Best Video Card for HD Playback

[dj7675]

I now have sage working well recording hd via an r5000hd network encoder for satellite hd. I have been using a roku for hd playback and it has been working well. I would like to try get my setup able to play back hd video within sage but need a new video card. I am not too knowledgeable on video cards. I want reliable playback. What card would be best for this say under $100-$200. Is it better to decode with hardware or software? Any links to specific products would be very grateful.

Darin

[polen]

I did some research for this too and found users on this forum say the Nvidia 6200 works for them. Currently I'm using my high dollar gamming machine with a NVidia 7800GT as a SageClient, but want to use another computer I have for a dedicated SageClient only. I ordered this card from ZipZoomFly.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...uctCode=322325

Hardware decoding is the key to smooth playback. This card or any Geforce 6 or 7 series will take advantage of the hardware deinterlacing with the Nvidia PureVideo decoder.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/dvd_decoder.html

I'm not 100% sure this card will do the job, but I will be recieving it next week, so I'll let you know how it goes.

-Polen

[PGPfan]

Can you provide any details on your intended display device and how you wish to hook it all up? That will allow the most detailed recommendations as to what vid cards will work the best. Also, do you want to do any gaming on the machine? Any price ranges to shoot for?

-PGPfan

[polen]

Also, it would be good to know what video card slot you have on your PC, AGP or PCI Express?

What kind of processor do you have or plan to have for this system?

-Polen

[blade]

You're not going to get full hardware decoding from a video card.

[dj7675]

I have a dell gx270. I have a link to the computer specs. Thanks again for the help. Under $200 for price. Just looking for the easiest setup and most reliable playback.

http://docs.us.dell.com/support/edoc...n/ug/specs.htm

Thanks again.

Darin

[PGPfan]

From the looks of the link you provided, you can only use an AGP card. Sadly, that somewhat limits your choices of cards. I'd recommend looking for anything in the Nvidia 7xxx series. I read recently that Nvidia is going to release a 7600 (IIRC) soon that would fit your requirements perfectly.

-PGPfan

[srothwell]

Originally Posted by PGPfan

From the looks of the link you provided, you can only use an AGP card. Sadly, that somewhat limits your choices of cards. I'd recommend looking for anything in the Nvidia 7xxx series. I read recently that Nvidia is going to release a 7600 (IIRC) soon that would fit your requirements perfectly.

-PGPfan

You seem knowledgeable in this area......

When I originally built my Sage server, I cheaped out and bout a Radeon 8500 card for it. It plays HD back nearly fine through sage but I get little bitty stutters every 10 seconds or so IF I use the nVidia ProCoder. If I switch to the Intervideo decoders from WinDVD7, it plays back almost stutter free.

I just bought a PNY Nvidia GEForce 6600 AGP for my PC and was wondering if I'd see any difference plopping down another $110 on another one for the Sage Server. The Sage server also plays back to an HDTV via DVI.

Just wondering what you thought. Unless really, really necessary I really don't want to drop the $299 on a 7000 series card.

Thanks for any info.....

Stacy

[polen]

you could always try putting your PNY 6600 into your server to see what it does.

I have a 7800GT with an AMD 3800+ and I see stutter with the NVidia PureVideo Decoder with VRM9 unless I turn on the SageTV exclusive mode, then it's smooth as butter.

-Polen

[stanger89]

FWIW, I personally wouldn't go below a 6600GT if HD playback is your goal.

[polen]

Stanger89 is right. I got my Nvidia, 6200 128M AGP, and put it in a Gateway 2.4GHz 533MHz fsb with 512KBytes of PC2100.

I cannot play HD content without stutter in VMR9/FSE mode, but I can play smoothly with it in Overlay mode. This all with the Nvidia Pure Video decoder.

In VMR9/FSE mode the CPU was averaging about 70%.
In Overlay mode the CPU was averaging about 40%.
Both on HD Content, On SD content it was 40% and 20% respectively.

I believe the computer can do it, but the video card is not strong enough and looking at this page here you can see that the 6200 is lacking in areas. the 6600GT looks like a good card, but the PCI-Express 7600GT takes the cake.

-Polen

[PGPfan]

Originally Posted by srothwell

You seem knowledgeable in this area......

When I originally built my Sage server, I cheaped out and bout a Radeon 8500 card for it. It plays HD back nearly fine through sage but I get little bitty stutters every 10 seconds or so IF I use the nVidia ProCoder. If I switch to the Intervideo decoders from WinDVD7, it plays back almost stutter free.

I just bought a PNY Nvidia GEForce 6600 AGP for my PC and was wondering if I'd see any difference plopping down another $110 on another one for the Sage Server. The Sage server also plays back to an HDTV via DVI.

Just wondering what you thought. Unless really, really necessary I really don't want to drop the $299 on a 7000 series card.

Thanks for any info.....

Stacy

As mentioned by polen, I'd give it a try in your Sage server. Just make sure you use drive imaging software PRIOR to testing it out. If you don't like it, you can easily restore the whole system back to exactly how it was before testing. If you just remove the card itself, you will have driver 'debris' left over in the registry. Too much of that will bog down your system over time.

-PGPfan

[phenixdragon]

I have been running a IGP board for awhile with the nVidia 6150 and it plays anything I through at it flawlessly including HD as I only record everything in HD via FireWire.