Epia VS Desktop PC

[anders@dac.se]

I just unpacked my new Epia Mini-Itx M1000 Motherboard and installed XP on it. After installation (wich took for ever on the Mini-Itx) i installed all the drivers on the CD that came with the board and the FDDSHOW codecs (ffdshow-20021213.exe from doom9.org). I have not done any tweaking or stuff like that, just installed XP and the VIA drivers.

My desktop PC is an AMD2600+, GF4 Ti4600 latest Nvidia drivers and the same FFDSHOW codecs. I run in same refreshrate and the same movie, but I get the impression that the Mini-Itx does not match in picture quality. (I've installed "XP Servicepack 1" on the desktop not on the Mini-Itx)

Whats can be wrong?

/Anders

[anders@dac.se]

Come on guys. Someone with a viewpoint on this? :)

[Ramirez]

Hi Andres, I hope it's not too late lol, I don't quite get it what's the problem is "not match in quality", maybe it's some problem with the overlay? I don't own this mobo but I have plenty of those at my work, I'll compare it tomorrow morning head to head with a regular desktop whether there are significant diff in playback quality.

[anders@dac.se]

Thanks.. :)

[Ramirez]

Well, I've checked that out yesterday, the Epia mini HTPC and a P4-2.4 desktop machine where played the same source simultaneously, honestly I couldn't notice any significant difference in playback quality () besides maybe that the Epia machine occasionally dropped frames during high motion scenes (but hey.. ;) - anyway here is my software setup i've used during this comparison.

The source: The Last Boyscout AC3 - 6Ch Audio 720X304 1500KBPS
XP-Pro
MPC
VIA Hyperion 4in1 v4.46 chipset drivers
Ac3filter
Latest alpha build of Ffdshow
DirectX-9
Detonator -44.03 build (P4 machine)

P.S

The CPU utilization should NOT go over 50/60% during watching in full screen on epia machine and also make sure that you're actually getting the hardware overlay in your media player.

Hope this helps.

[anders@dac.se]

Thanks! :)

How do i ensure that hardware overlay is used?

I think i've found whats wrong, its something to do with resize. If i play the movie in 1024x768 the resize looks really bad, most noticeable in sharp corners, text etc.

If i change to 800x600 its better but still not good.

Whats wrong?

[anders@dac.se]

I found out whats wrong but i dont know how to fix it.
If i turn off overlay in MP9 settings the resize works. But if its on the resize sucks. Heres a dump of my hardware settings in MP9

http://www.dac.se/screendump.jpg

[Ramirez]

Dunno really what's wrong besides maybe that WMP9 sux..

Anyway maybe this may help you in this regard.


To resize the Player automatically to fit a video
On the View menu, point to Video Size, and select Fit Player To Video On Start.

If the dimensions of the video are smaller than the available video area, the Player does not decrease in size.
It is recommended that you turn on both Fit Video to Player on Resize and Fit Player to Video on Start. The following
table explains how these two settings interact with one another. Fit Video to Player on Resize / Fit Player to Video on Start Description

On/On
This is the recommended configuration. Windows Media Player automatically resizes
to show the video at the best size (or the video size percentage you specified). In addition,
the Player automatically resizes the video when you manually resize the Player.

On/Off
The video resizes to fit the dimensions of the Player. If you have specified a video size percentage, such as 200%, that setting is ignored.

Off/On
The Player resizes when you start playing a video; however, resizing the Player has no
effect on the video dimensions (other than cropping the video if the Player is smaller than the video)
If you have specified a video size percentage, such as 200%, the Player resizes as necessary to fit the specified video size percentage.

Off/Off
The video is resized to fit the specified video size percentage (if the dimensions of the Player are large enough
to fit the video at the specified video size percentage), or the video is cropped (if the dimensions of the Player
are too small to fit the video at the specified video size percentage). Resizing the Player has no effect on the dimensions
of the video (other than cropping the video if the Player is smaller than the video).



P.S
I'm too lazy to post also in your other tread :), so here is the correct command line argument

"C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe" C:\Movies\YourMovie.avi /fullscreen

[anders@dac.se]

Thanks. But since its both in Media player and PowerDVD the resize error occur it cant be media player that makes it.

/Anders

[lilhobo]

windvd surpassed powerdvd a couple years ago...get it

[anders@dac.se]

thanks that sure helped me...