# will this rig play 720p? using Linux?



## bkdude (Sep 29, 2008)

I have a rig that i put together using parts bought from yard sales, RAM from ebay, and a HD scrapped from a dead laptop, and this is what it equates to:

KT4V MSI motherboard
Athlon 2600+ XP (I believe it runs at ~2ghz)
Sapphire x1600 Pro
2 Gb DDR 333 RAM
40 GB Toshiba HD
Onboard sound
Cheap DVD player
500 watt JPAC PSU
Havent put an OS on it yet.

I was wondering if all this could play 720p movies smoothly using a streamline distro of Linux or XP. I know the CPU alone will have problems doing this, but if I can find some software using video card hardware acceleration, I'm positive it will be able to do this. I'll be using a 7-pin s-video YPbPr cable to deliver the signal to my TV

I don't have any experience using Linux, but I'm willing to learn.

Any help will be greatly appreciated :grin:

(Even if this dosen't work, I could still play standard res things, since thats what most of my Anime is composed of )


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## bkdude (Sep 29, 2008)

Well, I have the whole computer setup, and it works alright (haven't tried 720p but xp installed w/o problem) but I noticed theres no blue output -_-

Im going to see if I can fix this...


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## SpaceTraveler (May 27, 2006)

hey dude,
You're not going to get HD video out of s-video from the video card. See if your HDTV has a 15-pin computer input. If it does, you can buy a computer monitor cord, both ends have to be 15-pin male. 

Does this video card have DVI? Does your TV have HDMI inputs? You can buy a DVI-to-HDMI cable from most local retailers (much cheaper online). 

As for playing HD video in Linux, I have no experience with that


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## bkdude (Sep 29, 2008)

Standard S-video does not offer HD, but 7-pin offers Component, which goes up to 1080i.

Even then, the cable didn't work very well (no blue output), so I bought a DVI to Component adapter, and it works.

(for clarification, Component uses YPbPr, and appears as three Composite cables colored red, green, and blue. YPbPr is a converted variant of RGB used in many HDTVs)

I tried playing a 720p movie using that configuration using XP and media player classic home cinema, and it worked well for about 10 minutes, but I began getting bad visual lag.

I'm going to try some other programs in the meantime to see if they work...


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