I just bought a used computer as a Media Center PC. I am using Kubuntu on it, but I'm having some serious performance issues. The system is a P4 3GHz, 2GB RAM, Nvidia Quadro FX 540. I can play most video fine, but I have several high def movies ripped to my hard drive (720p mkv videos). The video is completely trashed; it plays okay when there is little motion, but otherwise it freezes or is really pixelated. I have heard that the Nvidia drivers don't support "Purevideo" (I guess decoding on the GPU), so the processor has to do all the work. The CPU runs 90-100% when trying to watch 720p videos.
Is there any way to utilize the GPU at all. I would be willing to upgrade the GPU to something that would be able to, although I don't want to spend a ton of money. A friend suggested that ATI might support decoding in their Linux drivers now. Could someone give me some advice on where to go?
As a side-note, I have a laptop with a Core 2 Duo 2GHz, 2GB Ram, Nvidia Quadro FX 570m that plays any high-def great, and the processor usage is only 10-15%. Is that the GPU, graphics driver, or the CPU being way more efficient?
Thanks for the help.
Is there any way to utilize the GPU at all. I would be willing to upgrade the GPU to something that would be able to, although I don't want to spend a ton of money. A friend suggested that ATI might support decoding in their Linux drivers now. Could someone give me some advice on where to go?
As a side-note, I have a laptop with a Core 2 Duo 2GHz, 2GB Ram, Nvidia Quadro FX 570m that plays any high-def great, and the processor usage is only 10-15%. Is that the GPU, graphics driver, or the CPU being way more efficient?
Thanks for the help.
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