Microsoft Boy considers Linux Media Center?

[Purple]

Now i am a microsoft boy, love it. I have tried Linux and it annoys the heck outta me. Just blinkin work, darn you.

But, my Linux loving flat mate made me watch this and frankly i may have to convert.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...05109829&hl=en

If that link doesnt work try this and choose another link or read about it.

http://wiki.linuxmce.com/index.php/Screenshots


Me wants. Seriously cool.

[[GSV]Trig]

I was thinking about this the other week, might give it a shot.

[dangel]

I like the look if it but.. whassat about not supporting 1080i on nvidia cards? I need 1080P output. Does the 8600 work ok on Linux? Will my TV card work ok? I might try this in dual boot for comparison with Vista MC and report back..

[[GSV]Trig]

I just want something more responcive than XP-MCE

[directhex]

LinuxMCE is a repackaged distribution based on home automation software called PlutoHome. It doesn't work remotely as well as most of the videos suggest. Consider something based more fully on MythTV instead (Pluto uses MythTV only for small parts of its operation) if TV features at all in what you do

[Purple]

Originally Posted by [GSV]Trig

I just want something more responcive than XP-MCE

The reason we are looking at this is because we have a Media PC hooked up to our 40 inch HD Samsung. There is not a hope in hell that it can decode 1080p on Windows - its made up our old components. So, we tried Linux and 1080p sources could be decoded at 70% of the ATHLON x86 1.7 single core, 1 gig ram, Geforce 7.

[dangel]

Wouldn't a el-cheapo 2400 ATI card solve that anyway?

I think i'll hold off on trying this seeing as my VistaMC is now working fine anyway.

[directhex]

Originally Posted by Purple

The reason we are looking at this is because we have a Media PC hooked up to our 40 inch HD Samsung. There is not a hope in hell that it can decode 1080p on Windows - its made up our old components. So, we tried Linux and 1080p sources could be decoded at 70% of the ATHLON x86 1.7 single core, 1 gig ram, Geforce 7.

MPEG2?

[Purple]

Mpeg-4 in a TS container - possibly VC-1 mp4.

Edit: it was x264/AVC/mp4 in a TS container

[Purple]

Newer Video cards are not necessarly the answer to poor 1080p performance on a PC - most of the decoding is done via the processor, so good L2 cache and fat RAM buses are the key. Of course the graphics card has to be able to render 1920x1080 at 32bit at 50 or 100hz. I will try a GeForce 4 tonight and let you know if it makes a difference.

[dangel]

Originally Posted by Purple

Newer Video cards are not necessarly the answer to poor 1080p performance on a PC - most of the decoding is done via the processor, so good L2 cache and fat RAM buses are the key. Of course the graphics card has to be able to render 1920x1080 at 32bit at 50 or 100hz. I will try a GeForce 4 tonight and let you know if it makes a difference.

Newer graphics cards offer hardware decoding for HD ATI with their 2xxx series (UVD - Universal Video Decoder) and nVidia with the 8400/8600 (Purevideo HD). The whole idea is that it offloads the work from the CPU..

[Purple]

Originally Posted by dangel

Newer graphics cards offer hardware decoding for HD ATI with their 2xxx series (UVD - Universal Video Decoder) and nVidia with the 8400/8600 (Purevideo HD). The whole idea is that it offloads the work from the CPU..

OK, do you know which codecs are hardware accelerated? I know they do HD DVD/blueray which is x264/AVC. And DVD (mpeg2). but what about VC-1 (wm9)? Would hardware accel work with ffdshow?

[dangel]

Originally Posted by Purple

OK, do you know which codecs are hardware accelerated? I know they do HD DVD/blueray which is x264/AVC. And DVD (mpeg2). but what about VC-1 (wm9)? Would hardware accel work with ffdshow?

Well from ATI's specs (2400):

Dedicated unified video decoder (UVD) for H.264/AVC and VC-1 video formats
High definition (HD) playback of both Blu-ray and HD DVD formats
Hardware MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4/DivX video decode acceleration
Motion compensation and iDCT (inverse discrete cosine transform)
MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, WMV9, VC-1, and H.264/AVC encoding and transcoding

..but I don't (yet) have one. The 8600GTS (which I do have) is very similar. I can't say i've personally benchmarked it (it just works) but here's a random report:

h.264 24fps 1920x1080 .mov video with Quicktime Pro (this application can provides us with fps performance peeks during playback)
XP PRO with ATi Radeon X300: 10-13 fps
XP PRO with GeForce 8600GTS: 19-24 fps
Vista with ATi Radeon X300: 14-15 fps
Vista with GeForce 8600GTS: 24 fps

h.264 24fps 1920x1080 .mp4 video with VLC
XP PRO with ATi Radeon X300: choppy
XP PRO with GeForce 8600GTS: somewhat choppy
Vista with ATi Radeon X300: choppy
Vista with GeForce 8600GTS: smooth

1080p 24fps WMV video with Windows Media Player 11
XP PRO with ATi Radeon X300: somewhat choppy
XP PRO with GeForce 8600GTS: smooth
Vista with ATi Radeon X300: smooth
Vista with GeForce 8600GTS: smooth

(http://www.osnews.com/story.php/1829...-8600GTS-Card/)

Nvidia's PureVideo HD page: http://www.nvidia.com/page/purevideo_hd.html

I'd be tempted to go ATI restrospectively as their cards are cheaper, use less power and generate less heat. Gaming is a complete non issue for MC PCs, but hardware decoding is a bit of a holy grail. How does linux fair with hardware decoding support I wonder? I note nVidia don't yet support it in their XP drivers!

[[GSV]Trig]

My MCE box has Steam installed on it as I wanna try CS:S when I get chance

[Purple]

@ dangel
Nice breakdown, yeah i guess that would work then! Good job

My main machine - 4600+ Dual Core, 2gb Dominator XMS, 8800gts. Vista Ultimate x64. Does fine under Windows for 1080 - half processor load. I also have it RE ENCODING to mpeg2 for streaming to my XBox 360.

This is my current non-ideal solution -

I want 1080 on my LCD, but the Media PC in the same room is not capable (under Windows). The Xbox 360 will decode 1080p content but must be in mpeg2+AC3 or wmv9+wma5.1.

So, i have the main PC (the dual core) decoding from mp4 formats/divx/xvid, and encoding again to mpeg2+ac3. (google Transcode 360). The XBOX can then play it.

I don't like this for HD content because despite the mpeg2 encoding being set to absolute quality (no compression - the bit rate is something like 9500kbit) i still notice the quality drop from mp4 source to mp2 stream.

Ideally i would like a capable media pc connected direct to the TV for HD content.

Vista + Transcode 360 + Xbox 360 work brilliantly for SD content where the source quality is not excellent in the first place.

I dont appear to have a point.

[dangel]

Hexus did a review of the the UVD capabilities of the ATI(AMD) cards recently - they had a bit of trouble as I remember but, to be honest, i've been through sheer hell with the nvidia drivers so it's a bit of a non-issue

Check this out: