Video Card?

[Torque]

Yep, Ddrawley found out the same thing I did. The 6600 is the lowest 6 series card to support all the Purevideo features, hence the reason I went with it. I think this will be especially important for HD video.

According to nVidia, the integrated video in the 6150 chipset supports everything but spatial temporal deinterlacing.

http://www.nvidia.com/page/purevideo_support.html

[Torque]

A good modern brand name PSU is all you need. I have one of those Shuttle XPCs at work, A64 3000+, 1GB RAM, HDD, CD-RW, and a GF6800... the PSU is a 200W! A coworker has the exact same box and we both play games during our lunch break almost everyday (AOE3, BF, COD2, etc). No problem there (they're almost a year old now).

It isn't the wattage rating that you need to be concerned with, it's quality of the power and the amps delivered on the different voltage rails... +12V power is what our newer hardware needs. Cheap PSUs divvy up the power amongst the +5, 3.3, and 12 and that's where you get into trouble. Mostly, if youre PSU can deliver 16-18A on the +12V it'll work just fine in a HTPC.

[ddrawley]

Thank you for that link Torque. I have been digging for that sort of information for a while. It is odd that the PCI Express 256MB version of the 6200TC has hardware assisted decode, but the AGP 6200 does not. Seems like a possible error in the chart.

[folkboat]

It seems as though an upgraded video card (compared to my ATI 7000 AGP 32MB) would offer some improvements.

- "improved picture quality" - just because cards get better!!! (or I change too S-VIDEO)

- "no stuttering while watching live TV"
(although I did manage to just about eliminate the stuttering by reducing the live TV setting - in config too 352X480 - additionally I changed the video card output too 640X480)

- "improved OSD transitioning speed", now when the OSD fades it causes stuttering and takes a while to fade.

The day has been spent trying every MPG "Playback" encoder including NVideo's trial version of PureVision, system default, Intervideo...........etc. Absolutly no change in picture quality (I found that rather odd).

Played with ATI's Control Center, made subtle improvements to the picture quality - neat little toy.

This indeed has been an enjoyable journey, we originally attached an old PC to the TV to play "MYST".

- Ok we need a Video Card with TV out - no problem NewEgg $24.00 - DONE.
- "HEY" I can make a PVR out of this - NewEgg $90.00 Hauppauge PVR 150 - DONE.
- "HEY" we can send the video to the TV upstairs - RadioShack $40.00 MVP DONE.
- "HEY" how do I get this thing to play a CD - Amazon $22.00 OFA 8910 remote, JP1 cable $14.00 - DONE.

Sounds simple enough -eh?? Hours spent 45............cost/priceless!!

[geekdout]

Hi!

Thought I'd jump in and ask a quick question. I just bought a new Nvidia GeForce 6200 AGP 256MB card, and want to run the Purevision decoder. Should those have been included on the install disk, or do you have to pay for and download/install those separately?

Thx!

[Deusxmachina]

Purevideo is sold separately. IMO, you're not missing much. The 6200 may be too old to use most/all the PureVideo stuff anyway. For free I'd grab Gabest MPV, Dscaler5, or PDVD (PowerDVD) is nice if you already have PowerDVD. Some others are good too, of course, but any of the nicer ones will do a similar job unless you start squinting, more or less.