Lowest power HTPC capable of decoding 1080p Bluray content

All about them.

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee

Post Reply
oberbimbo
Posts: 65
Joined: Sun Dec 23, 2007 3:18 am

Lowest power HTPC capable of decoding 1080p Bluray content

Post by oberbimbo » Mon Feb 18, 2008 8:49 am

I'm trying to build a low-power HTPC that is able to decode Bluray content (which is troublesome due to the exorbitant hardware requirements of 1080p h.264). My main focus is on it being low power to keep it silent. (please do not suggest to buy a PS3)

I'm wondering if a Celeron 420 or Sempron 1200 plus a ATi HD3450 would do the trick? Or could I even get by with a Pentium DC oder Athlon BE 4400 on nForce 630 and CoreAVC?

I don't suppose there is any way at all to do it under Linux, is there?

MikeC
Site Admin
Posts: 12285
Joined: Sun Aug 11, 2002 3:26 pm
Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Contact:

Post by MikeC » Mon Feb 18, 2008 9:10 am

The new AMD 780G chipset boards can play 1080p video with a mid-to-low X2 A64 CPU. The 780G actually draws less power at idle than the 690G -- 1W compared to 1.4W. This is probably the most power efficient combo, and cheap too -- both CPU and mobo will be <$100 each.

Lensman
Posts: 147
Joined: Thu Jul 26, 2007 1:15 am

Post by Lensman » Mon Feb 18, 2008 10:23 pm

Yeah, the 780G is going to be the center of my next HTPC build. What's ironic is that I'm only now finishing my current HTPC - just needed a new video card to decode Blu-Ray.

What's interesting about the 780G is that it will open up the possibility of getting a new case that doesn't support full-height PCI cards, which I won't need once I can decode Blu-Ray with onboard graphics. Of course, I guess I have that option now with the ATI 3450 video cards.

oberbimbo
Posts: 65
Joined: Sun Dec 23, 2007 3:18 am

Post by oberbimbo » Tue Feb 19, 2008 6:18 am

I shall wait until 780G becomes available, then.

oberbimbo
Posts: 65
Joined: Sun Dec 23, 2007 3:18 am

Post by oberbimbo » Tue Feb 19, 2008 6:18 am

I shall wait until 780G becomes available, then. If the board is sufficiently low power in idle I may just use it as NAS, too.

I'm sorry for the flood, not sure what happened.
Last edited by oberbimbo on Tue Feb 19, 2008 8:11 am, edited 1 time in total.

Post Reply