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Software that is capable of playing high quality videos on a Lowend laptop?
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Software that is capable of playing high quality videos on a Lowend laptop?

Mark_RMark_R Member

Hello,

At the moment I have no access to my high end pc and I am forced to use my Lowend laptop to play movies.

Laptop specs:

CPU: AMD Athlon II x2 processor P320

GPU: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470

RAM: 4GB DDR3

I tried playbacking bluray movies on it using VLC Player and it was lagging pretty hard (skipping frames/freezing short times), now my question is,

Are there any videoplayers that are capable of converting the video that you are trying to playback at realtime to a lower quality to make it all go smooth? I know that converting a video to lower resolution would work but I need a videoplayer that does this in realtime!

It would be great if anyone who dealt with this before could point me in the right direction, thanks!

Comments

  • Mark_RMark_R Member

    Just to add this,

    I think that the CPU is the problem here but overclocking is not an option! I tried it before and my CPU appears to be locked, overclocking is blocked somehow.

  • Try XBMC?

  • Mark_RMark_R Member
    edited July 2014

    @joodle said:
    Try XBMC?

    Is XBMC capable of lowering the video quality in realtime to make the playback smooth?

  • @Mark_R said:
    Is XBMC capable of lowering the video quality in realtime to make the playback smooth?

    Not needed, XBMX on Raspberry works smooth with bluray video's

    Thanked by 1Mark_R
  • Mark_RMark_R Member

    @joodle said:
    Not needed, XBMX on Raspberry works smooth with bluray video's

    Alright I'll try it and see if it works out, thanks.

  • WilliamWilliam Member
    edited July 2014

    VLC. This mobile GPU outperforms my Mac Pros 7700GT which plays 1080p fine with VLC.

    EDIT: Nevermind, but it should work. Maybe try to change encoder settings.

    Thanked by 2Mark_R netomx
  • Mark_RMark_R Member

    Alright, turns out it all works fine with XBMC. I guess they automaticlly detect the optimal settings or something.

  • wychwych Member

    XMBC or VLC?

    @Mark_R said:
    Alright, turns out it all works fine with XBMC. I guess they automaticlly detect the optimal settings or something.

    Glad you got it sorted.

  • Mark_RMark_R Member

    my laptop uses VLC Version: 2.0.1

    Don't they auto detect the optimal playback settings depending on your hardware aswel? it is pretty odd that XBMC works straight out of the box without configuring anything and VLC doesn't. VLC has been my favorite player of all times because it was able to play any file no matter if it is damaged but appearently there are issues when it comes to optimally utilizing the hardware to get the best possible performance.

  • SaikuSaiku Member, Host Rep
  • Mark_RMark_R Member
    edited July 2014

    As far I can remember CCCP is just a codec pack that installs all codecs you'd possibly need. VLC Player already includes all required codecs so there is no need for extra packs that possibly slow down the playback in general. I was looking for a player that just playbacks smoothly bluray videos on my lowend laptop by perhaps decreasing the quality in realtime, I found the solution because of @joodle XBMC does the job in this specific case.

  • SaikuSaiku Member, Host Rep

    It kinda helps my old P4 PC to run 10bit video smoothly.

    Thanked by 1Mark_R
  • Mark_RMark_R Member

    @Saiku said:
    It kinda helps my old P4 PC to run 10bit video smoothly.

    I'll keep your suggestion in mind though, it might helps me later on, I aint an expert when it comes to video playback.

  • If you're on Windows use K-Lite codec mega pack with Media player classic. On Linux I use up to date ffmpeg + mplayer, plays high bit rate Blu-ray movies without any hiccups. (Core 2 Duo T7500, Intel X3100, 2GB RAM, Linux Mint)

  • BotoXBotoX Member

    noone mentioned mpv?
    try it out, it's most likely the best out there (for Linux/OS X at least)

  • SilvengaSilvenga Member
    edited July 2014

    said: RAM: 4GB DDR3

    I remember when 4GB was a high end laptop.

    Honestly VLC is your best bet. Do you have hardware acceleration enabled (blu ray should use MP4). Disabled by default: (https://wiki.videolan.org/VLC_GPU_Decoding/)

    It might be worth it checking to make sure you have up-to-date drivers for you graphics card. My computer is almost 3 years old, Linux just got drivers for my card (that work) a couple of months ago.

    And is VLC up-to-date? (Windows and Mac are at 2.1.3).

    Thanked by 1Mark_R
  • @BotoX said:
    noone mentioned mpv?
    try it out, it's most likely the best out there (for Linux/OS X at least)

    Well mplayer is basically the same thing. If I understand correctly from the website the only difference is the presence of GUI in mpv?

  • Mark_RMark_R Member

    let's keep in mind that this laptop is running Windows 7.

  • Mark_R said: let's keep in mind that this laptop is running Windows 7.

    Didn't even recognize the interface (still have IE on you task bar?).

    Update VLC, enable hardware acceleration, update graphic drivers.

    You're out of date by at least one major version (2 years?):

  • Mark_RMark_R Member

    After checking the GPU box the Bluray video did playback fine using VLC Player

    Thanks!

  • Mark_R said: Thanks!

    Sweet.

    GPU Decoding has been "experimental" for years now. They should enable it by default. 80% of PCs have the required hardware - hell, most phones have it as well.

  • SweetSweet Member

    Why don't you throw a linux distro on that bad boy.

  • Mark_RMark_R Member

    @Sweet said:
    Why don't you throw a linux distro on that bad boy.

    I've been playing with Debian alot using my VPS but I don't feel confortable using it as my main operation system, I grew up with Windows 95, I never really did feel like switching OS because everything is working fine, If I switch to Linux now i'll have alot to learn and currently i'm not having time for that. I'll switch if I have no other choice.

  • dual boot Mark_R. I used Windows up til around 7 or 8 years ago but chose to try Ubuntu because all my web development work was on Linux servers. I occasionally go onto Windows to watch Netflix or play a game when I need to.

    VLC is a truly excellent program.

  • BotoXBotoX Member

    @Makenai said:
    Well mplayer is basically the same thing. If I understand correctly from the website the only difference is the presence of GUI in mpv?

    No.... https://github.com/mpv-player/mpv/blob/master/DOCS/man/changes.rst

    I am using it on a daily basis, OP should give it a try. There are also windows builds.

    You can look at CCCP and KCP too, I prefer the later.

    Thanked by 1Makenai
  • nunimnunim Member

    I find that lowend computers struggle with H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, the solution is to use Media Player Classic HC with CoreAVC.

    Enable it after installing via External Filters and choose CoreAVC and set Prefer on MPCHC

  • @Mark_R said:

    Linux is great for servers. Personally, I would go back to XP before using a Linux OS on a desktop/laptop

  • Either CoreAVC or LAVFilter. They should give the best performance so you can decide whether you need a new laptop or not.

    If you don't mind re-encoding the video, transcoding to high bitrate MPEG-2 may reduce some complexity and improve a little performance.

  • Eeeh!? Is that "low end" laptop!?
    Anyway, it should play any videos (except maybe bluray remuxes) fine in any player. I'd recommend you to stay away from VLC. It's nice library (libvlc) and nice video server (although with a lot of bugs), but it's definitely not a very good video player. It has inefficient hardware acceleration which is even disabled by default.

    I suppose you're using Windows. Use either MPC-HC, MPC-BE, Daum PotPlayer or The KMPlayer. That's what my friends are using. If you're running Linux, I'd recommend you mpv or CMPlayer (not SMPlayer!)

    Thanked by 1Mark_R
  • MaouniqueMaounique Host Rep, Veteran

    I dont play blueray but FHD on my asus eeepc 901 works. Kinda skippy at start but it normalizes after, I play from iSCSI containing truecrypt containers.
    Using SMPlayer.

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