Please help with an upgrade for my Media Center PC?

[fingers]

Hi Guys,

Firstly I know the topic of onboard gpu and blu-ray playback has been done to death but I have been out of the loop for a while and am well and truely confused, even after reading here and the avsforums! Some say the x1250/630i can handle it, others say no! Help!

I have a media center ...

Antec NSK2400
C2D E4400
Intel M-ATX motherboard (can't remember which but only poor vga out)
2GB (4x 512MB) DDR2
7900GT 512MB
LG GGC-H20L blu-ray/HD-DVD drive

... and am looking to upgrade it as the 7900GT is not HDCP complient and AnyDVD does not seem to stop PDVD recognising that the HDCP link is not there and downscaling to 576i ... tested by comparing a CP ripped version of transformers HD-DVD to the original.

I have £50-80(ish) to spend and would prefer a M-ATX IGP solution, though a new mbo (mine doesn't have RAID and one of the memory slots is broken giving me only 1.5GB) and cheap GFX would be ok to.

The system outputs to a BRAVIA 720p and I would like it to be through HDMI w/sound so that it uses only one cable! The main use of the system is playing back Blu-ray and HD-DVD.

Any help would be really appreciated!

Thanks all.

[kimx]

I would simply buy a cheap GFX such as an AMD 3450/3470, I've got an 3470 which should be able to send both video and sound though the HDMI (haven't tested it since my tv does not have a HDMI input), and it runs nice and relatively cool in a setup similar to yours.

[fingers]

Thank you for your reply, does the ATI 3450/3470 have the same image quality as the 7900GT which looks superb and would the 3450 be able to handle Blu-ray playback on my system without any stuttering?

[angelkiller]

I would simply buy a cheap GFX such as an AMD 3450/3470, I've got an 3470 which should be able to send both video and sound though the HDMI (haven't tested it since my tv does not have a HDMI input), and it runs nice and relatively cool in a setup similar to yours.

I second this idea. You could pick up a passive 3450 for around £25. It would have no problem playing 1080p. All you do is drop in the card and you're set. Don't forget a DVI-->HDMI adapter. Good luck!

[kimx]

I can't say anything about the quality of the output, I'm using composite to transfer the signal to my tv (I've got a crappy old tv).

Make sure that you get a HDMI adapter with the card, I've read that it's very hard to find a 3rd party DVI->HDMI adapter which supports the sound transfer.

[fingers]

Thanks for the information, will defiantly check whether the HDMI > DVI converter is included.

[smilingcrow]

Thanks for the information, will defiantly check whether the HDMI > DVI converter is included.

It tends not to be included with the boards built with the class of GPU that you’re interested in and the DVI > HDMI adapter isn’t so easy to find in the UK the last time I looked and the price tends to be high. I’ve seen it claimed that not all boards fully support this adapter even though the GPU does; don’t know if that’s true though.
If you can find a board bundled with one that’s worth paying the premium for.

[fingers]

Thanks for the information, will defiantly check whether the HDMI > DVI converter is included.

It tends not to be included with the boards built with the class of GPU that you’re interested in and the DVI > HDMI adapter isn’t so easy to find in the UK the last time I looked and the price tends to be high. I’ve seen it claimed that not all boards fully support this adapter even though the GPU does; don’t know if that’s true though.
If you can find a board bundled with one that’s worth paying the premium for.

This is rather worrying, I will defiantly check before purchasing, though after spending a couple of hours last night reading the plus/minus' for the Intel G45 boards (mainly the Gigabyte GA-EG45M-DS2H iG45) I am swaying towards this.

The only problems with this board seem to be the odd "one offs" that plague any computer component and HDCP dropping when used via a repeater, of which I do not have, and some issues with 24p which seem to be being resolved. Looks to be a winner and would solve all my woes.

I won't be making a purchase until the end of the week so will do some more research however one of these two options (3450passive/3650passive/G45) will defiantly work for me.

Thanks for all the help.

[lm]

... and am looking to upgrade it as the 7900GT is not HDCP complient and AnyDVD does not seem to stop PDVD recognising that the HDCP link is not there and downscaling to 576i ...

So can't you use some other player software than PDVD to play the videos? Maybe some open source solution.

User who paid for the content, should not have to deal with DRM-caused troubles.

[smilingcrow]

... and am looking to upgrade it as the 7900GT is not HDCP compliant and AnyDVD does not seem to stop PDVD recognising that the HDCP link is not there and downscaling to 576i ...

I used PDVD 7.3 & 8 with AnyDVD HD and it worked fine; I was using a TFT that lacked HDCP with a graphic card that did support it so not quite the same scenario as you. As I was using an XBOX HD drive which is really NOISY I ripped the films to HDD for viewing; not sure if that affects the way that HDCP is bypassed!

[fingers]

So can't you use some other player software than PDVD to play the videos? Maybe some open source solution.

User who paid for the content, should not have to deal with DRM-caused troubles.

I know it is stupid, though there only seems to be two players (PDVD/TMT) that play Blu-rays/HD-DVDs and both are tied into the HDCP junk.

... and am looking to upgrade it as the 7900GT is not HDCP compliant and AnyDVD does not seem to stop PDVD recognising that the HDCP link is not there and downscaling to 576i ...

I used PDVD 7.3 & 8 with AnyDVD HD and it worked fine; I was using a TFT that lacked HDCP with a graphic card that did support it so not quite the same scenario as you. As I was using an XBOX HD drive which is really NOISY I ripped the films to HDD for viewing; not sure if that affects the way that HDCP is bypassed!

I think it may just be an issue with using the GFX card. Here is the article with the response from Cyberlink [http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthre ... st10576542].

I have ripped Transformers HD-DVD and it does seem clearer than straight from disk, definatly full HD, but when played from disk it is not!

Though upscaled DVDs look almost HD on my set so it isn't that obvious!