Streaming HD requirements

tinsley207 · 02-29-2008, 07:21 PM

I'm in the process of building a PC to stream high def content from the internet. What I would like to use for components are as follows:

Motherboard with 800 MHz FSB(Biostart P4M900)
A P4 2.6 GHz processor(800 MHz FSB)(socket 478)
One gig of DDR2 667 memory
Nvidia Geforce 7100GS (256 Megs memory) PCI EXpress x16

My basic question is will I be alright with these specs or will it under perform? Do I need to jump up to a core duo or a 1066 FSB? By the way I plan on streaming in 720p not 1080i. I have looked at some specs at various sites and apple HD seems to have the most rigorous requirements. Again I really only want to get 720p streaming successfully!

Regards,

Nathan Tinsley

**rbinck** · 02-29-2008, 09:12 PM

Are you really going to be streaming HD or downloading it? I'm unaware of any HD streaming that is available yet. I know Apple has talked about it, but I've never seen it. Do you have a link to what it is you are going to stream? That would be helpful to answer your question.

tinsley207 · 03-01-2008, 09:06 AM

Well abc.com is beginning to stream LOST in HD:

http://dynamic.abc.go.com/streaming/...lMenu&lpos=FEP

Here's a link to apple's free HD streaming stuff:

http://www.apple.com/quicktime/guide/hd/

A friend of mine is able to stream 720p stuff from apple and abc with a P4 1.6 (400 MHz FSB) Vaio. I guess that's my answer but he occaisionally get's hitches during playback. I just want a smooth experience!

tinsley207 · 03-01-2008, 09:08 AM

PS I'm not planning on downloading HD just yet. My guess is downloading would be a fee per download and I'm really into FREE!

**rbinck** · 03-01-2008, 04:56 PM

From the Quick Time info for 1280x720:
QuickTime 7 for Windows:

2.8 GHz Pentium 4 or faster processor
At least 512MB of RAM
64MB or greater video card
Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Vista

They all seem to be downloads though.

The ABC stuff is pretty good video, but it is not HD. They refer to it as HD because it was shot in HD, but the resolution does not even fill up my 1280x800 laptop screen. My wireless connection will keep up with the video, so that should tell you it is not HD.

In any case, if that is what you are planning on watching I think your computer specs are ok, but you might consider going with a Nvidia 8500 GT PCIe card.

ssjLancer · 03-01-2008, 07:56 PM

Just get a new card.
Id go ATI over nvidia. The hardware decoding is supposedly better.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post...vs-nvidia.html

**rbinck** · 03-01-2008, 10:00 PM

The Nvidia 8500 GT has hardware decoding. If you notice there was not much difference between it and the ATI cards tested. It has a passive cooling heat sink, so it is quiet.

ssjLancer · 03-01-2008, 10:24 PM

Quiet is definitely a plus, but they also had this to say about the 8500.

Quote:

While the 8800 GT produces an image that rivals anything ATI can offer, both the 8500 GT and the 8600 GTS display a significant amount of noise. All three cards were tested both with noise reduction turned off and noise reduction set to full. The setting made a relative difference for all three cards, but the 8800 GT always produced a better image than its cheaper brethren at any noise reduction setting.

Thats a big minus.

Plus Ati is canadian, thats a huge plus.

Director · 05-11-2008, 01:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rbinck

Are you really going to be streaming HD or downloading it? I'm unaware of any HD streaming that is available yet. I know Apple has talked about it, but I've never seen it. Do you have a link to what it is you are going to stream? That would be helpful to answer your question.

Hello Rbink

I have been getting High Definition streaming video from this site.
http://www.hd-tube.com/play.php?vid=94
I am very impressed with the quality and would like your opinion. I have a 17" laptop and can handle 1400x900 very easily.

I have a ATI 200 video card. My computers at school really show these videos well. They run a 3 ghz dual processors and 2 gig of ram.

Many of the videos are marked as uploaded in 1080p. They play just as well as the down loads I get from apple or Windows HD sites.

again I would like your opinion

The feed loads instantly and plays very smoothly for me.

pharcycle · 05-12-2008, 03:15 AM

tinsley,

Both my dad and i have HD sets but no blueray players for HD content and since i download a lot of HD stuff, i built a media PC. I wanted to have a fairly good one so my spec was...

core 2 duo 2.13GHz clocked up to 3GHz, which raised the FSB to something like 1500MHz.
1Gig DDR2 @ 800 MHz
ASROCK 4CORE FULL HD motherboard - included ATI graphics chipset that was rubbish - corners of movies tearing etc! so had to buy a
fanless ATI HD2600 XT PCI-E with big heatsink <- possibly slightly overkill for a media pc though.

mine plays virtually anything using the excessive (and inefficient) KLM codec pack.

My dad does a lot of work with PC's and as such has quite a few older spec'd ones around. After reading around the net i thought that we could build one for him using some of his older components. We settled on ...

P4 2.8GHz, 800MHz FSB - all stock frequencies
ASUS P4P800 motherboard
1gig DDR1 400
ATI HD2600 Pro (AGP 8x version)

which has been a bit of a headache to get it to play HD stuff properly (even 720p!) With the best codec properly configured for the type of movie it would play ok (including some 1080p stuff) but it was no where near as simple as just installing one codec pack and not having to worry about it! - not best practise but quicker when you don't know what you're doing!

Once i've figured out a fool proof way to determine the codec type required, the best one available and how to configure it for each HD movie i have then i'm sure my dad's media PC should play most stuff

I also wanted to run a myth tv box but had so many problems installing the ATI graphics drivers in linux that i gave up. Nvidia cards have much more support in linux i feel.

If you're buying from new -personally- i'd go for a core 2 as you'll futureproof yourself and on ebay my core 2 was about 50 quid compared with a P4 for about 30.

Dave

**rbinck** · 05-12-2008, 08:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Director

Hello Rbink

I have been getting High Definition streaming video from this site.
http://www.hd-tube.com/play.php?vid=94
I am very impressed with the quality and would like your opinion. I have a 17" laptop and can handle 1400x900 very easily.

I have a ATI 200 video card. My computers at school really show these videos well. They run a 3 ghz dual processors and 2 gig of ram.

Many of the videos are marked as uploaded in 1080p. They play just as well as the down loads I get from apple or Windows HD sites.

again I would like your opinion

The feed loads instantly and plays very smoothly for me.

On my computer set at a resolution of 1920x1080p or 1280x720p the full screen plays in a 4:3 box with white pillar boxes one each side. Some of the video looks good, but seems to be short of HD. Maybe they are sending enough resolution to call it HD, I can't tell, but it is very soft like it is highly compressed. I would not say it is at any broadcast level. Now bear in mind I'm watching it on a 42" 1080p monitor. On my 17" laptop the video looks very nice.

I'm thinking these sites that say they have HD are saying that because the videos were shot in HD. Uverse HD is about as low a bitrate as any for HD and they need about 6 mbps with zero server lag to deliver their HD and people complain about it's quality. It is hard for me to see how HD can be piped over a 1.5 mbps internet connection with all of the server lag that must exist frim their server to my computer.

Anyway, if you enjoy that video, that's all that really matters.

pfh · 05-13-2008, 03:33 AM

I'd have to agree with rbinck. I think there are some things different when it comes to internet streaming for pc output vs. broadcasting into a home for tv output. Look what Netflix is doing with certain titles they have for pc viewing- "watch now" as they call it. Granted these titles are standard dvd res..........so it is not really hd to begin with, but it is streamed based on connection bandwidth because they test connection prior to viewing.

oblioman · 05-13-2008, 08:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rbinck

On my computer set at a resolution of 1920x1080p or 1280x720p the full screen plays in a 4:3 box with white pillar boxes one each side. Some of the video looks good, but seems to be short of HD. Maybe they are sending enough resolution to call it HD, I can't tell, but it is very soft like it is highly compressed. I would not say it is at any broadcast level. Now bear in mind I'm watching it on a 42" 1080p monitor. On my 17" laptop the video looks very nice.

I'm thinking these sites that say they have HD are saying that because the videos were shot in HD. Uverse HD is about as low a bitrate as any for HD and they need about 6 mbps with zero server lag to deliver their HD and people complain about it's quality. It is hard for me to see how HD can be piped over a 1.5 mbps internet connection with all of the server lag that must exist frim their server to my computer.

Anyway, if you enjoy that video, that's all that really matters.

Just one of the reasons that me dropped comcast. what they advertise as HD is nothing but mega compressed or up rezzed SD. The general public "needs" to view HD as it should be shown in order for it to reach mass infusion. Cable and Sat co's are showing sub-standard HD to the masses, throttling their own bandwidth with junk, and fooling the public to pay for it. Sorry about the rant!

Xplayer · 05-18-2008, 01:07 PM

I work with HD every day and 420GB is about 46:50 uncompressed 720p. Any one saying that they are streaming HD is as everyone has mentioned compressed HD material. The better codec's are VCI, H.264 and Avid DNX for broadcast. Any of these are high CPU or GPU hogs.

dpak76 · 05-26-2008, 07:49 PM

if you are going to play 1080p video, you should get a dual core cpu.

02-29-2008, 07:21 PM	#1
tinsley207 A couch and an HDTV to go please. Thread Starter Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 11	Streaming HD requirements I'm in the process of building a PC to stream high def content from the internet. What I would like to use for components are as follows: Motherboard with 800 MHz FSB(Biostart P4M900) A P4 2.6 GHz processor(800 MHz FSB)(socket 478) One gig of DDR2 667 memory Nvidia Geforce 7100GS (256 Megs memory) PCI EXpress x16 My basic question is will I be alright with these specs or will it under perform? Do I need to jump up to a core duo or a 1066 FSB? By the way I plan on streaming in 720p not 1080i. I have looked at some specs at various sites and apple HD seems to have the most rigorous requirements. Again I really only want to get 720p streaming successfully! Regards, Nathan Tinsley

03-01-2008, 04:56 PM	#5
rbinck Administrator Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Katy, Texas Posts: 16,971	From the Quick Time info for 1280x720: QuickTime 7 for Windows: 2.8 GHz Pentium 4 or faster processor At least 512MB of RAM 64MB or greater video card Windows XP Service Pack 2 or Vista They all seem to be downloads though. The ABC stuff is pretty good video, but it is not HD. They refer to it as HD because it was shot in HD, but the resolution does not even fill up my 1280x800 laptop screen. My wireless connection will keep up with the video, so that should tell you it is not HD. In any case, if that is what you are planning on watching I think your computer specs are ok, but you might consider going with a Nvidia 8500 GT PCIe card. Last edited by rbinck; 03-01-2008 at 09:30 PM..

03-01-2008, 07:56 PM	#6
ssjLancer High Definition is the definition of life. Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 1,968	Just get a new card. Id go ATI over nvidia. The hardware decoding is supposedly better. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post...vs-nvidia.html Last edited by ssjLancer; 03-01-2008 at 08:00 PM..

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02-29-2008, 09:12 PM	#2
rbinck Administrator Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Katy, Texas Posts: 16,971	Are you really going to be streaming HD or downloading it? I'm unaware of any HD streaming that is available yet. I know Apple has talked about it, but I've never seen it. Do you have a link to what it is you are going to stream? That would be helpful to answer your question.

03-01-2008, 09:06 AM	#3
tinsley207 A couch and an HDTV to go please. Thread Starter Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 11	Well abc.com is beginning to stream LOST in HD: http://dynamic.abc.go.com/streaming/...lMenu&lpos=FEP Here's a link to apple's free HD streaming stuff: http://www.apple.com/quicktime/guide/hd/ A friend of mine is able to stream 720p stuff from apple and abc with a P4 1.6 (400 MHz FSB) Vaio. I guess that's my answer but he occaisionally get's hitches during playback. I just want a smooth experience!

03-01-2008, 09:08 AM	#4
tinsley207 A couch and an HDTV to go please. Thread Starter Join Date: Nov 2007 Posts: 11	PS I'm not planning on downloading HD just yet. My guess is downloading would be a fee per download and I'm really into FREE!

03-01-2008, 10:00 PM	#7
rbinck Administrator Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: Katy, Texas Posts: 16,971	The Nvidia 8500 GT has hardware decoding. If you notice there was not much difference between it and the ATI cards tested. It has a passive cooling heat sink, so it is quiet.

05-12-2008, 03:15 AM	#10
pharcycle Panasonic 42" Plasma Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: UK Posts: 8	tinsley, Both my dad and i have HD sets but no blueray players for HD content and since i download a lot of HD stuff, i built a media PC. I wanted to have a fairly good one so my spec was... core 2 duo 2.13GHz clocked up to 3GHz, which raised the FSB to something like 1500MHz. 1Gig DDR2 @ 800 MHz ASROCK 4CORE FULL HD motherboard - included ATI graphics chipset that was rubbish - corners of movies tearing etc! so had to buy a fanless ATI HD2600 XT PCI-E with big heatsink <- possibly slightly overkill for a media pc though. mine plays virtually anything using the excessive (and inefficient) KLM codec pack. My dad does a lot of work with PC's and as such has quite a few older spec'd ones around. After reading around the net i thought that we could build one for him using some of his older components. We settled on ... P4 2.8GHz, 800MHz FSB - all stock frequencies ASUS P4P800 motherboard 1gig DDR1 400 ATI HD2600 Pro (AGP 8x version) which has been a bit of a headache to get it to play HD stuff properly (even 720p!) With the best codec properly configured for the type of movie it would play ok (including some 1080p stuff) but it was no where near as simple as just installing one codec pack and not having to worry about it! - not best practise but quicker when you don't know what you're doing! Once i've figured out a fool proof way to determine the codec type required, the best one available and how to configure it for each HD movie i have then i'm sure my dad's media PC should play most stuff I also wanted to run a myth tv box but had so many problems installing the ATI graphics drivers in linux that i gave up. Nvidia cards have much more support in linux i feel. If you're buying from new -personally- i'd go for a core 2 as you'll futureproof yourself and on ebay my core 2 was about 50 quid compared with a P4 for about 30. Dave

05-13-2008, 03:33 AM	#12
pfh Rum -n- Coke Join Date: Feb 2006 Posts: 240	I'd have to agree with rbinck. I think there are some things different when it comes to internet streaming for pc output vs. broadcasting into a home for tv output. Look what Netflix is doing with certain titles they have for pc viewing- "watch now" as they call it. Granted these titles are standard dvd res..........so it is not really hd to begin with, but it is streamed based on connection bandwidth because they test connection prior to viewing.

05-18-2008, 01:07 PM	#14
Xplayer What is HD? Join Date: May 2008 Posts: 4	I work with HD every day and 420GB is about 46:50 uncompressed 720p. Any one saying that they are streaming HD is as everyone has mentioned compressed HD material. The better codec's are VCI, H.264 and Avid DNX for broadcast. Any of these are high CPU or GPU hogs.

05-26-2008, 07:49 PM	#15
dpak76 What is HD? Join Date: May 2007 Posts: 4	if you are going to play 1080p video, you should get a dual core cpu.