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View Full Version : H264 - minimum spec?

pnag
19th October 2006, 12:16
Sorry if this is the wrong forum, but the PC one didn't seem right either? :(

I'm looking to find out the minimum spec to play H264 decently (as in, no frame dropping, etc!)

I have two alternatives - An AMD 2800 with a Geforce 4Ti4600 and an AMD 3200 with an ATI X800XT PE. Obviously, the latter seems to be the better choice as a media centre for driving a HDTV (32", my pride and joy!) but can I "farm" out some of the computational grunt on the older box to the Geforce 4?

Is there an O/S or media player that will take advantage of the "lesser" hardware to play it effectively?

Be brutal, as I'm sure some of you will! :) And again, apologies if this is the wrong forum.
check
19th October 2006, 12:35
brutal? ok :P
no.
pnag
19th October 2006, 13:57
Fair enough - then what is the min. spec for H.264 playing in something like VLC? 720p to 1080i?

I can't find any info on this anywhere! Anyone know of anything that details this kind of info?

Cheers,
PnaG.
check
19th October 2006, 14:06
VLC is pretty slow, the fastest solution would be CoreAVC, which is windows payware. Video playback requirements depend on a lot more than just resolution, bitrate and settings used make a large difference. That said, 720p will generally play on a 2800+
Schmendrick
19th October 2006, 15:56
I use CoreAVC to playback x264 encoded movies which I convert from H.264-full HDTV source movies which I have received from satellite transmissions. The original movies with 1920x1080i/1088i-resolution either on my Pentium 4/2.67GHz-system or on my Pentium M-Centrino/1.1 Ghz-Laptop only have 17-21 fps at 100% processor load so they stutter. After conversion to 1280x768 resolution (which is the maximum resolution of my FlatTV) at 2 Mbit/s on both systems I achieve full 25 fps with 50-80% processor load. At this bitrate the picture quality to my eye still looks crisp on my FlatTV and as perfect as it can be up to my oppinion.
pnag
19th October 2006, 16:33
CoreAVC? I'll check it out! Thanks, check!

PnaG.

PS Forgot to mention - some of the files are X264? And .mkv extension? Does that make any difference at all?

Cheers yet again!
check
19th October 2006, 23:41
x264 is an encoder that encodes to the standard specified by the h264 specification.
mkv is a container (as avi, mp4, etc)