[gateway69]

I really don't know what you guys are doing, but I tend to find reports like these more realistic, than not being able to playback 720p at least with a 4800+:

http://forum.xbmc.org/showpost.php?p=151682&postcount=6

Check out that whole thread, there are a couple of people reporting even very good 1080p playback.

I'd suggest, you make sure, that you are not having any other Linux/XBMC issues, which seriously hit your performance with video playback.

boba

As far as we can tell and we have 2 linux experts at our company nothing is causing the the slow down, of course a windows box will play this fine, how ever with linux the decoder is still having issues or not as optimized. What people probably arnt looking at is the info box during play back, hit 'i' on the keyboard and watch the dropped frames as they playback video. Also the source materials they may be watching could be some hdtv rip but not realize its 480p, im pretty sure for any decent play back yet the amd 939 line of cpu's just wont cut it, untill their are some good break thought in the decoder its self.

[gateway69]

The graphics card does heaps because its all rendered in opengl thats why I said nvidia is best because it supports opengl 2.0 and has shader model support
and it was a 1080p quicktime trailer

I could be wrong but isnt opengl used for the interface, and not playback of videos its self.

When the nvidia cards start shipping with h264 decoder chips it might be a different story in the future, where you can use the decoder on the chip instead of software (which requires alot of cpu), Currently nvidia cards only decode mpeg2, but then their still needs to be support in the driver layer for linux and the decoder software.

[stevellion]

I just spec'd this up, preloaded with Ubuntu so half the work is done and I'm not wasting money on Windows.. but It's key for me to achieve H264 720p and ideally 1080p, otherwise, I'll just keep running my Xbox!

PROCESSOR N-Series-Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core E2140 Processor (1.6GHz,800MHz,1MB cache)
MEMORY 2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM
HARD DRIVE 160GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 8MB DataBurst™ cache
GRAPHICS CARD 128MB nVidia® GeForce® 8300GS Turbocache graphics card

Does anyone know if this graphics card comes with DVI output - (just want my TV likes... and compatible with HDMI)

Cheers,

[stevellion]

Oh.. and if anyone can confirm if this spec is up to the job too, that'd be much appreciated.

[indianolajohn]

A Really Cheap attack on a good HTPC setup would be to use the nvidia 7025 (DVI) or 7050 (hdmi) chipset

Biostar as one

BIOSTAR TForce TF7025-M2 AM2 NVIDIA 69.99$

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) 54.99$

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ 65.99$

total cost 190.97

of course you will need hd and case. i've got about 12 of these builds out there im going to try and see if i can get one to test with ubuntu and xbmc

[stevellion]

That'll be very interesting to know what it'll achive with XBMC. Please let us know the results.

[gateway69]

i can pretty much guarantee you arnt going to get stable playback at real 720p videos, some of the mkv files run ok, but you will notice quite a bit of dropped frames, this might not bother some but to the trained eye you will notice it.

I'm going to start a post of 2 clips that I would like everyone to try and provide feedback and system specs.

[gateway69]

I just spec'd this up, preloaded with Ubuntu so half the work is done and I'm not wasting money on Windows.. but It's key for me to achieve H264 720p and ideally 1080p, otherwise, I'll just keep running my Xbox!

PROCESSOR N-Series-Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core E2140 Processor (1.6GHz,800MHz,1MB cache)
MEMORY 2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM
HARD DRIVE 160GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive with 8MB DataBurst™ cache
GRAPHICS CARD 128MB nVidia® GeForce® 8300GS Turbocache graphics card

Does anyone know if this graphics card comes with DVI output - (just want my TV likes... and compatible with HDMI)

Cheers,

this is what I use.. hdmi, dvi and spdif which can run into your spdif out from the motherboard and transfer the audio via the hdmi cable.

http://www.provantage.com/msi-nx8500gt-m...STI0A9.htm

[dexx]

i can pretty much guarantee you arnt going to get stable playback at real 720p videos, some of the mkv files run ok, but you will notice quite a bit of dropped frames, this might not bother some but to the trained eye you will notice it.

I'd be suprised if an AMD 4000+ cant handle that. I have a 4000+ and, under windows, it only shows 30% utilization when playing 720p material.

[pike]

I'd be suprised if an AMD 4000+ cant handle that. I have a 4000+ and, under windows, it only shows 30% utilization when playing 720p material.

Tried with a FFMpeg decoder ?

[gateway69]

I'd be suprised if an AMD 4000+ cant handle that. I have a 4000+ and, under windows, it only shows 30% utilization when playing 720p material.

Something to keep in mind the decoders on windows have been highly optimized compaired to what the team is working with right now on unix, so yes, most of the hd stuff will play on windows fine but not decode with the same speed on a unix box.

[Gamester17]

Tried with a FFMpeg decoder ?

FFdshow is a Windows version of FFmpeg (the open source codec suit that XBMC uses)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ffdshow
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ffdshow-tryout/

[ChevyNovaLN]

Hey guys/gals, I just spent the last 10 hours of awake time reading through the linux forums here and I have to say, I'm impressed with all the hard work going into this project. My co-worker just had 3 of us bring our X-boxes in to work so he could go back and softmod them to get the latest version of XBMC and in messing around with it for about 3 hours yesterday, I immediately thought.. Hmm. i wonder if this is available for linux.

Well, I literally have ready most of the hardware areas for the linux part of the forums now and unless I've missed it.. I didn't see any mention of later nForce motherboards or newer 8800 series nVidia cards.

I've got Vista Ultimate running on this system and it screams, so I'm wondering if anyone has loaded Ubuntu 7.10 on a system like this and tried out XBMC. I'm about to, although my linux knowledge is a few years lacking. I'm a Windows Server Admin for one of the largest banks in the Midwest, so messing around with Linux got shoved to the side until I saw this project and it rekindled my wanting to know more about it again.

Specs:
BFG 680i nForce motherboard (similar to EVGA, etc..)
http://www.bfgtech.com/bfgrinf680is.aspx

Intel E6600 2.4ghz Core 2 Duo (2.4ghz native, easily clockable to 3ghz with stock cooling)

2GB (2 x 1gb Corsair DDR2-6400)
2 x 500GB WD Sata2-300 in Raid 0 (for now, will add more later in raid 1)

GeForce 8800GTS 320mb PCI Xpress video card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6814143091

Generic (I think Lite-on) DVD+/-RW Lightscribe burnder.


I've got some free time today and my Vista installation has been used for much testing, so I feel its about time to blow it away and just install Ubuntu for a while so it forces me to learn Linux again. I'll be running everything locally on the box for now as I do not have cables run from my server rack ( http://www.chevynovaln.com/xbmc/ServerRack.jpg ) on the other side of the basement, so i'm using a 108mb Wireless Bridge to get internet/network to it.. Streaming = not-so-good, but I have gigabit run everywhere else (haven't wanted to pull up the carpet to run cables to my theater room yet)

Anyway, Back to the hardware. Has anyone tried a similar setup or does anyone have any ideas on whether it'll work well or not?

Thanks, and Devs/PM's, Skinners, etc.. keep up the good work.

Brian / ChevyNovaLN

[ChevyNovaLN]

Specs:
BFG 680i nForce motherboard (similar to EVGA, etc..)
http://www.bfgtech.com/bfgrinf680is.aspx

Intel E6600 2.4ghz Core 2 Duo (2.4ghz native, easily clockable to 3ghz with stock cooling)

2GB (2 x 1gb Corsair DDR2-6400)
2 x 500GB WD Sata2-300 in Raid 0 (for now, will add more later in raid 1)

GeForce 8800GTS 320mb PCI Xpress video card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...6814143091

Has anyone tried a similar setup or does anyone have any ideas on whether it'll work well or not?

Brian / ChevyNovaLN

I took the plunge. I downloaded the Desktop version of Ubuntu 7.10 and formatted my HD(s) and the first thing I noticed while going through the installer is that Linux is too darn smart. It saw right through the hardware raid and could see each individual disk. So I broke apart the array for fear of not knowing what it would do to the other disk, and installed on the first HDD.

This is probably a question for the Ubuntu forums, but has anyone else had issues getting their resolution to properly be detected in Gnome (or KDE)? I have my DVI-to-HDMI converter cable going from my PC to my 60" LG Plasma and the highest resolution I can select is 1280x768. In windows, it'll do the right resolution which is 1360x768 native for my TV. I have tried to force it using some tricks I read about but its still locked in at a max of 1280x768 and the tricks I tried all end up with the system in low-video quality mode and ultimately (since i'm new at this) reloading the OS again. Thankfully this takes no time. With the resolution its running at, I can't see the bar at the top or bottom so I can't see what i'm clicking on, otherwise I get full acceleratoion using the nVidia drivers. Just thought i'd at least mention it in the forums here, that this video card and Ubuntu 7.10 and my Plasma are not playing nicely with regards to resolution

Brian / ChevyNovaLN

[grisen]

I've got a Harmony remote and I'm hoping I can find a large HTPC case with a built-in IR sensor that LIRC loves.

If you've got an iPhone, you wont need a remote.
http://tlrobinson.net/projects/xbmciphone/