x1950 Pro useless for HD-DVD playback??

[T9D]

I just bought an x1950 Pro AGP so I can have AVIVO. I kept reading how it accelerates HD-DVD. That's what ATI touted anyway. So I picked one up. My other card didn't have HDCP and it ran choppy.

Well I put it in and NO difference. Actually for some reason it seems to run a worse for HD-DVD movies. I checked the box for hardware acceleration. But it does nothing. Apparently it only accelerates H.264?? And I dont think any HD-DVD movies even use that codec. Dont they mostly use VC1? Now the new cards apparently have some AVIVO HD though. But not this one. Man I'm a bit pissed and frustrated. They should never even mention HD-DVD with AVIVO.

Is there anything else I should possibly be doing that could help it decode HD-DVD? Would a Geforce 7950 AGP do what I want? It sounds like that is the card I should have gotten first.

 

[VERTIGGO]

bump im interested as well

 

[miker75]

The specs for the card says it accelerates both H.264 and VC1...

What software player are you using? Whats the specs of the rest of your PC?

 

[TheOtherRizzo]

VC-1 is not accelerated by ATI, only H264. H264 isn't fully supported either though as no deblocking is performed. What I haven't been able to find out is if any BR/HD-DVD's actually use deblocking or not. HDTV streams and HDV cameras certainly do and will look crap when accelerated by any ATI x1xxx or Nvidia 7xxx cards.

To get proper support for VC-1 and H264 you need a 8500 or 8600 card AND Vista. I don't know what the newest generations of ATI cards are like in this regard but AT have stated that a thorough AVIVO test is in the works.

EDIT: new info. ATI 2400 2500 2600 are even better than 8500 8600 for VC-1. Apart from that they offer the same features as 8500 8600. Again, Vista needed.

 

[miker75]

You better tell ATI to update their page for the X1950 then:

Avivo? Video and Display Platform

* High performance programmable video processor
o Accelerated MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, WMV9, VC-1, and H.264 decoding and transcoding

Of course I'm sure it doesn't accelerate the ENTIRE pipeline... your CPU will have to do a lot still...

 

[TheOtherRizzo]

Where is the AVIVO feature table? Nvidia's is http://www.nvidia.com/page/purevideo_support.html]here[/url]. It was also completely untrue until very recently. Anandtech's Derek Wilson asked Nvidia some questions after the 29xx AVIVO debacle and they replaced the old table with the new PDF I linked to.

 

[T9D]

I went ahead and uninstalled the card. If It could accelerate HD-DVD even a little bit that would be fine but it doesn't. I have a 3.4 ghz prescott and it's just not quite enough. I'd overclock but my motherboard is locked.

Anytime Avivo is mentioned on ATI/AMD's site it's just a generic AVIVO discription. Sure Avivo supports all that IF the card supports it. Which the x1950 does not. I did a bunch of research on it. It's very misleading.

I'm going to wait for the new ATI cards to come out. When should they hit retail? Sounds like they will have everyone needed for the HD formats. And enough power to play some newer games on the side.

 

[Resonance]

coreavc also helps in vc1 and h.264 decoding. might wanna d/l that.

 

[TheOtherRizzo]

Not true. AVC = h264 is what CoreAVC decodes. And it doesn't use the GPU to do it.

 

[heyheybooboo]

Originally posted by: tk109
I just bought an x1950 Pro AGP so I can have AVIVO. I kept reading how it accelerates HD-DVD. That's what ATI touted anyway. So I picked one up. My other card didn't have HDCP and it ran choppy.

Is there anything else I should possibly be doing that could help it decode HD-DVD? Would a Geforce 7950 AGP do what I want? It sounds like that is the card I should have gotten first.

No. The Geforce 7950 AGP will not off-load vc1 and h264 from the cpu.

The Radeon HD2600/2400 & Geforce 8600/8500 series are the only vid cards that provide hardware vc1 & h264 decoding off cpu.

Rumor out there on the internets has it that AGP flavors of the HD2600 will be available the second week of August. The Powercolor Radeon HD2600 AGP is posted on their web site. Gecube and HIS are proming AGP HD2600s in this timeframe.

I haven't found any AGP offerings in the pipeline for the 8600/8500. If anyone has info please post.

 

[kkk60091]

Originally posted by: TheOtherRizzo
VC-1 is not accelerated by ATI, only H264. H264 isn't fully supported either though as no deblocking is performed. What I haven't been able to find out is if any BR/HD-DVD's actually use deblocking or not. HDTV streams and HDV cameras certainly do and will look crap when accelerated by any ATI x1xxx or Nvidia 7xxx cards.

To get proper support for VC-1 and H264 you need a 8500 or 8600 card AND Vista. I don't know what the newest generations of ATI cards are like in this regard but AT have stated that a thorough AVIVO test is in the works.

EDIT: new info. ATI 2400 2500 2600 are even better than 8500 8600 for VC-1. Apart from that they offer the same features as 8500 8600. Again, Vista needed.

no, vista is not required. already tested on xp with ati 2400 and 2600( should be the same for nv 85, 86)
for actual hd, bd disc playback, use powerdvd 7.3 ultra. for standalone H264 files(not all files actually working, only a small portion), use thirdparty player such as MPC, use powerdvd H264/AVC decoder.