h264

[Jean]

Hello,

My question may not be related to kubuntu directly but here goes. My machine is a pentium 4, the speed is 2.4 gh, memory = 1gb, graphics card = nvidia 7600 GT.
I would like to play hd content, mkv files, on my 40" lcd tv.
I discovered that I can play 720p content but a bit sluggish, not really enjoyable, while 1080i is hardly playable, I'm using mplayer for this.
Now I wonder, is this the limit of the processor and should I buy an newer machine to play this kind of stuff, or is it playable after all and do I need some tweak or codec.
I think that on windoze nvidia has some hardware acceleration in their drivers for h264?
What this situation on linux?

Thanks for your comments.

[gnowak]

Re: h264

Hmm strange, I never had problems with 720p mkv files. I don't have a full HD screen so I can't tell about that. It could be cool to try out a sample mkv file, if you have one..?

specs IBM t40p Laptop Pentium M 1600 MHz, 512 MB RAM screen res: 1400x1050
and Pentium 4 2,8 GHz 1 GB RAM screen res 1280x1024

[klerfayt]

Re: h264

I'm using mplayer also:
preferences [video] --> video driver = xv --> ✓ enable direct rendering; ✓ enable frame dropping
....................[misc] --> ✓ autosync on; value "30"

with these settings I won't loose audio sync, frame dropping is mostly unnoticeable with 720p video.
hardware: pentium M 1.7GHz, 2GB ram, 128MB geforce go 6200 card

#edit: I don't use compiz, w32codecs are installed via medibuntu repository

[Jean]

Re: h264

Yep. Conclusion, a pentium 4 single core, 2.4 gh is too light for hd content.

I'll wait a year, then I will buy a new rig.

In other words, these HD movies require some serious horse power.