Upgrading my old PC, to make it a HTPC

whitestar_999

Super Moderator
Staff member
the monitor you are using is TN panel which has inherent banding issues not to mention the resolution mismatch between monitor & your HD videos.for noise reduction you have to use some post-processing using ffdshow(which i recommend for banding issues too & easier to learn/use than madvr).it will take quite some time to learn about all this & if you don't feel comfortable then next best option is using a good TV or monitor(LCD/LED TV's from sony,samsung,LG costing ~32000 or above or good IPS panel monitors from dell costing ~9000 & above.

P.S.i have no ideas about quality of other brands but as far as i know besides sony,samsung & LG no other brand gives you your money worth in LCD/LED TV segment.panasonic has probably the best plasma TV range though.for monitors best option as of now is latest S series IPS panel monitor from Dell which someone here said that it is available for ~9500.other brand in monitors is ASUS but it is priced at ~16000.besides these 2 again i haven't read much appreciation/good reviews for other brands.
 

The Incinerator

Human Spambot
Hahah ok Thankyou Whitstar_999! I read your The Incinerator 's and discussion last night and I understood most of it!
View attachment 7634

I had a few questions! Will the quality of my Videos increase and be better than my Integrated Graphic Chip NVidia 7050/630 ? Cuz when I watch regular SD content on my DELL 17 inch monitor its perfectly fine but when I watch HD content there is so much noise in the Video. So, will it change if I get a HD6450? Or is it cuz my Monitor is a very basic one thats why this is happening? Ill either hook this HTPC up to a Samsung/Sony 46 inch LED TV or A Phillips 27 inch monitor!

Noise is one of the main reasons where standalone universal disc players scores over HTPC. The PC has a lot more electrical paths and those paths has to be covered till the picture reaches your screen. The PCs electrical paths are infested with lot of electrical noise. The shorter and shielded the path the better the video or audio.For e.g this is one of the very main reason to get a shielded audio card to get proper sound out of a PC and the Video Noise part is already known to you and to address that , as whitestar mentioned post processing is an option to reduce the noise. But then the Picture noise reduction better be good or it will kill details along with it too. A good cable between the source and the display plays a lot to keep the image noise free in a better way. A lot of TVs come with NR feature built in and so does DvD/Bluray players. The main devil lies in the compressed videos that we play.Any compression will lead to some kind of loss no matter what.Since you are going to get a good and bigger screen ....the problem will get slightly more visible.Bigger high quality screens need good material to shine.
 
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whitestar_999

Super Moderator
Staff member
@letterD,remember about what @incinerator said about quality of source material.i forgot to mention it but now here are some of the points to keep in mind.always prefer h264 codec over xvid/divx for same size files & possibly even a bit smaller h264 video files since h264 compression is more efficient.for a hollywood action/special effects movie ideal size for a 720p encode is ~4.5gb minimum so don't bother with those 1-2gb 720p files.bitrate matters more so prefer a higher bitrate but lower resolution file over higher resolution but lower bitrate files.with sufficient bitrate & some upscaling post-processing by ffdshow/player in-built filters it should be good for most videos(remember the bitrate point) to view full screen on a full HD display.
 
OP
TheLetterD

TheLetterD

Will Power
Hmmm. See When I played The Adventures of Tintin
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 2
File size : 4.36 GiB
Duration : 1h 46mn
Overall bit rate : 5 846 Kbps
Writing application : mkvmerge v4.1.1 ('Bouncin' Back') built on Jul 3 2010 22:54:08
Writing library : libebml v1.0.0 + libmatroska v1.0

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 5 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 1h 46mn
Bit rate : 4 335 Kbps
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 544 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 2.35:1
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.260
Stream size : 3.15 GiB (72%)
Writing library : x264 core 120 r2146 bcd41db
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=5 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=7 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.15 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=0 / chroma_qp_offset=-3 / threads=12 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=40 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=4335 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Language : English
No Noticeable Noise on my Monitor

The Avengers(Ripped from a Blu-Ray disc I got as a gift. Ripped it on my Uncle's XPS 17 laptop.) 1080p
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media
Codec ID : isom
File size : 2.20 GiB
Duration : 2h 22mn
Overall bit rate : 2 200 Kbps


Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.0
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 4 frames
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 2h 22mn
Bit rate : 2 104 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 13.1 Mbps
Width : 1 920 pixels
Height : 1 080 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.042
Stream size : 2.10 GiB (96%)
Writing library : x264 core 125 r2200 999b753
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=4 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=8 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.15 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-3 / threads=12 / lookahead_threads=2 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=240 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=50 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=2104 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Encoded date : UTC 2012-08-21 16:52:50
Tagged date : UTC 2012-08-21 16:53:37

No Noticeable Noise on my Monitor, Best video quality out of all clips tested.

The Walking Dead Season 2 Last Episode
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 2
File size : 1.39 GiB
Duration : 43mn 17s
Overall bit rate : 4 600 Kbps

Writing application : mkvmerge v5.8.0 ('No Sleep / Pillow') built on Sep 2 2012 15:37:04
Writing library : libebml v1.2.3 + libmatroska v1.3.0

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 5 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 43mn 17s
Bit rate : 4 124 Kbps
Width : 1 280 pixels
Height : 720 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.187
Stream size : 1.25 GiB (90%)
Writing library : x264 core 128 r2216 198a7ea
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=5 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=8 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=12 / lookahead_threads=2 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=50 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=19.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Language : English
Matrix coefficients : BT.709-5, BT.1361, IEC 61966-2-4 709, SMPTE RP177

LOTS of noise, horrible video quality, ruined the season finale for me :evil:

The Walking Dead Season 2 Episode 12
ormat : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media
Codec ID : isom
File size : 339 MiB
Duration : 43mn 17s
Overall bit rate : 1 095 Kbps


Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L3.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 5 frames
Codec ID : avc1
Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
Duration : 43mn 17s
Bit rate : 948 Kbps
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 404 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
Original display aspect ratio : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.136
Stream size : 293 MiB (87%)
Writing library : x264 core 122 r2184 5c85e0a
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=5 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=umh / subme=8 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=18 / sliced_threads=0 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=0 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=2 / b_adapt=2 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / weightb=1 / open_gop=0 / weightp=2 / keyint=250 / keyint_min=23 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=50 / rc=crf / mbtree=1 / crf=21.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Encoded date : UTC 2011-09-08 11:43:25
Tagged date : UTC 2011-09-08 11:43:25
Matrix coefficients : BT.709-5, BT.1361, IEC 61966-2-4 709, SMPTE RP177
SOME noticeable noise, average video quality.




ALSO I tried playing all these Videos from a friend's laptop (Pentium Dual Core (2nd Generation) - B960 (2.2Ghz) Mobile Intel HM65 Express Intel HD Graphics) on my old LG 32 inch TV too. The results were almost the same, the Walking Dead 720p video had slightly less noise and was kind-of-watchable.


Now I hope you got SOMETHING from this, cuz I dont think its the same issue The Incinerator said about those electrical signals. Cuz some Videos play well, some dont. So if you do know the problem, can you please tell me whats the solution? Getting a graphic card + New Monitor/TV? Or ditching the whole Idea and getting an HD media player(I dont want to do that! :( ) Or something else?
 
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