ATI Avivo HD & Nvidia Purevideo HD

[aatf510]

Okay. With all these Nvidia and ATI marketing about Video decoding acceleration.

How do we actually take advantage of them?
Let's say I have a Radeon 4870 or a GTX 280.
What sort of software player do I need?
Do Purevideo & Avivo only works when I watch a DVD or Blu-ray movie?
What about video in other format such as those WMV, MKV, DIVX (which most online videos are in), am I out of luck with them?

 

[ViRGE]

DIVX (MPEG-4 ASP) is not usually accelerated. WMV is accelerated only by ATI cards (not that it's terribly punishing). MKV can be anything, although usually it contains H.264. H.264 can be accelerated by both cards, as long as you have the right software. Either Media Player Classic: Home Cinema (built-in codec) or PowerDVD (DirectShow codec that can be used inside and outside the application proper) would do the trick as far as software is concerned.

 

[RallyMaster]

Wait...does mean I'll be able to hardware accelerate those MKVs when I get my HD3850 when I get it?

 

[ViRGE]

Sure. As long as you have the proper codec and the H.264 stream itself is standards compliant so that the decoding hardware will accept it.