Intel Vs. AMD in HTPC Build

[sdifox]

handbrake is cpu intensive. get as much memory as you can fit in there.

 

[Arkitekt]

Hmm, so if Conversion and Transcoding are both CPU intensive then would be a good idea to do conversions in HTPC downtime instead of trying to have it transcode to stream, while it is also playing a movie?

 

[sdifox]

Hmm, so if Conversion and Transcoding are both CPU intensive then would be a good idea to do conversions in HTPC downtime instead of trying to have it transcode to stream, while it is also playing a movie?

playback doesn't take a whole lot of cpu if the video card is handling it.

 

[Arkitekt]

playback doesn't take a whole lot of cpu if the video card is handling it.

There will be no discrete GPU, only iGPU

 

[sdifox]

There will be no discrete GPU, only iGPU

then you may have an issue. although you can set the priority of handbrake to low.

 

[Arkitekt]

then you may have an issue. although you can set the priority of handbrake to low.

I was thinking of having handbrake just convert whatever was downloaded that day, have it only run between say 11pm and 7am, that way it runs when no one would be watching it. Plex will directly stream any mp4 with h264 encoding so by using handbrake I can enable Plex to stream without transcoding and not worry about streaming to multiple boxes and watching media on the main TV.

If worse comes to worse and things are getting pretty bogged down in the long run, I could always add in a GT520 eventually.

 

[sdifox]

I was thinking of having handbrake just convert whatever was downloaded that day, have it only run between say 11pm and 7am, that way it runs when no one would be watching it. Plex will directly stream any mp4 with h264 encoding so by using handbrake I can enable Plex to stream without transcoding and not worry about streaming to multiple boxes and watching media on the main TV.

If worse comes to worse and things are getting pretty bogged down in the long run, I could always add in a GT520 eventually.

know that windows handbrake encoding cannot be interrupted. You have to finish an encode job.

 

[Rio Rebel]

I use handbrake, but I just convert everything when I'm not using the computer...and I'm not usually in a hurry to convert. If you're doing it when you're not waiting for it to finish, the difference in encoding speeds isn't an issue.

If you're not trying to keep it on a budget, get an i7 and 16gb memory and have a blast.

 

[Arkitekt]

If you're not trying to keep it on a budget, get an i7 and 16gb memory and have a blast.

If I wasn't on a budget I would lol. If I could wrangle another $100 I would probably go up to a i5-3450, or even a i5-3570K if I could get it on sale.

I will probably just have handbrake scheduled to start running after we go to bed, and set it to low priority so that if it doesn't finish by morning it won't severely restrict any other functions.

 

[smitbret]

If I wasn't on a budget I would lol. If I could wrangle another $100 I would probably go up to a i5-3450, or even a i5-3570K if I could get it on sale.

I will probably just have handbrake scheduled to start running after we go to bed, and set it to low priority so that if it doesn't finish by morning it won't severely restrict any other functions.

Don't know how tied you are to Plex, but if pre-transcoding is going to be a frequent occurrence then you may want to invest $30 in Mezzmo software instead. It will pre-transcode in low-priority mode without much interference on your part.

 

[Arkitekt]

Don't know how tied you are to Plex, but if pre-transcoding is going to be a frequent occurrence then you may want to invest $30 in Mezzmo software instead. It will pre-transcode in low-priority mode without much interference on your part.

The reason why I was going for Plex was because I was going to use the Roku 2 XD as a media streamer and it has a Plex channel. The streamer needs to have both Netflix capabilities and streaming ability. The Roku fit the bill nicely for not a whole lot of cost. There is also roConnect, but Plex has a better media server and can tie into XBMC nicely.

 

[Aikouka]

Wait... what type of files are you worried won't play well? My HTPC is using an old i5-540 (dual core -- not even Sandy Bridge), and it plays all videos without a problem using the internal GPU.

 

[Arkitekt]

Wait... what type of files are you worried won't play well? My HTPC is using an old i5-540 (dual core -- not even Sandy Bridge), and it plays all videos without a problem using the internal GPU.

Not worried about what it will play, worried about what Plex will need to transcode to stream to a Roku. Plex apparently can only play MP4 with H264 encoding directly, it will remux what it can, and transcode the rest.

 

[Aikouka]

Not worried about what it will play, worried about what Plex will need to transcode to stream to a Roku. Plex apparently can only play MP4 with H264 encoding directly, it will remux what it can, and transcode the rest.

Are you dead set on a Roku (or own one already?). You could always go with a streamer that is capable of playing the files without transcoding like a WD Live TV.

 

[Arkitekt]

Are you dead set on a Roku (or own one already?). You could always go with a streamer that is capable of playing the files without transcoding like a WD Live TV.

I have thought about it. Originally I had read that they don't do DLNA streaming, but I saw that they came out with a streaming version. Plex on Roku seems that it will work better overall because it has more of a graphical menu, which will be better for my kids who are 7 and under, along with all of the other channels. It is my understanding that the WD TV Live has more of a text display of its media list much like the Xbox does.

Either option though I think that Plex will transcode into MP4 H264 to stream anyways, regardless of what the streamer can handle. XBMC doesn't really have media server capabilities that rival Plex's

 

[fuzzymath10]

Keep in mind that you can tell handbrake to run low priority, so if you use any CPU cycles in the foreground, it will simply cause handbrake to slow down temporarily. So as long as you don't mind the potential for added noise due to running at 100% load, there's no need to defer encoding to overnight if your source file is ready to go earlier.

 

[Arkitekt]

That's good to know I think handbrake would be much better than transcoding while streaming in the long run.