Video card capable of native HD playback

[nerdmonkey]

Hello,

Can anyone recommend a video card that is capable of unloading the burden of decoding HD video from the CPU? Preferably an AGP card?

I have an aging Pentium 4 1.6 GHz machine that has been serving me well as the dedicated SageTV machine. Recently the video card died, so I was wondering if I should replace it with something that could decode and playback HD video, thus allowing me to upgrade to HD on the cheap without upgrading my PC. I don't care about games or anything else. My 720p TV has a VGA and HDMI input, and the PC is running on Winodws XP.

I'm curious what video cards, capture cards, drivers, SageTV versions, and OS you've had success with. If what I'm embarking upon is a giant timesink filled with driver wrestling and forum reading, please let me know and I will be forever grateful. But if there is a way to see HD on the cheap, I would love to give it a whirl.

Thanks!

[BFisher]

A ~$200 option is to get an HD Extender. Use the PC as a server, and the Extender to connect to the TV. Not sure your price range, but this is a super-effective way to make an older PC last longer...

[Djc208]

Well either the ATI HD2xxx/HD3xxx series or the nVidia Geforce 8xxx/9xxx series will support H.264 decode support with the right software.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814131097 is the cheapest ATI AGP card, but it's overkill for just HD playback. There are a few HD 2600 pro cards listed but they're only a few dollars cheaper than the card listed above.

Newegg doesn't list any 8xxx series nVidia AGP cards.

Now if you're just talking MPEG-2 HD playback then just about any more recent card should be OK. I upgraded my Sage machine from an nVidia 6200LE to a hand-me-down nVidia Geforce 7600 and my CPU useage dropped by about half (60-70% before to 30-40% after) with SD playback being even lower.

All that being said I agree with BFisher, depending on what you wanted to spend the HD extender will give you more flexability with fewer driver/software issues. Of course for similar money you could probably go to a newer AMD 780 motherboard with the built-in graphics, and faster mulit-core CPU. Plus Newegg has that in stock, unlike the HD-extender .