best system hardware for video player decoding/responsiveness

[Tenmuses]

I'm disappointed with my current dual core 6700, 4 gigs ram, 8800GTX times 2, vista-32 combination with regard to video player display/decoding.

I use a combination of VLC and WMP to display movies but the decoding time seems sluggish on both. If I move the position bar to a different part of the movie there is a lag until the display normalizes. I'd like to build a system that absolutely minimizes this lag. Frankly, I expected to see a big improvement when I upgraded to my current system from the previous P4 3.0/7950 setup I had before but there's really not that big of a difference.

Gaming is not that big of a concern. Displaying video and high desktop responsiveness are my priorities. (I'm very impatient )

I'm looking for more specific advice than just the generally faster processor, more ram, newer video card options. I.e. I'm willing to do those things but are there specific hardware characteristics I should be looking for with those priorities in mind?

(budget isn't really an issue but I always like to be economical if I can)

 

[DSF]

When you're experiencing problems, what's your CPU usage look like? Also, is it using one core or two? HD or standard? There's no reason for video playback to be slow on that system, even if you have to decode.

What hard drive(s) are you using? Are you running anything in the background while playing movies?

(Double 8800GTXs but gaming is not a big concern? You have an interesting definition of economical.)

Have you run any benchmarks to make sure your system is running the way it should in general?

 

[Tenmuses]

DSF - thanks for the reply!

The lag occurs with all types of video (I don't use much HD though so it's mostly pretty standard stuff - in a variety of formats)

The processor is a dual core Intel e6700. on a gigabyte p35-dq6 MB with 4 gigs ram. There is a logitech quickcam attached but video performance was the same before I added it.

I run 3 monitors - a 30 inch central at 2560x1600 and 2 24 inch monitors at either side oriented vertically at 1600x1200. One 8800 gtx runs the central 30" monitor, the other runs the other 2. The cards are ASUS EN8800GTX each with 768 megs DDR3. As they are running separate monitors, no SLI is involved (can't with this motherboard anyway).

I have a WD raptor 150gig for a boot drive, a couple of 1T internal sata drives, and 5 1T drives in a raid 5 configuration for 3.7 T storage via a venus T5 external sata box. The video lag is present when playing video from any of the aforementioned drives (it was present before the external raid box was attached as well).

All drivers are up to date.

MS Excel is usually running in the background along with multiple firefox windows. Video performance doesn't change when I shut them down though.

Nod32 antivirus is on but also doesn't change anything when disabled. The same for the Ultramon multimonitor manager.

I haven't run any benchmarks but system performance otherwise is pretty seamless. I do occasionally play games and have played fear and bioshock on highest settings without any issues though. I don't mind sacrificing gaming performance for an increase in video playback performance.

I'll have to monitor my cpu load when playing back video - I've not actually observed that - thanks for the suggestion.

I don't have any external codec packages installed but I'm wondering if maybe the VLC internal codecs aren't quite up to snuff. I've just assumed that my hardware is optimized for gaming, not necessarily video playback. I build a new system every 2 years or so and pass the old one down to relatives. I'm starting to plan the next and want to make sure it's optimized for the things I tend to use it for.

 

[JonnyBlaze]

it has to do with the codec. changing your system wont help.

 

[Tenmuses]

Alright - I'm a bit red-faced.

First of all, even during laggy performance CPU load stayed in the 5-10% range.

This seemed to lend credence to JonnyBlaze's codec claim so I tried a variety of video players. All seemed pretty similar in performance - still with laggy video. Until I downloaded Media Player Classic - huge difference. I have no explanation as to why but, on my system at least, performance is greatly improved compared to the others.

I went on to download the k-lite standard codec pack and that increased the performance of all the players - including VLC which I've always heard is best left to its own internal codecs - not true in my case anyway.

I'm still planning to build the new system and if anyone knows of any hardware based decoding cards I'd be interested....

Thanks again!