Is integrated ATI video on mobo good enough for Blu-Ray?

[MagnumRT]

Hey guys,

I am going to start putting a list together for a new HTPC.

From what I've seen on a friend's HTPC hooked up to my HDTV, the same Blu-Ray movie just seems crisper and more natural looking than my current NVIdia 9800GT card in my aging system. We both use PowerDVD 9.

So my next system is going to use ATI but I'm not sure if I should trust the integrated video on let's say, the ASUS M4A78T-E with a Radeon 3300. I want to make sure I get the right video card for best HD video processing.

Opinion... or facts.. ?

[Blue_MiSfit]

The 3300 will be perfectly fine, as it supports hardware decoding of H.264, VC-1, etc...

If you want "best HD video processing", you should probably make sure your system has a fast CPU, since software filtering is usually a big part of this.

~MiSfit

[writersblock29]

@MagnumRT

The HD 3300 is what my main system uses, and I've never had any problem feeding Blu-ray content through it. My CPU rarely exceeds 10% usage according to Windows Task Manager. My HTPC is built around the MSI Diva 5.1 motherboard, which uses the 780M chipset with HD 3200 onboard graphics. So long as I'm using the mobility catalyst drivers (the standard drivers cause this system to lock up on resume, while the mobility drivers run flawlessly), I'm more than happy with my HTPC's video performance. The Diva's only using an AMD 5050e processor and 4GB of standard Crucial RAM--nothing fancy at all--but Blu-ray playback is smooth as butter using Arcsoft's TotalMedia Theatre 3.

One note on building a HTPC on a foundation of AMD/ATI: If HD content is playing back stuttery, go into your motherboard's BIOS and ensure that "Cool and Quiet" support is disabled. I can tell you firsthand that this little piece of advice will save you hours of banging your head against the wall; or at the very least, save you days of forum-browsing trying anything and everything to get things working right.

I realize your post is old, so forgive me if you no longer need any input. Good luck with whatever you decide to do!

[MagnumRT]

Thanks, writerblock. I want to make sure that the integrated uses Avivo video processing for HD video playback. I still have not purchased anything as I am really busy at the moment but will be hitting newegg pretty soon.

Thanks again!

[writersblock29]

You're very welcome! I hope my advice helped.