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tcman47 · 2011-03-30, 22:25

I am running middle of the road windows 7, 32 & 64 bit computers,

general questions:

1. would turning on hardware acceleration in xbmc help in running .mkv movies
smoother or no?

2. would running multi core chips like Intels I3 or I5 help in running .mkv movies
smoother or no?

bedroom and living rm computers have onboard graphic chips and the loft computer has nvidia 8800 in it.

thanks
TC

darkscout · 2011-03-30, 22:38

Mkv is a container. Depends on what the underlying codec is.

Look up VDPAU. Look if the codec is supported.

If so, then yes, it will help on the Nvidia chips.

tcman47 · 2011-03-30, 22:47

The codec is H264 which does appear on the list and two my chips are nvidia 8800 or above.

so yeah, hardware acceleration would help me on those machines.

the bedroom machine with intel graphics i am not so sure

thanks
TC Nod

tboooe · 2011-03-30, 23:05

tcman47 Wrote:I am running middle of the road windows 7, 32 & 64 bit computers,

general questions:

1. would turning on hardware acceleration in xbmc help in running .mkv movies
smoother or no?

2. would running multi core chips like Intels I3 or I5 help in running .mkv movies
smoother or no?

bedroom and living rm computers have onboard graphic chips and the loft computer has nvidia 8800 in it.

thanks
TC

From everything I read, you wont need a separate GPU with the i3 or i5 chips. I am building a new htpc based on the soon to be released i3-2105 which will have the hd-3000 graphics chip.

SpectreX · 2011-03-30, 23:08

Hardware decoding via DXVA2 (or VDPAU/VAAPI on Linux) means that the h.264/VC-1 stream is decoded via the GPU with little effort from the CPU (usually idles around 10-15%). It is the preffered method since it`s more efficient in many ways over software decoding done by the CPU.

Basically using DXVA2 the CPU becomes irrelevant, even an Atom or Pentium 4 will suffice.

jhsrennie · 2011-03-31, 10:08

Note that at the moment the ffmpeg code used by XBMC is singlethreaded i.e. it only uses one core even if you have a six core CPU, so extra cores don't help. However, as mentioned above, if your GPU supports hardware acceleration the CPU is unlikely to raise even a mild sweat.

JR

ricostuart · 2011-03-31, 12:29

I run a P4 system on ubuntu using XBMC as the main gui. I have 4Gb of RAM and used a 6800GTS and the machine struggled with 720p never mind 1080p! As soon as I upgraded the card with a newer model that supports VDPAU (and it was fanless!) and now 1080p is done without a glitch!

So for me, cores are better for the gui, but video decoding then the graphics card is essential.

bmcclure937 · 2011-03-31, 15:44

hardware acceleration is far more important than multiple cores in regards to 1080p media on HTPCs. you can use a GT210 with a single-core CPU and have no issues with playback of H264 1080p content.

**joethefox** · 2011-03-31, 16:30

maybe a multithread enviroment can help VDPAU when deinterlacing a 1080i video with the Spatial/Temporal algorithm?

RXP91 · 2011-03-31, 16:35

jhsrennie Wrote:Note that at the moment the ffmpeg code used by XBMC is singlethreaded i.e. it only uses one core even if you have a six core CPU, so extra cores don't help. However, as mentioned above, if your GPU supports hardware acceleration the CPU is unlikely to raise even a mild sweat.

JR

Is this likely to get updated? I find using software playback is far better quality as you can use better scalars. It's frustrating having to switch back and forth everytime you want to play a high bitrate 1080p

tcman47 · 2011-03-31, 16:36

joethefox Wrote:maybe a multithread enviroment can help VDPAU when deinterlacing a 1080i video with the Spatial/Temporal algorithm?

What he say

**spiff** · 2011-03-31, 16:48

no it won't. it's the gpu doing the deinterlace and it's the gpu (i'm assuming ion) being too slow.

**joethefox** · 2011-03-31, 17:37

spiff Wrote:no it won't. it's the gpu doing the deinterlace and it's the gpu (i'm assuming ion) being too slow.

Understood. Consider that even a GTS450 goes to 65% during deinterlacing 1080i with Spatial/Temporal.