Can I watch HD videos with my system?

My system is in my Sig. If I download 1080p quality videos, will my hardware keep up with it?

 

I think you'll be fine...

If you want to check, download some free videos from www.wmvhd.com
The direct link is here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/musicandvideo/hdvideo/contentshowcase.aspx

That might help you out, as they have vids of all sizes there.

 

i just finished downloading the Bourne Ultimatum trailor in 1080p format and it seemed to ran fine, wow it looks great.

What type of monitor/resolution does HD need to be considered HD?

 

1080p = 1920x1080
720p = 1280x720

Even if you don't have high enough resolution monitor, it will downscale just a little.

 

does that resolution count if its an older crt monitor too?

 

Yup it does. But might as well stick to the resolution that matches your monitor resolution the most.

Like my laptop is 1280x800 screen resolution, so there isn't much point of using 1080p (1900x1080 res!) Where as the 1280x720p (720p) is adequate.

 

You should just make sure you enable aspect-ratio control. Even 720p looks great on a monitor that is 1920x1200.

 

aspect ratio control? explain please...

 

Sorry, for lack of a better term. It will stretch/shrink the video until it gets as big as possible but still not distort the 16:9 image.

 

Wont make things get streched out of porportion. Like make the images wider or taller to fit the screen, Keeps the width and height the same as it makes the image bigger till one of those sizes reaches the size of your screen.

I think your specs are good for most 1080p content. There are diffrent ways to encode it, some are much harder on a computer than others.

So if one or two videos run perfect, it doesnt mean the next 3 will, due to the format they are encoded in.

The remedy to that doesnt have to be a better computer tho, just a better codec to decode the videos.

Nvidias advertised codec is purevideo, while I forget the name of AMD's at the moment. they make your gpu take a big part of the workload vs a standard codec with has the cpu doing all the work. This can make playback much smoother and also allow your computer to keep doing other tasks with minimal effort.

 

Well but if I have a 1920x1200 native screen resolution then I rather use the full 1080p! Just saying that one should use the one that matches closes to their actual resolution. Changing the aspect-ratio does work but it still wouldn't look as good.

 

Yes 720 should be more than adiquate for a notebook screen, 1080 is really meant for big tvs in the 40"+ range.

I use a 37" HD LCD for my desktop monitor native res 1920x1080 and I cant tell the diffrence from 720 and 1080 when im 3ft away from it. Shrink that down to a 17" screen and ... 1080 is pointless except for piece of mind (but most hd-dvd or bluray is 1080p)