Media Center

Post by **Trig** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 11:21 am

Well, my old shuttle's about to get binned..

It used to play fine with the onboard TV-O would plug into the TV and play avi's over the network fine, then we got a new TV with HDMI in it so I got an AGP 7600GS to run DVI-HDMI, all was well again, especially now as the TV supports decent res so you can see whats giong off in windows instead of just ignoring windows and going straight to MCE..
Then I downloaded all 6 of the starwars films in HD.
Not a problem I thought, I'll just wait for something HD and AGP to come along, enter the HD2400Pro..
Great, now I can swap out the 7600 and get to watch HD content as the card will decode the HD signal and throw it at the TV, taking strain off of the aging XP2500Barton...

Nope, not that simple...

The card either cant or just isnt helping at all, CPU is still at 100% and the playback is wank, stuttery, sync's out :/
So, am I going wrong somewhere with this HD2400 or is it just too old to do what I want it too now with the rest of the box?

XP2500 Barton
1gb PC3200
40gb HDD
HD2400 Pro or 7600GS
Gb NIC

Running MCE2005...

Help before it goes out the window and I start spending again...

Post by **Nellyboy** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 6:52 pm

Hi matey, I did have a few probs with my media centre too. The stuttering I had turned out to be codec specific. In the end I used mediaplayerclassic and dumped mce so I just had a pc (I didnt use a tuner). My setup was similar. I couldnt get media player to play the true hd1080p content.

Abit NF7sV2
Ati radeon 9800xt 256 (agp)
2gb pc3200 sdram
onboard sound.

It worked for me but I broke it up in the end cos the Mrs never used it.

So now I got <a href="http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/product/pr ... s_index=64" target="_blank">this</a> case sitting here doin nowt if anyone is interested.

Post by **Trig** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 7:32 pm

Th eonly problem with this is its lack of abilty to play HD..

Sun Mar 09, 2008 7:59 pm

Nellyboy wrote:
So now I got <a href="http://www.lian-li.com/v2/en/product/pr ... s_index=64" target="_blank">this</a> case sitting here doin nowt if anyone is interested.

how much you after for that case m8e ?

Just wondering as I've been thinking about a HTPC recently, bit strapped for cash atm tho

Post by **President Gas** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 8:28 pm

Mac Mini ftw tbh.

Small, handles any media you throw at it, easy to stream video around house and no problems with HD, bluetooth and 802.11. What more do you need?

Post by **Trig** » Sun Mar 09, 2008 11:00 pm

More than 1 mouse button?

Post by **President Gas** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 6:30 pm

lol - when was the last time you looked at a mac?

One button mice disappeared years ago.

Seriously, mac mini is a very good machine for media centre. Was gonna buy one myself but Mrs Gas wants own machine so bought it for her instead.

Good excuse to get another though

Post by **Trig** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 9:39 pm

the old jokes are the best right?

Tempted to bite the bullet n buy some new kit but as sproglett has now arrived I cant see me having the time/money

Post by **Eagle** » Mon Mar 10, 2008 11:21 pm

Trig wrote: but as sproglett has now arrived I cant see me having the time/money

Got it in one

Post by **President Gas** » Tue Mar 11, 2008 11:23 pm

Trig wrote: Tempted to bite the bullet n buy some new kit but as sproglett has now arrived I cant see me having the time/money

Come on Trig you are just not trying hard enough. Any new kit can be a valuable "learning aid" for Sproglett. Hand-eye co-ordination and all that stuff.

You could very well risk reducing their development if you don't splurge on lots of expensive consumer durables.