Digital Home Thoughts: H.264 Blu-ray Requires Major Horsepower

"We've been hearing for quite some time now that Blu-ray and HDDVD movies could prove to be too much for today's desktop microprocessors; today we finally have the proof. X-Men: The Last Stand encoded using the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC High Profile at 1080p requires more processing power to decode than affordable dual core CPUs can handle. We are at a point where GPU decode acceleration is essentially required with all but the highest end processors in order to achieve an acceptable level of quality while watching HD content on the PC... As for recommendations, based on our testing, we would not suggest anything less than an Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 for use in a system designed to play HD content. The E6400 may work well enough, but not even the 8800 GTX can guarantee zero dropped frames on the E6300. ATI owners will want to lean more towards an E6700 processor, but can get away with the E6600 in a pinch. But keep in mind that X-Men: The Last Stand is only one of the first H.264 movies to come out. We may see content that is more difficult to decode in the future, and faster processors are definitely a good place to pad your performance to ensure a quality HD experience on the PC."

Those of you looking forward to the day you can afford a Blu-ray or HD-DVD drive for your PC should take note: Your current PC probably won't do it. I know mine won't. It would sputter, cough, then BSD. :wink: Personally, I'm thinking HD-DVD on Xbox connected to my MCE in the other room is the way to go. Large as my monitor is, it's still a bit smaller than my TV. My PC has more important things to do anyway. :)