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fivel · (This post was last modified: 2011-09-29, 06:05 by fivel.)

Hey everyone,

I am new to xbmc and was hoping to play with its functionality before I decide on buying or building a dedicated HTPC for use with xbmc.

I was wondering if my laptop would be capable of playing videos well at 1080p.

Laptop specs:
CPU - 2x T8300 Core 2 Duo @ 2.4 GHz T8300
graphics card - NVIDIA 8600M GT 8600M GT
memory - 4 GB RAM
O/S - Linux Mint 10 (also dual boot with windows vista, but I rarely use it anymore)

My laptop does have an HDMI output. I would be playing videos from the laptop's hard drive (seagate sata 3Gb/s, 7200 rpm) or an external seagate drive (usb 2.0, 7200rpm).

Any other specs needed to make a judgement call of how well it should run?

Thanks!

eskro · 2011-09-29, 07:02

should run 1080P perfectly with DXVA2 enabled!

**bobo1on1** · 2011-09-29, 17:25

On linux you can use VDPAU for gpu video decoding.
Make sure to set the amount of gpu ram to 512 mb in the bios, VDPAU can be a bit memory hungry.

The notebook specs are fine for running XBMC.

fivel · 2011-09-29, 19:12

bobo1on1 Wrote:On linux you can use VDPAU for gpu video decoding.
Make sure to set the amount of gpu ram to 512 mb in the bios, VDPAU can be a bit memory hungry.

The notebook specs are fine for running XBMC.

Am I understanding this correctly?

Both VDPAU and DXVA2 are hardware accelerators, but one is for Windows and the other Linux?

Balinus · 2011-09-29, 19:53

fivel Wrote:Am I understanding this correctly?

Both VDPAU and DXVA2 are hardware accelerators, but one is for Windows and the other Linux?

yes indeed.

I have a similar laptop (but with a Nvidia GS9600M) and XBMC works really fine on it, be it under Windows Vista or Mint KDE 10.

eskro · 2011-09-29, 22:45

fivel Wrote:Am I understanding this correctly?

Both VDPAU and DXVA2 are hardware accelerators, but one is for Windows and the other Linux?

exactly!

but i didnt talked about VDPAU because im pretty sure
you'll use WIndows,,
and actually, you have to use WIndows7 as in XP,
XBMC wont have hardware accelerator....
XBMC will have hardware accelerator under windows7!

KuwaitiCrud · 2011-09-30, 13:32

I am guessing this may not be a problem in Linux but with XBMC with Windows, my laptop ran HOT. And the fan was screaming to keep the chipset cool. My laptop has the same specs and whenever I ran XBMC, I had to put a notebook cooler under it to keep it cool.
I'm hoping in linux, the management of system resources are better and hopefully, you won't have the same experience as me.

Balinus · 2011-09-30, 15:34

KuwaitiCrud Wrote:I am guessing this may not be a problem in Linux but with XBMC with Windows, my laptop ran HOT. And the fan was screaming to keep the chipset cool. My laptop has the same specs and whenever I ran XBMC, I had to put a notebook cooler under it to keep it cool.
I'm hoping in linux, the management of system resources are better and hopefully, you won't have the same experience as me.

This kind of behaviour is sometime related to background processes that eats up a lot of ressources. You might want to check the CPU % of your processes in the task manager. It might even be a virus.

KuwaitiCrud · 2011-09-30, 18:30

Balinus Wrote:This kind of behaviour is sometime related to background processes that eats up a lot of ressources. You might want to check the CPU % of your processes in the task manager. It might even be a virus.

I'd probably agree with you if it weren't for the fact that the laptop kicks in overdrive only when XBMC is running. After I close it out, it's back to normal.

Balinus · 2011-09-30, 19:38

That's strange! And you have hardware acceleration (DXVA2) enabled?