I'm new to the whole h.264 scene, and I've been looking and looking, but I have yet to find out the best way to do the following: I've tried to play some MKV files that are in 1080p on my HTPC, and they run just awful... the video is choppy, looking like I'm doing a slow fast forward, going frame by frame, while the audio runs at full speed. But the mkv files I run that are in 720p run beautifully. My assumption is that my HTPC is an older unit, and it requires too much processor power for the 1080 to run correctly (this is going off of the fact that my newer Dual Core 3ghz runs it right, but this P4 3ghz HT cannot... I do want to note that the Dual Core is running on a 22-inch monitor at 1680x1050, while my HTPC is on a 52-inch LCD at 1920x1080) So is there a way to reduce a 1080 mkv file to 720 so that the playback is adequete? Or is there some other setting I should look at (screen resolution, codec, etc.) that may allow for adequete playback? Any help and/or info on this matter is greatly appreciated.
Not really, it would need to be re-encoded. Do note you may be able to get the results you need with one of the new ATI/ HD series vidcards. They handle all the work and are not expensive plus they have HDMI and 5.1 audio. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102757 My Gigagbyte/AMD MOBO ($90) with onboard ATI HD3200 series video plays everything I throw at it using an AMD dual core 2.6 Ghz cpu.
