Blu Ray Rip Playback - do I have enough?

[pb_cruisader]

I have read the sticky about playback issues and at some point it says that if it's choppy, I might need a new PC? IMO, I don't think so, but here's what I have:

Pentium D
2 GB DDR 8500
Asus EAH2450 PCI-E
500 GB SATA Disks
Soundmax HD onboard

Video and audio can be seen, but video is pixelated and choppy. CPU only reaches 55%.

Rip is AVC/DTS and I'm using VLC.

[jagabo]

Try using MPCHC. Enable it h.264/DXVA decoder (I think your 8500 supports it). If that's not smooth disable DXVA and use the other h.264 decoder (ffmpeg) and make sure it's set up to use two threads. If you still have jerky playback disable its internal h.264 decoder and try CoreAVC Pro. If it's still jerky you'll need a new CPU or a video card with h.264 decoding in hardware.

[pb_cruisader]

Thanks for you help. I'm amazed that it takes that much power out of my 2.8x Ghz Pentium D (pre Core2Duo) to play this sort of file.

MPCHC did it, it's now playing smooth.

edit: and I have a EAH 3450 ATI Radeon, not a 2450.

[jagabo]

LOL. When I quick parsed your computer spces I saw "8500" and leapt to the conclusion it was a Nvidia 8500 graphics card! The Ati Radeon 3450 definitely support hardware h.264 decoding (DXVA).

VLC was using a single threaded h.264 software decoder so it was only using one of the two cores on your CPU -- hence the ~50 percent CPU usage.

[pb_cruisader]

So, how do I make sure that the h.264 decoding is happening on the card? I get about 80% CPU usage in some scenes - or is that thanks to my graphic card? If it is... wow!

[jagabo]

80 percent CPU usage indicates the CPU is doing the decoding. In MPCHC:

View -> Options -> Internal Filters -> Transform Filters -> disable H264/AVC (ffmpeg), enable H264/AVC (DXVA). Double click on DXVA. At the bottom of the dialog it should show your video card name, indicating it will use it. You might have to exit MPCHC and restart it. CPU usage should drop down to single digits.

If it still isn't working you may have to update the graphics card's drivers.

[pb_cruisader]

OMG, you are a frikkin' genius! I barely get 5% CPU usage now! You should put that in those stickies (if it is and I missed it, my bad!)

[pb_cruisader]

Sorry to bring this back to life, but I think it might be relevant.

Using the latest MPCHC on Windows 7 (build 7000) 64-bit and it doesn't recognize the file. However a copy/pasted version from my XP Pro system works but with a very high CPU usage again (double checked the settings to make sure they were right).

Can I assume that this is normal since W7 is in beta?

[jagabo]

I don't know if it's the source of your problem but beta versions of Windows usually have very un-optimized video drivers.

[pb_cruisader]

I don't know if it's the source of your problem but beta versions of Windows usually have very un-optimized video drivers.

That's what I was thinking... I'll just wait until I buy my copy to start inquiring more here