HD download.

[chavo]

Hi I have tried to download some HD content to watch on my 50" samsung tv. the download is a mkv format. i play it in VLC but it is very stuttery and wont play properly i have tried several movie clips but they are all the same.

The system i am trying to play it on is my media center:
vista ultimate
opteron 146
ASUS board
6600 256mb card
1 gig ram

Vista score is 3.7 (graphics card is lowest score.

dont really know what to try to get some decent hd content through my system any help? (running through 15 pin vga cable)

[chrismox]

What resolution is the output to the TV?

I don't use VLC (although it is very good). Am I right in saying it uses it's own codec or have you installed one?

[gLk*zaP]

The resolution of the tv doesnt matter, it has nothing to do with the pc being able (or not) to play back the video.
VLC is decent, but more like an emergency player to me. I only use it when everything else fails.
I assume your mkv file has a x264 video in it. As much as i hate codecpacks, and usually dont advise
to use any of them, search for CCCP codec pack. No thats not russian, just stands for community codec pack
or something like that. Honestly i dont know anything about todays AMD processors, so i have no clue
how well your opteron should perform. In general, you need atleast a 3+ ghz cpu to play most hdtv
content, sometimes a 2+ ghz core2duo is enough. If it fails with CCCP pack too,
you can try CoreAVC, which is kinda like the last option for a slower cpu, but it is not freeware.

[listy]

opteron real speed is 2000mhz but if you base that on amd speed rating should be about a a64 3200

[Funkstar]

which opteron 146 do you have?

Might not be powerful enough to actually decode the video

You could also try some of the HD trailers from Apple in QT, or the Microsoft test pieces in WMA.

EDIT: you beat me to it

[s_kinton]

opteron real speed is 2000mhz but if you base that on amd speed rating should be about a a64 3200

Not quite. The 146 has double the cache of the 3200 series.

My guess is that the 146 is holding up the show. Running Vista and trying to play HD content really needs a dual core. You be musch better off with MCE 2005 on that machine.

- Take a look at the processor usage in task manager while the HD content is playing and post the % back here.
- Have you tried overclocking the 146 to get more horsepower?

[chavo]

i dont like to use codec packs as everytime i have installed one it seems to play havoc with windows media center (errors like media center stopped working) will set a system restore point and give it a go. they all work fine on my computer upstairs (which is a beast by the way) but when i try to skip to another point in the film they stop. I will give CCCP a try. cant harm.

[listy]

Not quite. The 146 has double the cache of the 3200 series.

My guess is that the 146 is holding up the show. Running Vista and trying to play HD content really needs a dual core. You be musch better off with MCE 2005 on that machine.

- Take a look at the processor usage in task manager while the HD content is playing and post the % back here.
- Have you tried overclocking the 146 to get more horsepower?

i was meaning roughly since lad before said needs about 3gig cpu

[Versionconflict]

hmm, I've found VLC to be fairly stuttery playing MKV's - not good at all.
I'd recommend using mpc (media player classic) with CoreAVC (google it).

[weegie.geek]

media player classic with coreAVC for lower-end machines, and with ffdshow for higher-end machines.

you also don't say what format of HD is is. Is it 720p or 1080(i/p) ?

that machine will probably have trouble with 1080* but it should play 720p fine with coreavc, i was playing it with my old athlon xp, a 3100, at @~80% cpu usage. Same video card, less ram.

Go coreAVC.

edit: this was on winXP btw. I haven't installed Vista, and plan to avoid doing so for as long as possible, so I can't comment on how resource heavy it is.

[chrismox]

The resolution of the tv doesnt matter, it has nothing to do with the pc being able (or not) to play back the video.

Surely if he has, for example, an output of 1920x1080 then the PC has to work harder to display the image as opposed to outputting a picture at 1024x768.

Anyway, as others have suggested, CoreAVC works fine on my 4 year old HTPC using either Media Center or Media Player Classic.

[Funkstar]

No matter the resolution of the screen, you are still decoding the same source material. And that is more demanding than the display. In fact, depending on the player and what resolution windows is running at, there may well be an increase is processor usage if the footage and the output are not the same as the software is going to be doing the scaling as opposed to the screen.

[roorooroo]

I can play nearly all 720p, 1080i material perfectly with MPC and CoreAVC..though some of my 1080p struggles and stutters.

[TheAnimus]

I've found VLC to be terrible at 1080p.

Vista i've found to be better at high def video and surround sound, less cpu time, but this is on a dual core.

As mentioned try one of the qt or wma samples, if the wma one is stuttery i doubt you will get a better playback on that box.

[Steve]

My Opty 146 can decode HD (720p/1080i) and although I haven't run 1080p, I'm fairly sure there was enough headroom for it. I use VLC on my PC and sometimes my Linux box downstairs, some of its decoders are better than others.

[this_is_gav]

Opty 146 at stock certainly can't decode 1080p without dropping frames or sync.