[MPlayer-users] H.264 and advice on new hardware.

[Mathieu Monnier]

Hi,

At the moment, the best software solution is using CoreAvc. It's by far 
the fastest h264 decoder ( faster by 50% ), and the only one that 
actually allows realtime decoding of anything that is not interlaced ( 
on my computer, a amd 64 3200 + ). It's even faster than any current 
decoder using GF acceleration ( I'm beginning to sound like an ad guy, 
which I'm not ). Drawbacks : not available on linux (yet), not open source.

Lavc won't be able to decode high bitrate 1080p video in realtime, 
whatever the computer. And there are still a lot of optimizations needed 
  in order to do so ( and even so, in it's current architecture, it 
might not be possible ). On my computer, it chokes on 1080p content as 
soon as the bitrate gets a little too high ( one of the hardest : 
http://trailers.nerodigital.com/Disney/TheGreatestGame_HD_AVC.mp4, 
another one : siryana trailer from apple, where bitrate surges to 40 mbps ).

So, in the current state, I think Windows is alas mandatory.

Regards,

Mathieu