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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dcaxax - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
Also, not everyone has a super smart TV. I have a 55" Sony series 9 (hx923). It's one of the best TVs money can buy (especially for may visual tastes), but it's smart platform sucks.I don't like to depend on a dumb machine which is what I consider TV's for things I can do 10 times better on a PC. and I've not seen a single "smart tv" platform that didn't suck monkey balls as far as usability, speed and interface design...
Fx1 - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
I can watch any kind of video i like. Even embedded videos in a web browser. Easy way is to go to the website on my phone and then hit one button and within 2 seconds its playing on the TV. I download All the TV i want to watch from torrents. with Netflix and Sky TV im pretty much coveredTouche - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
First of all, it's a fully functional PC vs extremely limited TV/small media player. That right there is difference enough. Media, gaming, productivity, limitless customization...As for media capabilities, there is no match for things HTPC players, renderers, filters, codecs...provide regarding compatibility, picture quality, filtering, smoothness, per file refresh matching/switching, library organization, future proofing...
Fx1 - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
The only real difference is price. You pay serious money for stuff thats actually not relevant. Im playing blu ray quality 50gb movies with DTS HD sound in 1080p. You cant get any better than that!. Upscaling is a joke. you cant polish a turd. Its still crap quality video and its always going to look crap. You dont need a PC to work that out. Also upscaling is as good as it gets on a panasonic TV. Your PC might have good software but it wont beat the dedicated hardware built into a TV. Its a bit stupid to build a PC to watch standard Def. its like a 4k gaming PC to play diablo 2.Quite honestly my Macbook Pro would be more capable and powerful than any of your HTPC's and i can take the Mac out the house when i need to. Dedicated HTPC really is just a hobby and excuse to build a PC.
Touche - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
Yes, you can. Chroma upsampling, per source refresh matching, playback-refresh perfect sync... LOL on the TV hardware vs PC software.Tell the majority of the world how improving SD as much as possible is stupid.
I don't get the Macbook joke. At least I hope it's a joke.
I'll get back to PC gaming on my living room tv now. I guess Macbook and Panasonic can do that better too.
Fx1 - Wednesday, January 23, 2013 - link
Sorry you lost all credibility when you told me that you play games with a PC on your TV.This is 2013 and Standard def has no place in my home or even my PHONE!.
You do realise that a Macbook Pro has a i7 CPU and a 650M GT GPU inside? You can also install Windows and basically you dont need a separate box to do the things you claim you need to do.
How long do you think its going to be until there is wireless display tech? then your HTPC is doomed. Because people can just use their normal PC or Laptop to do basically what you spent all that money building a dedicated device for.
Touche - Wednesday, January 23, 2013 - link
Thank you captain obvious, I would never have realized that things will be somewhat different once wireless display tech gets improved.You do realize that your Macbook essentially becomes a HTPC when you hook it up to the TV? The very same thing you're dissing, though more expensive and limited.
Also, it is nice of you to selectively disregard advantages even your limited usage scenario would see, and concentrate on dissing anything not of use to you or not up to your "2013" standard (what a lousy teenage girl thing to say, btw).
I hope you can grasp the idea that many people have usage scenarios you don't, and have a great need and benefit from HTPC.
Touche - Wednesday, January 23, 2013 - link
Oh, and as for the Macbook, it needs Windows to be as useful and capable as HTPC, at which point you're better of with a much cheaper laptop. And even then, as many HTPCs are doing something 24/7, or while you're away etc., it makes no sense to use a laptop. Hence the joke.Yes, yes, YOU don't need anything that doesn't come with MacOS, and YOU don't use anything HTPC related, or use it more than X hours a week, and YOU don't...so it's all just useless and nobody should have it.
Fx1 - Thursday, January 24, 2013 - link
First of all a HTPC is basically an underpowered limited use box sitting under your TV. This is the point. Just about every other device now does what a HTPC does without actually having to have a separate PC. A Laptop a home desktop a phone, tablet or smart TV will do 95% a dedicated HTPC will do 95% as good. They really are going to go the way of the dodo. ExtincteXces - Sunday, January 20, 2013 - link
i would definitely pick Mediaportal over XBMC or jriver