Recommendations for HTPC's?

[Tom Evans]

On Tue, Dec 11, 2012 at 7:51 AM, Hans Petter Selasky <hselasky at c2i.net> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Does anyone have any recommendations for HTPC's?
>
> Is mini-ITX OK or is ATX required?
>
> What about software and hardware decoding of H.264, flicker and X11 display
> drivers?
>
> --HPS

Hi Hans

I recommend basing it around nvidia. With nvidia, you get vdpau which
can hardware decode almost everything I have ever tried - H264, x264,
MPEG2, WMV, webm etc. vdpau is supported by mplayer, vlc, ffmpeg,
xbmc, myth ...

You do not need extremely powerful cards for this either, any onboard
will work well, the card I use is a GT 610, which is passively cooled,
and can decode H264 @ 3840x2160 (4k) - obviously with the closed
source drivers from nvidia.

A system built around something like the ZOTAC Z68ITX-B-E would be an
ideal FreeBSD mini ITX HTPC - not exactly the cheap end of the
spectrum, but very compact. I don't know that the wifi would be
supported.

Cheers

Tom