My pc wont play back HD?

[(GTV)Chris]

Hi

I have an athlon 2800.
2 gigabytes of ram
an ATi radeon 9800 pro 256 mb memory on board.
160 gig hd
win xp pro

I down load a lot of movie trailers but my pc stutters about when trying to play 720 let alone 1080.

Any help would be most welcome.

ta

Chris

 

[Deleted member 39241]

When it stutters, does the CPU usage hit 100%?

 

[paulmcp2403]

hmmm...it should play 720p fine...I know that does not help you...

Perhaps there is an issue with the media software you are using ? Try VLC...

 

[(GTV)Chris]

Just using the quicktime programme on the apple website?
Do you think my graphics card is faulty?

 

[(GTV)Chris]

Actually the CPU does go right up to 100%!!!
What does this mean, it was only in 720 mode?

Cheers

Chris

 

[Pulsar]

Chris,

The HiDef available from Apple will likely be in H.264 format, rather than WMV or MPEG 2. The H.264 is a very powerful compression that takes lots of CPU power to decode smoothly. Try grabbing some of the Windows Media HiDef files from Microsoft. Those 720p ones should play fine.

Cheers

Rob

 

[(GTV)Chris]

I'll give it a go

 

[arfster]

For h.264, you need to download the coreavc codec. It's gigantically more efficient than quicktime's.

For WMV, make sure you have the Microsoft DXVA patch, it cuts CPU usage down to nothing.

 

[(GTV)Chris]

Ok, many thanks for the codec advise.
I dowloaded and installed them both and my pc still stutters like Porky Pig on a particularly stressed day!
The percentage of CPU usage still jumps to 100%?
Could it be my swap file or perhaps my processor is buggered.
I feel a new pc coming on

Chris

 

[dan1979]

My systehm is slower than yours and plays the 720p clips with no trouble. Get quicktime alternative codec and use a decent program like media player classic.

 

[(GTV)Chris]

media player classic played the file back fantastically - thanks.
Any suggestions for the uicktime codec?
The one i downloaded the other night still jumps about the place?

 

[dan1979]

I use this:

http://www.free-codecs.com/download/QuickTime_Alternative.htm

 

[paulmcp2403]

will the Microsoft DXVA patch fix the stuttering issues with my pc when playing wmv clips at 1180i ???

thanks

 

[Bobajobbob]

Have you tried updating your graphics driver? It coudl be somehting as simple as that.

 

[paulmcp2403]

graphics driver is fine :O)

 

[(GTV)Chris]

I reckon there is something wrong with my pc - when i open a web page the processor shoots up to 100% usage and subsequent pages do the same. Here comes a £600 upgrade....

 

[Deleted member 39241]

Back up your data, format the hard drive and do a fresh install of windows - that would be cheaper and will (almost) certainly fix your problem, which sounds software related (to me).

 

[(GTV)Chris]

That is a very good idea... But have put a very good case to my wife for a new PC - with huge HDD's and twin SLi GFX cards for gaming....
She need never know...Muhhahahaha, Muuuuuhahaha