HD question

Maajid

Formerly Mad
Joined
Oct 20, 2006
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I have a Intel Pentium 4 3.0Ghz HT and 512 mb of RAM which you'd think would be enough to play 720p HD but I've always had this audio lag problem (in addition to the video playback being jerky sometimes) that has resulted in me resorting to micro-HD rather than the full 720p versions. Now my question is this, do I need more RAM to fix this or do I need a faster processor?
 
I have a P4 HT @ 3.8Ghz and it can play a 720p movie without a problem. I have much more RAM than you do however. Sometimes also you get audio lag and jerkiness because of a badly encoded file (even SD media), however it's mainly my PS3 that stutters them all over the show and not the PC, forcing me to re-encode/remux the video.

In your case, I would guess that more RAM would solve the problem. Obviously, I'm assuming you have up to date codecs. I'd get more RAM anyway, as it's not expensive and will make your whole computing experience with that machine much better.
 
I tend to get audio lag as well and jittery video. I have an Intel Pentium D @ 2.66Ghz and 2GB of RAM. Is it just my processor that's the problem, or the fact that I have on-board graphics and not much more?
 
Are these MKVs? There is no way I can stream an MKV to my PS3 over wireless (PS3 doesn't understand them, so the PC has to transcode them before streaming), however, once turned into MPEG4, it streams perfectly (no need to transcode).

I think that MKVs require a lot of processing power.
 
i had a 2gb laptop and that had problems playing HD footage, quite a lot of lag, but now ive upgraded and got a 4gb laptop and that has no problems with HD so im guessing its something to do with your RAM
 
WeasteDevil said:
Are these MKVs? There is no way I can stream an MKV to my PS3 over wireless (PS3 doesn't understand them, so the PC has to transcode them before streaming), however, once turned into MPEG4, it streams perfectly (no need to transcode).

I think that MKVs require a lot of processing power.
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Yes, they're mkv's. I have no problem playing mini- or micro-HD, but it seems to be the 720p ones that cause a bit of bother. I've got Batman Begins (encoded by Nhanc3) in 720p as a .mkv file and it jitters quite badly.
 
101 said:
Yes, they're mkv's. I have no problem playing mini- or micro-HD, but it seems to be the 720p ones that cause a bit of bother. I've got Batman Begins (encoded by Nhanc3) in 720p as a .mkv file and it jitters quite badly.
Click to expand...

If you want to try something, it may actually solve your problem.

Download a program called mkv2vob, and use it to process one of the MKVs that you are having trouble with, and try to play the file that it outputs.
 
Masterplan said:
i had a 2gb laptop and that had problems playing HD footage, quite a lot of lag, but now ive upgraded and got a 4gb laptop and that has no problems with HD so im guessing its something to do with your RAM
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my laptop has 1GB Ram and Core Duo Pentium @1.6Ghz and it plays 720p perfectly

It's about the codecs
 
It's not the codecs, I've tried all sorts. I thought I'd upgrade the RAM when I read Weaste's reply but if systems with 2GB ram are having problems as well then surely RAM is not the (only) issue?

Found an article on the subject. My FPS is higher than the average FPS the author is getting btw.
 
101 said:
Quick question: do I set the file extension output as mp4, or leave it as automatic... because this is taking a while?
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are you using mkv2vob?, if so with me it never takes more than 20secs, its really quick, and its sets the output automatically
 
Took about a minute for me when I tried, not that it solved the jittering video/laggy audio problem though. Still the same.
 
Ah, mine's been solved now, but with a new problem. I left the file type extension as automatic. The file came out as .mpg. But now the aspect ratio's been messed up to 4:3. I have to play it in vlc and change the viewing aspect ratio from there.
 
512mb of RAM isn't alot really. A stick or two more might make all the difference.
 
101 said:
Ah, mine's been solved now, but with a new problem. I left the file type extension as automatic. The file came out as .mpg. But now the aspect ratio's been messed up to 4:3. I have to play it in vlc and change the viewing aspect ratio from there.
Click to expand...

It sounds to me that the file was never HD in the first place, but rather an anamorphic DVD rip. If it's transcoding as well, then whatever is in that MKV is not an MPEG format.
 
WeasteDevil said:
It sounds to me that the file was never HD in the first place, but rather an anamorphic DVD rip. If it's transcoding as well, then whatever is in that MKV is not an MPEG format.
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I've seen that term floating about but never known what it's actually meant? This 'HD' file is around 2GB and I'm pretty sure it's 1280*720 anamorphic. I'm going to give this a try with another one. This one's 4gb with the same ratio but I'm pretty sure it's not anamorphic.
 
Ahh, good stuff Weaste, worked a charm on the second HD file that I tried. This time all it did was some 'muxing' no transcoding required. The new file was an .mp4, would it have lost any quality from the .mkv that it was previously?
 
it works fine on my computer.

but then again i have a quad core + 4gb ram + a hd graphics card
 
i need to be more subtle!!

it would also help if you played those .mkv files in media player classic (with its codec)
 
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