power dvd question

[SamuriHL]

On the Nvdia side... what's the low end for smooth HD?

-W

I would have to say the 8600 GT would be good on the low end. But, I wouldn't recommend it. If you're going to low end I absolutely have to agree with the people in this thread that have said the ATI 2600 series cards are the way to go. Otherwise you'll want my 8800 GT which is a great deal more expensive.

 

[captain_video]

I'm currently using an 8600GT with 512MB and it works fine for HD playback. I use it for ripped HD-DVD and BD discs using Power DVD 3104a as well as recorded local OTA HD shows from my ATSC tuners using BeyondTV4. I used to have an 8800GTS with 320MB which also worked fine but it was huge and generated a lot of heat, not to mention it was about 2-1/2 times more expensive. I actually bought the 8600GT to use in my main PC but I thought I'd give it a shot in my HTPC. Once I tried it the card has stayed put and now the 8800 is going up on ebay. The CPU is an Athlon X2 socket 939 4600+ with 2GB DDR RAM.

 

[Nova935]

I'm currently using an 8600GT with 512MB and it works fine for HD playback. I use it for ripped HD-DVD and BD discs using Power DVD 3104a .

Orc Brute,
I have been using a 8600 GT OC which I found online for around $129.00. The 8600 was recommended on this forum to me a month ago when I asked if I should buy a 8800 GTS or a 8800 GTX for HD DVD and Blu Ray Playback. AnyDVD forum members advised my that unless I was using my PC for gaming the 8800 series cards were overkill. They told me that the 8600 cards are designed more for high definition playback and consume a whole lot less power. When playing the new Blu Ray titles from the disc, my computer also studders slightly, the audio drops in and out and CPU usage is 60-80%. But James stated earlier that this is due to the protection on these disc requires more CPU to decode on the fly. This is eliminated when I play my backup from my hard drive. Playing from my harddrive these same Blu ray titles use only 10-20% CPU. I am glad the 8600 GT card off loads most of the processing from the CPU with the "purevideo" decoder. I play all of my HD DVD and Blu Ray movies from my hard drive where playback is always better. Considering that my P4 3.4 g processor doesnt meet the minimum requirement for hd playback, using the 8600 GT card allow me to watch both hd formats from my hard drive with '0' problems. The picture quality appears close to my stand alone HDA1 player. So if you dont use your computer for gaming, save your money and buy a 8600 GT or 8600 GTS card. You wont be sorry.

 

[frg]

Orc Brute,
I have been using a 8600 GT OC which I found online for around $129.00. The 8600 was recommended on this forum to me a month ago when I asked if I should buy a 8800 GTS or a 8800 GTX for HD DVD and Blu Ray Playback. AnyDVD forum members advised my that unless I was using my PC for gaming the 8800 series cards were overkill. They told me that the 8600 cards are designed more for high definition playback and consume a whole lot less power. When playing the new Blu Ray titles from the disc, my computer also studders slightly, the audio drops in and out and CPU usage is 60-80%. But James stated earlier that this is due to the protection on these disc requires more CPU to decode on the fly. This is eliminated when I play my backup from my hard drive. Playing from my harddrive these same Blu ray titles use only 10-20% CPU. I am glad the 8600 GT card off loads most of the processing from the CPU with the "purevideo" decoder. I play all of my HD DVD and Blu Ray movies from my hard drive where playback is always better. Considering that my P4 3.4 g processor doesnt meet the minimum requirement for hd playback, using the 8600 GT card allow me to watch both hd formats from my hard drive with '0' problems. The picture quality appears close to my stand alone HDA1 player. So if you dont use your computer for gaming, save your money and buy a 8600 GT or 8600 GTS card. You wont be sorry.

I have nearly the same CPU, only 3.2 instead of your 3.4, and had the exact same problems.
I solved them by overclocking the cpu to 3.6 GHz. I am now just below saturating it in the worst situations.

And my H 2600Pro does a hell of a good job, exactly like your 8600.