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Testing CPU Speed with HDTV WMV movies

post #1 of 40
7/3/04 at 1:50pm
Thread Starter 
Hi guys

As most games right now don't really make a big hit on the CPu anymore I have something new to play, well kinda new cause I am pretty sure some people already know

Go here http://www.wmvhd.com

Download for comparisson reason I'd suggest the AMAZON clip and run it on your laptops. I am really interested how it runs on your machines.
The movie is quite large so only broadband people should get it.
Let me know how it runs on your lapis

I tried it on mine. The movie hogs 100% CPU load and plays pretty choppy, no fluent playback at all.
I was wondering how the new Dothans perform there as the website states that you need a 3HGZ CPU to run it good

So let me know

Cu
StarSheep

PS: Isn't the quality of these clips amazing, DVD go home :-)
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post #2 of 40
7/3/04 at 2:11pm
What a coincidence... I literally just watched that clip myself.

My system has a Dothan 1.8 / 1 GB / 7200 RPM / 5200 32MB (1900x1200)

The 1080p version skipped frames. The CPU would reach ~95% at some points. I would also see triangular borders in the image. They were exactly lines being drawn but the interfaces between pieces of the image that didn't belong together.

The 720p version played without any problems or skipped frames.

My old PCG-GRV680 (2.6 GHz P4 / Radeon 9000 64MB) would usually play the 1080p files with only a few skipped frames and non of the visual artifacts I saw on my 8600.

I'd be curious too see how my combo does with the 9600 128MB card. Anyone?

Tim
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post #3 of 40
7/3/04 at 3:02pm
Mine played with no problems - Amazon 1080p - Silky smooth play - Cpu usage 65-78 percent. Nice to see movies with no grain
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post #4 of 40
7/3/04 at 3:03pm
Thread Starter 
@9600

As far as I know this is RAW CPU Power that is needed so it doesn't make much difference what GFX card you have.
But as I suspected the Pentium M just isn't designed to handle this kind of videos at least not at the highest res.
Wonder how the 2 GHZ Dothan will do the job.

So come on guys get the vid and let it run. I really wonder which lapi will play it smooth. One of the XPS or i9100 guys maybe?

Cu
StarSheep
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post #5 of 40
7/3/04 at 3:07pm
Umm...I just downloaded both the 720p and 1080p versions and both play smooth as silk. With the 1080p version, my CPU hit around 80-95%. It was around 80% when it does the computer generated globe shot, and more towards 95% when doing landscape shots.

No problems here. Not a single frame-drop in sight.
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post #6 of 40
7/3/04 at 6:17pm
William,

Did you check for drop frames visually or did you watch the dropped frame counter under View->Statistics->Advanced?

Thanks,
Tim
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post #7 of 40
7/3/04 at 6:18pm
Works perfectly. Eats up all my cpu power though 95%.
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post #8 of 40
7/3/04 at 8:29pm
Thread Starter 
Well, if the AMAZON plays smooth with you guys then there is something wrong here as I have frame dropps and stuff.
Any suggestions?

Cu
StarSheep
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post #9 of 40
7/3/04 at 10:02pm
What players are you guys using?

There's a huge difference in CPU load depending on what player you are using we discovered in another forum a while back when trying the new wmvhd movies.
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post #10 of 40
7/3/04 at 10:47pm
I'm using WM9. I have 0 frames skipped, according to the Windows Media statistics.
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post #11 of 40
7/3/04 at 10:49pm
starsheep, what things are you running in the background? I have all the usual stuff, Outlook, Norton etc etc, but maybe you have something else that uses some CPU % up at all times?
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post #12 of 40
7/3/04 at 11:11pm
hmmm itneresitng you guys have indential specs almost
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post #13 of 40
7/4/04 at 1:25am
Zoom Player is supposed to play these videos with less CPU usage than Windows Media Player. You might try it if you're skipping frames.
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post #14 of 40
7/4/04 at 1:36am
What I will say is that I USED to not be able to run these movies! I had downloaded the Coral Reef Adventure in 1080p months ago and it would NOT play smoothly on this very laptop. I just downloaded it again since the others were so smooth, and it runs PERFECTLY now! Maybe the newer Radeon 9600 drivers of late are better optimised for this? Perhaps it's the latest Bios A08 that differs between our systems? I'm using A08. It can't be CPU related that it now plays smoothly since there's not been any 'CPU related' updates (very unsual to be so). It must be video card related, surely?
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post #15 of 40
7/4/04 at 7:29am
Thread Starter 
Well I updated my Sig as I should have some time ago cause I always run the latest BIOS and drivers. So I also have BIOS A08 and latest OMEGA drivers.

It is kind of strange though. Some of them, I downloaded all, are running really good and other don't even if they have the same bitrate.

Kinda strange.

Cu
StarSheep
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post #16 of 40
7/4/04 at 8:14pm
The most stressful of all the videos is the Terminator2 WMVHD video that comes free with Terminator2 Extreme Edition bundled on the 2nd DVD amazingly the entire movie is compressed into 2GB but the quality is phenominal my system ran the movie just fine but there was a bit of a load time but my dimension suffered dropped frames and skips due to its pathetic 2Ghz Pentium4C cpu and 768M of ram
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post #17 of 40
7/4/04 at 11:06pm
Well I did the Amazon 1080p and the Terminator2 1080p and useage on my XPS was just below 50% CPU ...
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post #18 of 40
7/5/04 at 12:02am
From what I'm reading here it sounds as though the video card actually does play a significant role. The 720p files play with 0 skipped frames but the 1080p files will skip some frames on my Go5200 32MB. One part of me knows that I really don't need the 9600 as I'm not a gamer nor do I really do anything in the 3D realm but the other side hates not having the best. LOL Atleast I have the option to upgrade down the road if a legitimate need comes up.

Tim
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post #19 of 40
7/5/04 at 12:32am
My cpu usage spiked at 60%, but averaged about 40% during the video playback.
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post #20 of 40
7/5/04 at 12:57am
I have downloaded the amazon 1080p and punisher 720p. both of them didn't run smooothly. amazon skipped many frames was going three frames a second. punisher didn't skip frames but was very choppy. it was using just 35% of my cpu performance. I'm using the win media 8. here are my specs.


i9100
3.2 gh
1gig ram
60 gig harddrive 7200
ati 9700 128

Does anyone know why my system seems to run slower than the i8600?
I thought that pentium 4 had more processing power than pentium m.
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