[gesaugen]

Hi all
I use laptop Asus k72jr-ty042 as HTPC. It has i3 350M cpu, ATI 5470 vga and HDMI out. Usually I play 1080p BR-RIP on it with Potplayer (easy setup for 3D playback) and everything works fine and CPU load is below 20-30%
Recently I've downloaded IMAX DEEP SEA 3D (2006) UNTOUCHED .iso image with MPEG-4 AVC Video, 1080p / 23.976 fps / 16:9 / High Profile 4.1 parameters and which I don't know how to play on Potplayer in 3D so I've used Cyberlink Powerdvd 14 for playback because I've read that it plays 3D BR images. And it does.
Problem is that when I play it in 3D, after few seconds the CPU hits the sky with 100% load and stays there (around 95-100%)

So I thought that ATI 5470 has hardware decoder for BR HD video and it seams it's called Unified Video Decode, version 2 (UVD-2) and also it seams it has to be supported in PowerDVD because UVD-3 is supported from PDVD 12 (i have 14)

So could anyone explain to me why it doesn't work and how can I get it to work? all in all, i want to watch 3D BR .iso so any suggestion is welcome

BTW i noticed that Cyberlink has better 3D picture than Potplayer. I watched Hobbit the other day and in PDVD it is at least one grade better than in Potplayer. And idea why?

 

[rekbones]

Of course powerDVD playing an ISO will have a better image as its 1080p x 1920 per eye. The 3D files you play with potplayer are SBS half the horizontal resolution. As far as the CPU maxed out you most likely need more GPU to carry it off as its close to twice the data of a 2D BR.

 

[Roussi]

AMD 54xx does not support hardware decoding of MVC (the Bluray 3D encoding), the CPU does all the decoding. Not sure what was played in the Potplayer, probably regular 1080p AVC SbS 3D, which does get decoded by the GPU; it's also half the resolution.

 

[ES_Revenge]

I believe AMD did "retcon" in 3D/MVC decoding in some 5000-series GPUs, but the mobile ones probably don't apply unfortunately. Are all four threads going to 100%? Does it at least play without stutters/hiccups? It's not going to be good for battery life (if that's even a concern) or noise, but if it plays you may just have to live with it for 3D movies.


If you can't play the movie without issues and you have a socketed CPU (Socket G1), you can pick up a used i5-560m for about $20 these days it looks like. A 580m looks like less than $40. The additional clockspeed and turbo should be able to handle the MVC decode, I'd imagine. I don't think Broadcom Crystal HD can do MVC/3D either, so one of those won't help

 

[gesaugen]

Of course powerDVD playing an ISO will have a better image as its 1080p x 1920 per eye. The 3D files you play with potplayer are SBS half the horizontal resolution. As far as the CPU maxed out you most likely need more GPU to carry it off as its close to twice the data of a 2D BR.

i wasn't comparing ISO and SBS half rip but SBS half on PDVD and same SMS half on Potplayer - PDVD produces better image of same video

so how much GPU are you talking about? I was thinking about upgrading my HTPC but i don't know how high should i go before building overkill for 3D BR video (because that's all it should be used for).
I was thinking that UVD 2 and similar GPU hardware decoding technologies could handle even full 3D BR

I believe AMD did "retcon" in 3D/MVC decoding in some 5000-series GPUs, but the mobile ones probably don't apply unfortunately. Are all four threads going to 100%? Does it at least play without stutters/hiccups? It's not going to be good for battery life (if that's even a concern) or noise, but if it plays you may just have to live with it for 3D movies.


If you can't play the movie without issues and you have a socketed CPU (Socket G1), you can pick up a used i5-560m for about $20 these days it looks like. A 580m looks like less than $40. The additional clockspeed and turbo should be able to handle the MVC decode, I'd imagine. I don't think Broadcom Crystal HD can do MVC/3D either, so one of those won't help

all cores hit 100% and video hicks up quite often (about every 5sec). Battery is not concern because its plugged into wall all the time.

well if i must upgrade, i would upgrade it to a new htpc, but whats the minimum i should use for MVC/3D?

 

[ES_Revenge]

well if i must upgrade, i would upgrade it to a new htpc, but whats the minimum i should use for MVC/3D?

Pretty much anything newer will handle it fine--any modern GPU can do it. You're essentially one generation too old for 3D hardware decode.

If you were to make a new PC, anything from integrated graphics (iGPU--Intel HD Graphics, and AMD APUs) to a cheap 6450 dGPU will handle it. I almost want to say a 5450 can do it now too, but to be on the safe side I'd say 6450. But, you wouldn't even need that if you get a processor with iGPU, which most CPUs have these days.

Given a higher-clocked Allendale may be able to do the task though, you could consider a $20 upgrade instead as I can't imagine you have that many 3D movies? Your cores will still be loaded up on 3D discs though. I have a Clarkdale i3 (DT version of Allendale), I can lower the clock to what a 560M would run and try software decode of a 3D disc and let you know how it goes, if you want.

Otherwise, yeah, anything Sandy Bridge i3 (Intel) or Llano (AMD) and newer/faster will do the job.

 

[gesaugen]

It seams that ATI catalyst wasn't installed properly so hardware decoding wasn't working. I've reinstalled to the latest driver version and now I can watch 3D BR without any picture hiccups or lag and CPU usage on all four cores has dropped just below 100% (it's around 90-95%). So it's a slight improvement, just enough to pass by for my needs

but now strange thing started to happen in PDVD software: it doesn't want to produce good 3D picture in a way that it shows way to much separation of the left and right eye. it looks like left eye is showing only 1/3 of the left side and right only 1/3 of the right and center 1/3 is not shown anywhere so basically left and right doesn't overlap in a right way. so all started to happen after reinstallation of the ATI driver so maybe something is not set up right in the ATI control center? any suggestions?