1080P playback help

[ugemeistro]

I currently have a AMD Phenom 8400 X3 CPU, 6GB of DDR2 RAM, and a 4350 ATI Card. What would be a good card to buy to not have any bottlenecks watching 1080P content on my computer.

 

[AltTabbins]

Have you already tried the 4350? Most low end cards do just fine for 1080p content.

 

[rtangwai]

The HD4350 is borderline on 1080p content, it will do it but possibly not smoothly (depends on several factors). A HD6450 should work if you are putting it into a HTPC - cheap, low power, low profile if needed, and many are passively cooled so one less thing to break. If you are planning on any gaming other than browser games then you might want something with a bit more horsepower like a HD7770 or a HD7850, anything higher than that is a waste on your current CPU/RAM.

 

[ugemeistro]

maybe I'm using the wrong video player then, I just get alot of pixels in most of the videos. I'm currently using VLC and Media Player Classic. No games, just finished ripping all 300+ Dvd's and Blu-rays....I might try XMBC as well....

 

[rtangwai]

Are you playing straight from Blu-ray?

 

[SeegsElite]

Do you have DXVA enabled? If not, that's your problem as it won't hardware decode with that option disabled. I'm not too familiar with VLC and their DXVA settings but it should be pretty straight forward. DXVA should work fine with stright blu-rays, but if you're downloading older 1080p re-encodes many of them don't meet the L4.1 standard for DXVA decoding. Though, I'm pretty sure AMD has updated their drivers to work with L5.1 encodes for DXVA as well.

 

[ugemeistro]

Are you playing straight from Blu-ray?

No, ripped from DVD's and Blu-ray's

 

[rtangwai]

Might be the encoding you are using, the 4350 doesn't have some of the nicer hardware acceleration options of later cards.

 

[Avatar82]

if you just spent X number of hours encoding your entire movie collection to not meeting DXVA standards, you "might" be able to retrofit the existing video's without reencoding. i searched "x264 Encoding Options for Hardware Compatibility & DXVA" and found http://www.avsforum.com/t/972503/x264-encoding-options-for-hardware-compatibility-dxva which talks about Retrofitting MKVs or other H.264 videos using a program called IDC Changer, to change the header of the videos to say they are H.264 L4.1 if that is indeed the issue your having. i like messing around with video encoding but don't really understand any of it myself.

 

[Snowknight26]

I just get alot of pixels in most of the videos.

Meaning what? Do you have example screenshots?

The 4350 should be more than adequate to play any properly-encoded video capable of being offloaded to the GPU. CPU, on the other hand, maybe, maybe not.

 

[ugemeistro]

meaning if i got to full screen mode in VLC or MPC it gets pixelated but when i watch it in not full screen mode, it is fine.....

 

[Snowknight26]

Example screenshots?

 

[ugemeistro]

It won't let me do screen shots in MPC....i've been playing with the setting when googling DXVA, i get no pixelation now but i cannot still do full screen without freezing screens. I really do apprieciate all the help!!!

 

[ugemeistro]

The HD4350 is borderline on 1080p content, it will do it but possibly not smoothly (depends on several factors). A HD6450 should work if you are putting it into a HTPC - cheap, low power, low profile if needed, and many are passively cooled so one less thing to break. If you are planning on any gaming other than browser games then you might want something with a bit more horsepower like a HD7770 or a HD7850, anything higher than that is a waste on your current CPU/RAM.

This is mainly for HTPC so i will look at those option at work (I work at Fry's but those guys want me to get $100-150 GPU)

 

[Liger88]

meaning if i got to full screen mode in VLC or MPC it gets pixelated but when i watch it in not full screen mode, it is fine.....

Is your monitor running at 1920x1080 resolution? I noticed the same thing happen on my moms laptop when she tried playing a 720p movie. Didn't have the ATI drivers installed to up the resolution which solved it. So long as it isn't jerky it should be fine, but with that CPU it could be a limitation at this point. Even my Q9550 doesn't like 1080p without video acceleration.

 

[ugemeistro]

My monitor is an Acer X223W 1680x1050 resolution, all ATI drivers are up to date. I do have a Samsung TV that runs 1920x1080. Could it be that I'm running Dual Screens that maybe why the slow down?

 

[ugemeistro]

if you just spent X number of hours encoding your entire movie collection to not meeting DXVA standards, you "might" be able to retrofit the existing video's without reencoding. i searched "x264 Encoding Options for Hardware Compatibility & DXVA" and found http://www.avsforum.com/t/972503/x264-encoding-options-for-hardware-compatibility-dxva which talks about Retrofitting MKVs or other H.264 videos using a program called IDC Changer, to change the header of the videos to say they are H.264 L4.1 if that is indeed the issue your having. i like messing around with video encoding but don't really understand any of it myself.

I will definitely check that out, thanks for that!!

 

[Snowknight26]

It won't let me do screen shots in MPC....

F5 or Alt+I.

if you just spent X number of hours encoding your entire movie collection to not meeting DXVA standards, you "might" be able to retrofit the existing video's without reencoding. i searched "x264 Encoding Options for Hardware Compatibility & DXVA" and found http://www.avsforum.com/t/972503/x264-encoding-options-for-hardware-compatibility-dxva which talks about Retrofitting MKVs or other H.264 videos using a program called IDC Changer, to change the header of the videos to say they are H.264 L4.1 if that is indeed the issue your having. i like messing around with video encoding but don't really understand any of it myself.

That won't help. The level flag is ignored by players.