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
Refresh Rate Handling
Readers following our HTPC reviews know by now that Intel's 23 Hz issue will remain unresolved in Ivy Bridge. It is definitely better than the Clarkdale days, as users no longer get 24 Hz when setting the display refresh rate to 23 Hz (23.976 Hz intended). Our system is not immune to this issue either, and setting 23 Hz in the refresh setting gives us a refresh rate of 23.972 Hz. This is slightly worse than what we got with the ASRock Vision HT.
Intel doesn't provide 25 Hz refresh rate support even on supported displays. The other refresh rates that we tested out are presented in the gallery below.
Refresh rates such as 24 Hz, 30 Hz and 50 Hz show improved accuracy, but 29 and 59 Hz settings are not as accurate as we would like them to be. Our earlier complaints pertaining to ease of use of the custom resolution settings still remain.
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ganeshts - Tuesday, January 22, 2013 - link
I wish :) But, to be honest, MS doesn't even provide keys to us (We have to use the eval period, unactivated)That said, I first set up Win 8 for a relative on a newly purchased notebook, and I seriously hated it. Even now, I am not used to the various new features available to interact with the OS. But, I have now come to realize that, technically, the OS has some very interesting improvements in terms of efficiency and multimedia support (at least). Give the eval version a try without activating, you might be pleasantly surprised :)
glugglug - Wednesday, January 23, 2013 - link
Replacing multiple DVRs is the primary use of my PC..I suppose you could have a Media Center w/CableCARD build separate from the HTPC you have here, but IMO, Media Center is **the** killer HTPC app.
NikosD - Friday, January 25, 2013 - link
4K decoding ? Why not benchmark at that resolution ?Ivy and VP5 are the only GPUs (VPUs) capable of HW accelerated H.264 4K decoding.
CSMR - Sunday, January 27, 2013 - link
Power consumption of around 40W is high for doing something as simple as media playback.With an Ivy Bridge chip you should be able to get sub 20W easily, and in fact sub 10W is achievable (http://www.silentpcreview.com/forums/viewtopic.php...
For a fanless system, this is important and will improve reliability and difficulty of cooling.
mr0000000000 - Wednesday, January 30, 2013 - link
Lordy that thing is beautiful - is that just a rendering or does that actually exist?PokerGuy - Monday, February 4, 2013 - link
From the article: "I would strongly suggest HTPC users relying on WMC (irrespective of the OS) to move on to other platforms."What other platform could I move to that would allow me to use cablecard? I have HD Homerun Prime and absolutely love it. I can watch any and everything on any PC in the house, including my HTPC for my main tv in the living room. I use XBMC as my library manager for all my movies and music, but I can't use it with cablecard, so I still need WMC for that purpose.
Win 8 comes without WMC, unless you want to pay extra, so for me it's a step backwards from Win 7. Paying to downgrade in functionality doesn't seem like a good idea.
connor2k - Friday, February 15, 2013 - link
I have looked through most of the comments. Is it listed elsewhere?Deuge - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - link
Hi Ganesh, i notice the new haswell NUC with HD5000 is coming out. Will you be doing an HTPC review of it?? Seems like the perfect HTPC to me.http://www.legitreviews.com/intel-nuc-kit-d54250wy...