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1080p MKV playback question w/ 8600 GTS

7959 Views 18 Replies 10 Participants Last post by horadee, Apr 23, 2008

iencoder

Discussion Starter · May 20, 2007

I am planning on buying a 8600 GTS in order to play back 1080p H264 (MKV) and MPEG2 (TS) files at 1920x1080. Would an 8600 GTS be sufficient enough to do this or will my CPU bottleneck me?

My current HTPC is as follows:

- MSI K8NGM2-FID w/ GeForce 6150

- Athlon 64 3700+ (San Diego) overclocked to 2475Mhz

I used to have a Sharp 52D62U running at 1920x1080 (took it back due to banding) and I wasn't able to play back 1080p MKV, TS, or WMV-HD, 1080p content. The best I could do with the integrated GeForce 6150 was 720p or 1080i content. I was using Media Player Classic with the 84.21 NVIDIA drivers.

Anyhow, I am about to pull the trigger on an Samsung 5265F and I would like to be able to play back 1080p MKV and TS content at 1920x1080, preferably using VMR9. I'm not sure if spending all that money on the videocard is all I would need. From what I understand, the newer Purevideo HD H264 acceleration features aren't even going to automatically kick in when I play back MKV (H264) content in Media Player Classic.

Any comments on a simular setup would be greatly appriciated. Thanks!

Iencoder

1 - 19 of 19 Posts

arfster

· #2 · May 20, 2007

Check here:

http://www.hardspell.com/english/doc...385&pageid=485

As you can see, for h264 you're easily there as the 8500/8600 (they're all the same for video) almost completely offloads the video load. If you want to play VC1 discs they only roughly half the CPU use, so it might be a bit tighter, but I think you'd be OK. The Hardspell article shows a Sempron 1.6gz+8500/8600 at around 84% average with VC1, and you've got a much more powerful processor than that.

Note that hardware acceleration is Vista only at present - you'll have to wait for XP drivers next month. You also need powerdvd ultra, nero+plugin or windvd8 for h264 acceleration. If you want to accelerate h264 and mpeg2 in 3rd party apps like MPC, PDVD's decoder will do the job, but only if you use a playback app that supports the Enhanced Video Renderer: WMP11, PDVD, MPC beta, Zoomplayer beta, or Theatertek 2.5.

ps it's possible accelerated playback might not be possible outside PDVD itself in XP, whereas with Vista you can certainly do it via directshow apps.

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MoG

· #3 · May 20, 2007

Excellent summary! Thanks. I use TT2.5 on MCE05.

For h264/mpeg2 hardware accl with an 8600gt i'll need to move to vista and obtain the pdvd decoder. ughh...

i'll wait for june and hopefully i can just update my nvidia drivers to allow for h264/mpeg2 hw accl with my existing mce05/tt2.5 solution.

i wonder if the purevideo decoder will need to be updated for MCE05, or if all the hw accl can be enabled via the video card drivers?

Uegis

· #4 · May 20, 2007

I'm confused about this. I was told previously in this forum that acceleration is only possible within PDVD and only for BluRay/HDDVD.

So is it possible now to play x264 with FFDShow or other directshow apps with offloading to the graphics card? That would be fantastic if it's true! Because I sure as heck don't want to shell out 100 bucks for PDVD.

ol623

· #5 · May 20, 2007

You need PowerDVD. But PowerDVD comes with an H264 codec you can use in any DirectShow player, as long as the player uses EVR.

Here are some example where I got full H264 offload (

ol623

· #6 · May 20, 2007

Oh and BTW I am using a 8500GT which in my opinion is more than enough for video playback. No reason to go higher in my opinion if you're not gaming...

Uegis

· #7 · May 20, 2007

My buddy's system has PDVD installed and I am trying it out. How do I get windows media player or MPC to use teh PDDVD codec instead of FFDShow to decode x264 files? Better question yet, how do I get PDVD to decode a x264 file? I tried opening a file with it and all I see is a black screen with sound only.

ol623

· #8 · May 20, 2007

Disable H264 in FFDSHOW and it should use POWERDVD assuming you don't have any other H264 decoders.

BlackdogZA

· #9 · May 20, 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by iencoder /forum/post/0

I am planning on buying a 8600 GTS in order to play back 1080p H264 (MKV) and MPEG2 (TS) files at 1920x1080. Would an 8600 GTS be sufficient enough to do this or will my CPU bottleneck me?

My current HTPC is as follows:

- MSI K8NGM2-FID w/ GeForce 6150

- Athlon 64 3700+ (San Diego) overclocked to 2475Mhz

I used to have a Sharp 52D62U running at 1920x1080 (took it back due to banding) and I wasn't able to play back 1080p MKV, TS, or WMV-HD, 1080p content. The best I could do with the integrated GeForce 6150 was 720p or 1080i content. I was using Media Player Classic with the 84.21 NVIDIA drivers.

Anyhow, I am about to pull the trigger on an Samsung 5265F and I would like to be able to play back 1080p MKV and TS content at 1920x1080, preferably using VMR9. I'm not sure if spending all that money on the videocard is all I would need. From what I understand, the newer Purevideo HD H264 acceleration features aren't even going to automatically kick in when I play back MKV (H264) content in Media Player Classic.

Any comments on a simular setup would be greatly appriciated. Thanks!

Iencoder

Suggest you use the AVC codec as that seeems to be the most efficiently written (low CPU usage).

arfster

· #10 · May 20, 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by ol623 /forum/post/0

Disable H264 in FFDSHOW and it should use POWERDVD assuming you don't have any other H264 decoders.

Also, set ffdshow audio to all supported, so it appears on the taskbar. You can then rightclick on it and see what video codec is in use (and all other filters).

iencoder

Discussion Starter · #11 · May 20, 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by BlackdogZA /forum/post/0

Suggest you use the AVC codec as that seeems to be the most efficiently written (low CPU usage).

First off, thank you all for your responses. It looks like I will go for an 8600 GTS or 8500.

Ideally, I'd love to use the hardware H264 accelearation with XP and GBPVR (my wife loves it) but it looks like global ffdshow acceleration isn't an option with XP for the moment. I'll look into PowerDVD w/ MPC if need be.

Yes, I was able to use CoreAVC with MPC (VMR7) to play back 720p MKV files without any slowdown. Unfortunately, I still wasn't able to play back 1080p MKV files, even using overlay. I also had trouble playing back 1080p .TS files which I know isn't related CoreAVC. I believe the 6150 was the limiting factor, but I wasn't sure if my 1080p problem was completely videocard related.

On that note, I currently have an opportunity to pick up a cheap Athlon X2 3800+ S939 CPU, but the clock speed will likely be much lower than the overclocked single core A64 CPU I'm using right now. I figured since most video decoding is still single threaded, I would actually lose performance.

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arfster

· #12 · May 20, 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by iencoder /forum/post/0

I figured since most video decoding is still single threaded, I would actually lose performance.

CoreAVC and PDVD, and most others, are now dualthreaded. Definitely go that route if you intend to use software decoding at all.

wing168

· #13 · May 28, 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by iencoder /forum/post/0

First off, thank you all for your responses. It looks like I will go for an 8600 GTS or 8500.

Ideally, I'd love to use the hardware H264 accelearation with XP and GBPVR (my wife loves it) but it looks like global ffdshow acceleration isn't an option with XP for the moment. I'll look into PowerDVD w/ MPC if need be.

Yes, I was able to use CoreAVC with MPC (VMR7) to play back 720p MKV files without any slowdown. Unfortunately, I still wasn't able to play back 1080p MKV files, even using overlay. I also had trouble playing back 1080p .TS files which I know isn't related CoreAVC. I believe the 6150 was the limiting factor, but I wasn't sure if my 1080p problem was completely videocard related.

On that note, I currently have an opportunity to pick up a cheap Athlon X2 3800+ S939 CPU, but the clock speed will likely be much lower than the overclocked single core A64 CPU I'm using right now. I figured since most video decoding is still single threaded, I would actually lose performance.

Did you buy 8600gts finally?

I've bought a 8600gts 2 weeks ago. I found I could't use the hardware H264 accelearation to play all 1080p x.264 encoded mkv files.

However, I can use the hardware acceleration for the following video files:

720p x.264 encoded mkv file

1080p H.264 remuxed .ts file

1080p H.264 Blu-ray/HD_DVD

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menrad

· #14 · Dec 16, 2007

2

Quote:
Originally Posted by wing168 /forum/post/10645638

I found I could't use the hardware H264 accelearation to play all 1080p x.264 encoded mkv files.

However, I can use the hardware acceleration for the following video files:

720p x.264 encoded mkv file

1080p H.264 remuxed .ts file

1080p H.264 Blu-ray/HD_DVD

Hello,

Is there any progress in that situation ?

I'm considering buying a 8600GTS (or a HD2600XT from ATI), and mkv playback is quite important to me.

Thanks.

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Dodgexander

· #15 · Dec 16, 2007

Unfortunatley, i dont mean to wreck your fun, but there is a known issue with high bitrate MKV's and the 8500/8600 cards hardware acceleration.

This explains why a 720p file would be possible and a 1080p not.

The issue is down to haali media splitter and incompatibility with the power dvd codec.

Edit:

Id also like to add, that any card with offload of HD is affected, this includes the Nvidia 8300,8400,8500,8600 and 8800 (G92) cards, with ATI it includes the 2400,2600 and 38xx series.

Id again also like to add that there should be a resolution for this bug as it is stopping me from purchasing one of these cards!

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menrad

· #16 · Dec 16, 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dodgexander /forum/post/12503275

Unfortunatley, i dont mean to wreck your fun, but there is a known issue with high bitrate MKV's and the 8500/8600 cards hardware acceleration.

This explains why a 720p file would be possible and a 1080p not.

The issue is down to haali media splitter and incompatibility with the power dvd codec.

Edit:

Id also like to add, that any card with offload of HD is affected, this includes the Nvidia 8300,8400,8500,8600 and 8800 (G92) cards, with ATI it includes the 2400,2600 and 38xx series.

Id again also like to add that there should be a resolution for this bug as it is stopping me from purchasing one of these cards!

Thanks for those infos, too bad they can't produce drivers that allows their stuff to work correctly !

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Dodgexander

· #17 · Dec 16, 2007

Problem is, in Cyberlink and Nvidia's point of view MKVs are mainly a pirate/torrrent format.So they probably smerk at our un-favoured fortune.

I think its something that Haali could fix, however i heard that he doesnt have a copy of power dvd on hand(ie the problems more complicated than it may seem).

Im coming to the conclusion that quad core is the only way to go.

On a 3ghz C2D is still get the occational slipups, although CORE AVC is a godsend.

menrad

· #18 · Dec 16, 2007

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dodgexander /forum/post/12504623

Problem is, in Cyberlink and Nvidia's point of view MKVs are mainly a pirate/torrrent format.So they probably smerk at our un-favoured fortune.

I agree with you, but still, H264 hardware decoding is a selling feature for them, so they should do something for that. Or else they should just tell us "Bluray/HDDVD hardware decoding"... They kinda lie to their customers...

And I know it's true that MKVs are mainly pirate files, but they also are useful for HD music videos, concert, etc.

horadee

· #19 · Apr 23, 2008

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dodgexander /forum/post/12503275

Unfortunatley, i dont mean to wreck your fun, but there is a known issue with high bitrate MKV's and the 8500/8600 cards hardware acceleration.

This explains why a 720p file would be possible and a 1080p not.

The issue is down to haali media splitter and incompatibility with the power dvd codec.

Edit:

Id also like to add, that any card with offload of HD is affected, this includes the Nvidia 8300,8400,8500,8600 and 8800 (G92) cards, with ATI it includes the 2400,2600 and 38xx series.

Id again also like to add that there should be a resolution for this bug as it is stopping me from purchasing one of these cards!

Hi Dodgexander

I have the same problem. I have a quad 2.4 intel, with 1 GB ram and the ASUS GF-8600GT 2DHT,256MB ,NVIDIA 8600GT, PCI-Express. (hooked on samsung f86bd full hd tv).

720 is never a problem.

1080 works with CoreAVC but i prefer fddshow and haali media splitter because the picture is much better than with coreavc.

Could you or anyone here mention some cards that are GREAT and won't cause a problem with 1080p .mkv .ts (x264 etc.).

thanks in advance!

/h

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