EXTREAM lowcost HTPC build help

well I just picked up 7 EPIA 5000 (specs below) from eBay to build low cost htpc set ups that I can give away to friends or sell for small profits/no profit for people who don’t have the nice lcd tvs (dam near everyone were I live.) I’m thinking I’m going to need a pci gpu due to the fact that the cpu on the epia 5000 is 533 mhz fan less(will try to over clock as close to 1 ghz as possible by adding fan) so the gpu can decode the dvd videos. Can anyone recommend a good/good enough low cost gpu that fits in a pci slot that can take most of the video decoding from the cpu?

VIA EPIA Mainboard Specification
Form Factor - Mini-ITX
- 170mm x 170mm
- Micro ATX Chassis Compliant
Processor - VIA Eden?ESP 5000 processor
- 100/133MHz Front Side Bus
- low power consumption
- Optional Fanless
- VIA C3?E-Series processor (EBGA package)
- 100/133MHz Front Side Bus
- 128K L1 and 64K L2 cache
Chipset - VIA Apollo PLE133
- VT8601A North Bridge
- Featuring integrated AGP 2X graphics
- VIA VT8231 South Bridge
TV-Out - Integrated Macro Vision 7.01
- High quality scaling and filtering
- S-Video or Composite video output
- Supports NTSC/PAL TV formats
Main Memory - Two 168-pin DIMM memory sockets
- PC100/133 SDRAM support
LAN - VIA 10/100 Ethernet LAN onboard
Graphics - Integrated AGP2X with 2D/3D Graphics Acceleration
- Motion Compensation for DVD playback
- VIP port for video overlay function
Audio - VIA VT1612A AC'97 onboard
- 3 Audio Jacks - Line-Out, Line-In and Microphone-In
- Sound Blaster, Sound Blaster Pro Compatible
- Digital I/O compatible with consumer mode S/PDIF
Expansion Slots - ATA/100/66/33 Support
- 1 PCI slots
Onboard IDE - ATA/100/66
I/O Ports - 3 Audio Jacks - Line-out, Mic-in and Line-in
- Four USB ports (two USB ports located at rear side)
- 1 EPP/ECP parallel port
- 1 16C550 compatible serial port
- 2 External PS/2 Compatible Keyboard /Mouse ports
- 2 TV output ports (S-Video or optional RCA TV out)
- 1 S/PDIF out (optional and multiplex with RCA TV out)
- 1 RJ-45 LAN port
- 1 PCI slot (Note: support for two PCI devices)
Power Supply -ATX Power Supply Compliant

It depends on what video codecs your looking for. If you are looking for SD DVD content and such any video card that since the ATI rage days can do mpeg acceleration. Check out a geforce 5200, 6200 for full acceleration, low heat card.

What kind of OS were you planing on installing? And how much ram were you adding?

Mepis, it already has video out built in, RCA and S-Video. In addition if they were for HTPC then they would probably need a PRC card, which would take up the only PCI slot available.

beingblueeys, for decoding you can get a hauppauge PCI PVR card, which has built in decoding of the mpeg stream. I used to have a PVR-150 on a board with a 750Mhz Athlon, and it ran TV OK (the MythTV frontend not as well, but the TV was OK)

If you're thinking of just using the video out, and not recording any incoming transmission then the built-in stuff should be fine; the resolution on a TV is significantly less than that on a monitor.

Sorry, didnt read it had video out. Blond moment. At any rate I agree with what curtis said but I would go for a pvr150MCE. They can be found dirt cheap and if you adjust the filters and tweak in both linux and nix you can achieve recordings far better then a pvr350. Thats from experience between my pvr box and my friends.

Where/how did you use to adjust the recording settings? and what did you set them at?

From what I remember I used this tool. http://www.cask-of-amontillado.com/pvr_tweak.html

Also if I remember right I disabled most of the filters in general and just tweaked one or two.

Also my friend and I did eventually compare htpc quality between his build and mine on both of our hi-def TV's. He had a PVR350 and I had a 150MCE. If I remember right the 150MCE has a 2 line comb filter that is more effecient then the 350's and uses the same chips. The filters is what made the difference and if you adjusted them just right on the 150MCE the recordings looked just as nice as live TV. Also all recordings were done at NTSC standards and then upconverted through te HTPC to the Tv.

I also have to add that I was using media portal and he was using MythTV. All though we were both using ffmpeg and these tweaks provided by that tool can be done in both nix and windows.

All 7 itx's came with 256mb ram and I might "go all out" and upgrade them to 512. there not being built to do any recording, I’m thinking there primary function will be play back of dvd's (no bluray or hd dvd.) for an operating system I might be using xp beast edition or tiny xp, due to the fact of the programs (3) all windows programs i would like to run on the machine.
anydvd-to back up owned dvds
powerdvd-dvd play back
Xlobby-front end

Well rereading your OP you might be fine with the system as is. Im sure the current graphics built in wll do DVD decoding to some degree and playback. If you still want to get an external PCi card, as I said any PCI card you can get now of days will be able to handle DVD playback. You have the option of just getting an mpeg decoder card or a haupauge card but you might find for you basic needs this could be more expensive then even picking up an old geforce 4 or something to that off of ebay.

an xbox with xbmc might be cheaper than anything you could build.

If you want to save money there are plenty of linux programs that do the same thing!

curtis1552 said:

If you want to save money there are plenty of linux programs that do the same thing!

Click to expand...

like what?

The most common specific program is MythTV, which can be downloaded pre-installed into an OS (like Mythbuntu, KnoppMyth, Mythdora, etc)
There are about another dozen options of linux HTPC operating systems like this one
Freevo
GeeXboX
there are more available, too.

For video editing i'd recommend Avidemux.
For DVD backup:
k9copy
DeVeDe
OGMrip
Thoggen
AcidRIP
Dvd95
Dvd::rip
any or all of these can preform teh funcitons of anydvd (these were ONLY the ones in the Ubuntu repositories, you can find more if you want to look)

95% of the media players in linux support DVD playback; almost all distibutions come with the libdvdcss2 installed (or avaiable in the repository). All these play DVDs:
VLC
Gstreamer
mplayer
gxine
movie player
Kaffiene
SMplayer
Ogle
Codeine

Again, these are only from the Ubuntu repo, there are more out there.

imo the best "gpu" i use that loosly to use for h264 decoding is the PCI 2400pro. im using it now but the drivers are not up to date, they are 8.7's cat's. i dont think its working correctly with H264 content.. h264 is offloaded to the 4850 gpu in my main rig but no the older 2000 wtf? i mean i know its low end and all but the 2000s are stated to support H264 hardware level.

Evilsizer said:

imo the best "gpu" i use that loosly to use for h264 decoding is the PCI 2400pro. im using it now but the drivers are not up to date, they are 8.7's cat's. i dont think its working correctly with H264 content.. h264 is offloaded to the 4850 gpu in my main rig but no the older 2000 wtf? i mean i know its low end and all but the 2000s are stated to support H264 hardware level.

Click to expand...

1. That won't work for him - it's PCIe.
2. That doesn't DECODE. it ENCODES. (Decoding is changing from the TV signal (either digital or analog) to a format the computer reads better. Encoding is making the ocmputer displayable using a TV format (either analog or digital)
3. ATI drivers SUCK for linux.

curtis1552 said:

1. That won't work for him - it's PCIe.

Click to expand...

umm what? according to the specs he listed he has a PCI slot on the motherboard. the card i suggested is PCI, i would know i have one... its all about research my friend...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131082
i made a suggestion on what he asked for

Can anyone recommend a good/good enough low cost gpu that fits in a pci slot that can take most of the video decoding from the cpu?

Click to expand...

curtis1552 said:

2. That doesn't DECODE. it ENCODES. (Decoding is changing from the TV signal (either digital or analog) to a format the computer reads better. Encoding is making the ocmputer displayable using a TV format (either analog or digital)

Click to expand...

ok this your just not making any sense vs what i was saying...

curtis1552 said:

3. ATI drivers SUCK for linux.

Click to expand...

well im not on linux....