Is a 2.8 Pentium 4 w/HT able to playback HD?

[GLE3]

I have a couple X264 files that are 720p. I am trying to play them using VLC player. The CPU is only at 40 - 50% but I am getting occasional hitches in the playback every couple minutes. A freind of mine says you need something faster than 3.0 Mhz for HD. Is that my problem?

Another thing that is interesting is that I see ATSC and Clear QAM capture cards out there that say they need less than a 2.8 Mhz to work(below). Are they telling the truth?

http://3btech.net/hawihvatntqa.html

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3584100&SRC...gtCjCVRqCjCVRq

[lordsmurf]

I have a similar system, and I can play back MP4 H.264, but MKV files choke.
This is on a P4 2.8Ghz/400FSB non-HT system.

[Baldrick]

Try instead play using Media Player Classic together with a newer version of ffdshow or coreavc. It usually works better then VLC.