Is my PC to slow for smooth HD playback?

[Pascal_Parvex]

Well, there is no HVX footage, so I downloaded some from the Canon and JVC in HD, resolution 1440x1080, not sure if interlaced or not. And those sample clips stutter heavily, far from smooth playback. I used the Media Player to view the clips, and I have Pentium 4 3.067 GHz with Hyperthreading and 1 Gig of Ram. So, what can I do? Do I need better hardware or just a better player?

[alpi69]

what was the format? HDV? i am sure WMP is not set up for this.
can´t you import it into your NLE? they almost all support HDV by now.
but the HVX will produce DVCPro100 and DVCPro50, which is another codec again.

[Haakon]

I'm not sure what the deal is, but if it matters...

I downloaded a bunch of the XL H1 HDV clips from DV Info and they stuttered terribly with Media Player... then I downloaded the VLC media player that the site recommended, and they played back flawlessly. It may not be the power of your computer, but whatever you're using to process the codec.

[Pascal_Parvex]

what was the format? HDV? i am sure WMP is not set up for this.
can´t you import it into your NLE? they almost all support HDV by now.
but the HVX will produce DVCPro100 and DVCPro50, which is another codec again.

It may be HDV, the ending of the files is M2T. By the way, I did re-encode one of the clips to 1080p-WMV, and then, with the Media Player, it did still stutter like the original. I only have Blade 2 as NLE.

Edit: I just have tested the VLC player. It still does stutter, but it is almost smooth. Not bad. So then, do I need more RAM or a faste harddisk?

[SoerenM]

Pascal you're hardware should be fast enough - there are numerous things at play here. Perhaps some background tasks (virus scanner only being one possibility amongst countless others) ... bad or wrongly set up graphics drivers.. audio drivers.
So if you would take a totally fresh/clean install of Win XP on your computer and instlall the newest (non-beta!) graphic and audio drivers this clips should play flawlessly! ;)
(yes I know.. it's only the common format-and-reinstall-windows tip ;o)

I had a 3 GHz P4 previously and those clips were no prob for the machine. (it even had some free CPU ressources ;o) .. although I used the WinDVD MPEG2 directshow decoder filters... Elecard would be another option...

[Villeda]

Well right now u guys r asking about hardware. Please help me!
About few months ago i was specting upgrade my desktop syst and upgrade too my dvx80 to the great dvx100a but my surprise when i knew about HVX200, my question is, im working with an double 1.25 G4 processor and 1G of Ram, can i forget about upgrade my desktop and use this $, and wait for the HVX200, my old system will support the HD and all his advantage?

[Pascal_Parvex]

I suppose If I had a HD-capable editing suite the clips would play smooth. The authors of Blade do recommend 2 Gigabytes of RAM though.

[SoerenM]

pascal if it's only about smoothly _playing_ HD on your machine.. well 1gig is more than enough - as long as you don't have too many programms loaded in the background that cause swapping (and of course take away much of your CPUs ressources). you can have a look at your task manager how much physical memory is left free...
more RAM won't make the clips play smoother ;)