No more ATI Rage Theatre chip in Radeon 7500, 8500? Why?

[xpeter]

Is it true that on the new ATI Radeon 7500/8500 graphic cards isn't the ATI Rage Theatre chip used anymore
that was great hardware acceleration for DVD playback? What have the cards built instead of the ATI Rage Theatre
chip?

 

[Tates]

No, the Built by ATi boards have hardware DVD support.

Maybe on third party Powered by ATi boards.

 

[xpeter]

yes i've read at ati.com that the cards based on 7500/8500 have hardware DVD
acceleration but none of them has ATI Rage Theatre so I am asking why? What
they replaced insted of it?

 

[xpeter]

yes i've read at ati.com that the cards based on 7500/8500 have hardware DVD
acceleration but none of them has ATI Rage Theatre so I am asking why? What
they replaced insted of it?

 

[WetWilly]

The Rage Theater chip doesn't have anything to do with DVD hardware acceleration; it's used for VIVO/TV-out functions. So the only way the Rage Theater chip would be missing is if the board doesn't have TV-out.

BTW, all the 8500/8500LEs I've seen have the Rage Theater onboard.

 

[Techronious]

The rage theater chip is on the back of the cards from what I've heard, that's why you don't see them on the front anymore.

EDIT: Here is a pic from the NEW AIW RADEON 8500 128 mb card. CLICK ME AND SEE THE RAGE THEATER CHIP ON THE BACK. IT'S QUITE OBVIOUS.

 

[Hawk]

yeah the rage theatre chip is just for video in and video out functions...dvd is on the radeon chip itself...where did you read that anyway?

 

[xpeter]

yeah I've read this in one stupid local magazine ...

 

[rbV5]

Actually, the Radeon 7500 uses the RV200 GPU, which has the Rage Theater embedded in the core in the same fashion as the RV100 chip (Radeon Ve)

The Radeon 8500 uses the R200 GPU, and has the seperate Rage Theater chip, just like the R100 (original Radeon)

So, the Value series GPU (RVxx) simply has the Rage Theater embedded in the core, and also why the Ve and the 7500 supported 1024 X 768 via TV-out long before the 8500, and until recent driver fixes, had the superior TV-out solution.

 

[WetWilly]

Actually, the Radeon 7500 uses the RV200 GPU, which has the Rage Theater embedded in the core

Not quite. The RV200 does have the RV100's display engine (Hydravision/TV-out support) but it doesn't have the rest of the Rage Theater's functionality (VIVO, S/PDIF, Macrovision support). If the Rage Theater was integrated into the RV200 the AIW 7500 wouldn't need an external Rage Theater chip.

You're right about the better quality of the RV200's TV-out, though. The Rage Theater chip is rather long in the tooth.

 

[xpeter]

The only thing I am interested in is if the Radeon 7500 card would play DVD without
higher using of the CPU on one monitor while working on the other monitor
without any problems. Will this work fine without the Rage Theatre chip or not?

 

[rbV5]

AIW 7500 wouldn't need an external Rage Theater chip.

Hey, you're right..integrated TV-out functions, not the entire feature set...

 

[DevilsAdvocate]

The new RV250 core has the Rage Theater chip on core.