Getting the Best out of an Ivy Bridge HTPC: Windows 8, madVR and More..
by Ganesh T S on January 20, 2013 3:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Home Theater
- Intel
- HTPC
- Ivy Bridge
- Windows 8
- Passive Cooling
HTPC Decoding and Rendering Benchmarks: madVR
In the preceding section, we looked at EVR and EVR-CP. Videophiles often prefer madVR as their renderer because of the choice of scaling algorithms available as well as myriad other features. In our original Ivy Bridge HTPC review, I had been very satisfied with HD 4000 and madVR except for a few corner cases involving high frame rate material which also required both luma and chroma scaling (such as 720p60 material). One of the issues in our initial testbed was that we were using DDR3-1333 DRAM. Our current system under consideration uses DDR3-1600. This is more than enough to get madVR working with default scaling algorithm settings for all video material 1080p60 or lesser. Readers interested in seeing madVR in action on the HD 4000 should definitely check out Andrew's excellent piece in Missing Remote comparing HD 2500 and HD 4000 for madVR.
It is not possible to use native DXVA2 decoding with madVR because the decoded frames are not made available to an external renderer directly. To work around this issue, LAV Video Decoder offers three options. The first option involves using software decoding.
| LAV Video Decoder (Software Fallback) + madVR | ||
| Stream | GPU Usage % | Power Consumption |
| 480i60 MPEG-2 | 70.84 | 48.19 |
| 576i50 H.264 | 72.8 | 50.41 |
| 720p60 H.264 | 75.88 | 58.23 |
| 1080i60 H.264 | 61.51 | 59.05 |
| 1080i60 MPEG-2 | 61.22 | 55.09 |
| 1080i60 VC-1 | 62.22 | 59.85 |
| 1080p60 H.264 | 73.65 | 60.91 |
The second option is to use either QuickSync or DXVA2 Copy-Back. In either case, the decoded frames are brought back to the system memory for madVR to take over. The power consumption profile improves quite a bit, particularly for the 720p60 and 1080p60 streams.
| LAV Video Decoder (QuickSync) + madVR | ||
| Stream | GPU Usage % | Power Consumption |
| 480i60 MPEG-2 | 71.37 | 47.72 |
| 576i50 H.264 | 71.28 | 49.83 |
| 720p60 H.264 | 75.76 | 54.92 |
| 1080i60 H.264 | 62.5 | 56.15 |
| 1080i60 MPEG-2 | 62.02 | 55.81 |
| 1080i60 VC-1 | 61.86 | 55.94 |
| 1080p60 H.264 | 66.31 | 56.58 |
One of the interesting features to be integrated into the recent madVR releases is the option to perform DXVA scaling. This is particularly interesting for HTPCs running Intel GPUs because the Intel HD Graphics engine uses dedicated hardware to implement support for the DXVA scaling API calls. AMD and NVIDIA apparently implement those calls using pixel shaders. In order to obtain a frame of reference, we repeated our benchmark process using DXVA2 scaling for both luma and chroma instead of the default settings.
| LAV Video Decoder (QuickSync) + madVR (DXVA Scaling) | ||
| Stream | GPU Usage % | Power Consumption |
| 480i60 MPEG-2 | 50.33 | 43.54 |
| 576i50 H.264 | 52.39 | 44.33 |
| 720p60 H.264 | 57.34 | 48.82 |
| 1080i60 H.264 | 62.63 | 55.52 |
| 1080i60 MPEG-2 | 62.34 | 55.21 |
| 1080i60 VC-1 | 62.06 | 55.51 |
| 1080p60 H.264 | 65.56 | 55.33 |
DXVA scaling results in much lower GPU usage for SD material in particular with a corresponding decrease in average power consumption too. Users with Intel GPUs can continue to enjoy other madVR features while giving up on the choice of a wide variety of scaling algorithms.
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philipma1957 - Sunday, January 20, 2013 - link
WELL I don't think that I am obsessed.I record Jay Leno, David Letterman, Jimmy Fallon , Craig Ferguson and I record Saturday Night Live. That is about 21.5 hours of tv a week. Now Sometimes they are repeats and sometimes they are lousy . So I don't watch 21.5 hours each week. They also run at 1130 pm to 130 am and they compete for time.
The bottom line is I need 2 tuners and 2 dvrs to do this. Why is that> I use 100 percent free tv with an antenna. So my cost is that of a pair of mac minis and a pair of eyetv tuners.
Watching these via the net results in poor quality video due to my net connection . No matter what I would pay for a net connection the best is that of optimum online 15 down 2 up speed . Now if I buy the cheapest cablevision for tv my 50 dollar net fee bundles with cable tv basic . I go to 64 plus 6 for each box is 76 plus 6 for each dvd is 88. So to be able to time manage my tv via cable it is 38 a month. vs 0 I have had some type of dvd/vcr for 20 years do the math. more then 9000 saved.
NeBlackCat - Monday, January 21, 2013 - link
You're describing a media server there mate, not an HTPC. We're about at the point now where an HTPC needs to be nothing but a cheap networked ARM box.truprecht - Monday, January 21, 2013 - link
Raspberry Pi? Not quite there yet... maybe next gen.The12pAc - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
Was SOOO close to getting on last weekend, just to mess around with..... Cool idea.Golgatha - Monday, January 21, 2013 - link
Not to mention Cinavia will eventually make your ripped media streaming life a living hell Fx1. Enjoy not being able to tinker with the hardware and software. Also, good luck getting updates for all those apps once Panasonic exits the market. Microsoft and open source programs; not going out of the market anytime soon.Fx1 - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
No Cinavia on Panasonic. I am literally playing Blu rays off a HDD.dcaxax - Monday, January 21, 2013 - link
A) The scaling capabilities of your TV are what they are. I'm sure they're quite OK and I'm sure they don't come close to MadVR, but of course if youre happy that's all that counts.\B) Your TV doesn't manage and play all your media including your m4a's, Flac CD Rips etc, and if it does I'm sure the quality is awful unless iof it bitstreams which is unlikely.
C) It also doesn't play any non-typical audio/video formats. Maybe you don't care about that but others do.
D) Your TV may or may not show you your photos or give you skype or any bunch of other things that an HTPC does.
E) Others have made the point about DVR capabilities better.
F) Regardless of any of the above the UI on your TV doesn't come close to XBMC which itself doesn't come close to MediaBrowser (WMC plug-in)
HTPC's were never about playing pirated content. They are intended to provide a single hub for all digital content.
The fact that you are happy with your TV doing that for you, means that you have no need not bother with articles like this. Or indeed post on them.
Fx1 - Monday, January 21, 2013 - link
The TV has a dual core ARM CPU which seems to get the job done and the best 2D image money can buy. I really only try and use HD content.When i download my content i have enough choice between x264 Divx and other popular formats. If i really need to use an odd format any Phone or laptop or PC can stream directly to the TV via DNLA and realtime encode.
Skype, Youtube Netflix and other stuff is baked right into the TV with even a store to buy games.
My Galaxy S3 can use an app to share video pictures and Web pages direct to the TV and the TV can use these features without the phone too. I can play a HD movie directly off my phone in 2 clicks with the picture being perfectly good as i had used the HDD.
Im sure you can find stuff that i cant do that you can do on a HTPC but lets face it the costs are adding up and for what?
jabber - Monday, January 21, 2013 - link
Kind of agree with you there. I used to know quite a few folks that ran HTPC boxes but over the past few years they have all got rid of them and just switched to off the shelf options instead.I even had a go back in the day but more trouble than it was worth.
This is UK based too.
WeaselITB - Monday, January 21, 2013 - link
How do you watch independent or third-party shows on websites NOT on YouTube or Netflix? PBS documentaries, indy web-original content, etc.You state that you use a phone/laptop/PC to stream via DNLA ... well, then what's the point of your super-TV when you can have a dumb TV and an HTPC and accomplish everything without needing to stream off another box? If a vast majority of the online content you watch is via Netflix/YouTube, then sure, I'll bet that the super-TV works great. If it isn't (as is my case), then a separate HTPC is the better bet.
-Weasel