[impelus]

Hello,

I recently put together a computer that I plan on turning into a HTPC and have it hooked up to my 42" 1080i LCD HDTV. I have played a few videos on it and I seem to be having some issues with it skipping slightly and the audio eventually gets off from the video. I would rate the performance about 80% of ideal.

Currently my system is:
Ubuntu 8.04 (I will also be dual booting Vista shortly to see if it runs better on Windows)
Totem video player
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (1.9ghz dual core)
NVIDIA GeForce 6100 GPU and nForce 410 MCP (on board)
2 GB PC 6400 RAM
160 GB hard drive (IDE)

Olevia 42" LCD HDTV 1080i
1366x768 (native resolution)
Connection: VGA

Just looking for suggestions as to where I should sink my money into, so I dont need to upgrade everything.

Do you think I need to upgrade the CPU to something like 2.4ghz. I could overclock this one, but never done it before. Don't know how high I could get it without becoming unstable.

Should I get a new video card and connect via PCI-E. All other video games I have installed have run pretty good. Only advantage to a new video card is I could hook it up DVI/HDMI. Would that make that much of a difference?


Any help is greatly appreciated.

[help me please]

do you have pci-e? if so, an nvidia 8000 series, or ati 3000 series graphics card should help a lot. otherwise, it should be ok. beware though, linux has trouble with new stuff (from personal experience, may not be true).

and yes, DVI/HDMI makes a huge difference, especially since only DVI and HDMI allow for the HDCP to be used.

[impelus]

My video playback I originally mentioned were based on a TV show that was ripped. Turns out after reading that those are a compressed version and not actual full 720. I downloaded the Spiderman trailer and played that and video quality is excellent. many times more crisp than the TV show, but it does skip and slow down a lot more.

I get same playback results in Ubuntu as Vista. Ubuntu is probably slighty better too since I dont have so many backround applications running.

I've been reading up and its suggested in a lot of places you have atleast 2.4 ghz processor for 720p

[help me please]

is that recommendation for a single core?

[impelus]

yes, but i do not think a dual core would help with running one video. i beleive the decoding and such would be one task and wouldnt be sped up by dual core.

[MysticEyes]

I would up the cpu. An ATI card that handles HD would also help.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127335

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103212

[fairnooks]

Multi core does help significantly by smoothing everything out, other processes are taken care of as they come up and there is no stuttering or sync problems or any other symptoms of a system with just enough capacity for playback and very limited CPU time for other tasks, which cannot all be stopped or delayed while running a video.

[impelus]

I'm going to upgrade the video first because I'd rather not do all the surgery of removing parts from my case that I just built.

If we are considering HD video playback the only qualifier for the video card, would you say it is better to go with

1. 512MB 64bit card
2. 256MB 128bit card

I will probably just go ahead and get a 512mb 128bit card, but just trying to decide which one to get. The MSI mentioned looks pretty good.

Also was interested in these.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...tCode=10008261
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...tCode=10006528
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Produc...007025&showP=1

Video cards always seem the hardest to pick out.

[fairnooks]

I love the 8800GT for both video editing and multi large screen monitor playback and gaming. I have the 512 MB memory to ensure I can edit high def, 256 is borderline for that purpose (ok for 720p, maybe not for 1080p). Either 256 or 512 is more than adequate just for HD playback on one monitor.

I've heard good things about the Radeon HDs conforming to high def video playback but I'm not so sure about gaming, but if that doesn't matter then that doesn't matter.

[impelus]

Thanks. I think I'll probably go with the Radeon 256mb that I can get for 19.99 after rebate. i just want to be able to get a card that if I get it and the system still can't play 720p right, I know i need to up my processor.

I have the onboard GeForce 6100 and I am able to play some basic games pretty good. Do you think I will see a major improvement adding any of these cards on, or is the onboard 6100 pretty good and I'll just be minorly improving while freeing up RAM?