PC for HDTV

[redfordxx]

Hi,
can anybody tell me, what CPU is enough (what should I buy) for all the HDTV playback?
Let's say
full 1080i in H.264 with some postprocessing like deint, deblocking...
Thanx

[siddharthagandhi]

1920i? Does that even exist? Highest I heard was 1080p. I can play 1080p WMV HD trailers on my 3.4 ghz computer, as well as on a 2 ghz computer. However HD AVC playback needs CoreAVC decoder or a really really good computer..

[redfordxx]

1920i? Does that even exist?Yes, of course I mean 1080i...

[siddharthagandhi]

Depends on the format your processor needs. WMV HD (and probably VC-1 too) can be played back easily on most new computers. HD AVC can be a real problem though.

[HardwareGeek]

Hiwhat CPU is enough ... for all the HDTV playback?Alot also depends on the graphics card: "laboratory tests show that pure software decodes of HDTV streams require a 3 GHz CPU or faster, whereas a system that includes a DVXA[DirectX Video Acceleration]-capable graphics card can get by with a CPU that runs between 1.8 and 2.0 GHz (http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1955088,00.asp)".

3 GHz and 1.8/2.0 GHz probably refer to a P4 system. Not all gigahertz are created equal, however, and an up-to-date AMD CPU, or a Core Duo, Core Solo, or even a Pentium M would not have to be clocked so high.

Also, I'm not sure how dual-core affects playback. Seems like all the benchmarks I've seen are for encoding. Would welcome feedback on dual-core playback of hd video streams. Thx!

Also, you can do hd playback from a HDTV tuner card, in which case the CPU requirements are a little different: "More taxing activity occurs when viewing or playing back high-resolution HDTV signals. Media Center requires a 2.4 GHz P4 processor (or equivalent) and a more powerful video card than is necessary for standard TV (that said, we found 1.8 GHz Pentium M and 2.0 GHz Athlon 64 processors also equal to this task) (http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1955092,00.asp)".

[Revgen]

Hi,
can anybody tell me, what CPU is enough (what should I buy) for all the HDTV playback?
Let's say
full 1080i in H.264 with some postprocessing like deint, deblocking...
Thanx

My AMD X2 4600+ w/ CoreAVC Pro Edition works for me with all HD material so far.

[Blue_MiSfit]

MPEG-2 HD is no problem for any modern system, 720 or 1080

WMV-HD / VC-1 is hardware accelerated with most modern gfx cards, even Intel's integrated parts (90% sure, dont quote me on this)

CoreAVC is freaking awesome for HD h.264. IIRC, hardware acceleration is still "barely" working for the newest ATi and nVidia cards.

On a 2 GHz + P4 / Athlon64 2800+ at the very least you should be able to play everything back with a recent graphics card and Core AVC...

[Dethis]

On a 2 GHz + P4 / Athlon64 2800+ at the very least you should be able to play everything back with a recent graphics card and Core AVC...

Not less than 3.0 GHz P4 + CoreavcPro i would say. Look at the link

http://coreavc.corecodec.org/recommend.html

And this only if BBC DVB is out of your plans until Coreavc 1.3, because it's 1080i50 MBAFF steams are not supported by current Coreavc.

http://corecodec.com/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=29&topic=2769.msg16856;topicseen#msg16856

So .... 3.8+ GHz to be safe.

[ronnylov]

What about the video card?
http://coreavc.corecodec.org/recommend.html
They recommend a 256 MB video card for 1080p, but video card performance is not the same as how much memory they have. I have a Radeon 9800Pro but only with 128 MB. I'm thinking of maybe buying a fanless Geforce 7600 GS 256 MB.

I have a dual core AMD64 3800+ overclocked to 2400 MHz (4600+ speed) but that one use an old Geforce2MX 32MB (may upgrade that one, it has both AGP and PCIe ports). The other PC with the 9800Pro is using an Athlon64 3400+ but only AGP port.

[Revgen]

The overlay surface requires more MB of space to play 1080p video. This has nothing to do with video acceleration.