Best video card for blu ray playback on a budget ~$75

[moblati461]

Hey there guys, I've been skimming through the threads here learning about video cards and such. Most of the questions and reviews are for gaming oriented cards. I recently bought an HDTV and am thinking of getting a blu ray drive for my computer and start watching more high def video.

I currently have a Radeon 4350 and obviously I get major lag when playing back blu ray.

So my question is what is the best video card for smooth video playback, On a budget of 75 or less?
Hopefully a card of what i'm looking for in that price rang exists. The lower the better, 75 is my max. Thanks for any help.

 

[rolli59]

The HD4350 should not have any problem with blue ray! What is the rest of your system?

 

[moblati461]

I was just peeking around and saw it might be my CPU not being able to handle the load.
I have an AMD 7750 2.7 dual core for my CPU, 4gb of ram, Board is gigabyte ma770-ud3.

 

[belial2k]

Double check your software settings and CCC settings. Most likely the problems are being caused by software issues.

 

[jyjjy]

Yeah, the card and cpu should be fine.

 

[moblati461]

Hmm, Ok. Anything i'm looking for in particular?
BTW I currently have a 2 monitor setup, VGA for my monitor and DVI to HDMI for my TV. Dunno if that makes a difference.

Gonna peak around my settings now.

EDIT: Changed the settings to optimal performance and got much smoother playback. Still a little jittery though, Im using VLC to play it and playing Digital Video Essentials HD DVD to try and calibrate my TV.

 

[jaguarskx]

I would actually go for a HD 4550 or HD 4650. Even just for watching video I would tend to avoid "scraping the bottom of the barrel" because they tend to skim on some features and also not offload as much decoding from the CPU as slightly "higher end" cards.

See following:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/video/display/media-playback.html

As a caveat, what qualifies as good video quality can be subjective.

 

[moblati461]

Thanks, Thats a great reference. Exactly the kind of info I was looking to get. Looking at the charts, a 3400 is a pretty solid card for watching videos. Im still considering if upgrading to a 4550 would be worth the upgrade.
I'm still tampering with the settings in catalyst control center, It's gotten better. Planet earth on blu ray plays almost perfect with certain scenes lagging, Digital Video Essentials HD DVD still lags pretty bad though.

Thanks for the help.