only I will buy slim cabinet

One more question is it required to install Win7 or WinXP (Existing) will do for playback?
 
^^ Not sure under which criteria did these people laid out the requirements to come up with that list. Anyway As I said your mobo is fine, in the worst case scenario when you test and do face issues, keep the mobo same and try to get hold of a used C2D, any C2D should not be more then 2-2.5K. 2GB ram is ok. For GPU get a 2GB DDR5 one for 3D playback.

Also get Win7 its far better then XP in terms of video playback and gaming as well. XP is outdated now. Get win7, home premium if possible.
 
sam9s said:
^^ Not sure under which criteria did these people laid out the requirements to come up with that list. Anyway As I said your mobo is fine, in the worst case scenario when you test and do face issues, keep the mobo same and try to get hold of a used C2D, any C2D should not be more then 2-2.5K. 2GB ram is ok. For GPU get a 2GB DDR5 one for 3D playback.

Also get Win7 its far better then XP in terms of video playback and gaming as well. XP is outdated now. Get win7, home premium if possible.
Click to expand...

Any since I do not have a 3D TV yet, my whole requirement to buy a 3D GPU was to keep provisions for future so that I can upgrade easily if I buy a 3D projector in a year or two but no plan to change the TV in next 3 years. So given this case can you recommend me a 2D only good GPU that will support 7.1 through HDMI (all HD codecs) so that I can compare the two prices and decide accordingly as to which GPU to buy.
 
Yep, its the same again GT 430/440/450 .... Pick any. My GT440 1GB DDR5 does the job perfectly. Full HD with full 7.1 HD Audio bit streaming. :)
 
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sam9s said:
Yep, its the same again GT 430/440/450 .... Pick any. My GT440 1GB DDR5 does the job perfectly. Full HD with full 7.1 HD Audio bit streaming. :)
Click to expand...

Hi sam, following your advice I was looking at these cards but their specs say that the 1GB GT440 is DDR3 and the 512MB version is DDR5. Are you using the 1GB DDR3 version? If both are priced equally do you recommend more throughput (DDR5 around 28Mbps) or more memory at lesser throughput (DDR3 around 56 mbps). In one online test benchmark the DDR5 version outperformed in frames / sec marginally (5 to 10 % range) but all of them were game playback.
 
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For game playback its advisable to have faster memory, logically same can be said for HD Videos. I would say go for 1GB DDR5. Even I have the same for my HTPC. :)
 
sam9s said:
For game playback its advisable to have faster memory, logically same can be said for HD Videos. I would say go for 1GB DDR5. Even I have the same for my HTPC. :)
Click to expand...

But sam the specs on the website says that DDR5 is only available in 512MB configureation and the 1GB is DDR3 only.
 
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