Discussion Forums > Technology
HDD Media Player
Chaosbreaker:
@Kitamesume - Taking all these things into consideration, spending a buck or two on a media player might be the wrong choice, since it will indeed almost exclusively be used for watching anime, and it indeed has come to my attention that a lot of groups have taken to Hi10p encoding.
Although my resources are not limitless, spending anything between $200 and $400 on a decent HTPC seems fair for an investment I will enjoy for years to come. When it comes to crunch, "complete" HDD Media Players aren't cheap either, and $200 for a media player that doesn't even completely do what I want it to seems pointless then.
A quick google taught me that there are virtually *NO* SoC Media Players out there that support Hi10P video encoding, so I might as well change this topic name to "Anime HTPC".
I am rather experienced at building my own computers, but those were almost exclusively gaming rigs, and I have little to no experience when it comes to building a HTPC. I can come up with some things to take in account, like silent yet decent cooling, but are there any other things that I should keep in mind?
I'd love to hear some pointers, as to what kind of hardware specs I should be looking at for optimal performance? It would be less than desirable to find out my freshly built HTPC is adequate only for Animé slideshows :P
Thanks for taking the time to reply!
EDIT: I'll make sure to check out the Ouya too, just because of the bang for the buck!
EDIT EDIT: Well, maybe not then... :P
kitamesume:
@mrdkreka
hmm, it claims to have a tegra 3 with quadcore @ 1.6ghz, since its mod-able, with some additional parts you may be able to overclock it to 2ghz.
although if you want real muscles wait for the up coming ARM cortex-A15 quadcore @ 2ghz.
http://www.techspot.com/news/48248-arm-unveils-power-optimized-2ghz-cortex-a15-quad-core-chip.html
@Chaosbreaker
for a good start, you can look up on an i5-3330 oriented build as a base-line, an entry quadcore should be enough to future proof for H.265 as rumors states it takes from two to four times as much processing power for it to decode.
you'll need to purchase a dedicated GPU though since intel's IGP is far from perfect in video playback, specially on animes. GT640 or HD7750 comes into mind, both are available in low profile packages but the later(HD7750) is slightly more cost effective.
theres also an option of a trinity htpc, it works either way but the trinity wouldn't have much cpu processing power.
with these in mind you can build one from square one for around 500$ with a tiny case of course. i'll edit back or repost for a sample build, you can wriggle around that.
Chaosbreaker:
@Kitamesume
Thanks for your time! I was just about to write that, although I've built plenty of rigs, those were all centered around either gaming or office performance, and I have no clue as to what a decent HTPC would require when it comes to raw processing power. You actually beat me to asking what kind of CPU I should be looking into :P
I was actually genuinely surprised to read 1.6GHZ QuadCore wouldn't be enough power to handle 10bit 1080p :-\
Thanks again, I will definitely look into this, and am looking forward for a sample build!
mrdkreka:
--- Quote from: kitamesume on November 19, 2012, 06:29:55 PM ---@mrdkreka
hmm, it claims to have a tegra 3 with quadcore @ 1.6ghz, since its mod-able, with some additional parts you may be able to overclock it to 2ghz.
although if you want real muscles wait for the up coming ARM cortex-A15 quadcore @ 2ghz.
http://www.techspot.com/news/48248-arm-unveils-power-optimized-2ghz-cortex-a15-quad-core-chip.html
--- End quote ---
Doesn't sound like a good solution, when you also have to factor in that it might still struggle.
yeah that is why I'm planning on waiting, I just mention tegra 4, since we were talking about tegra 3.
--- Quote from: Chaosbreaker on November 19, 2012, 06:48:08 PM ---I was actually genuinely surprised to read 1.6GHZ QuadCore wouldn't be enough power to handle 10bit 1080p :-\
--- End quote ---
What? if an ARM 1.6GHZ quadCore could handle 10bit 1080p, then that would be pretty damn amazing. I take you don't know much about the difference between ARM and x86 architecture?
kitamesume:
it is because the ARM processors are an entirely different architecture, even with their quadcore variants.
as for sheer processing performance to decode 10bit encodes, even a celeron G550 is plenty for it. but what worries me is the up coming H.265, considering how people leaped into 10bit encodes once the processing capacity were available... also since this rig should last you a few years, well it would be a waste to upgrade too soon right? as we're talking about 400ish bucks going down the drain. without solid benchmarks all we can do is speculate about this new encode, at worst an i3 would struggle, which i hope is not true.
the GPU actually isn't entirely necessary, even a lowly HD6450 would work. well its your choice.
anyway about the build:
[$189.99]Intel Core i5-3330 Ivy Bridge 3.0GHz
[$114.99]GIGABYTE GA-Z77N-WIFI LGA1155
[$22.99]Crucial Ballistix 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600
[$99.99]SAPPHIRE Radeon HD 7750 1GB 128-bit GDDR5
[$59.99]Mushkin Enhanced Callisto Deluxe 2.5" 60GB SATA II MLC (SSD)
[$44.99]Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D Green 380W
[$49.99]COOLER MASTER Elite 120 Advanced
---------------------------------------------
total - $582.93 ($482.94 w/o gpu)
-or-
[$124.99]AMD A10-5700 Trinity FM2 65W Quad-Core Desktop APU
[$120.00]n/a? i don't see anything under FM2
[$22.99]Crucial Ballistix 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR3 1600
[$59.99]Mushkin Enhanced Callisto Deluxe 2.5" 60GB SATA II MLC (SSD)
[$44.99]Antec EarthWatts Green EA-380D Green 380W
[$49.99]COOLER MASTER Elite 120 Advanced
---------------------------------------------
total - $422.95
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