Any recommendations for non-gaming video cards?

[FTW]

With my current PC setup (a "hand-me-down", no less) I'm able to create smooth-playing 720p rips yet not 1080p rips. Play back of the 1080p rips I've personally produced gives me all sorts of headaches: corruption of the video stream, choppy picture, you name it. At first I figured I was screwing something up but when I checked copies of 1080p movies I've obtained thru, uh, "other means" they also have difficulty playing...which leads me to believe that the CPU and/or video card may be dragging ass and could be replaced. Honestly, if I could get by with just getting a new video card I'd rather do that (swap out a single piece and fix my problem...rather than perform surgery and replace the CPU). Which one should I spring for?

I've looked around online and most, if not all, articles I've found regarding video cards addresses their uses for gaming; or if they're about 1080p/BR disc play-back they're from 2006. I'm just gonna use this card/computer for "movie" purposes (720p/1080p rips) so I don't need some WOW-ready give you a +1 geek-boner video card, ya know?

As far as price goes, I'd be down to drop about $100 or so. On my current setup (a Radeon X1650 card) I run everything to a 56" Samsung (HLR5668W) via a DVI-to-HDMI cable, so having either a DVI or a HDMI output on said card would work.

Sorry If I'm forgetting any piece of info regarding my PC, just ask! Thanks!

[creamyhorror]

Sorry If I'm forgetting any piece of info regarding my PC, just ask! Thanks!

Yes, I think you forgot to state your CPU.

The graphics card is only relevant to H.264 decoding if DXVA or CUDA is being used. These are only available via certain playback programs/decoders, and DXVA requires that videos adhere to certain encoding specifications, so not every video will decode with DXVA.

If your CPU is a dual core, you should be able to play 1080p H.264 encodes with a decent decoder like CoreAVC, DivX 7 or ffdshow-mt/tryouts. Even if your CPU is too slow, you should not be experiencing video corruption or glitches, which point to the possibility that your software setup is wrong.

Show us screenshots of the problem and tell us what codecs/packs you're using.

[Nelson37]

WMV? XVID? MPG2? H264?

Lots of types of video, lots of playback strategies, lots of ways to screw up playback. Lots of free, legit, KNOWN GOOD test files to check settings. Lots of software players.

The CPU should be sufficient, card may be a bit light, depends on what type of video you are dealing with.

Corrupted stream is not normal, choppy playback is typical of an underpowered system. Recommend obtain KNOWN GOOD test files and try several different players, such an MPCHC.

[ocgw]

With my current PC setup (a "hand-me-down", no less) I'm able to create smooth-playing 720p rips yet not 1080p rips. Play back of the 1080p rips I've personally produced gives me all sorts of headaches: corruption of the video stream, choppy picture, you name it. At first I figured I was screwing something up but when I checked copies of 1080p movies I've obtained thru, uh, "other means" they also have difficulty playing...which leads me to believe that the CPU and/or video card may be dragging ass and could be replaced. Honestly, if I could get by with just getting a new video card I'd rather do that (swap out a single piece and fix my problem...rather than perform surgery and replace the CPU). Which one should I spring for?

I've looked around online and most, if not all, articles I've found regarding video cards addresses their uses for gaming; or if they're about 1080p/BR disc play-back they're from 2006. I'm just gonna use this card/computer for "movie" purposes (720p/1080p rips) so I don't need some WOW-ready give you a +1 geek-boner video card, ya know?

As far as price goes, I'd be down to drop about $100 or so. On my current setup (a Radeon X1650 card) I run everything to a 56" Samsung (HLR5668W) via a DVI-to-HDMI cable, so having either a DVI or a HDMI output on said card would work.

Sorry If I'm forgetting any piece of info regarding my PC, just ask! Thanks!

A lot of software video players don't enable "hardware acceleration", Cyberlink PowerDVD does, and your vid card is more than sufficient for blu ray playback w/ PDVD7, or 8

I have a 8600GT in my backup PC, and a 2600XT in my daughters PC that play blu ray just fine w/ PDVD and dual core cpu's

Even an old agp 6600GT on a Athlon XP Barton 3200+ I sold to a co-worker plays 1080i HDTV w/ out a prob

My advice, invest in good playback software such as PDVD, TMT, or WinDVD

ocgw

peace

[creamyhorror]

The Radeon x1650 only has partial H.264 acceleration capabilities ("Avivo" technology), while the HD 2400 and later cards are capable of end-to-end H.264 decoding ("Avivo HD").

If you use Cyberlink's H.264 decoder, you can reduce CPU usage on your x1650 somewhat, which might do the trick.

If you upgrade your video card to one with full H.264 decoding capability (i.e. nVidia's PureVideo HD 2 or ATI's Avivo HD), you can use MPC-HC's decoder to take advantage of the capability instead of Cyberlink. Many people would advise you to use MPC-HC as your player anyway, because it's an excellent one (the best in my opinion, and free).

But keep in mind you may not have to spend anything:

If your CPU is a dual core, you should be able to play 1080p H.264 encodes with a decent decoder like CoreAVC, DivX 7 or ffdshow-mt/tryouts. Even if your CPU is too slow, you should not be experiencing video corruption or glitches, which point to the possibility that your software setup is wrong.

[FTW]

Thanks for the answers everyone!
I'll try to post some pics of what's going on with video later today (no time this morning) with codec info.
I'll also run my "screw-up" rip thru Media Info to maybe help ID what I messed up.

The codes I think I'll be sticking with when encoding are H264, possibly VC1. I'd bet containers won't contribute to any issue like this but I think I'll stick with MKV or M2TS. My CPU is a 2.8GHz Dual Core Pentium D. For play back I've been using VLC. I've involved the use of Ripbot in both rips, as well as tsMuxer, eac3to, (I'll provide more info later).

I've attempted two rips, a 1080p and a 720p. I've tested both on two different computers: my PC and a OSX machine (also with a Radeon card, X1600), both using VLC. The mac seems to handle the 1080p rip better but it's still not 100% perfect, the PC seemed like it wanted to play the vid at 3/4 speed and video stream would get all messed up (pics to follow). Recently I came up on two 1080p sources (that I didn't rip) that play "near perfect" on the OSX machine but considerably less-so on the PC. Both of which played 100% perfect on a friend's OSX machine. Which led me to believe that my comps just may be outdated (underpowered in some fashion).

Thanks guys, more info to come later!

[creamyhorror]

For play back I've been using VLC.

There's your problem. VLC's H.264 decoding sucks, it results in glitches and isn't multithreaded, so your dual core CPU is going to waste. You need to use a good decoder like the ones I named.

Get the CCCP (containing MPC-HC and ffdshow-mt) or get DivX 7 or CoreAVC and use them with your favorite non-VLC player.

[fritzi93]

The Radeon x1650 only has partial H.264 acceleration capabilities ("Avivo" technology), while the HD 2400 and later cards are capable of end-to-end H.264 decoding ("Avivo HD").

Yeah, my last card was a Radeon 1650, and IMO, it's not up to the job. Currrently, I have a Radeon 2400, got it for, oh, about $30 bucks from NewEgg.

The Radeon 2400 is fully adequate, and when using MPCHC to play H264, DXVA takes most of the load. Your CPU is okay, you just need a better graphics card.

Good luck.

[FTW]

Hot damn, thanks for the help!!

I installed CCCP, and tested out those vids with MPCHC and it fixed the major issues with the video stream getting all screwed up...however, now I have video/audio sync issues with the 1080p rips. lol So a better video card should fix that issue, yeah?
I think I'll spring for a Radeon HD 2400 or higher, I'll start shopping around.

For what it's worth here's some info on one of the 1080p rips I did...this one gave me massive problems before (without CCCP installed, playing with VLC) but plays cleanly w/ MPCHC now but does have a video/audio sync issue of roughly a second or so. The picture does look nice but that video bitrate should be higher for 1080p rips, yeah? (That is, when I'm not worried about saving harddrive space). (Is there anything "settings-wise" in this file that I screwed up on and should avoid in the future?)

Information for File: 00024.mkv

General / Container Stream # 1
	Total Video Streams for this File -> 1
	Total Audio Streams for this File -> 1
	Video Codecs Used -> AVC
	Audio Codecs Used -> DTS
	File Format -> Matroska
	Play Time -> 2h 58mn
	Total File Size -> 6.24 GiB
	Total Stream BitRate -> 5 010 Kbps
	Title (Tag) -> 00024
	Encoded with -> mkvmerge v2.9.0 ('Moanin'') built on May 22 2009 17:46:31
	Encoding Library -> libebml v0.7.7 + libmatroska v0.8.1
Video Stream # 1
	Codec (Human Name) -> AVC
	Codec (FourCC) -> V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
	Codec Profile -> High@L4.0
	Frame Width -> 1 920 pixels
	Frame Height -> 1 080 pixels
	Frame Rate -> 23.976 fps
	Total Frames -> 256548
	Display Aspect Ratio -> 16/9
	Scan Type -> Progressive
	Colorimetry -> 4:2:0
	Codec Settings (Summary) -> CABAC / 3 Ref Frames
	QF (like Gordian Knot) -> 0.070
	Codec Settings (CABAC) -> Yes
	Video Stream Length -> 2h 58mn 9s 500ms
	Video Stream BitRate -> 3 267 Kbps
	Video Stream BitRate (Nominal) -> 3 500 Kbps
	Bit Depth -> 24 bits
	Video Encoder -> x264 - core 68 r1195M 5d75a9b
	Video Encoder (Settings) -> cabac=1 / ref=3 / deblock=1:0:0 / analyse=0x3:0x133 / me=umh / subme=7 / psy_rd=1.0:0.0 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=3 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / mbaff=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=0 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=3 / wpredb=1 / keyint=240 / keyint_min=24 / scenecut=40 / rc=2pass / bitrate=3500 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=10 / qpmax=51 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / vbv_maxrate=25000 / vbv_bufsize=25000 / ip_ratio=1.40 / pb_ratio=1.30 / aq=1:1.00
Audio Stream # 1
	Codec -> DTS
	Codec (FourCC) -> A_DTS
	Audio Stream Length -> 2h 58mn 20s 190ms
	Audio Stream BitRate -> 1 536 Kbps
	Audio Stream BitRate Mode -> CBR
	Number of Audio Channels -> 6
	Audio Channel's Positions -> Front: L C R, Surround: L R, LFE
	Sampling Rate -> 48.0 KHz
	Bit Depth -> 24 bits
	Audio Stream Language -> English

Thanks for the help, you guys rock!!!

[jagabo]

I installed CCCP, and tested out those vids with MPCHC and it fixed the major issues with the video stream getting all screwed up...however, now I have video/audio sync issues with the 1080p rips. lol :doh: So a better video card should fix that issue, yeah?

Not likely. Look elsewhere. Adjust the audio skew in the MKV header.

[ocgw]

I installed CCCP, and tested out those vids with MPCHC and it fixed the major issues with the video stream getting all screwed up...however, now I have video/audio sync issues with the 1080p rips. lol So a better video card should fix that issue, yeah?

Not likely. Look elsewhere. Adjust the audio skew in the MKV header.

You can build a software player out of a bunch of codecs, or you can buy a decent software player and make these headaches a thing of the past

Life is short brother, get a player and move on

imho

ocgw

peace

[creamyhorror]

however, now I have video/audio sync issues with the 1080p rips. lol So a better video card should fix that issue, yeah?

Does the desync occur with every rip you try? Go to CCCP's Settings application in the Start Menu, and under the FFDShow Video Decoders section make sure the "MT" (multithreaded) box is checked. If it isn't, check it and click Next, then Apply.

If that doesn't fix it, consider installing DivX 7 (an even faster H.264 decoder). Remember to disable FFDShow's H.264/AVC and MT decoding in Settings if you do this. If that works, you're set.

If you want to buy a new video card, note that ATI's cards can currently only decode up to profile level 4.1, while nVidia's latest drivers allow its cards to decode level 5.1 streams. In other words, ATI cards can accelerate some videos but nVidia's can accelerate virtually anything. So nVidia's cards are a better bet at this time (I personally use a cheap 8400GS 512MB).

You can build a software player out of a bunch of codecs, or you can buy a decent software player and make these headaches a thing of the past

Buying a player isn't necessarily going to solve anything. Cyberlink's decoder is one of the "codecs" you deride. It may or may not speed up his decoding enough for videos to play smoothly, and you shouldn't assume it will.

There is absolutely nothing not "decent" about MPC-HC.

[creamyhorror]

I heard that CCCP doesn't have MT enabled by default, so that's probably your problem. Turn it on and your videos should play fine.

[FTW]

I heard that CCCP doesn't have MT enabled by default, so that's probably your problem.

Yes, by default the MT option wasn't enabled. After selecting that, problem solved. I owe you a beer!

[creamyhorror]

Hurray

[ocgw]

however, now I have video/audio sync issues with the 1080p rips. lol So a better video card should fix that issue, yeah?

Does the desync occur with every rip you try? Go to CCCP's Settings application in the Start Menu, and under the FFDShow Video Decoders section make sure the "MT" (multithreaded) box is checked. If it isn't, check it and click Next, then Apply.

If that doesn't fix it, consider installing DivX 7 (an even faster H.264 decoder). Remember to disable FFDShow's H.264/AVC and MT decoding in Settings if you do this. If that works, you're set.

If you want to buy a new video card, note that ATI's cards can currently only decode up to profile level 4.1, while nVidia's latest drivers allow its cards to decode level 5.1 streams. In other words, ATI cards can accelerate some videos but nVidia's can accelerate virtually anything. So nVidia's cards are a better bet at this time (I personally use a cheap 8400GS 512MB).

You can build a software player out of a bunch of codecs, or you can buy a decent software player and make these headaches a thing of the past

Buying a player isn't necessarily going to solve anything. Cyberlink's decoder is one of the "codecs" you deride. It may or may not speed up his decoding enough for videos to play smoothly, and you shouldn't assume it will.

There is absolutely nothing not "decent" about MPC-HC.

I never "derided" the cyberlink decoder dude , I am "deriding" building a software player "out of a bunch free crap", rather than just buying a good 1, been there, done that, past that point in the learning curve

I think it odd that ppl are willing to spend $ on better gfx cards, but not willing to buy a software player

hmmmm......let me see, a guy wanna' watch some vids, he is having video playback problems, but is adamant that buying video player software is "out of the question" strange

It seems simple to me, I wanna' watch video, I buy a video card and a video player

My parents PC w/ a 2000+ and 6800GT would not play DVD's w/ XP and media player, vlc (which I have used in the past) looked like crap, so I loaded my old PDVD7 3319a on it, they now have flawless DVD playback

ps. I have 350+ blu ray movies and I have yet to see a 5.1 profile movie

ocgw

peace

[jagabo]

Cyberlink's player is no better than MPCHC. It comes with source filters and decoders (including a multithreaded h.264 decoder, and a DXVA h.264 transform filter) for just about every common media file. You can disable any of the internal filters and use DirectShow filters if you want/need/prefer.

[creamyhorror]

I never "derided" the cyberlink decoder dude , I am "deriding" building a software player "out of a bunch free crap", rather than just buying a good 1, been there, done that, past that point in the learning curve

You shouldn't call free software "crap" simply because you tried it and it didn't work. I (and jagabo) am telling you from a position of knowledge that Cyberlink doesn't do anything more than MPC-HC does with a current graphics card.

I think it odd that ppl are willing to spend $ on better gfx cards, but not willing to buy a software player

Because you can get a good software player for free, but you can't get a graphics card for free.

It seems simple to me, I wanna' watch video, I buy a video card and a video player

It seems simple to me, I wanna watch a video, I download a software player and buy nothing at all. No one needs a dedicated card to play video if their processor is powerful enough.

My parents PC w/ a 2000+ and 6800GT would not play DVD's w/ XP and media player, vlc (which I have used in the past) looked like crap, so I loaded my old PDVD7 3319a on it, they now have flawless DVD playback

If VLC's MPEG-2 decoding looks like crap, that says more about VLC than PDVD. All standards-compliant decoders should produce identical output, so either VLC's decoder is broken, or it's VLC's renderer's problem (e.g. not displaying at the correct brightness levels). Either way, just because VLC didn't satisfy you doesn't mean other free software is shit.

The point is that you're free to tell people how well your pay software is working for you, but you should not be dissing software just because it's free.

[jagabo]

VLC biggest shortcomings (at least as of the version I currently have) are that it doesn't include a multithreaded h.264 decoder, and since it has no ability to use DirectShow installed filters, it can't be made to play something that it doesn't already know how to play.

[ocgw]

I never "derided" the cyberlink decoder dude , I am "deriding" building a software player "out of a bunch free crap", rather than just buying a good 1, been there, done that, past that point in the learning curve

You shouldn't call free software "crap" simply because you tried it and it didn't work. I (and jagabo) am telling you from a position of knowledge that Cyberlink doesn't do anything more than MPC-HC does with a current graphics card.

I think it odd that ppl are willing to spend $ on better gfx cards, but not willing to buy a software player

Because you can get a good software player for free, but you can't get a graphics card for free.

It seems simple to me, I wanna' watch video, I buy a video card and a video player

It seems simple to me, I wanna watch a video, I download a software player and buy nothing at all. No one needs a dedicated card to play video if their processor is powerful enough.

My parents PC w/ a 2000+ and 6800GT would not play DVD's w/ XP and media player, vlc (which I have used in the past) looked like crap, so I loaded my old PDVD7 3319a on it, they now have flawless DVD playback

If VLC's MPEG-2 decoding looks like crap, that says more about VLC than PDVD. All standards-compliant decoders should produce identical output, so either VLC's decoder is broken, or it's VLC's renderer's problem (e.g. not displaying at the correct brightness levels). Either way, just because VLC didn't satisfy you doesn't mean other free software is shit.

The point is that you're free to tell people how well your pay software is working for you, but you should not be dissing software just because it's free.

Reread my post, I am past the DIY build your own player codec mix-n-match learning curve, I have used mpc-hc, it is "OK" but it is not great, TMT, WinDVD, and PDVD are your great players

I never said I tried anything and it didn't work, I did however learn that if you want to use 1 player, that looks great w/ everything flawlessly it doesn't pay to be cheap

not all that impressed w/ your self appointed "position of knowlege"

You can download "stuff" for free, but the best still cost $

Also buying $300USD of cpu to handle what a $50USD gfx card can is not "buying nothing" lol

btw the problem w/ my parents playback of DVD on their PC was "tearing"

ocgw

peace

[jagabo]

btw the problem w/ my parents playback of DVD on their PC was "tearing"

Just FYI: that could probably be fixed by changing the output module and/or enabling triple buffering.

[creamyhorror]

I never said I tried anything and it didn't work, I did however learn that if you want to use 1 player, that looks great w/ everything flawlessly it doesn't pay to be cheap

Sure it does, some free software can do what pay software does and more. CCCP/MPC-HC is pretty flawless with everything I use, and I'll bet it's more powerful than pay software too (can you change brightness range/levels, add grain, or use sharpening in your player?). It's not even hard to set up: install, select multithreading, and you're ready to go.

not all that impressed w/ your self appointed "position of knowlege"

Well, have you presented any technical reasoning whatsoever to explain why free software is a "bunch of crap"? No, not at all, you've just basically said that PowerDVD is superior without giving a reason besides "it just works!" - which is not a position of knowledge at all. Whereas jagabo has actually listed the capabilities that MPC-HC has as compared to PowerDVD.

Also buying $300USD of cpu to handle what a $50USD gfx card can is not "buying nothing" lol

Of course it is. Every computer comes with a CPU, but not necessarily a graphics card. I have a dual core, so why do I need to buy a card? (And since when did dual cores cost $300...)

[Nelson37]

Simple comparison.

I tested playback on several PC's with a Microsoft 1080 WMV file. Not sure if "p" or "i". VLC was noticeably jerky, changing absolutely nothing at all except using MPCHC gave absolutely smooth playback on a dual-core 3.0, single Xeon 3.0, and just very slightly jerky on an old Athlon 3200. Dramatic improvement over VLC in all cases. Similar results with H264 files.

Throwing money at a problem is one way, and sometimes the only way. However, money is often in limited supply and also often not necessary at all. If you can do it for free, then you still have the money to throw at something that cannot be done any other way.

Also, if you are going to test playback with various setups, start with a KNOWN GOOD file. Using a ripped file which may, or may not, have built-in issues means that your results may, or may not, be accurate. Get the playback right first, then you can proceed to fixing any problems with the encodes. Otherwise, you may end up spending a lot of time trying to "fix" a problem that isn't really there in the first place.

[Nelson37]

Simple comparison.

I tested playback on several PC's with a Microsoft 1080 WMV file. Not sure if "p" or "i". VLC was noticeably jerky, changing absolutely nothing at all except using MPCHC gave absolutely smooth playback on a dual-core 3.0, single Xeon 3.0, and just very slightly jerky on an old Athlon 3200. Dramatic improvement over VLC in all cases. Similar results with H264 files.

Throwing money at a problem is one way, and sometimes the only way. However, money is often in limited supply and also often not necessary at all. If you can do it for free, then you still have the money to throw at something that cannot be done any other way.

Also, if you are going to test playback with various setups, start with a KNOWN GOOD file. Using a ripped file which may, or may not, have built-in issues means that your results may, or may not, be accurate. Get the playback right first, then you can proceed to fixing any problems with the encodes. Otherwise, you may end up spending a lot of time trying to "fix" a problem that isn't really there in the first place.

[FTW]

hmmmm......let me see, a guy wanna' watch some vids, he is having video playback problems, but is adamant that buying video player software is "out of the question" strange

naw dude, i'm not really adamant that buying a video card is the way to go...it was just one of the first things that popped into my head as to why i was having the problem i was having. so why make such a conclusion in the first place? deficient knowledge, that's all. ignorance on this issue if you will. i thought "damn, i bet some better hardware would fix this issue!" and ran with it and posed my question like "i need hardware, what should i get" rather than "i'm having this issue, how do i solve?"
so my bad to begin with.

but all is cool now so it's all good. so in the mean time i'll checkout the different software players, etc and see what suits my needs.

[ocgw]

hmmmm......let me see, a guy wanna' watch some vids, he is having video playback problems, but is adamant that buying video player software is "out of the question" strange

naw dude, i'm not really adamant that buying a video card is the way to go...it was just one of the first things that popped into my head as to why i was having the problem i was having. so why make such a conclusion in the first place? deficient knowledge, that's all. ignorance on this issue if you will. i thought "damn, i bet some better hardware would fix this issue!" and ran with it and posed my question like "i need hardware, what should i get" rather than "i'm having this issue, how do i solve?"
so my bad to begin with.

but all is cool now so it's all good. so in the mean time i'll checkout the different software players, etc and see what suits my needs.

no harm, no foul

Honestly, when you have a video collection like I have (350+ BD, 200+ DVD) you will learn that you have to have a really good player to be confident it will play all your movies regardless of format or file type flawlessly

and I would like to see their "hacked together" playback software intergrate into Windows 7/Media Center 7/MyMovies



ocgw

peace

[ocgw]

btw the problem w/ my parents playback of DVD on their PC was "tearing"

Just FYI: that could probably be fixed by changing the output module and/or enabling triple buffering.

Not an issue when PDVD7 was bought and paid for years ago, has paid for itself many times over, and completely blows VLC "out the water" in video quality on VLC's best day

ppl create problems by being "cheap" in the first place, then spend hours and hours learning how to "hack up" chit they could have just bought, or comes free w/ a good drive

My time is too valuable to go thru those "changes"

(I loaded PDVD7 on my parents PC because it is a smaller install, I use PDVD8 myself)

ocgw

peace

[creamyhorror]

Honestly, when you have a video collection like I have (350+ BD, 200+ DVD) you will learn that you have to have a really good player to be confident it will play all your movies regardless of format or file type flawlessly

Yes, agreed.

and I would like to see their "hacked together" playback software intergrate into Windows 7/Media Center 7/MyMovies

What are you saying here? CCCP and other free software doesn't run on Windows 7? Have you not heard of MediaPortal, XBMC, or Plex? All full-featured and very popular media center software that people use instead of Media Center, and all free?

Better stop making insinuations about things you don't know about.

edit:

ppl create problems by being "cheap" in the first place, then spend hours and hours learning how to "hack up" chit they could have just bought, or comes free w/ a good drive

The issue is whether software is good, NOT about whether it's free or paid for. Stop tarring all free software with the same brush. VLC sucks, but not everything else does.

[ocgw]

Honestly, when you have a video collection like I have (350+ BD, 200+ DVD) you will learn that you have to have a really good player to be confident it will play all your movies regardless of format or file type flawlessly

Yes, agreed.

and I would like to see their "hacked together" playback software intergrate into Windows 7/Media Center 7/MyMovies

What are you saying here? CCCP and other free software doesn't run on Windows 7? Have you not heard of MediaPortal, XBMC, or Plex? All full-featured and very popular media center software that people use instead of Media Center, and all free?

Better stop making insinuations about things you don't know about.

Dude, did I say CCCP does not work on Win7?, I think not, I said, "I would like to see it work w/ Win7/MC7/MyMovies", and they do not, only PDVD and TheaterTek intergrate w/ MC7

Sorry bro', but if it doesn't intergrate into Media Center, it is not "Media Center" software. merely catalog software

You don't think I know what I am talking about, lol, I was into Home Theater when most of you were still in diapers, no offense

Anyway the old saying, "You get what you pay" for is more true now than ever before

ocgw

peace

[lacywest]

hmmmm......let me see, a guy wanna' watch some vids, he is having video playback problems, but is adamant that buying video player software is "out of the question" strange

naw dude, i'm not really adamant that buying a video card is the way to go...it was just one of the first things that popped into my head as to why i was having the problem i was having. so why make such a conclusion in the first place? deficient knowledge, that's all. ignorance on this issue if you will. i thought "damn, i bet some better hardware would fix this issue!" and ran with it and posed my question like "i need hardware, what should i get" rather than "i'm having this issue, how do i solve?"
so my bad to begin with.

but all is cool now so it's all good. so in the mean time i'll checkout the different software players, etc and see what suits my needs.

no harm, no foul

Honestly, when you have a video collection like I have (350+ BD, 200+ DVD) you will learn that you have to have a really good player to be confident it will play all your movies regardless of format or file type flawlessly

and I would like to see their "hacked together" playback software intergrate into Windows 7/Media Center 7/MyMovies



ocgw

peace

You have a Nice setup.

My setup is not as pretty as yours but ... but all my speakers are Acoustic Research ... AR48s for front speakers [under the table] ... there are two Boston Acoustics sitting on the top table ... can't see them ... well kind of ... the left one is there behind the PC tower ... and AR28s for back speakers ... AR 8 inch Subwoofer directly below and the center channel is a AR speaker too !! ... receiver is a Pioneer VSX 815 ... Sony BRAVIA 31.15 Inch LCD HDTV ... definitely pounds out here.

Panasonic EH50 DVD Recorder 100GB hard drive ... just to the right of the monitor.

Gets kind of hot out here ... at 3PM ... and nice and cold out here in the winter.

Video card is a Axle Nvidia 8500GT ... one gig of video ram.

I am out in the garage ... LOL