Stupid? questions about ATI's AVIVO

[aggressor]

I know for h.264 I actually need to buy something from Cyberlink, but what about plain ol DVD playback? I am currently using PowerDVD6, and have the Catalyst 6.2s installed (With the AVIVO tab), but doesn't PowerDVD use it's own software decoder? How do I use the AVIVO features for better de-interlacing and speed improvements?

(Updated with the info I was looking for):
Ah ha, I got this info from the Rage3D forums:

"As long as you have DVD software that supports DXVA, the AVIVO video processing will work." as well as "And PowerDVD 6 already has a codec for DVD that supports DxVA and works very well with ATI cards, you just need to make sure "hardware acceleration" is enabled."

 

[rbV5]

I'm not sure if any decoder other than the ATI Cyberlink decoder supports AVIVO for DVD decoding yet.

Edit: by support I mean "fully support"

have you checked the AT article yet? Link

 

[aggressor]

By ATI Cyberlink decoder, do you mean the one I linked to for h.264? If not, what do I need? I have the retail version of PowerDVD6.

And no, I haven't seen that article until now. I'll check it out.

 

[JAG87]

for playback of h264 you can just use quicktime 7. I dont see why you would pay for cyberlink.

all you need to do is set up avivo in the control center, and it should take off a huge load off your cpu when playing. for dvd, does your cpu really struggle playing dvds? mine doesnt, i see no need for mpeg2 accelleration.

 

[aggressor]

Originally posted by: JAG87
for playback of h264 you can just use quicktime 7. I dont see why you would pay for cyberlink.

all you need to do is set up avivo in the control center, and it should take off a huge load off your cpu when playing. for dvd, does your cpu really struggle playing dvds? mine doesnt, i see no need for mpeg2 accelleration.

It's not about speed, it's about the improved de-interlacing and other decoding features for DVD AVIVO has. Same goes for h.264.

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: aggressor
By ATI Cyberlink decoder, do you mean the one I linked to for h.264? If not, what do I need? I have the retail version of PowerDVD6

No, the one available on the CD and ATI.com You need a Catalyst Install disc to verify the download.

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: JAG87
for playback of h264 you can just use quicktime 7. I dont see why you would pay for cyberlink.

all you need to do is set up avivo in the control center, and it should take off a huge load off your cpu when playing. for dvd, does your cpu really struggle playing dvds? mine doesnt, i see no need for mpeg2 accelleration.

Quicktime7 doesn't support H264 acceleration, so you'll need a beefy CPU to decode 1080p. Cyberlinks H264 decode takes a load off the CPU and uses the X1xxx hardware to assist the decoding.

 

[JAG87]

Originally posted by: rbV5

Originally posted by: JAG87
for playback of h264 you can just use quicktime 7. I dont see why you would pay for cyberlink.

all you need to do is set up avivo in the control center, and it should take off a huge load off your cpu when playing. for dvd, does your cpu really struggle playing dvds? mine doesnt, i see no need for mpeg2 accelleration.

Quicktime7 doesn't support H264 acceleration, so you'll need a beefy CPU to decode 1080p. Cyberlinks H264 decode takes a load off the CPU and uses the X1xxx hardware to assist the decoding.

i see

 

[aggressor]

Thanks for all of the information, rbV5. ATI isn't exactly forthcoming with what's needed for this stuff. nVidia wasn't much better, I guess.

 

[JAG87]

Originally posted by: aggressor

Originally posted by: JAG87
for playback of h264 you can just use quicktime 7. I dont see why you would pay for cyberlink.

all you need to do is set up avivo in the control center, and it should take off a huge load off your cpu when playing. for dvd, does your cpu really struggle playing dvds? mine doesnt, i see no need for mpeg2 accelleration.

It's not about speed, it's about the improved de-interlacing and other decoding features for DVD AVIVO has. Same goes for h.264.

your dvds are interlaced? ok dude...
I understand if you have interlaced mpeg2 video from your dvr and such on your computer, but dvds are not interlaced.

 

[aggressor]

Originally posted by: rbV5

Originally posted by: aggressor
By ATI Cyberlink decoder, do you mean the one I linked to for h.264? If not, what do I need? I have the retail version of PowerDVD6

No, the one available on the CD and ATI.com You need a Catalyst Install disc to verify the download.

Do you happen to have a link for the player on ATI.com?

And yes, some DVDs are interlaced, such as TV shows. Not all of them are progressive, and I did also say "other decoding features". Check out http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/ati_catalyst_5.13_video_quality/

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: JAG87

Originally posted by: aggressor

Originally posted by: JAG87
for playback of h264 you can just use quicktime 7. I dont see why you would pay for cyberlink.

all you need to do is set up avivo in the control center, and it should take off a huge load off your cpu when playing. for dvd, does your cpu really struggle playing dvds? mine doesnt, i see no need for mpeg2 accelleration.

It's not about speed, it's about the improved de-interlacing and other decoding features for DVD AVIVO has. Same goes for h.264.

your dvds are interlaced? ok dude...
I understand if you have interlaced mpeg2 video from your dvr and such on your computer, but dvds are not interlaced.

DVD's are definately interlaced.

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: aggressor

Originally posted by: rbV5

Originally posted by: aggressor
By ATI Cyberlink decoder, do you mean the one I linked to for h.264? If not, what do I need? I have the retail version of PowerDVD6

No, the one available on the CD and ATI.com You need a Catalyst Install disc to verify the download.

Do you happen to have a link for the player on ATI.com?

Links to ATI.com don't work, so just follow the menu tree from Drivers and Software. It can be located in the MMC distribution as a seperate download, not with the actual driver.

ATI's AVIVO support information is severly lacking...I'll agree.

 

[rbV5]

Specifically follow the "ATI Multimedia Center 9.13" link and download "DVD Decoder*"

An ATI Decoder Update Wizard (580KB) is first used to validate a supported original ATI Install CD. Once validated, the download of DVD Decoder will begin.

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: aggressor

Originally posted by: rbV5

Originally posted by: aggressor
By ATI Cyberlink decoder, do you mean the one I linked to for h.264? If not, what do I need? I have the retail version of PowerDVD6

No, the one available on the CD and ATI.com You need a Catalyst Install disc to verify the download.

Do you happen to have a link for the player on ATI.com?

And yes, some DVDs are interlaced, such as TV shows. Not all of them are progressive, and I did also say "other decoding features". Check out http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/ati_catalyst_5.13_video_quality/

The VAST majority of DVD's are interlaced, I don't even know of one that isn't off the the top of my head.

 

[aggressor]

Retail 'blockbuster' type movies are almost always progressive. I do a lot of video encoding, and knowing the proper type is important. Even some TV shows are moving to film instead of ntsc.

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: aggressor
Retail 'blockbuster' type movies are almost always progressive. I do a lot of video encoding, and knowing the proper type is important. Even some TV shows are moving to film instead of ntsc.

Fair enough, I'm not familiar with how players interlace progressive video for standard analog TV, rather the other way around so I guess I assumed that they were all interlaced (MPEG DVD's anyway)

 

[aggressor]

Ugh, the CD validator says my CD isn't valid!

ATI Multimedia Center? found herein is provided as an UPDATE to previous versions included on original installation CDs for supported products. The software should not be downloaded or used for products that did not ship with ATI Multimedia Center.

So I guess I can't use it? How the hell am I supposed to use AVIVO, then?

 

[Chocolate Pi]

Ditto here, I dunno what I need and it rejects my CD.

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: aggressor
Ugh, the CD validator says my CD isn't valid!

ATI Multimedia Center? found herein is provided as an UPDATE to previous versions included on original installation CDs for supported products. The software should not be downloaded or used for products that did not ship with ATI Multimedia Center.

So I guess I can't use it? How the hell am I supposed to use AVIVO, then?

My validator works and niether of my X1800 cards shipped with ATI Multimedia Center. It may be only for BBA cards however. Its also possible that 3rd party card DVD software is supported as well. I've only seen Cyberlink decoder tested with the HQV benchmark (well and NV DVD prior to Catalyst 6.2 last fall IIRC)

 

[aggressor]

Well, I have a BBIATI X1900XT, so that shouldn't be an issue. I think the retail version of PowerDVD is using it's own decoding, not AVIVO. Argh Any other suggestions?

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: aggressor
Well, I have a BBIATI X1900XT, so that shouldn't be an issue. I think the retail version of PowerDVD is using it's own decoding, not AVIVO. Argh Any other suggestions?

hmmm, it should work with the BBA card. I'm assuming PowerDVD was already yours, wth is ATI sending out for DVD decoding with the X1900 cards anyway? My X1800 cards definately had no decoder on the install disk, but the validator works fine.

Perhaps the validator isn't updated to the new Catalyst install disk? ATI seems to have come up a bit short with the X1900 card launch...no driver at launch, adaptors missing and no DVD decoding to boot? I'll bet its just the validator, but that doesn't help you now...sorry.

 

[Chocolate Pi]

What about me an my Sapphire X1800XT? What, do I just not get to play DVDs?

 

[aggressor]

Yes, I've had PowerDVD for awhile now. The CD has nothing for DVD decoding. It has some crappy demos, a link for the h.264 encoder, and the Catalyst drivers. That's all. Sigh, it appears ATI still hasn't gotten their software issues under control

 

[rbV5]

Originally posted by: Chocolate Pi
What about me an my Sapphire X1800XT? What, do I just not get to play DVDs?

Sapphire normally ships with PowerDVD does it not anymore?

Yes, I've had PowerDVD for awhile now. The CD has nothing for DVD decoding. It has some crappy demos, a link for the h.264 encoder, and the Catalyst drivers. That's all. Sigh, it appears ATI still hasn't gotten their software issues under control

My CD had no DVD decoding, but like I said, the validator worked on mine, so perhaps they'll get it sorted.