GPU decoding H.264 questions.

[davidmoore]

I'm confused about offloading video playback to a gpu. I'm seeing many threads about HTPCs and such and people suggesting which graphics card is better for video decoding and all that. I'm using a G82 8800GTS (640mb RAM) graphics card which I believe doesn't do much with video decoding. My question is, how is GPU decoding activated? When playing back video the computer knows the video card is there and just utilizing it to minimize impact on the CPU? Is that all there is to it?

I've tried to do some searching to get my answers but I don't know what questions to ask to get the understanding that I'm hoping for.

Any help would be great, thanks!

[neuron2]

You need a player that supports DXVA:

http://www.codecguide.com/faq_dxva.htm

Here's a popular one:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=123537

Or, neuron2 provides Avisynth-compatible GPU decoders for AVC/MPEG2/VC1 that use the Nvidia GPU.

[davidmoore]

Gotcha.

Thanks.

[Blue_MiSfit]

Indeed.

Also, your player must be configured properly for GPU decoding - i.e. using its internal decoder, not an external one like ffdshow.

Keep in mind not all H.264 videos are compatible with DXVA. If you did an unrestricted encode and exceeded the DXVA specs, it won't play correctly in hardware.

~MiSfit

[littleD]

You have probably g80 core, so videos can be decoded only partially on your gpu.