Broadcom CrystalHD Decoder card

Red_Machine · Sep 17, 2015

I'm planning to use my old Dell Studio Hybrid as a HTPC, but it doesn't play high-def video very well. I remember when I bought it, there was an option for an HD decoder card and I've looked into getting one of these for it. There are two that I can use in my system, the BCM70012 and the BCM70015. The 12 is about half the price of the 15, so I'm just wondering which would be best for my Hybrid in terms of performance. The 12 I found on eBay is actually a Dell OEM card that would have been available for the system if I'd bought it direct at the time, so perhaps that would be better compatibility-wise given that the 15 is fairly newer.

Anyone who's used these got any advice for me?

Disparia · Sep 17, 2015

http://kodi.wiki/view/Broadcom Crystal HD
http://www.broadcom.com/support/crystal_hd/

Seems like its a newer model that adds Flash and DivX support and it more power efficient.

I haven't used one so I can't speak to support or give hands-on advice. But they're both cheap at Amazon (at least for me in the states) so if it were me I'd be buying the 15.

dhdude · Sep 17, 2015

I bought a 15 for my Latitude E6400 a few months back but found driver support to be rubbish, Kodi/XBMC and modern Linux Distros have stopped supporting it. AFAIK there aren't any drivers for any Windows newer than Win7 either, so I've seen it as a bit of a waste of money to be honest :/

Red_Machine · Sep 17, 2015

Well I'd be using either Vista or 7 on it, I'm not a fan of Linux to be honest. So there's no issue with driver support for me.

dhdude · Sep 17, 2015

Ah should be fine then

I must admit I hadn't got around to testing it on 7, I look forward to hearing how you get on with it if you get one! May be motivation to put 7 back on my E6400 if all goes well! I read that the 15 is definitely the better buy if you can get one. I think I paid around £15 for mine new a few months back.

Red_Machine · Sep 17, 2015

I just ordered the 15, so I'll report back once I've gotten everything up and running.

Nomad986 · Sep 17, 2015

Does the card decode Youtube HD videos too?

Red_Machine · Sep 21, 2015

I got the card and installed a fresh copy of 7 x64 on the Studio Hybrid. I couldn't get it to work properly with VLC, my usual player, but I read that Media Player Classic HC had native support for it, so I installed that instead and now I get buttery smooth playback on 1080p videos. With regards to YouTube, the specs for the card say that it supports native Flash Player 10.x accelleration, however it seems that does not extend to the current version of Flash Player; it does not even attempt to use it, just running in software mode on the CPU. That's not much of an issue, though, as I don't plan on using it to watch much YouTube videos anyway.

System Name	Chachamaru-IV \| Retro Battlestation
Processor	AMD Ryzen 9 5900X \| Intel Pentium II 450MHz
Motherboard	ASUS ROG STRIX X570-F Gaming \| MSI MS-6116 (Intel 440BX chipset)
Cooling	Noctua NH-D15 SE-AM4
Memory	32GB Corsair DDR4-3000 (16-20-20-38) \| 512MB PC133 SDRAM
Video Card(s)	nVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 FE \| 3dfx Voodoo3 3000
Storage	1TB WD_Black SN850 NVME SSD (OS), Toshiba 3TB (Storage), Toshiba 3TB (Steam)
Display(s)	Samsung Odyssey G5 27" @ 1440p144 & Dell P2312H @ 1080p60
Case	SilverStone Seta A1 \| Beige box
Audio Device(s)	Creative Sound Blaster AE-7 (Speakers), Creative Zen Hybrid headset \| Sound Blaster AWE64
Power Supply	EVGA Supernova 750 G2 \| 250W ASETEC
Mouse	Roccat Kone Air\| Microsoft Serial Mouse v2.0A
Keyboard	Vortex Race3 \| Dell AT102W
Software	Microsoft Windows 11 Pro \| Microsoft Windows 98SE

Processor	Intel i5-6600
Motherboard	ASRock H170M-ITX
Cooling	Cooler Master Geminii S524
Memory	G.Skill DDR4-2133 16GB (8GB x 2)
Video Card(s)	Gigabyte R9-380X 4GB
Storage	Samsung 950 EVO 250GB (mSATA)
Display(s)	LG 29UM69G-B 2560x1080 IPS
Case	Lian Li PC-Q25
Audio Device(s)	Realtek ALC892
Power Supply	Seasonic SS-460FL2
Mouse	Logitech G700s
Keyboard	Logitech G110
Software	Windows 10 Pro

System Name	Cannon
Processor	Intel Core i7 13700K
Motherboard	Asus Z690-P D4
Cooling	Corsair H100i PRO XT w/ Corsair ML120 White LED x2
Memory	32GB (4x8GB) Corsair Vengeance Pro RGB 3600MHz
Video Card(s)	Palit RTX 3060 Ti Dual 8GB
Storage	1TB 980 Pro w/Heatsink + 500GB 970 Evo Plus NVMe + 2TB MX500 + 500GB 850 Evo
Display(s)	34” Dell S3422DWG 3440x1440 144hz Curved + 27" Dell U2713H IPS 1440p + Dell P2219H IPS 1080p
Case	Corsair 4000X RGB - 3xSP120 ELITE RGB (Front Intake) + 1xML120 White LED (Rear Exhaust)
Audio Device(s)	Creative Sound Blaster Z SE + Logitech z623 2.1
Power Supply	Corsair RM850x SHIFT
Mouse	Logitech G602
Keyboard	Corsair K70 RGB
VR HMD	Oculus Quest 2
Software	Windows 11 Pro x64 \|\| Linux Mint
Benchmark Scores	None. Primary uses are browsing, music, gaming (mostly Battlefield & Doom) and virtualization!

System Name	Chachamaru-IV \| Retro Battlestation
Processor	AMD Ryzen 9 5900X \| Intel Pentium II 450MHz
Motherboard	ASUS ROG STRIX X570-F Gaming \| MSI MS-6116 (Intel 440BX chipset)
Cooling	Noctua NH-D15 SE-AM4
Memory	32GB Corsair DDR4-3000 (16-20-20-38) \| 512MB PC133 SDRAM
Video Card(s)	nVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 FE \| 3dfx Voodoo3 3000
Storage	1TB WD_Black SN850 NVME SSD (OS), Toshiba 3TB (Storage), Toshiba 3TB (Steam)
Display(s)	Samsung Odyssey G5 27" @ 1440p144 & Dell P2312H @ 1080p60
Case	SilverStone Seta A1 \| Beige box
Audio Device(s)	Creative Sound Blaster AE-7 (Speakers), Creative Zen Hybrid headset \| Sound Blaster AWE64
Power Supply	EVGA Supernova 750 G2 \| 250W ASETEC
Mouse	Roccat Kone Air\| Microsoft Serial Mouse v2.0A
Keyboard	Vortex Race3 \| Dell AT102W
Software	Microsoft Windows 11 Pro \| Microsoft Windows 98SE

System Name	Cannon
Processor	Intel Core i7 13700K
Motherboard	Asus Z690-P D4
Cooling	Corsair H100i PRO XT w/ Corsair ML120 White LED x2
Memory	32GB (4x8GB) Corsair Vengeance Pro RGB 3600MHz
Video Card(s)	Palit RTX 3060 Ti Dual 8GB
Storage	1TB 980 Pro w/Heatsink + 500GB 970 Evo Plus NVMe + 2TB MX500 + 500GB 850 Evo
Display(s)	34” Dell S3422DWG 3440x1440 144hz Curved + 27" Dell U2713H IPS 1440p + Dell P2219H IPS 1080p
Case	Corsair 4000X RGB - 3xSP120 ELITE RGB (Front Intake) + 1xML120 White LED (Rear Exhaust)
Audio Device(s)	Creative Sound Blaster Z SE + Logitech z623 2.1
Power Supply	Corsair RM850x SHIFT
Mouse	Logitech G602
Keyboard	Corsair K70 RGB
VR HMD	Oculus Quest 2
Software	Windows 11 Pro x64 \|\| Linux Mint
Benchmark Scores	None. Primary uses are browsing, music, gaming (mostly Battlefield & Doom) and virtualization!

Processor	i5-3470
Motherboard	AsRock z77 pro3
Cooling	CM Hyper 412slim
Memory	4x 4Gb Crucial Ballistix Sport VLP
Video Card(s)	Powercolor 7870xt
Storage	Bx100