[Dammit!]

Just a general FYI.


I had a 2.2Ghz Celeron machine that I just upgraded to a 2.4Ghz Pentium 4. I expected an improvement in CPU usage when playing a DVD but the difference was a lot bigger than I anticipated. CPU usage went from the mid 40's to an average of 20 percent! I thought a ten to fifteen percent improvement at most. I didn't expect 25.


So, the moral of this post is, no matter how tempting those dirt cheap celeron/motherboard combos get, don't fall for it!

 

[Teeps]

Coming from a motor racing back ground, I generally agree with the more power doctrine. But, what's the point of more power, in the computer realm, when less is getting the job done with no problems?


Cheers, Tp

No complaints using a Celery 1.3Ghz... under-clocked to 810Mhz.

 

[Owen]

If you just want to play DVD's on a PC then less is fine.

For Home Theater ffdshow is REQUIRED for maximum quality.

ffdshow Resize with Luma-Cloma Sharpen and Gradual denoise need big power.

2.4Gig P4 is close to minimum requirement and it will only get worse.


Regards,


Owen

 

[budiman]

Even with the 3 GHz P4, playing WM9 encoded HD materials can still bring it to its knees .

 

[Mad Chemist]

Quote:

Originally posted by Owen For Home Theater ffdshow is REQUIRED for maximum quality.

I think alot of people would disagree with that statement (myself included).

 

[wormzer]

Of course -- power is always good. But can you give some quantitative numbers on noise, price, and stability? Those are the balancing arguments against mo. power.


matt

 

[brickie]

i disagree with this post as well...i use a celeron 2.0 slightly overclocked(not necessary) and this processor more than gets job done using ffdshow!!!40% cpu usage is NOT bad at all....especially with ffdshow...i see no need whatsoever for a to change when as another poster put it,less is getting the job done,and done well.


brickie

 

[Owen]

Mad Chemist,

Have you actually tried ffdshow Resize with Luma-Croma Sharpening ?

I have not had any negative feedback regarding Resize with Sharpen, other than its need for a fast system.

Don’t confuse this filter with the other filters in ffdshow, most of which are of limited use.

You would have to spend big money on video hardware to get the level of quality improvement that is provided by ffdshow Resize with Sharpen.


See thread here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...ffdshow+resize



Brickie,

ffdshow Resize with Sharpen will bring your Celeron to it knees.



People, I am not trying to be a smart ase here. Just want to be helpful.


Regards,


Owen

 

[Dammit!]

Quote:

Originally posted by brickie i disagree with this post as well...i use a celeron 2.0 slightly overclocked(not necessary) and this processor more than gets job done using ffdshow!!!40% cpu usage is NOT bad at all....especially with ffdshow...i see no need whatsoever for a to change when as another poster put it,less is getting the job done,and done well. brickie

My point was simply that, if you're in the market for a new cpu, it's worth it to spend a few extra bucks on a P4 vs. a Celeron. The price difference isn't that great but there is noticable improvement in performance.

 

[kejar31]

I agree for the best PQ ffdshow Resize with Luma-Croma Sharpening is a must. I must also state that i am using an AMD 1800 with resize set 1024 x 768 and gradual denoise being used after the resize. my prossesor is maxed at 90 ~ 98 % but working fine. So in my eyes I cant see why a 2.2 gig Hz system would have a problem while my 1.54 ( 1800 ) Amd system is doing fine.

 

[tji]

As far as I know, the only differences between the new Celerons and the P4's are:


- P4's can do 533MHz (Quad 133MHz) frontside bus, for faster access to main memory.

- P4's have 512KB Cache, versus the 128KB of the Celeron.


I would think that the bigger cache would account for the most difference in multimedia performance. But, this is just a guess. Anyone else have any insights on why the dramatic difference?

 

[kejar31]

Quote:

Originally posted by kejar31 I agree for the best PQ ffdshow Resize with Luma-Croma Sharpening is a must. I must also state that i am using an AMD 1800 with resize set 1024 x 768 and gradual denoise being used after the resize. my prossesor is maxed at 90 ~ 98 % but working fine. So in my eyes I cant see why a 2.2 gig Hz system would have a problem while my 1.54 ( 1800 ) Amd system is doing fine.

Im sorry I noticed a mistake in my post. I have the resize set to 1440 x 960 not 1024 x 768.

 

[Mad Chemist]

Quote:

Originally posted by Owen Mad Chemist, Have you actually tried ffdshow Resize with Luma-Croma Sharpening ? I have not had any negative feedback regarding Resize with Sharpen, other than its need for a fast system. Don’t confuse this filter with the other filters in ffdshow, most of which are of limited use. You would have to spend big money on video hardware to get the level of quality improvement that is provided by ffdshow Resize with Sharpen.

Owen, I have tried Resize but I still prefer the 9500 Pro in HW mode. Looks just as smooth with more real detail. The 9500 Pro and above do a wonderful job in HW mode. A real step above the previous Radeons which were a huge step above GF's. IMO, using sharpening to get back the detail of softer looking SW mode seems like a band-aid to me. I haven't completely made up my mind about Resize though as I can see the value of better scaling. I don't have the CPU power to run everything you mention. I have tried the other sharpening filters and don't like them. Some like sharpening, some don't. In general, I'm pretty much fundamentally opposed to sharpening.


Another thing. Whats up with so many people using GF's these days? I wasn't aware of any DVD related improvements such as implimentation of 10 bit overlays. Does this not matter with VMR because it use to be that the Radeons stomped all over the GF's for DVD playback.

 

[Owen]

Mad Chemist,

From your post it would seen that you are using the Sonic decoder.

We all know Sonic in software mode just cant cut it.

NVDVD decoder in software mode gives Sonic hardware mode quality or better.

WinDVD is another option but it wont work with ffdshow for PAL.

NVDVD video decoder with ffdshow Resize – Sharpen is the best of both worlds.

If you want Real detail try using the Mainconcept Mpeg2 decoder (mind blowing detail). It wont work for general DVD playback. Just for ripped .vob files. But be worned. Once you have seen what DVD’s can look like with Mainconcept decoder you wont want to go back to normal DVD decoders. Ever.


VMR9 has unlocked 32bit color for Geforce and Radion cards. There is nothing between them now. But DVD’s do not have 32bit color so it’s not such a big deal.

The new Geforce drivers even make overlay mode look great now.

Funny how things can change.


Damn, I'm of topic. Sorry all.


Regards,


Owen

 

[dandrewk]

Owen - so stay on topic already!


BTW, where can one get the NVDVD decoder?

 

[kejar31]

Quote:

Originally posted by dandrewk Owen - so stay on topic already! BTW, where can one get the NVDVD decoder?

http://www.nvidia.com/view.asp?PAGE=nvdvd_wheretobuy