I have an old HP Pavilion p6-2100 with an AMD A4 A4-3420 CPU and I am trying to dedicate it to Plex and Stremio. When I use it with Stremio the CPU is pegged and there is a lot of lag between the video and the sound. Would updating it with a new video card resolve this?

  • Alphane Moon@lemmy.worldM
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    2 days ago

    What content (codec, resolution) are you working with? The iGPU should support x264/Xvid hardware acceleration.

    Can you validate that hardware acceleration is working?

    I am assuming the CPU is going to struggle with 1080p x265 (let alone AV1), so if you have x265 countent, you’ll need a cheap, somewhat recent dGPU.

    • floppingfish@lemmy.worldOP
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      2 days ago

      Thanks for your thoughts, but I’m sorry I am a noob, and I don’t understand most of your comments.

      I’m streaming shows on Stremio, I select 1080p feeds and each has latency. I checked the System Monitor and the CPU is pegged at 100%. As I understand it the graphics are integrated with the CPU. My hope was that if I got a decent video card (such as AMD Radeon RX 550) that would take enough of the load to eliminate the lag. Is this a good approach or is this pc just too old?

      • Alphane Moon@lemmy.worldM
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        2 days ago

        Hehe, all good.

        I was wondering why your CPU is at 100% and if you are actually using using your integrated graphics to play the video.

        I am speculating whether you even need to buy a GPU, perhaps it is possible to enable your player to explicitly use integrated graphics to play video content.

        Maybe check the player settings, something about hardware acceleration settings.

        Hopefully, that makes a bit more sense. :)

        • floppingfish@lemmy.worldOP
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          2 days ago

          It does make more sense, thanks. I will check the player settings tonight, especially around hardware acceleration. Thanks again.

          • floppingfish@lemmy.worldOP
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            1 day ago

            I looked into the settings, located and turned on hardware acceleration. I tried watching a show this morning and it worked. I left the show going while I did some chores and, unfortunately, when I came back to it the program was locked up. I’ll try it again tonight (and look into what ‘hardware acceleration’ means ) :-)

            Thanks!