ATI 4650 vs. HD200

[Savage1701]

This is sort of a corollary to another post I have going.

Essentially, I am wondering if anyone has done any comparisons between the HD200 and a good home system.

I have a chance to pick up a 775-series MB. I have an older E6600 CPU, all the memory, etc. as well as a ATI 4650 video card. The MB has an x16 2.0 slot on it for the card. I have the Sage client, Windows OS, etc.

It would be about a wash to upgrade the board/card/client combo vs. buying a second HD200.

My bottom line question is this - at what point does/can a PC/Video card combo outperform an HD200? Or, as it stands with OTA ATSC as it is and the HD-PVR being the only way to get HD off of cable, is the HD200 as good as anything needs to be?

Thanks for any thoughts on the matter.

And of course, there is something to be said for the simplicity of plugging in the HD200. I appreciate that as well.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Savage1701

My bottom line question is this - at what point does/can a PC/Video card combo outperform an HD200?

I'd say the only time a PC will outperform the HD200 is if your display has a rather poor deinterlacer and/or maybe doesn't accept 480i (assuming you still record that). I still need to play with my new Samsung B6000 to see if I can get it to handle 480i over HDMI from my HD200.

A PC is not going to provide superior decoding, so it really comes down to deinterlacing and scaling. IMO scaling on the HD200 is moot because it's optimal to run native output switching to let your display do the deinterlacing since the HD200 is IIRC purely flag based.

If you've got a good video processor in your display (which seems to be the norm these days) I think the best a PC will be able to do is match the quality.

[Savage1701]

Stanger, should I assume that by native output switching you mean the client equivalent of using the source to get the signal specs (1080i, 720p, etc)?

[stanger89]

Native Output Switching has the extender automatically switch it's output resolution/format to match the source, so 480i for 480i, 720p for 720p, etc.

[xred]

Originally Posted by Savage1701

My bottom line question is this - at what point does/can a PC/Video card combo outperform an HD200? Or, as it stands with OTA ATSC as it is and the HD-PVR being the only way to get HD off of cable, is the HD200 as good as anything needs to be?

Thanks for any thoughts on the matter.

I own 2 HD100's and not the HD200 so my experience isn't an apples to apples comparison between the extender and PC based SageTV client. My SageTV Client is running on an E5200 with an HD4350.

IMHO the PC is clearly superior when it comes to anything to do with UI, especially if you're running SageMC w/ extras on. The UI on the PC is far far quicker and the text is clearer than on the HD100. Also keep in mind that the PC doesn't have limitations with decoding DTS audio if your setup doesn't include a receiver / DTS decoder.

The advantages of the extenders are well known. Low power, absolutely quiet and plug and play setup compared to a PC.

As far as video decoding, again I can't compare against the HD200 but in my case the PC can deal with very high bit rate 1080p content whereas the HD100 cannot. The PC also has the ability to plug in to my LCD via RGB and run it at it at its native resolution.

[SWKerr]

Fact is you only need a $50 card to get a good Sage experience, the 4650 brings gaming into the comparison which the extender can't do.
Really the same argument is still there HTPC vs Extender. Cost is the only real change here. In this scenario the PC is now cheaper which would not be the case with a new setup.

[Savage1701]

Thanks to everyone for their input. I appreciate it.