Least resource hungry codec for playing AVCHD?

[Wam7]

A colleague has some AVCHD files that he want's to play and also convert to DVD. He only has a P4 3.0 with HT so converting may take some tme but at least it should be able to complete it. I will either use ConvertX for straight conversion of Sony Vegas Pro if he needs to do a bit of editing.

When it come to playing will any codec allow him to do that smoothly?

Should I get him a GPU that supports DXVA or just change the processor etc and what is the minimum he needs to play AVCHD smoothly?

Cheers.

[Soopafresh]

You could try CoreAVC. That's probably the least CPU intensive playback codec.

If the video slot on the motherboard is AGP, it might be difficult to find a card that supports DXVA. Someone around here will know.

If he's really going to get into AVCHD, a new machine with enough CPU and GPU power won't be very expensive.

[creamyhorror]

On a P4 3.0Ghz viewing low-to-medium bitrate 720p should be possible with CoreAVC or DivX 7, but I don't know about editing. For converting to DVD, AVStoDVD is good and free.

[Wam7]

Cheers. The files are actually 1080p - 16.2 Mbps video with AC3 audio

[jagabo]

Divx 7's h.264 decoder is the least CPU hungry. But I don't think any decoder will play 1080p h.264 video smoothly on a 3 GHz P4. Maybe if he disables deblocking.

[Wam7]

Divx 7's h.264 decoder is the least CPU hungry. But I don't think any decoder will play 1080p h.264 video smoothly on a 3 GHz P4. Maybe if he disables deblocking.

Thanks for that, I will test both CoreAVC and DivX7. I tend to concur, which is why I will probably get him something like a Nvidia 9400GT or ATI HD3450 to take most of the strain off the CPU.

[jagabo]

Yes, a graphics card with hardware h.264 decoding will work for most videos. Some h.264 features aren't supported by DXVA so some videos may still be problematic.