Looking for a budget graphics card that will allow me to process full HD video

[roccenstein]

Any suggestions?  I've got an older system but can't spring for a new one just now.  My camcorder can shoot full HD video, but it's very choppy when viewed on my PC.  I'm looking for a (fairly) inexpensive graphics card that will allow me to play and edit full HD video.  There are so many to choose from though that I don't know where to start...

[Geek-9pm]

You must have already asked this question  elsewhere or did d Google.
If you are looking just under $300 there are some good ones. But does your budget tallow that?

What do you mean by HD? You mean it a reproduce HD?
Or do you mean the card itself has hardware that integrate into video editing software? If so,m what software does that?

From  eHow:

Because high definition video is so popular, video editing programs have adapted to accommodate it. If you have footage from an HD camera that you want to edit on your computer, you should have no trouble importing it in the same way you import your non-HD footage.
Read more: How to Edit HD Video | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_8323636_edit-hd-video.html#ixzz1w1Mm7W60

Am I missing something?  Don't all current video cards playback HD?

[roccenstein]

I asked a similar question before but couldn't find the original post.

What I mean by HD is that I've had problems with my current setup being able to play back full HD video from my camcorder.  It will play, but it's really jumpy, and the only way I can get it to play smoothly is to lower the settings on the camera.  I just want to be able to smoothly play and edit full HD recordings from my camcorder.

[Geek-9pm]

You hardware is:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 CPU
Gigabyte M57SLI mobo
Nvidia 8400 GS
3 GB RAM
160 GB internal HD
500 GB external HD
Dual DVD RW drives
Pinnacle PCTV 800i TV card
LG 22 inch widescreen monitor

I see what you mean.  You would expect top performance from what you have. That is all good stuff.  Do you you the Pinnacle for video input? If so,  I doubt the the Nvidia 8400 GS  is the problem. My guess is the Pinnacle PCTV 800i TV card is the weak link in the chain.

But I am not the video expert.
Maybe somebody else knows about this.

[roccenstein]

I'm no expert either  that's why I'm asking here...

I had figured my video card was my weak link, but if anyone has any other suggestions I'd love to hear them.

Regarding the Pinnacle, I was using it as a TV input or to connect an old VCR to digitize old home movies, but I just transfer video files from the camcorder to the PC via USB cable.

[Computer_Commando]

I would guess that the standard video mode of the camcorder does not match that of the video card.  "Full HD" doesn't mean much.  See this:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-definition_video
Scroll down to the charts on Video Modes.

[roccenstein]

So what I'm referring to then is 1080p.  When shooting a video with the highest possible settings on my camcorder, the video plays back fine on the camera and when I connect the camera directly to my TV, but when I upload the videos at max settings to my computer, they do not play smoothly.

[Geek-9pm]

Are you playing the video from the camera? Or are you reading the video from a file?
Doing some research, the consensus seems  to be you must upload the video to a file and then you will have steady playback and editing.
If the camera supports SD card, you take the SD card out of the camera, put it in you card reader, copy it to you hard drive.
While reading from a file software makes corrections for frame rate errors . Example: the camera may be running at 59.5 fields per second, but the video card wants exactly 60 fields per second.The correlation  is better when reading from a file, the software just speeds up the rate to 60 fps and does do have to add a field.