I've got an HP Slimline computer with an on-board NVIDIA GeForce 6150LE chipset. A while back I bought a PCI-E card with the NVIDIA 8500GT chipset, thinking that I would need it for Blu-ray playback. As it turned out, I didn't use the computer as an HTPC, and nowadays I've just been using it as my NAS/media fileserver and for ripping my DVD's (and just recently, Blu-rays).
I bought a cheap PCI gigabit ethernet card because of how I was using the machine, since I wanted to make this the best media server possible and it only had 10/100 on-board. But in order to use this card, I'd have to remove the 8500GT card because that card has a large heatsink which covers the PCI slot. So, I removed the 8500GT card and booted everything back up. Here's what shocked me: with PowerDVD 8 (and MPC-HC), I'm able to play back my Blu-ray rip .ts file perfectly smoothly. I had thought that the 6150LE wasn't up-to-snuff for Blu-ray, but it looks like it's perfectly fine.
Am I missing something?
Would the 8500GT offer noticeably faster times for ripping Blu-rays? Does that come into play when doing compression, etc.? I'd like to be able to ditch the 8500GT so as to install the Gigabit card and also because it adds a lot of heat in the case, so I'm thinking that removing it might also extend the life of the computer.
I bought a cheap PCI gigabit ethernet card because of how I was using the machine, since I wanted to make this the best media server possible and it only had 10/100 on-board. But in order to use this card, I'd have to remove the 8500GT card because that card has a large heatsink which covers the PCI slot. So, I removed the 8500GT card and booted everything back up. Here's what shocked me: with PowerDVD 8 (and MPC-HC), I'm able to play back my Blu-ray rip .ts file perfectly smoothly. I had thought that the 6150LE wasn't up-to-snuff for Blu-ray, but it looks like it's perfectly fine.
Am I missing something?
Would the 8500GT offer noticeably faster times for ripping Blu-rays? Does that come into play when doing compression, etc.? I'd like to be able to ditch the 8500GT so as to install the Gigabit card and also because it adds a lot of heat in the case, so I'm thinking that removing it might also extend the life of the computer.