HD - HELP PLEASE

[JonBunt]

I am using a pinnacle 4000i Sat Card, on XP Pro (Service Pack 3), Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 1.5GB Ram, Graphics card Nvidia 6800GS.

 

I am receiving/viewing channels OK except HD ones.

 

I have used the ffdshow H.264 codec for viewing BBC HD, where I can view it but it is not really watchable as the picture stutters and sound is out of sink.

 

Are there any other codecs I can try (free preferably, but would pay if it is going to work) that would work for the HD channels, or is my system just not powerful enough to produce a smooth picture?

 

My CPU was maxed out when using ffdshow, but was also wondering if my graphics card can do more of the work in some way (through a more suitable codec or another way?)

 

Thanks for any info on this in advance

[Moses]

No, your Graphiccard won't help... you could give CoreAVC a try... they say that they are the most optimized software H.264 Decoder... but I doubt that you'll have much fun with 1080i on your system.

 

If you have PCI-Express Slots you should think about upgrading to one of the current ATI Boards, like HD4650 or similar.

[JonBunt]

No unfortunately my PC is rather old and it is AGP, so I think a new build is required.

 

I haven't built a new PC for a few years, could anyone give me a few ideas for components that can handle HD easily?

 

I would probably like to house it with my TV, so I guess a Micro Motherboard Model???, in small Case (Maybe Antec 2480), 1TB HDD Make???, Processor ???, RAM ???.

 

Any ideas please feal free to help me out!!!