HD Multimedia Machine

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Denon101

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Hi guys

I wanted to know if a person were to set up a Multimedia Machine what the minimum requrements would be to play 1080p movies?

I have a Pentium 4 3GHz which I assume will not be sufficient and a Sapphire Radeon HD4550 which I plan to purchase. Will this card be powerful enough to run Windows 7 and at the same time play a 1080p movie?

Will 2Gb of RAM do?

Thanks in Advance.

Denon101
 
I use a 2.8ghz dual core, with an onboard HD4200 and 2gb ram and it works fine playing full HD through XBMC. So you should be good to go.
 
All that would really matter is the graphics card since you can offload the decoding of the HD movies (x264 and VC-1 encoded) to the GPU.
 
Thanks for the info Archer. I've been spending most the day looking at built-up micro-PCs to serve XBMC.
This will be a big help in my speccing.

Could you post the components you using as well as the costings if possible?
 
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To answer your question, if you use just the CPU, you need a dual core CPU at about 1.8ghz or faster, but with a nVidia or ATi graphics card you'll be fine with the Pentium 4. You just have to enable hardware accelerated playback, through Media Player Classic.

@Archer, your CPU is a lot faster than a Pentium 4, even though it's 2.8ghz compared to 3ghz.
 
Intel Flycreek Mobo ( Mini Itx ) ( has onboard hdmi gfx ) ( 2GB Ram and 2.5GHz Core2Duo )
Samsung 23" HD Screen ( 1920 x 1080 )( dvi not hdmi )
Logitec Z5500 with TOSlink for sound
XBMC with transparency skin ( ubuntu )
Hauppauge Media Centre Remote

*swoon*
 
i had the same problem...i had a good screencard but my cpu was using 100% and stuttering...you need dual core minimum...1Gb ram should be fine...
i have two but my MC never goes above 1Gb, mid you it's so cheap now :)

PS, use Mediaportal...it's free and looks awesome!(with skin)
http://www.team-mediaportal.com/ looks like media center...
now install this on top
http://code.google.com/p/streamedmp/
thsi downloads the vide art, actors etc...automatically...

enjoy!
 
MSI 785GM-E51 - R800 (stock is hard to find though, just take any motherboard with a HD4200 or better built in)
Athlon X2 245 - R800
2gb RAM - R500, anything will do
Case - up to you, mine was R1250, Antec NSK2480B included PSU
Hard drive, up to you
Feel like I'm missing something :confused:
 
Want to only play back or also record and rip with this box?
 
I purchased the ZOTAC MAG HD-ND01 and very happy with it.
R3000, play 1080p movies (E-sata,6 usb's, wireless N, 2GB Ram, 160GB Hard drive) and looks great in my living room!
 
thanks for the info guys.

That Zotac looks really nice!
and its cheaper, of course much easier, than setting up a HTPC

@bar1 : where did buy the ZOTAC from?
 
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The all in one solutions are easier to set up, but also do not have the same features/capabilities. A proper PC gives you flexibility while an all in one you rely heavily on the manufacturer to provide updates and fix problems. PC HTPC programs are open source projects and there are many out there, each with huge followings. Also, should the hardware get outdated you are stuck. A PC you will likely be able to re-use the hard drive, motherboard (at least once), memory (once or twice) and the case. But the right case and its virtually silent as well whereas the all in ones rely one one small fan. But to each his own, as I said, the all in ones are quite a bit easier to get going
 
Archer said:
The all in one solutions are easier to set up, but also do not have the same features/capabilities. A proper PC gives you flexibility while an all in one you rely heavily on the manufacturer to provide updates and fix problems. PC HTPC programs are open source projects and there are many out there, each with huge followings. Also, should the hardware get outdated you are stuck. A PC you will likely be able to re-use the hard drive, motherboard (at least once), memory (once or twice) and the case. But the right case and its virtually silent as well whereas the all in ones rely one one small fan. But to each his own, as I said, the all in ones are quite a bit easier to get going
Click to expand...

The Zotac is a proper PC!!!
I got it from the supplier....but looks like Zaps online are selling it for a good price!
http://zapsonline.com/product.php?id_product=39330
 
TheShadow said:
thanks for the info guys.

That Zotac looks really nice!
and its cheaper, of course much easier, than setting up a HTPC

@bar1 : where did buy the ZOTAC from?
Click to expand...

BTW: the Zotac comes with no OS and no DVD drive...so it's not that east to set up. you'll have to install the OS using a memory stick.
 
It still suffers from other all in one problems like heat build up. Hard drive sits at 45 degrees during playback (50 is the max for many drives) greatly increasing the risk of disk failure. CPU also runs hot at 75 degrees. And cant be upgraded. But again, is easier 'build' and many people prefer to buy one object rather than build a PC from scratch. You must get what will suit you best. But at R3250 for this unit, I'd take my R3400 PC (excl hard drive) anyday
 
For me the best is to get a PS3 and use a program name "ps3 media server" to stream movies over the network.

HD is not only about picture quality but also sound and the ps3 is dolby DTS, etc certified.

Also the best thing you will be able to play blu-ray movies
 
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