FAQs-
Q: What is the PVP/video processor?
A: It is a 20 million+ transistor dedicated programmable video processing engine present on nv40 and up generation nvidia video cards. It has since been branded as PureVideo.
"Purevideo includes both the Hardware (PVP) and software (Theatertek, NV DVD decoders, and MCE 2005 so far) technologies. PureVideo
Feature support will require both hardware and software support.
Example:*3:2 pull down, MPEG-2 acceleration, and advanced de-interlacing require the NVIDIA DVD Decoder with Windows Media Player or Windows Media Center Edition.
*VMR Scaling requires VMR9 support found in Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
*Theatertek Link supports more advanced video and audio features.
So even supported software, may or may not include all Purevideo features, and different hardware will support different features as well." ***Information provided by rbV5***
Q: What does it do?
A: The PureVideo engine is promoted as being capable of accelerating both encoding and decoding operations of multiple popular media formats such as MPEG-2 and DIVX. Windows Media Video 9 hardware acceleration is also among the promoted features. Currently WMV high definition content requires a high performance system, but with the PVP offloading this extremely demanding task from the CPU it is possible to enjoy high definition content on far less powerful systems.
Q: Does it work?
A: Yes. and no. Many of the PVP's promoted features depend on application vendor support. As developers add support the video engine's various capabilites will be utilized. However a great deal of controversy has arisen concerning the WMV HD decode capabilities of the 6800 series. The PVP on this series was originally promoted as being fully functional, 8 months later nV revised this to state that the PVP on this series of cards does not accelerate this format as well as the PVP on the 6600 series.
At this time WMV HD acceleration requires PureVideo enabled Forceware drivers and an updated version of Windows Media Player 10 that is not currently available to the public. Even then to what extent the 6800 series will accelerate WMV HD is unconfirmed.
Q: OK, I have seen the threads about the PVP on the 6800 series and I now understand that even when the update to MP10 is available I will still have little to no WMV HD acceleration. Now, what about DVD decoding, does that work?
A: Yes. In order to take advantage of the MPEG-2 hardware decoding capabilities of the PureVideo engine you must install PureVideo enabled Forceware drivers, the 67.01 has been confirmed by Anand to have this support. These drivers have not been officially released, you can experiment with various beta versions available around the web. You will also need to purchase the Nvidia DVD Decoder for $19.99. A 30 day trial period is available for evaluation purposes. Be aware that the decoder is not properly optimized by deafult so visit the link provided below for the information, including screenshot of the settings, necessary to optimize it.
The testing Anand did shows that this features works remarkably well and not only accelerates but improves image quality as well. You can peruse the article here
"Mpeg2 decoding works with any driver in WinDVD if you enable Hardware acceleration in this program's settings." PowerDVD works too ***information provided by McArra and Thugsrook***
Q: Why do I have to pay for the DVD Decoder!?!
A: The following is a quote by Matthias99 in response to this question "You can thank the DVD Consortium for this one. Anybody who distributes a (legal) software or hardware DVD decoder has to pay them a royalty of ~$10 on each one. Even if you write the decoder from scratch.
This is also why ATI charges for the updates to their DVD software (which is part of their MultiMediaCenter package). Legally, they cannot give the new version of the DVD player away, so they either have to charge $10 for it or eat the cost themselves."
Q: what drivers currently support PVP?
A: 67.66 ***Information provided by Thugsrook, and I will update this list as others are verified***
Q: I am one of the 6800 owners who is extremely displeased with how Nvidia has advertised and handled the issues and controversy surrounding the Purevideo engine, what can I do besides complain about it here?
A: ***DISCALIMER: This is just my advice to you and I completely respect your right to pursue a course of action not offered here, or to disagree with the suggestions on principle alone*** 🙂
1.You can contact both Nvidia and the manufacturer of your card and express your displeasure to them.
2. You can boycott Nvidia products, the Manufacturer who sold you the card, or both.
3. You can encourage as many other owners as possible to join in your boycott. Money is the only language corporations speak so stop talking to them if you are that upset 😉
4. You can effort to start a class action law suit, or participate in one should others start it.
5. You can address most of your encoding needs by purchasing a dedicated hardware video encoder.
6. You can address the WMV HD playback issue by building a system capable of handling the task and subsequently not needing to rely on any offloading for smooth playback. Obviously this is a extreme measure for a HTPC, but since Hundreds of WMV HD movies will reportedly be available by years end, if you simply must have flawless playback of this content this is one way to ensure it.
Testing by many forum members has consistantly shown, with a few exceptions, that a 2.3ghz AMD XP or AMD 64bit CPU, non-HT P4 2.4ghz, or P4 HT CPU can provide smooth playback of WMV HD content with no dropped frames. The testing was done with the 1080 version of the Step into Liquid movie trailer as it seems to be among the most demanding WMV HD content currently available. You must also enable fast writes to enjoy smooth playback.
7. You can purchase a 6600 series card for your HTPC, but you will still have to wait for the DLLs/patch to become publicly available, and perhaps official drivers too.
This is a first draft so please bring any and all omissons or errors to my attention so we can update the FAQs accordingly.
Q: What is the PVP/video processor?
A: It is a 20 million+ transistor dedicated programmable video processing engine present on nv40 and up generation nvidia video cards. It has since been branded as PureVideo.
"Purevideo includes both the Hardware (PVP) and software (Theatertek, NV DVD decoders, and MCE 2005 so far) technologies. PureVideo
Feature support will require both hardware and software support.
Example:*3:2 pull down, MPEG-2 acceleration, and advanced de-interlacing require the NVIDIA DVD Decoder with Windows Media Player or Windows Media Center Edition.
*VMR Scaling requires VMR9 support found in Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
*Theatertek Link supports more advanced video and audio features.
So even supported software, may or may not include all Purevideo features, and different hardware will support different features as well." ***Information provided by rbV5***
Q: What does it do?
A: The PureVideo engine is promoted as being capable of accelerating both encoding and decoding operations of multiple popular media formats such as MPEG-2 and DIVX. Windows Media Video 9 hardware acceleration is also among the promoted features. Currently WMV high definition content requires a high performance system, but with the PVP offloading this extremely demanding task from the CPU it is possible to enjoy high definition content on far less powerful systems.
Q: Does it work?
A: Yes. and no. Many of the PVP's promoted features depend on application vendor support. As developers add support the video engine's various capabilites will be utilized. However a great deal of controversy has arisen concerning the WMV HD decode capabilities of the 6800 series. The PVP on this series was originally promoted as being fully functional, 8 months later nV revised this to state that the PVP on this series of cards does not accelerate this format as well as the PVP on the 6600 series.
At this time WMV HD acceleration requires PureVideo enabled Forceware drivers and an updated version of Windows Media Player 10 that is not currently available to the public. Even then to what extent the 6800 series will accelerate WMV HD is unconfirmed.
Q: OK, I have seen the threads about the PVP on the 6800 series and I now understand that even when the update to MP10 is available I will still have little to no WMV HD acceleration. Now, what about DVD decoding, does that work?
A: Yes. In order to take advantage of the MPEG-2 hardware decoding capabilities of the PureVideo engine you must install PureVideo enabled Forceware drivers, the 67.01 has been confirmed by Anand to have this support. These drivers have not been officially released, you can experiment with various beta versions available around the web. You will also need to purchase the Nvidia DVD Decoder for $19.99. A 30 day trial period is available for evaluation purposes. Be aware that the decoder is not properly optimized by deafult so visit the link provided below for the information, including screenshot of the settings, necessary to optimize it.
The testing Anand did shows that this features works remarkably well and not only accelerates but improves image quality as well. You can peruse the article here
"Mpeg2 decoding works with any driver in WinDVD if you enable Hardware acceleration in this program's settings." PowerDVD works too ***information provided by McArra and Thugsrook***
Q: Why do I have to pay for the DVD Decoder!?!
A: The following is a quote by Matthias99 in response to this question "You can thank the DVD Consortium for this one. Anybody who distributes a (legal) software or hardware DVD decoder has to pay them a royalty of ~$10 on each one. Even if you write the decoder from scratch.
This is also why ATI charges for the updates to their DVD software (which is part of their MultiMediaCenter package). Legally, they cannot give the new version of the DVD player away, so they either have to charge $10 for it or eat the cost themselves."
Q: what drivers currently support PVP?
A: 67.66 ***Information provided by Thugsrook, and I will update this list as others are verified***
Q: I am one of the 6800 owners who is extremely displeased with how Nvidia has advertised and handled the issues and controversy surrounding the Purevideo engine, what can I do besides complain about it here?
A: ***DISCALIMER: This is just my advice to you and I completely respect your right to pursue a course of action not offered here, or to disagree with the suggestions on principle alone*** 🙂
1.You can contact both Nvidia and the manufacturer of your card and express your displeasure to them.
2. You can boycott Nvidia products, the Manufacturer who sold you the card, or both.
3. You can encourage as many other owners as possible to join in your boycott. Money is the only language corporations speak so stop talking to them if you are that upset 😉
4. You can effort to start a class action law suit, or participate in one should others start it.
5. You can address most of your encoding needs by purchasing a dedicated hardware video encoder.
6. You can address the WMV HD playback issue by building a system capable of handling the task and subsequently not needing to rely on any offloading for smooth playback. Obviously this is a extreme measure for a HTPC, but since Hundreds of WMV HD movies will reportedly be available by years end, if you simply must have flawless playback of this content this is one way to ensure it.
Testing by many forum members has consistantly shown, with a few exceptions, that a 2.3ghz AMD XP or AMD 64bit CPU, non-HT P4 2.4ghz, or P4 HT CPU can provide smooth playback of WMV HD content with no dropped frames. The testing was done with the 1080 version of the Step into Liquid movie trailer as it seems to be among the most demanding WMV HD content currently available. You must also enable fast writes to enjoy smooth playback.
7. You can purchase a 6600 series card for your HTPC, but you will still have to wait for the DLLs/patch to become publicly available, and perhaps official drivers too.
This is a first draft so please bring any and all omissons or errors to my attention so we can update the FAQs accordingly.
