[jordan8517]

I have a Bravia 1080p panel with an Onkyo reciever with 5.1 surround. My current 6 year old dual-core Dell has only stereo output and unreliable FPS. What I'm looking for is a PC that can play 1080p movies via HDMI into my bravia (Including VC-1) and output 5.1 surround into the Onkyo (The Onkyo accepts HDMI, Optical etc).

I don't need anything else, its not for gaming and I keep the PS3 for 3D Bluray. Really, I don't wanna buy anything more than is necessary for the above, I was looking at some options but just realised they were probably overkill. I'm a hardware noob to be honest.

What should I be looking for? I'll be using XBMC on PC, I just found it last night and I'm very excited to use it.

[Orclas]

As far as I know something as simple as the machine I have would fit the bill (see sig), i.e. Atom D510 CPU and Ion2 onboard GPU.

If you're a hardware noob you might however be a Linux noob too, so if you want to avoid the risk of minor commmand line tinkering, you'd probably want to run XBMC on top of Windows and then a machine like mine may or may not be enough, I dont quite now. I myself run XBMC Live (= XBMC "integrated" with a stripped Ubunto OS) which runs very lean. There's also Elec, of which I don't know much, other than that it's very easy on sys resources.

On those notes I may add that I am myself a complete linux noob, but brave enough to have dipped into a few command line measures to make it all work perfectly.

My best advice is to start by checking out the excellent stickies at the top of this forum.

[sneekes]

Hi,

i also have a similar set up to orclas.

i have an acer revo r3700 (atom 1.8Ghz dual core, 4GB ram, Nvidia ION2 GPU and a 500GB internal hard drive).
this set up is able to play 1080p files without issues once vdpau is enabled.

the unit i bought (ebuyer UK £229.99) had linpus linux pre-installed. i downloaded the latest xbmc-live image
and burnt it to disk. seeing as i have an external dvd-rewriter it was a simple case of changing the revo's boot order
and installing xbmc live directly to the revo's hdd, wiping the previous linpus installation. effectively, my revo is now like
a "set top" box... it boots directly into xbmc in under a minute.

my movies / tv shows are stored on a buffalo linkstation live NAS. the revo and linkstation are connected to my network
via gigabit LAN to reduce lag and/or bottlenecks.

to complete that set top box experience, i also bought a "flirc" dongle so that i can control the revo with a cheapo MCE remote.

Ste

[Orclas]

Set top box feel is a very good description of what I wanted and have. My choice of HW was focused on finding a fanless build (I hate any kind of computer noise, except for that of a good gaming computer...) and the Shuttle was pretty much the only one I could find for a reasonable price.

Myself I use a HP IR receiver and a Harmony 600 remote, which both worked right out of the box when setting the Harmony to "MCE". I may add that guru Eskro has concluded that "some HP receivers work, others dont", so I guess I was lucky.

As for my Shuttle, I took the whole small and silent thing one step further and managed to install it on the back of my TV furniture, which means that the only thing you see of it is the IR receiver behind one of the glass doors (and you sure never hear it, there's plain no way to even discern if it's turned on by listening, even with the ear directly to the case).

[jordan8517]

Stats of a desktop I'm considering;

-Intel® HD
- I3 Processor
- 4gb Ram

This would be enough for running smooth 1080p...?

[eskro]

read this forums stickies

[Orclas]

I'd say most definitely. i3 should have some 2-3x the raw horsepower of a D510, but from there on I don't quite know the actual difference when adding the on chip/on board GPU component.

At any rate, if my D510 ion2 can handle 1080p, any i3 surely can as well.

[jackh]

Stats of a desktop I'm considering;

-Intel® HD
- I3 Processor
- 4gb Ram

This would be enough for running smooth 1080p...?

IMO, an i3 processor is a huge overkill.

I just built my HTPC almost identical to this recommendation which is based on a Celeron G530, and let me tell you, it rocks. I also have a basic setup, no 3D, nothing fancy. Just video and audio out thru HDMI.

I'm running a full Linux desktop with XBMC on top, I just added a VM (virtual machine) which runs in the background 24x7, and the CPU usage barely reaches 20%. And it goes down to 5% when playing 1080p thanks to the dedicated video card, which I totally recommend purchasing (the extra $35 are nothing compared to the benefits).

Hope it helps

[bluray]

Stats of a desktop I'm considering;

-Intel® HD
- I3 Processor
- 4gb Ram

This would be enough for running smooth 1080p...?

This very small form factor AMD A6-3600 "Gateway SX2370-UB30P" will playback all your BD files in full 1080P video and bitstreaming DTS-HD/TrueHD audio to your Onkyo via HDMI. It is very well equipped with all the latest technology (Windows 7 is included too) for $349. It is ready for XBMC out of the box, and you'll not have to waste any time to enjoy BD with this little HTPC.

[jordan8517]

I'm pretty stumped, I'm avoiding Dell now as the desktops I've been looking at don't output 5.1. I'm not considering building something.

This very small form factor AMD A6-3600 "Gateway SX2370-UB30P" will playback all your BD files in full 1080P video and bitstreaming DTS-HD/TrueHD audio to your Onkyo via HDMI. It is very well equipped with all the latest technology (Windows 7 is included too) for $349. It is ready for XBMC out of the box, and you'll not have to waste any time to enjoy BD with this little HTPC.

This seems ideal, unfortunately I can't find it in the UK

[Orclas]

You have some very basic needs, 1080 decoding and 5.1 sound. As said, even my very basic HTPC can do that and can be had for ca £200 for the barebone, then add another £40 or so for RAM and some £60 for an SSD (or go cheap and run Live from a USB), total £300 and you have a totally silent machine which does what you want it to.

As for other alternatives (up, down, sideways), Eskro's list are extensive and he does not appear to be sloppy about his work (so to speak) :p

[jordan8517]

Well... tonight I installed XBMC on my own Desktop. To my surprise, it runs large H.264 files smoothly. I have the acceleration option enabled. However, when playing VC-1 files the playback is less even. Its not horrific, but enough to put me off, I checked CPU useage and it shoots up to 60% and beyond (Its 5-10 with the h.264 files).

My computer is an Inspiron 531, nVidia Geforce 8600 GT, Athlon-64 X2 5000/2.6, 3.5GB RAM.

I read another user who had the same problem, identified the video card as the problem. I wonder if I could simply upgrade my video card?

[eskro]

nVidia Geforce 8xxx series should play 1080P no matter what.
make sure you have the latest GPU drivers installed.

try the same file with another player like VLC..

[RAND0M1ZER]

IMO, an i3 processor is a huge overkill.

I just built my HTPC almost identical to this recommendation which is based on a Celeron G530, and let me tell you, it rocks. I also have a basic setup, no 3D, nothing fancy. Just video and audio out thru HDMI.

I'm running a full Linux desktop with XBMC on top, I just added a VM (virtual machine) which runs in the background 24x7, and the CPU usage barely reaches 20%. And it goes down to 5% when playing 1080p thanks to the dedicated video card, which I totally recommend purchasing (the extra $35 are nothing compared to the benefits).

Hope it helps

I think he was referring to the integrated graphics on the i3. Your Celeron has a dedicated Nvidia card which handles the graphics intensive tasks.