How much processing power required for watching BBCHD

[frankmcg]

Just out of interest, has anyone managed to get BBCHD working to their satisfaction on their setup? If so, I would be interested to hear about your experiences as I'm thinking of upgrading my HTPC to try and achieve this.

For reference, I'm currently using an Athlon64 3500+, an onboard 6150 (which supposedly has some sort of HD acceleration built in) and the cyberlink H264 codec. With this, BBCHD plays but only at maybe 5-10 frames per sec.

[blizard]

Just out of interest, has anyone managed to get BBCHD working to their satisfaction on their setup? If so, I would be interested to hear about your experiences as I'm thinking of upgrading my HTPC to try and achieve this.

For reference, I'm currently using an Athlon64 3500+, an onboard 6150 (which supposedly has some sort of HD acceleration built in) and the cyberlink H264 codec. With this, BBCHD plays but only at maybe 5-10 frames per sec.

Reservation:
This info here is from what I have learned by my own usage of HD content. I don't own a HD tuner, so for that point you will need to find another user here that can guide you on that theme. In general BBC HD seem to not have very much of content to offer, so be careful to not invest to much money on what-can-be in the future hardware, but go for what is solid working right now or wait until there really is some content (HD TV shows) worth investing your money into it.

The main problem are how high resolution you want to use when you decode HD material, most computer system will have problem to decode HD at its highest resolution at 1080i without some tweaking or careful planning. You should ask your self if you have a monitor that can take advantage of this high resolution as it will also give you very large file to store in its original size (=uncrompressed). For my own usage I find it enough to have 720p on a 1024 x 768 display, above that (=1080i) is more a waste of computer power as you can see very little gain in picture quality. It is only when you have a true HD display that you have any use of the highest resolution.

Your onboard should be able to use PureVide which can be bought from nvidia if you want some special HD decoding features that should be supported by hardware. (*) In most cases it would be good to have dedicated video card and from what I have seen there are plenty with rather cheap video card that can do this job if you only want to use HD video and to off load system memory (onboard will need to use some RAM to do its video processing).

CoreAVC was good to handle H.264, but I am not sure if it is supported anymore. I use FFDSHOW (from K-Lite mega codec package) and it has libavcodec library which also do a very good job at decoding H.264 and FFDSHOW have support to take advantage of CPU features when there is support for it on your CPU like MMX/SSE etc.
In general there is also a difference between Windows Media HD and other sources at HD resolution both to decode and encode, so you will need to find out what kind of codecs you want to use. I did look up the info from BBC HD, but couldn't see what kind of codec that BBC will use to broadcast. Make sure that your hardware tuner, or what it is called for HD receiver, is the correct one for receiving transmission as there is both OTA, cable and satellite, each with its own technical condition.

BBC FAQ. Read the last part about how BBC make reservation for almost everything when come down to technical demand to receiving and the future of its broadcasting.

To be compatible with the BBC's HD stream, a set-top box must comply with the following:

• It must have an HDTV logo, to show that it has one of two digital connection types, HDMI or DVI, and supports HDCP, the specification used to protect digital content.

• It can be demonstrated to decode the BBC's MPEG-4 HD stream.

• It decodes both DVB-S and DVB-S2 transmissions.

• It can recognise both the current and future values of HD service type used in the UK and the rest of Europe.

HDCP might be a problem in future as more and more material will be protected by DRM and HDCP is feature that forces all hardware and software to be capable to handle this if you want the highest resolution or the best sound. I only point this out as you can see that it is not easy to answer you question about HD content in just one post and it is a really complex matter with many traps that can be hard to avoid.

I recommend you to use wiki and google to learn more about your option. Don't forget that with HD content there will also AC3 surround sound that will take some more place to store and subtitles (closed caption in the states) in a HD stream, all of this will need to be processed by your CPU to be kept in synch.

_____
(*) Don't expect miracles from onboard video as AMDs (AMD690G or AMD690V) newest generation X1200 and X1250 with integrated video are said to handle HD better, but even here you will be better of to get an dedicated video processing unit to do the job.

[herbs]

I remember reading that dual core processor is really needed to get full fps. Also a decent dx 9 graphics card is really needed.

[gEd]

They recently switched off the HD trial on the crystal palace transmitter.

I would be wary about upgrading your pc just for this.

[frankmcg]

Thanks for the views everyone. I wasn't aware that Crystal Palace had switched off the BBCHD trial - makes the whole question academic I guess!

Oh well, maybe next decade....

[bgowland]

I wasn't aware that Crystal Palace had switched off the BBCHD trial - makes the whole question academic I guess!

Crystal Palace is still broacasting a basic BBC HD1 stream but you probably wouldn't want to play with it at the moment - it has crashed/hung TSReader on me twice in the last 10 minutes. I can see they've reverted to a preview mode and the EPG shows the same sort of information as it had a year ago before the World Cup transmisions.

This from a current transmission...

Starts: 12/06/2007 00:00:00
Length: 06:00:00
EIT Source: actual TS, present/following
Name: BBC HD Preview
A preview of upcoming programmes in high definition from the BBC - live sport, national events, landmark drama, world class documentaries and more. See the BBC as you've never experienced it before.
Description Source: DVB Short Event
Descriptor: Content Descriptor
Content: undefined content (user 0x0/0x0)
Descriptor: Component Descriptor
Component: eng (reserved for AC-3 audio modes)

There are a whole load of 'interesting' things appearing in the transport stream which I don't remember from when I last looked at it. I think it's currently a 'work in progress'.

WRT - power etc....Check out the DigitalSpy forums for what people are using.

Cheers,
Brian

[flyswatta]

See the sticky at the top of this forum, ATSC Guide - HDTV with less horsepower

It's a long thread, but has loads of info on how much hardware is actually needed to view HD content and some nice tips and tricks. It's ATSC (US) specific, but I bet most, if not all, of the info will be relevent in your case.

BTW, I can watch 1080i on a AMD 2100+ with a ATI 9500 Pro video card.

[sub]

See the sticky at the top of this forum, ATSC Guide - HDTV with less horsepower

It's a long thread, but has loads of info on how much hardware is actually needed to view HD content and some nice tips and tricks. It's ATSC (US) specific, but I bet most, if not all, of the info will be relevent in your case.

BTW, I can watch 1080i on a AMD 2100+ with a ATI 9500 Pro video card.

Unfortunately, this doesnt really apply. BBCHD's MPEG4/AVC video is very different from HDTV in the US, and requires a much grunty PC. From what I've read, you really need a fast dual core machine with top of the line videocard, and AVC capable video decoder. My dual core AMD X2 4400+ with nvidia 7600GS cant really play it well.

The situation will most likely improve when hardware H264/AVC acceleration becomes more commonly available in video cards, and video decoders start appearing to use that available hardware.

[happyhammer]

you should also consider BBCHD via satellite as i assume the crystal palace trial comment was for BBC HD via terrestial.

I can only get BBC HD via satellite and the Humax 2000 seems to be the most poplular receiver but i'm holding out for a technomate or dreambox.

[flyswatta]

Unfortunately, this doesnt really apply. BBCHD's MPEG4/AVC video is very different from HDTV in the US, and requires a much grunty PC. From what I've read, you really need a fast dual core machine with top of the line videocard, and AVC capable video decoder. My dual core AMD X2 4400+ with nvidia 7600GS cant really play it well.

The situation will most likely improve when hardware H264/AVC acceleration becomes more commonly available in video cards, and video decoders start appearing to use that available hardware.

Thanks for the info Sub - I'll keep my mouth shut for out of US HD from now on :o . Why whould there be so much variance in the HD streams between countries? Is there an advantage with BBCHD's MPEG3/AVC video over ATSC HD? An why would it need so much more processing power to decode/display it?