EggXpert

I am in the initial phases of building a HTPC, the research part.  I have looked around the internet and have not found a definitive answer to the question I have, is an Intel Atom/Nvidia Ion combo powerful enough to play Blu-Ray in full 1080p?  If not, is an i3 powerful enough, or should I step up to an i5?  Or should I just go with an Core 2 Duo and ATI 5770?

The only other requirements for this machine are to stream from a home server and stream internet content.  In the future I may add a TV tuner, but not right now.

Thanks.

The Atom 220?, whatever the single core version, cannot, and the Atom 330 is dual core and able to play 1080p blu-ray, PROVIDED that the playback is done with a commercial software such as CyberlinkDVD which uses GPU decoding, so that most of the playback is handled by the onboard GeForce 9400, not the CPU itself.  The Atom 330 + Intel GMA 945 or 950 I forgot, probably wouldn't do it. You have to have the dual core Atom plus the GeForce 9400 version,and the CPU usage will be 60-70% if I remember correctly.

The ION/Atom claims to be, but reviewers say different. Pity as at one point I was tempted by the Zotac 330 in a mini-ITX format...90W DC brick and completely silent.

Frankly I would look for a low power using dual core CPU, on a u-ATX motherboard with a HD5670 GPU and a Corsair 400W PSU in an attractive HTPC case, and a WD Green HD.  Unfortunately, AMD seems to have abandoned one area they used to beat Intel in...low power versions of their CPUs.  Some of those i3/i5 chips with their advanced power management may fit your bill...and the quad core design won't hurt.

FascistNation:

The ION/Atom claims to be, but reviewers say different. Pity as at one point I was tempted by the Zotac 330 in a mini-ITX format...90W DC brick and completely silent.

Wow! That's a bummerrrr!!!! Booh! Are you sure these people used CyberLink?  You know how some people try to save money on the playback soft and go with like the free Media Player Classic which does NOT use GPU accel and of course even my dual core 2.8GHz would be maxed out by H264 1080p playback without GPU accel.... You would need a non-low wattage Quad Core to do that. But then the whole point of an HTPC is to keep it running 24/7 just like a DVR without paying to a cable compnay for the DVR, and running a ~100W Quad core for playback and recording, and thereby paying for the electricity, kinda beats the purpose lol.

AMD has 45w dual cores and 65w quad cores.  Not sure how much better Intel's chips are at low draw, but the AMD options aren't bad IMO.

In addition to Cyberlink software using the GPU, it also does a key component to BluRay playback that other players don't - it decrypts the BluRay for playing.  You won't be able to play BluRays at all with Media Player Classic, Media Center, VLC, etc...  Right now the only players I am aware of that work are Cyberlink's PowerDVD, ArcSoft's Total Media Theater, and WinDVD.  You can, however, buy something like AnyDVD HD to decrypt the BluRays for playback on the other software players.  I think that will cost you some money up front as well as an annual subscription fee.

I haven't looked into it since making a full-HD DVR won't make a lot of sense for a few months to a year, but some HTPC setups can go into sleep-mode and then wake themselves up before a recording.

mrjspeed:

AMD has 45w dual cores and 65w quad cores.  Not sure how much better Intel's chips are at low draw, but the AMD options aren't bad IMO.

In addition to Cyberlink software using the GPU, it also does a key component to BluRay playback that other players don't - it decrypts the BluRay for playing.  You won't be able to play BluRays at all with Media Player Classic, Media Center, VLC, etc...  Right now the only players I am aware of that work are Cyberlink's PowerDVD, ArcSoft's Total Media Theater, and WinDVD.  You can, however, buy something like AnyDVD HD to decrypt the BluRays for playback on the other software players.  I think that will cost you some money up front as well as an annual subscription fee.

I haven't looked into it since making a full-HD DVR won't make a lot of sense for a few months to a year, but some HTPC setups can go into sleep-mode and then wake themselves up before a recording.

True, does AnyDVD do GPU decoding? I think that may well be the soft some people are using, instead of Media Player Classic then for "commercial" blu-ray playback.

products:

True, does AnyDVD do GPU decoding? I think that may well be the soft some people are using, instead of Media Player Classic then for "commercial" blu-ray playback.

Nah, AnyDVD just removes the DRM.  It's not a software player, it's kind of like a layer of abstraction that makes it so all the m2ts files on the disc appear unencrypted.  My setup for example, I have CCCP codec pack installed.  If I pop in a BluRay and try to play a file with Media Player, no go.  With AnyDVD HD running, it plays in Media Player.

For me though using one of the commercial players is the least hassle (I use Arcsoft's TMT).  Mostly because they handle all the menus and stuff, and they come bundled up with their codecs.

Haaaaaaaaaaah!!! I have CyberLink so never tried AnyDVD, so thannks! All I know is my Quad Core's CPU usage is super high when I play ripped blu-rays using Media Player Classic or just any H264 HD. I can totally see why the Atom N330 cannot play Blu-rays without GPU acceleration, lmao, though I'm still not sure if that's what those reviewers FascistNation mentioned were doing...

 I agree!. Too bad Windows doesn't have a built in Blu-ray player that works like those commercial programs.

What CPU are you using when playing those Blu-rays on Media Player Classic plus AnyDVD? And how high does the usage go up?  Wait, I bet you don't really do that that often anyway...

products:

What CPU are you using when playing those Blu-rays on Media Player Classic plus AnyDVD? And how high does the usage go up?  Wait, I bet you don't really do that that often anyway...

The CPU usage is the same as playing ripped files - relatively high.  No GPU usage is going on unless the codecs your player is using supports it.  By default, the usual suspects like WMP, VLC, etc. don't supprt GPU accel.  The codecs bundled with the the commercial programs do of course.

It might be possible to configure your rig to have Windows Media Player use, say, Cyberlink's codec and play the movies (with the help of AnyDVD) right off the disc to achieve low CPU usage.   Of course, it's not really worth it.  To get those codecs, you need to purchase some software.  And, WMP doesn't handle BluRay disc menus, so you'd need to dig for the file.