Is my PC too old to play 1080p video?

[aer]

The file I'm trying to play stutters in VLC and Media Player Classic Home Cinema. The video also runs much more slowly than the audio.

I'm trying to play an MKV file encoded as follows:

• x264 High Profile 2pass @~14.5Mbps
• 1920 x 1080
• 25 FPS

I have a laptop the following specs:

• Intel T2400 @ 1.83GHz (2M Cache, 667 MHz FSB)
• 1GB RAM
• ATI Mobility Radeon X1300 (512MB RAM according to dxdiag)
• Windows XP

In MPC-HC, I've tried the windowed and renderless versions of the VMR-7 and VMR-9 renderers. I've also updated DirectX and my video card drivers. I haven't downloaded CoreAVC since I have an ATI video card. Is there anything else I can try? Thanks very much for reading.

Edit: I think the video card actually has 64MB of onboard RAM.

[Baldrick]

Yep, it's too old for h264 1080p video.

But you can anyway try CoreAVC and see how it works...but I don't think it will work that good.

[jagabo]

Make sure MPCHC is using both cores to decode AVC (h.264): start playing the video, right click on the MPCHC window, select Filters -> MPC Video Decoder, set Decoding Thread Number to 2. Exit MPCHC and restart. VLC only has a single threaded AVC decoder so it's hopeless.

I'm pretty sure the Radeon X1300 doesn't have GPU decoding for AVC so you can't use the DXVA module. But you might as well try. In MPCHC select View -> Options -> Internal Filters. In the Transform Filters box enable both H264/AVC (DXVA) and H264/AVC (FFmpeg). Exit and restart MPCHC.

CoreAVC's AVC decoder is a little faster than MPCHC's. If the above doesn't work you might as well try it. Install CoreAVC, Disable MPCHC's internal AVC decoder (DXVA and FFmpeg). Exit, restart.

Divx's AVC decoder is the fastest of all. Try that too.

[yoda313]

@aer - if that is a single core processor than yes it won't handle 1080p video. You need at least a dual core to do it smoothly. I have a dual core and can play bluray and hd files smoothly with my ati all in wonder hd pci-e 512mb video card.

[jagabo]

I checked before I posted. The Intel T2400 is a dual core CPU: http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=27235

[aer]

Thank you all very much for your help.

Video playback is still choppy, but CoreAVC improved things a bit. Setting Deblocking to "Skip always" made things even better. Will any other settings reduce CPU load? Maybe the deinterlacing settings?

Also, will installing Divx Plus alongside ffdshow, CoreAVC, and MPCHC cause any problems? Edit: which Divx filters should I try? Enabling the Divx H.264 decoder filter didn't improve things much..

FYI, MPCHC defaulted to using both cores. Also, I think you're right that the Radeon X1300 card doesn't have GPU decoding for AVC. I enabled MPCHC's internal AVC decoder (DXVA and FFmpeg) and checked the MPC Video Decoder properties - the DXVA Mode entry was grayed out and said "Not Using DXVA."

[jagabo]

Video playback is still choppy, but CoreAVC improved things a bit. Setting Deblocking to "Skip always" made things even better. Will any other settings reduce CPU load? Maybe the deinterlacing settings?

Deinterlacing off requries the least CPU.

Also, will installing Divx Plus alongside ffdshow, CoreAVC, and MPCHC cause any problems? Edit: which Divx filters should I try? Enabling the Divx H.264 decoder filter didn't improve things much..

Having all of those h.264 decoders installed shouldn't cause a problem -- but it can be hard to tell which is being used.

FYI, MPCHC defaulted to using both cores. Also, I think you're right that the Radeon X1300 card doesn't have GPU decoding for AVC. I enabled MPCHC's internal AVC decoder (DXVA and FFmpeg) and checked the MPC Video Decoder properties - the DXVA Mode entry was grayed out and said "Not Using DXVA."

DXVA grayed out means DXVA isn't available. Either the hardware or the drivers don't support it.

Another thing you can try in MPCHC is to change the output device. View -> Options -> Playback -> Output. In the DirectShow Output box try the different options. You have to exit MPCHC and restart it for the change to take effect.

[aer]

Wow, I think turning off deinterlacing in CoreAVC made the video watchable! I won't know for sure until I sit down and watch the entire thing, though.

Unfortunately, other MKV files that used to work fine now don't play sound in MPCHC. They return this error: MPCHC "could not render some of the pins in the graph" and the "ACM Wrapper : :Output" pin "failed to find a connectable filter." Do you have any idea how I can get this file working again? Uninstalling DivX didn't help.

Thank you again for all of your help - I have a much better feel for MPCHC's codec options now. Before, I was just trying different settings blindly.

[jagabo]

Make sure MPCHC's internal AC3 decoder is enabled. Also try changing the state of its internal MKV splitter.

[aer]

Changing the AC3 filter's output sample from PCM 16 bit to PCM 24 bit fixed the problem. I would never have known to look at the settings for that filter. Thanks again!