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ataraxia

Member

From: Pittsburgh

Registered: 2007-05-06

Posts: 1,553

video playback on slow CPUs (like Atom)

What is the highest quality video that can be played back in real time on an Atom 230 or 330 entirely in software (i.e., without offloading any to the GPU like with VDPAU or similar)?

Put another way, what is the wimpiest (slowest, cheapest?) CPU that can decode 1080p H.264 in real time?

Basically, I'm trying to determine the viability of using one of the common "nettop" boxes with a 64-bit Atom and the crappy Intel 945GC chipset as a primary desktop. My most demanding usage watching an occasional fansub, usually in not-so-good quality. It'd be a shame to not be able to take advantage of such cheap, power-efficient hardware.

Kenni

Member

From: Denmark

Registered: 2007-01-25

Posts: 64

Re: video playback on slow CPUs (like Atom)

I've previously tested 720p on an Intel D945GCLF2 with 2GB of RAM and various video formats and various driver tweaks. Conclusion was that I was not able to play 720p. As far as I remember, I got it to play a 720p video stream fluently , but with audio lacking, as the best 720p result. Regular DVD rips (Xvid) plays just fine.

Intrepid

Member

Registered: 2008-06-11

Posts: 254

Re: video playback on slow CPUs (like Atom)

Obviously it depends on the mobo combination then.  I have a netbook (Intel Atom N270?) which plays 720p quality with sound and video fine on an external monitor.  I think it depends mostly on the graphics/integrated chipset end of the spectrum, as these things are accelerated through the chipset, not the CPU.  The GMA950 seems to work ok, but I'm not certain about 1080p!

---

Intrepid (adj.): Resolutely courageous; fearless.

flammenwurfer

Member

Registered: 2009-02-04

Posts: 118

Re: video playback on slow CPUs (like Atom)

I just got a Foxconn R10-S4 box, which has the Atom 330 in it.  I'm planning on using it to stream to my PS3 and hopefully do some transcoding of 720 mkv files and possibly 1080 mkv files if it can handle it.  I will be using PS3 media server from the command line only.

ataraxia

Member

From: Pittsburgh

Registered: 2007-05-06

Posts: 1,553

Re: video playback on slow CPUs (like Atom)

I just got a Foxconn R10-S4 box, which has the Atom 330 in it.  I'm planning on using it to stream to my PS3 and hopefully do some transcoding of 720 mkv files and possibly 1080 mkv files if it can handle it.  I will be using PS3 media server from the command line only.

I also bought this machine. It's certainly no powerhouse, but I can watch low-quality video. I don't currently have any 720p, let alone 1080p, to test with.

Arcain

Member

Registered: 2009-06-17

Posts: 13

Website

Re: video playback on slow CPUs (like Atom)

I do have Arch installed on D945GCLF2 with Atom 330 and so far it play 1080p video files without a problem using coreavc codec and mplayer from windows. There are few threads about how to compile mplayer with coreacv support at forums already. It's preety painfull for CPU, using all 4 (including HT) cores at around 60% but works. The only problem i have is with flash, for both low-quality and hd videos if i use full-screen mode (which scales it to 1920x1200), can't get over it so far.

Another solution would be to find some cheap nVidia PCI graphic card with VDPAU support, but my case is too small to even try that ;-)

Last edited by Arcain (2009-06-17 15:09:24)

flammenwurfer

Member

Registered: 2009-02-04

Posts: 118

Re: video playback on slow CPUs (like Atom)

I'm trying to install ffmpeg-mt-git from AUR, but I get errors and it won't install.  If I get it working I'm hoping the multithreading will be able to handle transcoding of 720p and maybe even 1080p videos.

My old AMD Athlon 64 1.8 Ghz single core processor was able to transcode 720 and 1080 just fine.  I had an nvidia 6600GT in that box as well, but doesn't support VDPAU.

iBertus

Member

From: Greenville, NC

Registered: 2004-11-04

Posts: 2,228

Re: video playback on slow CPUs (like Atom)

Keep an eye on the nVidia ION for an Atom-based platform for HD playback. I've read that it's able to use GPU acceleration to playback 1080p H.264 streams when using the VDPAU patched version of mplayer and while keeping CPU use low.

Kenni

Member

From: Denmark

Registered: 2007-01-25

Posts: 64

Re: video playback on slow CPUs (like Atom)

Keep an eye on the nVidia ION for an Atom-based platform for HD playback. I've read that it's able to use GPU acceleration to playback 1080p H.264 streams when using the VDPAU patched version of mplayer and while keeping CPU use low.

...as you can read in the question from ataraxia, he is looking for software-only results, without offloading to GPU. He actually mentions VDPAU explicitly as a no-go.