Can't playback HD movies without skipping on GPU

[taltamir]

I have a bunch of HD movies as files. Using Media Player Classic Home Cinema with the DXVA h264 decoding it on the GTX260 it can't properly playback anything HD. It just lags to death.
With my Q6600 OCed at 3ghz, if i disable all the internal filters and use FFDShow, I manage to get lagless 720p playback, and mostly ok 1080P but still there is the occasional scene that just stalls to nothing... But I am always under 30% CPU usage. (usually under 10%).

Any clues or suggestions?

 

[taltamir]

ok, i figured it out. it was HDD speed limiting me on those few intense scenes on 1080p on a pure CPU render...

I am really disappointed at how bad the video card renders x264, but if I got it on the right drive, with no other drive access, and with pure CPU render using FFDShow, I can get smooth playback at last.

 

[Zap]

Anything running in background? Slow HDD? Trying to play off network? Too high bitrate?

I've noticed that skipping forward/back in 1080p files causes lag/pauses. I'm using CCCP w/MPC on my C2D@3.4GHz playing off a 750GB SATA Samsung that isn't my boot/OS drive.

 

[taltamir]

it was two things..
1. DXVA - decoding by the video card, that just lagged the heck out of anything 720p or above. Turning it off and going full CPU decode solved that.
2. playing from network was too slow for certain high bitrate encodes during specific high action scenes during 1080p playback. Copying the file to a fast WD640 drive and closing everything else accessing the drive solved that.

 

[Spike]

Thanks for the info. I'm planning on getting a 4670 to speed up the playback on my old Opteron 165 HTPC and was debating whether or not I needed a new HDD as well. Guess I'll add the WD 640gb to my wish list as well for smooth 1080p playback.

I assume all should be well playing from the HD/Blu-ray disk drive since the 4670 will be able to decode properly?

 

[minmaster]

h264 playback with ffdshow codec might be a problem too. go get yourself CoreAVC codecs, which are by far the best software decoder for h264.

 

[taltamir]

well, its perfectly smooth on FFDshow on the WD640. And takes a relatively low fraction of the CPU power.
But if I start having problems with FFDshow I will try CoreAVC.