Thread: 1080P decoding on PC, watcha using?!?!

Previously, I posted a thread about the best way to watch .mkv's on the PS3 and got some responses. However, after trying to watch a couple of 1080p bluray rip's in .mkv format on my computer & laptop, both were playing the 1080p .mkv's very choppy. Before testing my computer to see if would be able to handle 1080p, I ordered a shuttle xpc on eBay and was planning to downsize my current computer, which has:

Pentium 4 3.2GHz CPU
ATI AIW 9800 Pro
1.5gb RAM
WinXP Pro (KMPlayer, GOM Player w/ DTS+AC3 Filter, VLC, Windows Media Player w/ Haali Media Splitter & CoreAVC Profession Edition for decoding h.264)

into the new shuttle...

In short, my shuttle xpc is on its way, so I was hoping that maybe some gurus here can suggest some ideas or upgrades that will make my shuttle a fabulous media center for my 42" Vizio Full HD 1080P- and most importantly, cost efficient... I would like to get the best for value!

To give me better ideas (and perhaps other members on this forum), what are you using to watch your 1080p .mkv's ? and what was the cost ? post a pic, if you can?

Please include the following...
- Type of device (and how much)
- If computer, please include
-- CPU, Video, Operating System, and software (including decoders)



*also, i have been trying to do some research about minimum requirements for CPU to render/decoded h.264 1080P and video cards... but so many various answers come up...

Thanks in advance...

My system is as follows -

Intel Q6600 @ 3.2 Ghz, AMD Radeon 4870 (HD Sound and HDMI out), 2GB of DDR2 Ram, Windows XP 32bit SP3. However, I was successfully playing 1080p x264 files on my old system too which was a lowly A64 X2 4200 and a ATI Radeon 3850.

I use WMP 11 or Zoom player depending on whether I want to watch the video on my monitor or on my HDTV connected via HDMI.

Zoom player can be configured to use different sound sources so it is configued to use Radeon HD Sound output and WMP just uses my system default sound card which is my X-Fi.

My PC is actually in my office next to my lounge, so I have a 5 metre Denon HDMI lead going through a hole in the wall to my Yamaha Amp which then splits it to speakers/TV. I will probably get a seperate media centre sometime soon like yourself, as the downside of this is I have to use my netbook as a fancy remote control to my PC.

Your CPU should be able to handle 1080p ok if you're using CoreAVC Pro and have hyperthreading on I believe, dual core makes a huge difference though.

My setup is a bit of a mess but basically uses Haali media splitter, the audio going to FFDshow(for sound channel changes)&AC3/DTS filters, then to ReClock, and the video getting decoded by CoreAVC Pro and then resized/upscaled if lower reso by FFDshow.

Seems to me you already know what you need to do, but I recommend this great forum & post for more information on the codecs, filters etc - HTPC Codecs & Players,Help & Configuration Thread (ffdshow, CoreAVC, MediaPortal etc) - AVForums.com

Furthermore, your graphics card will only generally be involved in decoding HD content from H264 sources, i.e Bluray, x264 in MKV is generally only handled by the CPU, however it can be done if you follow this guide - Accelerate x.264 1080p movies over the GPU Guide

Oh and somewhere on that AVForums.com Home there's a post which details the HD 720p&1080p playback capabilities of all the major CPU's of the last 4-5 years using different software combinations, you'll find it ok with a search I'm sure.

Icognito, thanks for the detailed message- I didn't think dual core would have made the difference, but at this point I think it does. I don't think my CPU is powerful enough. I am most definitely checking out the links you provided.

Sounds like you have a bad ass setup to watch your 1080P comfortably! One question though, does CoreAVC to decode h.264 automatically when opening up different players. For example, if I open up GOM Player, VLC, or KMPlayer, and load up a 1080P h.264 .mkv movie, does each player automatically use CoreAVC to decode or do I have to manually configure each player to use CoreAVC?

Thanks again- it might be time to upgrade more than just a shell... wished I would have read into some more before spending on the shuttle....lol

don't mean to bump this so early, but I had to run through 20 something posts to become jr. inviter to give icognito the rep for his detailed explanation and helpful links to building a HTPC.... i most definitely got a better understanding...

Windows has a filter/decoder "merit" list which normal media players will reference in order to make a selection, I can't quite remember how it is determined but I believe when you first install the filter it will try give itself the highest priority.

If you want to check what filters and codecs are being used by a certain file type, and in what sequence you can use the very useful program GraphEdit, found here - OpenDNS great tool for troubleshooting and checking your configuration.

As en example here's a screen shot of the output from a x264 MKV file from mine - http://www.networker.jazztel.es/GraphEdit.jpg as you can see this shows the whole sequence up untill the video is rendered.

Oh and one other note, Zoomplayer can override window's merit levels and manually apply filters and decoders.
If you want to edit the merit/priority of filters you can use "filmerit" found here - Filmerit I hope this all helps.

a P4 is nowhere near powerfull enough for 1080, but you may get away with 720 if your running a super stripped down version of windows, but i doubt that as well.

the perfect solution:

use COREAVC Codec (corecodec)

it's the best.

I use it and I can play 720p and some 1080p tv on my little msi wind (intel ATOM) processor... that's practically nothing

Neuview Pro with CCCP

As stated previously, 1080 on a P4 to my knowledge is not possible