> A "rather low bit-rate" H.264 would nearly max out a single FX cpu. > So a higher bit-rate H.264 would fail on a single cpu, even with a > "premium" graphics card. Forget using a normal cpu, much less a low > end or older model. With an "entry level" card, their "rather low > bit-rate" H.264 needed 67.2% of the x2 FX cpu. A high bit rate > H.264 might well fail even with their x2 FX cpu.
That's for 1080i/p yes? Such a content is not used anywhere, so don't worry. I made a test with the videos i've got, how it looks under Linux: Celeron D 2.67GHz overclocked to 4GHz (till the C2D gets cheaper ;) nv6200 graphic card, PCIe16x: MPEG2 1080i: - no deinterlace, using xvmc: 33% (strange) - no deinterlace: 24% - with deinterlace: 52% x264 720p: - 65 %, +-20% depending on scene mpeg4 720p: - 25% All % are averages, fluctuation indicated, otherwise the load was quite constant. I selected scenes with a lot of action, not still pictures. So a cheap year old PC can play anything. Of course, if you need a 1080p in x264, then you're a pro and already have the equipment which will play it well. > How much cpu is it acceptable to require? CPUs have other > things to do besides decoding video, so using 100% of the cpu > is not going to work. Is it really acceptable to require a > high end x2 FX cpu? It depends, if you want to play BD/HDDVD, you probably use a standalone player in your living room with a plasma. But if you're targetting more technically based audience, they rather do a compromise between quality and size and 720p is the winner. That also doesn't require that much CPU power. Btw, if you belong to this group, you have 2 choices: A) stick to PC LCD: you get full 1080p, but its 24". There are 27" and 30" screens, but they are also 2x more expensive. B) buy a cheap 720p DLP with hdmi and have 150"-300" for the occasional entertainment [Acer PH530, $787]. When you want to beat anybody, target markets like KISS. They make hw, which plays videos from disc or the network. So when you get the above DLP and want to place it in the living room, you rather want also a standalone box than take the PC or cabling there. The disc support can be dropped, you have an optical drive in the PC. Now it looks more like the apple iTV.. just that they support 720p in a single format, I would like more general approach, like mpeg4 + x264 (and maybe mpeg2 for back compatibility). If OGP wants to do business here, the product must fit by features between these two, and with price under both. Daniel _______________________________________________ Open-graphics mailing list [email protected] http://lists.duskglow.com/mailman/listinfo/open-graphics List service provided by Duskglow Consulting, LLC (www.duskglow.com)
