Do I need a new Desktop/Laptop or can I upgrade?

pendulum

Shut the !!!! up Donnie!

Sorry... been waiting too long to say that.

A 2Ghz single core is an old machine these days. Most people would have ditched by now and upgraded already. I think it's just come to the end of its life. I don't believe its best to waste cash upgrading it. You may be able to add a video card to take away some of the work from the processor, and get it to play the movies, but they won't play smoothly all the way through - you'll get some stutter or imperfections. Just look at the link Bill posted with all those people, with machines MUCH faster than the OPs, struggling to get a good standard of HD playback. To get the best out of HD movies you are going to need a new machine, or totally upgrade the existing system to such an extent that it almost is a new machine.

If he does not mind a less than perfect playback, then maybe a cheap graphics card is the answer, although surely the machine will be replaced in the relatively near future anyway, as it's getting on a bit, so I really doubt upgrading is the best option.

£25 for a graphics card, or £100 (if you bargain hunt) for a used dual core system with a bigger hard drive, faster RAM, with a good graphics card, that would be much faster to use and better than the old system in every way! I know what I'd choose!
Although to be fair you could probably bargain hunt and find a half decent used graphics card for about £10 that's quite good with the HD thing.

Donnie

pendulum wrote: »

Shut the !!!! up Donnie!

Sorry... been waiting too long to say that.

A 2Ghz single core is an old machine these days. Most people would have ditched by now and upgraded already. I think it's just come to the end of its life. I don't believe its best to waste cash upgrading it. You may be able to add a video card to take away some of the work from the processor, and get it to play the movies, but they won't play smoothly all the way through - you'll get some stutter or imperfections. Just look at the link Bill posted with all those people, with machines MUCH faster than the OPs, struggling to get a good standard of HD playback. To get the best out of HD movies you are going to need a new machine, or totally upgrade the existing system to such an extent that it almost is a new machine.

If he does not mind a less than perfect playback, then maybe a cheap graphics card is the answer, although surely the machine will be replaced in the relatively near future anyway, as it's getting on a bit, so I really doubt upgrading is the best option.

£25 for a graphics card, or £100 (if you bargain hunt) for a used dual core system with a bigger hard drive, faster RAM, with a good graphics card, that would be much faster to use and better than the old system in every way! I know what I'd choose!
Although to be fair you could probably bargain hunt and find a half decent used graphics card for about £10 that's quite good with the HD thing.

What a mish-mash of a post. First you appear to be arguing against the simple upgrade, then you suggest the OP pick up an old machine off ebay or the like for £100( a link for the OP would have been helpful), then you suggest picking up an old graphics card from ebay or the like anyway. :rolleyes:

Ahhh... now we know why you have named yourself pendulum

This is a forum in which we can share moneysaving ideas.

It easy to babble on about "bargain hunting for a "used Dual Core" for £100, but actually constructing some useful links for the OP and others to see, is clearly beyond your limits.

So, coming back to your earlier statement, back up your post with actual links to the products stated or Shut the !!!! up....

Another twit is born :rolleyes:

BillScarab

jbreckmckye wrote: »

Couldn't you just convert the AVCHD video into something less demanding, like WMV?

If his current machine is struggluing to play it, converting it will take forever. But it would stand a better chance of playing it if converted.

Donnie, I agree that it's worth giving the machine a 'service' and investigating codecs. I think I said as much in an earlier post.

Whether it's worth spending money on an old machine when that may not resolve the issue is a different matter. Personally I'd try any free options first but if that doesn't do the trick I 'd rather invest in a new PC rather than spend money trying to bring the old one up to scratch.

aj2703

Norman.

My advice would be to get yourself a new PC. Apart from the fact your new pc isn't really upto the job i take it at sometime you are going to want to convert your files to a format that can be played back on a dvd..?. If this is the case you are going to need a more powerfull pc to handle the conversion process. I would advise agains doing a £40 upgrade and get yourself something you know can do the job and handle the processes involved.

It might be wise to post what sort of budjet you would have to buy a new pc and we can advise you bearing in mind you want to view avchd files on the best box to get.

Donnie

aj2703 wrote: »

Norman.

My advice would be to get yourself a new PC. Apart from the fact your new pc isn't really upto the job i take it at sometime you are going to want to convert your files to a format that can be played back on a dvd..?. If this is the case you are going to need a more powerfull pc to handle the conversion process. I would advise agains doing a £40 upgrade and get yourself something you know can do the job and handle the processes involved.

It might be wise to post what sort of budjet you would have to buy a new pc and we can advise you bearing in mind you want to view avchd files on the best box to get.

AVCHD Lite.

The OP asked about playing videos from a Panasonic Digital Still Camera. I would hardly say the best advice was to buy a new computer that costs at least as much as the camera itself in the first instance.

If a cheap upgrade will do what the OP needs it to do, why spend more?

Remember the question? Do I need a new Desktop/Laptop or can I upgrade?

If the OP expressed an interest in editing, I would recommend the purchase of another machine.
Interested in the monitor that the OP is using and whether the OP would like to upgrade that too.

aj2703

Donnie wrote: »

AVCHD Lite.

The OP asked about playing videos from a Panasonic Digital Still Camera. I would hardly say the best advice was to buy a new computer that costs at least as much as the camera itself in the first instance.

If a cheap upgrade will do what the OP needs it to do, why spend more?

Remember the question? Do I need a new Desktop/Laptop or can I upgrade?

If the OP expressed an interest in editing, I would recommend the purchase of another machine.
Interested in the monitor that the OP is using and whether the OP would like to upgrade that too.

[/QUOTE]My PC is a Pentium 4 CPU 2.00GHz
1.90GHz 0.99 GB of Ram[/QUOTE]


Oh don't forget this.

spakkker, never heard of VLC media player. Will that improve things?
I have 7 gb left on my HD (7 of 80)
I use CC cleaner but will look at your suggestion re startup.
The video does play on my PC but in 'slow motion'.

Thanks for the advice.
Below is a report from cpu z

Intel Pentium 4
Windows XP Professional SP3 (Build 2600)
CPU Arch : 1 CPU - 1 Cores - 1 Threads
CPU PSN : Intel Pentium 4 CPU 2.00GHz
CPU EXT : MMX SSE SSE2
CPUID : F.2.4 / Extended : F.2
CPU Cache : L1 : 12 / 8 KB - L2 : 512 KB
Core : Northwood (0.130) / Stepping : B0
Freq : 1899.98 MHz (95 * 20)

MB Brand : Unknown
MB Model : P4i65G
NB : Intel i865P/PE/G/i848P rev A2
SB : Intel 82801EB (ICH5) rev 02

GPU Type : Intel(R) 82865G Graphics Controller
DirectX Version : 9.0c

RAM : 1024 MB DDR Dual Channel
RAM Speed : 126.7 MHz (3:4) @ 2.5-4-4-8
Slot 1 : 512MB (2700)
Slot 1 Manufacturer : Noname
Slot 2 : 512MB (2700)
Slot 2 Manufacturer : Noname

I wonder did you read the post..?:rolleyes:

Upgrade the card..? Hmmm ok if he can find one nowadays that won't be obselete for him within a year, look at the amount of RAM and the frequency it runs at, yep upgrade that too.. Can his board handle it, i doubt that, so upgrade that too.... hmmm probably have to upgrade the psu as i doubt that would be powerful enough for the new components.

Oh yeah don't forget all the programs etc he's probably running which will no doubt be hogging most of the resources. and you say my advice is bad..?

As for the monitor that may not be bad advice if he wants to see the best quality from the video he has taken.

OP my advice stands, your pc really is on the very outer limits of todays needs. I am guessing you are just discovering HD and the sheer quality that gives companred to SD. My advice is get a new system that can handle the tasks you want it to. To buy a new card in the hope it might do the trick is just a waste of money. And also bear in mind that if you decide you want to get into editing or converting the files you will definately need a new system.

pendulum

Donnie wrote: »

What a mish-mash of a post.

You've must have misunderstood me. Donnie, your out of your element.

My post was pretty clear. I think the OP should get a new computer as his old one is outdated. I stated that if he did not mind a less than perfect playback of HD (e.g. some stuttering and whatnot) then he could get a cheap video card off eBay that's supposed to be quite good with HD and try it. But he won't get great results and I don't recommend that option at all.

closed

These HD movies play fine on a P3-1200, 512MB with shared graphics, a P4 is a perfectly adequate pc for most uses, hardly on the outer limits.

https://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/musicandvideo/hdvideo/ContentShowcase.aspx

BillScarab

closed wrote: »

These HD movies play fine on a p3, 1200, 512MB with shared graphics, a p4 is a perfectly adequate pc for most uses, hardly on the outer limits.

https://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/musicandvideo/hdvideo/ContentShowcase.aspx

But they're not AVCHD Lite format! AVCHD and AVCHD Lite are heavy on resources compared to HDV or WMV HD

closed

Norman-B wrote: »

I have had my Desktop for 4 years now and I mainly use it for, visiting this site/Hotukdeals/my football club forum and loading photos of my family (100s of my grandson!) sending emails etc. I also watch BBC iplayer, now and again.

The op has a pc that meets their needs, apart from one specific problem, the easiest and cheapest solution is to convert it, burn to dvd, forget about HD, or spend a few quid on a graphics card. Binning a perfectly working pc is just wasteful.