Audio Asylum Thread Printer

Get a view of an entire thread on one page

FAQ / News / Events

Video Asylum

Specs are important for streaming HTPC

74.230.251.176

In Reply to: RE: Me too!! posted by Gmood1 on November 13, 2009 at 19:18:53

I have been playing around with a HTPC setup for a few months.

Based upon my experience and poking around the net, processing power, RAM, and graphics cards are important.

If you want to stream HD or Blue Ray without spiking CPU usage, you need a duo core processor, at least 2gb RAM and a graphics card with its own processor and at least 512mb RAM.

With my setup (P4 2.6ghz, 1gb RAM, XPSP3, 2yr old graphics card), I can stream normal rez video most of the time. Full screen sometimes causes buffering issues. Forget 720p in anything but a small box on the screen.

For content software, I have tried Media Portal and Boxee. Boxee works, but is resource intensive.

We have found it to be a very convenient way to keep up with TV episodes we have missed. Interface is easy- my non tech wife was able to turn on the PC, navigate, then stream episodes of her favorite shows. We have also watched Saturday football games on ESPN360.

Best,

Ross

Follow Ups:

boxee - bullethead 08:16:53 11/15/09 (0)
Give boxee time, I'm was using the beta for Ubuntu about 2 weeks ago until I wiped out one of my drives and installed Windows 7. Since the new Ubuntu release came out I'm going to fresh install that on my second drive for dual boot. I'd rather use boxee in the linux environment rather than 7 because Windows boxee client is still in alpha.

I'm not using anything fancy, a dual core 1.8ghz core 2 duo, 2gb of ram and a budget Nvidia card with 512mb of memory. Hi-Def at 720p plays fine, I haven't tried 1080p yet but that should work as well.

All the free streams I have thrown at the TV work nicely, I really like Amazon.com VOD service as well.
RE: Specs are important for streaming HTPC - Gmood1 11:20:03 11/14/09 (0)
I agree you do need some processor power. But not a huge amount. 2GB's of RAM should be plenty.
I use a Quad Core Dou 2.4GHz with a 1GB 256 Bit video card and 4 GB's of memory(way more than needed). I also have an HTPC with Dou core ..plenty as well. My CPU usage is 0% most of the time watching ripped Blurays or DVDs. It normally only spikes to 1 or 2% now at the most.You can use hardware acceleration since the introduction of DVXA. It helps by off loading the media intensive videos from the processors by utilizing more of the graphic card's memory. This can only be used by cards that are designed for it. Nvidia and ATI are the both manufacturing their cards for hardware acceleration.
Windows 7 comes with the codecs and underlining platform for this pre-installed.
Yeah my family finds it fairly easy using the PC for media. Its quite simple to do. That clicker.com is pretty damn awesome!! Thanks for the link Bullethead!

Edits: 11/14/09 11/14/09 11/14/09

Post a Followup:

FAQ

Post a Message!

Forgot Password?

Moniker (Username):
Password (Optional):
	Remember my Moniker & Password (What's this?) Eat Me
E-Mail (Optional):
Subject:

Message:	(Posts are subject to Content Rules)

Optional Link URL:
Optional Link Title:
Optional Image URL:
Upload Image:
E-mail Replies:	Automagically notify you when someone responds.

To view your new posting or follow-up, click on the RELOAD or REFRESH button on your browser.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: