Finally a promising little HTPC

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It's interesting that they mention on Nvidia's page about the ION that it's capable of 1080p, as if it's something most video chipsets can't do (even old ones--like from 2003--can).
 
Originally Posted By: firemachine69
The key word is smoothly. My Radeon 9800 Pro can play 1080P. Except it looks like the NES department got involved in the coding of the 1080P portion...


I was running my HTPC in 1080p mode and it played DiVX video smoothly. I run it in 720p mode now because the icons and text were too small.

My HTPC is an old Sempron box.
 
Originally Posted By: brianl703
It's interesting that they mention on Nvidia's page about the ION that it's capable of 1080p, as if it's something most video chipsets can't do (even old ones--like from 2003--can).

Yeah, but it's a novelty when it comes to the low-powered Intel Atom chipset. Up until now, those chipsets were mainly available with the integrated Intel graphics which weren't capable of smooth 1080p playback.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Yeah, but it's a novelty when it comes to the low-powered Intel Atom chipset. Up until now, those chipsets were mainly available with the integrated Intel graphics which weren't capable of smooth 1080p playback.


I've seen more than one system with Intel integrated graphics playback 1080p without a problem. Not sure which chipset it was, though.

My 6-year-old IBM Thinkpad T40 w/Radeon 9000 Mobility graphics can playback 720p just fine, but attempts at playing back 1080p result in a pegged CPU and no video. Not sure if the bottleneck is the CPU (Pentium M 1.6) or the bus-speed, I doubt its the video card.
 
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Originally Posted By: mstrjon32
I've seen more than one system with Intel integrated graphics playback 1080p without a problem. Not sure which chipset it was, though.

Yeah, it wasn't Intel Atom. :)
 
Originally Posted By: mstrjon32

I've seen more than one system with Intel integrated graphics playback 1080p without a problem. Not sure which chipset it was, though.


My laptop has the 945GM chipset which did when I tried it.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: mstrjon32
I've seen more than one system with Intel integrated graphics playback 1080p without a problem. Not sure which chipset it was, though.

Yeah, it wasn't Intel Atom. :)


True. The point was that the graphics isn't the bottleneck, it's the decoding power. A weak CPU can be bolstered by a GPU that provides decoding acceleration, though.
 
Originally Posted By: brianl703
Originally Posted By: mstrjon32

I've seen more than one system with Intel integrated graphics playback 1080p without a problem. Not sure which chipset it was, though.


My laptop has the 945GM chipset which did when I tried it.

Which CPU?
 
Originally Posted By: mstrjon32
True. The point was that the graphics isn't the bottleneck, it's the decoding power. A weak CPU can be bolstered by a GPU that provides decoding acceleration, though.

Yes, that's the whole idea here. Because the CPU is low-powered and weak, it needs a better GPU.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Originally Posted By: mstrjon32
True. The point was that the graphics isn't the bottleneck, it's the decoding power. A weak CPU can be bolstered by a GPU that provides decoding acceleration, though.

Yes, that's the whole idea here. Because the CPU is low-powered and weak, it needs a better GPU.


Which begs the question, why not just use a more powerful CPU? Is the power savings from using a powerful GPU really that much better from just using a better CPU with good power management?
 
I think Microsoft offers the OEM version of its OS at a more discounted price for Atom platform, at least that's what I've read somewhere.
 
Did you actually have it hooked up to a TV/monitor that could display 1080 lines vertical? That's pretty good.
 
Originally Posted By: Quattro Pete
Did you actually have it hooked up to a TV/monitor that could display 1080 lines vertical? That's pretty good.


Yes, I had it hooked to a Sceptre X32BV-FullHD.
 
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