Yes, of course (although it's possible that your motherboard has integrated graphics, in that case the monitor is plugged into the motherboard).

Also be aware of the different slot types used for video cards, including (listed from worst to best):

• PCI
• AGP
• PCI-E x16
• PCI-E 2.0 x16

Get the best your motherboard supports (see the manual that came with it).

THanks, all. Well I got the new card today (the g-force/invidia 220 with 1Gb of RAM) and it has not made one IOTA of difference! There must be something I have missed out. Do I need the new fancy type of cable for this thing? I am still using the old vga cable from many years ago. Could that be the problem? Also the old graphics card did turn out to be integrated in the mother board. Gee, am I gutted! Not only that but my internet connection keeps cutting out for hours on end - although I don't mean to imply any connection between the two faults.

The cable has nothing to do with this.

It just constantly sends pixel data at a fixed rate not matter what it being displayed.

There are many things it could be, but for sure that new card CAN play HD videos.

Some things to check (maybe in order):

1) Install latest nvidia drivers and compile mplayer with vdpau support (automatically detected if you installed the drivers first).

2) Make sure that there are no filesystem I/O scheduler issues or kernel latency issues. Post what filesystem you are using, what kernel (custom ?).

Sorry TM, you've lost me already. I'm still trying to figure out number 1 above and the first half of number 2. I'm not technically-gifted as you well know. When I have compiled programs in the past, if they have not been my single-page C source efforts, I have only ever used make & configure so have never got my hands dirty so to speak. The video files are .mts ones and the filesystem will be ext.3 probably or maybe ext.4 if that's what Mint 9 uses. I plan to use Kdenlive for the editing which I believe works well with Mint/Ubuntu.

I don't know what nvidia drivers Mint has by default, but you should install these:
http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html

Choose the latest stable for your architecture. It may be in the package repo, so check there first. If it isn't you can compile it yourself by running the executable bin when Xorg is not online ... yes, it may be complicated, so check the repo.

When you say 'install these' I am guessing you mean just ONE of 'these', right? I have picked the most appropriate one from the list.

A search of the repository here shows no hits for 'nvidia' - and a few other popular chipsets - for any version, so I am guessing the search feature is busted.

Forgive me for my ignorance, but what am I supposed to recompile? The kernel or the entire distro source?

Ok TM, you obviously thought that question was too dumb to respond to. No matter! You are probably right. I will look further into it in the morning. I have been very tired this evening indeed and no doubt make even less sense than usual.

Actually, I didn't think the question was dumb, I simply went to sleep after that

There's a guide here on how to install it:
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=13914

Or you can do what I do on machines that start in init 4.

You probably have to use sudo on Ubuntu-based systems, so just run sudo like they do in the link above.

As for compiling, that's exactly what you are doing when you install these drivers. The drivers install by compiling an nvidia driver module for the current kernel, that's why you need the kernel sources and headers installed to be able to do this. This is also why you must re-install the nvidia driver every time you change the kernel.

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Ok, thanks. I shall give it a try later today and if my net connection permits - which is unlikely by recent experience - I will report back in due course.

I happened upon this simple method outlined here: http://community.linuxmint.com/tutorial/view/136 which is a simpler solution for those lucky enough to have an internet connection up on the machine in question. I'm not. I'm being forced to use a flakey dongle where I am in Germany currently, which is surprisingly third-world telecoms-wise, so there's little choice.

Currently the nvidia driver installs vdpau, but the beta and higher versions will no longer install it. I guess this is why they added installing vdpau separately to that howto.

Sigh... I think I am going to have to admit defeat on this one, TM. I am simply out of my depth (again). Even with advice from here. I am sorely tempted to go out and buy Windows 7 and Magix Movie Edit Pro with out-of-the-box support for full HD and no messin' around. I never realized upgrading to a HD camcorder would have such expensive knock-on consequences. Still, at least I bought a graphics card from a Linux-friendly manufacturer, so it's not all bad.
Any final last ditch suggestions before I take the green folding stuff down the tech store and make Mr. Gates a few dollars richer?

Though I should point out in my own defense that the factor that has hobbled me the most with this issue is the lack of an ethernet connection. That really has put the boot in!

So what exactly do you not understand?