I'm a long time Media Center advocate. I have decided I want to build a very light client to sit in the bedroom, it will contain literally the basics for a PCs life just enough to allow VMC to function.
ideally i want to put it in a tiny shell, out of sight, out of mind. to facilitate this the easiest spec i have come up with involves shoving an atom into the box.
does anyone here have any experience of running vista on an atom, will it even cope? i'm assuming i would probably require some form of graphics card to cope with video decode?
Thanks!
Hi
According to the tranquilpc website, they say that these processors can handle VMC - not sure that it would be the most responsive or able to handle HD tv. Check them out at http://www.tranquilpc.co.uk/
Tony
AMD64X2 6000+ | 4Gb Ram | 750Gb Samsung Spinpoint for TV | 60Gb OCZ SSD System Drive | ASUS M3N 78 PRO | Avermedia A707 Trinity | 2xNova-S2-HD | 1GB Zotac GT430 Zone | LG Blu-ray/HD DVD Drive | Xbox 360 | Arcsoft TMT3/5 | Antec Fusion Remote Max | Dreambox 500s | DVBLink TVSource 3.2 | Windows 7 x64 Ultimate | Logitech Harmony 700 | Sky HD
Tranquil WHS
MSI WinTop AE2220
Vengence_Irl:you might want to hold off for some reviews to pop up of the new version of the eee-box. Its got HDMI out and I understand there is an adapter plate that allows you to attach it to the vesa bracket on an LCD TV
Isn't that what we all want anyway? A HTPC that sits out of the way, and is nice and small. Then let base your storage somewhere else. At least that's the plan which is formulating in my head at this very second.
God I love media networking...
So far as the tranquil site goes I'm am dubious as it looks like they have a lot of spin on that site. Green this, Environment that... Anyone got a Vista PC rating of the Atom CPU?
Stuart
Windows Entertainment and Connected Home MVP
The Windows Media Center Blog Tips Tricks & News!
Phaze1 Digital
Not sure about Live HD TV, but the GPU alone won't help with the difficulty in decoding large HD MKV's for example.
For those, you need both a fast GPU and a VERY fast processor.
Especially if you want to play 1080p files (blue-ray rips).
Hello,
if you really have no problem playing -- AND fast forwarding, rewinding, and skipping forward and back -- with 1080p MKV files in Windows Media Center, then please urgently give me some details about your software configuration, as I'm trying to further complete my "Vista MCE codec bible" with a recommendation on the best options to minimze CPU usage and stuttering.
- haali or gabest splitter in use ?
- which version of ffdshow ? Which options in "Output" (colourspaces etc. ?)
- ffdshow video converter: what's enabled in "codecs" ? H.264 decoded by ffdshow or disabled ? "raw" enabled or not ? Using Cyberlink PowerDVD H.264 decoder or not ? something else maybe ?
- subtitles handled by what: ffdshow ? directvobsub ? others ?
P.S.: I don't have any problems playing the files either (although yes, I do when MCE is doing a recording at the same time) but it's when skipping or forwarding that the problems and stuttering start. E.g. i skip a few minutes forward, then the picture freezes or goes slowly / out of sync for about 5 seconds before everything works correctly again. I have a Core Duo E4600.
=> plutoz: I mean fast forward and rewind. With MediaControl & FFDShow.
Actually I've found the problem re. MKV 1080p rendering: it's a bug that affects playing MKVs from a LAN connection when using the Gabest Matroska splitter.
Fix: use Haali media splitter again (I've found workarounds for its problems with subs and multiple audio streams).
I have quite a few (downloaded) MKVs and I assure you that NONE of those plays with anything less than 30% cpu usage on average, though (on a C2D E4600).