x264 gpu supported encoding

[beldoy]

Hi all,

I have done a search and have found that some nvidia graphics cards support this feature. However I have a laptop with an ati one in it and cannot seem to find any info as to if ati's gpu supports encoding.

I guess no info means its not supported.

Anyone know if ati gpu encoding of x264 is supported?

Thanks...

[martino]

Maybe you mean decoding?

[beldoy]

Hi,

It is encoding as I heard it encodes very fast, not sure about quality as I only have laptop with ati chip..

[cogman]

ATI and Nvidia now have encoders for their GPU's. The Nvidia encoder is baseline so it gets nowhere near the quality that x264 can get.

The ATI encoder just sucked, plain and simple. Xvid or divx would give better quality. But it was fast...

If you want a fast encoder with pretty good quality, x264 is really your best bet. There is currently no GPU enhancements that are being done with it, but with a good CPU that really doesn't matter.

BTW the standard is H.264 the encoder is x264. So saying "Is there a GPU x264 encoder made by ATI" The answer is and will always be no, as they don't own x264. However, asking if there is an H.264 encoder is a completely different story.

[lord filbuster]

Nvidia just released cuda drivers with physx, and the first program i have found that uses it is badaboomit. It's very fast with mpeg-2, downside is that it can't handle divx or xvid, you can only encode to x264, and it doesnt seem to decode vc-1 properly despite the fact it is stated as supported, it is still in beta though. I heard they will release an ati version soon, i don't think that any are publicly available yet. The quality is fairly poor too.

[beldoy]

Thanks for your replies folks... & sorry about using x264 instead of H.264.

I do use x264vfw with Avisynth and VirtualDub for encoding hd 1280x720 @ around 3-4 fps, which is why I want to find something faster.

Thanks again...

[Dark Shikari]

Thanks for your replies folks... & sorry about using x264 instead of H.264.

I do use x264vfw with Avisynth and VirtualDub for encoding hd 1280x720 @ around 3-4 fps, which is why I want to find something faster.

Thanks again...Get a faster CPU, or use faster settings.

[Sharktooth]

vfw is not recommended, it's slower and no longer supported by the x264 devs. use a proper GUI to encode with x264 and follow the dark shikari suggestion: use faster settings. x264 can be faster than xvifd and still deliver better quality.
also you'll better :readfaq: : http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=696689#post696689

[JohnnyFu]

Is there any GPU + decoder on the market that supports x264 decoding ?
I have a ATi HD3850, operating system Vista x64.

[Sagekilla]

You can use DXVA in MPC-HC if x264 has proper level restrictions and parameters (I.e. if encoding @ 720p, use <= 9 refs)

[CruNcher]

@Sagekilla
I guess he means Decoding in combination with Encoding (1 Hardware Framework) Badaboom does that (Nvidia only most probably the Decoding is done also via CUDA not the PV2 Core) and soon most probably Cyberlinks PowerDirector and Producer (first ATI only later for sure also Nvidia), there is however no Open Source solution yet and most probably also won't be any in the near future for H.264 (For Ati aswell as Nvidia no info for the direct bitstream decoding UVD2/PV2 core are accesable and most probably never will be for OSS, because of security (HDCP) and License reasons).
Only in form of DXVA, CUDA and ATIs Platform (CTM/CAL) wich ATI gave up on now in favour of the OpenCL Standard from Apple http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2008/06/09snowleopard.html) you can get access to these or similiar capabilities. QuickTime® X is rumored to make usage of Decoding as well as Encoding of H.264 (better late then never) on the GPU.
So currently there is only the way via CUDA and OpenCL to implement a Decoding/Encoding framework tough this Parallel Programming needs a very high knowledgebase so don't expect it happen so soon (commercial solutions will be first, and they just arriving now into the consumer world).
Tough the way CoreAVCs Optimized Software Decoder threatened GPU solutions @ the beginning the same way the X264 Optimized Encoder threatens GPU Encoding solutions currently.
Practicaly it's allready proven that Badaboom is inferior in terms of Quality (tough that's only partial true visualy 1st sight 1pass you can very well compare them but the buggy Badaboom RC is creating to many small visual glitches that destroy the consistent watching experience also no Cabac, no Psy option in form of AQ, and no partitioning possibility push it behind X264, and i don't want to talk about the application itself it's still very bugy so let's wait for the next version and see what happens then ;) ) (on a normal Dual Core System) now Cyberlink has to show what they came up with in cooperation with ATI ;)