Minimum specs for HD

[rlw]

All,

Newbie question - I am looking at building my first HTPC using mainly spare parts if possible. I only have ATSC and would like to be able to record 1080i content. Should one of the following setups work smoothly?

ASUS P4B533 w/P4 3.06GHz
OR
MSI MS-6738 (KM2M Combo) w/Athlon XP 2600
Nvidia Verto GeForce 6200 128mb (AGP)
Up to 2GB RAM if needed

I don't have a tuner yet. I would like to be able to record and watch at the same time. Recommendations? I need either PCI or external.

Any preference on the mobo/cpu setup? I like the MSI only because it's miniATX. Thanks for the help.

[Bathman]

My server plays back BBC HD without any problem at all. The client cannot. I guess its all due to the graphics card. I've heard that GPU acceleration with AGP cards is poor.

[persim]

Recording HD content should be easy, it doesn't require much power. Playback of HD content is a different story. You look to be on the "fringe" of being able to playback 1080i with those specs. I had an Athlon XP 2500 with an AGP ATI X850 pro. Playback was never really smooth. There was alway some type of jerkyness. Now I have a 4600 X2 with ATI 3650 and playback is perfect aside from crappy cable signal. Best I can suggest is to try it and see what happens. If its not to your liking then you know you have to make the upgrade. I would recommend the HDHomeRun, it has 2 tuners and is network capable. I've had one for 2 years and it has worked flawlessly.

[rlw]

Thanks for the help. Do you think the limitation is the CPU, the video card, or both? I can go better on the video card, but not the CPU's with the motherboards I have. Thanks.

[xHerbiex]

I had a 6200 originally but eventually replaced it. It worked OK but the TV which was hooked up as a second monitor was mostly rather dark. I replaced it with an 8200 and it was much better.

[persim]

If you could upgrade the video card to something that does hardware acceleration then I don't think you would have any problems. I never tried HA with an AGP card so I can't really be too much help. IF what Bathman says about it being tough with AGP then you may have to upgrade the motherboard. Try doing a search for AGP hardware acceleration and see if anyone has been successful. On a side note, hardware acceleration is much easier to get working with Vista. I know some people have gotten it to work with XP but I never had any luck.

[rlw]

Thanks for the replies. I will do a little more research and post my results.