Performance Issues with HD and new HTPC

[pgman]

I am far from a Sage expert, but I do have some experience with the X600 and the Audgy. I could only use Overlay with my X600 pro, but I believe it probably would have done VMR9 if I had everything else right (which I did not at the time). As part of the process of switching to HD (I ran my Sage system for almost a year on my old SD television, I replaced my X600 Pro with a 7600GT. I did not believe the X600 had quite enough horsepower to do HD. If I knew then what I know now, I may have been able to get it to work. There was excessive color-banding with the X600 also, which may have been due to a setting, but it went away with the 7600GT.

The thing that was really screwy for me was that the 7600GT didn't work right either at first. Here is what I found in my case (keep in mind, I am running a P4 system, not AMD so there ARE other variables).

There is an updated driver for the Audigy (this year). This makes a difference with video playback (believe it or not).

When you select your Audio renderer in Sage setup, use the plain "Audigy" and not the "Direct Sound Audigy" - this was my big issue, and it took me quite a while to think of changing AUDIO settings to fix a VIDEO problem. Again, I am a newbie at this stuff. After changing from "Direct Sound Audigy" to just "Audigy", almost all the tearing and stuttery playback went away - even in VMR9 mode. Then, as I said before, the updated Audigy driver seemed to put the polish on my HD video playback, which is now just as smooth as I could ever want it.

Also, I turned all the 3D enhancements like anti-aliasing off, just to be sure those weren't slowing the process. Honestly, I don't know if there is any difference when watching video, and I don't use my system for gaming at this time. For now, these settings seem to work just fine.

Finally, I did have to update my motherboard BIOS because the system would sometimes hang on boot-up after I installed the 7600GT. I am not sure why the new video card wasn't getting along with my motherboard (the motherboard is only a year old), but a BIOS update fixed that. I would not recommend flashing BIOS unless it is really necessary. In many years of building PCs, this is the first one I've ever had to do.

I hope this helps you - this has been a rather long and frustrating process for me but the benefits ALWAYS out-weighed the hassle and I am very happy with my decision to go wiht an HTPC. Electronic entertainment at other people's homes really seems to be "old school" by comparison - even if they have a DVR.