Updated: DVD playback info confusing in choosing new vid card....Did you know?

[Sunner]

I cant understand why anyone cares about DVD accelleration these days.
Its not like any K7 class CPU, or decently modern(Katmai+) P6 class CPU can't handle DVD playback flawlessly.

 

[jaeger66]

<< I cant understand why anyone cares about DVD accelleration these days.
Its not like any K7 class CPU, or decently modern(Katmai+) P6 class CPU can't handle DVD playback flawlessly. >>



Because no matter how fast your CPU is, your DVD will stutter if you want to do other things while watching it on a software player.

 

[dbal]

Fabulous post StormRider! Thanx a lot! I guess that the GeForce4 MX460 is the best DVD card at the moment plus the fact that it's 3D performance lies between the GF3 Ti200 and the GF4 Ti4200 right? Maybe it's a good choice for my money then... Problems are DX8 compatibility and the country I live (Greece-pricing & avaialability)....Bying a 7500 though, I have to compromise with gaming perf. while a GF3 Ti200 would offer worse DVD playback... Very tough situation we are in guys....:Q

As for DVD playback things are clearing up....From nVidia's GF4 page, it's clearly stated that only the MX line features the "Video Processing Engine" which in theory gives the best DVD by far even from ATi by implementing all Radeon features plus more Check the pdf for the VPE here Trouble is as stated before, that you cannot combine DVD playback and 3D performance in an nVidia board no matter how much u can spend on it....

 

[Rand]

<< I guess that the GeForce4 MX460 is the best DVD card at the moment plus the fact that it's 3D performance lies between the GF3 Ti200 and the GF4 Ti4200 right? Maybe it's a good choice for my money then... Problems are DX8 compatibility and the country I live (Greece-pricing & avaialability)....Bying a 7500 though, I have to compromise with gaming perf. while a GF3 Ti200 would offer worse DVD playback... Very tough situation we are in guys....:Q

As for DVD playback things are clearing up....From nVidia's GF4 page, it's clearly stated that only the MX line features the "Video Processing Engine" which in theory gives the best DVD by far even from ATi by implementing all Radeon features plus more Check the pdf for the VPE here Trouble is as stated before, that you cannot combine DVD playback and 3D performance in an nVidia board no matter how much u can spend on it.... >>



On paper I'd say the GF4 MX is at least on par with the Radeon core's DVD playback, but in terms of first hand impressions I've still found the Radeon 7/8XXX to offer slightly better DVD performance and a bit better image quality the the GF4 MX.
Plus all of the features of the GF4 MX's DVD playback isnt available unless you use NVDVD.

In terms of performance the GF4 MX460 is generally on level with the GF3 Ti200 in today's games, though it will clearly perform slower in future games due to the lacking 3D feature set... even so it will consistently beat out the R7500 your comparing it to.

 

[Sunner]

Why would you wanna do anything else why watching a movie?
That sorta ruins the point in watching a movie.

 

[jaeger66]

I have a better question-why watch movies on a PC at all? I never do. But I have some non movie DVDs that I like to put on while I'm on the comp, I have them displayed on my TV while I do something else on the PC. nView is pretty cool. But if I'm watching a movie I do it on the big TV, not my computer.

 

[zimmie6576]

Just a little input from me, the GeForce 4 Ti cards ABSOLUTELY DO NOT have hardware DVD decoding. Here's a link to something on Nvidia's page. Note the chart on the bottom. The second to last entry, "VPE" (Video Processing Engine), is hardware DVD decoding. You will notice that the GF4 Ti cards do not have a check in that field.

Nvidia decided not to include hardware DVD decoding in the GF4 Ti's because they reasoned that the only people purchasing them would already have a pretty decent system, and that system would be more than capable of running DVDs. The MX's on the other hand, are for the mainstream people, whose hardware probably isn't powerful enough for good DVD playback. That is why they include the hardware decoding.

 

[Sunner]

Well I dont either really, but I can understand why.

Say you have a decent monitor, but can't afford, or motivate getting a 32"+ widescreen TV and a standalone DVD video, then why not?
Watching movies isn't horrible on my 21", though its nowhere near watching on a good bigscreen with a good home theatre setup of course.

 

[dbal]

Zimmie you are hitting right to the point I guess...This nVidia table crossed over me just before I got to the pdf I stated before, regarding the VPE engine. Don't know if we are guessing right about nvidia's thoughts for not implementing VPE on the Ti series but I definitely think that at least the 4600 SHOULD have this feature as a flagship card.
Point is, if u have a decent system like most of us around here, is it useless to own a card with Radeon's or the MX DVD features?? Isn't it a matter of picture quality as well?? (except from offloading the cpu which is pretty minor with all those Gigas running around..!)
If so, I don't bother-the 4200 is waiting for us!