I use an Intel 945 motherboard with integrated Intel 950 graphics with a Core 2 Duo 6300 chip and 1 GB of ram. I can play 1080p content through a DVI port connected to a 1920x1080 TV via a DVI->HDMI cable (this is for a US TV, I don't know about the UK standards) without any trouble. With XV video output a 1080p Quicktime trailer uses about 40% of one of the two cores on the processor, leaving plenty of headroom for recording and everything else. As for recording, I don't receive any 1080p broadcasts, but recording a 1080i stream takes almost no processing power, as my DVB card dumps the raw .ts to disk. Recording an NTSC (analog) TV show uses more than half of one of the two cores.
As for specific motherboard combinations, I would recommend the 945 chipset over the 965 chipset because support for the X3000 graphics is less mature, and the 950 graphics are more than capable of playing back 1080p video. I don't think there are any Intel branded 945 boards the support the Core 2 Duo, but there are several third party boards that do so, including Asus, who makes my board, the "ASUS P5LD2-VM 2.0". That's a microATX motherboard, and would probably work well, however, I bought it because it has two IDE controllers, and I painfully learned that that second controller does not work well at all. When I plugged a DVD drive into it, the drive would play for a little while and then stop responding with lots of driver errors. When I plugged my hard drive into it, the machine would occasionally crash hard. I've stopped using that controller, and since then the machine has been great, but I don't have an optical drive. So, if you have 2 IDE devices that you would like to use, and you don't want them on the same channel, I would not recommend the motherboard. However, the SATA support seems to be solid, and the Intel IDE controller seems to work well, so perhaps that won't be an issue for you. Josh On 5/18/07, Stephen Rowles <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi all, > > The UK is slowly moving over to HD, and I'm starting to plan the > hardware upgrades needed to get my freevo system working with 1080p data. > > Currently I have a via SP13000 which has hardware accelerated MPEG2 > playback, but doesn't do MPEG4 (I think the hardware might be capable > but the drivers are not there yet). But either way 1080p playback > doesn't work (just tired with the transformers 1080p quicktime trailer > download). > > The limitation is that I have a ultra slim line case, which will only > fix a microATX motherboard with a low profile CPU cooler... which is > kinda limited :) > But the case is gorgeous and I don't want to change it (case pictures > here http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2005/02/22/hiper_media_chassis/1 ) > and was one of the requirements for being allowed a PC in the lounge ;) > > Does anyone have any recommendations of microATX motherboards / CPU > combinations with a built in graphics card that has good Linux support > and will cope with HD content playback, preferably with enough headroom > to record at least 1 HD stream to disk at the same time (e.g. hardware > accelerated playback if at all possible) > > Cheers. > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > This SF.net email is sponsored by DB2 Express > Download DB2 Express C - the FREE version of DB2 express and take > control of your XML. No limits. Just data. Click to get it now. > http://sourceforge.net/powerbar/db2/ > _______________________________________________ > Freevo-users mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-users > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by DB2 Express Download DB2 Express C - the FREE version of DB2 express and take control of your XML. No limits. Just data. Click to get it now. http://sourceforge.net/powerbar/db2/ _______________________________________________ Freevo-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-users
