X200s - 1080p MKV playback?

I'm currently considering getting an x200s with:

- Cpu: C2D SL9400 (1.86GHz, 6MB L2, 1066MHz FSB)
- Screen: 12.1 WXGA+ LED
- HD: 250GB, 5400RPM
- Ram: 2GB, 1 dimm

This will be my "do everything" machine, so if any x200s owners could help answer some questions I have, I'd very much appreciate it!

1) Can the X200s playback 1080p MKV that do not utilize hardware acceleration? I plan on using Media Player Classic + CCCP + CoreAVC.
[I'll see if I can find a decent sample]

2) How noisy does it get when it's under load?

Many thanks in advance!

 

It will play 1080p okay. I used ffdshow, which is a less efficient decoder compared to coreavc, and I still experience no lag. Just make sure to increase the processor's power state to around 50% and you'll be fine.
The fan almost never spins when you are doing light web surfing or document editing. However, it spins quite a bit under load, but the noise level is only a little bit more than ambient noise.

 

I don't have the x200s, but I do have the x200 Tablet which has a very similar base configuration.

1) As a general rule 1080P playback without hardware acceleration is perfectly possible. My reference sample is Elephant's Dream (1080P, h264, AC3) and it plays perfectly fine. High bitrate MKV w/o hardware acceleration generally requires you to let the processor operate at "Adaptive" vs. slow mode.

However, the " Killa Sampla" did not play back acceptably at any processor speed (I also had problems on my quad core desktop with 2x Nvidia 7600GT). It may operate at a profile and/or bitrate that is far above anything normal as NO other file has ever been a problem.

2) The x200 Tablet remains pretty quiet under load, the x200s should be comparable. The use of an SSD can also reduce temperature and noise by a bit as well (although it substantially reduces your ability for media storage).


Side Note 1 - Hardware acceleration using the x4500 is actually more complicated to set up than I thought. The default renderer and codecs for MPC Home-Cinema cannot enable DXVA for the x4500. You need to use the Cyberlink h264 codec (available as part of the free trial of PowerDVD) and tell MPC HC to prefer this codec. Once hardware acceleration is enabled, I can play back 720P h264 files with my processor in slow mode and without going over 25% CPU utilization. Guide to enabling DXVA for various configs.

Side Note 2 - Are you just asking about a worst case scenario, or is there a different reason why you are concerned with 1080P? The resolution and screen size of the x200 series tends to be fully saturated with 720P content, and I think 1080P is probably overkill.

 

Agreed, playing back 1080p on the x200s is overkill.

Worst case scenario is one of the reasons I ask - if I had 1080p mkvs on the x200s, I'd like to know if it is capable of playing it back and doing so without stuttering and the fan generating lots of noise like my previous laptop (MacBook 2.4GHz).

The other reason is that I will be connecting the x200s to an external monitor which is a higher resolution. Currently I have a 20'' 1680x1050 but this may be a higher resolution in future.

Given that it can playback 1080p mkv's ok, I assume there's no problem if it was connected to an external monitor (via the dock, using DisplayPort) with a resolution of 1920x1080?

Thanks again for the great replies - it's been very helpful towards my decision making process!

 

x200 docks dont have dvi out

 

My bad, they have DisplayPort. I've corrected my previous post.

 

Install a recent nightly build of MPC-HC from http://www.xvidvideo.ru/. DXVA will work for h.264 on the G45 then. Although, I had no problem playing back videos on CPU alone, but I get much longer battery with the hardware acceleration.

 

Glad to hear that a recent nightly of MPC-HC works with the G45. I really had no desire to use the Cyberlink codec, but I do appreciate the improved battery life when using DXVA.


EDIT - I just tested build 1.2.104 of MPC-HC. It only half works with DXVA. Some of the more common h264 MKVs are properly accelerated. However, I have several files that are not accelerated by this version of MPC-HC but ARE ACCELERATED when the Cyberlink codec is used. Therefore, I recommend using the Cyberlink codec at least for the immediate future.