nVidia 6150 motherboards and HDTV

[Robert Simandl]

Can nVidia 6150 mobo's do 1080i thru component or not?

In theory they obviously can. But are the results on the TV screen sharp and smooth?

I have an older CRT HDTV so DVI/HDMI is not an option. A reliable component video output is a must. The board I'm looking at in particular is an ASUS M2NPV-VM.

I'll be playing back 720p and 1080i ATSC (the 720p will be converted to 1080i), and playing back 720p and 1080p H.264 mkv and ts files (both will be converted to 1080i before going out to the TV).

OS will be Windows XP Home or MCE.

Is this do-able, and what would be the minimum CPU and RAM I'd need for this?

Thanks!

[Soopafresh]

Hi Bob -

I can't comment on the component out functionality, since I never had a need to try it.

I've set up several of these for a client, who loves them. Last ones had Athlon 4000 procs, or something like that. I could play 1080 demos from the Quicktime website, BUT I convinced the client to buy the cheaper $8 CoreAVC decoder for smooth h264 playing. By changing the file extension from .MOV to .HDMOV, the system used CoreAVC to decode. I could smoothly play Mpeg2 1080i transport stream files using VLC, but fast moving scenes were difficult.

Be aware that the on board video RAM does take memory away from the system RAM - 128MB if I recall. I'd go for 1GB of system RAM.

[Robert Simandl]

I'm planning to use 2 gigs, so the shared RAM issue shouldn't be a problem.

May I ask just what you mean by fast moving scenes being difficult? Were you seeing artifacts on the screen or just seeing CPU use spike without artifacts?

Thanks!

[TBoneit]

Bad idea as I see it, use a dedicated card that has hardware assist. It sounds like you are trying to do fancy on a budget. The compromises involved will be a killer.

Look at these pages
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/dualcore-roundup_6.html
and
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/cpu/display/dualcore-roundup_8.html

Hope this helps.

[Soopafresh]

Bob - Spikes in CPU utilization during fast transitions. True with most CPUs, but yeah, a fast proc might be in order. There isn't much of an advantage (other than cost) of the video onboard, unless you get the Nvidia Mpeg2 HW decoder. Never tried 'em, though.

[redwudz]

I use that motherboard in my HTPC computer and it works very well. I feed the component output to my video projector. About the only HD video source I have is HDTV from OTA reception. I also use the audio S/PDIF out through a optical adapter to my surround sound amplifier.

Component is a good setup for me as I have a component switcher and I feed two DVD changers to the projector also. One limitation is that it will blank out my VGA monitor when displaying through the component out. But it still works better than the ATI setup with a DVI to Component adapter that I used before. For a economy HTPC setup, it's a good way to go.

[Robert Simandl]

I use that motherboard in my HTPC computer and it works very well. I feed the component output to my video projector. About the only HD video source I have is HDTV from OTA reception. I also use the audio S/PDIF out through a optical adapter to my surround sound amplifier.

Component is a good setup for me as I have a component switcher and I feed two DVD changers to the projector also. One limitation is that it will blank out my VGA monitor when displaying through the component out. But it still works better than the ATI setup with a DVI to Component adapter that I used before. For a economy HTPC setup, it's a good way to go.

Are you sending out 720p or 1080i?

Thanks!

[redwudz]

720P, but I'm also using an older projector with 858x484 Pixels resolution and no digital inputs. The progressive format looks better than the 1080I with my setup. I also forgot to mention I use a AMD 3800+ dual core CPU with 1GB of PC6400 RAM. I've never noticed any problems with fast moving scenes or any blockiness.

[jstewart]

My Setup:

First HTPC Build: AMD Athlon 64 x2 4200+ AM2, ABIT NF-M2 Nvidia 6150 Micro ATX Motherboard, Antec Black/Silver MicroATX Desktop w/380W ATX12V Power Supply, Corsair XMS 1gb (2x512mb) DDR2 800 (PC2 6400), WD Cavalier SE 250gb SATA 3.0 HDD, Samsun 18x DVD-Ram W/Lightscribe, DVICO FusionHDTV5 RT Gold

I use DVI to HDMI on a 42' DLP Projection TV from Samsung. I use this machine as my main pc also. I get beautiful playback of movies both divx and full length dvds. I have been very tempted to buy myself a Blu-Ray dvd burner for my machine. I may just wait until Christmas time. My Tv displays in 720p.

[jstewart]

Forgot to mention, I do use OTA...but I have not figured out an antenna solution. Stations go in and out do to lack of signal. I am waiting to try my father's boom antenna along with an amplifier.

[Soopafresh]

Depending on how far away you live from the transmitters, that's entirely possible. I found a radioshack amplifier w/ 2 coax connectors in it that boosts my signal enough to keep the rabbit ears going.

[jstewart]

Yes, it just depends. I have rabit ears also from Radio Shack hooked up to a 10db amplifier from radio shack and I still have it breaking up constantly. I think I have to get a roof antenna as I have tried everything I can to get a better signal. I have a couple of trees really close to my house which may be a big issue.

[redwudz]

If you haven't been to AntennaWeb, it's a good place to check for availability of local OTA HDTV stations. http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx

I use a large 30" X 40" screen type antenna with a amplifier as a indoor antenna and it does fairly well. But the local HDTV stations are still transmitting on low power. And only the public broadcasting channel consistently has HD content, so I don't use my HDTV tuner that much. Sesame Street looks good in HiDef, though.

[jstewart]

Yes I have been to Antenna.org. Very useful site and normally if I want to mess around with my antenna I can get fox, cbs, and abc to come in without too much of an issue. nbc is the one that drives me nuts as I am an office fan and a hockey fan. I wish this station would be more consistent.

Did you build this antenna yourself? I live in Toledo, Ohio which is a smaller market city. I think this may be one of the problems. I think I would do much better in a Detroit or Chicago or Cleveland.