H.264 1080p hardware requirements?

[plasmacutter]

So I came across a 1080p video stream which will not be named, and it turned my current system into soup.

Obviously I need new hardware, but what should I be shooting for?
would a core2 duo notebook with a sata drive be able to handle it?

information:
24 fps
h.264 12 mbps
DTS 1.6 MB/s

[Dark Shikari]

CoreAVC can play 1080p on most modern processors.

[Ranguvar]

So I came across a 1080p video stream which will not be named
Ya don't need to be so blatant about where it came from -_-'

No, no sarcasm.

[John64]

well, i can play every 1080P demo and trailer ;) i have thrown at my system using CoreAVC on my 1.67GHz Core 2 Duo laptop. In linux, i can't play back 1080p using libavcodec's h264 but i can play 720p

[Sagekilla]

My opty 170 can playback 1080p very easily with CoreAVC. Latest CoreAVC Pro is multithreaded I believe, and should be able to handle whatever video you throw at it. What's your processor? If it's somewhere around what mine is (Basically an Athlon X2 @ 2 GHz) then you should have no trouble with the video using CoreAVC.

[Adub]

Wait a second, everybody stop.

@plasmacutter
Where did you get your clip?

[Yufi]

I was going to post a new topic asking a similar question, but I'll use this one instead.

What about the minimum requirements to play 1080p in Linux? My HTPC is an old S939 Athlon 64 X2 3800+ overclocked to 2.4ghz and it works amazing in Windows with CoreAVC, but I'd REALLY like to switch to Linux and MythTV and so far a lot of 1080p h264 content makes it suffer horribly. I'd really just rather buy an S939 CPU to upgrade it if I could but not if any of the older ones I buy aren't able to do it in Linux.

Or would this be a better question for the Linux subforum?

[Dark Shikari]

I was going to post a new topic asking a similar question, but I'll use this one instead.

What about the minimum requirements to play 1080p in Linux? My HTPC is an old S939 Athlon 64 X2 3800+ overclocked to 2.4ghz and it works amazing in Windows with CoreAVC, but I'd REALLY like to switch to Linux and MythTV and so far a lot of 1080p h264 content makes it suffer horribly. I'd really just rather buy an S939 CPU to upgrade it if I could but not if any of the older ones I buy aren't able to do it in Linux.

Or would this be a better question for the Linux subforum?Linux hardware requirements are the same, basically, as for using mplayer/ffdshow/ffplay/vlc/similar in Windows.

[Yufi]

Thanks for the answer, another quick question though; what does that translate to in terms of AMD cpus? It seems like everyone is talking about Core 2 Duo's everywhere when it comes to requirements, but I never see much Athlon 64 X2 (especially socket 939 ones) talk. I've already tried out ffdshow with the multithreading patches on movies with average bitrates of ~10mbit and it works fine for static scenes but for action scenes it drops frames like crazy, and I'm just curious about how far I'd have to scale up a CPU to be able to play it back without issues, especially since it's harder and harder to find S939 cpus these days, especially for cheap.

[Sagekilla]

As I said before, I use an Opteron 170 which is basically an Athlon X2 @ 2 GHz. If you can find a fast decoder like CoreAVC (I think they're porting the Linux version atm) then you should have no trouble.

Otherwise, vlc/mplayer/etc would be the best solution as Dark Shikari said.

[tellure]

I'm having similar framerate problems playing back high-bitrate h.264 1080p streams (example: BBC HD capture @ 28Mbps).

I'm using ZoomPlayer with CoreAVC 1.6. My system is:

- P4 3.2GHz
- 1GB RAM
- GeForce 6600 GT video card (AGP)

According to nVidia's PureVideo feature chart (http://www.nvidia.com/docs/CP/11036/PureVideo_Product_Comparison.pdf), the video card should support h.264 decode acceleration.

I know this is last-gen hardware, but before I lay down a bunch of cash for a new HTPC, I really want to know if it's possible to play back 1080p video cleanly on this system.


thanks for any help,

tellure


UPDATE: I switched to CyberLink's H.264 decoder (which uses the hardware acceleration, unlike CoreAVC) and I was able to get some significant improvements. BBC stream comes in at an average 27fps, but the framerate does vary greatly during the playback. On more taxing content (e.g. Lost @ 1080p) it can only do ~17fps, which is pretty unwatchable.

At this point I'm thinking of maybe overclocking my CPU to 3.8GHz, since it seems to be one of the limiting factors.

[Sharktooth]

your card doesnt fully support h.264 decoding acceleration. only 8x00 series cards do...

[tellure]

your card doesnt fully support h.264 decoding acceleration. only 8x00 series cards do...

This is true.. the nVidia PDF says none of the AGP cards have "H.264 Decode Acceleration with IDCT and CAVLC/CABAC". I guess this is where the major acceleration savings come from.

Ah well, looks like I may not be able to make this old AGP pony run fast enough to play 1080p video smoothly.


tellure

[ilovejedd]

Would an ultra low budget PC with the following specs be able to play 1080p H.264?
-AMD Sempron LE-1100 @ 1.9GHz
-ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO 256MB
-2x512MB DDR2 533 SDRAM

Also, if I get rid of the HD 2400, would CoreAVC be able to handle HD content with just a lowly Sempron?

Thanks!

[Atak_Snajpera]

AMD Sempron LE-1100 @ 1.9GHz
I have Laptop Turion 1.8 Ghz and only 1280x720 plays fine.

[Sharktooth]

Would an ultra low budget PC with the following specs be able to play 1080p H.264?
-AMD Sempron LE-1100 @ 1.9GHz
-ATI Radeon HD 2400 PRO 256MB
-2x512MB DDR2 533 SDRAM

Also, if I get rid of the HD 2400, would CoreAVC be able to handle HD content with just a lowly Sempron?

Thanks!
no way...

[ilovejedd]

no way...

Which part was the answer for? The first one (with hardware accelerated decoding) or the second one (with CoreAVC) or both?

On a clean install of Windows XP Media Center 2005 and Windows Vista Home Premium, what are the absolute minimum system specs needed for h.264 1080p playback?

I'm planning on replacing the DVD players at home with HTPCs supposing building one would cost less than a Tvix. Unfortunately, Popcorn Hours are still hard to come by...

[Atak_Snajpera]

On a clean install of Windows XP Media Center 2005 and Windows Vista Home Premium, what are the absolute minimum system specs needed for h.264 1080p playback?

Dual Core :)

[ilovejedd]

Let me rephrase that question a bit. What is the cheapest processor that can be found on Newegg (Socket AM2 or LGA775) that can play h.264 1080p either with hardware assisted decoding or CoreAVC? Preferrably one with low TDP and power consumption.

Also, what's the cheapest video card I can get that would show noticeable results with hardware accelerated h.264 decoding.

[Atak_Snajpera]

Core2Duo 2.2GHz for 104 euro
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=338080

I had 1.86 Ghz overclocked to 2.8 Ghz without problems (box fan no adjustments in cpu voltage). So 2.2 GHz should be considered as minimum :)

Also, what's the cheapest video card I can get that would show noticeable results with hardware accelerated h.264 decoding.

HD2400 should be ok

[ilovejedd]

Core2Duo 2.2GHz for 104 euro
http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=338080

I had 1.86 Ghz overclocked to 2.8 Ghz without problems (box fan no adjustments in cpu voltage). So 2.2 GHz should be considered as minimum :)

HD2400 should be ok

Yikes expensive (I kinda need 3). Guess I'll wait for the Popcorn Hour, then... :o

Hmm, how about an OC'ed Pentium Dual-Core E2XXX? Does the difference in cache make that big an impact?

[nm]

Hmm, how about an OC'ed Pentium Dual-Core E2XXX? Does the difference in cache make that big an impact?
Nope, overclocked E1200 or E2xxx are quite enough. Radeon HD 3450 might be a better pick than HD 2400, although it's a bit more expensive.

[ilovejedd]

Thanks. The HD 3450 is easy. Last I checked on Newegg, they're only $10 more expensive than HD 2400 PROs.

[FXsan]

@Merlin7777, you can enjoy lots of 1080p@24fps on http://www.apple.com/trailers/#section=justhd for example.
With QTPro, right clic for "record source" file (~150MB each)

[Sharktooth]

Which part was the answer for? The first one (with hardware accelerated decoding) or the second one (with CoreAVC) or both?
...both