GBPVR on PC3500G - Hardware Acceleration issues

[ashraya]

Hi

I have built myself a PVR with the following Spec

Mobo: PC3500G
Processor: VIA Esther C7 1.5 Ghz
Chipset: CN896 (Unichrome Pro IGP)
O/S: Windows XP
TV Card: PVR-150 (Non MCE)
Codec: Cyberlink SP v8 (from Ace Codec Pack)

I am unable to use the Hardware Acceleration for the MPEG-2 Decoding. I am still able to get video/Audio with VMR9-FullScreen, but the CPU is always running at around 100%.

I have seen a note from tjuraeb around Feb 2006 saying none of the codecs support the Hardware Acceleration from the new VIA chipsets (The reference was to the C700 chips). Is this still the case? Is the only option left for me to buy a PCIE card (I have the PCIe slot free on the Mobo)?

I am willing to put in the £40 for that, but thought I would check before I did that.

Regards,
Gani

[Bathman]

I was really tempted to get one of these motherboards. However VIA have produceded so much rubbish/talked so much rubbish in the past that I decided against it. So I am glad someone else has taken the plunge.

I can offer absolutely no help as to whether the onboard graphics will give you hardware acceleration. But history would say that with VIA it may well be problematic.

My gut feeling is you system would be much better if you used a ATI 3450 anyway as then you would be able to play back bluray and have much more poke then the onboard VIA graphics.

Just out of interest how much memory have you used in the system and have you tried to see if it can run Vista.

Keep me informed I would like to see how your system developes.

[ashraya]

Bathman:

I have used 2GB RAM on the system. I have not attempted to put Vista on it. (I had a OEM Windows unused lying around, so did not attempt to get Vista).

Regards,
Gani

I was really tempted to get one of these motherboards. However VIA have produceded so much rubbish/talked so much rubbish in the past that I decided against it. So I am glad someone else has taken the plunge.

I can offer absolutely no help as to whether the onboard graphics will give you hardware acceleration. But history would say that with VIA it may well be problematic.

My gut feeling is you system would be much better if you used a ATI 3450 anyway as then you would be able to play back bluray and have much more poke then the onboard VIA graphics.

Just out of interest how much memory have you used in the system and have you tried to see if it can run Vista.

Keep me informed I would like to see how your system developes.

[pBS]

sweet..hadn't seen these...wondering if it's small enough to fit in standard itx case?
anyways, was looking at reviews and saw...

VIA CN896 Digital Media Chipset Certified for Windows Vista, the VIA CN896 digital media chipset features the VIA Chrome9 HC IGP with a DirectX 9.0 3D accelerator for high performance, a 2D accelerator for productivity applications, and the Chromotion 3.0 video display engine for advanced hardware-based video processing. Other features include support for an external PCI Express x16 slot and support for up to 2GB 400/533/667MHz DDR2

so sounds like an upgraded version of old video...does do *some* accell. but not much...hd would be a big stretch, most can't even get it to do sd well...
but with a pcie card the sky's the limit..
i've got a hd3450 and yea it should do the job nicely..silent and low profile..

[Bathman]

The boards are Flex ATX size and have one PCI and one PCI-e slot on them.

I still not convinced that a C7 at 1.5ghz has enough poke to run the GBPVR interface.

About 3 years ago I ran GBPVR on a 1.2 C3 system with a Nvidia 6200 and it was unable to play back VMR I had to use overlay and although this chip is a C7 and it clocks 300mhz faster I cant see it being transformed from a family sedan into a rocket ship.

I would guess that the CPU is about the equivalent of a P3 900mhz which is cutting it real fine performance wise. However I would very much like to be proved wrong.

[pBS]

bummer, i wanted a nice itx sized one..there are itx sizes that have a pci slot and use core2duo cpus but i'd want one of those with a pcie slot..
i bet the intel gly boards are close to this one in speed..

[ashraya]

Turajb:

Thanks for the info. I made two changes based on your info. I removed the Codec pack from Ace, and put in K-Lite Codec pack. I also changed from VMR9 to Overlay manager. I have a useable picture as far as video is concerned.

With this mode, the CPU usage is around 45% when viewing Live Video, and much lesser for the PVRX2 interface. However, there are two broad purple strips on both sides of the video, as the picture is not resized from 4:3 to 16:9. Any tips for that? HD is not a requirement at the moment, so I believe I should be ok with the base setup. I will look at upgrading for HD in a year or so.

Also, I have never been able to get sound working on that Motherboard. Let me know which drivers / settings you used on the 2500 if possible.

I have ordered a NVidia based generic Video card with 256 MB memory for the PVR, and hopefully, will be able to use both VMR9, and Hardware MPEG-2 Decoding once I put that in. Waiting for that...

Regards,
Gani

Gani,

With that mobo, you will not be able to properly handle VMR9, using the mobo's onboard video card (only overlay mananager will work smoothly). I can speak from experience here, since I own a VIA PC2500 mobo, which is the PC3500G's little brother.

With C3 based mobos (like my Epia SP13000), you can take advantage of the onboard MPEG2 hardware decoder, using a Cyberlink MPEG2 codec (I found v5 through v8 appears to work well).

From my research, it still appears that the C7 based mobos (like the Via PC2500 & PC3500 mobos) cannot take advantage of the C7's MPEG2 hardware decoder, at least with current MPEG2 codec packs available for win2k & winXP.

But I have admit, I have not really tested this extensively (as my SP13000 overall runs well as a basic SD PVR), and the Via PC2500 based PC replaced an energy hungry server in my network. So my tests were limited to a few weeks of intermittent playing around with the PC2500 mobo with basic installs of Windows 2000 & XP (Vista & XP MCE were not tested), before it was finally switched it over to Fedora.

Some time back I did hear a rumor about Via, which noted that XP MCE or was it Vista MCE, may be able to use the onboard MPEG2 decoder, since it contained some type of customized codecs & MCE tweaks, but I could be wrong.. Its been quite a while since I last really dug into this & I don't have MCE (XP or Vista) in order to test it. So if you try this, you are really on your own.

In my opinion, I would recommend you go with something that has a more powerful CPU & more upgrade options. This is especially so, if you ever intend to do HD with your PVR, as all Via/Epia mobos I have seen wouldn't be able to handle HD.

Take what you want from this. This is just my 2 cents, based on past research & experience with these C3 & C7 mobos.

[ashraya]

Update: My card (Generic NVidia 7300) Arrived last night and I popped it in today. Seems like I have system on hand that works. I did VMR9 (Custom / Full Screen Exclusive) and in both modes, the CPU stays around 40% which I guess is acceptable.

I solved the Sound problem also. I was using the wrong input on the TV.

Now, if only some one can tell me how to get full screen TV, rather than with two bars on either side, I will be done.

The NVidia card has a DVI output. If I get myself a DVI to HDMI cable, (The TV has a HDMI input), will the full screen stuff work?

Regards,
Gani

[stustunz]

press f7

[Bathman]

"The NVidia card has a DVI output. If I get myself a DVI to HDMI cable, (The TV has a HDMI input), will the full screen stuff work?"

More than likely but it does depend on the tele.

My 37 inch this works perfectly. My dads 32 inch the picture works fine but then the PC input sound no longer works. This problem was solved by using a ATI 3450 which can output the audio from the PC to the TV via the HDMI input.