Laptop to play 720/1080 smooth MKV?

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amd7674

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jan 1, 2007
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Is there relatively cheap laptop which could play smoothly 720P/1080P mvk at 1280*720 resolution on my Optoma HD65 (720P) projector? It doesn't have to have hdmi output as I can use dvd-d to hdmi cable.

or should I just use my current rig for HTPC and build something el cheapo to browse on internet?
 
I can play 720p x264 rips on an E6300 and an AMD 4850e and they work without issues. I've tried 1080p x264's on the E6300 and there is some studdering/choppiness.

I would say as long as it is 720p x264 then you should be ok with any recent dual core.
 
DarkT said:
I can play 720p x264 rips on an E6300 and an AMD 4850e and they work without issues. I've tried 1080p x264's on the E6300 and there is some studdering/choppiness.

I would say as long as it is 720p x264 then you should be ok with any recent dual core.
Click to expand...

Thanks you, do you know what video chipsets where used on these rigs? I'm leaning toward building a full blown HTPC rather than laptop...
 
Right, and that means nothing. It could be a 1Mbps MPEG-2 stream which can be decoded with presumably a P2. It could be a 20Mbps Theora stream that needs at least a dual-core processor. Could be a 200Mbps+ H.264 stream that would need at least a 3GHz quad-core proc. That's why I said 'need more info.'

-=Antimatter=- said:
What codec? Probaby x264?
Click to expand...

x264 isn't a codec, its an encoder only.
 
Seem like in the course of trying to help find out what type of "rips" the OP ment he got confused or something huh?

I'm glad you guys beat me to pointing out the fact that .mkv is a container, not a file type.

Kinda amazes me how often I see threads like this were people want to know something but they don't even understand how to ask the questions and get upset when 5 seconds on google would provide the info.

That said, shouldn't any 2ghz or faster Core2 or equivilant AMD processor be able to decode either a VC-1,H.264,Mpeg2, etc encoded video ok?

I have a 3.4ghz P4 and I can do 720p no problem at all with only software decoders, so shouldn't the above mentioned be sufficant for 1080p/720p or would you still need GPU decode offloading?

I know that with hardware decoding 1080p is no problem for even lower clocks.

Kinda funny though to think that someone is going to spend time and bandwidth downloading "rips" and not be able to even play them when they would not have issues if the bought the video. Sort of ironic.
 
amd7674 said:
Thanks you, do you know what video chipsets where used on these rigs? I'm leaning toward building a full blown HTPC rather than laptop...
Click to expand...

The AMD 4850e is AMD 780G chipset
The Intel C2D 6300 is an Intel P965 Express chipset (2+ years old)
 
undermined said:
That said, shouldn't any 2ghz or faster Core2 or equivilant AMD processor be able to decode either a VC-1,H.264,Mpeg2, etc encoded video ok?
Click to expand...

2GHz? Probably not any video (especially H.264, the most taxing of the three). 3.6GHz dual core? Probably any sane bitrate, maybe not every Blu-ray, most a vast majority. Once you step into the quad core realm can you decode anything.*
 
sorry for not being too descriptive... it is for H264 (which I thought is pretty much a standard for mkv container). My current rig with o/c e2160 and 8800GT can play very smoothly 720/1080P mkv files (H264/AC3)... The new laptop/htpc/console/media player whatever it will be, will be dedicated for my projector (720P) in the basement. Now I'm trying to decide if I should tansform my current rig to be a htpc, and I should be build something cheap to serve a web browser, server machine.... or if I should buy a laptop, built a htpc from scratch, get a console (ps3 or xbox360, on which I would have to more likely decode mkv into something this consoles would play) or get some media player i.e. popcorn hour....

As for creating this thread I was wondering if the current cheap laptops are able to play (decode) 720/1080P H264 files, and if not at least I would have one less choice...
 
LOL :D

Ok, I didn't provide enough info, point taken, but flaming me for that....huh?

I really like your last comment.... :D I'm sorry but who is not able to play after downloading?....

undermined said:
Seem like in the course of trying to help find out what type of "rips" the OP ment he got confused or something huh?

I'm glad you guys beat me to pointing out the fact that .mkv is a container, not a file type.

Kinda amazes me how often I see threads like this were people want to know something but they don't even understand how to ask the questions and get upset when 5 seconds on google would provide the info.

That said, shouldn't any 2ghz or faster Core2 or equivilant AMD processor be able to decode either a VC-1,H.264,Mpeg2, etc encoded video ok?

I have a 3.4ghz P4 and I can do 720p no problem at all with only software decoders, so shouldn't the above mentioned be sufficant for 1080p/720p or would you still need GPU decode offloading?

I know that with hardware decoding 1080p is no problem for even lower clocks.

Kinda funny though to think that someone is going to spend time and bandwidth downloading "rips" and not be able to even play them when they would not have issues if the bought the video. Sort of ironic.
Click to expand...
 
Snowknight26 said:
Right, and that means nothing. It could be a 1Mbps MPEG-2 stream which can be decoded with presumably a P2. It could be a 20Mbps Theora stream that needs at least a dual-core processor. Could be a 200Mbps+ H.264 stream that would need at least a 3GHz quad-core proc. That's why I said 'need more info.'



x264 isn't a codec, its an encoder only.
Click to expand...

sorry dude, point taken... h264 (not sure about bitrate though), all play swell on my current rig.
 
If you want to be absolutely sure that everything you throw at it will play, a laptop with a high-end dual core or any quad core will play all* Blu-ray rips (which I assume these are). If it can play Blu-rays (which quad cores and some high-end dual cores can), it can play H.264 encodes from Blu-rays.

If your current rig, which I'm assuming is in your sig, can play all of them like you say, might as well use that then get another cheap machine to browse the web. Either would do - up to you really.

*All within reason.
 
My dell studio 15 laptop plays 1080p nice and smooth. I have a t9300 and a 3450 GPU.

I also have a BE-2400 in an 8200 motherboard, BE-2400 in a 780G motherboard, and an e8500 in a P45 board with a 3450 GPU. All play 1080p playback silky smooth. Brisbanes can play most 1080p flawless @2.3Ghz. Additional speed maybe be needed for high bit rate rips. I did get studder but after weeks of testing I finaly figured out it was my network. Once I upgraded I found out 2.5Ghz was the sweet spot for the brisbanes.

Both of my htpcs Idle in the 30w-40w range and get close to 90w under full load. Both were made for under $200 as well. I use sharkys codecs to enable DXVA and it works like a charm. Its the best codec solution Ive found and fix almost all playback issue I had.
 
thanks guys for the info..... I've pretty much decided to dedicate my current rig to be used as HTPC and I'll buy cheap laptop for everything else...;)
 
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