Passive gfx card with hdmi for my htpc?

Sankari · 11 Aug 2009 at 13:04

I have a little htpc with the AMD 780G chipset (Gigabyte MA78GM-DS2H; AMD 4850e; 4Gb RAM; Windows XP x64) and I'm currently using the onboard graphics for all video playback.

While it has been performing well, I occasionally get stutter when I run 720p media in top quality mode using KM Player. This is a bit disappointing, since I was under the impression that 780G should be capable of 1080p without difficulty.

I am now wondering if I should consider getting a passive, low profile gfx card (with HDMI) to process the video and take the strain off the motherboard. Would that be a worthwhile investment, or should I simply be running better software?

:confused:

AbsenceJam · 11 Aug 2009 at 13:33

You need to use a decoder that supports DXVA to offload the decode to the IGP. Grab the standalone filters here - http://www.xvidvideo.ru/content/view/834/2 and extract and reigster mpcvideodec.ax then set kmplayer to use it. Or just use MPC-HC itself as it's miles better.
You also need to make sure you're using a render that supports DXVA such as VMR9 or EVR.

HEADRAT · 11 Aug 2009 at 14:13

http://www.xvidvideo.ru/

MPC HomeCinema (x86/x64)

Works fine on my Zotac ION Motherboard with Intel Atom N330

Sankari · 11 Aug 2009 at 14:51

Thanks guys.

Sankari · 11 Aug 2009 at 17:12

No joy. Installed it, tried opening a 720p file, and... it just sat there churning the hard drive. No audio, no video. Nothing. File didn't even open. :confused:

So I'm back to KMP Player until I find something better.

HEADRAT · 11 Aug 2009 at 17:20

What format is the 720p file in?

Depending how it's been encoded you might not get DXVA acceleration, try a different file.

If you don't get the DXVA in the bottom left corner it's not getting hardware accelerated.

HEADRAT

Sankari · 11 Aug 2009 at 17:52

It's an .mkv file. No idea if that makes a difference. Is there a list of files that support DXVA, just so I know for future reference?

Ta.

HEADRAT · 11 Aug 2009 at 18:48

It just depends if the person encoding has used the correct switches etc, if they don't encode the MKV properly then it won't use DXVA, obviously that's not a problem to a computer with lots of CPU horsepower but will cause choppy playback as it spikes the CPU on a system with a low power CPU and no DXVA acceleration.

All of the MKV's I have luckily seem to work with DXVA.

This thread highlights what is required:-

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=972503

HEADRAT

Sankari · 11 Aug 2009 at 19:58

Thanks for that.