Hello all,

I bought an HD camcorder because my 6 year old Sony miniDV tape based camcorder eats tape and my wife is having a kid in a few weeks. It’s the Canon Vixia HF 10. It records up to 1920x1080. Great quality I have to say. Only problem is, I can’t play the 1080 video on my PC. Here is my video card:

GPU - GeForce 7600GT

PCI Express x16
Core Clock – 560MHz
Memory Clock – 1400MHz
Memory Size – 256MB
Memory Interface – 128-bit
PixelPipelines - 12
Memory - GDDR3

DirectX – 9
OpenGL – 2.0

I was wondering if upgrading would make a significant difference. Or at least make the video viewable from my PC. Here is a card I am looking at:

GPU - GeForce 8600GT
Newegg.com - XFX PVT84JUDD3 GeForce 8600GT XXX 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards


PCI Express x16

Core Clock – 620MHz
Memory Clock – 1600MHz
Memory Size – 256MB
Memory Interface – 128-bit
Memory Type- GDDR3

DirectX – 10
OpenGL – 2.0

I have Windows XP and my question which card would run better under DX9? If a card says DX10, then is it also compatible with DX9? If I use DX9 with a faster card, will it be only as good as my DX9 card? In other words, would this upgrade be pointless? I’ve recorded at lower resolutions and that video is playable, with some minor lag. But I want to record everything at the highest resolution because you can always reduce video from the master copy, but you can’t create from what’s not there. And next year I am hoping to get a larger 1080P television.



Any suggestions?

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You should be able to watch it on a 7600GT. What CPU are you running. Is it at least a dual core?

Oh yeah! Congrats

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the card you have should be able to output to that resolution easily I would say.. I only have an ATI RADEON 2400XT and it can output to 1920x1080 on my HD TV... so maybe it's a monitor/TV problem instead?? maybe it won't accept that resolution? - only thing I can suggest is to have a look at the config for the vid card/software and see what it says... I had to "enable" that res on my ATI catalyst manager manually.

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My processor is a Pentium D dual core. It's pretty old in computer years. My vid card supports a max resolution of 1680x1050. I've played 1080P mkv rips, but they lag. These m2ts files play for about 3 seconds and then freeze with the audio still going. Would overclocking the video card help? I have a tutorial on how to do it. Bump it up by 20%. Or is it a processor problem aned would I be wasting my time?

Anyway, thank goodness my popcorn hour is coming soon. That should be able to handle the video on my HDTV. I guess for now all I can do is archive it. At least I'll have the video. Bluray burners should come down to sub $300 soon. By next year, I should be in a position to do some editing and movie creation.

@Kam
Thanks! It's my last :P (kid - not camera!) Three boys are enough. It'll be good to have some more free labor in a while!

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Well, I just used the software that came with the camera. It windows the 1080P image to something like 1024x768 and plays it flawlessly. It's called ImageMixer and the only way to run it is to enter the serial # of the camera. Pretty impressive program to do that with my video when VLC and MPC can't.

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Hey Black, the Video card you have is fine. I know that for a fact. Just that your CPU cant handle 1080p. But it will do 720p. 1080p, the frame rate is 24fps, which cause it to lag on most dual cores. Overall, updating the PC is the best option.

3 isn't a good number when having kids, lol. Im the last child of my family, being the 3rd child is a burden . Just keep them near a PC/PS3 and they should be fine!

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Xbox 360 - 2 Games - 2 Controllers - 120GB Elite - Dead
PS3 - 23 BD Games - 13 PSN Games - 9 Controllers - 320GB - Alive
Wii - 6 Games - 4 Wiimotes - Alive
PC - Overkill - God like :]
EVO - Needs new clutch & brakes :[

Gaming Generations | XnogarD Production - Soon!!!

Hey black, did you ever get your popcorn hour? How is it?

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Yo LS. Yeah, I've had it for a few weeks now. I like it, but it does have it's drawbacks.

Excellent codec support. Plays everything I've thrown at it. 720p and 1080p mkv files. 1080p m2ts movies from my video camcorder flawlessly. All other avi files. I read that it doesn't support some audio formats. Some people have high expectations for it and have been disappointed. It has been described as a lesser XBMC by some users. It's basically still in development, and there are regular firmware updates. The developers are active in improving it, which is a plus for me. The forums are active with both the users and devs. It meets all of my expectations - except for a few things:

1. It doesn't support rewind. Only 30 second seek.

2. FF is only x8, which seems really slow. But there are ways around it.

3. The HDD interface is IDE and not SATA. Not exactly a plan for the future, especially since IDE drives are becoming dinosaurs, and if in a couple of years the drive fails, it may be more difficult to get a hold of one that's the same size. Just my opinion.

4. No built in wireless adapter.

The remote control that comes with it is really nice. I want to eventually buy a HDD for it. Because then I can load the apps and play around with more features. But since the popcornhour is in my bedroom upstairs, there is no ethernet connection, so I would also have to buy this:
Newegg.com - LINKSYS WGA600N IEEE 802.11a/b/g, IEEE802.11n Draft Ethernet Port Dual-Band Wireless-N Gaming Adapter Security features: WEP, WPA WPA2 with TKIP OR AES, WPS Security key bits: 256 bits - Wireless Adapters
since the PHC does not have integrated wireless.

I also can't play mkv files with DTS sound. The HDMI (1.1) out supports all other audio though. To play DTS audio streams, you can use the SPDIF output from the back and plug into a DTS receiver. I don't have a surround sound setup, so I can't play them unless I convert the stream to AC3. Fine with me. I was thinking of getting this soon:

Logitech

Much cheaper than investing in a full surround sound setup that I don't have the $$$ for. I'm not an audio enthusiast either. My friend uses SPDIF out to hook his PCH to his reciever and assures me that all of his mkv movies with DTS work great.

So overall, I think it was a good buy for me. It plays what I want it to, with just a couple of drawbacks. It's pretty much still a beta device and hasn't really reached the mass market. As long as they keep providing firmware updates, I'm happy with it. All I need is about $430 for the logitech speaker system, a 750GB HDD and the linksys wireless adapter . Not sure if that's going to appear anytime soon....lol. So I'll just be happy playing my mkv movies from an external USB and converting DTS to AC3. The program that I use actually leaves the DTS stream intact and adds the AC3 conversion, so that you can always choose which stream to use during playback with the remote control. My plan is to use it downstairs in my family room once I get a new entertainment center with a 42" or 46" HDTV by next summer. I have hardwired ethernet down there and it would be a great media center once a HDD is installed.

It's nice to play HD video now on my Olevia. Great for my TV show and movie collection which is rapidly growing. The XBOX has oficially been handed down to the kids. Now it has every Spongebob season and Thomas and Batman, and Justice League and other good stuff for them to watch on their SD TV :P

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Overall it sounds pretty good. Hopefully full rewind and fast forward are something that will be added with later firmware updates. I doubt it's a matter of horsepower if XBMC can move forward and back flawlessly with most file types. Hopefully the DTS issues aren't something hardwired into HDMI v1.1, otherwise codec support can be added. With those couple features added, it sounds like popcorn hour could be a great media center.

Glad you are getting along well with it, I was very curious to get some intelligent firsthand on popcorn hour.

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