Get This...Sapphire cards don't support ATI AVIVO technology

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

vikingblade

Senior member
Sep 20, 2005
292
0
0
ok...anyone.... what does this mean in real world use...

what exactly would i be missing/losing if this turns out to be true and i get an x1800xt sapphire? itll still run videos/dvds right... i really dont understand what avivo does
 

Zstream

Diamond Member
Oct 24, 2005
3,395
277
136
Originally posted by: vikingblade
ok...anyone.... what does this mean in real world use...

what exactly would i be missing/losing if this turns out to be true and i get an x1800xt sapphire? itll still run videos/dvds right... i really dont understand what avivo does

You do a hella of alot of complaining for not even knowing what it is, go to google is your friend ape man
 

Cookie Monster

Diamond Member
May 7, 2005
5,161
32
86
Originally posted by: vikingblade
ok...anyone.... what does this mean in real world use...

what exactly would i be missing/losing if this turns out to be true and i get an x1800xt sapphire? itll still run videos/dvds right... i really dont understand what avivo does

You stil havent bought your card?:confused:
 

gunblade

Golden Member
Nov 18, 2002
1,470
0
71
Personally BBA is less desired since 1 year warranty is way below anything other vendors offer currently.

The AVIVO functionality as I understand it, includes the feature to do VIVO capture together with transcoding and encoding assist, 10bit per RGB color channel output and video quality enhancement( filtering, deinterleaving .etc).

It maybe that the Xcode transcode/encode software is bundled by any other vendors and people needs to pay Ati for the software.
 

vikingblade

Senior member
Sep 20, 2005
292
0
0
Yeah, ive read about what avivo is. i basically understand its supposed value, however, what i was mainly wondering was, when it is disabled, what does it leave.. an uninhanced video/dvd playback... its difficult to understand exactly how this would effect the cards performance, since this really hasnt been officially announced anyways. probaly just bull. i guess ill just have to call ati and sapphire etc.. and ask em.

cookie monster.. nope..haha.. first was decided on a 7800GT, then a 7800GTX, then thought about 7800GT SLI, Now im pretty sure itll be an X1800XT. Keep changing my mind and putting off my pc build. gotta do it soon tho or the available cash will be spent elsewhere. damn video card market has gotten very complicated...used to just get the best available at the time... back then was easy... ati 9700 pro. alot more options now.
 

vikingblade

Senior member
Sep 20, 2005
292
0
0
by the way, ati's 1 year warranty is pretty crazy.. wtf are they thinking. makes evga 7800gtx warranty look damn nice. any ideas what x1800xt brand is offering the best warranty..

 

Stoneburner

Diamond Member
May 29, 2003
3,491
0
76
This puts my upgrading on hold too. If the only difference between a 7800gt and a X1800xl is 25 dollars and a few frames, i'd take taht for faster movie ripping. But honestly, ati better release some more information or preferably the driver soon or i'll just go with the 7800gt. 5x movie encoding is too damn tempting though. I mean alot of the frame rate crap is overblown, 60 fps v. 70fps, blah blah. But encoding a movie in 1 hours instead of 5?


:( ATI is making this more complicated than it should be.
 

M0RPH

Diamond Member
Dec 7, 2003
3,302
1
0
I don't know what you guys are worried about. It says right on the boxes of the ATI partner cards that they have AVIVO. If ATI had some plans to disable that feature on partner cards, the partners would know about it and they wouldn't have put it on the box. ATI has never taken away features from partner cards... it would be crazy to do so. All it takes is common sense to see that there's nothing to this rumor.

Edit: Ok, after looking into this a bit more, I'm guessing that this is something related to the ATI Multimedia Center software. If you go to ATI's site, there's a download link for it but it says you have to have an origial install CD to be validated for the download. It may be that the partner cards don't come with this(?), in which case you'd have to buy it for $12.99. I've never used that software so I really don't know what it's needed for, but maybe it will be required for some of the upcoming AVIVO features.
 

rbV5

Lifer
Dec 10, 2000
12,632
0
0
Edit: Ok, after looking into this a bit more, I'm guessing that this is something related to the ATI Multimedia Center software. If you go to ATI's site, there's a download link for it but it says you have to have an origial install CD to be validated for the download. It may be that the partner cards don't come with this(?), in which case you'd have to buy it for $12.99. I've never used that software so I really don't know what it's needed for, but maybe it will be required for some of the upcoming AVIVO features.

ATI's Multimedia Center Software isn't bundled with BBA X1800 XL. which undoubtably does support AVIVO. Its always been a free download, only the DVD decoder part requires CD verification. Sapphire cards bundle Cyberlinks PowerDVD decoder, BBA distributes an OEM, less featured version of the same Cyberlibnk Decoder software.

Clearly the Sapphire box shows AVIVIO support, and entering "AVIVO" into Sapphire's site search engine brings up x1600 cards touting AVIVO support, every review I've read shows AVIVO support for the Sapphire cards as well.

There are 5 AVIVO components, you don't need all of them for "AVIVO". The tech includes hardware and software features, so its possible that "AVIVO" support isn't dependant on supporting every feature for a vendor to "claim" AVIVO support.

The bottom line: Don't buy hardware for a specific feature without that feature being supported. If specific card features are important to you, you really should wait untill it is available, supported and reviewed before jumping in, otherwise you could be setting yourself up for disappointment.

You shouldn't have long to wait for more details I wouldn't think.
 

Steelski

Senior member
Feb 16, 2005
700
0
0
Dont saphire sell the 550 thearte boards......they are AVIVO. i highly dout that they will not allow this card and that to be linked together through the built in AVIVO features.
I think that this is really a mute point.
 

KeepItRed

Senior member
Jul 19, 2005
811
0
0
Link is broken.

BTW Luckily I got my ATI Radeon X1800XT. :D

EDIT: Link isn't broken....The whole Sapphire site doesn't work for me...
 

Wreckage

Banned
Jul 1, 2005
5,529
0
0
Originally posted by: Hacp
MAYBe......

SInce its OEM, sapphire doesn't include the software to enable the feature and you have to buy the software seperatly in order to enable it????

Sounds pretty weird

That would make the most sense. AVIVO needs software to work. It needs a media player programmed to take advantage of the hardware. An OEM card would not include this software. I don't think you can make a Radeon X1XXX withou having AVIVO, but without the software to support it, you may as well not have it.

Not that big a deal really.
 

gunblade

Golden Member
Nov 18, 2002
1,470
0
71
I think it is easy to make Radeon X1XXX to not support AVIVO. Most cards do not have VIVO so they are not AVIVO compliant. Only the real high end x1800 has vivo, most x1300 variants don't
 

rbV5

Lifer
Dec 10, 2000
12,632
0
0
Originally posted by: gunblade
I think it is easy to make Radeon X1XXX to not support AVIVO. Most cards do not have VIVO so they are not AVIVO compliant. Only the real high end x1800 has vivo, most x1300 variants don't

The AVIVO "capture" feature is provided by "Theater 550" chip, not the "Rage Theater" chip used for the "VIVO" feature found on the X1xxx cards. Currently Theater 550 is only found on TV Tuner cards as a PCI or PCIe addin card.

The graphics card itself is only a piece of AVIVO.