T40 - poor playback of HD video

[teststrips]

I've got a full blown home theater PC that records shows like a TIVO. I've recently switched to recording digital content insead of analog through an over the air antenna. All of the stations broadcast at 480p, 720p, or 1080i. All of my PCs except my T40 can play back this content... (the t40 can only play 480p content) I was wondering what Options I have. I guess replacing video is almost impossible (you have to replace the whole motherboard?) I guess my only other option would be to upgrade the CPU - wanted to get feedback on if this would help or not.

My t40 is a 2374-nu6 - with the original 1.5gig cpu + 512 megs of ram (I have another 512 stick on the way)... I don't know what type of core that would be. If I would upgrade to a dothan 1.8 or 2.0 processor, do you think that would make a diffrence in my decoding 720p and 1080i content?

Also, is there anything else that I haven't thought of that might help me.

[venro]

I was wondering what Options I have. I guess replacing video is almost impossible (you have to replace the whole motherboard?) I guess my only other option would be to upgrade the CPU - wanted to get feedback on if this would help or not.

There is a way to use another graphic. A docking station with pci in it, but that's not the same as changing motherboard And of course if you have t40 with ati 7500 there is an issue with cooling. t40s don't have cooling for GPU. Higher models have that, so You would have to replace that too.

My t40 is a 2374-nu6 - with the original 1.5gig cpu + 512 megs of ram (I have another 512 stick on the way)... I don't know what type of core that would be. If I would upgrade to a dothan 1.8 or 2.0 processor, do you think that would make a diffrence in my decoding 720p and 1080i content?

I had 1,5 banias with my t40. HD contents wasn't very good, but on 1,7 dothan 2MB cache it's better.

Also, is there anything else that I haven't thought of that might help me.

And of course codecs. When you are at the edge of minimal requirements it's very important. FFDSHOW with matroska splitter is very good, also avc core (but it's not a freeware). If You try both You have to disable h264, mkv and other HD stuff in ffdshow, like this:
start -> Programs -> ffdshow -> Video decoder conf -> H.264/AVC switch from libavcodec to disabled. As for me I go with ffdshow.


Now I have t40p (graphic really don't matter that much, but with t43 and X300 hmm maybe ), 1,7GHz Dothan 400MHz 2MB cache, 7k60 hard drive, 1GB ram (512MB is enought) and HD contents with 720p (1080i/p don't have a chance) is smooth, about 60-90% of CPU while watching in most cases.

[GomJabbar]

All of my PCs except my T40 can play back this content... (the t40 can only play 480p content)

What kind of PC's are we talking about here? Is the T40 using the oldest and slowest technology?

Make sure your T40 is not operating in PIO mode. See following thread.
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=49401

You can also run DirectX diagnostics. Go to Start > Run, type dxdiag in the Open: box and click on OK. Follow the prompts of the wizard.

Check in Display Properties > Settings > Advanced > Troubleshoot. Verify that Hardware Acceleration is turned all the way up.

[teststrips]

What kind of PC's are we talking about here? Is the T40 using the oldest and slowest technology?

The t40 is on the edge of the oldest.. I have a desktop with an AMD 1700mp processor with a AGP FX5200 video card acting as a playback machine + it keeps up pretty well (drops a few frames - but generally keeps up) It didn't do too well until I started using the Nvidia codecs (which I had to pay for)

Other than that I've got two other desktops both with intel dual core processors - one has a decent video card (7600) and the other has whatever is built into the chipset.... the chipset based one uses a lot of CPU resources, but plays back the files perfectly - it has enough horsepower to "fake it"

I'll look into Codecs, PIO mode, directx and hardware accelleration just in case.

[SHoTTa35]

well generally a good video card and a high cpu is all but required ot play HD video. If anything you can try VLC and see if it plays it decently but i'm sure with a slower T40 you'll experience choppy playback. I had a T41 with a ATI Radeon 9000 and that was definitely not up to HD standards. This isn't childs play now... this is the big leagues. Decoding that much information (up to 8mbps) takes lots of CPU and GPU and a bus system to get the data moving.

512MB with Windows XP is almost minimum in itself so using that for HD Video is already a no-no. With 1GB you'll get better frames even without upgrading the GPU and all that stuff. Search for Nero InfoTool and then go the the "HD Readiness" tab and you'll see how ready you are for HD. (Far from it!)