7800 series H.264 hardware assist

[SuperFubario]

Hey all:

Im in the market for a new video card and im looking for one with H.264 hardware assist. I know ATI R520 will have it but Nvidias website is a little unclear. *Linky!! Look under Pure Video Tech*

Then i see MSI's site *Link!!* and it states that it does have it. Why would Nvidia's site not have that listed with the upcoming HD boom on the horizon?

If H.264 is supported on the 7800 series is there any benchmarks out there that i may take a look at. I basically wanna know what the CPU load difference is with and without acceleration. I tried to look for benches but found none.

Also just wonderin how many other people are dying to get HD content into thier new HD tv. (broadcast companies are sooo slow). HD-DVD/Blue-ray/Gaming in HD......I need to rob a bank.

SF

 

[Velk]

There are no benches because

a) There is no driver support yet
b) There is no codec support yet
c) There is no player support yet

Given the fiasco with the lies from nvidia as regards the 6800 ultra series, I would certainly not buy a 7800 based on that information until there is ample independent confirmation that the support is actually there and working.

 

[SuperFubario]

c) There is no player support yet

Ummm Quicktime 7 has H.264 support/codec

And has anyone herd when the drivers will support it??

 

[Velk]

Videolan client will also play back h.264 content, however, as far as I know, neither of them can take advantage of nvidia's hardware acceleration.

 

[biostud]

heard it would be supported in 80.xx+ drivers

 

[Wreckage]

There is a beta 80.40 driver at Guru3d that lists H.264 support. The latest Quicktime also supports H.264 however I don't know if it taps into purevideo.

Short answer.... Yes 7xxx supports H.264.

Long answer.... There is not a released driver or player that fully supports it yet. Not to mention a total lack of content. It is also possible that the 6xxx series will also be able to support it as well. (purevideo is a programmable processor, it could accelerate nearly any codec to some degree)

 

[SuperFubario]

Ya i have watched some H.264 content that has been posted on the web. Looks awsome but even at 480P its not smooth on my system. I hope someone out there does some benching or some sort of compairison (sp?). Id like to see how much hardware support reduces cpu load. The demands of up and coming tech is really showing how it can bring my system to its knees. Upgrade comes soon thank god. Prob go with the 7800gt since its around my pricepoint and get myself into teh 64bit realm.

 

[Ig]

You need a compatible decoder and the correct drivers. Series 80 drivers will have the driver support but no decoder is available to use the hardware functions. Once the series 80 drivers are offically released nVidia will probably update the PureVideo codec with h.264 support. Sorta like when MS had to update the wmv decoder to turn on wmv acceleration. The hardware and drivers supported it but the decoder didn't.

720p QT movies look great (and play well if you don't use their crappy player ). 1080p QT h.264 movies are still choppy, but play a lot better in Zoom Player than in the QT player.

Software
Nero Showtime (has a QT splitter)
ffdshow (current builds w/h.264, none of the old official releases)
Zoom Player

Hardware
Athlon64 3000+ s754 @ 2.4ghz
2gb PC3200

CPU load is ~60% (spiking every now and then to ~80%) playing Batman Begins Trailer (1280x564).

Playback of 24fps 720p movies can be done completely in software. 24fps 1080p are a bit tougher and 60fps 720/1080p material will completely destroy any current system.

 

[Velk]

Originally posted by: Ig

Hardware
Athlon64 3000+ s754 @ 2.4ghz
2gb PC3200

CPU load is ~60% (spiking every now and then to ~80%) playing Batman Begins Trailer (1280x564).

Playback of 24fps 720p movies can be done completely in software. 24fps 1080p are a bit tougher and 60fps 720/1080p material will completely destroy any current system.

Actually, as I have mentioned previously, 1080p content uses 30% cpu on an X2 4400 when playing back with VLC and 50% with the quicktime player. That is for the only publicly available 1080p h264 content I have been able to find, i.e. the 1080p serenity trailer from the apple site.

If you have some other example of 1080p h264 content that I can try, I am happy to do so and report results.

 

[Ig]

Just tried it in VLC and they played a bit better but 1080p was still a little choppy for me.

If you look at the page source for each HD trailer, you can grab the links to the 1080p trailers (if it's available) then download however you want. I use wget.

Batman Begins 1080p trailer

Edit: Heh, I just realized I had ffdshow doing a little post processing on the movies. Turned it all off and now 720p only use ~50% (spiking to ~70%). Closer to what I was seeing using VLC but still a bit higher.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

all of those videos are beautiful. 720P starts to lag for me and 1080 i get about 15fps while watching

 

[lifeguard1999]

Nero has support for H.264. The last time I tried it, it worked great.