Time for a rebuild

[chughes]

My SageTV box has been running smooth for years now, but it's starting to show it's age. A streak of BSOD's, and some planned upgrades to the TV are pushing me towards a full rebuild. My current specs are in my sig below.

So the new box will be my current gaming rig with a different video card:
AMD Athlon FX-60, Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe, 2 GB RAM. I'll re-use the tuner cards from the current box, upsize the HDDs, ditch the current soundcard and use the onboard S/PDIF out (optical). Maybe throw a BD-DVD in there as well.

I'm thinking of getting an ATI HD3850 with 1GB RAM - http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=31202 - but may have
to swap out the fan for a passive solution.
Near future upgrades include, setting up the OTA HD dish via a Hauppauge HVR-950 USB, and upgrading my TV to a 32" flat LCD (from the current 27" tube - the horror!).

So here's some questions I have since I'm a little rusty on the current state of Sage.
I have the nVidia PureVideo decoders. Will these work with the ATI card, or should I use Avivo? And will either or both work to decode H.264 or BD?
I'm a little concerned about viewing SDTV on a 720P or 1080p capable screen. Would something like ffdshow be warranted, or do you think the video card will do a better job of upconverting?

[Djc208]

Originally Posted by chughes

So here's some questions I have since I'm a little rusty on the current state of Sage.
I have the nVidia PureVideo decoders. Will these work with the ATI card, or should I use Avivo? And will either or both work to decode H.264 or BD?
I'm a little concerned about viewing SDTV on a 720P or 1080p capable screen. Would something like ffdshow be warranted, or do you think the video card will do a better job of upconverting?

Purevideo will work with the ATI card. You can try AVIVO too, they're free, and see which you prefer. However neither provides h.264 playback codecs, for those you need other software. There are many options but currently only the commercial ones support the hardware assisted h.264 playback.

[chughes]

Originally Posted by Djc208

However neither provides h.264 playback codecs, for those you need other software. There are many options but currently only the commercial ones support the hardware assisted h.264 playback.

Such as Cyberlink PowerDVD?

[cychou]

Originally Posted by Djc208

However neither provides h.264 playback codecs, for those you need other software. There are many options but currently only the commercial ones support the hardware assisted h.264 playback.

The most recent release of MPC-HC standalone H.264 decoder has DXVA support. However I am not sure it will work with Sage.

[Djc208]

Originally Posted by chughes

Such as Cyberlink PowerDVD?

Yes as long as it's the newer versions that support BD and HD-DVD.