Wiretap's High Definition in a Small Package mini-ITX Project

I did a few tests on video playback, and it works great for both 720p and 1080p x264. But there is a problem.. hardware acceleration does not want to work. I don't know if it is the graphics drivers or PowerDVD's fault. I've been trying several combinations to get it working, but no success yet. I've tried the past 3 Nvidia 8 series drivers, and PowerDVD 7.3 Ultra and PowerDVD 8 Ultra. Maybe it is just because it is a new chipset and they don't have hardware acceleration recognized for this version of the 8200 series yet..

Anyway, here's the results of MKV wrapped 720p and 1080p x264 playback in Media Player Classic with CoreAVC, and also with the same files under Vista Media Center.

As you can see, 720p hardly breaks a sweat. The Hellboy movie there is one of the most intense 1080p encodes I have. It peaks at over 30mbit/sec. It does not lag under playback.

Live Free or Die Hard - 720p x264 mkv Blu-ray rip - Media Player Classic
th_diehard_720p_mpc.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/wiretap25/mini-ITX HTPC/Tests/diehard_720p_mpc.jpg

Live Free or Die Hard - 720p x264 mkv Blu-ray rip - Vista Media Center
th_diehard_720p_vmc.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/wiretap25/mini-ITX HTPC/Tests/diehard_720p_vmc.jpg

Hellboy - 1080p x264 mkv Blu-ray rip - Media Player Classic
th_hellboy_1080p_mpc.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/wiretap25/mini-ITX HTPC/Tests/hellboy_1080p_mpc.jpg

Hellboy - 1080p x264 mkv Blu-ray rip - Vista Media Center
th_hellboy_1080p_vmc.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/wiretap25/mini-ITX HTPC/Tests/hellboy_1080p_vmc.jpg

The Simpson's Movie - 720p x264 mkv Blu-ray rip - Media Player Classic
th_simpsons_720p_mpc.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/wiretap25/mini-ITX HTPC/Tests/simpsons_720p_mpc.jpg

The Simpson's Movie - 720p x264 mkv Blu-ray rip - Vista Media Center
th_simpsons_720p_vmc.jpg

http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a1/wiretap25/mini-ITX HTPC/Tests/simpsons_720p_vmc.jpg

I will do some more tests later once I can get hardware decoding to work for everything. I did try native HDDVD and Blu-ray playback. CPU usage was over 80% for AVC titles, and sometimes it lagged.
 
How about the always crazy Bird scene from Planet Earth?

You know you want to :)

Fill it with lots of HD video and it will sell quick :)
 
That's a pretty sweet little thing you have there. I've been wanting to build myself a mini ITX console/gaming rig that I can take when I go places.
 
Sweet.. got hardware acceleration working. I had to use the Nvidia Driver 175.16. It looks like there still needs to be quite a few improvements with the drivers using this chipset though..

Tests:

2001: A Space Odyssey - HD DVD
Video Codec: VC-1
Audio Codec: Dolby TrueHD and DDPlus
Encountered Bitrates: Between 10mbit/sec and 27mbit/sec
CPU Usage During Playback: 20% to 35% with TrueHD audio track

Casino Royale - Blu-ray
Video Codec: AVC/H.264
Audio Codec: LPCM
Encountered Bitrates: Between 19mbit/sec to 38mbit/sec
CPU Usage During Playback: 25% to 55% with LPCM audio track

Transformers - HD DVD
Video Codec: AVC/H.264
Audio Codec: DDPlus
Encountered Bitrates: Between 18mbit/sec to 32mbit/sec
CPU Usage During Playback: 25% to 50%
 
Sweet! Any numbers with regular DVDs?
w1retap said:
Sweet.. got hardware acceleration working. I had to use the Nvidia Driver 175.16. It looks like there still needs to be quite a few improvements with the drivers using this chipset though..

Tests:

2001: A Space Odyssey - HD DVD
Video Codec: VC-1
Audio Codec: Dolby TrueHD and DDPlus
Encountered Bitrates: Between 10mbit/sec and 27mbit/sec
CPU Usage During Playback: 20% to 35% with TrueHD audio track

Casino Royale - Blu-ray
Video Codec: AVC/H.264
Audio Codec: LPCM
Encountered Bitrates: Between 19mbit/sec to 38mbit/sec
CPU Usage During Playback: 25% to 55% with LPCM audio track

Transformers - HD DVD
Video Codec: AVC/H.264
Audio Codec: DDPlus
Encountered Bitrates: Between 18mbit/sec to 32mbit/sec
CPU Usage During Playback: 25% to 50%
Click to expand...
 
I can't believe how tiny that motherboard is... and that case looks amazing!

Good job with the build!
 
CrimandEvil said:
On the heatsink: how loud is it and how well does it work?
Click to expand...
The heatsink is nearly silent. During idle, it is around 35C.. during HD playback it is 65C max. There are no problems or anything due to heat. I did a 24hr test and it was still looping through the HD movies just fine, no hangups.
 
hey w1retap.. just a quick question about that motherboard. if you use the dvi-->hdmi adapter [since when does DVI have audio lol.. odd] and choose to export audio via HDMI [how?] does it push out 7.1 audio or does it downgrade to some 5.1 dolby digital live encoding?

My main problem with media centers is the lack of a good optical toslink output for 7.1 audio. If this issue is solved by at least using hdmi this may be my next hardware. At least then its still digital.

HD offloading is a big deal and i wish nvidia had their drivers set up correctly for it. most of my 2.4TB of movies are h.264 or VC-1 mkv files 720p-1080p and it takes quite the machine to run that well over a network.
 
For this setup, to select HDMI audio, all you have to do is right click on the volume icon and go to Playback Devices. Then you select HDMI audio and set it as your default device. But this motherboard auto senses when you plug it in and it does it all for you. It's pretty cool. :cool:

I haven't tested it with any 7.1 movies yet, but when I get time I will confirm whether it does 7.1 LPCM or not.
 
ok.

Just an FYI "we were soldiers" i believe is 6.1... and any games should spit out 7.1 with directsound.
 
Not trying any games on it. I'm keeping the install as clean as possible because I'm going to put it up for sale this week I think. I just need to burn some Restore Images. Also, I have 3:10 To Yuma. That is 7.1... I'll give that a try later.
 
Ok wow... this thing really impresses me, lol. I'm sitting in my theater right now with it hooked up via HDMI. It's doing 1080p/24 to my projector, watching 3:10 to Yuma on Blu-ray in 7.1 LPCM. Simply fucking amazing.. it sounds so good and the picture is smooth as hell. =DDDDDD so... there's your answer folks. It's unbelievable that all that comes in such a small package.
 
nice. ask we speak mediaportal is crapping out on my main htpc box for no good reason so im troubleshooting. sigh. why can't media player just recognize mkv files natively?
 
w1retap said:
Ok wow... this thing really impresses me, lol. I'm sitting in my theater right now with it hooked up via HDMI. It's doing 1080p/24 to my projector, watching 3:10 to Yuma on Blu-ray in 7.1 LPCM. Simply fucking amazing.. it sounds so good and the picture is smooth as hell. =DDDDDD so... there's your answer folks. It's unbelievable that all that comes in such a small package.
Click to expand...

Sweet. One more question: onboard header for analog out hook ups? Hoping it supports component/svideo out as well.
 
It supports analog output, but I didn't try them. And the video connections it has are VGA/DVI, HDMI being with audio from the included adapter.
 
wiretap, literally copied your build, only difference is I have 2 harddrives, 1 tera and 1 250gb hardrive. My system does run a bit hotter than yours, idles at 45C but 67 max, so not too bad(my wire management was horrible too), but it runs smoothly and looks awesome!

I admit I totally didn't think the audio via HDMi would sound so good but it does. Thanks for your help on PMs

25syiig.jpg
 
I'll be doing my build soon too. Gotta get some acrylic ordered so i can build the shell to hold the components inside the o2 case. This pretty much sold it to me though.
 
So how would this compare to your other HTPC? I have a machine that is identical to your other, but my wife has taken it over for gaming, so it has been moved to the office. I have an older system that I'm going to scanenge for parts, this motherboard and case would be perfect for a home system.
 
It's great and works every bit as good as my other HTPC. It could easily replace it.
 
I already have a HTPC. I just felt like doing a mini-ITX build and figured someone might need a nice HTPC with a hassle free setup.
 
w1retap, are you going to use VMC or just stick with MPC?

I'm stuck with that decision on my HTPC right now, it should be able to handle HD movies in VMC, but I can't seem to get the codecs working correctly...
 
w1retap said:
Ok wow... this thing really impresses me, lol. I'm sitting in my theater right now with it hooked up via HDMI. It's doing 1080p/24 to my projector, watching 3:10 to Yuma on Blu-ray in 7.1 LPCM. Simply fucking amazing.. it sounds so good and the picture is smooth as hell. =DDDDDD so... there's your answer folks. It's unbelievable that all that comes in such a small package.
Click to expand...


I'm rather a noob, how'd you get it to do 24fps? I'm currently at 30hz coming out of my mobo through the HDMI slot...
 
You go into the Nvidia control panel under HDTV settings and set it at 1080p24.
 
w1retap said:
You go into the Nvidia control panel under HDTV settings and set it at 1080p24.
Click to expand...



Hmm, only option is 30...I guess its cause I'm directly hooked up to a denon avr-3806?


w/e, i'll look into it further. also, what are your temps in the case? I have a mini-ITX board sitting around that can accept an AM2 cpu, so I was thinking about setting it up and having it fold...would it get too hot?
 
what GPU are you using? i have Vista 32 with a AM2 5000+ BE w. 4gb of RAM and 1080i uses 50%-70% of my CPU. i am thinking VMC isnt using hardware acceleration.


how do i know?
 
rayman2k2 said:
Hmm, only option is 30...I guess its cause I'm directly hooked up to a denon avr-3806?
Click to expand...
Your HDTV might not support 1080p24.

rayman2k2 said:
w/e, i'll look into it further. also, what are your temps in the case? I have a mini-ITX board sitting around that can accept an AM2 cpu, so I was thinking about setting it up and having it fold...would it get too hot?
Click to expand...
Temps are around 35c at idle, 65c MAX at 100% cpu load. It gets warm, but I haven't noticed any adverse effects.
 
The heat sink for the cpu was that included in the package or a separate addon with the mobo? With your rips did it ever hit 100 cpu utilization with any of your 1080p content? Lastly I take it HW acceleration doesn't work with x.264 mkv container rips does it?
 
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