ATI H.264 Decoder is Up for Download

[Chocolate Pi]

On their main site, about to download it myself now.

EDIT: WAIT ONE COTTON-PICKING SECOND! What's this about "trial", why is there a "buy now" button?!? I thought ATI told Anandtech it was gonna be FREE!

 

[imported_ST]

Originally posted by: Chocolate Pi
On their main site, about to download it myself now.

EDIT: WAIT ONE COTTON-PICKING SECOND! What's this about "trial", why is there a "buy now" button?!? I thought ATI told Anandtech it was gonna be FREE!

Guess ATI pulled a "PureVideo" on everyone!

 

[Chocolate Pi]

Alright, it isn't working at all and makes me want to stab things.

I downloaded the trial. Big deal, I got a new skin for WMP. It didn't change the way it plays movies at all! Windows Media Player doesn't even recognize .mov files period, so how the heck am I even supposed to try H.264 content in the first place?

 

[xtknight]

I suppose people never understand that royalties need to be paid for CSS-decoding MPEG-2 acceleration. You don't have to pay for the WMV acceleration part of PureVideo. Just because ATI's MPEG-2 decoder is free doesn't mean they aren't paying the royalties. A comparable X1800XL still costs at least $50 (usually ~$80) more than a 7800GT.

This however is indeed a ripoff. I'm pretty sure no royalties need to be paid just for general usage of the H.264 codec.

 

[boyRacer]

this would be pretty useless if you don't have an R520 right?

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: bR
this would be pretty useless if you don't have an R520 right?

Not sure but I think this only works for R520 cards. There is no mention of that though. Well it says AVIVO, and R4xx isn't AVIVO? so I guess it's useless for R4xx cards.

I hope NVIDIA will show them how it's done and release their H.264 acceleration free at least, and if we're lucky ATI will follow suit. That is...if it ever gets here. It's sad it takes a competitor to convince them though, really. What is it with these video card companies and their freaking video capabilities. There's always some dumbass catch22. How about they don't claim it and boast about it until it's actually downloadable in retail state and 100% tested, and without extra charge (except for CSS decoding of which they have no control).

I thought the Catalyst 5.13s had H.264 decoding in them. Turns out they just implement the functions so other paid software can expose it. But don't worry, it is possible there will be some free codec that takes advantage of ATI's H.264 DXVA, "illegally" or not.

 

[bjc112]

BS if they do not release a free version.

That was one of the reasons I snatched a x1800xt

 

[bjc112]

I did not see a drop in CPU usage at all with 1080p/i

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: bjc112
I did not see a drop in CPU usage at all with 1080p/i

What about if you download the trial of the H.264 decoder?

 

[Chocolate Pi]

Can anyone possibly explainto me how ATI expects us to play H.264 QUICKTIME movies in Windows Media Player?

Because, you know, they aren't really compatible.

 

[bjc112]

Originally posted by: xtknight

Originally posted by: bjc112
I did not see a drop in CPU usage at all with 1080p/i

What about if you download the trial of the H.264 decoder?

I have downloaded it already..

King Kong in 1080p runs GREAT, mainly @ about 35% CPU usage, it still hits upwards of 55% which means If I was running single core, I would get some studdering..



I was expecting CPU usage to be at maybe 10-15%

Guess it turns out it is not a big deal! ( The release of the decoder )

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: Chocolate Pi
Can anyone possibly explainto me how ATI expects us to play H.264 QUICKTIME movies in Windows Media Player?

Because, you know, they aren't really compatible.

Sure, they are perfectly compatible with each other. And any regular media player can benefit from DXVA.

 

[Chocolate Pi]

Since when can you play .mov files in Windows Media Player! I know I've never been able to, and certainly can't right now. Microsoft has a file type page that lists .mov and .qt as an unplayable files designed only for Quicktime.

 

[CalamitySymphony]

Bittorent.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: Chocolate Pi
Since when can you play .mov files in Windows Media Player! I know I've never been able to, and certainly can't right now. Microsoft has a file type page that lists .mov and .qt as an unplayable files designed only for Quicktime.

They are not supported out-of-the-box, no. But when you install Quicktime it also installs a general purpose codec that any player can use. WMP will automatically search for all compatible codecs. You may get a message like "WMP doesn't guarantee it can play this", but if you click Yes, it'll play.

 

[Chocolate Pi]

Uh...... nope. I even just re-installed Quicktime. Windows Media Player does not have .mov as a selectable option, and even if you select a .mov file by displaying all file types it encounters a vague error in finding the proper codec.

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: bjc112
BS if they do not release a free version.

That was one of the reasons I snatched a x1800xt

Isn't the deal with these video decoders that ATI and nVidia have to pay licensing fees? If so why do you think you will get them free?

 

[xtknight]

Something's not registering properly. Maybe Quicktime doesn't, but Quicktime Alternative will. All you have to do though is tell WMPlayer what to do. Paste into a reg file and merge in.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player\Extensions\Descriptions]
"820"="Quicktime file (*.mov;*.qt)"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player\Extensions\MUIDescriptions]
"820"="Quicktime files"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player\Extensions\Types]
"820"="*.mov;*.qt"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player\Extensions\.mov]
"Permissions"=dword:0000009f
"Runtime"=dword:00000007

 

[Chocolate Pi]

I downloaded Quicktime Alternative, along with a billion other codecs in the K-lite Mega Codec pack.

Now all the files play in WMP, but I have a feeling that it isn't using the ATI decoder; it is really choppy, lags way behind the sound, and uses 100% of the CPU. How do I check/ensure the ATI/Cyberlink decoder is used?

 

[xtknight]

That's a little more difficult. Go in WMP and do File->Properties first, that will let you determine the codec. Changing is possible too but you need to use something called RadLight, or I can probably grab the reg keys.

 

[M0RPH]

Originally posted by: Chocolate Pi
Uh...... nope. I even just re-installed Quicktime. Windows Media Player does not have .mov as a selectable option, and even if you select a .mov file by displaying all file types it encounters a vague error in finding the proper codec.

Then you've done something wrong. If you have Quicktime installed you should be able to play .mov files with either Quicktime itself or WMP.

 

[Spicedaddy]

To play .mov files in WMP, just change the file extension to .mp4

On my system, WMP then uses the Nero mpeg4 decoder for video, but (big problem) I can't get sound since it's AAC format.

Makes me wonder how AnandTech did it in their review?? Or maybe they didn't have sound either...



Could someone try out a WMV-HD file before/after installing the decoder and post your results.

 

[Chocolate Pi]

Alright, I checked file-properties... and both codec sections were blank. This is while I was playing the video, in this case the 1080p Africa .mov video.

 

[xtknight]

Easiest thing to do is uninstall the regular Quicktime and unregister H.264 in ffdshow (if you have that) and leave the Cyberlink DxVA decoder on there. Moonlight and Nero will also compete to decode Quicktime H.264 if you have those.

 

[Spicedaddy]

Never mind my comments about no sound, I just read the Cyberlink page, and the decoder does AAC...

But having to pay for it sucks.