GeForce Ti4200 or ATI Radeon 9250?

[stampede96]

First off, I want to say thanks to Sub and to all in this forum. I built a PVR over the summer and the threads on this board have been a great help! Currently all I use it for is to record TV, but hopefully I will get the commercials cut successfully in time, along with a little compression would be nice.

There was a little bit of time I debating switching this computer (see sig) with my fiancée’s 1Ghz Thunderbird, but I think my Sempron will come in handy later if I ever get things working the way I want. Besides, I need it for BitTorrent (lightens the load on my main desktop).

Anyways, I built the system with a 9250. Video playback has been interesting. It seems really choppy when fast forwarding and on occasion when starting playback off of a pause. All the decoding is done via software (in GB-PVR settings). I know there are people with various experiences with a 9250, and I don't know if that is related to any of my problems (my guess is "no").

However, I am giving my fiancée my Radeon 9600 Pro and am taking back her GeForce 4200. Would it be beneficial to me to put the GeForce in my PVR? Would it offer smoother playback? I don't have an issue with the TV-out quality of my 9250, in fact I find it much nicer than my GeForce 2 ever was! The perk of the 9250 is it is passively cooled, while I could make the GeForce quiet if I remove the fan!

Anyone have any thoughts? And sorry for the question, it seems like the ideas have been asked a lot, but I haven't been able to find much comparing these two cards. Regardless, keep up the great work, the program and these forums are great!

[Chris.Day]

I'd say that the Radeon 9250 is better for video playback than the Ti4200 as it supports hardware MPEG2 decoding (through DXVA). nVidia only added it in the GeForce4 MX (which was released after the TI) and later.

What decoder are you using?

[stampede96]

Hmmm...I thought I read in another thread that the 9250 didn't support DXVA. I'll try to double-check that in a bit.

Right now I'm working on getting my PVR out of the infinite login loop signing into Windows (transferred the Windows partition to another drive). As soon as I can get back into Windows I'll let you know the decoder I use.

Thanks.

[nkh]

Hmmm...I thought I read in another thread that the 9250 didn't support DXVA. I'll try to double-check that in a bit.

It does offer some kind of hardware acceleration. I'm using the InterVideo codec and it's working nicely, even on my slow computer. There's a noticable diffirence when you select the hardware acceleration option in the WinDVD settings.

[stampede96]

Tipstir,

Thanks for the breakdown, but I don't have a GeForce 3, though extra information never hurts. The Ti4200 I have is a 64MB PNY, I'm assuming it is a 128-bit. On the other hand, I know for a fact my Radeon 9250 is a 128-bit, because I made sure I didn't order one that was 64-bit. I'm starting to think at this point that the Radeon should just stay in my machine.

To Chris, in the config for GB-PVR I have System Defaults under the Software MPEG-2 Playback. Is that where you wanted me to look?

To nkh, do you use the InterVideo codec in GB-PVR? I haven't bothered to play DVDs through GBPVR since I first built the machine, which was painfully choppy doing it then. I'm trying to smooth out MPEG and AVI file playback at the moment...

[wtg]

I have an ATI 9200 or 9250 - I forget. I found the special ATI-specific Cyberlink decoders worked very well with it, and if memory serves there are some extra hardware accelerations you can turn on via a registry change. It took a while, dealing with the original directx 9.0c stutter and some other issues, but I was getting very smooth MPEG playback on my lowly 1.1 GHz Celeron. Eventually I switched to the Nero decoder with good results too.

Now I'm in the process of rebuilding my PVR with a new motherboard and am switching to the NVidia 6200, but I was quite satisfied with the Radeon.

[stu8080]

@wtg
I have a 9200SE at the moment and im finding playback is good, but ff/rw is very slow. Ive tried the obvious fixes to no avail so wonder if these ATI optomised decoders would help along with any registry tweaks.

Do you have the specific names or links as i cant find much on google?

[JimF]

I have the ATI 9250 also, and it works very well with the Sonic "CinePlayer DVD Decoder" for WinXP. The CPU useage is less than other decoders I have tried on this PC, including the Cyberlink Power DVD. I tried the ATI decoder somewhere along the line, and it is good, but the CinePlayer is better on my PC.

But I have found that video playback depends a lot on which CPU and motherboard chipset you are using. I have always had better luck with Intel for both, and what works best on an AMD system may be different.

[wtg]

@wtg
I have a 9200SE at the moment and im finding playback is good, but ff/rw is very slow. Ive tried the obvious fixes to no avail so wonder if these ATI optomised decoders would help along with any registry tweaks.

Do you have the specific names or links as i cant find much on google?

The decoders should have come with your installation CD, but you can download them from ATI's site. (If you didn't get the MMC dvd player with your ATI board (which includes the decoder), I think you can buy it for like $10 from ATI's site.) The decoder update in particular does require you still have the installation CD however. https://support.ati.com/ics/support/defa...lderID=293 After installation you should have an option in gbpvr's config for "Cyberlink Video/SP Decoder (ATI)" - something like that anyway.

I can't find the links now of course, but I'm pretty sure the registry change was related to enabling hardware acceleration (DXVA?) in the Cyberlink decoders. Or actually, you might be able to do by simply opening PowerDVD and enable Hardware acceleration. I don't think I realized it at the time and did it via the registry.

[stu8080]

I found the hardware acceleration option in the 'configure decoder' option in GBPVR config, but that didnt help unfortunately.

My 9200SE didnt come with any DVD software it seems, just drivers so the ATI site wouldnt verify and so wouldnt allow me to get the software. Im doubtful it would solve the problem though.

Given i have a near perfect setup now its something i can live with!