ATOM 230 + 2400Pro PCI - Poor HD
 

System:

Intel D945GCDF (Atom 230)
1GB DDR2
HD2400Pro PCI (8.6 seems to be the last cat's available for it)
Sammy LN32A450
Xp Pro 32bit
assorted other fluff



Granted, I didn't originally intend to use this system as an HTPC, but rather as a basic file server/ftp/TS server, but I did expect to at least be able to playback 720P with a 2400Pro. HD playback is really chunky as if the acceleration of the card isn't working at all. Is the Atom 230 just that weak that it can't do it even with the 2400Pro? Or is the 2400Pro PCI crippled - I've already discovered it doesn't have audio and I have to use the onboard sound and that it's not HDCP ready.

The problem is the board really. I've read great reviews for both the Atom 230 and 330 using the 9400M on board graphics card with the zotac boards. A lot of the other boards, including the intel,aren't optimized for true hd playback, where as the zotac boards are designed for it (hdmi and hdcp ready output)

um using on board on those boards i played 720 play back fine i would look at the software your using. 720p runs fine on these with the right software vls payer mpc or even zoomplayer
I have one in house just not being used right know. but i can guarantee that you can get it to work i have done it on several occasion

So I download 2 test files from MS's WMV HD site, one 720P, the other 1080P, the 720P uses the video card, the 1080P one does not. WTFH?

I was not able to get it t oplay 1080p but i was using the onboard so. ya i have found a lot of mpeg4 stuff is not offloading in media player classic. luck of the draw unless you do the transencode yourself

MPC doesn't appear to offload at all. WMP is, but only for 720P files. I may need to grab a new mobo/cpu combo if I want to use it for certian content. Do 9800GT's do hardware decode or did nvidia wait till the 200 series for that?

Just an FYI the ONLY way to get video acceleration for h.264 is to use MPC-HC. And use this guide
Watching h.264 videos using DirectX Video Acceleration (DXVA). | My collection of short anime reviews

Now I haven o idea if the HD2400 supports h.264 acceleration or not. So you may be hooped either way.

MPC does not do VC-1/WMA acceleration AFAIK in anyway.

um i have done none of that and my offloads to mpc just fine as long as it's a true mpeg4 have tested this on 3 machines with my own transencodeing works fine if you do your own but for htpc and downloads it's luck of the draw if the person knows what there doing when they do it

Edit just look at the bottom of mpc it say if it's dxva is running or not pull up gpu-z and cpu-z to make sure that it's offloading

There seems to be a discrepency between AMD's spec, and what this Powercolor card actually does

•Hardware MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4/DivX video decode acceleration - PowerColor

Dedicated unified video decoder (UVD) for H.264/AVC and VC-1 video formats
High definition (HD) playback of both Blu-ray and HD DVD formats
Hardware MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4/DivX video decode acceleration - AMD

This card is seriously gimped.

The HD2400 is a "Legacy" card that does not have ATI's UVD2 which has better hardware support for a wider range of video formats.

May I recommend an ATI 4xxx series of card or an Nvidia GT220 based card.

The Atom 230 & 330 boards paired with the Nvidia ION chipset does 1080p flawlessly. This is of course if the video format is supported.