Can't even play most 720p mkv's

[Icefire55]

Well I got a A64 3000+ @ 2225mhz with 3GB ram. I had a 9500 Pro and I just received my HD2600XT today.

Most clip made in x264 in MKV get about 60-100% CPU, so I get lag.

I tryed a bunch of codec, even CoreAVC.. nothing.

I installed the Avivo driver, still nothing.

Any help would be welcome, thanks

[prOnorama]

I don't think GFX cards can offload x264 in the MKV container (they can offload H.264 from Blu-Ray/HD DVD)

A64 3000+ is an old socket 754 single core CPU so CoreAVC won't help much I guess

Maybe you can improve some things but I guess the CPU is the bottleneck here for good x264 MKV playback

[Icefire55]

A64 3000+ s939

[Trahald]

That cpu is probably short of capable of 720p. i have a 3800+ single core and i can play 720p on the cpu only but not 1080p. when i use the gpu i can play anything. with .mkv w/gpu accelleration you have to have the right version of powerdvd avc driver and use mpc-homevideo in evr mode (search the forum for what i mean). i wish powerdvd accepted mkv. but oh well.

[lexor]

I have an A64 2800+ socket754 (@2.2Ghz) and 1GB of RAM. I can play my own encodes made with PS3 profile for MeGUI, which are 720p AVC and about 5mbps and original AC3 or DTS track in MKV or AAC 5.1 in mp4 (no video card acceleration needed). And even with ffdshow usage doesn't go above 80% (even that is an unusual spike), CoreAVC is about 50% tops. I don't know about CPU usage, but I made short 5min clips at 1080p a while back with all the same settings as 720p, but at about 2mbps and it is also silky smooth.

I'm thinking something weird is going on with your setup, since you said "clips" which to me doesn't scream high bitrates.

[ilovejedd]

Is the PowerDVD AVC driver/decoder the only decoder that can utilize GPU acceleration? Can't ffdshow and/or CoreAVC make use of hardware acceleration?

[tetsuo55]

Icefire55,

No details of what you're trying to play, so its kinda useless to respond to your post right now.

However your system should be able to playback any 720p withouth the videocard, easy 1080p streams should also be possible.

If you have everything set up correctly for you new videocard your system should play any "compatible" stream

[Sagekilla]

That's very odd because I have an Opteron 170 (2 GHz) which is a dual core (but slower, MHz wise) version of what you have and I can play back up to 1080p perfectly fine with CoreAVC. This is with all settings enabled, too.

Perhaps CoreAVC isn't getting merit to be used as the decoder?

[DeathTheSheep]

A quick graphedit can answer that. :)

[Eviltape]

I've got a Media PC running on almost the same specs as OP.

Disable deblocking and smile.

[christopherw]

Indeed, I'm using a 1.8Ghz Sempron (!!!) chip in my PC, on Windows 2000 SP4, with a PCIe X1600XT and 2Gb DDR2 and CoreAVC with an oldish x264 compile of ffdshow.... Unless the video's got scenes of REALLY high complexity, I can play just about all 720p just fine (only 1080p stuff I have problems with). Something sounds really bodged with the OP's codec install, or maybe he's managed to get more than one splitter registered for mkv and they're fighting (or causing conflict?)

Checked your hardware acceleration sliders on your graphics / sound card? You using Vista, XP or 2000?

[Icefire55]

using xp, graphedit wont load, some strange dll problem,
I ordered a Opteron 175, should fix it (dual core).\

I guess I might have too many coded installed. I removed the PCCC, AVC and cyberlink coded and it was loading mkv with Nero.

I might have a bunch of registred codec.

[Rodger]

Well...before discussing some more. We should define what we are talking about!

h264 in 576 i/p
h264 in 720 i/p
h264 in 1080 i/p

I have a Core2Duo OC@3120Mhz:
MKV-File: x264 in 576p self created with ac3 5.1
Player: VLC > below 5% DEFINETLY!

TS-File: h264 from PremiereHD 1080i + ac3 5.1 below 20%
Player: Cyberlink PowerDVD > below 20%

His Problem is that Cyberlink doesn´t suppport mkv and so he can´t use the hardware-acceration.
With Hardware-Acceleration 25% TOPS!
without....42% ON MY MACHINE...a slower machine like his...we´re surely talking about ca. 30% CPU-Usage!

So he should look out for methods to use the power of his GPU! Which I only see when using Cyberlink.
But there is no support for MKV! AVIs with xvid/5.1AC3 play without audio....so only original Blu-Ray/Hd-DVD and TS-Files are fully supported!

[Icefire55]

Well I got my Opteron 175 Dual core 2.2ghz.

System spec:

Opteron 175 Dual core 2.2ghz
3GB DDR dual channel
AGP HD2600XT 512mb GDDR3

I tryed a movie in H264 1280 x 544 720pHD, AC3 6ch audio:

Core0: 1-2% not used, Core1: 90-100% with lag.

Currently running Media Player Classic with Haali...

I tryed the Harry Potter 1080p trailler with Quicktime, it run in dual core with 60%, no lag.

[Icefire55]

Finally got it to work on dual core with CoreAVC and Media player classic!

mPlayer was good also, single core, less than 50% of the core used but windowed