Client Playback of H.264 Files

[HuMan321]

How much is really needed to comfortably run H.264 on a client PC with Sage? I have a P4 2.6 or 2.8 CPU with 1.5 GB of Ram and a dual video card in a PCI slot (admittedly underpowered) I am using the H.264 decoder that came with the HDPVR.

H.264 files from an HDPVR max out the CPU at 100% and stay there. You cannot got focus to pause, FF or anything. I could buy a better video card, but then lose the dual monitor setup and maybe spend needless money.

I could upgrade the PC, but then again I am spending just for H.264 to work.

Can anyone post their settings if they have underpowered video cards and CPU's to work?
Thanks

[stanger89]

What's your "dual video card"? My old Athlon X2 4200+ and Geforce 6600GT had no hope of playing 1080i HD PVR recordings. But the 9600GT in my new PC can play them without hitting the PC CPU at all.

My Athon X2 BE-2400 could play them pretty well (save deinterlacing) with an integrated 780G (Radeon X3200) video.

[HuMan321]

Originally Posted by stanger89

What's your "dual video card"? My old Athlon X2 4200+ and Geforce 6600GT had no hope of playing 1080i HD PVR recordings. But the 9600GT in my new PC can play them without hitting the PC CPU at all.

My Athon X2 BE-2400 could play them pretty well (save deinterlacing) with an integrated 780G (Radeon X3200) video.

I don't know the brand and specs from it off hand if that is what you are asking (PCI slot though). I am thinking I will have to change the video card at the least if I want this to work.

Since our son uses two monitors on this PC, ultimately I would like a dual monitor video card that fits a AGP 8X slot and has some onboard hardware crunching capability for H.264 files with some CPU to multitask.

I am not sure that such a card is even available...

It seems that most GPU's are for newer motherboards. After adding up the expenses to get this to work it may encroach on the price of an extender and I would just have to tell him that I will drag an old TV up there and use an extender.

[stanger89]

It's pretty much impossible to find a card that doesn't do dual displays anymore.

AGP does make it fun though I'm not up on how well hardware decoding works with those. But an ATI 3000 series might work. I suggest you search here and probably avsforum for any particular card/chipsets and see if people are having luck with AGP and DXVA.

[HuMan321]

What do you think of this one?

http://www.powercolor.com/eng/produc...ProductID=4578

[Striker:WG]

you're definately limited by the AGP factor, but if your into the ATI line of cards, try and get one from the 4000 series as opposed to the 3000 series. There aren't many available in AGP, but I did a quick search on NCIX and found this one:

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.p...cture=Gigabyte

I'm sure there are others out there if you look.

-Striker-