PCI Graphics Cards - Can They Handle HD Playback?

[hasso]

Just wondering if anyone has had an experience with either the HIS HD 4350 or the Powercolor HD2400PRO-256M video cards for the playback of 720p or 1080i/p?. I've got the HIS HD4350 running on a Intel D945GCLF2 motherboard and playback with hardware acceleration on Windows XP is running great, but I still notice some slight tearing/jerkiness during panning shots (I've got vertical sync enabled). I thought that maybe PCI just can't handle high def playback bandwidth requirements.

How how other people faired with PCI high def playback?

[pBS]

what decoder are you using? the ati one does good accel, but has the stutter issue on high def panning shots...
i use ffdshow for smooth as silk panning, tho it doesn't use full acceleration, it may as well be.. [set for nv12 colorspace output only and check interlaced]


also, i noticed playback improve significantly after installing mp10, made the ati codec work much better...i believe it upgrades part of directshow when installed..

pci has plenty enough bandwidth to do video..implementation however, is another story..

oh and make sure to have dual channel memory, doubles it's speed, and therefore the speed of video card memory..[that one uses hypermemory[main system memory] for video mem]

[hasso]

OK... so PCI bandwidth isn't the problem. I'm using the cyberlink powerdvd 8 ones for H.264 playback. With the Intel D945GCLF2 motherboard I haven't been able to get smooth playback using any HD capable software decoder(skipped/freezing frames), hence I seem to be "stuck" with using hardware HD acceleration.

I am using 2Gig DDR2 memory (Corsair Value Select VS2GB667D2, 1x2GB, DDR2-667), but this motherboard only has one memory slot.

[pBS]

it shouuld handle half accel. no problem...for mpeg2...
for h.264, any cpu isn't going to look good unless you use *some* display accel..
[hardware assist mandatory for h.264 really]
what cpu is on that board? dual core 330? or single?

try the ffdshow for h.264 and mpeg2 [use libmpeg2,not avcodec on codec tab] ...
*has* to be ffdshow tryouts beta6 ver. and setup as in pic..

have you tried mpchc video decoder? it should be able to use full accel on that card..and be most efficient..
but the cyberlink codec was best i found...i use ver 7.3 for smooth video...even tho i don't think it's fully accelerated..
and i have a e2140 1.6ghz dual core so almost same as yours..
make sure pvrx2 is set to do hardware accel in registry...
save this as a .reg file and run it..sets defaults for h.264 to hw accel on for all apps.....
if you see a entry in HKCU\Software\Cyberlink\Common\cl264dec\Pvrx2 make sure it's set same way..

Code:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Cyberlink\Common\cl264dec]
"UIUseHVA"=dword:00000001
"UIVMode"=dword:00000001

[ga_mueller]

You will need to use VMR9 fullscreen exclusive to eliminate tearing (my experience with XP, 330/PCI/crappy GMA but using an 8400gs, anyway). For video, I use Cyberlink PDVD9 for recordings: dvr-ms, ffdshow for everything else except .264, and mpc-hc for .264. And all audio is ffdshow. A PITA to get working well...

Good luck.

[hasso]

pBS,
Tried both the ffdshow and Cyberlink options as you suggested. mpeg to is no problem for either. With cyberlink I've got those registry settings and when playing back H.264 CPU usage is about 10%, but gives me the tearing. With ffdshow H.264 usage varies from 60 to 100% and still is very jerky. With MPC-HC I am getting inconsistent results. When it does play the file it looks good with no tearing. Other times, I'm just getting a black screen.

ga_mueller,
Tried FSE and no tearing on 720p but am getting jerkiness on 1080i broadcasts. Yes, this is a PINA to get working well.

Thanks to the both of you for your pointers..