First H.264 Consumer Hardware Acceleration out from ATi

[CruNcher]

It is finished the Catalyst 5.13 are ready and Cyberlink provided the DXVA Decoder (for the X1000 series only)

http://www.ati.com
http://www.cyberlink.com/cinema/ati/h264_decoder/enu/index.jsp

Seems Nvidia lost this Race :P

This is interesting

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MediaPlayer\Player\Extensions\.mkv]
"Runtime"=dword:00000001
"Permissions"=dword:00000001

it seems that Cyberlink likes and supports Matroska :)

Btw the cost for the Registered Decoder are something like 15 €

[acidsex]

I have the HDTV Wonder card and its crap they dont support it with the 5.13. Thats ok, my Fusion5 kicks ATI's ass when it comes to quality and resources.

Why would they have a trial when apparently this was supposed to be a free Christmas gift for the x1000 or higher cards? Or is that for cards other than ATI's x1000 series?

[CruNcher]

acidsex hehe the Driver support for it is the christmas gift not the decoder itself as it is 3rdparty :P ( Marketing you know ;P )

[acidsex]

Yeah that sucks. Still does me no good for my HDTV Wonder card. Bastards! :D

[CruNcher]

Any X1K owners that tried it allready seems that Decoder has problems with non X1K cards as it is not normal that a filter wouldn't connect to the video renderer LOL :P

[bond]

i have been told dxva doesnt support h.264 specific stuff? is this true? anyone having any details how h.264 decoding is managed via dxva?
if dxva is really used and not some proprieatary interface i guess it would be easy to add support for the ati cards to other decoders too

[FFWD]

i have been told dxva doesnt support h.264 specific stuff? is this true? anyone having any details how h.264 decoding is managed via dxva?
if dxva is really used and not some proprieatary interface i guess it would be easy to add support for the ati cards to other decoders tooDo you need a new interface in DXVA for it to work in all DirectShow apps?
Excellent question, H.264 is so new that there is no standard API for DXVA acceleration yet. So we have worked with our industry partners such as Cyberlink and Intervideo to develop one. We will of course support any API from Microsoft but this is not expected for awhile. Some vendors may be working on custom proprietary applications to run H.264 but this is not ATI’s focus. We view H.264 as another CODEC that we need to enable in various applications by API. Beyond Cyberlink and Intervideo, we see leaders like Sonic and Nero as companies we would like to support closely.source : Hexus (http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=3702&page=2)

It was also mentioned that NVIDIA is working with Microsoft to try and get a "DXVA for H.264" created just like the DXVA for MPEG2 we all know and the recently released DXVA for WMV-HD. This way any GPU manufacturer can implement H.264 acceleration and expose it via DXVA with the expectation that it will work with common decoders and applications. H.264 support isn't ready just yet, expect it in a driver update in late summer; NVIDIA is hoping to have it ready to go some time in July.source : HTPCnews (http://www.htpcnews.com/main.php?id=nvidia_editors_day_3)

Video-encoding acceleration employs the DirectShow API, just as MPEG-2-encoder chips' drivers do. Nvidia, as part of its GeForce 7800 GTX introduction in June, publicly stated that it hoped to have MPEG-4 AVC support in place in time for this year's holiday buying season, in partnership with companies such as CyberLink and InterVideo.
DirectX VA is currently a video-decoding-centric API. However, Microsoft's Blythe says, "There will definitely be future support [for API-enabled video-encoding.]"source : EDN (http://www.edn.com/article/CA6262535.html?text-brian+and_dipert)

And have a look at this (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=741595#post741595) post

[AlexeyS]

Did anybody tried it? The most interesting for me is will X1000 play 1080p AVC video without gaps on P4 2.4-3.0?

[CruNcher]

theoreticly with 2 Ghz and a X1300 card playback should be no big problem i think :)

[AlexeyS]

theoreticly with 2 Ghz and a X1300 card playback should be no big problem i think :)
Yes, but did somebody try this?

[acidsex]

I thought the press release they had said that a x1800 card would be needed to playback 1080p and the x1600 could playback 720p

[CruNcher]

it is really really strange

http://cruncher.mufflastig.com/wtfcyberlink.png

but non of the both endpoints want to connect LOL

[bond]

FFWD , thx for that info! :)

[ravemax]

Sorry for pushing this topic up again, but I wasn't allowed to reply (5 days rule for new accounts):

I am curious how well the new ATI cards perform, especially these three combinations:
- Fast CPU (e.g. Athlon X2 4800+) and X1800
- Slow CPU (e.g. Athlon 2800+) and X1800
- Slow CPU (e.g. Athlon 2800+) and X1600

on Quicktime 720p, 1080p movies (CPU%).

Thanks alot :)

[bond]

Sorry for pushing this topic up again, but I wasn't allowed to reply (5 days rule for new accounts):

I am curious how well the new ATI cards perform, especially these three combinations:
- Fast CPU (e.g. Athlon X2 4800+) and X1800
- Slow CPU (e.g. Athlon 2800+) and X1800
- Slow CPU (e.g. Athlon 2800+) and X1600

on Quicktime 720p, 1080p movies (CPU%).

Thanks alot :)i doubt qt benefits from this

you will need to use cyberlinks decoder

[Sharktooth]

Yeah. accelerated decoding happens ONLY in softwares that supports the avivio technology. QT is not one of those...

[ravemax]

Ok, to be a little bit exact .-) :
Playing a 720p / 1080p movie using the DXVA.

[Sharktooth]

DXVA doesnt support h.264... hence it's not accelerated.
The decoder must SPECIFICALLY support the ATI AVIVIO technology... and QT doesnt...

[bond]

i would also be interested in how the cyberlink decoder performs without the acceleration

did anyone get it to work on a non ati-X1.. card?

[lar1r]

I believe he means using Quicktime movies that are H.264 encoded on the Cyberlink DXVA player.

Yes, they are accelerated. CPU % goes down on my X1800.

[ravemax]

@Sharktooth: Ok I thought that ATIs 5.13 driver has an "unofficial" DXVA interface and the Cyberlink makes use of it. So I meant the Cyberlink decoder.

@lar1r:
That's what I want to know.
What's your CPU (brand + speed) and how much does the CPU% drop - with and without acceleration.

Thanks.

[bond]

Yes, they are accelerated. CPU % goes down on my X1800.lar1r, nice to see first results :)

actually if you want to do a really meaningful comparison you should use the following filter (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=703999#post703999). its for measuring the decoding speed
use it instead of the renderer in your graph (best doable via graphedit)

the best would be if you would do the same than on the same clip with ffdshow (or more other decoders) and report back the speed values you get

[fegul]

Something you guys may want to read about ATI's Avivo. Sounds great!
http://www.hexus.net/content/item.php?item=1622