Should i try to get a CPU with HD 4000?

[FuturDreamz]

My current setup has a Pentium G620 (HD Graphics 1000), which runs fairly well except for a few major drawbacks:

When I want to watch Blu-Ray movies, PowerDVD's interface has some really annoying stuttering. skipping ahead or ff/rw also is somewhat unstable

If I want to convert a movie, it takes well over 6 hours to do so.

(see disclosure) Watching .mkv's on my XBOX via WMC is slightly unstable, as it'll lock up if I try to fast forward or rewind 1080p videos (I don't know exactly how this works, but I'm pretty sure the computer converts the .mkv to an XBOX-compatible format before streaming to the XBOX)

SO basically I'd like to upgrade. If I had known beforehand that the Pentium wouldn't be up to snuff enough I'd had gone for the i3-2105 (or 2125 if I can find it), Since it has HD 2000 and Quick Sync (which I think would solve my problems). But since I'm upgrading, I'd want something superior enough to make it worthwhile. That's also why I'm waiting for Ivy Bridge, even though it's fairly similar to SB.

I don't think the details for the IB graphics are finalized, but I think I read that the 2500 was supposed to be the 2000 but with DX 11, OCL 1.1, and one or two more channels. But the 4000 is supposed to be a lot more powerful, and might futureproof me a bit if I decided to go into gaming.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I have an i-5 2500 which has Intel HD 2000 integrated graphics.

I don't game beyond the occasional hot game of Pong, but I have no problems with it for general video viewing purposes.

I'm not sure how much better the Intel HD 3000 (on the Intel 2600 processor if I recall correctly) is in actual practice. Most 2600 users have discrete video cards.

If I was really concerned about gaming performance, I'd just get a discrete card anyway.

 

[FuturDreamz]

mostly I'm looking for just seamless playback. would something with HD 2500 defiantly be able to use PowerDVD or stream to an xbox without stuttering?

 

[GianniDPC]

Try VLC Media Player: VideoLAN - Official page for VLC media player, the Open Source video framework!
Maybe this will work this can even play 1080P on my old Pentium 4 Dell

 

[FuturDreamz]

Try VLC Media Player: VideoLAN - Official page for VLC media player, the Open Source video framework!
Maybe this will work this can even play 1080P on my old Pentium 4 Dell

...But will it stream to an XBOX without a bunch of fiddling with settings?

and your old Pentium Dell might've had a dedicated video card; you didn't say.

 

[DeaconFrost]

The stuttering on an Xbox wouldn't have anything to do with the computer, aside from network issues. If you have Windows 7, you don't need any extra software to stream videos to your Xbox. Media Center will do it.

 

[FuturDreamz]

The stuttering on an Xbox wouldn't have anything to do with the computer, aside from network issues. If you have Windows 7, you don't need any extra software to stream videos to your Xbox. Media Center will do it.

I thought Media Centre re encoded video before streaming to the XBOX? That's why I can play .mkvs when I have the shark codecs installed on the computer, and why all the instructions for getting the subtitles on the xbox working is by tweaking settings on the computer.

 

[DeaconFrost]

My Xbox pulls the file directly from my computer and plays it. I use the most common method, though....using Handbrake 0.9.3 and the Xbox 360 profile to make an .mp4 file. Those files play natively on Windows 7 as well.

 

[FuturDreamz]

...but will I be able to save the subtitles?

I'd like to be able to enable them on the XBOX, without permanently burning them in.

 

[FuturDreamz]

Seems like the XBOX does not support subtitles AT ALL, so it seems like I'd either have to keep two copies of the movie (which will get old quick) or have the computer stream the videos with the subtitles already encoded in.

 

[DeaconFrost]

I can't give much help with that, because I intentionally remove all subtitles when I rip a DVD.