Can I get away with a slow CPU?

[Seven000Turns]

Could I get away with a 533 Celeron, 256 MBs of RAM, and a very very very large hard drive to capture DVD quality videos? Encoding time is not an issue, I just want to be able to convert some rare VHS tapes to DVD. What card would any of you recommend for me? Is it even possible that I could capture a 720x480 AVI with little or no compression with my slow system? Or better yet, is there a card with hardware mpeg-2 compression my computer could handle? Any help is appreciated. Thanks alot,
Joey

[andkiich]

I think a CPU of that speed might be pushing it.

[parsonsj]

Hauppauge PVR 250 or 350 uses Hardware Encode. I have the 250 and it uses little cpu. There are other Card Makers Canopis etc . Do a search for Hardware PVR.

Of course if your Wallet permits a faster CPU more Memory and at least WIN 2000 or XP would be recommended. You might want to Check what your PC can be upgraded to, probably at least 1 Gig pent if you have the Celeron I , who knows if you have Later Celeron Check with Mobo Maker.

[Seven000Turns]

Hmm...This is why I am trying to get away with keeping this processor...It's on a HP Pavilion 6653c. I don't know if this motherboard is gonna let me upgrade or overclock the CPU at all. Anyone have any experience with this computer? I'd appreciate any help at all. Thanks for the replies guys, atleast I'll just be "pushing it," not dreaming. Thanks again,
Joey

[racerxnet]

Seven,

Your best bet to see what the maximum processor size is to go to the manufacturer and check the latest bios. You can also figure this out by mulipying the FSB by the clock multiplier. In my case 135 X 16.5 give a speed of 2.275 GHZ. You can usually see the FSB and multiplier speed marked on the MB when you open the case. A;so check the manual on the board, which is another good source for info.


MAK

[parsonsj]

WELL!!!!!!!!

So much for that....here is the hp link

http://h20015.www2.hp.com/en/taskPageSelect.jhtml?reg=&plc=&lc=en&cc=us&prodId=hppavil...&docparent=faq

That PC has a 533 Celeron MAX 256Mb MEM MAX..................

UR SOL on upgrading -- the audio and video are on the MB aren't they? So the only thing that could be transferred is the HD.

If you are looking at getting into video Better look at getting a new PC.

if you get into encoding with that box it will be old times....Start an encode and come back tommorrow at the same time.....


SORRY..................................

[FulciLives]

I capture on a P3 650Mhz with 256MB RAM running WinXP

Thankfully I can JUST capture at full D1 using an AverTV Stereo PCI capture card (it's your run-of-the-mill PCI TV Tuner type card).

So there is no way that computer you have will capture UNLESS you are happy with VCD size resolution. Maybe if you are lucky you can get away with half D1 but that might be pushing it.

Of course one of the HARDWARE encoders such as the aforementioned Hauppauge WinTV PVR-250 might work since it is mostly done in HARDWARE and that would save you the MPEG software encoding time which would be REALLY long on your computer without the assistence of something like the Hauppauge card.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[parsonsj]

Hey Joey

Where are you located? Your profile isn't filled out.

if UR in the states you could go to a site like this one.....

http://www.directron.com/allsystems.html

They happen to be one of the stores here in the Houston area I get my stuff from. Just watch out for the real low end systems they aren't much better than what you have but go up from the $100.00 machines and they have some fairly descent ones at pretty good prices.

Another place I check is http://www.pricewatch.com

you should be able to get 2Gig or better CPU 40Gig HD at least 256 Meg Memory cdrom etc for around $300.00


add another $130 and get the pioneer 106d DVD -/+

They also carry Misc Cap cards from around$50.00 up

I am not pushing this store in particular like I said it is one of 3 or 4 I get stuff from here. Of course since I am here I don't pay shipping but I do pay SALES TAX!!!!!!


Hope it helps and if you are seriously thinking then you need to upgrade I don't think you would get a good experience paying for a cap card and running into problems using it....



Have fun AFTER ALL IT'S A HOBBY........lol


James

[racerxnet]

Your HP box will run a Celeron at 733mhz based on the information at this link here. http://h20015.www2.hp.com/en/document.jhtml?reg=&plc=&lc=en&cc=us&prodId=hppavilion200...0&cat=prodinfo

The best way is to download the latest bios and flash to it. Next check the printed PCB board for the clock and multipier settings. Almost ALL BOARDS HAVE THIS PRINTED ON THEM...... If you do not feel comfortable with flashing to the latest bios ( if it is not already done) is to access the bios and see what the maximum CPU, FSB, or Multipier speed is on the screen. Your board is proprietary based and you can only do so much with it. The 533mhz IS NOT THE MAX CPU FOR THIS UNIT.

I am not sure, but you might be able to run a Pentium on the board. It's work per clock cycle is better than the Celeron. The Celeron is a stripped down version of the Pentium. What socket type do you have? You might be able to run a 1 gig CPU even though it will not show on the post screen. you can check this with Sandra.

Here is the copy from HP.

Clock speed (MHz)

Celeron

333
366
400
433
466

500
533


533A
600
633
667
700
733

K-6

366
380
400
450
475
500

Level 1 Cache


32 KB


64 KB

Level 2 Cache


128 KB; integrated


512 KB

Processor bus
(max bus speed)


Slot 1, Socket 370; 66 MHz


Super 7,100 MHz
Socket 7, 66 MHz

Technology


Includes MMX and Dynamic Execution technologies


Uses industry-standard MMX instructions and 3DNow! Technology.

Registers


Uses eight 64-bit wide MMX technology registers


Uses eight 64-bit registers

[parsonsj]

Well you may be right .. but the latest BIOS is over 3 years old everything points to his PC using the original Celeron PPGA 66Mhz Not a Celeron FCPGA or later. I doubt if you could find anyone who has these as they have been 'eol'd' for quite a while. and the highest he can do is to upgrade from a 533 to a MAX 733 MHZ I don't think it's worth the time a effort to attempt but it's not my machine.

[johns0]

If your going to do some serious capturing and encoding then it makes a world of difference upgrading to at least 1ghz instead of trying to save a few bucks.I had to plunk down $500 just get my encoding time 75% faster from xp1600 with 768mb sdram to xp2600 with 1024mb ddr ram.

[racerxnet]

Hi ParsonsJ,

You are absolutely correct that he may not find a processor at a reasonable price. I thought I would point out his options and the maximum possible speed for the cash outlay. He would be better served with a newer MB. I have bought some used boards in the past only because of the great price. Probably not a good idea for a newbie though. $12.00 for a Soyo SY-K7V Dragon Plus on Ebay and modded the board to run the Tbred 2400.

Have a good night, I'm going to bed.

[mikesbytes]

You could simply try capture at a lower resoultion. Most standard definition TV's only give you around 450 horizional pixels anyway and the source being VHS is even lower than this.

[Seven000Turns]

Oh well, I was hoping to keep this system. I already have a DVD+R on here and it works fine for it, and I save and convert streaming video to VCD and SVCD with no problems. Maybe I should go ahead and decide what capture card I want, buy it, and see if it will perform good enough on this computer. What do any of you think? It's not like I'll be wasting any money because I can use it on the system I buy. Same for my DVD+R. So, who has a system that'll handle the full DVD capture they want to seel cheap?! Seriously, I need something if this computer isn't gonna do what I need it to do. Thanks for all the replies.
Joey

[Gazorgan]

Huffyuv has low CPU overhead. MJPEG has CPU overhead based on quality %. You are on the bubble for full D1 capture. Another thing to remember is a motherboard for a Celeron 533 isn't going to have UDMA133 I/O, so your drives may lagout on you. A dedicated capture drive will help quite a bit.

[Beavis]

I've used a WinTV PVR on a 400 MHz system. Works fine. Only drawback is that MPEG playback is done through the CPU and it's choppy (so you can't actually use it to watch TV) but capture for burning and playing elsewhere is not a problem.

[lechtin]

Seemslike an external capture device would also be aggod idea. At least they offload the conversion task from the CPU. A popular device on this site is the Canopus ADVC-100 which is a box that does analog in/DV out through firewire. It also works the other way around (DV in, analog out)

May be someone can correct me or you can do a bit of research, but I believe all you need is a fast enough hard drive to capture with the firewire card you'll have to buy. The DV transfer is just like a file transfer (13GB/hour of video at full D1).

Also, when you do upgrade your computer, the ADVC-100 is still one of the best ways to capture analog footage regardless of the system/application. I don't have one, but I'm fortunate enough to have a miniDV camcorder that works in pass-thru mode (analog in, DV out in real time).

[Thorn]

Oh well, I was hoping to keep this system

Keep the rest of the system, just replace the motherboard and cpu if you can. Pricewatch. athlon 2400 with motherboard: $88
If that doesn't break the bank, it'll be money well spent upgrading to a more modern motherboard and cpu.

I captured full D1 using huffyuv with the old 1.33GHz athlon and it usually used under 50% cpu. That makes the 550MHz probably too slow.

[solarfox]

May be someone can correct me or you can do a bit of research, but I believe all you need is a fast enough hard drive to capture with the firewire card you'll have to buy. The DV transfer is just like a file transfer (13GB/hour of video at full D1).

I successfully did DV captures with this kind of setup (using the *bleah* Dazzle DVBridge rather than the Canopus) on a K6/2 380MHz system, so his 533 Celeron ought to be able to handle it...

[SHS]

Yes Seven000Turns you can do that but I would recommend getting a REAL Hardware MPEG Decoder like the 350 will do or you could like what I did for a few bud of mine that you Play DVD disc back with drag down the system.
Thing you need
1: Older nVidia GF2 or ATI Rage/Rage Pro with the VIP pin on card AGP or PCI.
1: REALmagic Xcard (The reson for this is the PVR 350 dosen't support DVD Playback)
1: 26 PIN Ribbin cable
1: WinTV-PVR 250
Min 256MB system memory
1: Add-on PCI IDE card like Promise or Maxtor Not thoses Raid card.
2: Hard drive 40GB or higher (By using 2 drive you speed thing as much as 40% if it setup up rigth you used it rigth)
1: DVD Burner besure to get the latest one that you have Burn Poof.
1: Copy of SageRecoder
If plan to do any editing I would recommend getting Womble MPEG2VCR or new MPEG Video Wizard if you want to do more - like add effects, titles etc then MVW is one to try out other then that MPEG2VCR will do just fine, Why I say this some of the other MPEG Editors out there re-render the entire movie and you get some quality loss and take for ever unlike Womble Product which FAST and very Frame-accurate.
You don't need the DVD Authoring Software it come with PVR 250/350 there are other that work if don't like Ulead DVD Movie Factory the other chosse are DVD-Lab and TMPGEnc DVD Author.
I would also recommend getting Win2000 over XP becuase seem run better on lower CPU and use NTFS not FAT32 that you wirte file lager then 4GB.

[racerxnet]

Seven,

I would suggest that you look at some of the current debate regarding raid cards here. The Promise (or any software based solution) will yield poor results. I gave an indepth technical explanation in regards to this.

Take the time to research.

[Thorn]

Of course, with a modern enough motherboard and a recent ata-100 drive you really don't need raid. Raw video at D1 w/Huffyuv takes less than 10 MB/s so unless you are multitasking, few drives these days have trouble keeping up. Why buy a bunch of specialized hardware when you can get a CPU that does a bunch of things well.

We're a few years past mpeg decoder boards being useful for the general user on new systems. Mpeg2 decoding is a trivial task for today's CPUs.

[energy80s]

I had to plunk down $500 just get my encoding time 75% faster from xp1600 with 768mb sdram to xp2600 with 1024mb ddr ram.

Woudl you get as much of an increase as that? I have a 1600XP chip and I know that to upgrade it to a 2400XP chip will only give about 20% of an encoding speed increase, and RAM makes no difference to encoding as it is less than realtime anyway (same goes for HD performance).

[mikesbytes]

If you have a digital camera, it might be worth trying out a 1394/Firewire/ilink card, they cost very little. If the camera has passthru, then use that otherwise record to the camera and then play back.

I do DV capture on a celeron 733 running XP with no problems at all. I use a dedicated hard drive for the job, which definently helps.

The thing with DV capture is that the computer is basically taking the info and putting it on the disk, not cpu intensive. The subsequent encoding is cpu dependent, but it doesn't need to be done in real time.