Is my client under spec'd ?

[onionfx]

Hi folks,
Trying to cobble together a wee client PC to service the 'good' room we're getting ready for Christmas.

Been having some issues with the client/server setup so copied over a file to the video library and still got a wee problem.

The file loads and plays fine in GBPVR, however I can't escape back to the menu once I start playing (or it takes 10-20 secs etc.)

The CPU does go to 100% when playing.

Now for the specs - don't laugh its all I had lying about

Am I pushing it too far - back in the day I would have been running a full server on this sort of hardware (and Media Portal couldn't which is why I stayed with GBPVR )

Duron 700mhz
RAM 384Mb
GPU Geforce FX 5500 with S-Video out.

Any ideas of a minimum spec for a client these days?

Thanks,
Sam

[johnsonx42]

I'm no expert on the whole "how low can you go" thing, but I'll toss in my $0.02. Assuming you're talking about standard def video, that rig should be adequate provided you have an MPEG-2 decoder that can offload at least some of the decode workload to the GPU. Since you indicate your CPU use goes to 100% it's safe to assume your decoder is trying to do it all on the CPU. If you can't enable hardware acceleration on the decoder you have, you'll need another. nVideo's PureVideo decoder will of course do it, but it's not free (and it's pretty old now). If you have a PowerDVD disk around, that should work (particularly a somewhat older version, like 6). You can also try Hoborg's stand-alone-filter pack which is stickied at the top of the Wishlist forum; indeed I think that may use PowerDVD for MPEG-2 decoding anyway.

Even some HD stuff may be ok with the right decoder, particularly 720p content is pretty easy on the hardware (1080i needs de-interlacing, much more demanding on the hardware).

[psycik]

Around 2ghz is the minimum recommended spec I thought nowadays. Also depends on the video stream you're giving it, SD/HD etc. Am assuming SD, but with Direct3d (what gpbvr uses now) the minimums went up.

[onionfx]

Sorry,
Yes SD encoded as mpgs on the server.

Tried using Cyberlink codecs (from PowerDVD 6 I think) and the MPV/MPA codecs.

I see what you mean about the CPU doing all the work HW acceleration is enabled maybe I need to do a bit more digging around that?

Cheers for the responses so far
Sam

[johnsonx42]

Oh, I think there's a registry trick for PowerDVD6... when you set the options for it in the config app, PowerDVD sets those option only for when it sees config.exe running... when PVRX2.exe is running, PowerDVD reverts to different settings. So, you have to copy the PowerDVD settings in the registry from the config.exe key to the pvrx2.exe key. Search the forum, the info is around here somewhere, or look in your registry in the HLKM/Software/Cyberlink area... you'll see what I mean.

[onionfx]

Double checked and its only PDVD5, but tried it anyway and it didn't help

The files play well in WMP if that's any proof that it could/should work?

Quit for tonight at least...
sam