INDEX  F.A.Q.  SEARCH  LATEST POSTS     Rules  Register  Profile  Private messages  Login


Search all forums or this forum: Advanced search
will a better video card improve DVD viewing also?
Forum Index -> Other -> Computer Printer-friendly version
Reply to topic
Author Message
mrhata
Member


Joined: 11 May 2002
Location: CA
Post Posted: Oct 21, 2003 11:09 Posts Comp View users profile Send private message Reply with quote
Will the overall video playback improve and not just the gaming side of things? I'm using an onboard video card, 16mb. When I view my DVDs they are somewhat soft or fuzzy, not as sharp as on the TV. I also only have PCI inputs and most cards I see around are AGP. Will that make another difference too as far as video card quality/capabilities?

pixel
Member


Joined: 07 Jul 2003
Location: UK
Post Posted: Oct 21, 2003 13:08 Posts Comp View users profile Send private message Reply with quote
It should improve the DVD playback, but you may find it will be just as fuzzy because DVD resolution is lower than the resolution of most PC monitors. They probably seem sharp on TV because TV's work in a different way from monitors.

Yes, a PCI vs AGP card will be another big difference. I believe PCI slots use a frequency of 33MHz and the AGP card uses 66MHz, so a PCI card won't be as fast, but anything better than the onbaord card, with at least 64MB of memory will help a lot.

BJ_M
Patron


Joined: 30 Jul 2002
Location: Canada
Post Posted: Oct 21, 2003 13:15 Posts Comp View users profile Send private message Reply with quote
what helps is a video card with a good hardware mpeg decoder built in and make sure to enable hardware mpeg playback in your playback app ..


speed of the video card or if its on a pci ir agp buss makes no diff.

case in point -- avid cards, targa 3000's , sdi HD and SD capture and playback cards all work off the pci buss and they have a lot more data transfer
_________________
"Each problem that I solved became a rule which served afterwards to solve other problems." - Rene Descartes (1596-1650)

mrhata
Member


Joined: 11 May 2002
Location: CA
Post Posted: Oct 21, 2003 13:46 Posts Comp View users profile Send private message Reply with quote
Thanks a lot. I'm looking into a couple of different cards at the moment.

808smokey
Yoda


Joined: 11 Aug 2003
Location: Fiji
Post Posted: Oct 21, 2003 14:16 Posts Comp View users profile Send private message Reply with quote
PCI video cards suck. Thats why they have AGP cards. 4x 8x PCI runs at 66mhz AGP runs at 66 MHz times 4 or times 8 which equals 264MHZ and 528 MGZ. Gaming and video playback will all dramatically improve. You also need to have a decent processor and a reasonable amount of RAM.

BJ_M
Patron


Joined: 30 Jul 2002
Location: Canada
Post Posted: Oct 21, 2003 15:14 Posts Comp View users profile Send private message Reply with quote
808smokey wrote:
PCI video cards suck. Thats why they have AGP cards. 4x 8x PCI runs at 66mhz AGP runs at 66 MHz times 4 or times 8 which equals 264MHZ and 528 MGZ. Gaming and video playback will all dramatically improve. You also need to have a decent processor and a reasonable amount of RAM.



he was asking about playing back mpeg -- it doesnt mater if it is pci or agp was my point ...

video playback will not change what so ever ... if you have hardware decoding - you dont even need a decent cpu ...
_________________
"Each problem that I solved became a rule which served afterwards to solve other problems." - Rene Descartes (1596-1650)

808smokey
Yoda


Joined: 11 Aug 2003
Location: Fiji
Post Posted: Oct 21, 2003 15:30 Posts Comp View users profile Send private message Reply with quote
Quote:
he was asking about playing back mpeg -- it doesnt mater if it is pci or agp was my point ...


No he wasn't and since when are DVDs mpegs?
His question was:
Quote:
When I view my DVDs they are somewhat soft or fuzzy, not as sharp as on the TV.


Quote:
video playback will not change what so ever ...

Umm yeah it will
Quote:
if you have hardware decoding - you dont even need a decent cpu ...

Ummm yeah you do.

If not then everyone would have an old pentium 200mhz and never need to upgrade to watch these movies. My friend has a Duron 450mhz and he can barely watch small mpegs let alone a DVD. He uses onboard 16meg video and it sux. It's almost like a slide show.

Yes you can use a PCI card for video but AGP is 10x better than PCI. Besides that most half way decent AGP cards are around the same price as a PCI card. I'd only buy a PCI video card if my mother board didn't support AGP.

BJ_M
Patron


Joined: 30 Jul 2002
Location: Canada
Post Posted: Oct 21, 2003 16:22 Posts Comp View users profile Send private message Reply with quote
808smokey:

DVD's are mpeg files ....



as for the rest --- i suggest you do up a little study on video playback which i suspect we were doing before you were born ... before you keep putting your foot into it ...

were you also the one who didnt think i could not possabily be using a 64 bit workstation in 1995 (because you believed some marketing crap) and I had to pull out a tonne of data to show you otherwise?
_________________
"Each problem that I solved became a rule which served afterwards to solve other problems." - Rene Descartes (1596-1650)

pyrate83
Martini...shaken


Joined: 05 Jun 2003
Location: Alive on XBOX LIVE!!!!!!!
Post Posted: Oct 21, 2003 16:31 Posts Comp View users profile Send private message Reply with quote
Damn! Hostility in the forums today... ohmy.gif
_________________
Craig Tucker
Moderator


Joined: 05 Apr 2001
Location: England
Post Posted: Oct 21, 2003 16:56 Posts Comp View users profile Send private message Reply with quote
808smokey wrote:

No he wasn't and since when are DVDs mpegs?


Sorry, but you are really showing your ignorance here.

808smokey wrote:

If not then everyone would have an old pentium 200mhz and never need to upgrade to watch these movies. My friend has a Duron 450mhz and he can barely watch small mpegs let alone a DVD. He uses onboard 16meg video and it sux. It's almost like a slide show.
Most peoples primary use for a PC is not to watch movies, and your friends card probrably does not have hardware decoding so it has to be done by the cpu.
_________________
Craig

Will somebody get this big walking carpet out of my way

RabidDog
Old B.


Joined: 25 Oct 2002
Location: UK
Post Posted: Oct 21, 2003 18:58 Posts Comp View users profile Send private message Reply with quote
confused.gif I am very surprised your dvds look worse on your screen. I would hazard a guess and say you are using a laptop? no agp, shared 16mb video memory, fuzzy lcd screen ? on my desktop computer screen dvd s look exceptionally sharp and good quality.
_________________
Corned beef is now made to a higher standard than at any time in history.
The electronic components of the power part adopted a lot of Rubycons.

Piccoro
Member


Joined: 06 Feb 2003
Post Posted: Oct 21, 2003 19:01 Posts Comp View users profile Send private message Reply with quote
A better graphics card may help because they would offer much better 2d performance. Whether that will help with your issue I'm not sure. It might be best to buy a MPEG encoder expansion card (pci), one that would be supported with the software you use. I used to have one and they are great.

The village idiot
Nobodys FOOL


Joined: 27 Apr 2002
Location: Adrift among the STUPID
Post Posted: Oct 21, 2003 19:14 Posts Comp View users profile Send private message Reply with quote
808smokey wrote:
If not then everyone would have an old pentium 200mhz and never need to upgrade to watch these movies.


Five years a go I was watching DVD's on my P166 with a PCI decoder card from Sigma. I went like this for about 1 1/2 years, then only went to a stand alone player becuase I needed to check some (s)VCD disks to find out I was making them wrong. The decoder card would play raw mpeg without blinking. I was also streaming video though that machine to my TV before most people had ever tried it. All that using a p166 with an ATI AIW pro with the Rage pro chipset, and the Sigma DVD decoder. That's all that machine did. Even only had an 800MB hard drive.
_________________
Hope is the trap the world sets for you every night when you go to sleep and the only reason you have to get up in the morning is the hope that this day, things will get better... But they never do, do they?

Adios...

rallynavvie
internal affairs


Joined: 10 Sep 2002
Location: Minnesotan in Texas
Post Posted: Oct 22, 2003 11:05 Posts Comp View users profile Send private message Reply with quote
While we're on the subject are there any mainstream chipsets (Radeon or GeForce) video cards that have hardware decoders?

BJ_M
Patron


Joined: 30 Jul 2002
Location: Canada
Post Posted: Oct 22, 2003 12:10 Posts Comp View users profile Send private message Reply with quote
Radeon , GeForce and matrix parellia and 650 and 750 all have hardware mpeg2 decoders ... ati has HD mpeg decoder hardware though in practise i found that it really plays a max of 15meg/s in hardware then switchs to hardware assist software decoder or software only (for HD) don't know why...
_________________
"Each problem that I solved became a rule which served afterwards to solve other problems." - Rene Descartes (1596-1650)

g_shocker182
...


Joined: 28 May 2003
Location: VT
Post Posted: Oct 22, 2003 13:37 Posts Comp View users profile Send private message Reply with quote
808smokey wrote:
No he wasn't and since when are DVDs mpegs?


VOB(DVD) = MPEG (M2V) + AC3 (Audio Tracks) + SUBTITLES

Essentially,

DVD=MPEG

Reply to topic All times are GMT - 6 Hours
Forum Index -> Other -> Computer Page 1 of 1





You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
Jump to:  
Display:   
About   Advertise   Forum Archive   RSS Feeds   Statistics