HTPC for playing 3/4 movies.

[hanugro]

Hi, I want to be able to browse several movies/clip using 1 TV. Rather than using multiple media player connected to 1 TV, How about building a HTPC that can do that (plays min 2 fullHD MKV, or 3-4 WMV/AVI file and let me switch which movie/clip I want to bring to foreground that will be shown on the TV. That will save me HDMI video in as well, and let me use other media player if needed.

My question is what kind of hardware that I need to buy? Will a 4 cores trinity suffice or I need ivy bridge i5, or i3 with add on graphic card? What is the best HTPC apps that will let me do that (playing multiple movies concurrently?)

Many thanks for the input. I still haven't build my first HTPC and my requirement is going up all the time. I have already own 4 older media players.

[Baldrick]

Play simultaneously?

Playing two 1080p videos would require a very fast cpu. Because you will get problem with hardware graphic decoding/hardware overlay.

[hanugro]

Yes, but only 1 movie (1080p) will be viewed at a times. The other will be played on the background (and not visible) so I hope it is less a strain on the GPU. My need for 3-4 clips/movies will be mostly 720p or maybe combination of 1 1080p and 2 720p.

I wonder if any HTPC media player can also do that. Basically it gives priority to the movies display and the other they just need to play it without displaying anything. I also don't mind a sec pause when I switch clip that I bring to foreground (so that the app can switch priority).

I hope I can do that without the need of separate graphic card and use just Trinity or Ivy Bridge CPU on mini-ITX board.

[jman98]

This is another one of what I call "I want to do what nobody else in the world wants to do, so why doesn't software exist that allows me to do it?" kind of questions. That's why you're not getting any helpful responses. And people who ask this kind of question NEVER agree that "nobody else" wants to do what they propose, so feel free to make the obligatory response that surely there must be thousands of people out there doing exactly what you want to do and ignore the fact that you're not getting any responses for the reason I said.

[Baldrick]

I also doubt you will find any good solution for this. But you could try search or ask in bigger htpc forums like http://www.avsforum.com/f/26/home-theater-computers

[hanugro]

Okey Dokey. I know my need is not common, just want to save few HDMI connection since my bedroom TV only has 2. Well better buy newer 4 HDMI TV then and use my 4 media players.

I have run 2 HD movies concurrently with my first gen quadcore and Radeon 6xxx graphic card, but it is a bit loud, power hogs and it requires mouse click to change movie focus. Just want to know whether a new offering can do it with as low power consumption as possible and just using a remote.

Thanks!

[Hoser Rob]

Playing 4 videos at once is playing 4 videos at once. it wouldn't make any significant difference to your memory or cpu is one program is doing it or four programs.

[jman98]

Okey Dokey. I know my need is not common, just want to save few HDMI connection since my bedroom TV only has 2. Well better buy newer 4 HDMI TV then and use my 4 media players.

I have run 2 HD movies concurrently with my first gen quadcore and Radeon 6xxx graphic card, but it is a bit loud, power hogs and it requires mouse click to change movie focus. Just want to know whether a new offering can do it with as low power consumption as possible and just using a remote.

Thanks!

There are cheap HDMI splitters that can provide multiple HDMI outputs. My HDTV is kind of old and only had 2 HDMI inputs too so I used to use a splitter to connect 3 or 4 different HDMI sources to one HDMI input on my TV. Perhaps this is really what you need to do. I would just push a button on the splitter to change between the various inputs.

I'm still not seeing the need to have multiple movies playing at once, but clearly you have requirements that most of the rest of the world doesn't. And now that I think about it, if you have just got to have multiple movies playing at once, even pushing a button on a splitter may be more than you're willing to do. But I throw it out there in case it's useful to you.

[jagabo]

I just tried playing four 1080p24 videos (h.264 mkv Blu-ray rips) at once with four instances of MPCHC on my quad core i5 2500K. Total CPU usage was about 20 percent. They played smoothly.

MPCHC may not be good for this because each plays in a window when you switch with Alt+Tab or Alt+Esc. You have to manually switch to full screen each time you swap. And the sound from all four was playing simultaneously. There may be a setting to limit audio only to the window with the focus -- I've never looked.

On another computer with two monitors (quad core Intel Q6600, Nvidia GTX 460) I played two 1080p24 h.264 videos with MPCHC full screen, one on each monitor. With DXVA decoding CPU usage was 5 to 10 percent. Without DXVA it was around 50 percent. Playback was smooth in both cases.

[hanugro]

Thanks all. HDMI switch is one option. Jagabo, my current PC is same with yours Q6600 but with Radeon 6570. So your i5 2500K don't use separate graphic card? Now just need to find the right software.

[jagabo]

So your i5 2500K don't use separate graphic card?

I'm using the i5's built-in HD 3000 GPU.

[hanugro]

So your i5 2500K don't use separate graphic card?

I'm using the i5's built-in HD 3000 GPU.

Thanks so i5 with HD4000 will probably more than enough. I read about haswell just now and I think I want this next year instead. Power usage is also very important for me as I want to employ the HTPC as downloader as well. And since it will be in my bedroom, I don't want to install loud fan.