Cheap HD Video card

at1106 · 23 May 2010 at 13:48

Hi,

I am getting choppy playback from 720/1080p on my secondary monitor when I have two monitors plugged into my Radeon HD 4850 (both hi def monitors) apparently this is just a limitation of the graphics card trying to power to high res monitors so I figured I'd look for a cheap graphics card that can play 1080p (smoothly) so that I can plug my second (1080p) monitor into that so I can watch smooth quality mkv files. Can anyone recomend a cheap graphics card with these qualitites?

So far I've found this one:
http://www.******.com/product/182095

OzZie · 23 May 2010 at 14:09

You don't need a secondary video card for this.

I run a 22" main monitor and a 37" 1080p LCD TV with absolutely no issues on a 4870.

The choppy playback could be a number of issues, but i'm 99% sure it isn't lack of power from the video card. It's more than powerful enough!

Orcvader · 23 May 2010 at 14:11

What are the rest of the specs of your system?

at1106 · 23 May 2010 at 15:11

CPU: i7 920, Ram: 6GB DDR, OS: Win 7 64 bit, graphics card: ATI Radeon HD 4850.

I have no idea why it is choppy the system is powerful enough to handle it. From what I've been reading its the fact I am playing vids on my secondary, I have catalyst control centre 10.4 (latest) so driver are up to date. It's weird, but if you guys have any suggestions they would be much appreciated.

cmndr_andi · 23 May 2010 at 15:29

What video playing applications do you use, and have you installed any codecs on it yourself?

Have you tried using shark007 codec pack with windows media player? Its very simple to set up and its a very comprehensive codec pack.

Personally, I used the KMPlayer with the MPC-HC decoder, but its probably even easier to use MPC-HC itself.

at1106 · 23 May 2010 at 16:10

cmndr_andi said:
What video playing applications do you use, and have you installed any codecs on it yourself?

Have you tried using shark007 codec pack with windows media player? Its very simple to set up and its a very comprehensive codec pack.

Personally, I used the KMPlayer with the MPC-HC decoder, but its probably even easier to use MPC-HC itself.

Hi,

I'm using VLC and have installed the K Lite codec pack. Someone suggested installing Haali - it is a media splitter but not too sure how that would benefit

DrBombcrater · 23 May 2010 at 16:45

at1106 said:
I'm using VLC and have installed the K Lite codec pack. Someone suggested installing Haali - it is a media splitter but not too sure how that would benefit

I don't think VLC uses hardware acceleration for HD playback (it doesn't on my system, anyway - gfx card activity monitor stays at 0% during playback) so the jerkyness problem is probably due to something else.

at1106 · 23 May 2010 at 16:56

DrBombcrater said:
I don't think VLC uses hardware acceleration for HD playback (it doesn't on my system, anyway - gfx card activity monitor stays at 0% during playback) so the jerkyness problem is probably due to something else.

I've also tried playing it through Boxee media player - which is my primary media player. If its not the graphics card what else could it be. It's not the processor the CPU usage doesnt go over 10% when playing video. Do you have any software that I could use to monitor gfx card activity during playback?

DrBombcrater · 23 May 2010 at 17:49

You can monitor activity via the overdrive section of the ATI control panel.

I've no idea what's causing your problem, to be honest. I've just tried playing two 1080 video files on my system (Phenom II X4 940, Radeon 4850, Win 7 x64) using VLC, with one video on each monitor (both 1920x1200) and it works fine. Smooth as butter. So it's definitely not underpowered hardware causing the problem.

at1106 · 23 May 2010 at 20:13

DrBombcrater said:
You can monitor activity via the overdrive section of the ATI control panel.

I've no idea what's causing your problem, to be honest. I've just tried playing two 1080 video files on my system (Phenom II X4 940, Radeon 4850, Win 7 x64) using VLC, with one video on each monitor (both 1920x1200) and it works fine. Smooth as butter. So it's definitely not underpowered hardware causing the problem.

What codecs do you have installed, and are you using DVI-HDMI converters to connect the monitors? hmm it's just occurred to me I did have to set overscan to 0 for it to fill up the 1080p monitor (it had black borders before) could this be causing the problem?

Cycrow · 23 May 2010 at 20:36

its certaintly not a limitation of dual screens, so something else must be effecting it.

im perfectly capable of streaming 1080p MKV files from my network on each monitor simultatiously, without any signs of slowdown

this is using creative play center, and windows media player to play them

at1106 · 23 May 2010 at 20:39

Cycrow said:
its certaintly not a limitation of dual screens, so something else must be effecting it.

im perfectly capable of streaming 1080p MKV files from my network on each monitor simultatiously, without any signs of slowdown

this is using creative play center, and windows media player to play them

What could possibly be effecting it, as far as im aware it could be
1) CPU - which cant be a problem as its an i7 920
2) graphics card
3) converters adding degredation - but i doubt this is it
4) codecs

is there anything i'm missing of this list, as I've checked all of the above (bar codecs as I have installed K lite codec pack no others)

Thanks

cmndr_andi · 23 May 2010 at 20:46

You have K lite codecs pack, but isn't your main video player VLC? AFAIK, K lite does not integrate with VLC so you wouldn't have any benefits from the pack. However, vanilla VLC should work fine with 1080p videos using your rig.

I suggest istalling the Shark007 codecs and use windows media player just to see if you can get it working without problems on one media player. As you are running win 7 64bit make sure you install the shark007 win 7 codecs and then the separate x64 pack.

Also, do you have any problems playing games?

at1106 · 23 May 2010 at 20:56

I havent tried playing any games as of yet, I could give it a shot. I will try out the shark 007 stuff and see if I can get it to work in one media player. It still stumps me the rig should have enough power to not lag. Is there a way to check If my system is using the GPU to accelerate the playback, or a way to turn it off? I'm sure the CPU could handle it no problem

cmndr_andi · 23 May 2010 at 21:08

I havent tried playing any games as of yet, I could give it a shot.

It would be a good idea, it would make sure that your machine is working correctly in demanding tasks. You could also try out this GPU stress tester and check that the 4850 is running OK.

I will try out the shark 007 stuff and see if I can get it to work in one media player.

Cool, good luck. Make sure you use it with Windows Media Player, it won't work with just any media player.

Is there a way to check If my system is using the GPU to accelerate the playback

The best way is to check the GPU load, this program (GPU-Z) will indicate this in the "Sensors" tab.

Also, out of interest is your CPU overclocked and is your RAM set to the correct speed and voltage?

at1106 · 23 May 2010 at 23:05

cmndr_andi said:
It would be a good idea, it would make sure that your machine is working correctly in demanding tasks. You could also try out this GPU stress tester and check that the 4850 is running OK.

Cool, good luck. Make sure you use it with Windows Media Player, it won't work with just any media player.

The best way is to check the GPU load, this program (GPU-Z) will indicate this in the "Sensors" tab.

Also, out of interest is your CPU overclocked and is your RAM set to the correct speed and voltage?

I will def try those things out (thanks!) and no my CPU isnt overclocked and I havent adjusted the voltage to the RAM, how can I check it is at a normal level?

cmndr_andi · 23 May 2010 at 23:44

Download this little program (CPU-Z) and it will tell you your current CPU core voltage.

However, this will likely only show the idle voltage (intel uses some clever software to reduce voltage and clockspeed when the CPU is barely being used). Therefore you need to put the CPU under load, to do this I would suggest downloading and installing this great program OCCT and run the stress tester. At the same time look at the CPU core voltage and see what it reads when under full load, you should also see the temperatures your CPU is at.

InkZ · 24 May 2010 at 08:25

Use Media Player Classic, VLC etc are terrible for HD. It will be a codec issue.

at1106 · 24 May 2010 at 22:02

Ok so I've tried it out with duals using MPC HT, and no probs! so thats a plus, but that means its a codec problem so does anyone have any idea what codecs I might need?

bells · 24 May 2010 at 22:17

at1106 said:
Ok so I've tried it out with duals using MPC HT, and no probs! so thats a plus, but that means its a codec problem so does anyone have any idea what codecs I might need?

Why dont you install a codec package like klite as it will have all you need

http://www.free-codecs.com/