Am I saying audio is a more important factor than video in HTPC? No. Not really. But consider today’s new generation of graphics chips from ATI, Intel or Nvidia all supports HD video playback that off loads from the CPU. Even new IGP on motherboard chip sets such as ATI 4200, Intel X4500 or GeForce 9300, they all able to play the HD DVD or Blu-Ray smoothly without the need of high power CPU. In fact, even older CPUs such as AMD Athlon 64×2 5200+ or Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 can play Blu-Ray nicely with those IGPs.

The HD audio that is part of the Blu-Ray experiences on the other hand is very different story. One can not assume just because the motherboard or the graphics card has a HDMI port on it and the manufactures mentions audio pass through, they will support DTS-HD MA and DD TrueHD. In fact, none of the current IGP chipset supports in.

The AMD’s ATI 4200 from the current 785 and 890 chipset is the worst as it only supports 2 channel PCM audio through HDMI. By itself it would not even support the pass through of basic 5.1 DTS or DD core! It require additional s/w and/or h/w support to do so.The new AMD 890 chipset is particular disappointing as AMD clearly do not want it is used as HTPC motherboard without the need of adding additional graphics card.

The Intel X4500 or the GeForce 9xxx (including the 9400 used by the Ion platform) is only marginally better than the ATI 4200 on audio. While they do support 8 channels LPCM output, they don’t support DTS-HD MA and DD TrueHD. Again, external h/w or s/w decoding is needed to decode the HD audio bit streams to LPCM. If s/w solution is used, it will place a heavy burden to the CPU which requires more powerful and more expensive CPU and possibly memory too. In addition, although some people argue that LPCM conversion done right will preserve the lossless nature of the DTS-HD MA or DD TrueHD, but that will be putting a lot of faith to who ever is implementing the decoding in h/w or s/w to do the right thing not to cut corners to cut cost or gain performance or both. I for one rather want to see the original bit streams pass though the HDMI port to the receiver.

If none of those motherboards with built-in IGP can support native HD audio bit stream, then none of them, at least not by themselves is suitable for HTPC application. Built-in IGP or HDMI on the motherboard is therefore not a factor or even desirable when choosing a motherboard because of possible higher cost and power consumption for the parts that are useless.

While some of the new Intel i series CPU had built-in GPU that do support DTS-HD MA or DD TrueHD, The CPU plus motherboard combo is far more expensive than necessary. A better or less cost solution is to use older or lowly motherboard and CPU combo that using older DDR2 memory can be had around $50 is adequate.

When it comes to add-on graphics card, the real sections are between ATI and Nvidia. I was very surprised to find out none of their new generation of graphics cards from GeForce 240 on down supports native DTS-HD MA and DD TrueHD. They all require conversion to LPCM. As stated before, I don’t consider this conversion is acceptable for today’s HTPC at all. I did not bother to look Nvidia’s line above the GeForce 240 as their costs are way beyond what I have in mind for good budget HTPC.

On the ATI side, I did not look at their older 3xxx or 4xxxx series as the ATI 4200 did not give me a good impression. The ATI 5450 is the current entry model for the 5xxxx series and it is prefect for budget HTPC. First and foremost, it supports DTS-HD MA and DD True-HD pass through. Second, it and no fan and therefore no fan noise. Third it cost less than $50. While ATI 5450’s game playing ability is questionable, it plays all HD video files smoothly and with minimum demand to the CPU.

The advantage of using low power graphics card, CPU and motherboard means there is no need for high wattage power supply too. I used a 500W power supply not because I need one but rather it was no sale for $20. Some people may say these cheap power supplies’s real wattage does not even come close to the advertised number. But even if this power supply’s true wattage is only half of the 500W advertised, it is still more than enough to power my HTPC. The entire setup with ATI 5450, AMD Althon II x3 440, MSI 785GTM-E45 motherboard, two 1.5TB hard drivers, two optical drivers and uses less than 140W when playing Blu-Ray movies. My older CPU and motherboard combo uses even less power.

Speaking of AMD Althon II X3 440 and the MSI motherboard combo, I got them on sale and at the time I thought the MSI motherboard hat uses AMD 785 chipset will support DTS-HD MA etc. If I knew what I know now, I would have just added the ATI 5450 to an old PC setup that has AMD Althon 64X2 5200+ CPU as it can play the HD media just as smooth as the real work is done by the ATI 5450.

For HDTV tuner, I used a USB external tuner from Kworld. While I can never get the QAM tuner to work, it is not a great lost as the Windows 7’s MCE doesn’t support QAM and the local cable’s QAM offering is worst than ASTC any way.

The total cost of building this HTPC is very low as most of the components came from existing PC. As I have mentioned before, if I had know better, all I really needed to change the existing PC to HTPC is the ATI 5450 card that cost $40. Even in case I need to start from ground up, the cost would be about the same as a TVIX 6620N or Dune Prime but capable to do more than either of them can provided.

For people who do want to assemble a HTPC from ground up, they can get a decent desktop PC for around $300 from many retail places as long as the PC has empty PCIe slot to put in a ATI 5450 and that’s it.
As for media player software, the Media Center that came with Windows Vista and Windows 7 although not great but is more than functional. If you buy a retail version of the Blu-Ray drive, it is also likely to be bundled with player software that can play both Blu-Ray and DVD.

Bottom line, there is no need to get latest greatest CPU or GPU to build a great HTPC. Video play back for HD content is widely supported even by entry level GPU or motherboard IGP that came to market in the last year or so. HD audio support on the other hand is different story. Most of if not all of the current motherboard IGP and low end to mid range Nividia solution is not capable of full HD audio support. Some thing to watch out when building a HTPC.

Let’s assume for a movie that was listed for $12 the day before and now is $17. If you buy three of these movies before the “sale”, your total is $36 and now with the wonder of the “sale”, you paid only $34! A whopping $2 saving! 

On the other hand, let’s say the movies you want were priced $20 before the sale and now they are $25. You would have to pay $60 but now the grand total is $50! A $10 saving or a little less than $17 per movie. 

So, it looks like in order to “save” more you have to spend more to buy the higher priced ticket items. Amazon changes prices on items all the time. I for one rather want to wait for price dropped on individual movies but YMMV.  

Link to Amazon’s “Sale”

BTW, the “sale” expire on 8/21/2009

When I first got the Magnavox NB530MGX I was using an older Pioneer receiver that lack of HDMI connection which means I was not able to decode the HD audio formats. I was using the coaxial digital output of the NB530 to the receiver. The result of course is as good or as bad as regular DD or DTS.

By coincident, right after I got the NB530, I stumbled upon a great deal on Yamaha RX-V665 receiver. As a receiver, the Yamaha RX-V665 has a rather mediocre power supply and even worse power amp section but if use as a pre-amp and processor, it is quite decent. Anyway, connecting the NB530MGX to the RX-V665 is straight forward; all is required is the HDMI cable.

The NB530MGX does not have HD audio decoder but it can pass the HD audio bitstream when HDMI HD audio output is selected. The Yamaha RX-V665 detects and decodes DTS HD Master or  DD TrueHD or for that matter, PCM without any problem.

Speaking of decoding HD audio, many more expensive Blu-Ray players besides adding what I view as less than useless BD live function, they also added HD audio decoding. On the other hand, most if not all the sub $300 players even most of the sub $400 players do not have multi channel analog outputs. If a player does not have multi channel analog output then what is the use to decode the HD audio inside the player? The need to have the player to do in player decoding is for those older receiver is not capable to decode the HD audio, most of which does not even have HDMI input. Without analog output, the decoded HD audio bitstream is of no use for those older receiver, as those greedy studios would not allow HD audio stream be sent over the coaxial or optical digital I/O. While it is true there are some early HDMI days receiver has the HDMI input for PCM stream but does not have ability to decode HD audio, their number are far fewer than receivers either do not have the HDMI connections or the newer ones like the Yamha RX-V665 that is capable to decoding. The question then is why pay for something most people don’t need? Even for someone like me who did not own a HDMI HD audio capable receiver when I got the Blu-Ray player, I would not want to pay the extra to have built-in decoder. I would rather save the money to get a receiver that does. It does not have sense when you have more than one HD audio capable devices each has its own decoder when all is required is one set in the receiver.

I only have a small issue with the remote in the sense I think the FF/RR and chapter skip keys can be better arranged and somewhat bigger. As for the NB530MGX itself, I am quite happy about it. True, it is profile 1.1 and does not have Ethernet connection and that’s fine as I consider the BD Live even the Java stuff is more harm than good as they are the causes of most of the incompatibilities among Blu-Ray world. As mentioned, the unit does not decode HD audio, which is good as I don’t want to pay for something I don’t want or need. As long as it can send raw HD audio bitstream to the receiver, I am happy. The player is also a very good upscaler for regular DVD. In fact, some of the good DVD looks far better than those poorly made BD!

By looking inside the player, I would say there is more room to cut cost and yet made the player even more reliable and possible performed better. I would not be surprised to see the next generation of this player lower the price by another $10 or even $20. But if you don’t want to wait, $98 is a good deal.

Well, Amazon decided to drop the price for Ghostbusters Blu-Ray to $12.99 on the last day (7/31/2009) of the $5 coupon. After the discount, the net price for the movie is $7.99!

The coupon code for Amazon is: GHOSTBLU

Reminder: Coupon expire TODAY!

EDIT 08/01/2009: The coupon has EXPIRED!

HDMI has become more and more important. Not just because HDMI simplified A/V connections, equally or even more important is the evil HDCP DRM. Without HDCP, the DVD players are not allowing to upscale video beyond 480P; even I have paid the full price for the DVD movie.  Without HDCP, the Blu-Ray players are not able to output HD audio.

Anyway, in order to get upscaled video for my old Mitsubishi VS-60111, I used the HDFury gizmo to convert DVI to RGB. The problem is HDFury only has one input and I have more than one HDMI devices.  Since my old Pioneer AV receiver does not have any HDMI connection, it is obvious I need a HDMI switcher. After searching on the web, I settled on the Monoprice HDMI switcher. At $20+tax+shipping  for a refurbished unit, it is a low cost option with very low risk.

When I receive the unit, the packaging is better than I expected. Although I brought the refurbished one, it came with retail box.  Package came with the following,

• The unit itself
• Power supply
• Remote
• Remote battery

What was really surprising is the unit is made of metal casing instead of plastic that is common to device at this price range.

Setup and connecting the unit is straight forward. Connect all the input and output HDMI and then the power supply and it works! I have tried Toshiba A3 HD DVD; Magnavox NB530MGX Blu-Ray; Oppo 980H DVD and LG RC797T all works without any problem. While some people may prefer auto sensing switch, I prefer the manual remote way of the Monoprice unit as I may have more than one device on at the any given time.

It is very important to note that this Monoprice is a powered switch meaning the input is buffered and amplified. Since some HDMI devices are very picky, a none powered HDMI switch may fail to work. Case and point is after I got the Yamaha RX-V665, I thought I can remove the Monoprice HDMI switch from the signal chain, I was wrong. Apparently HDFury is so picky that the output stage of the Yamaha RX-V665 does not have enough driving capability to drive the HDFury and the TV was not able to get stable video signal to lock on. As soon as I put the Monoprice switch in between Yamaha receiver and the HDFury, the TV picture came back as good as ever.

Bottom, this unit is an excellent value. Even right now I am only using the switch as powered buffer, it is well worth for the price just for this function alone. If you are looking for a HDMI switch, this unit should be a top choice.

Out of curiosity, I opened up the Magnavox NB530MGX Blu-Ray Player. I was surprised for a low end unit; there are more screws than a Yamaha RX-V665 receiver that need to be unscrewed to open the unit.  They probably can cut 1/3 of the screws without affecting performance or rigidity of the casing.

Once open up, I am more surprised to find how the unit is assembled.  As shown on the pictures, the unit has two large circuit boards, the green one below the Blu-Ray drive should be the digital control board and the brown one has the power supply and analog output connectors. Behind the front panel is the display control board.  What is surprising is normally a low end or even not so low end player has the disc drive on one side and the control boards next to it, instead of two large control boards with one beneath the disc drive.  By so doing not only add to the cost but may also lower the reliability as now they need more connectors. The only logical reason I can think of doing this way is the disc drive and the control board below it are actually a set that is made by someone else or shared with other models. Regardless, it does not appear to be the most efficient way to mass produce a unit low cost or otherwise.

Because the way the disc drive and the control board seems intertwined, I did not want to take the risk to break anything, I was not able to see most of the components on the board that is covered by the drive. What is visible is a Panasonic chip which I am again surprised to find someone tried both physically scratch out and using a maker to cover the marking of the Panasonic part. Those people at Funai or whoever made this board for them must be the paranoid type!

Well, while I wasn’t able to see what the major components are, it is nonetheless “educational” to see how a supposedly low cost unit by a large high volume DVD player maker was made.

Anyway, here they are,

• Amazon & DeepDiscount Code
• Retail Store Coupon

By all account, the Yamaha RX-V665 is a just another mid range A/V receiver. What made this unit attractive to us is it probably the lowest cost A/V receiver in mid 2009 that has pre-amp output.

 Why is pre-amp output important for a receiver? This is because it will allow us to use it as preamp and/or processor and because otherwise all those A/V manufactures wants big bucks for their preamp/processors. We have been using receiver as preamp for some time now. First was a Denon 3600 which dies after years of services. The next one is Pioneer 2012 which still works great but outdated because it can not handle HDMI and due to the evil DRM do not allow higher bit rate audio through either coaxial or optical digital audio connectors, we would not able to enjoy the HD audio that come with HD DVD or Blu-Ray.

 Although we had a HD DVD player for some time but we never felt there is any urgency to update the receiver because to us regular DTS or DD is good enough for movie and for HD music such as SACD or DVD-A, we can use the multichannel analog input of the receiver. By chance however, we find out Newegg has this receiver on sale for $349.99 and on top of it throw in a free set of Energy Take 5 speakers. While we don’t really need the speakers, it did make the deal irresistible.

The receiver packaged in the usual brown box. The UPS ship weight is only 21 lb and that is very light for a receiver and is one of the lightest receivers we ever owned. Upon open up the box, the packing has nothing special either. Because of the light weight, even the foams are very slim.

Aside from the receiver itself, there is a remote control, auto speaker setup microphone and cable, the user manual and addendum sheet plus flyers for satellite radios.

The front panel of the unit is rather plain. The back of the panel is more interesting with four HDMI inputs and two component video inputs that should be enough to handle most people’s needs. Besides the pre-amp output that is important to us, it also has the 12V remote trigger that is some thing we have to have to turn on/off the power amp along with the receiver.

 Out of curiosity, we opened the unit up before we put in to the rack, but that is for the next article.

Setup for a basic player like the NB530MGX is simple and straight forward enough one probably does not even need to look at the manual.

In my setup, for video, I connected the HDMI port to a powered HDMI switch, which in terms connected to a gizmo called HDFury that convert HDMI to component video and it is connected to an old Mitsubishi VS-60111 using RGB input. Since the Magnavox has component video output and my old  TV and receiver both has component video input, why do I want to go through the trouble to use HDMI switch and converter? The answer again is due to the evil empire of the studios and their HDCP DRM scheme. If the content of a DVD disc is “protected”, which probably include over 99% of the DVD sold in US, the player cannot upscale it through component video. 480P is the max. resolution allowed. This means if you only have an old HDTV that was manufactured before this evil HDCP day; you would not get the full function of this player that you have already paid for. If you think this is bad, the same evil empire is working even to eliminate 1080i component video output even for Blu-Ray playback.

Since my old receiver does not have HDMI connection, I have to use the digital output from the player to the receiver. Again, this means I will not be able to enjoy the full function of even the basic player because the player will downgrade the sound track before it sends to the digital output.

After everything is connected, power the player and the TV screen is….jumping and fuzzy lines. Have no fear. This is only due to the HDFury is telling the player it can do 1080P while as the TV can only do 1080i. No big deal. Just use the “HDMI” button on the remote with the display on the front panel of the player to cycle through and resolution selections and the player is ready to play.

From standby to eject the tray is surprisingly fast. It only took 15sec from the time I hit the eject bottom on the remote till the player wake up and eject the tray. This is much faster than the Toshiba A3 HD DVD player and on par with many low cost DVD players. It is certainly not the snail pace of even high end early Blu-Ray players.

Video quality for Blu-Ray is probably as good as can be expected from an old RPTV. What is surprising is the upscaling quality of the regular DVD. We have three players has upscale capabilities, a Oppo DV-980H DVD player, Toshiba A3 HD DVD player and this Magnavox NB530. Both the Oppo and Toshiba have good reputation on their upscaling. In my setup, I think the Magnavox is just as good as the Toshiba and better than the Oppo. But here is the problem of HDCP again. If you do not have HDMI, you will lose this great upscale capability of the player even you already paid for it. The image quality of a carefully mastered recent DVD upscaled to 1080i is very good. Depends on your TV and viewing distance, one may be hard pressed to see the difference between regular DVD and Blu-Ray. Can I see the difference? Yes, I can. Would I pay more for Blu-Ray movie? Well, if it is $1 or $2 yes. But I certainly will not pay 50% more let alone 2X or even 3X more for Blu-Ray movies.

This player does have an annoyances issue on playing old 4:3 “full screen” DVD and that include those fake none anamorphic “widescreen” DVDs. The player will not automatically adjust the aspect ratio and the video image is stretched. You have the manually goes into the setup menu to change the aspect ratio. 

Audio wise, since I don’t have HDMI capable receiver and the player does not have multi channel analog output, I would not be able to test out the lossless sound tack on some of the Blu-Ray disc. As far as regular DVD quality level playback, it is about the same as most average DVD player out there.

This is a Blu-Ray profile 1.1 player which means it does not have network connection for BD Live. Personally after reading all the horror stories on the web about the stupid BD Live, I think I will miss that junk function.

Overall, I would think at $98 is a worth well purchase and I am happy about it. In fact, I feel pretty good I passed Fry’s $199 one day special for the Sony S360 and waited for this one instead.

p.s If you need HDMI cable, don’t wast money on those retail stores want to sale one to you  for $49 or worst. Good quality cable does not mean you have pay high cost. I use one from monoprice.com and only paid $4.74 plus shipping for a good 10ft HDMI cable. You can choose diffent cable color that make cable management easier.