Celeron j1800 performance in video playback?

[jaslion]

Hey I got the option to get a celeron j1800 system (some random small dell thingy) for 30€ from a friends aunt. She no longer uses it since she started gaming on pc.

Now I was at first like hey that would be a nifty little media pc for the kitchen tv. But then I recembered how bad these actually are. Do you think it could playback blu-rays/1080p streams (netflix,youtube,...)?

30€ ain't much but if it isn't worth spending then I'll skip.

 

[krzyimprt]

Hey I got the option to get a celeron j1800 system (some random small dell thingy) for 30€ from a friends aunt. She no longer uses it since she started gaming on pc.

Now I was at first like hey that would be a nifty little media pc for the kitchen tv. But then I recembered how bad these actually are. Do you think it could playback blu-rays/1080p streams (netflix,youtube,...)?

30€ ain't much but if it isn't worth spending then I'll skip.

CPU has a passmark score of 1,000 and a single score of 500. An average i3 has a 5000+ and 4x the single threaded performance. j1800 is equivalent to a potato. Would it play 1080p video's in VLC? more than likely.

 

[photonboy]

That CPU appears to have hardware acceleration so that it can do a HARDWARE DECODE of the following video codecs:

H.264
VC1
MPEG2 (i.e. DVD-Video)

So it probably will support Youtube decoding via it's hardware decoder, DVD-Video... and various media. Even if it can't do hardware decode many videos will likely decode via the CPU just fine. It's not super powerful as a CPU but most video isn't that demanding even in software decode.

I like to use K-Lite (Standard) over VLC for general video playback: https://www.codecguide.com/download_kl.htm

Not sure about BLURAY as there's also HDCP (high definition content protection) though buying the BD media software and BD player probably isn't a great idea if you want to watch BluRays.

A standalone BluRay player would be best (and compatible monitor/HDTV).

30pnds isn't that much for a PC like that even if it's just something to mess around with.

 

[jaslion]

That CPU appears to have hardware acceleration so that it can do a HARDWARE DECODE of the following video codecs:

H.264
VC1
MPEG2 (i.e. DVD-Video)

So it probably will support Youtube decoding via it's hardware decoder, DVD-Video...

Not sure about BLURAY as there's also HDCP (high definition content protection) though buying the BD media software and BD player probably isn't a great idea if you want to watch BluRays.

A standalone BluRay player would be best (and compatible monitor/HDTV).

I always (when possible) rip my blurays and put them on my network disk. It may be a 50gb file but was I happy I did that when My BBC earth disks got damaged by a faulty ps3 bluray drive. O well nothing lost I guess.

 

[photonboy]

That CPU appears to have hardware acceleration so that it can do a HARDWARE DECODE of the following video codecs:

H.264
VC1
MPEG2 (i.e. DVD-Video)

So it probably will support Youtube decoding via it's hardware decoder, DVD-Video...

Not sure about BLURAY as there's also HDCP (high definition content protection) though buying the BD media software and BD player probably isn't a great idea if you want to watch BluRays.

A standalone BluRay player would be best (and compatible monitor/HDTV).

I always (when possible) rip my blurays and put them on my network disk. It may be a 50gb file but was I happy I did that when My BBC earth disks got damaged by a faulty ps3 bluray drive. O well nothing lost I guess.

I've ripped a lot of BluRays too.

The video format is usually VC-1, sometimes H264, rarely MPEG2 and I believe your CPU can decode them all.

I use the above KLite software to watch my videos. When you install make sure Hardware Acceleration is enabled (or use the default/fastest install as it's on by default).

Relinked: https://www.codecguide.com/download_kl.htm

I don't foresee any big issues getting this to work. If it stutters just go back and make sure your video player is using HW acceleration.

*Also, I'm only at 7% usage on my i7-3770K (3.4GHz at this moment) watching a BluRay rip of AVATAR (no compression). I've got 2x the cores and hyperthreading but still I think K-Lite (with MPC-HC player) is super efficient even without HW acceleration.

I'm NOT using HW acceleration. Just the CPU to do software decode.

OTHER:
a) I use a WDMYCLOUD device to copy my movies too. It's attached to the router via Ethernet which lets any PC or media device access it.

On my PC I either navigate to it via File Manager-> Network-> storage-> WDMYCLOUD-> "open", or use the program KODI (from MS Store and linked on Start Menu).

b) just FYI, but a lot (most?) videos since around 2013 have Cinavia watermark protection so will get muted at times when playing on any BluRay player made from 2013 on (even if streamed too device. even if audio format is converted)

 

[photonboy]

BTW, HANDBRAKE is a really great program for compressing content.

You can compress to roughly 4GB per hour using H264 without seeing any obvious difference in quality. That's probably about 10,000Kbps (Kilo-bits-per-second).

Often 6,000Kbps is adequate for movies too (even sitting close to screen) to not be able to see a difference. I've used lower for cartoon style media. I experimented with H265/HEVC but most of my devices can't play it so it's not worth the effort to save roughly HALF the space when a 4TB HDD isn't too expensive now.

(I have a 4TB WDMYCLOUD and 4TB USB backup to that so my hours of ripping aren't lost)

For some content you can go lower even but I'm too lazy to analyze every video so I generally stick with that (and passthrough the audio or convert to Dolby Digital... I convert audio like DTS HD or similar that's not supported over my range of devices).

You may not care, but here's the SETTINGS I use as I've found problems if some of them are incorrect:

Handbrake (MAKEMKV file extracted first)->

- container (MKV)
- 1920x1080
- anamorphic (none)

- filters (none/off)
- H.264
- framerate (same as source)
- Normal (speed)
- Level v4.2
- 3,000KBps to 15,000Kbps (or as appropriate)
- 2-pass, YES
- Turbo 1st-pass, YES

- auto-passthrough audio, AAC, or whatever
- subtitles (uncheck/delete unless applicable)
- chapters (YES)

There's a great tool called MKVToolnix I 've used for years and you can drag a video into that to remove audio/subs (or add subs) but i also use it sometimes to extract a small part of the video so I can play around with COMPRESSING. I'll use a suitable 2-minute segment then try different bitrates, compression settings etc to see what's optimal.

*I just checked and my Harry Potter rips (which look identical to the BluRay versions to me with CAREFUL comparison) are about 6,500Kbps.

My Lord of the Rings rips are 12Kbps. Probably over-kill a bit but I did note that up close they were the best QUALITY video I have from BluRay. Probably due to filming with DIGITAL to start and good encoding job to BluRay, whereas Harry Potter (even if filmed digital) is often grainy and generally poor quality up close though perfectly fine from a distance.

I have a hard time imagining more than 15Kbps would be noticeable (with the other settings correct) even for 4K source files.