Choppy HD Playback

[Chefski]

Hi there,

I'm unable to achieve smooth playback with HD videos on my pc, i've just upgraded my graphics card from a radeon 9800pro to an X1950 pro but there has been no noticable improvement in HD playback (3d games have improved though). It can just about handle 480p but there is still some slowdown at points and 720p is unwatchable. I've tried using quicktime with apple movie trailers as well as using VLC player for mkv or avi files. I'm guessing a likely bottleneck is my CPU, but some advice would be appreciated before I shell out for a new mobo + processor.

XP SP2
athlon 3200xp
1.5gig pc 3200 ddr400 RAM
radeon x1950 pro AGP
AOpen ak77-600gn mobo
on board ac'97 sound
60 gig hdd
620W Enermax Liberty PSU

Many thanks

[MJA]

athlon 3200xp is your bottleneck I'm not sure if the videocard and the HD are good enough too

download cyberlink BD/HD ADVISOR for more info

http://www.cyberlink.com/english/support/bdhd_support/diagnosis.jsp

[Soopafresh]

You can play 720p quicktime by installing Quicktime Alternative, letting the browser plugin download the .MOV file, and renaming the extension to .HDMOV for CoreAVC 's directshow codec to play it smoothly.

[MJA]

lol I was ganna also tell him that Soopafresh posted a link about the HD stuff

[menes777]

athlon 3200xp is your bottleneck I'm not sure if the videocard and the HD are good enough too

What would be the minimum Videocard you would recommend? I thought the X1950 was a fairly recent card.

[menes777]

Nevermind, I should have checked the FAQ's before posting

CPU
http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/support/answerbox_productfaq.jsp?FID=2576

Video Card
http://www.cyberlink.com/multi/support/answerbox_productfaq.jsp?FID=2577

[waheed]

I don't agree with the specs provided by Cyberlink.

I'm only using a AMD 64 3500+ CPU (well below minimum CPU requirement stated by Cyberlink) and my PC is able to playback 1080P smoothly.

[amb7247]

FYI, my Toshiba HD-A1 1st gen HD-DVD player uses a pentium 4 1 GIG ram in it and playback smooth. Heck the player is esentially a PC without windows and other software pre-loaded. I'd recommend turning off your anti-virus or programs that scan in the background.

[Chefski]

Thanks for the advice, using quicktime alternative worked a treat for playing back hdmov trailers at 720p, but mkv files are unaffected. The cyberlink adviser didn't recognize my CPU - which I suppose suggests the problem area.

It's a reasonably clean install of windows that I'm using plus I don't have any anti-virus s/w installed and I've stripped out the startup items from system config utility. I've noticed the CPU usage is stuck firmly at 100% when playing HD video (the halo 3 trailer at 1280x544 just about plays smoothly while at 100% - same for hdmov trailers) whilst an avi file 624x352 sits at 30%. Again I presume this indicates a CPU as potential problem area.

Thanks again for your help.

[Baldrick]

A mkv with what video codec? h264?

[Chefski]

The mkv I'm trying is described as x264

[Soopafresh]

Did you try CoreAVC ?