H264 - how much I miss

[foxnews]

I just bought x 850 XT PE and it doesn't support High Definition h264.

when HD and blue ray become popular, I assume that I have to use software decoder and CPU to play HD, instead of using GPU hardware?

1- Can someone give me some insight of this h264 and GPU?
2- if I have a powerful c2d cpu to decode HD, then I don't miss much?
3- the quality of HD on computer is depend of GPU or software decoder?
4- would CPU+decoder=GPU+decoder? in term of quality

 

[uzor]

you might want to PM a mod about moving this to the HTPC subforum....yourquestion would do better there.

 

[HighTest]

While waiting to move to the HTPC forum, I thought I'd reply to your questions with what I understand.

1- Can someone give me some insight of this h264 and GPU?

There are a large number of articles that have been written about H.264 and their impact. The overal summary of these articles is pretty much the fact that if you don't have hardware acceleration of H.264 for HD content, you'll get poor performance even on C2D systems. While lower resolution material may be fine, 1080P or 1080i content will suffer. H.264 content will also be impacted by the possible presence of HDCP content protection which is encoded directly into the digital data stream and will have even further processing requirements.

2- if I have a powerful c2d cpu to decode HD, then I don't miss much?

Depends on the source of HD, if it's WMV HD you won't miss much. If it's true HD H.264 content then you will see an impact without a hardware accelerator. If it's HDCP encrypted H.264 HD content then you'll also encounter another problem, enforcement of HDCP content and it's ability to display at full resolution or not.

See http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1071342 for a list of all the currently known and tested H.264 HDCP ready video cards. Without the actual HDCP eprom on the card the GPU and the appropriate monitor (99% of shipping LCD monitors are not HDCP compliant, you'll need either a compliant LCD or an older Analog display, more on that in a moment).

1. If you have a DVI only LCD display that is not HDCP compliant you'll receive a "black screen" when viewing HDCP encoded H.264 content. Some articles get this confused with the Analog ICT flag and if content doesn't enforce the ICT flag you'll still see the material on your DVI LCD, but this is incorrect especially as shown in the reviews of some HD DVD and Blue Ray drives for purchase.

2. If you have an Analog (DB15 connection) display and the content doesn't set the ICT flag, you'll be able to view the content at full resolution. If the ICT is enforced (some movie houses are promising a moratorium until 2010 for early HDTV adopters) then you'll have the equivalent of a 480P downcoverted display, or a blank screen (they can select either option).

Bottom line is if you are seriously interested in HD H.264 content, especially HD DVD or Blue Ray, you need to get an HDCP ready card.

3- the quality of HD on computer is depend of GPU or software decoder?

It's actually a combination of both. Both nVIDIA and ATI have significantly improved their video decoding/display technology compared to the earlier generation. Reviews using the ATI X1900 and nVIDIA 7900 series cards with HD content actually provide a superior quality image compared to that many high-end stand alone players. Again these where tied to using the H.264 HDCP ready cards listed in the link above.

4- would CPU+decoder=GPU+decoder? in term of quality

No, again many reviews of both AVIVO using the latest ATI cards and also the new PureVideo HD from nVIDIA provide superior video quality.

For example, the hardware decoding of H.264 on both platforms provide superior frame conversions necessary when viewing 1080i content, since H.264 HD is 1080P native. Software transforms do fine, but the combination of the proper software/hardware yield superior results.


When you finally purchase an HD DVD or Blue Ray drive for your PC, ditch that older card for one of the known to be good HDCP ready H.264 accelerated cards.