Video card recommendation

[SickBoy]

Well, something isn't right.

I brought home a Sapphire Radeon HD 5450 and I have precisely the same performance playing HD video, no matter the source (clearQAM channels from my HDHomeRun, displayed in either VLC or GBPVR, HD channels from my Firewire connection to my STB, or recordings from the HDHR).

I have the latest Catalyst driver from ATI which seems to be the same for either the HD 4200 onboard video or the 5450 card. I've tried every different driver setting or codec I can, and I absolutely, for the life of me, cannot get smooth playback. The closest I can get is by using overlay in the GBPVR config. It's semi-watchable there, but the WAF of that level of 'watchability' is low.

Help? Not sure where to go to next, other than returning the 5450 and trying an nVidia card.

[whurlston]

Which video decoders have you tried?

[SickBoy]

On the playback options I've tried the NVIDIA Decoder (should be Purevideo, I have that installed), ATI MPEG Decoder, and ffdshow. I also tried a MPC codec, don't remember the exact name (and don't have the machine in front of me).

The thing is, though - which decoder does VLC use? Because displaying video stream direct from either the HDHR or the STB is still just as choppy as with the onboard video (on HD channels). I use the same method to watch the HDHR channels on the desktop in my office (which is a significantly less robust machine - Athlon64 single core 3200+, 2 GB RAM, NVIDIA 6600GT) and there's very little/no hiccups on the HD channels. SD channels work just fine, no hiccups, on either setup.

[whurlston]

NVidia decoder: old and outdated. No real hardware acceleration for newer cards.
ATI MPEG Decoder: This should have worked well for you with EVR on Vista/Win7.
MPC-HC MPEG2 Decoder (Gabest): No hardware acceleration.
MPC-HC Video Decoder: Hardware accelerated but does not decode MPEG2 video.
VLC uses internal decoders and they are not available to other applications.

Which OS are you using? If you are using Vista/Win7, try the Microsoft DTV decoder with EVR.
Also, what resolution/refresh rate are you running?

[SickBoy]

I'm on WinXP 32bit, 1360x768 resolution (using the D-sub connector to connect to TV), not sure which refresh rate.... maybe 60Hz?

I was hoping to stay on XP rather than move to Win7.

[mikeh49]

I'm sorry to say that, in my experience, a significant part of your problem is XP. Everything related to video performance got better for me on Win 7. The only way I could get decent (not good, just decent) performance on XP,even with the 9500GT, was with the MPC-HC decoder and VMR9 FSE. And, I think I even had to install the old version of DirectX. I agree that the Nvidia decoder should be retired; also, ffdshow never worked for me, even with pBS guidelines. I don't have an mkvs or ripped DVDs, just MPEG recordings of clear QAM or firewire.

You might try playing a commercial DVD in GBPVR (PVRX2, I assume) - if it doesn't play smoothly with that hardware, I think there is a problem in XP separate from the decoder.

The specs for the 5450 say it has a 64 bit memory interface. Back in the SD day (2006), forum member csy asserted that this was insufficient and 128 bit was needed. I don't know if this still applies to modern cards.

@JohnnyCam - With the Nvidia card connected to a Sony TV using a DVI (video card) to HDMI (TV) cable with separate audio cables, I had no sound on the TV until I did the EDID override registry hack. An upgrade of the Nvidia driver erased the hack, so I had to do it again.

[whurlston]

Yeah, I have to agree. Your best performance especially with new cards, will come from using EVR which has never worked great on XP. I know people are hesitant to move to Win7 but it really is much better than XP especially in terms of media playback.

The specs for the 5450 say it has a 64 bit memory interface. Back in the SD day (2006), forum member csy asserted that this was insufficient and 128 bit was needed. I don't know if this still applies to modern cards.

Memory bandwidth plays a roll and so do stream processors. As long as you have at least 32 stream processors, you should be able to handle HD deinterlacing. The 5450 has 80 stream processors and can handle Motion Adaptive deinterlacing of 1080i content but it you want Vector Adaptive, you have to go to the 5570 which has 400 stream processors.

@SickBoy, you can try going into the Catalyst settings -> "Video" -> "Advanced" and make sure that "Enforce Smooth Video Playback" is checked.

[Reddwarf]

On the playback options I've tried the NVIDIA Decoder (should be Purevideo, I have that installed), ATI MPEG Decoder, and ffdshow. I also tried a MPC codec, don't remember the exact name (and don't have the machine in front of me).

The thing is, though - which decoder does VLC use? Because displaying video stream direct from either the HDHR or the STB is still just as choppy as with the onboard video (on HD channels). I use the same method to watch the HDHR channels on the desktop in my office (which is a significantly less robust machine - Athlon64 single core 3200+, 2 GB RAM, NVIDIA 6600GT) and there's very little/no hiccups on the HD channels. SD channels work just fine, no hiccups, on either setup.

In my opinion, it's a matter of finding the best decoder/renderer combination. I had very smoot playback on XP with the 3450 card using Cyberlink decoder and EVR. Yes I know people say that EVR does not work good on XP but it did for me. You can find HD Pack here http://www.dvbsupport.net/download/index...iew&id=162
It contains the Cyberlink decoders.

[imilne]

The 5450 has 80 stream processors and can handle Motion Adaptive deinterlacing of 1080i content but it you want Vector Adaptive, you have to go to the 5570 which has 400 stream processors.

That's a bit of a step back then if true? I only have a 4550 but get vector adaptive deinterlacing (as far as I'm aware) on 1080i content. That's with XP though.

[whurlston]

That's a bit of a step back then if true? I only have a 4550 but get vector adaptive deinterlacing (as far as I'm aware) on 1080i content. That's with XP though.

XP may be a different story. I know the 4550 will do VA on Win7 if Aero is disabled, ESVP is disabled and no other video processing is being performed. It may be the same for the 5450 but I've never tested that stripped down config. Realistically, not many will run all those settings on Win7.